for e got for I got okay Council I think we can get started I will call us to order welcome to your city council work session I'll turn over to Jay Choppa good afternoon now good to see you all again um we do have some organizational updates and employee recognition I'm going to start by calling Diana gardano to the podium I would say that um she's here as HR Director but starting Monday she will be our new assistant city manager we uh went through an internal Recruitment and U interviewed Oaks on Friday as you know Richard sabala's last day he was interim assistant city manager was uh his last was this past Friday so I'd like to get that position filled quickly um our acms were part of a panel and then I did interviews myself um and we all concurred with the with Di and she offered her the job yesterday and she accepted and I told her she had one week to get her things in order so she will be naming an interim HR Director uh that will also start soon uh but I'll let her do that at a at a later date so with that she's gonna talk to the city Council about our upcoming job fair yeah before I start there I just want to say thank you um I'm it's been a privilege to work for the city of Fort Worth I've been excited ever since the day that I've walked in and I'm really looking forward to serving in this new capacity as an assistant city manager with that we have our fourth annual Citywide job fair that we are looking forward to it will be hosted this Saturday um April 5th from 9 to 2 uh PM it's going to be at the aan Carter Exhibit Hall at Will Rogers Memorial center uh as in years's past we have on-site interviews that will be hosted as well as a number of City departments we have over 22 City departments that are represented at the Citywide job fair everyone from library to it to Municipal Court to city attorney's office Aviation uh Fort Worth lab tpw uh environmental services and a host more um there's free parking so individuals that are watching we encourage you to invite your family friends professionals that might be of in interested in working for the city of Fort Worth if they Park and enter through gate 17 parking will be free we also have vendors that will be on site this year and so this is kind of a new resource so Goodwill will be on site as well as the Veteran Affairs office uh there will be home buyer assistance programs Mills on Wills Fort Worth Credit Union and then our Workforce Solutions here in Taran County on-site interviews as I mentioned we in any individuals that are out there watching or if you know someone that has a commercial driver's license we have equipment operators that are being sought for both transportation and public works as well as environmental services and we have a host of positions associated with the Park and Recreation Department so Camp leaders Rec Recreation instructors site supervisors and of course literary literacy support Specialists so those are just a few come ready bring your resume in hand and we look forward to seeing you at our Citywide job fair councelor Martinez Diana congratulations I am so very proud of you just please make sure that whoever comes after you is just as good as you are thank you I I have a question um you kind of articulated a little bit just a moment ago but for the applicant what can they expect is the jobs that are there uh each department hiring so the J the Departments that are hiring are Park and Recreation Municipal Court transportation and public works and environmental services so if they come with their resume in hand and they meet the qualifications for any one of those jobs they can get in the queue to interviewed on site and so that effort uh has been something that we've done in the past it's an orchestrated event so we recommend that if anybody's coming uh for that interest that they arrive early we also have those jobs advertised on our careers page now and so if they want additional information they can look at the jobs on our careers page to see the minimum qualifications and what positions might interest them and just to let you know we have over 1,400 candidates are pre-registered to attend the event on Saturday yes ma'am know how to be recognizing this new I know it's new for me too I will get used to it thank you all for your patience because I kind of forget it's a different shape thank you go ahead just one question for you Diana we know industrywide interviews are slowing down and so for us to have that many pre-registered and I'm sure that they are matching with jobs in their field do you anticipate a Slowdown or or do you think we're just going to really be able to hire on the spot like you've done before before I think for these jobs that we have identified we'll be able to hire on the spot as we have before we are seeing that there are this is an increased number I think this is twice maybe the number that we had pre-registered last year and so we are seeing a lot of in individuals what we're seeing though in in local government is individuals that are impacted by the other areas tend to attract to our jobs more so we usually see an influx before we start to see kind of the tell off of of candidates in positions in higher academ things are are dragging to the point where people are accepting offers beneath what they know their value is so I'm glad you're ahead of the gay yeah just one uh can we make sure uh UPS Spire gets this information so maybe we can have some representation from there come out maybe looking to um get a new job a better job perhaps we can look it up Spire as well anyone else thank you di congratulations thank you that's all for updates that was quick thank you looks like we're going to move straight into our informal reports and the first report is on the U update the monthly report on the release of etj requests and DJ herel here answer any questions any questions for DJ no thank you our next report is an update on the East Berry Street corridor plan uh Kelly Porter is here provided answer any questions you might have I don't have any questions but um Kelly if you don't mind just very briefly telling the public any updates here is he here I don't know okay perfect thank you and I'll have a question for them too thank you that's not Kelly good afternoon uh my name is Arman Bryant I'm with uh trans ation and public works I'm uh the project manager for the East Berry Corridor project and um Kelly is at the uh na uh National planning conference right now so um in terms of a an update so after 18 months of going to the public going to stakeholders going to uh different uh Regional um just uh Partners uh we now have a draft of the East Berry Corridor Street plan that will be coming before you shortly it encompasses a lot of the comments and concerns as well as the priorities that were set forth and explained to us by the various communities various stakeholders and Regional Partners um that is step one of our overall East Berry Street corridor uh study which um after the plan is adopted with um the recommendations um for the implementation of making improvements to to the East Berry Corridor would come um what also will be coming before you is a uh schematic uh getting approval for a schematic of the actual Corridor itself for uh for uh just wait for uh what we can do to improve it in terms of the actual safety improvements Transit improvements and such um and then after that would be the form base code which we would then also bring before you with uh uh the uh land use improvements as well to match the um roadway improvements that would be done on the schematic we'd also be bringing about master thorough for plan amendments as well to just bring it all together and um like I said I'm here if you have any specific questions thank you I have one quick question I can turn it to Mayor pan Bivens in the IR it talks about the East Berry Street from cob Park Drive to US 287 is under consideration for the 2026 Bond program and as councilwoman Beck brought up earlier today about the importance of design to the extent that we are able to prior to bond election so they're quote unquote shovel ready is your intention then that this planning process would get us to that place with that particular section of East Barry for fatal flaws to make a preliminary actual design of the corridor along with phasing and potential funding opportunities so that um it would then meet so that it would be ready for the bond project um in that's being considered in um for the 26 Bond but it won't be fully designed yet correct okay it the design would be part of answer your question essentially uh we would need funding for design in the 2026 bond to complete design in order to be ready to go to construction uh what money in the 2022 Bond did was allow for kind of an initial planning effort for the entire Corridor so as we um address the corridor in portions uh we have a a complete concept of how that should be executed with public engagement okay thank you may pend I don't know how long you've been here how long have you been here um with the city three year three and a half years okay then I'm I'm comfortable asking this at some point there was a disconnect uh further east on Barry and as you drove no further west as you as you drove East you guys were calling for on street parking uh spefic specifically as you approach Lake Arlington do your plans still call for on street parking uh specifically near Barry and stall cup so there was some um concerns from the residents and that note has been made in the plan about about um restricting that that parking at that area so that didn't answer Pro to answer your question uh the parking has been removed from that prop crosssection thank you so good answer I have more questions but they can easily be handled later so I appreciate that don't mean to derail the conversation Jay okay the next uh report is overview of the historic and cultural landmarks commission Laur Le willit here to answer any questions I have a couple questions hey there um I appreciate you putting this together uh it really was the result of some uh questionable decisions that had come out of a um a couple historic landmarks commission meetings that made me ask this question um because once we undo the um historical significance of a piece of property it's it's almost impossible to get it back and so it's really important I think particularly to District 9 UM that this commission run well and I I appreciate you giving a comparison of San Antonio and Dallas and it sounds like they operate in large part similarly to what we do the big the big red flag for me or or what doesn't make sense is that in our requirements we say as as opposed to Dallas and San Antonio that require all of their appointees to have these requirements we only require six appointees should be practicing professionals from fields of architecture landscape architecture history architectural history urban planning archaeology real estate law or other disciplines related to Historic preservation so there's 11 of us here at the table um so what happens my appointee has um history in the field but what happens if if he rolls off and I need to appoint somebody um you know how do we determine which six council members are required to appoint people with um with these backgrounds and what happens if a a council member wants to replace theirs and it it unseats that balance of six appointees I mean that that seems odd to me sure I think that requirement um potentially comes from the uh the program that city of for worth is a part of called the certified local government program where um it stipulates that at least six members need to have these um particular uh uh points of like interest right um and in our ordinance It also says that there needs to be um a vested interest in preservation in general so it doesn't necessarily have to be um you know all the appointees don't necessarily have to have those uh uh those particular jobs so um it it is it's been difficult in Fort Worth to um find individuals that are that meet these standards they do it in other cities and and they have they require all 11 members to have that appointment I just I think do the other cities have to San Antonio and Dallas for example have the same program that we have um I believe so okay so I'd like to see a change let me be clear I'd like to see a change that all 11 members have some sort of level of expertise that we've outlined in here um I think that it's only fair um that all of us here at this Council seek to appoint people that meet these qualifications instead of just putting that onus on six of us thank you and to be clear I'm not sure if San Antonio or Dallas had actually meets that their ordinance might say that but their commission members may not actually meet that either well I'd like us to strive to do best so we can have our ordinance say that any other questions from staff Council m v got a couple of them for you and I would encourage you to provide formal education which we can coordinate with you know TCC and other universities uh I have two issues for your department or your Division I remember when I removed the historic designation for stop six it created a lot of angst for people but that was because of the the lack of education and so I think you need to make sure that the public is aware of how we deem appropriateness of being historical even though you may have a house built in 1922 uh the base housing was a lot in my in my neighborhood and stop six came from Carswell but once you at that garage it's no longer historical once you at that Den or make some type of work room people didn't understand that that impacted that designation so I think we have to do more in educating the public on the front end and for those of you who talk in terms of car payments uh consider if you have a car you drive it off the lot the value goes down and you end up being upside down as a term I think most people know that's the way housing was when it came to historical designations because folk didn't realize they were upping the number uh working against them and getting that designation and people did not understand that fortunately we had a number of people who really wanted to work with us and that's what brought the housing boom in stop six because developers would not build there because they had to build according to a group of people who were pretty vocal at the time so education is really important uh one big issue I have is the lack of of stewardship if you will a historic Carver Heights uh every once in a while you get people buying property in that neighborhood and but for those citizens you know we would we would see the historical designation being impaired because people come in building RW iron fences they don't want that one guy actually poured a sidewalk they refused to have sidewalks and so I don't know how you police an area but it might be good to just stay in better touch with those neighborhood association leaders because now two of those stewards have had Strokes no longer driving but they continue to be uh imposed upon by people people who have no idea what they're doing to damage that neighborhood and for those of you who don't know Cara Heights is the first African-American neighborhood built for and by African-Americans judge Clifford Davis would say the first butts on the toilet in those houses were black butts the late Clipper Davis so education and stewardship those are my issues and thank you for all that you do to try any other questions Council thank you very much okay then next report is pavment markings update and Martin Phillips is here I believe to answer any questions Council Flores I have one question on that On a related note afternoon Martin Phillips assistant director tpw yes sir thank thank you Martin you and I have talked uh before in various occasion on how to improve uh markings and where to place markings where there might be some needed uh can you give us any guidance or any latest decisions if any tpw has had when it comes to bul bouts I know that when I run into folks and talk to them they're I know the purpose I explain the purpose but they're mixed feelings about it especially in areas that are not well lit you can tell by the number of uh tire marks on them people get them right JP de considered maybe doing some kind of reflective markings or paint you know around the bow balance absolutely we actually had a meeting with Council M Beck fly recently to talk about Seventh Street same kind of an issue so we're we're looking at some of those things it's not necessarily pavment marking related up front because we're talking about our raised areas right with curb that we're hitting um so what we talked about in that instance was B the potential of removing those and then replacing that bulb out with striping so you're not hitting anything you're rolling over the striping but it also prevents you from vehicles from parking adjacent to roadway or drive approach Etc where the bulb out is preventing a a vehicle from blocking uh sight lines so you can see if vehicles are coming as you're trying to pull out into the roadway okay very good and I know that upcoming um as we continue talking about implementation of uh Street improvements you know per the traffic study done in the Stockyards bu bouts were talked about for you know exchange so whatever tpw thinks is a a good you know Improvement you know on that theme uh please implemented there absolutely and we are planning a meeting with you um in the very near future uh along with some of the other team that's working on the capital project in the area as well as uh Mr Payne to sit down with you all and kind of talk through a plan that we developed in conjunction with him the NP and some of the other officers in the area it' be kind of a comprehensive discussion about what we want to do there what we think would be best okay look forward to it thank you absolutely Carlos I'd drive down West 7th before you do that um I'd take a walk down West 7th to see what you don't want you don't want Council Williams yeah thank you Martin um on the pavement markings just curious um based on what you've seen in the field how um our markings are holding up know a few years back when we first started having the conversation about the need for additional striping we were seeing that some of the markings were fading fast and wasn't sure if it was because of volume or application what not love to hear more about that yeah well and the first thing I'd like to say we get a lot of compliments from residents who's driving this out in the in the city um in terms of what we used to do and where we are now I think if you look at that IR you'll see a number of different materials that that the team and Cornell Johnson is in the audience with us he's our engineering managers over that and I've asked Corel to really dive into payment markings you know let's figure this out and so that's why you see a number of different materials and so right now we're strategizing on the cost of the material and the application you know terms of traffic volumes and um environmental impacts U and that's across the board we're also doing that with signage too where we're looking at how the Sun is impacting it in one area versus another and how one uh striping area might last a lot longer if it's the same material so we're we're really trying to strategize that we haven't really completed that yet it takes a little bit of time but uh we're also reaching out to other municipalities to have those discussions particularly those with the same climate as ours how are you dealing with this issue um and so you know we we could have a a deep nerdy dive into payment markings at any point in time if you'd like that's that's helpful too and I I thought it was helpful also on public record because I know down in Southwest Fort Worth we our residents have seen that um we yall are always responsive to address striping needs where needed but I think it's important for the public to know too that this is a conversation we're having that um we have a certain expectation for how long the striping should be in place and and for them to know that we're having conversation of how do we ensure that you know we're getting the maximum shelf life on our striping striping um going forward yes sir and uh we did reach our goal of 2.9 Million million linear feet you'll and also in the IR we talk about the fact that it's a little bit slower in the winter due to climate but we do pick up in the spring and the summer and so we're actually ahead of schedule again due to you know Cornell Johnson and his team's efforts there thank you you're the man c c back Martin I just want to say that I've gotten really great feedback on the roads that have been striped in District 11er bson um but how are we how are you doing on budget are you going to be able to um complete all the projects that you have at least uh tased for the school year 2025 yeah for for our work plan um we we we're using that strategy in terms of that fun you know the the cost of these materials right to help us determine where we can use those materials a budget is a big part of that strategy to make sure that that we have enough to reach that goal okay there just some um Street bumps in uh District 11 that haven't been painted but they are part of this budget so that's why I was asking thank you uh if you would have your office reach out to me we'll get those addressed Council back I just want to say thank you when we brought this up several years ago um staff was so in TP tpw staff was so incredibly responsive and management was also incredibly responsive to put the funding into our budget um and you've done wonderful things with this and it's one of those um projects that um our residents can see immediately and they can see that the city is working for them I mean I've said many times I was uh teaching a teenager to to drive on streets with no pavement markings and um it felt a little um like I was taken my life into my own hands on multiple occasions so um thank you all for all of your tremendous work on this appreciate it thank you bulls with striping probably make sense on Exchange so the horses don't trip the hor yeah yeah and if I've randomly I drive Helen a lot early in the morning so you can see how the reflection is quite different right there um and then anyway from a safety perspective I can see why it's been effective so I'm pleased to see it included as a listed here I did not know what it was made out of so now I I can throw that out there is trivia people in the car with me there you go thank you thank you Mark next reports a ropion of the tax abatement policy and other updates to Economic Development incentive policies sorry I don't have a a question I just have a request it looks like there's some changes being proposed especially C and D down here but we won't see it until maybe 4 five days before 22 if we already know what those are can you just share it with our offices those Provisions where is here to connect we don't have to today you could if you want to you can but yes to answer your question we can share with all of y'all and then just so you know um for item C we're adding the Wood Haven area so we're increasing the number of target areas to from 11 to 12 and then we'll certainly share with you all the little technicalities of the language that we're REM moving you're welcome next uh report is a read-option of substitute judges chief judge is here to judge I'm I'm more than supportive of the of the IR I do have some questions about salary if you don't mind for substitute judges what is the current compensation for substitute judges Municipal excuse me they're paid at $50 an hour so the current recommendation is $50 an hour yes ma'am right now so I'm concerned that that it's not near enough money um I know that you probably heard that before yes um and for this body to consider it and think about what a private attorney in the market makes and these are men and women that are really dedicated to provide a service to the city of Fort Worth and municipal court so you would have my full support to recommend additional pay in the very near-term future um when the last time they got a compensation raise believe uh maybe two years ago when J yeah we got to do better and I'm probably preaching the choir I get that but um I don't know what wiggle room we have in the budget Jay and for the council to consider but with no cost of living increase and understanding how critical they are to the entire workings of the municipal court is a concern to me so we can work with William we'll get that straight we can work with William in the municipal courts area to see if we can find something yeah and there may be some parity we looking at other cities um and what they're paying right now but I just if we can find some bump this year and then certainly look at it for next F schal year that would be very important I'll look into it thank you thank you very much judge appreciate thank you that's all the reports there you go okay Council any questions on upcoming mnc's from your packet boards and commissions any questions there or need to change or zoning case any or all the above okay with that we're going to turn it over to Dave Lewis Parks and Recreation director to receive an update on the tant county Vietnam memorial project update and I believe we have a few guests here today from our tant County um veterans association that put on such a great veterans parade every single year maybe Dave is going to recognize them as well but thank you for this challenge coin as well sitting in our Das thank you mayor and Council Dave Lewis director Park and Recreation Department I'm very excited to be here today to talk about this important project that we've been working on for a few years and we do have some great guests today that I will recognize as well um today I'm going to talk a little bit about the foundation and the work that they've been doing a little bit about the project and then timelines as we move forward on this project um Veterans Memorial Park is just off Camp Buie in Council district 7 it was dedicated in 1923 is about half an acre and there have been military association with this ice since 1950 you'll probably recall the the memorials there include the meddle of Honor for Horus Carswell Charles Pendleton and Robert law also the 36th division in World War I World War II USS Fort Worth Memorial plaque anchor and uh armor piercing projectiles from World War II and of course the World War II veterans memorial stone a little bit about the Taran County Vietnam memorial Foundation it's really the group that has spearheaded this effort they're an all volunteer 501c3 and the phrase never to be forgotten is more than just a catchphrase for them it really is the impetus of their mission to lead this effort to design and install a Vietnam War Memorial uh to support the local veterans who sacrificed in Southeast Asia with ultimately the goal to salute the impact that those who served and paid the ultimate price had for our country um a little bit about about the background they really started this project in in 2020 they uh came to the the park Department with this proposal to honor the 223 tan count of veterans who died in war or due to the War uh they wanted to provide a place to remember and educate the future Generations about the war and the moral will also include artwork by local artist Michael pavlovski who is also here in the audience today um some of the uh members of the foundation that are here today include Jim Hudson the president um Bruce zelsdorf the vice president Communications coordinator Damon Harvey the treasurer and then also Bob whim secretary please stand for a minut so we can recognize you thank you very much for all you [Applause] do and they provided those challenge coins that are such a unique momento of the project um a little bit more about the proposed location you can see it's on the western portion of the park just off Camp Buie picture on the right shows the rough area in the grass where the memorial would be located uh the concept is to have the granite Memorial that lists all the names of the Fallen by year and then the bronze symbolic tree with the sword in the middle brick pavers surrounding Memorial will uh have the names of some donors on it and then Granite benches that represent uh the branches of the US Armed Forces as well going through the project development they did have a ceremonial groundbreaking in 201 20 to sort of Kickstart the fundraising it was endorsed by the park and recreation board last uh in February and then the art commission endorsed their revised design and recommended assession of the artwork into the fort workk public art uh Community Legacy Collection proposed funding the current estimate is about $355,000 and to date they have received about $55,000 in donations the intention is to launch their formal fundrais fundraising campaign campaign later this month staff is recommending with the endorsement from the city manager's office to use a portion of the Community Partnership funds up to 50% of the project or $200,000 um that will significantly help obviously their fundraising efforts and um as they move forward the next steps uh there'll be an MNC on the agenda on April 8th to seek authorization for a license agreement for the project as well as the appropriation of funds from the Community Partnership fund um April through March of 2026 will be their fundraising campaign and also the completion of the design and Engineering of the project and then uh March of 26 to September of 26 will be the construction and the installation of the memorial and then uh the dedication is expected to be on Veterans Day in 2026 obviously if they raise funds faster and get through design faster that the some of it would change but obviously that's a great Target date to have the dedication so I will entertain any questions questions from Council councill first of all I just want to um tell everyone thank you for coming today Jim Bruce Damon Bob and Michael and we've met a couple times and I really appreciate the time and energy I'll put into this project and the $55,000 you raised to date is really impressive youall have done that really through Grassroots efforts and I'm sure the city support is going to help leverage additional funds um in addition I think this is gives the city an opportunity to re-evaluate Veterans Memorial Park and what it really should be be and could be and so this will be very additive to that and the neighbors and the city itself is very grateful for your work on this bivans I'd like to hear from someone about the fundraising levels I think the public listening right now if there's anyone in your group who can tell us what those levels are is I'm ready to write a check okay don't leave without it keep asking till they say no I think it would be good to know first of all thank you for your time and thank you for having us I'm Damon Harvey the treasurer for the foundation yes we have raised a little more than $55,000 at this time we have various fundraising levels we have levels that you just basically start at like $55,000 all the way up to $20,000 and there will be an edifice that is there that notates the people that meet those different levels between there uh so we're definitely looking for from the community as well as the various cities just as a note City of Fort Worth itself had 168 people not return from Vietnam and the average age of people that uh die in Vietnam as a whole as of our country was 23 was 60% of those being between age age 18 and 21 so I just want to let y'all know that right there because that is very impactful person even more than the the money can do can you share the website in case people watching right now yes ma'am yes ma'am the website is https colback tcv mf. us one more time like your own radio s uh https colon backback slash tcv mf. us and I know all of us are going to put that on our website and in our newsletters to try to help raise his money thank you for all you do you're welcome my pleasure and it's the least that I could do just one yes Council m l one thank you uh Dave I'm super excited about this project um I love District 4 but I am jealous of of Macy she's got the Veterans Memorial Park been down there there a few times as we look for um some other ideas and and things to do out there um I think whenever earlier in our our bond conversation I made a comment about art um wasn't exactly friendly however I think when it comes to Memorial like this it's extremely important uh to have them and I think it's a least we can do for those who did make the ultimate sacrifice or who are willing to make that sacrifice um my dad fought in Vietnam he was a sergeant he was severely wounded after taking grenade shapel for his commanding officer who later received the Medal of Honor for it not my dad but the commanding officer um but he's still dealing with the physical and mental um effects from that war and of course I was a recipient of that as well growing up um and so I think this is the least we do I think it's been a long time coming I think 2021 is whenever it started so I'm excited to see this one happen um and may if there's anything I can do to help you in your district and everything that you're doing here I'll certainly do everything I can in District 4 to help raise money and even go into our friends in Hillwood uh who are great military supporters and asking them if they can help out unlike Gina I can't write a check because I have like $3 in my account uh but I will certainly help get the word out because I think this is incredible thank you any other questions Council well it looks like gentlemen if you're going to dedicate this on Veterans Day 2026 are we going to parade up camp buoy that year what do we know maybe I don't know I'm have to combine the efforts I joke because many of us on this Council have participated in the Veterans Day Parade I do such a great job every single year so thank you for that as well thank you Dave next up council is a proposed economic development program agreement with ACS group for development of a data center campus and the presentation will be led by Sher Gordon Economic Development coordinator good afternoon the purpose of this presentation is a recommendation for an edpa agreement with ACDC Hicks Field Road LLC ACS is a global leader in infrastructure development with over 135,000 employees worldwide headquartered in Madrid Spain with operations in over 25 countries in the number one contractor in the US through subsidiary Turner Construction and the number one data center builder in the US top clients for data centers in the last five years include meta M Microsoft Google Apple and AWS local notable projects through Turner Construction include DFW Airport terminal F at 840 million TAMU Law School Fort Worth at 165 million and the TCU football Stadium expansion at 101 mil this agreement would be with our subsidiary ACDC Hicks Field Road LLC and one or more of its Affiliates project location on the right side of the screen you can see 35 West going north and the offramp that goes 287 to decator and then you can see if you move over there's the business 287 decator this is approximately in the area of Hicksville Road and that 287 Business you can see in the um aial that there is a industrial um development that's there and Industrial Park and then to the other side of the screen where we see the footprint it's 77 um Acres primarily but 107 acre Greenfield site that's Greenfield site today is zoned agricultural so the footprint is bringing us under 7,000 annually due to the agricultural exemption the site plan for the data center development um I wanted to note the um I go back to the prior screen sorry The Encore substation that's in the area you can see near the footprint as well as a Chism Trail batter battery energy storage system this makes it a great location for a data center they'll also build their own private substation that's included in the footprint here but part of what we wanted to point out is they're leaving a to the right where there would be potential residential so you have the development more to the um left side of the footprint the design and number of buildings is still under consideration and subject to change our current um configuration shows four buildings it could be two larger buildings but it would still approximate the footprint of this design project overview is for the company to develop a data center campus in proximity to that Encore substation and the Chism Trail Bess storage facility proposed cap capital investment is 2.1 billion the jobs will be 37 full-time jobs the expected average annual salary for those jobs is over 150,000 the investment schedule includes real property or the the building the construction of the buildings at the data center actual build out for an additional 10 1.68 five um $ 1.6 billion shows the approximate delivery schedule of those four buildings so the company commitment of the 2.67 billion again 481 million in the real property investment or in the construction of the building another 1.6 or 1.7 billion dollar in business prop personal property or that's the equipment that goes inside the data center the project timing is in two phases so the first phase completes by December 31st 2031 and the second phase completes by December 31st 2034 uh with the total or accumulative Again by that 2034 again the average annual salary over 150,000 and with 15% of hard construction costs going to bef companies so the proposed incentive is a little bit different we're structuring this as a 10-year edpa or 380 agreement grants that starts when half of that incremental BPP or equipment has been completed and at that time we would start at a 35% um agreement and then once all of the equipment is completed it would increase to a 70% um incentive on the BPP for a full-term of 10 years part of that um structure is to incentivize to put the equipment in so sometimes with data centers you see concerns about building the building shell and then not going forward with the data center so we're being real thoughtful about how we wanted to structure this in order to incentivize the the project the grant payments are subject to company performance requirements failure to meet the minimum investment in phase one is default failure to meet the minimum investment in phase two would result in the the rate remaining at 35% failure to meet the average salary results in the forfeiture of that annual Grant failure to make full jobs commitment results in a proportional reduction of the Grant and failure to deliver the 15% of hard construction cost to bef companies results in a 10% reduction of the Grant and additional rights requirements and penalties as negotiated so for that project summary of the 2167 billion 30 7 jobs 150,000 annual wages we're recommending an incentive proposal of up to 35% that increases to 70% in phase two the taxable value at 1. n68 billion slightly off from what you see in the investment due to what we would recognize as the appraisal value with their estimated benefit at 46.4 million the npb of that benefit at 31.2 City participation 2.1% estimated rate ratio 46.7 net new taxes gross to the city at $ 57.9 million MPV of that 41.6 with a payback of 3.47 years so our recommendation is to enter into 10-year edpa agreement starting at 35% and up to 70% of the B business personal property taxes and with our MNC for consideration on April 8th um open up for question questions I did want to recognize that we do have members of the company here with us today and happy to have them um for the presentation questions from Council Council Williams uh no questions about this just in general I know that um we had a data center in district 6 and certainly there's a number across City and it's going to it's an important Market to fill um what by what criteria do we evaluate whether or not um projects need incentives and I'm sure there's going to be more coming down the road so just want to have a better understanding of how that will work no it's it's a great question and in in general we're looking for um if we're talking about a data center you're looking for one that has a dedicated customer and we know who that dedicated customer is and in this case we don't know yet who the dedicated customer is but we know who their customer base is and it's impressive right so we're looking for the overall investment part of it is we're looking for where does it make sense to have a data center we want those near the substations we want to be thoughtful about where the residential development is also in the area um and then you want to look for a company that has great backing and the ability to bring the project to fruition and that's kind of key in uh I think in the data center industry right now and we think that this company does that's really good that's helpful to know um I know yall do great job along with City management we have a strategic plan and so I thought that was important to know and so appreciate that thank you questions from Council yes Council Hill I know we have some representatives from ACS here would y'all mind coming up real quick just giving us an overview of the organization thank you very much for here today Matthew Carter from ACS pleasure to be here today thank you very much and my call hello I'm Scott marzoff would you just do a brief overview of the organization um I know you're based in Spain but you know talk about your move to Fort Worth and then also I know a couple of questions that come up come up after my community meetings um is about the noise with data centers would you just address that as well so ACS is a global conglomerate so as we said 135,000 people around the world global 500 company Fortune a lot of business in Asia Pacific in Europe and then the most well-known company in the group is Turner Construction States one of the largest construction companies we're on the investment and operations side of things um Data Centers do have some noise there's no doubt about that we've we are very cognizant of that our design has much less noise than most we've also deliberately as was pointed out before we're trying to keep a physical gap between where anyone is living so that they don't get that noise however the noise itself is not that bad and we are in an industrial area so we feel like we will be fine it's certainly a a part that we're very cognitive of as well as we do the design thank you so much and thank you for being here today may I ask yes yes gentlemen before you step away from the podium I'm just curious uh are there any um Technologies you're employing to reduce the amount of water you use for cooling so we plan to only use uh water at the beginning so we're going to use a closed loop system so once we bring the water into the facility we will just continue to rotate it the majority of the air uh sorry that air conditioning we'll be using air cooled chillers so it's mainly air so we're just using that water just to keep keep the system moving so we're reducing water to the good to hear thank you questions Council no thank you gentlemen for being here appreciate it Council our next presentation is by Mike Crum public Evin director on the Will Rogers Memorial center update Aon Council good afternoon I'm Michael crumb director of the city's public events Department here today to talk to you about activities at the Will Rogers Memorial center I knew it Fly oh there we go all right okay so what are we going to talk about today we'll take a quick look at how things went out at will and F y 24 uh most of our conversation today will be about uh both our Capital Investments uh out at the facility and uh our ongoing collaboration with event facilities Fort Worth if you'll remember ew as we call it is the uh private uh public private partnership wing of the Fort Worth St show in Rodeo um so looking at FY 24 uh we look at the this from a strategic goal standpoint uh what are we doing with our people our business processes our financial performance and most importantly are we delivering great customer experiences to our clients um in general uh for FY 24 uh the uh facility met or exceeded uh all of its strategic goals so we are focused on developing our team as our team begins that journey through transitioning from one business model to another which we'll we'll talk about we continue to focus on uh trying to get better at what we do on a day-to-day basis so we're constantly reviewing our business processes uh financial performance even though we beat budget uh for the year uh the cost of the City operating the Will Rogers Memorial center continues to be a concern uh and we'll talk about that again in a minute and uh with customer experience the team out there according to our customers uh continues to uh surpass expectations uh and that is a great compliment to a team that is confronting a management change um we talk about financial performance and you can see from this graph that uh the cost of main or balancing the oper operating budget for uh wrmc uh continues to grow uh and this is a concern to us because every dollar in occupancy tax that we use to balance a budget is one less dollar that we can put into capital projects and really if you get to the essence of why we're talking about changing the management model for will this is why uh Capital expenditures continue to uh increase inrease rather dramatically in FY 24 uh most of this is the investment that the city made in the sheep and Swine Barn although there is arpa funding and culture and tourism funding uh that also goes into this $37 Million number uh and is representative of the momentum now out at Will Rogers in terms of investing in the facility if you look at where we are in terms of where we've been with uh Investments and where we're going uh with the $37 million that went into the facility last year uh plus the budgeted projects that are happening in fy2 and Beyond most notably the phase one R renovation of the Coliseum uh at Will Rogers at $47 million we currently have 1112 million committed to the facility um we've already started uh renovation work you may remember a few weeks back we did an IR on the renovation project uh First Step was to start renovating uh bathrooms uh out at uh out at the facility and uh I think what you find in facilities that have a lot of mileage on them is that back when they were built uh bladders were bigger and so you had facil ities that were smaller and so that has changed over time we have to we have to rectify this and this will be part of the phase one renovation work uh what do we get on the other side well uh these are some early renderings of uh what The Concourse renovation will look like and it uh suffice it to say it's a very different look uh in comparison to what you what you see today we're going to open the Concourse up we're going to brighten things up we're going to honor the art deco history of the of the facility uh and uh and so what you what you see in the future is is going to be quite a bit different than what you experience today uh we're also going to open uh The Concourse up more to the uh uh to The Arena floor uh which uh I think is an improvement that is long over do um all of this is being done in collaboration with event facilities for work U and if you'll remember uh we started that of course we've been collaborating with efw for a long time uh last year we started to formalize that uh through the approval of what was called a Management Services agreement and if you'll remember uh the Management Services agreement uh for the city to empower visit or not visit for event facilities Fort Worth uh to uh manage capital projects on the on the city's behalf um and we have we have already uh made use of that agreement with some smaller projects uh the Coliseum renovation is the first big bite that project is being managed uh entirely by ew uh in addition to our work on on uh capital projects uh uh we have resumed our conversations with efw about the management gr uh that started uh in March uh we hope to put an agreement in front of you for approval this fall uh and then Implement that agreement in FY 26 most of it probably after the 26 stock show with the goal of having the agreement fully implemented uh before the end of the fiscal year uh while we're working on that we also have to think about the future of the facility so we're going to again be partnering with the ffw on a capital needs assessment to uh update the study that I think was last updated in 2018 that'll be uh identifying what I would call the basic blocking and tackling of uh Capital maintenance and capital replacement uh for the facility longer term then uh we'll collaborate on a master plan and master plan uh will set the stage for the series of improvements that will take place when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Will Rogers Memorial center in 2036 with that I'll take your questions questions from councils or comments looks great thank you very much Mike thanks for all your coordination okay Council next item on our agenda is the proposed amendments to the urban forestry ordinance Leander Stringfellow development services assistant director provide this update true they call her I forgot the lorax is in out of the room so speak slowly because mayor ptim Biven is very interested in this topic oh I absolutely she'll she'll be back in again but anyway you can go ahead okay so good afternoon mayor and city council I'm Leandra Stringfellow um and with me who will be tag teaming on this presentation is our Urban Forester Jacqueline Ingram so we'll go ahead and get started so um really quick agenda on what we're going to be talking about today um we're going to go through a background um including project Milestones that um we've taken in order to get to the this point we'll be talking about at the applicability and exemptions of our urban forestry ordinance changes that we propose um penalties which were really important for mayor protim Biven and um next steps in future implementation so just real quickly um we'd like to remind you of our urban forestry history we actually go all the way back to 1873 um which uh is is really I think really important and um key for Fort Worth within this Metroplex because you don't see that very often um in 2018 there was an increase in clear cutting and so we actually updated our ordinance in 2021 to um specify different types of FS um we were getting more specific in terms of how those FS were going to be imposed and who had the responsibility for imposing those fs and also we added FS to our code of ordinance code of ordinances in addition to the vines that we currently have in our zoning ordinance and then we most recently updated our Urban Forest master plan in 2024 and so on the hills of that Master Plan were um several recommendations and goals and we'll talk about those a little bit later but this is a step in our implementation of that Urban Forest master plan and this is just phase one we have many phases um to come that we'll be talking to you all about and so a little bit of um background in terms of the goals that were in that Urban Forest master plan so the first goal was we needed to continue to manage the urban Forest as an asset using industry standards and best practices and adequate resources um for the sustainable management goal two was preserving and expanding the urban Forest to address tree Equity resiliency Urban heat and air quality goal three was strengthen the urban Forest programs through coordination integration professionalism and funding to meet the needs of our city and go for invigorate Equitable engagement for CommunityWide commitment and so one of the things that um well two of the things that we're really going to be focusing on with this particular update is we really felt like there was a strong need um and then also this was really led by mayor proin bibit to protect and have really increased protection for our East Cross Timbers and so what you're going to be seeing and what jacine is going to be talking to you about are those two species that um we really felt like needed increased um preservation and protection and one of the recommendations um and while we're doing this Spurs um going forward with these changes phase one of the changes was developing and implementing um these tree regulations and standards for the best practices in order for us to get to that 30% tree canopy goal and so we actually started this journey in May of 2024 and what we started with first actually was with the city attorney's office talking about how could we increase our bonds and our penalties and we actually have two types we're going to get into those specifically a little bit later and we had several different meetings as you can see here with our development advisory committee um we committed to meet with them monthly so that we could give them an update on everything that was occurring and then we also have had meetings with our Urban Forest master plan steering committee so what we decided to do that was the committee that was actually um assembled when we did the urban Forest master plan so we just contined to um keep those different members as part of this process and then also um we have had briefings with the UDC we're going to have another briefing with UDC before we go for recommendation and then also um we've had meetings with our zoning commission and so now let's get to applicability so we're not changing any of rules that currently apply but what we are doing is just increasing our requirements for preservation for certain species as well as um our penalties and fines as well but these are the current exemptions that apply um again no change to those and one thing that I will point out and we get this question a lot number two which is um single family residential lots with a one one family or two only dwelling that is one acre or less is exempt from these requirements and so these are the proposed changes um I'll go ahead and let jacine start and then I'll come back in at the end uh thank you for that um so the urban forestry ordinance that we currently have was enacted in 2009 that's the current version there's a couple amendments that have happened that's about it um and I wanted to just go ahead and mention that at the time it was really novel how it provided that top- down approach it allowed for quantifying tree canopy with the information that was currently available um but with our advancements in technology that have happened in near in almost nearly 20 years now um we'd like to be able to differentiate between individual trees and individual species so that's one of our things that's really kind of the Catalyst with this is realizing that trees May aren't really one to one um we came up with the the analogy so if DJ was playing LeBron James it may be one on one but it's not going to be one to one and so that's that's the best way never going to hear the end of it from DJ Now DJ's head just got I saw him actually float from back there we want we wanted to make sure it was really nice and clear for everybody um so we're looking at protected versus unprotected trees we're looking at those long decade or generational and Century trees versus our decade trees so with preservation our proposed changes are to increase the requirements for significant trees um and also that's for the Post jokes and Black Tracks as well and then removal of requirements for our invasive species our unprotected species uh our other changes are adding like I said that unprotected species list and then amending our protected species list adding an administrative relief to facilitate compliance we'll get into that and then enforcement we have proposed increasing our civil penalties and our criminal cries so for preservation we currently have 25% for all species so again like I said that top down approach um mitigation for our significant trees is for all species at 27 inches and larger at diameter at bre height so four and a half feet off the ground and then Post Oaks and blackjack Oaks are considered significant at 18 in so just slightly should smaller than my shoulders um but only east of I35 so our proposed changes are to do 50% canopy preservation requirement for Post Oaks and blackjacks those are our Cross Timbers Oaks and these are trees that cannot be propagated or at least it's extremely hard to propagate so what we have is what we have and if we're going through cutting down um 25% canopy preservation will will remain for our protected species and then no canopy preservation or credit for those unprotected species so we have a list of those little this is an increase for the protected species from 26 species to 47 and a decrease for the diameter at breast height from 27 in to 24 in so that's gaining a few more of those older trees that weren't quite too significant um and we are also proposing to expand the postto Blackjack oak 18 to city wide instead of just because those those species are elsewhere so this is our protected species list as I said 47 species they're broken into large canopy medium canopy and small canopy that's how we rate them as far as credit go Post Oaks and blackjack Oaks we are proposing a 50% preservation for those and all the rest of them 25% and then the as are trees that are considered drought tolerant species there are also a couple notes in the text trees that would be better parking L the unprotected species list um it's there I don't want to I have a problem with reading it all off so it's what we consider or what most people call um trash trees so are our invasive early sessional um pioneer species so um you you used invasive species pioneer species early secession can you just for the public talk through the difference between those trees in case they have some of those on their property yes so um whenever I mean a lot of people refer to them as trash trees I don't because habitat wildlife habitat so whenever I say early sessional so if it was an a land that has just gone to phow these are the trees that are typically going to start growing your mes your hackberries on the fence lines from Birds dropping them um o Orange those big horse apple trees um these are all trees that have what we like what we in Industry call conditions of concern so as they get larger they tend to get more frail so we don't want to encourage more of them and we definitely don't want to encourage development underneath them because whenever you have a tree that has conditions of concern and then you people below it so you're adding a Target you then have aard thank you that was awesome so now we're going to get to administrative relief to preserve so we feel like this is really um a really huge step forward and the reason being is because we are now um adding more protections for more species and um also just lowering um the protected number from 27 to 2 before we felt like there could be some instances where we could have developers who could be in a situation where you know I could protect all these trees however I cannot do the development that I like to do unless I'm able to either encroach into a setback in an area that's not next residential we think that that probably be in the front yard or maybe if I can go an additional story so one of the things that we have proposed for your consideration here is is that the director would be able to increase that Building height up to 14 ft which is basically one story above the height of these zoning districts that are listed here um or they be able to um allow relief with the building setbacks or buffer yards however if um those setbacks um and buffer yards are next to residential those would still have to maintain so typically we're we again where you'd probably be looking at this would either be in the front yard or either on the opposite side um where residential would not be located and the reason we got to these particular zoning districts is because these are the districts that typically are going to have the lower height anyway so we're looking at 35 and 36 feet for maximum height and so this additional um 14 ft would basically likely give them an additional story now one thing I do want make sure that I point out here is that this relief does not wave any urban forestry apartments or fees this is specifically only we want you to save trees so the whole point in this ad administrative relief is to preserve the trees and we will give you that additional height or setback um administratively in order to do that and one of the things and you say that again yes ma'am this is not to wave any requirements to meet the Earth forestry requirements or to weave fees this is so that you can meet the requirements ma'am and these are the conditions um that DJ or the design will need to consider um before making that change um and again this was really important because what we were looking at um and you know City attorney I I really want to give them props because they worked really hard on trying to make this um Vision become a reality with how this could work but where we were at is we need to make sure that we are not creating a taking with our ordinance because we are increasing some of the requirements and so this language that you see is really similar um to what you would probably see um for Board of adjustments for example and so um you all don't have any questions on that I'm GNA turn it back over to Jacqueline to talk about our civil our criminal funds and civil penalties mayor no okay LeAndre since we enacted our urban forestry ordinance how many tree cany assessments as the city so I'm going to Jacqueline did a lot of research on that thank you Jacqueline I are you prepared to answer that um sorry I only barely heard what oh okay since uh the urban forestry ordinance was enacted here in Fort Worth how many tree canopy assessments as far as civil and or are you talking about measurement of our can inventories um so Park and Recreation did one in 2011 um that was a a survey so a spot survey and kind of blew that out to public um but I am not aware and then we have so for the master plan uh Texas trees Foundation utilized their 2020 assessment that was based on aerial from 2018 so their 2020 tarant County assessment and they provided that to us so that is our most up to-date analysis or assessment of our Tre all right thanks mayor one follow up on that what percent coverage are we what did that assessment show we Teeter right at 19 and 20 okay um I know I'm I'm I have a Google Beta thing so I have based on 2024 areals were right at 20 and that's 20% of all land over all cover land cover in the city of for worth so the master plan spoke about the etj as well any other questions curious your reaction discussion back and forth yes and so what was really important I'd like to talk about that mayor and I'll tell you guys now I tell staff they probably didn't think I'd be around long enough to make this happen and that's why it just kept dragging alone and along the journey Dak was made to be the the Boogie Bear it's like they're not going to want to take any changes and so I told them that I'd appeared before Dak we had no issues none at all I reminded them that we were putting this out for the bad developers and reminding them they were the good guys and I think it was when we expanded the number of districts that Allan accepted the invitation to come on board and between the two of us we were on friendly ground wouldn't you say no I mean it it was very it made me very angry because we could have talked to them earlier but there was nothing uh not nothing they had some good ideas the other day in terms of how to avoid the appearance of backdoor deals staff will talk about that later on because we never want to put a department head in the position where the media looks makes it look like there's some behind the back door negotiation but the meeting with Dak was very positive and I was very glad but again we could have been there sooner okay so moving on to our criminal fines and our civil penalties our current civil our current criminal fine is $500 per tree and our current civil penalties for an unauthorized removal is $300 an inch or 750 a square foot we have only aerial available um and then unauthorized for significant tree removal so that size that 27 up or 18 up our blacks 6 in or foot our proposal for this amendment is to increase that criminal fine to $2,000 per tree which is the state maximum for a zoning ordinance violation and then civil penalties are for protected trees only so are protected species only um unauthorized removal for nonsignificant at $600 an inch or $15 a sare foot and unauthorized for significant removal so 24 in and larger or 18 black ja Oaks at 720 in mayor let let me add something here to my Council peers I ask you please don't plead the case for bad developers the good guys are the ones we don't have to worry about and so you may see a larger fine that's going to get the attention of those who are uninformed and so just know the good developers are are not the ones breaking the rules we can't afford to lose another clear cutting in this city it just makes no sense so I know it's significant but again it's the guys who don't follow the rules we got to get their attention and this is the way I agree and so um thank you for saying that because that really goes to my question I see the criminal fine we increased fourfold and then we doubled the unauthorized the Civil pen penalties but then the significant removal we increased it but not by the same magnitude that we increased um these other fines or are the other increases and so I guess my question is how did we get to that 720 and why didn't we double or quadruple like we did the other um the other uh penalties um so with the 2000 so we actually have a slide next is talking you so our criminal fines um we did a survey of other Texas cities so for Arlington Austin Bedford Benbrook cville Dallas Dripping Springs Grand Prairie the rest of those um they have $2,000 per tree which I again is the state maximum um Houston has a weird thing that talks about 500 a day but it's complicated and then um our currents 500 increasing to 2,000 so it is something that 15 of the 26 cities that we looked at have that 2,000 for the criminal um the harder part is we have to prove up intent so that was why it's it was set at 500 but going to 2000 we have to prove up intent and knowled of the ordinance being in place what about the 600 to 720 so that's going to be this next one so the Civil remedies we looked at um all of the different cities again 26 cities the hard part with civil remedies is it's not comparing apples to oranges um because so many cities have theirs based on planting requirements and because there was State Legislative that actually came down saying that planting had to be required for mitigation um the wording for ours is as far as I can find the highest um again it's not apples to oranges it's very hard to really compare them um the other hard part with a signific with significant trees it's very hard for me to prove that up that sign significant trees were removed unless I already have a inventory or I know it's in the Cross Timber so I know that there should be Post Oaks but without that evidence it's harder to prove that up and so the majority of the time we would have to assume that we would just be able to um impose the nonsignificant and Council council member V I think the funds and the the penalties that's the one that I think we probably struggled with the most um with the administrative remedies um and so let me just ask it a different way why didn't we double that one why didn't we double right and so I think it was that's what we landed on because we F we felt like that was the one that was going to be the easiest to defend um but that's definitely you know if the council would like for us to consider a higher one we can definitely go and have that conversation with the City attorney I'd like us to have that conversation on that particular find because I get the 2000 limit and then we U we doubled the um that what was the the middle trunch was um oh civil penalties but then the significant removal um it went from 600 to 720 and 300 right right and so I think we could we if we could triple I'm sorry quadruple or double on the others I I think the 600 um we should explore something greater than 720 I bet I got a I bet I got a there there's support here and what I tell staff was I would not be embarrassed if we had the toughest tree ordinance in the state I have no doubt you you told them that because who speaks for the trees mayor protim Bivens yeah I'm okay with with raising that i' I'd like I'm with uh councilwoman Bivens on this one I'd like to deter as much as possible because you heard me talk about it with historic preservation once it's gone it's gone we can't get it back I mean we can plant new trees but it'll take a generation for some of those to grow back Leandra what is the charity Bond on establishment of a replacement Tree in B Brook and Austin so um down in Austin whenever you have trees that are removed without authorization you have to plant back trees but you also have to either put a shity bond or you have to prepay an arborist to maintain those trees um I used to sell fiveyear tree preservation uh contracts essentially so it was literally hiring me out for the next five years to go put my eyes on the trees at least four times a year so and that was a city requirement okay it was fun thank you appreciate that keep going hey so um next steps we've told you the milestones and you know where we've been in this journey and so today we're here um having this Council work session one thing I also should have said at the very beginning of this is just like you know you all have brought up some points today there may be others that come right between now and when we get to April 22nd and so we have a public draft out and available but you know there we understand there will be some tweaks between now um and April 22nd and we'll make sure that we you know keep mayor protim and Council apprised you know as we move through these changes and so we actually are scheduled for zoning commission public hearing which again possibly more changes on April 9th and then um we plan on being here on April 22nd for public hearing and hopefully approval and you know we've had a number of volunteers along this journey for years and you will'll have a special recognition for them looks great ladies thank you very much for the hard work councilor sorry one one more question and this is back in regards to the tree canopy is there anything maybe a suggested tree canopy percentage coverage that could help us uh meet help us with our non-m status right not meeting Federal you know air quality standards and I know that current Administration right now is looking at those EPA standards who knows where we're going to wind up on that but is there anything any any specific you know suggested percentage that could help us so I will you know what so that's I remember this was also a discussion when we were doing the urban Forest master plan and so we actually were trying to tackle that with this base and it got almost a little bit complicated um trying to do it in Phase One however we that is one of the things that we are trying to um address with phase two and so soon as we get this adopted we are already starting actually we've already been working on it phase two so we'll make sure we come back and um talk to you you know specifically um to make sure that we can get that addressed with to did you all talk about parking lot trees when I was lost in the building in this in the building think of this no while I was lost did y'all talk about parking lot trees no no ma'am we didn't talk about parking lot tree you may want to talk about that there's a a concern we have when you've got trees in a parking lot and we might be restricting them because it's just not a lot of space took pictures today but that's another area that needs to be addressed remember yes I do remember and you want to talk a little ja was actually talking about that at our last during committee meeting um Mr G asked if we would make it a little bit more uh concise about how treat islands and allow for more condensed spacing for parkings and I was telling him while we were in that meeting we already do um it's not written in ordinance but we don't do spacing um reductions on those islands and we actually encourage more that's also why that 40% for parking um is there but that's really something we're going to have to address further on further in whenever we start looking at tree credit and all of that um and really talking with tbw and talking with water and talking with our other departments and trying to figure out different ways to encourage more sustainability more um evolved more um diverse plantings and really encourage otheres and the last thing I'll add for you guys uh Texas trees Foundation we were able to get I guess a grant or something from them I hate to say this I was underwhelmed with what we got from them because it basically was what they they did for Dallas but you did a cut and past and put Fort Worth we need staff we need resources and at one point we even talked about drones to get a real good feel for what we have you know in Fort Worth I'd like to see an overlay one day for anything in the Cross Timbers that'll happen after I'm gone if we ever get that but just know it's not it's not it's not responsible to rely on other departments to help one Department manage its responsibility and so we were doing cross training once with code I don't think that works you know so there are some challenges but staff has been very very diligent in getting us to this point but there's much more to come long after I'm gone questions Council if not we'll move to our next presentation thank you ladies last presentation council is a capital project Gap funding update with Christian Simmons fourth lab Chief transformation good afternoon all right I'm here to a brief view on Capital funding gaps again we haven't talked about this since about January but I think I have encouraging news today I'll try to keep it brief so we'll start uh with a reminder of where we were in January so you'll remember former city manager David Cook's yearend Clos presentation um we said we'd come back to you with strategies to close the gaps you see here so this is a snip from that presentation in January uh and it shows shows a variety of bond projects with gaps uh to the tune of $18.5 million uh so when Jay came online we started strategizing with him about Creative Solutions the departments were involved um so this is about 15 projects a big dollar figure so now we're back uh with some strategies to share so we think these are helpful and pretty straightforward I'm going to go over them just in hopes of being clear with the walk through here so we start with the8 million from the previous Slide the first step we'd like to take uh tpw will prepare an MNC that allows them to use Savings in bond projects so where estimates have been high and costs have come in low um they would Shuffle those savings to other Bond projects within the same program so arterial savings for other arterials projects this is something that's allowable and seems pretty straightforward to do so we get a little a little further in closing gaps by just doing that kind of Shuffle um they're preparing it MNC now to do that we expect that toward the end of April uh in the same MNC we consider the WJ Boaz project listed here so this is a um a project with multiple funding sources but uh it's a 2022 Bond project it already has a significant Gap it was on the previous slide almost a $25 million gap such that we were originally thinking about reprogramming it in 2026 even because it's just a big number rather than do that and take it back to the voters what we' proposed to do the department proposes to do and we agree um is use that WJ Boaz project budget to continue closing gaps in other arterials projects same as step one um and then instead fully fund the WJ Boaz project uh through tax notes with existing debt capacity so it's a double sort of strategy that we can still do all the things right close Bond project gaps and still do the WJ Boaz project um without impacting the 2026 Bond or the tax rate so that's that um at the bottom skipping sort to the bottom section you can see the three projects arterials projects that are um meant for construction in 2025 where those first two steps would help close gaps then that third section the 2022 neighborhood streets program you've heard uh transportation and Public Works talk about being short there um just because cost estimates and con cost of construction has really risen uh so we'd also propose making them a little more whole um by allocating 10 million also through existing debt capacity and tax notes um and then you might remember we've included another five for them in the proposed 2026 Bond program to make the 2022 neighborhood streets program whole so those are the strategies let me keep going um make make sure that's it's all clear so um existing debt capacity here again you see reprogramming WJ Boaz West half um this this is the the the full Gap project amount it's not the full project amount but it closes the whole Gap um and then the 10 million for neighborhood streets and then the other piece needed for avendelle Haslet so you see a partial Gap resolution from shuffling project residuals around and then we close the gap completely in tax notes so we would propose um issuing additional tax notes in the amount of 40 almost 6 4.95 million now I mentioned in the bond Workshop this morning just briefly and I'll touch on it again now we're watching appraisal activity very closely we always do but we're really watching this time um just to see the impact of Tad's re appraisal plan and some of the other activities going on this is maybe one of the times that I felt less certain going into April and July about what appraised values will look like um and so while we know we feel really confident about capacity for this 45.9 five million it is likely that we'll consider pricing these like CEOs in these tax notes a little later than is typical we' usually price those in June um we're considering pricing those in August instead after we have certified values from the appraisal district we get those on July 25th so it' be a bit of a faster turnaround but we're willing to do that just to be conservative and safe right so we're not having to back ourselves into a tax rate change or like catchup in any other way Jay are y'all talking to councilman block we are okay if I could add one of the the rationals behind this and I actually brought this to to Reggie and and the finance team is that these these projects have already been approved by the by the voters so it's not taking anything to debt that hasn't previously been approved so these have been approved we have the capacity now to be able to fit this much into it and to be able to move these projects forward quicker before they continue to get more expensive and a bigger Gap comes forward that was the rationale be behind moving this forward um the second piece which is being more on the conservative side is the the actual pricing of The Debt Service that we're going to be bringing to city council that you saw the the presentation by the finance department a couple of weeks ago we typically would have that go forward we' price it in June Council would approved it by the end of June we'd move forward my concern is on the longer term is we want to make sure that the appraisals and everything comes in to support the full amount so that we if nothing else we know what the full impact might be on the operating budget side if we go forward with the full debt finance and we have no uh no wiggle room on The Debt Service side of the tax rate so uh we want to know what that is before we start getting into full budget deliberations so that's just pushing it back basically a month and a half or so a month so that we can get we can be sure of what we're doing moving into the budget season so that's what hey on that point I think you partially answered the question that I had it was going to be specific to WJ Boaz but it really does apply to all these I understand the shuffle you know and how that works does it introduce any other delays to project implementation but I that's dependent on some of those things you just the only potential delays based on what we were going to move forward now is just to selling the actual pricing of the bonds and and approving those being instead of June those happen that happening in August it's a couple of months I don't know that it's going to impact it would be a bigger impact if the if if our debt capacity gets completely eaten up and we have to then have have no wiggle room when it comes to trying to set our operating budget for next year okay any other questions Council okay thank you a little bit more we have more more more gaps to solve okay so after the tax notes issuance um we solve about I think it's a third of the project but like two-thirds of the dollar figure Gap um and so the question is now you know what to do with the remaining list so here's the remaining list about 38 million left um some notable projects here so that takes us to you might also recall um same presentation as earlier that January presentation um the city manager assigns fund balance um and so in the MNC that followed the January presentation um we assigned 56 million in fund balance to address future Capital shortfall so that included the 9 million for the library so this is without the 9 million for the library the 47 we have available so you can do quick math and see that um all right here you can do a quick math and see that you can draw it down but I teased you too early from the 47 million we've done two things and another two things coming to draw down what's available so on March 25th you approved two mnc's that that Drew down that amount a little bit for the Village Creek settlement and acquisition and then the adventure escort repair which you'll recall um there are two more in que for uh Parks Bond projects from 2022 that have small gaps where they're ready to award the contract that leaves 39 million available uh to assign to projects so then when you take the 39 you can draw down the existing list um and see that you can close all the remaining gaps that we know about at this stage um and you'll leave yourself 1.1 million in that general fund assigned fund balance for Capital so a little bit of room left there so that's great news so if all of that sounds good to you then what will happen next um you'll see that MNC that I mentioned that tpw is working with finan salab and others on that shuffles those project surpluses around within the same Bond program um and then as Bond projects get ready to award you'll approve those emenes and you'll see that we're including a use of assigned general fund fund balance to close those funding gaps when you do that um and then lastly you'd consider the ordinance for approval to issue debt in tax notes for Boaz the neighborhood streets program and the Gap resolution on avend Del Haslet again with an existing capacity um and that that should come to you on May 13th and then in a final but wait there's more Slide the nine million for the library um so remember we had about 16 million from the sale of the Central Library um we spent six and a half of that to purchase the new downtown library location um and then you'll also see an MNC forthcoming for the remaining nine and a half million which helps with phase one of Renovations at the downtown library so then that that assigned amount will be fully drawn down and that is all for me questions questions from Council yeah thank you um this was a really good presentation you know during the last budget we were racking our brains on how to close the gap am I understanding correctly that we've closed the Gap completely from those discussions with this strategy yes this closes every Gap we know about from the bond projects there was one left from 2014 on this list and then you saw all the rest from 2022 awesome that's really great news that takes some pressure I think off all of us um the other question have following up on that is what are the implications to this funding approach on future budgets we don't think there's any what and just to ensure that's why we're delaying the pricing on the bonds until August thank you all well done it's really yeah and then Ju Just as a more General note you know when we think about 2026 estimates we're continuing to revisit those because of just sort of the crazy inflation we're seeing and you know I don't know if this was just a big estimating problem or I don't think so I think it's just sort of unprecedented inflation which I showed you in an earlier Bond presentation so we're continuing to revisit you know as we get closer and closer to the bond to make sure that we're using aggressive inflation factors and that kind of thing too any other questions Council thank you Christian great job thank you appreciate you Council that's the conclusion of our presentations we can entertain future agenda items if you have any Council rebec yeah I have one i' like an IR on um the different types of parking options we have for our residential neighborhood whether they're um restricted signs or um parking sticker programs anyone else yes Gina I think yours is more fun than mine I doubt it okay we've we've seen meetings take place all around the city dealing with homeless and uh the pan handling problem you back in 2015 we tried to address pan handling but we only made a little bit of progress but but I'd like to get an IR and hopefully eventually you know an agenda item dealing with the pan handling issue I can tell you at I30 and East Chase they are organized like labor they have shift changes they come in every three months even the clerks at the nearby stores know who they are by name years ago we talked about taking on the donors in terms of giving citations to people who give to panhandles because at a location because the giving is good uh we couldn't go that far back then I've I couldn't support that at the time but at this point in time I think everything needs to be on the table to deal with this pan handling issue and we educate people along the way to make sure they understand just because you're giving to a pan Handler you're not helping a homeless person you're probably helping a business person and so that that's one item uh another report I'd like to see deals with Community engagement a few months ago I learned the hard way that Community engagement was not attending neighborhood association meetings unless they were requested to do so at some point prior to that they automatically came so I'd like to see what's going to happen in the future you know with with that group because when you've got neighborhoods who have been disenfranchised because their Association has been deactivated you need that help from St to get those people back together and aware of what type of education is out there and I I'm going to say this and I don't want it to be the wrong way but I do need to get a report on the role and marching orders of the npos if you know your NPO you are in in love with that NPO people know how to call the NPO but the people who don't are the ones who complain the loudest and they don't have the information that they need so what is the role and the margin orders of npos I would like to see special projects like they focus one period on what I call hobby cars and those are the 59 Chevys that people buy and think they're going to fix up and never take them anywhere they stay in the neighborhood and they just stay there uh in the in the front yard until you we we do swoops uh the projects like that but also projects like when you drive and see a whole bunch of crap somebody's got to turn it in whether it's Cod or the npl so I'd like to know formally what is the role and the marching orders of npos so that is the only thing I had on here yeah Charlie so I would second uh mayor T mayor ptim Bon's U thing on the homeless standpoint too I know I guess there a predecessor predecessor who came up with the idea of possibly um having a fine for those who give and I think if if we gave residents an out uh to say I would but I can't can't you know because once they make that eye contact they feel compelled uh so I think maybe if we give them an out and put those same signs there it's like hey don't forget you uh could get in hot water over this so I'd support that too right now but my um my IRS actually have three which I think is a record for me um first one is for uh Di and HR or I guess whoever's going to take over HR we talked about this briefly earlier but I would like to see um what it would cost uh City to offer City empy employees um an entire day off for Diagnostic testing um re with my wife's recent cancer uh diagnosis it's really brought to my mind about what are we doing for our employees to offer them time to go get their testing because I'd also argue that there's probably a cost of not allowing them that opportunity um in terms of how long they're off work or a treatment plan so I'd like to see what that cost would be um so we can offer a further intive for them to go out and better take care of themselves and their families uh second uh is for it's related to the fire department uh Decor recently passed a $500 um uh lift fee uh for facilities um in doing so it's not that they made a ton of money but they saw a 60% decrease in uh call outs for the fire department for Lift calls for facilities um they should be they should have staff on hand to be able to do that and not use uh text fa services to do that I talked to the fire department uh they said they receive these calls all the time um and so I'd like to see if uh I'd like to get more information on those numbers um and see if it's something the city should do as well start you know Finding or not finding finding or having a fee for for a lift for those lift calls for facilities uh not homes last one also related to Public Safety um you know we recently had the talks with you know between MedStar bring them under Fire um and then the Civil Service um component and those protections um I'd like for us to start the conversation uh for our Marshall service too to find out if there's anything that can be done there uh I mean there are our first line of defense aside from our new handy dandy vest here behind our chair um we know that unfortunately there are some of those crazies out there that would wish us harm um you know mayor counsel and staff uh so we ask a lot of them um and so I want to make sure that we're doing right by them and see if there's a way to bring them under uh bring them under the self service protections I know POA fully endorses it uh so i' just like to kind of explore that as well um oh thank you I actually had four and last one I just I would like an update uh from code if if at all possible and legal on a update on the ordinance fee for those Bandit donation bins that we're seeing more and more of and as the weather gets nicer we're going to start seeing more of them so I just like an update on that and that is it thank you Jared uh thank you mayor um Charlie I second that as well with the Marshall so looking forward to that report I have uh one request for an informal report I know last time when tan gave us an update um on the new city hall before we were here we had kind of a sidebar conversation and that conversation about um the cost of lunches here and I want to have an informal report um to look at that um more closely and I have a formal conversation on that for the next work session in particular what I'd like to know is um what are the possibilities of a employee discount program for lunch here especially because we're in a low access area for employees you have to drive across the bridge quite literally um to get food and I paid I think 16 or 17 for a salad for lunch um when I had it here and I can't imagine um giving up an hour's worth of wages for lunch at the place you work so I would like to explore opportunities for an employee discount program to help folks stay here me lunch and I'm sure there's probably cost savings by them taking their lunch back to the desk and not leaving the site um so anyways um looking forward to having that conversation anyone else Cil yep see I'd like to request an IR on update on illegal camping um and then also um the homeless um high impact pilot please anyone else yes I have uh three um and I are on the speed bumps I know we don't actually do speed bumps more but there's a new thing that there cushions speed bumps people I want to hour on it uh the process of getting those implemented in uh certain areas also um kind of maybe irr presentation on community centers that are not ada8 compliance um I've been getting quite a few complaints uh as if there's a fire or there's emergency uh some of our handicap are not able to get out the front door the back doors are not ADA compliance so it may be just like a simple ramp of how we get those um ADA compliance with in our budget and lastly I'm also an an addition to um Charlie is uh the process of civil service for General employees uh with the ability to uh appeal maybe demotions are uh wrongful terminations that they feel maybe not necessarily wrongful but uh I know the county has your employees civil service for everybody and so I received a couple of uh informations about that so if I can get an IR or update what that would do to our budget yes caros yes um and I've discussed this to some extent with staff I'd like toh see uh what the fiscal impacts would be OB serve s out of Chavez Day here city as a paid day off so staff's already collected some information about that they can present to council so look that else no okay with that meeting is adjourned thank you for