e e e e e e e e okay Council I think we're ready to get started welcome to your Tuesday November 5th election day work session I will call us to order and turn it over to David Cook thank you good afternoon everybody the first thing I'm going to do is call on Valerie Washington to talk about an organizational update or I'm gonna Mark searching here a give him count give countdown here I say see no I know that then I'm going to call on what Rumley to talk about Municipal Court week there we go good afternoon mayor and Council city manager of Staff William Rumley uh Court director also have our chief judge Simone Gonzalez here and so we're here today to tell you an exciting thing about Municipal Court this week it's our annual celebration so the first week in November across the state is Municipal Court week uh just as a reminder Municipal Court see more people at their courts than all the other states combined and I'm sorry all the other courts combined not all the other states hopefully that's a lot but anyway um we have a lot of activities going on so uh council member Beck helped us to do our opening ceremony as well as ACM Washington this morning and chief judge we had the um Color Guard from Diamond Hill Jarvis High School present the colors for us so it was a great Opening Ceremony this morning we have several events as well as food trucks staff activities including health and wellness programs so on behalf of the 155 employees of the Municipal Court including this year we've added the 12 actually 13 security staff from New City Hall we want to welcome you have you come in and we want to celebrate what staff does every day as a reminder Municipal Court handles Class C misdemeanor fine only offenses um but our judges also do more and our staff does more so we have staff at the Detention Facility 247 processing cases and doing arraignments we do civil cases we handle the parking civil parking cases so unfortunately if you give a civil parking ticket um there's option to come and that from one of our hearing officers that are appointed by this Council um so again we just want to thank you for your ongoing support especially for our court and community events uh we held our last one this past Saturday with um council member Hill at Blue Hay Elementary and so we've been able to help hundreds of individuals in the community who may otherwise not come downtown because they might be afraid of being arrested or something like that downtown or just the parking they might be afraid of driving they don't go to downtown those types of things so we have some outstanding well diversed staff we have a considerable number of bilingual staff that helps us to be effective with our community and communicate uh with them daily so again thank you all for your continued support come see us this week we have lots of activities um including uh food trucks that are from local vendors we do try to support the community in that way thank you all very much very good thank you okay we have a couple of informal reports the first informal report is on Dallas Fort Worth International Airport amendments to codes of rules and regulations it' be good just to have an update that's all okay Paul come on up hello I'm Paul Tommy assistant for Worth City attorney On Assignment to DFW Report with me today is a C2 Whiteside from the environmental Affairs Department of the airport today we're asking you to amend chapter six of our code and rules and regulations to implement some changes that are originally mandated by both federal and state regulation and being uh mandated through tr's Trinity River Authorities contract with us I'm told that the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas are having to make the exact same changes to your code so this hopefully won't come as any surprise I am not an environmental law expert which is why I brought a C2 with me to answer any technical questions uh in your packet should be the redline code changes if you car to weigh through them uh that's what we're asking no I don't Paul thank you for that was more than sufficient um I also did that because I saw a former um supervisor and mentor of mine in the crowd named aiau Whiteside my first internship was at DFW International Airport when I was a young student at TCU I mean she took me in and she's one of the reasons why I am who I am so that's all thank you lucky to have her very nice thank you thank you Paul the next inform report is uh 2025 city of for Worth Housing tax credit policy and Casey best is available if there any questions Casey come on up hello Casey best neighborhood services department um just to go over this um IR that we're submitting so every year the um tdhca Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs they provide a qualified allocation plan um related to our housing tax credits and so the city we typically get applications for 9% tax credits as well as 4% tax credits our staff goes through that qualified action plan to are there any changes that tdhca is recommending that we need to update in our own policy and then just based on how the application process went in that following year are there any recommendations for improvements that we would like to include So based on that um the changes that we're recommending they're fairly minor um but one is just clarifying the process for receiving a hold harmless zoning letter and that's just clarifying to the developers that they have to take the initiative to work with development services to get that letter the other is adding neighborhood alliances as a registered Community organization right now we do have the homeowners associations and neighborhood associations and so we also wanted to um include neighborhood alliances the third one is shortening the time frame in which the community engagement office introduces developers to these registered Community organizations it was previously two weeks and we've reduced that to one week and we did talk with community and public engagement um regarding that recommendation and got thereby in to make sure that is something that would be doable for them and then finally on our um 4% housing tax credit applications this one is a non-competitive process and we don't typically receive a lot of applications we had been receiving applications on a quarterly basis but because there wasn't a lot of volume what we've done is we we've removed the quarterly deadlines and we'll just be taking for % housing tax credit applications on a regular basis I I guess I do have a a followup for you again congratulations on the way you've stepped in and taken leadership of this department you mentioned that HOAs neighborhood associations are going to be included yes as you know there are a number of neighborhoods where the associations have gone deactivated there there's no one and so I would hope you would keep the churches included in that list they're already in the database but make sure that is there any objection to including them because we already have them listed I will check on that I know when we are talking to developers we do ask that in addition to working with the registered neighborhood associate NE neighborhood um organizations that they do reach out to um other entities in the area that would be impacted and so that would include your um churches any schools or anything else in that area but I'll confirm just to make sure that we can specify churches well they're they're they're in your database already yes and so where you have the HOAs and the neighborhood associations there's another group that's led to the the Faith organization because if you if you're living in a neighborhood where you have none then the developer can come and say well nobody objected that's because they had nobody to contact correct and so I'd like for you to consider including them okay we can do that um and I know when we're looking at resolutions when we're determining whether to um submit resolution of no objection or resolution of support we do look at whether the developer has contact reached out to you all the um city council members and then also the community organizations thank you thank you Casey one question Casey is there a number of awards that we're limited to in each category we're not limited by Awards um I will tell you just for the 2024 um fiscal year we received about 12 applications for housing tax credits that's the 4% and the 9% and of that 12 only four actually received Awards so um at this point we don't have a reason to restrict it just based on the volume okay thank you thank you Casey thank you the next informal report is on the fiscal year 25 US EPA Community change Grant applications and Cody Wittenberg is available if there any questions I'd like an overview Cody come on up and remind every body what to do about naming sweepers yeah absolutely so on that note in the spirit of election day you have 10 days left to cast your votes for your top 10 favorite names for the street sweepers so if you check out our website and you go to our litter page or our environmental page that contest is is available electronically so we hope you hope to see your votes I think we've had nearly 500 submissions so far so now talk about the IR yeah absolutely uh so we're excited because we we have projects that need to be funded and sometimes we just don't have the funding available to really move things forward for the community and so we've trying to leverage with with this particular set of applications to EPA trying to leverage some federal funding one is really specific towards some green space revitalization and brownfields revitalization we've got a few projects listed which may or may not come to fruition based on what epa's reviews are but if you think of the what we commonly refer to as the Alice Street silos or if you look at some of the other spaces around the city we have some really neat projects coming forward in that application and our our partner with that is proposed partner is Texon by Nature the second application we're moving forward with is really focused on air quality and developing a sustainability plan hopefully for the community and trying to be in tandem with some of the efforts through the through the north Texas commission the north Texas Cog Council on governments and keeping that moving forward so we're excited if if that was to move forward we uh feel like there be a sustainability plan effort for a couple of years and then we'd also try to lean into this air quality conversation we've had a lot of feedback to develop a a network of community sensors to understand air quality a little bit better and to augment the regulatory Network and so we're excited to see what happens through this competition Cody um I'm really excited about this grant opportunity I mean I know it's it's just an application so you know we we may not get it but I'm very hopeful um fingers crossed and I'll even pray but um there is a bullet 4 where uh we may hear no later than September 30th 2026 could they make a decision earlier than that you think absolutely so we expect that we'll learn probably something in the spring of 2025 or hopefully early next year however with with additional Project funding or supplemental funding EPA could award as late as that September 30th 2026 and I just want to commend you for always looking for other opportunities or grant funding to um you know take care of the community and and um provide funding for projects that that are really hard to find funding for so thank you absolutely I I do have a a challenge for you Dr Wittenberg I'm looking to see what interest we have on the east side of Fort Worth you know whether it's Southeast what have you now this may be off course with this but usually wherever you've had some environmental justice concerns that gives an opportunity for a project such as this is that out of line with the thinking that's completely in line with this thinking and we're we're certainly looking at all those opportunities and there's some projects or communities that we have heard from or continue to hear from certainly looking for funding for supporting projects in those areas so what kind of time frame are you on before you pull the trigger so this particular set of applications is due on November 21st we you'll see a couple of EMES before you on November the 19th we'll have a day or two to finalize the application after that vote and then we hope to move forward on the 21st well I'm going to be reaching out to the Sierra Club the NAACP and any other group that has complained about environmental justice matters because I would like for us to be sure we have some likely applicants who might be interested absolutely thank you thank you thank you Cody don't go far the next in for report is a litter control update both uh fiscal year 24 summary and an outlook for fiscal year 25 and Cody is sharing the podium with Richard Zavala they're tag teaming it yeah questions there you go I do Cody and or Richard uh if you can just give me an overview and I do have two questions uh at the end of that absolutely so you know each year our team is working extremely hard to to create and maintain that safe clean City and uh the amount of support and resources we have invested into really making our city clean is is really impressive I think it was a really highlight of a point to over 19 million pounds of litter and debris collected across all of our programs over 1,300 illegal camp sites cleaned over 8,000 nearly 9,000 illegal dump sites cleaned lots of great collaboration with with parks and tpw and Neighborhood Services to clean up areas and respond to to different efforts and then of course most recently as we mentioned the street sweepers kicking those off we expect to even do greater things in fy2 Richard ofala Park and Recreation the only thing I'll add to that is the report also talks about our contract mowing frequencies that were added and increased in the fiscal 24 budget where we went from 20 Cycles to 26 Cycles well what does that mean that means during the growing season in the spring we were hitting medians and rideways on a 10day basis average 10day basis rather than a 14 to a 20-day basis each time they mow they're picking up litter and I I can tell you I consider myself an expert in this but I think the town looked cleaner last spring and but for him and upsp fire I30 coming in from the West is unbelievably clean comparatively to what it was just a few months ago so hats off to you and the city manager for allocating these resources for us to be able to provide a a cleaner more vibrant footwork uh thank you both that's a good segue to um one of my questions actually have three uh Richard you mentioned uh these added efforts to keep certain areas certain corridors clean and and Cody you and I had talked about this before when it came to abating some homeless camps in some heavily wooded areas in my district uh the staff that was available there was staff that would be you know uh handling the new street sweepers at the time those new Street scoopers were not you know delivered in online now that they are the staff is now working with that equipment what staff do we have available now to supplement what we have currently going on with homeless Camp abatements that's my first question that's a great question so we do have staff for both the street sweepers as well as the camp abatement sites we had held some positions back until all those sweeper equipment was here and now we're working to get all of those operators hired and trained and continuing and that that entire program has launched uh we have about we have two teams dedicated to this homeless Camp cleanup and sometimes we're able to also reach out to UPS spire and get their support from time to time when we need it and as far as uh that program that you just mentioned is that inclusive of any needed equipment absolutely so through this budget cycle actually through the ccpd funding we were able to get an additional piece of equipment to support with that cleanup and uh we're contining to look for resources to keep all of that where it needs to be level set for the for the communities needs absolutely good deal uh next question uh and I don't mean to conflate things but we do have an Alleyway maintenance program uh these efforts that and I'm reading selected Alleyways this is why I'm asking the question do I interpret that as being that only those Alleyways that are part of the alleyway maintenance program are the ones that are referenced here as far as a litter control accomplishments paragraph so I would I would I was defer to Parks but I would say yes in with respect to the alleyway maintenance program but of course if there's a complaint that comes in on an Alleyway that is not within that program and we need to work to help Abate a illegal dump we certainly incorporate those metrics here as well and I would just say that if anyone sees an issue with an Alleyway let us know and we'll determine if it can or cannot be cleaned up through the alleyway maintenance program or working with those private property owners got it and my last question uh have uh has your department done a heat map either Parks or your department done a heat map of where we have problem areas of higher litter concentration so what we've done a several different studies over the years I don't think we've done one with this particular data for FY 24 certainly can bring that forward but we do have the ability to map where our crews are responding and where we have more say illegal campsites or illegal dumping cases and we are able to create hate maps for that absolutely all right thank you both Janette go ahead Cody um at least in District 11 there is right away um along the railroads railroad jurisdiction there is a lot of litter and overgrowth is there any way that we could work with um our railroad uh companies to facilitate a conversation about maybe uh Contracting upsp to Abate those absolutely so we do have really good issues absolutely we have really good Partnerships with our our railroad partners and really can open up those conversations and see if there's an interest there okay we have one um area that it's not litter we got our litter uh problem taken care of just overgrowth having it mowed and so it's been it's been months and we haven't seen them come out so I'll follow up with tbw see if they can help us thank one else no thank you thank you Cody the next inform report is on Mary's Creek Water Reclamation facility lift stations and force Mains and the all that being funded and Chris Harter is is available if there any questions all right then the final informal report is on public art fiscal year 2025 annual work plan and Wesley gentle is available if there are any questions hearing yes really not a maybe a question for staff but as either the project budget we don't have any administrative cost included in the project budget it just seems to be associated with particular art pieces can we get a copy of the budget the full budget we can get the full budget for you be great thank you okay no other questions mayor that concludes my report thank you David Council moving on are there any questions to changes in boards or commissions zoning cases upcoming on November 12th or the MNC log for November 12th yes ma'am I see on Michael correct me if I'm wrong but I think one of these is your district and it's listed as District Seven hold on uh item number 27 confirming that's District three will you look real quick item number 27 is that yours okay yours okay then never mind any others Council okay if not we'll move to our first presentation the fourth Convention Center expansion renovation Phase 2 update with Michael Crum our public events director mayor and Council good afternoon I'm Michael Crum with the public events Department uh here to update you on the status of the Fort Worth Convention Center expansion and renovation project um what you're going to see today is the work of literally hundreds of people on the city staff and I have the priv privilege of uh standing up here today and representing the project but uh uh this project requires a lot more hands than we have in public events to make it happen first it starts with all of you and your support for Fort Worth visitor economy remember that that economy is worth more than $3 billion dollar a year and employs over 30,000 people uh in this community uh from there uh we couldn't do this without the support of the city manager's office uh the legal department uh FMS Property Management uh the business Equity team development tpw water parks uh our partners in crime at visit Fort Worth and then finally the great team over at public events so it it is literally cast of thousands uh that have had a hand in uh in making this happen today oh use the clicker okay or don't use the clicker now tryck yay there we go okay so what we're going to do today is we'll we'll touch briefly on the history of the project uh talk about where we are uh with phase one of the of the project talk about where we're going with phase two want to talk briefly about planning in context we're not just expanding a Convention Center we are building a convention District uh where there is a lot of activity going on right now and then we'll talk about uh where you plug back in with next steps so uh our case for expansion is pretty simple uh we have a very robust uh visitor economy we are the 12th largest city in the United States we have a third tier Convention Center to support that industry and it's time to invest in it uh in order to uh to uh help realize the potential this Market has as a great place to hold conventions and meetings uh what we're uh working on right now uh is an expansion of the building which includes moving the exhibit hall square footage to just over 250,000 Square fet uh adding uh 13,000 uh or 15,000 additional uh square feet uh to our meeting room capacity adding a 40,000 square foot Ballroom uh to the building for comparison purposes our current Ballroom is 28,000 feet um and then uh as was contemplated in the 2019 hundon study uh we're looking to have two 1,000 Key hotel Towers immediately adjacent to the building to serve our our the needs of our conventions um this project is a little different than the projects that you've heard about in Austin uh and in Dallas where the buildings are being closed uh for a three to four year period uh back in the late teens uh Fort Worth made a decision that it was going to uh keep the convention center open and renovate in two phases uh first reason is a market driven reason uh that uh our Downtown hotel Community uh has has a significant Reliance on what the convention center produces uh in order for them to meet their their occupancy and profitability targets and also we have obligated ourself to keep the convention center open through the 2005 room block agreement with the Omni so two phases as we've talked about first phase uh is a essentially a back of house renovation uh and then phase two is where we start to do the things that our customers will see so what does phase one look like well first of all uh we uh we build new backup house food and beverage facilities the facilities that we're operating in today were created in 1968 uh so there's a little bit of time travel in this we're going to take a Great Leap Forward in the quantity and the quality uh of our backup house facilities from a food and beverage standpoint um we've got a new Southeast entrance uh that we're building uh onto the building to respond to not only what A&M is doing but all of the other development that's happening in the convention District um we then move on to demolish the 1980s Annex that was added on to the building when it was the tarant County Civic Center uh and we'll drop we'll drop the annex uh rebuild the loading docks straighten out Commerce Street and that straightening of Commerce Street creates a uh a developable hotel block uh that we believe will be the site of our second headquarters hotel and the parking necessary to support the convention center the hotel and A&M all of this should be done uh by the first quarter of 2026 at a cost of $95 million again thank you for your support of this portion of the project through a $52 million commitment in arpa funding this is once it all it's all done and it's cleaned up this is what phase one should look like as you're looking at it from the law school on the inside uh it's a different look right the uh The '90s Pastels go away uh in their place it's a cleaner modern look that reflects what I would call the uh the Fort Worth of today the Fort Worth of the future so let's get to phase two so phase two we think about in three pieces uh the green is what we'll be building in phase one uh what we call the north section that's where the arena stands today so that will be the uh ultimate demolition of the arena and the new build uh that comes up in its place um then to meet Our obligation to keep keep the convention center open we renovate what we call the Legacy portion of the building in two pieces uh first we renovate what we call the middle section uh and then once that's completed we reopen that and we we open the South section which is where the current Ballroom is today so that we'll talk schedule in a minute but that renovation Works starts in the back half of 2028 and runs into the end of 29 um so if we're talk thinking about scope again uh we take the arena down in its place we build modern convention space and again on based on the current schedule we should be done with construction by the end of 2029 uh this is the this is the schedule a little hard to see uh but we uh we will renovate uh every restroom in the facility so we'll move to a hotel quality restroom package uh and then we'll start that work in 27 um we close Hall F which is the the hall closest to uh the arena uh throughout the project we do that so that we create a buffer between the new construction and the events uh that will continue to host in the middle and southern sections of the building and then as I described earlier we will uh we will start uh with the uh the renovation of the middle Zone uh and then complete complete that and then move on to the uh to the South Zone um what this schedule enables us to do is maximize the opportunity to book events into uh into the facility uh until we have to start this renovation work we currently are holding 90 days uh at the beginning of of 2030 that's just hedging our bets right now against unknowns and we'll uh we will we'll modify that hold as we get farther into the project and understand more about the schedule uh still working with a $66 million budget this is all coming out of culture and tourism this is the the why we went to the voters to ask for permission to Levy an additional 2% in the Hotel occupancy tax so that we would have the capacity to fund this uh design and pre-construction uh $60 million we our plan would be to issue that debt this coming May and then in May of 20126 issue $546 million in debt for the construction of phase two um talk a little bit about planning and context um we're not doing this project in a vacuum right uh and there are plenty of things going around going on around the convention center that we have to respond to that we have to collaborate with in order to maximize the opportunity that all of this development represents so we have the convention center project and the red dotted uh oval there represents that new block of developable property on the east side of Commerce um we have residential uh projects uh both in the pipe and under consideration if these slides look familiar to you these are these are from Andy taff's downtown Fort Worth in presentation that he did earlier in the year um so we have plenty going on from a residential standpoint uh we have the additional Hotel uh additional Hotel development uh right now at the top of our list is the expans mention of the Omni and the second Hotel tower on the east side of Commerce uh and then don't forget about our friends from A&M right their their impact on this end of down just as significant as what we do with the convention center $3.4 billion do in development going into downtown Fort Worth in in the coming years that's uh uh you think about that as city building right that's that is a ton of investment going into the community in a very short period of time um so we just can't build institutional right we have to um you know we have to create uh create some experience around these large uh catalytic projects that were we're building and so we're we're sensitive to that how do we bring Green Space into the equation how do we bring uh the types of retail and entertainment opportunities uh into this part of downtown that our visitors and our conventioneers uh are going to enjoy after a full day of conventions uh in the building so um all of this is part of the conversations that we're in both uh internally but also uh also with folks over at A&M I think we have three or four different studies going on right now about how to how to maximize this opportunity but and this was a this was an early concept that that benett Partners developed for us but I think the uh I I think the bottom line is that we're going to transform Commerce Street we have to to to to maximize the opportunity and uh and so this this is a concept maybe not the concept but you get the idea right that we've got we've got to bring more than just the the catalus projects into the development plan um so where are we going next um February of 2025 we're going to ask your permission to start schematic design uh on phase two uh that if we we do that then by October of 26 we'll be ready to mobilize uh on construction uh our renovation plan currently contemplates that we start in September of 28 with all of our renovation and our Construction done by the end of 29 so uh decisions that we'll be asking you to make uh uh next week there will be an MC on your agenda uh to approve uh advaned funding uh to uh jumpstart our Convention Center uh design process we'll take $15 million in excess capacity uh from culture and tourism uh and we'll use that to start design and invest in some preconstruction expenses uh that where we know that that if we do certain things in phase one instead of waiting until phase two we'll be a whole lot more efficient uh with the uh with the project this is the same approach that we use to jump start the sheep and Swine project where we we uh Advanced the funding and then issued the debt later and then paid culture and tourism back after the debt was sold um we'll be coming to you to uh uh to approve that uh uh that debt sale uh in first or second quarter of next year uh $60 million in culture and tourism debt uh and that will fund the balance of our uh our design contract and repay culture and tourism for its advance and then uh the big nut will uh will be in uh in the second quar of 2026 when we issue $546 million in debt to fund construction we uh we have a team uh that is advising us uh on Convention Center expansion issues uh we'll be reactivating that team as we start into the the schematic design process uh we'll also be engaging the public uh in a a conversation uh about what we're doing with the convention center and if you uh don't think that the public is not interested in this project the one public meeting that we had over a year ago generated 7,000 email addresses uh for convention center updates so uh the public is very interested in what we're doing on Commerce Street um so for our our $71 million 606 plus 95 what do we get well uh we level up as a convention destination so um you know we are not trying to be Austin we're not trying to be Dallas we're not trying to be San Antonio we're not trying to be Houston we're going to be Fort Worth and uh that means that we will uh the strength of our convention meetings business will continue to be State Association events but instead of being able to host one at a time in the future we'll be able to host two at a time uh where I think you really see some dramatic change is that we become a a much larger player uh in terms of Hosting Southwestern Association events and start to Edge our way in to the National meetings Market uh and we we have that potential with our the reputation of our destination with Catalyst level facilities uh the uh the future of Fort Worth as a convention destination is unlimited and that $3.1 billion do after we do this we're gonna be talking about4 billion doar right so with that I'll take your questions okay thank you very much oh I just want to thank you and your team um having been part of this process thus far um it's gone much smoother than I anticipated it going and as I drive past and see the work going up it looks beautiful so thank you for everything that you've done and your team to keep this project rolling okay thank you questions thank you Michael yes ma'am next upon our agenda council is an update on the crime lab with Chief Neil noes mayor and Council thank you so much for allowing us an opportunity to come in today to give an update on the work being done with the sexual assault kit backlog in the foror crime lab and I want to start off by saying a thank you to a lot of people many of whom are in this room uh first to Mayor and councel for the leadership the direction and for reaching out to potential Partners to assist us in this work it has made a difference I want to take thank others within the city like the city attorney's office HR opal the Fort Worth lab people who have stepped up to be a part of the solution to our crime lab team who has been working extra hours and been diligent about bringing this backlog down I want to say thank you for to the community for their patience and I'll be honest I was not surprised in the least when so many people within the city of forward stepped up because I I believe all of us understand the importance here we understand the urgency here we understand that our survivors of sexual assault deserve to be provided the right kind of service the right kind of resources the right kind of Investigations the right kind of compassion and dedication to making sure just is realized for them so thank you for everyone who's become a part of this solution one thing that I also want to note is with the urgency of the situation the need to get this done as quickly as we can we also understand that we can't rush this to the point that we compromise the testing or investigations in any way so I want you to know we are committed to both doing this quickly but doing this thoroughly as well for the presentation today we're going to talk about an update uh where we've been able to advance since the presentation on October 22nd and an outline of the next steps in this process so as of November 4th the current number of overdue cases is now 78 and that is down from 898 from October 11th of this year thankfully we have been able to reach an agreement with the Taran County Medical Examiner office to assist with the work that we're doing in the crime lab in reference to sexual assault kits because of restrictions and limitations on codus Entry that is set by the FBI the Taran County medical examiner's office will not be taking any of the backlogged cases what they will be doing will be assisting us with any new incoming cases so that way our team can focus just on the backlog to bring it down even further uh we're working with our city attorney's office on that contract and getting very close to finalizing it one thing was brought up before was communication with our victims who've been affected by this we've assigned 30 detectives to make phone calls to every victim whose case has been affected by this backlog we initially started with all cases with unknown suspects and we anticipate having those done by tomorrow after that we start with all the cases with known offenders and we will get that done as soon as possible but again we aren't rushing ing that we're making sure it's done with the intentionality and compassion that it deserves moving forward this will not be a problem again for any victims to have to worry about being notified our goal obviously is to never have a backlog never have anything overdue but it is now in policy the detectives have to notify the victim if that test does go overdue and they have to note it in their case notes so we can keep track of the notifications now one thing we talked about is the we've had problems with the lab for a while for too long what we need is input from our team inside the lab and as part of the accreditation process the lab has four lock boxes within the lab so lab employees can anonymously give feedback on issues they see maybe that are occurring or that may happen and those can be shared all the way up the chain to me and our city leaders um as we discussed last time as it was recommended by Council opal has been included in this process and they've been a part of our meetings ever since that time we're soliciting attempting to solicit a waiver from the FBI to allow us to Outsource some of the coded entry but up to this date the truth is it doesn't look like that's going to happen but we're still giving it a try we really promoted the job opening uh on social social media on LinkedIn on any platforms that forensic scientists would look for job opportunities uh we established uh one point of contact for our media team because we understood that there was quite a bit of difficulty with the sharing of information between us and Scott fredman and his team and our strategic communication specialist Chelsea cretz has taken the lead and she will be the point of contact going forward uh as we discussed last time I'll will be doing a follow-up interview with Mr fredman next week more than likely to uh talk about where we are now and any other questions they have in relation to the story and in the uh interest of transparency our updates are being included now on our website so that the community can access that as well and see exactly where we are we had a slide last time that talked about the demographics of these survivors of these cases one that glaringly had been left out was the Hispanic demographic and the reason is will have different races and ethnicities and could be white and hispanic white non-hispanic Black and Hispanic Black and non-h Hispanic we hadn't broken that down we corrected that so here are the numbers that you would see if you looked at the demographics of those victims associated with these cases in the backlog 358 Caucasian 256 afcan africanamerican 264 Hispanic 13 Asian and 11 either listed as other or unknown the two uh sets of numbers you see at the bottom this is in relation to the suspects in these cases 333 which makes 37% were unknown suspects where 568 or 63% were known suspects so we did found out working with HR that our pay rate for our forensic scientists was not where it needed to be we're about 83% of the market rate which obviously wasn't going to get the job done they worked with us to make sure we have a correction it'll be a three-step process for a 9% pay raise to make sure we are able to retain the talent we have and then also go out and recruit the best talent we possibly can in addition for the extra work that they are doing to reduce the backlog there's a $4,000 incentive and that's going to be paid in two phases when we're halfway done and then when we're completed and HR is finalizing that now we posted the vacancy for the five vacant DNA scientist positions on October 24th we got very good results with 39 applications received we had 12 that really stood out people with training with certification and with experience we are in the process right now of interviewing them to find out which of those candidates will be the best we're looking at potentially hiring an external vendor to assist with the training because given the staff that we have now and the trainers that we have on staff that would be quite a job to actually work on the backlog and to train if we're able to hire five who are all pretty much ready to go maybe just need to be trained up on our systems and our software we may not need that training vendor after all next steps we will continue our weekly reporting to the city manager's office and Council uh we're going to your weekly meetings with the city attorney's office and opom we're going to finalize the incentive payment schedule with HR finalize the contract with the Taran County Medical Examiner office we've already set up and already conducting interviews with our DNA scientist applicants and will finalize the plan for the training of those newly hired scientists additionally we're working with the forth lab to engage an outside vendor the lab already goes through an accreditation process every four years to make make sure we're meeting standards but as the mayor pointed out in our last meeting we're not just looking about meeting a standard we're looking at setting the standard so we want to bring in a fresh set of eyes an outside entity that can come and tell us what we're doing well what we're not and where we can improve to make sure we are the lab that's setting that standard we'll continue to look for contract employees who can help us with the codus entry what we have found up to this point as many of the people we reached out to work for employers who do not allow them to work for other livb so so far we have not found any Digger willing at this point we're going to complete all of our phone calls to the victims we've also got a meeting with Dr lenia Masters uh we all know an incredible woman who has done some amazing things took tragedy and turned it into Triumph about actually changing laws and making sure things would be done we're going to talk with her about what we can do better not just as a lab from a technical sense but what can we do to make sure we regain trust or we may have lost it and obvious we're going to have a constant evaluation of the timeline to let you know where that timeline is we set the April date for catching up on our backlog but quite frankly we're going to work to do it sooner if possible I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you Council cran thanks mayor um can you flip back to the slide with known and unknown thank you for breaking that slide down first of all because I think it was a question for a lot of us how many you know the Hispanics were lumped in I think with Caucasian to know how it's broken down but what's the definition of unknown and known suspects were the known suspects already in cotus no known suspect means the victim knows who the suspect is or we're able to determine that through an investigation unknown is where we're waiting on that information from the test to hopefully determine through cotus who that Su suspect is okay so they knew the suspect this is just going to give the evidence of The Da with the known that where they they could actually pursue that further well and they can pursue when there is a known suspect we're not waiting on on the testing to come back to continue our investigation and the da doesn't necessarily wait to prosecute the case because we know who the suspect is we also want to make sure we get that suspect in the system in case they're listed in the system as an unknown because they're repeat offender we need to find that kind of thing out but with known suspects whether it's entered in cotus or not that does not affect the progress of the case great thanks for that yes sir thank you Charlie and then jar thank you mayor thank you Chief appreciate the update um on whatever it is that 12 of the applicants have experience I know we we only have five vacancies but is there anything to stop us from you know potentially hiring those other seven on a contract basis to help us get through that backlog and because I'm sure we have some funded but unfilled vacancies across the board throughout the city um so is that a possibility as well have we that yes we are open to any opportunities the process is still got a little bit left there have to be background investigations polygraph exams drug tests things like that uh some of them will have to come in we have several from out of state who have applied and they are certified in their state but they would need to come in and take a test to be certified and accredited in our state as well but if we have any that aren't part of that five who want to be part of the solution for us as long as the current lab they work for allows them to work for another lab or they're close enough to be able to help us then yes absolutely we would look at that possibility okay gotcha and so then on those on those five uh I'm sure we've all been in part of this scenario where where it takes forever to hear back from a potential employer then the you know a week two weeks six weeks before the interview it's just a slow process um is this one that we can or you guys are actually like streamlining again not to sacrifice quality uh but we know who we want we know they're good we know they're qualified we know what they need just streamlining the entire process just to get them started sooner yes sir absolutely awesome thank you yes sir Jared and to Gina thanks mayor uh thanks Chief um this has been a very helpful update and want to commend you and the team for all the progress that we've made thank you and so really appreciate yall dovet telling on um council member La dorf's um question um if there is support needed and we find that there's more than five great candidates I would certainly be open to us looking relooking at positions and seeing if we can hire more given the urgency of trying to get through this backlog and also we may need that additional capacity going forward unfortunately um so just want to let you know that I support that if if that is indeed the outcome thank you um the second thought um that I wanted to share um with regards to unknown and known suspects do we know of the known suspects how many are repeat um offenders um is this UND duplicated 568 or is it duplicated as far as each one um some of the 568 being the same suspect more than once let me check and find out to be sure I want to make sure I get you the accurate information I would be curious to know just how many of the suspects um are continuing to um you know um commit this crime um repeatedly so I that's the only question I have and would love to get that answer yes sir not a problem that's it thank you Chief I have a couple of questions for you I want to thank you for the report also want to thank you for the pointed communication you plan on having with Dr Masters because one concern I had was Lessons Learned but I didn't want to voice that because I didn't want to impose any second thoughts from victims and so I think that communication will help answer that that question for me but one thing I'm very concerned about and I hope the answer is no but I'm concerned I want to know if our delay our failure in this did it compromise the judicial path of any of these cases our understanding is no in our conversations with the District Attorney's Office okay and I want to thank you for reaching out to Dr Trent Adams and others glad you're finding some relief here uh one thing I'm very concerned about when people commit to doing followup it's kind of like political calling if you don't get an answer you just keep moving on how what steps are you going to put put in place so that we know the outcome of each call that's made yeah that's a very good question uh we've got assistant chief David carbahal who's been leading the effort on that I have to look back and see what tracking is being done to see first of all not that just a call was made but contact was uh made and then what the outome of that call was and that's something we could come back with next time to discuss and finally are you able to introduce this Council to Chelsea cret because I don't know where yes Chelsea would you stand please okay okay I I wanted to see who she was Chief because you you have to realize you're fine you have to realize we get the calls when your office doesn't respond to them and that shouldn't be a a position that we're put in during my interview with nbc5 I was telling them well we're short on people we can't feel those positions it was very embarrassing for me for to tell me Gina the jobs aren't even posted and so I would just say this has been a very ugly story for us to deal with I think there has been a breach with the female population and I hope we can take actions to make sure we know that women are valued in this city when we call for help absolutely and if I may I know uh mayor protim you have experience working in the media professionally Chelsea also started out early here career working for Fox for many years she worked for the Grand Prairie Police Department in a similar position where she developed a relationship with Mr fredman from there she went to Parkland Hospital and led the communications team there before coming to the forward Police Department so we feel with the relationship she's already developed and the level of expertise she has over the years with varied types of experience and Communications we have the right person on the job just ma right back thanks for the update and I I want to say I most appreciate the weekly update and um I hope to see those coming until this is put to bed and we have all of them uh wrapped up but then I think I'd also like to see maybe not weekly but quarterly or some sort of interval moving forward just so that we can have eyes on that as a council um because I want to make sure we don't get back to the place that we were and so I think until we're all comfortable with that um you know weekly is great until the backlog and then once the backlog is completed um something much more manageable to council a report to council yes ma'am so the numbers changed slightly is that correct yes ma'am okay can you explain that please yes ma'am we had several um requests for information some were for different time frames and then than others and last time we talked about uh the number of overall kits that were there but what we talked about was I think it was 779 kits that were already tested but not yet entered into cotas that's part of the backlog then we had 190 additional kits who that had just been mailed off 116 of those were already overdue which gave us I think a number of 895 we continue to scrub the numbers and continue to make sure we get it right so it's a difference of three this time it's 898 okay thank you um and then a couple of questions I appreciate that we've reached out to the um Taran County medical examiners so are we going to be sending them all of our new um kits as they come in so that we can focus on the backlog once we have the contract finalized if they're able to uh accept the capacity we have and it's not a large number on a weekly basis yes uh something else I didn't mention because this has just been brought up but the Southwest uh Institute of forensic science in Dallas Swifts they have also reached out and they believe they're going to have some capacity to assist as well if that works if we can put a contract together with them as well whatever the medical examiner office is not able to accept here in Taran County we can work with Swifts and Dallas and so then they would just take all the new ones and we could focus on that backlog exactly and that would be not only the testing that would be the codus entry as well from beginning to end they would handle it okay and so you said Swift Taran County medical examiners are there anyone else on the horizon that we think we might be able to plug in not at this point no okay um does this I mayor mayor proin bivans asked about um if it impacted any cases do we think there's any issues with chain of custody or other um judicial issues that we might have because of this no ma'am we've had no indication of that okay um I want to say um I really commend you on making the policy change about how we're communicating with um with victims of uh sexual assault and making sure that it's codified so that um any new detective or old detective um understands that you know this is a priority that we communicate with these um women or men that um that have been victims and they know where the process of their cases um so then my next question and I think oh also um I really proud that y'all are putting this on Fort Worth PD's website um to keep the community updated I think that goes a long way to um more transparent and um you know just be real with the community about where we are and it helps rebuild trust um we've had some discussions around the table about um the use of contract employees and I know that's a question that I started asking about a week ago um but the one answer that I haven't gotten and I'm hoping you can answer today is this something that can be done remotely the co specifically the codus entry is that something that can be done remotely through secured servers or whatever the people in it figure out but or do they have to be physically in a crime lab we checked on that and unfortunately no they would have to actually physically be in a crime lab a sieges protected uh facility connected directly to FBI system and so we would not be able to have any of our employees do that remotely okay um and there's no interest like Taran County Medical um examiner's office to for them to maybe Moonlight and um and come over and do some of that work for us no ma'am we haven't had any interest uh and we've reached out several times and they may be one of the employers that doesn't allow their employees to work outside of their own lab I'm not for sure we have not gotten any interest from uh the medical examiner's office employees okay um all right I think those are all the questions I had thank you for the any other questions Council oh sorry one more um uh Jared Williams mentioned it um and it's something that's of interest to me but as part of that weekly report um for those unknown um suspects that we are entering into cotus what I would be interested in knowing is how many of those pinged en cotus um or or known suspects as um an unknown suspect in another case I guess if that makes any sense I want to really kind of get an understanding for what potential harm um we've done as well because I don't think we can fix it until we know what we've done yes ma'am any other questions questions Council no thank you Chief thank you Council that's the conclusion of our formal presentations today do we have any future AGA items I do for City management Gina no I saw big saying I just would like an update on the um boarding homes where we are how many we permanent and um what the status of that is Mayor I and I think Elizabeth has as well made a request to an outside agent wanting detailed information on quality child care and so what I wanted to correct is I should have put that request to our staff and so I'd like a report on quality child care that is likened to the Fort Worth education projects details that they share I shared that with Casey by email so she'll know what I'm looking for but at a meeting this weekend in involving a zoning case we're trying to communicate the need that childcare and Associates has and one of the neighborhood leaders responded well I see Child Care Facilities all around the neighborhood so people really don't know and so if I could get that report and I'm sure it would be good to have that districtwide or neighborhood wide but we need to be able to communicate what is the need of quality child care in the city and how can we help I think everything I want to know mayor you probably have it it exists the good thing is it's not going to re redo anything it just needs to make sure it's in the hands of every council member and maybe by Council District I have one yes um I asked for this and I don't think I ever got it the race and culture task force the um the an update on all of the items that was listed they talked more about um housing and they talked about um uh divers inclusion in the employment workspace so I wanted like a update on just be briefed on uh what they came to that we have not implemented yet including oversight yes Jared thank you mayor um I've worked with police on some issues in District Six related to St stolen vehicles but I've now realized that it's probably something Citywide uh similar to the catalytic converter situation there are specific types of cars that are more susceptible to being um stolen and so I think it would be good to have a report for our resident sake just to give kind of update of that but also for PD to get an opportunity to be able to share with residents what they can do to help yeah minimize I know they could take their cars to dealership specific cars and get um software updates to help prevent prevent that from happening so it'd be good to get out Jess might want to present on that apparently yeah hers was stolen let's do it twice yeah good point twice yeah Janette Mary I'd like to um get with code and or get a presentation from code on um commercial property violations when was the last time we looked at those fees and if there's any um suggestion to increase those and and what that would look like thanks counc larar were you just agreeing with her did you have one too okay big one okay okay Council I think that's the conclusion of our meeting thank you e