indicate how much time is remaining the Bell will sound when you have 30 seconds remaining when your time has ended the Bell will sound again and you should complete your comments before you begin your comments please state your name and thank you for attending and with that we call to order the meeting of the city council public comment meeting on February 21st the first item that we will address is calling my dear friend to the podium the pastor Ellen Collins Epps of the Morning Star prayer Center will bring us the invocation please Thrive for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance father we thank you for your peace we thank you for your love and your joy we thank you for this time and space to join together to speak blessings over our city we ask your guidance and every decision that our leaders face bless our mayor and each council person give them strength and courage in both their personal and professional lives we thank you that we are a city That Forgives we thank you that we are a city that loves we thank you that we are a city that honors you be glorified in all our different teaching us to respect and to entreat each other with kindness and love thank you for workable Solutions in every difficult situation and the faith to trust you thank you for Fort Worth that we're sitting not just known that we're the beginning of the west but we're a city where we work together and love one another amen thank you to find like the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands generation on indivisible with liberty and just for all Council the first item of business tonight will be the approval of the minutes from the January 24th and February 7th meetings second you can now vote then just raise your hand anybody else having trouble voting and with that voters end it consideration of those minutes is approved Miracle chin that concludes the business the rest are the public comments and I think you have language to share with the public that I will reiterate yes just a note for each speaker you will have three minutes to speak and the bell will this the timer will tell you when you have 30 seconds remaining and just to reiterate three minutes at some point in time you will hear one chime one bale what that means is you have 30 seconds remaining in your mind there is a clock but 30 seconds means you wind down and at three minutes your microphone will be silenced and the next speaker will be called up please call the first speaker Mr willby equipment for a second I'm going to bounce bounce through these real quick that there is uh it's kind of kind of bad I offered a thousand dollars donation to Saint Jude's Children Hospital if Maddie Parker would answer one essential question uh there's no reply from Maddie Parker it's been three weeks and I put a deadline so well I don't think I got to say I'm Gonna Leave This you can you can go look at it better on the website but um all I got to say about this Wester did not supply a word in the dictionary that describes how low I feel about Maddie Parker the thousand dollars donation will not go to waste it will be used to help expose pro-temp mayor Gina bibbons okay let's go to the next one real quick hey Mr Jared let's see how you take it five hundred dollars to the children's Saint Jude's Children Hospital these are handicapped kids Jared you got your legs arms and legs and all that kind of good stuff don't you okay you're in good health I'm gonna get 500 to them you just answer why you voted to remove the Public Presentation from the city council agenda all the other cities around our habit we don't need more in Fort Worth you took it away from us okay that's what I want to know let's see if you do it in that time frame okay now let's get down to real business okay oh wait a minute wait oh nope that's it I didn't bring the right one but I brought that one oh here it is let's change that out it's got someone wants to contact me about it oh what that is is this one right here this is a bogus report from the police department okay also I got a no trespassing sign a bogus no prospects I can't go to the hand of community center anymore now over a bogus thing right here and it's proven bogus by the people there can prove it now Eternal Affairs is not doing their job but what I want to do and I'm trying to do and they won't talk to me the police won't talk I want to file assault charges against Sergeant Howard and officer Z board they are 100 in violation of the ethics code of using unnecessary Force they came into a meeting at the request of Gina bibbons my opponent and removed me from a community meeting because she did not want me there this could be proven the report says Juniper what it does it runs out putting Gina bibbons on top and me on the bottom it's not true 100 not true it's a lie okay I want this report Rewritten and I want someone to contact me so I can file the assault charges they should never go in and grab people by the arm and you ain't come out of the building without least asking them to walk out I call that unnecessary Force okay yes political stuff and get kind of rough sometimes all right do I have any more time left I'm about out we need to build this to four minutes you took six minutes from us give us four minutes next week thank you next speaker is Adrian Smith thank you Bob Adrian device Adrian Devon Smith let the words of my mouth and the meditations in my heart be acceptable and I say oh Lord my strength and my redeemer before I begin I would like to offer some of my a little of my time to uh send prayers and condolences and strength and love to our our former police chief Joel Fitzgerald the Fitzgerald Family in the passion of his son um yeah I just want to use some of my time for that so uh Chief fixture if you listen if you're watching sending love prayer and strength to you and your family okay pass the table thank you for bringing the babies out tonight glad they get to see this uh political process and how it works but I'm glad to see that our chief showed up tonight you know uh it's never personal when I stand in this space you know so I let people know it's never personal when I stand in this space but it's always purposed everything I say is purpose so Chief uh Nokes we we do not desire and oversight recommendation that you have decided to um recommend recommend for this city given that we had a racing culture task force we had a police monitor who made recommendations and we had a 97 page report it's outlined what what the problems were within the forward Police Department so I said it to say this we know that the council voted down 5-4 against the recommendations not this entire Council though you know if the shoe fits were it and I like I like what Mr nettle say you know about the carrying other people's water I liked it but Chief notes no no disrespect because you had opportunity sir it's it's what was recommended wasn't nothing that was going to stifle law enforcement's uh decision making and uh moving law enforcement together uh moving law enforcement forward but it was going to bring law enforcement in communities together who knows law enforcement better than law enforcement people would say law enforcement okay well who knows the community better than the community the community you put those two entities together what do you have you have an understanding you have a collaborate um uh togetherness it's what we're what we're uh what I'm trying to say more togetherness you know we could we could fix some of these issues that we have but again it will take the council bringing back the previous voting putting it back on the table but again Chief notes no disrespect but that's just uh my stance thank you next speaker is Bruce dacher Bruce Thatcher 1901 Amanda Avenue Pastor never needs a missionary baptist church thank you mayor Pro tem and council members for giving me this privilege I come actually this afternoon this evening seeking clarity we are in the stop six community south side of Fort Worth as well as the Como area of Fort Worth we are and when I say we I'm speaking of pastors that serve in underserved communities that has a history and a track record Madame mayor Pro Tema serving our communities and I would like to get some clarity concerning the cares act funds are the covet relief funds the unspent portion that has not been spent and how these churches that's in these underserved vulnerable distant franchise communities can help us to help our communities with some of these remaining funds and what I would like to asks is that maybe at a later time a meeting can be held with myself in about maybe four or five other pastors not controversial uh but more effect finding more clarity to see what has been spent and what's left because we all know these dollars has already been allocated by our Congress appropriated already and so we want to see what's unspent so we can try to help make a difference with what's left thank you Fernando I'd like for you to get with Pastor Thatcher and we can arrange some type of meeting next speaker is Leticia Wilborn Miss Wilburn if we don't see her we'll call for her she's coming oh I'll start with uh saying I'm here because of the comprehensive plan that goodness okay as you can see by the comprehensive plan if you look at the comprehensive plan if you see this little bitty Blue Dot that's WM Green Elementary School now we were here several months ago and the city promised to do no more harm but this is their comprehensive plan for this area of town all of this blue around this little bitty school that you can barely see is heavy industrial keep in mind keep in mind that this city has been in trouble with the government for having severe air quality number 16 in the nation for bad air pollution the county gets rating in F but this is the promise that they made to this community to do no more harm the children that attend this element School pre-k through fifth grade which means they are four years old to 11 years old and this includes uh the staff what about the teachers what about the staff they will have to deal with this pollution why it matters it matters because several years ago I had a rare brain event it was not until this pollution that is the first process of several surgeries to my brain I was sick enough to have multiple out of body experiences I was never ill until industrial came to my home around this same period of time that is my son's dog you can see the collar from the vet my son's dog became ill the dog every time it went outside it would break out in these swords so my son this dog was a gift to my son from his father and the dog had to be put down my son loved this dog but the dog suffered and this was around the same time and it was the vet said something outside okay their comprehensive plan matter because my children had hair loss rashes asthma I have asthma the brain do you just saw me present this is my medical records it does not include does not include the medicines it does not include my children still this is all the medical records from that one deal I have one daughter had over 50 surgeries from something she was not born with it matters thank you ma'am your time has expired Eric is Brandon here tonight as well Eric if you would please get with Miss Wilburn and tell her about the public meetings that we're going to be having I think it would be most beneficial next speaker is Chris Voigt you might want to give her your card Eric okay I'm here in regards to the 50 million dollar problem with the new city hall um as a retired construction manager of 44 years I watched the February South 7th Council work session at the new city hall up on the new city hall and wondered how could the new city hall project suddenly be 50 million dollars over budget a bigger concern is that there was no discussion or questions raised about the budget shortfall or how it would be paid for um it may be difficult to find the cost savings you're needing because of inflation and labor shortages without cutting added scopes of work to the City Hall Chambers and offices really need all the added scopes of work to function properly the Pier One headquarters were initially thought to be good in a good and effort condition to move in as is with some minor remodeling is an additional 12 million dollars really needed to remodel the existing floors or could a more conservative refinish approach be taken these additional costs should not come at the expense of the taxpayers or vital Community projects it's been said that the sale of the existing City buildings include include the city library that and that would help pay for this overrun this raises the question of what will happen to our Central Library our library system seems to be struggling and needs to be invested in to prepare our Workforce for jobs in the future any Library funds should they be used for the city hall overruns or should they be reinvested in the library system before taxpayers can get excited about this project we need transparency on how the new city hall will be paid for thank you for your opportunity to share my concerns next speaker is Kiev Tatum good evening mayor Pro Tim Bivens and Council uh my name is Kier Tatum and I Rise as the pastor of the new Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church and president of The Minister's Justice coalition 2864 Mississippi Avenue Fort Worth Texas 76104 arise because the mother came to me and I want to thank Pastor Thatcher for the word for tonight clarity um many of you I've known a long time so I'm gonna bypass all that but I want to understand how after we've seen Michael Jacobs after we've seen Robert Thomas and Jermaine Darden Noah Lopez Carolyn Daniels Kevin Goldstein Amari Malone Slayton and Tatiana Jefferson after we've seen Jacqueline Craig and darshay Norris after we've seen police officers punch people in the face in the hospital simply because they was trying to find a way home how in God's name can the forward police officer pulled their guns on these little babies how can you justify in your mind that it's okay for you to take your revolver out and pointed at this baby girl right here how can you justify come here baby you're in your mind pulling your gun out and putting it in the face of this little baby here too many people how can you justify putting your revolver out and putting it in the face of this little baby here and go in the house and pull these kids out without a search warrant tell that Mom against her will I like to extend my time to 10 minutes because I brought my 10 people with me I'll need the City attorney and City Secretary to validate it's six minutes come on baby girl you see this baby girl she was over at her Grandmama's house for the holidays and joined her grandmother they don't even live in Fort Worth anymore mama was trying to make a better way for them and decided this time she wanted to let him stay with their Grandmama and they had the worst nightmare of their life on December the 31st 2022 at 11 o'clock P.M because the forward Police Department did not learn from all of those other incidents we're calling for an independent investigation of this case and we want the Fort Worth City to release the body cams immediately so that we can get to the truth as we just witnessed in Memphis sometimes the officer's account do not line up with what happened we've seen on the video cam and for the city of Fort Worth to send a letter to the attorney general to prevent this mama from learning the truth by seeing the body cam and listening to the 9-1-1 call it's a violation of these families human rights and we're asking for independent investigation because contrary to Chief note assertion this part department has a history of not being able to manage itself much less hold his officers responsible and accountable for what they've done to the black community for clarity's sake I want to know why and who pulled their cons on these little babies every one of them I want to know their names I want to know their history I want to know if they have a family I want to know if they have children I want to know if they really really care about what's happening in the black community now following me the mother of these babies and the daughter of the mother who they pulled out of the house put in handcuffs and in the back of the police car without a warrant or any reason of arrest she's going to read for you so that it goes on the record the family's position about what happened on December the 31st 2022 at 11 o'clock P.M go ahead so hello I'm Ashley Borland and on December 31st 2022 around 11 20 11 50 p.m forward Police Department showed up to my mom which is Demetrius Bell's home on a call that they stated was made when the officers arrived from my understanding they did not knock on the door they surrounded the windows and proceed to knock on the windows with guns ordering everyone in the house out my oldest daughter was asleep and she heard police officers ordering everyone out the house my mother grabbed my daughter Sparkle which is 15 other daughter Ashley which is not in my samoyan he's 12 out of the home when they opened the front door they had guns pointed at them the police officers was also in the next neighbor's house pointing rifles into the front door they ordered my children onto the ground as if they were criminals they print guns on them they had my son that is 12 on his knees as if he killed someone placed them in the back of a police car and locked them in there my son which is 10 has a mental disability so he can't process on the level of a normal 10 year old so when he ran to the door to see what was going on officers was cursing at him to come back out he did not he ran back inside the home with my uncle that had sickle cell that was laying across the couch when my uncle got up to come to the door to kind of figure out why were they there they were cursing in ordering that my son come back outside he refused because he was scared the officers then threatened to shoot inside the home if they didn't come out no one knew what was going on Marco then took my son which is 10. my nephew that is six and my niece which is four he placed my niece on his back and he walked out the door with them for a police department also threatened to shoot him if he did not put my niece down my knees begin to scream and start urinating on herself he then put her down and they were made to get on their knees and put their hands in the air after that the Police Department Fort Worth Police Department then ordered everyone to get in the back of a police car and locked all the children in the back of the police car they didn't when I showed up at that time I had a ride my all my kids and my nieces and nephew was in the back of police cars when I asked what was going on they were saying that it was a shooting I asked who was shot they did not know they didn't tell me anything else they just let the kids out the back of the police car I have reached out to I think almost everyone that is sitting up here to ask what was going on and I wanted to body Cam and also I want the 9-1-1 call that caused this type of ruption in Fort Worth I grew up in Fort Worth and I've never experienced that in my life and for me to move my kids to Desoto and allow them to come here they shouldn't experience that in their life my kids are now traumatized and they do get counseling at school for this the working Pastor Tatum I want to thank you all for coming Fernando with your leadership involving the police department I'm sure you can have a conversation Mr Costa next speaker is Cynthia Flint Crawford good evening distinguish mayor potem and council members my name is Cynthia Crawford I live in Fort Worth 7405. Oliver Stone Drive in the black Meadow subdivision I am a first responder I'm a nurse and I wanted to entreat you to provide our communities with access to information in the event there is an emergent situation we had a gas leak on 18th of January and they closed off our street and they closed off the instance to our neighborhood the fire department was there Atmos knew about it the police knew about it and uh and no one let the residents know about it I heard the blurp going on I am the HOA president hear that you come outside and I wanted to know you could smell the gas it was thick it was coming into my home and the police told me that Atmos had been called but nobody had been notified there had been no knock my girlfriend who lives across the street my neighbors myself all of us had gas coming into our home we weren't told that there was an imminent blow up but there should be no reason why we can't have information like when our there is a amber alert or a Silver Alert or even sometimes we get a flood alert I think it's very important if we are notified if there is an incident because people did have a medical response to being overcome by the gas they had to leave their homes they had to take their grandchildren out they had to take medication they were contemplating going to the hospital we have mentally disabled people in the community and a caretakers who are not necessarily as proficient medically to be able to know and to move these people so what I want you to strongly think about is in the event that there is a major event going on in a neighborhood just like uh my um company uh Spectrum even let me know proactively when we had our Electrical uh situation during the cold you might have a power outage it never happened it would be nice to have something come across my phone like the amber alert to say this is in your neighborhood please do this in the event this happens I think that it is worthy of the city to strongly look into making our citizens more proactive in their Care by caring more about their citizens I hope that you can find it in your time and in your budget because this is my sixth time I've reached out five times by writing first time in person I thank you for this opportunity Miss Crawford you should know that Atmos is governed by The Railroad Commission but my office will follow up with you tomorrow for the proper contact with admos thank you kindly thank you next speaker is Robert Robert Harvey hello how you all doing I want to speak about the police department's abuse and unlawful arrests of me and Carolyn Rodriguez and Manuel Mata for recording the police in public now recently Carolina recorded a Fort Worth cop badge number 4042 saying that they've had training on how to handle us free press and then he goes on to tell her where she's allowed to stand in public and then he says he can arrest her for talking which are both unlawful statements Texas Penal Code 38.15 interference with public duty section D clearly says speech cannot be deemed interference also Supreme Court ruling City of Houston versus Hill the Court ruled that a city ordinance made that abusive speech toward police officer is a crime was unconstitutional and a violation of the first amendment that means I can say whatever I want to these police officers unless I'm threatening them it's a First Amendment protected activity now let's talk about House Bill 2319 that Arizona recently passed that said you have to be at least eight feet away when recording police eight foot think about it that's this far away as tall as I am how's that relevant to Texas a federal judge struck down this law as unconstitutional as a First Amendment violation and Fort Worth cops they can think they can tell us where to stand while we're recording in public and arrest her for standing 20 feet away on a public sidewalk I was arrested for standing 20 feet away from a cop sitting in his cop car how am I interfering with a cop sitting in his cop car recording him he jumped out of his car and grabbed me and arrested me we've all seen the videos Emmanuel matai getting arrested on public sidewalks being 50 60 100 feet away remember a federal judge recently struck down Arizona House Bill 2319 that says you have to stand at least eight foot away Fort Worth cops are arresting us for standing 20 40 60 100 feet away I was arrested for felony stalking for recording a police officer on a public sidewalk while she was wearing her badge in uniform a felony this case is absolutely ridiculous the lawyers don't even understand how and why Judge Wolf could sign a probable cause warrant Taylor Stevens report is comical her proof for such an accusation is I asked her what the tattoo on her arm was while recording her she put in her records and her report the comments from the YouTube video she does not like she also stayed in her States in her report that my subscribers love her videos this is the garbage that got me arrested for a felony in Fort Worth are we living in China or North Korea has all the politicians and police department were sold out the next speaker is Caroline Rodriguez am I speaking Spanish I thought I was in a third world country for a minute gosh I guess we're not in a third world country we're in Fort Worth but it sure feels like we're in a third world country that's because we only have two times a month to talk to the you guys what's up with that two times a month to to air our our problems that we have with y'all and then another reason why I'm feeling like I'm in a third world country is because we have these thugs running around in police uniforms they've put up all kinds of robots for transparency they took away the police scanners so we don't know what's going on throughout the city they won't Release Body cams we've had that problem this is not the only family that this has happened to you this is not an isolated case right here this happens all the time all the time they're Thugs and they act like it um the other roadblocks they put up is they won't give us any kind of police records anything like that so we we took to film into them filming them so when we're out to film them they've set up all kinds of roadblocks for us not to see what's going on November 8th the chief said that he knows that there's a culture problem that he spoke to the city manager about this culture problem and that was two years ago but I haven't seen any change from two years ago I've seen it getting worse but I haven't seen any change has there been any meetings any training for these officers on the street does any of them even know what what community policing is I thought I requested any kind of formal meetings that they had concerning culture maybe some diversity training they don't give it they don't give it so for two years he hasn't done anything as far as training goes for these guys out on the street they changed the rules every time we turn around when we're out filming them they'll bring up um tell us that we're trespassing when we're not they've trespassed us out of public buildings without even committing a crime you ask why why am I being trespassed from this public building probably because you're trespassing that makes no sense they should only be able to trespass you if you are committing some sort of crime but also they they're when um which like I said we took the to filming up and you should you will be appalled at how they treat the homeless people sometimes we're capturing them on video before they even know that we've walked up on them and they treat those guys so horribly would they arrest 10 people a day for for criminal trespass you're not playing by the rules because with trespassing you're supposed to ask somebody to leave first then if they come back that's when you trespass them and the third time is probably when you arrest them but they're just arresting them as they see him and calling it trespassing so we need to do something about this non-transparency how they treat people on the street how they how they won't Release Body camps why how they won't give us any kind of transparency and we want to see some evidence of training these thugs on the street because they're thugs I mean either they don't come to the call that you've called on or they all show up and when they all show up it looks like the bunch of kids at the Dairy Queen on a Saturday night hanging out you know fraternizing and all that you know they just it's just it's a calling and it's almost embarrassing because you really do feel like you're in a third world country uh the rest that we've suffered uh thank you speaker the next the next speaker is Mary Goodwin or I'm sorry Terry Roach sorry thank you my name is Terry roach uh I know it's not all about me but I'm going to share with you that tonight's a special anniversary for me but a bit of embarrassment and a little bit of Pride uh I feel like I've come full circle 35 years ago this evening my partner in crime and I were breaking into cars in a movie theater parking lot we were seniors in high school when a Fort Worth Police Officer noticed what was up good police work brought it into our crime wave of radar detector theft says the officer escorted us to jail best thing that could have happened to me at the time that arrest was in a sense a passport to a better life putting me on the path to being an honest responsible productive and law-abiding member of society it's that role that brings me here tonight to speak on behalf of some individuals here tonight who have been arrested recently but unlike the 17 year old me I was a minor Menace to Society I got what I deserve these so-called cop Watchers Auditors or whatever term you prefer the rest there of them is shameful let me say clearly I am grateful and give my support to the vast majority of First Responders and police who are there to Serve and Protect they make sacrifices face grave dangers my grandfather was a police officer and the cop Watchers they can be profane provocateurs uh what most people would not agree with their choices or their comportment but they've proven Beyond any doubt that there is a cancerous element and not only within the rank and file but among the higher-ups who turned a blind eye to the bad apples or Worse who actively cover up the crimes of the people who are sworn to uphold the law arresting someone for filming for openly criticizing the police for profanity for the way they look or their attitude that's what's happening any reasonable unbiased person can see the retaliation of the targeting and the abuse of power throwing someone in jail just because you can knowing the tremendous impact that will have on them depriving them of their rights most of us wouldn't do what they do again but most of us wouldn't stand up to Injustice and be arrested 29 times as Martin Luther King was whatsoever you do to the least of our brothers father niemoller he said I hope it pronounced his name right World War II German he said I didn't care when they came for the Communists but I sure wish I would have to admit that I didn't care I didn't even know about him until I experienced abuse of power and misconduct by police uh and I've been trying for two years to get body camera video we should all be able to have body camera video these provocateurs they're the ones telling the truth it's not easy to hear and a lot of our major media they're quiet we'd like to thank Edward Brown the Fort Worth Weekly forgiving voice for speaking up they demonstrate clearly the need for civilian oversight strong vigorous independent and no one's going to benefit from that civilian oversight then the good police officers the vast majority again I'm arguing on their behalf to ask you make that civilian oversight real thank you next speaker is Mary Goodman good evening my name is Mary Goodman I live in Fort Worth in um uh District eight okay um I am a member of the Fort Worth Sierra Club and members of the echo Heights Community came to a meeting that we held this month our focus is Sierra Club focus is now going to be environmental justice and Echo Heights is an example of environmental Injustice Echo Heights is a neighborhood and community in southeast Fort Worth historically there were Farms Fields neighborhoods and a prairie dog park the city moved the prairie dog park for their safety the area was then rezoned for industrial use and moved Trucking firms light industrial heavy industrial and yet the people families and children of echo Heights remained they've already discussed discussed last month the people of echo Heights fought to keep a trucking company from taking a parcel of open land that is across the street from the elementary school William green they were successful for now the people living in Echo Heights are in the 83rd percentile in this state for air uh toxic cancer risk 95th percentile in the state for air toxic respiratory Hazard and 90 90th percentile in the country for traffic proximity the neighborhood is 90 percent people of color there is severe illness and Echo Heights has been reported the people in Echo Heights have been pleading with the city to improve the conditions in which they live and to not allow any more industry in their neighborhood the trucks Thunder passed the schools and houses the the trucks parked right behind homes were exhaust is spewed in their large yards it is time for the city to listen to the people of echo Heights and meet their needs the city made them sick the city must make them well environmental adjustment Justice would be to have the comprehensive plan oops I'm running out of time I could not speak as eloquently as the people of echo Heights but I want to add my voice to theirs please listen to them and act in the best interest of their their as well as you did for the prairie dogs thank you our last speaker tonight is Charlie Lanza hello can you good evening I'm an outsider I watch some YouTube videos and wow what what do you have going on here is just amazing to me I don't understand how your police force has gotten so out of control I didn't rehearse to say anything here but just what I've witnessed obviously you have a serious problem I feel so sorry for those people that were just here that left I can't imagine that so I don't want to get long-winded here or anything like that but I think you really need to sit down and have some serious conversation with these police officers and get who's ever in charge and come up with something to fix this people are having their rights completely violated they're being arrested for trespassing for filming an officer well we live in the 20th century and there are cameras everywhere they have cameras everyone has cameras everything is documented you're just gonna have to get used to it so what more can I say I just feel so bad this is such a great City and I come from Pennsylvania it's a great area but obviously there's some serious rot going on here and it needs to be fixed thank you mayor Pro tem that concludes all of the speakers tonight thank you all for participating in the process this evening tonight's meeting is adjourned