e e e e e e e okay Council I I think we're going to get started here welcome welcome I'm going to call our work session to order and David we're going to move straight into our presentation from TCU with President Pand because I know that they have got other places to go I think they're already late for we apologize for that Daniel um so I don't know if a city staff member is going to kick this off if we're going straight into Daniel's presentation just just really quick uh mayor and counsel as you know we have a number of outstanding institutions here in Fort Worth we're blessed in that way uh the oldest standing uh uh institution here is TC TCU and we're we're we're blessed today to have Dr Poland here to uh give us an update on a lot of the uh economic impact and benefits that TCU brings to our community so without further do Dr Paul all right well thank you yeah I wear purple tennis shoes every day I do it for a few reasons uh first of all I take a lot of steps on campus because I'm not I try not to be in my office I try to be on campus with our students with our faculty with our world class staff uh and so many visitors uh that come to campus and by virtue of that Fort Worth so it's a it's an honor to uh have a chance to say thank you uh which is really my in mention thank you for being such a great partner in the city of Fort Worth success uh thank you for doing that for over a hundred years uh and thank you for dreaming with us uh just a little bit as we work really hard to make uh this great place and by this great place I mean TCU and I mean for worth even greater so I've got a few slides I'll try to go through them just a bit um we do uh uh have a long shared history uh this is U our campus on its University on uh in 1910 uh we had about 400 students at that time we now have about 13,000 students um and in the forthcoming strategic plan we're modeling a student population of up to 18,000 students so you'll see uh most likely even more horn frogs than ever before uh making an impact uh both intellectually and economically um and hopefully we'll continue to have a great partnership and a collaboration where uh their place of choice um is to stay in for orx and be a big part of our Workforce Solution um a lot of great things are happening uh we have outstanding placement rates uh we have an all-time high in our persistence rate which is just jargon for uh moving from your freshman to sophomore year uh without dropping out at 94% uh we had an all-time high graduation rate of 85% we're modeling moving to 90% in the coming years we're very very thrilled to have that uh of all uh Texas universities the one only one that got an A+ rating from Forbes for the Financial Health and sustainability was Texas Christian University and there's a lot of reasons for that part of that's the great stewardship of our amazing team a number of whom are here today so thank you thank you thank you for being prudent stewards of the funds that you are entrusted not unlike a city a city council a mayor a city manager uh thank you for doing the same um that's part of our long-term and Lasting success um part of that is because we have generous donors and alums we just passed over 100,000 living alumni many of which are right here in in Fort Worth um and foreign frogs give back foreign frogs engage they want to see their University Thrive and by virtue of that the great partnership with the city of Fort Worth Texas uh we're also very proud that they are uh uh gainfully employed they continue to um build careers in the context of life and have the uh Financial degrees of freedom uh to provide that philanthropy that has now resulted in an endowment of nearly $2.8 billion doar which helps offset some of our operating costs we're proud of our business school we're proud of the fact that 80% of our students have internships by the time they graduate that means they have real world experience many cases with companies and nonprofits and other great Civic organizations right here in Fort Worth they can see the power of what a well-educated college graduate can mean Beyond just themselves to be part of something bigger than themselves and they can see that before they graduate so we're not just trading tuition and fees for credit hours and diplomas in many ways we're preparing um something more than a college graduate we're talking about a knowledge driven citizen-based leader that can make a lasting impact um a lot of other things are going on we have the happiest students uh in the country uh two of the last three years and uh this year once again our campus was voted among the top 20 uh we'll talk a little bit about where we're going in a second but already this is a snapshot of last year's economic impact um I love the fact that 1.3 billion of our 2.1 stayed right here here in Fort Worth so in many ways we are an economic Catalyst uh we are hopefully a very strong partner in our community's success uh we drive job growth we drive uh tax revenue um and as we think ahead we think about how we might scale the Excellence and the opportunity uh part and parcel with as we know the C the country's fastest growing major Metro of over $250,000 or 250,000 people we do have a shared opportunity to grow together and to grow in a beautiful way that uh enriches our community and allows all of our citizens to flourish um Athletics we had a big win this uh weekend thank you for those of you recognizing that we're continuing to um bring people um tourists parents uh spend money in hotels and restaurants and on and on and on last year over $400 million of impact right here in Fort Worth uh many of you um know that we um have recently opened the Bernett School of Medicine in the near Southside neighborhood we're excited to contribute to a different zip code in Fort Worth and broaden our impact uh beyond our traditional campus home uh so far so good um even in the early years we've just graduated two classes we just opened uh the beautiful building Arnold Hall that was again a great philanthropic opportunity from one of our trustees Greg Arnold um and it's already having a multiplier effect in jobs economic impact and on and on and on um needly School of Business uh many of you are hiring School of Business uh interns and graduates so thank you for that near-perfect placement rates top 10 starting salaries of any business school at the undergraduate level in the country uh last year it was the number one average starting salary of a undergraduate business school in Texas um so the value of the degree has a lot to do with the engagement with the community the fact that our students are getting internships they're broadening their network with uh leaders like yourselves thank you for investing in their success on the business side of what we do um we're also a net importer of talent so we are a majority out of state university given the national brand that TCU has acquired over the last uh particularly 20 years um but over half of our students stay right here in Texas so as we scale I think we can have more of an impact in uh the much needed Workforce Solutions that are oftentimes discussions of uh this this Council and others um and then last year we had a record number of applications over 22,000 applications for only 2400 firste spots right so it allows us to be selective but it also tells me that we're leaving a lot of Talent on the table a lot of talent that could be drawn right here to Fort Worth Texas so as we think about where might we go um I think we need to to solve that issue where we're not um able to uh bring in talented people that could be successful in our rigorous curriculum That Could Fall In Love With Fort Worth Texas right and help move all of our feutures for forward how are we going to do that uh well we're going to expand our campus uh our trustees recently approved at their April meeting uh an all new campus master plan that has um the ability for us to nearly double um the amount of square footage um in our traditional campus when combined with our Bernett School of Medicine uh it will be uh an awesome opportunity uh for us to uh think about how might we partner with our neighborhoods right and thank you uh Council person vet council person uh crane for your support of what we're trying to do help thank you for Bridging the opportunity for us to continue to work with and strengthen our neighborhoods that abut our campuses now both of them uh we're really focused on adding uh flexibility to um academic life how we get around the campus from a Mobility perspective we're committed to uh Partnerships and collaborations on uh Collective Landscapes and green spaces um and of course creating a safe and secure residential life for our students and a safe and secure uh campus for all of the citizenry that has the opportunity to participate at Texas Christian University um there are a couple things that we're really excited about U again creating a green network uh to support a comfortable walkable campus um and then finding ways to connect the campus to some of the beautiful assets the amazingly functional assets elsewhere in the community the Trinity River the zoo and other spaces uh that we all love great uh greatly uh school of medicine I talked about that just an absolute technical Marvel um and an opportunity to continue to influence um the health care outcomes of a community that we need to continue to work together to improve those uh this is a view of some current construction we're about to open two new residence halls in January uh over 300 new beds which means we can take in 300 more aspiring uh horn frogs aspiring uh fort worthan in to our community starting as soon as next semester and a dining facility to serve the entire side of um East Campus uh thanks to the many on the council for coming out and seeing some of that we had a couple of hard hat tours so you've seen it up close and personal the kind of growth that we're uh looking to achieve um we in the throws of strategic planning our strategic plan hasn't been updated at about 7even years but a lot of things have changed in the world a lot of things have changed in Fort Worth a lot of things have changed Texas Christian University in the last seven years um so we're really really excited um if all goes well um our trustees will have the opportunity to discuss and uh approve this new strategic plan as soon as the November meeting which could make it operational um in January of 2025 we're taking a decadal look um on four topics that we think will help Define the future of TCU for sure and will be additive to um uh the uh the quality of life and the opport opportunity right here in Fort Worth community engagement is one of those pillars how we work together with those in this room and those beyond the room to bring our faculty and students into the community how we understand what are the issues and opportunities that we could provide thought leadership support service learning experiential opportunities internships full-time jobs um that can make Fort Worth stronger uh we're going to continue to invest in um academic riger strengthening uh what we do from a thought leadership perspective research creative activities we think that's right for not faculty alone but also our students because of the skill sets that are generated when you ask questions when you solve problems when you communicate with others and you bring people together student- centered growth working very very hard to um as we grow the number of students do it in a way that's focused on their success and that's success for all of our students not just academic success but Wellness issues opport unities uh around tutoring mentoring connecting with Community leaders uh to make sure they have the best experience and fall in love with Fort Worth the way I have and then finally continuing to provide uh strength in athletics it's a changing environment uh but we know it has historically been important putting TCU at the national level in many uh people's eyes as it's a front door to the university uh as well as it's a real big draw for many of our students who see TCU as one of the only universities in the country where you can come and have a small private schoool fi with BigTime Sports and amenities from a quality of life perspective all set against the backdrop and this is their word not mine a really cool town right it's a great place to go to college you all know that if you have any connectivity with TCU yourself or any of our students it really is a it's a it's an immutable gym that most universities only a handful of the country have that small school big Sports cool Town combination so have to work all do all we can uh to preserve that to enhance that and make that a point of Pride for all of us um we're very committed to community service um we this e the economic development study we commission suggested that TCU our students faculty and staff uh the street value of that was 18 almost $18 million of uh volunteer time in the community But ultimately everything we do the Alpha and Omega of TCU is the student they are the ultimate instrument of our impact uh where they go and hopefully they go right here to to Fort wor Texas as everything to do with our success and I just want to end where I began which is say thank you because so many of you have poured in and invested financially intellectually from uh uh our students and the Future Leaders that you're uh you're you're pouring into so with that I I don't know if we have time for questions but I'm happy to take them uh and I'm also happy to say thank you and go FRS thank you Dr pull and council member Hill and Jared and then Elizabeth had a question okay first of all president Poland thank you so much for coming to give an update today you're doing a great job and I'm as a horn frog three times um and actually I'm third generation it's such a pleasure to see the university continue to grow and Blossom the way it has and it's such an asset to the city of Fort Worth um as we're looking at your four pillars what what where do you think the biggest opportunity is or your biggest challenge you see over the next decade for TCU yeah I think the um the biggest opportunity is student centered growth being more relevant to a broader section of of of society in the form of you know Rising college students at the undergraduate and increasingly graduate level and doing it well um you know in in so many ways our Market is opportunity long and talent short if we need more you know capable individuals to to build the Great companies uh to serve on nonprofit boards to to be in our midst to make sure that our our society and um our city um flourish and so to do that well um at scale which is what we're talking about doing um is is something that we're we're committed to but but also want to um you know Safeguard in a way that we don't lose the soul of what makes a TCU graduate special like like yourself a three-time graduate who's right here in a very formal and important leadership position how do we do that that how do we create more Macy Hills at scale so we have to grow not just to grow but grow the right way uh the riskiest thing is because it's just so uncertain is Athletics we live in a world of name image and likeness and the transfer portal and um conference realignment or conference disillusion or private Equity investing or super leagues that are being talked about and on and on and on College athletics has changed more in the last three years than it has in the last 50 years and so while we can influence some of that we can't control that the way we can the oncampus environment or the nature and quality and the academic rigor in our classrooms and Laboratories or even how we invest in communities through our engagement pillar um I can control coming here and saying thank you for the invitation I don't know if I can control you know what an 18-year-old does a behind Center on a Sunday or a Saturday or now a Tuesday night you know uh that's a little trickier um but um ultimately what we do is about the student um the opportunity for our success is their success and it's really about all of our success particularly right here in Fort wor Texas jar awesome president pen great to see you here thank you for the presentation as an Alum and a first year bright seminari and I personally want to say thank you for being so student centered I read every one of your regular messages to the student body and so I'm really grateful for your leadership um to that end um how can we as a city as a um as current students um you know support um your student Centric U mission and vision for the University how can we be supportive of the students at TCU yeah well thank you well first of all um you can be our um our Advocates our uh and Evangelical Partners in many ways in the communities in which you which you uh circulate um it's one thing for people to um see me and you know I have stats and figures but you know I get a paycheck to work at Texas Christian University and I love it very much and I see the goodness every day but it's a bit expected right that's my job but it's not necessarily everybody in this room's jobs to to know those stats and figures to be able to talk about the pathways and the impact that's being made um and the opportunity that they have to to engage and their friends have to engage so um so so being our supporters uh is is important if you have opportunities internships if you have a desire to Mentor right to directly impact um you know how someone develops including expanding their Network and in their cool town uh you you you can do that as well um for those of you who have the flexibility for philanthropic giving of course we're always looking for support financially but really it's about how can we pour into our students to create the next generation of not just college graduates but the type of leaders we need for our community to thrive Charlie so president thank you for the uh the presentation is great information I'm excited about what you guys are doing I mean I was lucky enough to have gone through the Executive MBA program there uh of course I would have the only reason I was able to do that is because of the fact that TCU participates in the yellow ribbon program uh so I was able to utilize utilize my GI Bill and go there so for the many veterans out there who would never be able to afford to go to such a great school as TCU just keep up the great work there uh and whenever you talk about um you know growing the school and and just expanding some of the opportunities you have don't don't forget that now Texas is now the number one state for veterans overpowering uh California so definitely an opportunity there and uh with uh Fort Worth being one of the top cities for veterans too so definitely make sure you tap into that that market as a well yeah that's well said thank you uh thank you for coming out today and I really appreciate um you providing this um update to council myself and council member crane have the luxury of getting to meet with you and your staff on a pretty regular basis to talk about where TCU is going and how that impacts us I know you have some staff here with you today and so I didn't want you to leave without uh me thanking them and thanking you for being such great partners because you don't just tell us what you want to do you ask us if if if you can be a partner in what the city wants to do um you work with our neighborhoods and our communities to be proactive and tell them what's what impacts the the university is going to have to them um and my personal favorite um as you went through this process and I told you that there was a storm water issue in the area your staff um took that and ran with it and has really collaborated with the city to to come up with a solution so thank you for being a good partner to the city of for worth well well thank you so much and and likewise thank you all for being open-minded to collaborations many of which are Innovative many of which are you know first of their kind so the more we communicate the the the the stronger and more frequent the the the the strength of these conversations are I think the more Creative Solutions we can drive uh for the breadth of our community and the in the storm water is a very good example any other questions or comments from Council no president Pand thank you very much for taking the time today and to you and your staff we appreciate it thank you all okay Council rewind in the agenda I'll turn it back over to David Cook who can go over a few presid presentations or updates for us before we do IRS all right good afternoon everybody we're back on uh a normal schedule maybe first up I'm going to call on Richard zala who's going to recognize uh Parks and Recreation Department Richard good afternoon mayor and council members Richards ofala Park and Recreation Department the national Recreation and park Association which is our professional ass Association and the business that we provide to communities has an accreditation program the accreditation for Park and Recreation agencies and uh through a lot of hard work of Staff a lot of support from policy makers and the city manager's office and volunteers like the Park and Recreation board uh and a pretty significant process of accountability and validation we are now accredited by the nrpa and we received that accreditation uh just a couple of weeks ago in Atlanta Georgia at our national conference uh I'm going to ask Dave Lewis the deputy director who really was the leadership on this effort and he'll introduce a few other folks to tell you about that because like other agencies like Public Works uh like Library like TCU there are accreditations and that makes you solid and makes you improve so I'll let Dave come up and talk good afternoon Dave Lewis deputy director um I'd be remiss if I didn't also say a big part of achieving creditation was the systems and processes put in place over the last 30 years by our director Richard Zavala so thank you for that there's over 10,000 Park and Recreation agencies in the country and only 24 are accredited so you see it's pretty rare air and it's really the best of the best only about 2% are accredited crited this year 11 new agencies including Fort Worth received accreditation including Baltimore County Maryland Memphis Tennessee you can see some big uh important systems to get accredited there are 154 standards that must be met and those are broken up into 10 subject areas such as human resources Recreation programming marketing Administration really outlining the best practices throughout the system our process really began in January of 2022 so you can see how long we've been working on this uh district superintendent Sher Ensley was our department lead for this I'd like to ask her to stand to be acknowledged as well as the rest of the park staff that's here that contributed to this accreditation uh it really was a a really big heavy team lift that many people have contribute [Applause] to um so we had to submit a 125 page self assessment in April of 2024 that served as the beginning of the process for us um with the reviewers and 888 pieces of evidence that we achieved those standards that were outlined three Kappa reviewers came to our city last June to make sure that we met all the standards toured our Parks tour our facilities and and really got a great look at Fort Worth um to ensure compliance we also have to go after re accreditation every five years and we turn in an annual report that's really just a summary of where we are on a lot of the standards the benefits of accreditation include demonstrating that the department meets the best practices throughout the country as well as ensure that staff provide quality customer service um it creates an environment of us being continually um improving throughout looking at those standards and best practices um set throughout the country um I'd like to share just a real quick 30- second video that we played during the best of the best ceremony that we had in in Georgia it me it [Music] means it means continuous Improvement it means leaving legac we are for so each of the accredited agencies got to show a small clip and Karen stumer put this together for us and I've say like it got a rousing Applause because usually you'd see the director come up and say how proud they are and but we showed that one and it was it was really well received so that was really fun to do um that completes my presentation I'm happy to take any questions about our accreditation any questions for Council congratulations and thanks to the entire Parks team that's here and those back the appreciate back out field uhuh thank you very good now I'll call on Dana berdoff to introduce our new Property Management director thank you mayor and Council we're very excited to fill this important position of property management director and it couldn't be more thrilled that it's our very own Marilyn Marvin uh Marilyn joined the city of Fort Worth in 2011 with a lot of years of experience in leadership positions in both the public and private sector she served in Our IT solutions Department she served in Neighborhood Services library and and most recently as our interim Property Management director uh that department is uh uh very important for our as an internal customer service department because they help departments achieve their Capital delivery goals whether it's for new buildings uh such as a new fire station out in the Como or whether it's for a new Street project um that's an important partner Department um but also an important department to be working with you all um and to make sure that you're achieving the goals you have uh for for facilities uh for Fleet and uh for real property acquisition throughout the city so I'll give uh Marilyn a few moments so thank you Marilyn good afternoon mayor and councel I first want to thank David Mark and Dana and the rest of the CMO team for this fabulous opportunity I am honored to be a part of the PM uh PMD department and I look forward to moving the department forward so that we can provide service to our customers including you all thank you very much congratulations conratulations Gina [Applause] congratulations again but David I want to acknowledge you as city manager uh we were with tml recently and during the opening session the general president of the human resources management association talked about who in the job market today and he told us we're looking at people uh ages early 50s all the way to the 70s and so I just want to thank you and acknowledge you for that hire because it shows we do have diversity when it comes to age and thank you for respecting professionalism because people who are over 35 still have more to give and I want to acknowledge you for that thank you very much thank you Gina David announcements yeah it's that time of year it's the annual United Way campaign I'm going call on Carlo capua to give us an update of what we do here with the city thank you Mr city manager mayor council good afternoon I wanted to just quickly announc that we have officially kicked off the United Way of T County employee annual giving campaign and last year we raised $992,000 collectively as a city so we hope to surpass that just a reminder the United Way supports uh efforts toward mental health to combat gun violence support our veterans and other key things here in our community uh you can give through November 22nd you can do uh payroll deduction we'll have a silent auction and then two key events that will be here in City Hall uh at New City Hall and I'll I'll frame it like this if you've ever wanted to put DJ harell in a dunking booth then join us on Halloween October 31st he has volunteered to be and I'm not making this up drench the Warlock Booth uh so you'll be able to dunk him and pay and all the money we raise at the Spooktacular and then the fall Bazaar will go directly to United Way we'll have crafts wreaths baak Goods games uh lots of fun for both events so we welcome your participation and encourage all employees to give to such a charitable cause thank you thank you Carlo now we're switching to informal reports the first informal report is on the 2026 Bond program update and Christian Simmons is available if there are any questions all right the second informal report is estimated Actuarial impact of adding MedStar employees to the Fort Worth employees retirement fund and de gordano is available if there are any questions I don't have a question but i' like Deana to kind of review the high points of that for everyone's edification please all right okay Diana Jano Director of Human Resources and civil service so you may remember there was a joint meeting that was held between city council and the Fort Worth Employee Retirement uh board members and that was in May of 2024 and one of the outcomes that mayor and Council asks is that we look at maybe an Actuarial Assumption of adding the over 585 employees from MedStar and so that uh was conducted by the Actuarial consultant GRS and they made some assumptions about those individuals including uh the pay contribution to the retirement fund as well as just their classifications and bringing them into kind of the Civil Service environment and the general employee environment and looking at the information that they found and the assumptions that they made what they landed on or what they concluded was with the addition of over 580 employees that the funding period would be reduced by three years so it's great news from 32 years to 29 years would be the funding period that would be reduced um under the Texas pension review board that funding period should fall below 30 years and so we were sitting above that 32 years and had to have a restoration plan so the assumptions uh predict that that's going to fall below 29 one thing that we need to keep in mind is it doesn't reduce the acred liability so the acred liability remains at 55% the goal is to have that at 77% and so ongoing monitor the ongoing joint meetings would be critical and crucial to continue that monitoring effort in addition some of the other um items that were identified is that the annual contributions to the fund would be an upwards of about about $9.3 million annually so all great news to those continued contributions but again just making sure that we continuously monitoring it which we will do through the joint efforts as well as just with the partnership that we have with board members that are current city employees and just the Outreach that we continue to have ongoing with the Fort Worth employee retirement fund questions thank you thank you thank you don't go far the next informal report is on management diversity review and again di J orano is available if there any questions moving on uh the fourth informal report is a monthly report on the release of area from our etj or extr territorial jurisdiction and DJ harell is available if there's any questions all right the next informal report is on proposed judicial Recruitment and appointment process and our Municipal Court chief judge Gonzales is available if there are any questions we're rolling the six informal report is on recommended revisions to the Fort War city code related to Parks and Recreation and again Richard zabala is available if there's any questions all right and our final informal report is an update on Recruitment and hiring of sworn personnel in the fire department and chief Davis is available if there any questions mayor no questions that concludes my report thank you David Council are there any questions on memberships Boards of commissions or the MNC log that's in your packet if go ahead on number two I'm sorry number three and number four regarding the animal shelter animal donations I just wanted some clarification on that $750,000 okay hi council member Hill actually we are pulling that MNC and moving it to a November agenda um we're working with Brian and Chris McAllister to get the details behind that appr appropriation and to ensure the appropriation that we did last year I think it was in August of 2023 we did an appropriation for $500,000 from the donations fund making sure that that money has all been spent down um just as we're working on this new donation approach so we will follow up in November and we can find time to sit down with you ahead of that MNC thank you Valerie any other questions Council okay if not let's move an update on the crime lab and chief nil noes will lead this discussion mayor and Council Neil NOS chief of police for the Fort Worth Police Department I want to thank you for the opportunity to come here today to give an update on the status of sexual assault kit testing at the forth Police Department crime lab um as you know this is completely unacceptable the situation we're in right now we know it is completely unacceptable where we are we understand the urgency correcting this problem and setting things right going forward so we never have to come across a situation like this again and we are looking at every single option available to us when I think about the survivors of sexual assault and what they have gone through when I think about the fact that they've had to be brave enough to come to us to report these crimes they've had to be strong enough to basically relive the trauma as they're telling us in detail what happened to them and then the courage it takes to go to court to sit there and testify in front of the person who may have committed the crime because you want Justice you want to hold this person accountable you want to do everything you can to make make sure this person is never able to do this to another person again and the sad fact is I look across the room here we have people that will be watching at home a good number of them know someone they have a loved one who's been a victim of a sexual assault or may be victims themselves and they're pissed off and they should be I'm pissed off if this was my daughter my wife my mother I would be as well what we're going to talk about today is where we are we're going to talk about what we've done and what we're going to do going forward to make sure this never happens again we're going to talk about some of the difficulties that we've faced along the way but please make no no mistake these are not attempts to make excuses these are not attempts to justify the current situation we're in because there is no justification for the sit situation that we're in lastly this is not an attempt to place responsibility on anyone or anything else I take full responsibility for the situation we're in right now and I take full responsibility for correcting this and getting this right I want you to know that every member of the crime lab all the way up through the chain of command all the way to me we are 100% committed to looking at every option we possibly have to correct this and make sure our processes never allow this to happen again this is B basically what I just said it's unacceptable we know the urgency and we are going to get this fixed the victims deserve better and they will receive better so here's our current status there are 969 sexual assault kits that have not gone through the complete process to be able to be knock marked off as complete in the state database called track it of those 779 kits have already been tested what we're waiting on now is the review of the testing by our Crown lab and entry of those results into the codus system which is the combined DNA index system we'll get into that a little more later of the the 190 that have not been tested as of Friday of last week October the 18th all of those kits have been sent out to a vendor for testing of those 190 116 were over the 90-day time frame our biggest issue when it comes to being able to complete these cases is the codus entry not the testing itself and the biggest hindrance to being able to get these uh entries done in COD is is a staffing issue out of eight forensic scientist positions we have in our crime lab we have five vacancies we have one is completely trained and certified two that are in training right now when you add the fact that we have an assistant director who is also certified we have two people who are certified to enter all these tests on their own a little more about the codus entry cotas entry is a database where DNA samples can be uploaded so that when a new sample comes in it can be entered into cotus to see if it matches anyone else who's already been entered into that system of the 779 that have been tested waiting for codus about 600 of those samples have the evidentiary value that is required to meet the standard for interest entry into cotus of the 79 that don't have enough EV evidentiary value that don't meet the requirements they can still be entered into codus and those can actually be done even by the two trainees that we have right now because we have more people working on that part of the problem we believe we can get that 179 completely done within the next three weeks it's also important to note that since this presentation was completed we've been tracking everything we're doing every week and this last week as of a report I received today we've had had 102 additional codus entries so that would bring that 779 down to 677 now the majority of cases of sexual assault as many of you know involve a known offender someone that's known to the victim or the Survivor there is no requirement for a detective to have cotus entry to continue with their case investigation or for prosecution so it's important to note that even if the CODIS entry has not been made the detective still see receives the results the detective still continues with his or her case and prosecution can go forward the only time that's a major issue is if the suspect is unknown then it is critical for us to get that DNA sample into cotus to see if we can identify a suspect and we are prioritizing those to make sure they are going in first these are some of the requirements for uh the way the DNA evidence is handled it's in chapter 420 of the Texas government code and uh one of the first ones is once we receive a a test I'm sorry a sample that needs to be tested the detective working the case has 30 Days by law to be able to get that in obviously our goal is to get in much quicker this is just letting you know how the law explains it if we fail to submit that evidence within 30 days we have to send a report to DPS honor before the 30th day it's discovered telling them it was not submitted in a timely fashion and giving an explanation why it wasn't if sufficient personnel and resources are available this is supposed to be completed as soon as practicable but regardless of the Staffing situation it should not take more than 90 days and not later than the 30th day after the date the sexual assault kit has been analyzed the department is to input that DNA profile into the database for comparison and please understand these are limits for as long as the law allows our goal is to get it done much more quickly it's also important to note that fair to comply the only penalty we have there in the law is that we could be uh penalized as far as receiving grant funding which is a huge source of funding for for the way we get these kits processed it's also important to note that the law clearly states that even if these are not submitted within the time frame it does not change the evidentiary value it can still be introduced as evidence in trial and it does not affect our ability to access that evidence for investigation so I mentioned the grant funding that could be paused we've got a $686,000 grant through the government and this is a fund that has been established specifically for reducing backlogs when it comes to sexual assault kits but what I want everyone to understand regardless of this funding regardless of this grant we will find the money and we will get the job done currently we Outsource our sexual assault kit testing and we were able to dig and do a little bit of research we found that started happening in 2003 we still haven't found out exactly why that happened we're still looking into it but since 20 3 for the last 21 years we've been Outsourcing the testing portion currently we use DNA International signature science bod and then the tarant County Medical Examiner there have been questions about the demographics of the sexual assault victims so most of the information in those reports is protected not just anyone can pull up a case and read it not even me we respect the privacy of those survivors and obviously the detective detectives have access to whatever they need for their investigation but a cursory look this is what we found so as far as the cases that have not been completely finished as in being entered into cotus about 69% AC crasian 28.3% African-American one and a half asian and 1.2 unknown you will notice there's a glaring missing column here and that is the Hispanic portion the reason that is not in there is when we're able to look at the reports the very little information that's available to say for me or my assistant Chiefs they look it up it will have the race but it does not list the ethnicity so we are going back we're getting with our detectives to pull that information because that is an enormous part of the city of Fort Worth when you look at our demographics our Hispanic population so we are going to make sure we get that and we get that to you we just weren't able to get it done before presentation today and I apologize for that so this would be a perfect scenario when we first started using uh these labs to Outsource the testing it could take a year or more to get a result back a change was made in the contract with the outside vendors that we used and we had a requirement that we had to have a response with the results within 60 days even with that that is a long time to wait for results were we fully staffed all eight positions filled all eight positions trained up and certified and ready to go this would be the perfect case scenario now the corology and the DNA analysis take about 24 hours each part of that is because the samples have to sit overnight to be able to get the results that we need to determine that the sample can be used once that is done it's much more quick the data interpretation by our forensic scientists the report writing that they do takes about three hours once that's done the review of that and entry in codus lasts about an hour and it's important to note I was talking with our lab director before he came in when we have the corology and DNA happening it's it's for 24 hours that means multiple cases can be worked simultaneously so it's not just one that we can get done in that time period we can have several that are going through the overnight period so that we can access the information the next day this is the best case scenario and this is what we will do when we get staffed up we currently have the posting out now closes the end of this month and we're not just looking for people to hire and train we are looking for people who are already trained already certified that want to come work for the city of Fort Worth so we get the job done much faster so here's a summary of the internal corrective actions we've taken a higher level of oversight one from me also from our city manager's office when it comes to the crow la everything comes up all the way to the assistant chief over that area as well as me August of 2023 we hired a new forensics division manager someone else who leads our crime lab and we have seen significant improvements since that happened this is obviously one we have to work on even more we've been able to approve two pay raises for these forensic scientists because we found that the reason some left were because the pay was greater at other agencies in our area I mentioned the posting that we have open right now and we'll try to hire all five I'm hoping we get that many quality candidates so the two trainees that I mentioned before we plan on having them completely trained up by the spring of 20125 but their ability to enter any and every codus uh entry that needs to be made that certification will come by the end of this year which again will help that will actually double the number of people that we have entering codes from 2 to 4 this is the latest one it's highlighted here we have also been approved for a $4,000 per person incentive for the members of the crime lab who are going to work on this backlog so after hours on weekends coming in and as long as they meet certain metrics that are in place they will receive an incentive for helping us catch up on this backlog even more what we're looking at right now is a completion date of wrapping up this backlog and doing what should have been done to begin with by April of 2025 we're also looking though to hire people on a contractual basis who may have another job at another facility who does this type of work but want some work on the side and they're allowed to BU their employer to be able to come and assist us in getting this backlog reduced if we are able to do that if we were able to outsize some of Outsource some of the codus entry to some other vendors then we'll be able to do that even faster so possible solutions as we mentioned we've contacted our existing vendors we are looking for a legal opinion as well working with several people to find out if the code of Entry has to be done by S or or it can be done by a vendor and so we will work with those vendors for that assistance we've even identified some new potential vendors we might be able to use in such a situation and one thing that we looked at was the feasibility of just doing away with that portion of the lab if it's that much trouble why not just do away with it and we can send everything to DPS as many agencies do uh the sad fact of the matter is as as staffed up uh as DPS is with multiple Labs that they have even they are struggling with filling F rather fulfilling this 90-day requirement and we're even Outsourcing some of theirs so there is no capacity for that for us to just shut down and send everything to DPS every option is on the table we have direction from leaders of the city mayor and Council city manager Office things we need to look at things we need to dig further into innovative ideas Solutions because failure is not an option in this next steps continual assessment of Contracting possibilities with vendors anything that we can Outsource with a credible credential accredited vendor we're looking into do constant re-evaluation of our timeline for eliminating the back backlog based on what external resources were able to bring in and the results of the current hiring we will be giving a weekly report to the city manager's office and Council on our progress beginning next week and our next update will be at the work session on November 5th I can't say enough how much this this hurts us to know that we have heard others that we don't want to retraumatization I am am almost shaking I'm just very unhappy with this information but I don't want to be overly emotional one thing we know for a fact is the DNA capabilities at un Health Science Center have been recognized since the attack on 911 with that in mind this afternoon about an hour ago I sent an email to the chancellor Michael Williams and copied our city manager and our media Zar Laken Rapier asking for help she later reached out to the president Dr Sylvia Trent Adams I'm calling their names because we need help and this is for me it's a crisis because I would hate to think that I knew someone whose name was on one of those kits it could be a woman a girl it could be a male you don't know and so we have been damaged with this but even more importantly are equally important is the fact that the requests from media are not new I didn't know when I did an interview a week or so ago that these requests had been were originated back in August we don't hide from media we don't hide information when there's good news when there's bad news we have to stand stand up and talk and be transparent and so I am very disappointed in that we have not been transparent and I'm hoping we can get help uh Chief you told me the good thing is we have our own lab the bad thing is we have our own lab I've asked you to talk to legal to see what is it going to take can we pause this lab uh what can we do so that we never see a situation like this again and again and I am nobody is happy with this and so those are my remarks for the record and David I'll be looking to you for a response Leen is working as best she can we've got to get this thing moving and those are my remarks Council May Beck I appreciate mayor proin Bon's words and um I Echo everything that that she has said today um I want to make no mistake that um we have failed victims in our city we have failed not just um victims but we have failed their loved ones who have to hold their hand through this process um that is unacceptable that's unacceptable on so many levels um we all have women and men that we love that have um experienced some sort of of trauma and to watch someone go through that um and know that their justice has been delayed a is heartbreaking I do appreciate your acknowledgement of how hard it is for these women to come forward and how courageous that might um that must be um I would be remiss if I did not mention two people in the room with us here today one of them is um Miss lenia Masters and that name you will recognize because she is the person that led the charge for this act that requires this testing in this um in these timelines and so if she wouldn't mind standing up because I would just like to give her a big round of applause for all of the work that she's done on behalf of the women of the State of [Applause] Texas um also miss Latrice Godfrey who um many of you saw if you watch the initial reporting um thank you for your bravery and coming forward it's um it's one thing to come forward and give a confidential interview it's a whole another level to publicly come out um and talk about um about your rape and that takes a a lot of um courage so thank you for your um courage as well thank you um I do have some specific questions on the crime lab um so the F the first is and and walk me through because I've tried to learn as much about this as I can in the time period that it's come up so we have 30 days from the time that we collect the the rape kit from from the hospital to get that to our crime lab correct so the once the test is done at the hospital they have two days to notify us that the test is available then our crime scene officers have up to seven days to pick that up to take to the lab usually it's done that night that day or the very next day once that happens once the detective receives that case that's when the 30-day clock starts and are we all always are we meeting that 30-day requirement to get that test kit to our lab we are we had not always met that requirement uh we were notified in March that there was an issue with that because there was a grant that had been paused the payment of that Grant because we weren't meeting that deadline that's when things really started rolling and that's when we started making the submissions happen and the last report I got was today and that was since that time this 30-day requirement has not been missed Okay so we've known since at least March of this year that there's an issue yes ma'am okay and so do you know how many of those uh when you got that notification do you know approximately how many um cases did not meet that did we didn't meet that 30-day Mark uh there were hundreds close to what we have now um and this is my ignorance on police work but how once a detective collects that kit what would why would it take more than 30 days to submit that to our internal crime lab there is no reason for not to okay and so have we internally have you Chief addressed with um the men and women on Fort Worth PD that handled this specific type of crime um on why we're not meeting that Mark and and set some um goals to how we can better do that yes ma'am once that uh came to light in March it was made clear in no uncertain terms that that would not be accepted it would be submitted within the 30-day time frame and we're actually going back and reviewing all policies all standard operating procedures and when and where appropriate completely rewriting them if we have to to make sure there is no question what the expectation is okay I appreciate that um and then my next questions really kind of deal with um well I want to ask before I get into the ins and outs of the the crime lab and codus um we have victim services for women have we proactively in light of the information that's come out and the the sheer number of women that we know are waiting for some sort of answer or closure um have we done anything proactive to engage with those women when it comes to the victim services that we have available to us as far as the the backlog itself because the victim services are obviously available through any any victim of any crime we've been discussing with our public relations office with members of the mayor's team exactly how that happens and how we're going to do it it has not started yet but yes we're determined the best way to personally reach out to each one of these victims and have that conversation with them can you uh when you have that plan developed can you share that with um with Council as well just so we're apprised of of the plan moving forward yes ma'am okay all right so then I have some questions about um the crime lab uh how many other police departments in the state operate their own crime lab I say question and to the best of uh our knowledge from what we've seen so far it's usually going to be a larger agency like us uh it was Houston and one other agency can someone help me out Houston and just Houston just Houston okay okay and have have we um as of today reached out to Houston to talk to them about how they handle these and deal with because my if it's a Statewide issue we hear about Staffing and I understand that that that's a highly technical position that um is hard to to to find Qualified people Houston seems to be man it Dallas they Outsource but they seem to be managing it it's it's Unique to Fort Worth PD that we are not managing it well so have we reached out to our partners to ask them what they have done um to be successful in hiring recruiting Etc I have reached out out to some agencies Houston is not one of them but I will correct that okay um the concern I have here is um I did a review of the Department's social media and you do a really great job of advertising for our open positions particularly those for PD because we know we're short and recruitment um takes some time not until this issue was brought up for in I went back a year was there ever a posting for a crime lab position so that's very worrisome to me because we knew it was an issue we knew there was a shortfall but we didn't seem to place a priority on that so my charge to you Chief would be to place the priority on on this moving forward which it sounds like you're trying to do understood um okay I want to talk about codus so on the slide um you mentioned that some there we go the majority of the offenders are known by the victim and there's no requirement to enter into codus for pro prosecution can you tell me what the requirement is to enter into cotus versus those that there is no requirement to enter into cotas I may not have explained that well thank you for asking I probably need to get some clarification it's not that there's a requ requirement for it to be entered into cotus what I was trying to explain there is the fact that those cases can still continue even including prosecution prior to the codus entry there's still a requirement to enter it and it should be done within the time allotted and it hasn't always been but that does not pause the investigation the detectives do or pause the potential uh prosecution okay so we don't so all of them all of them will go into cotus eventually correct as long as they meet the evidentiary requirement of quality sample Etc yes ma'am they'll all go in okay um I do we within the crime lab um there's several functions that they perform not just DNA testing but can you can you tell me what other types of functions the crime lab absolutely and there's other DNA testing functions for other cases such as homicide uh they also do fingerprint exemp ation uh whenever fingerprints are collected from a crime scene uh they work with our gun violence investigators to do analyzation of fired shell casings and rounds that are recovered from crime scenes basically anything CSI that's what our lab does okay and do you know if there's uh priorities placed on um the type of activity granted I'm assuming that someone who does fingerprint analysis is cannot also conduct um DNA analysis would that be fair that is fair for instance our uh ballistics examiners are trained for that but may not be able to do DNA or fingerprint right so there's not like a crossover it's highly spec specific it's very specified some may cross over somewhat but they are routinely very specific skill sets and trainings required and um um let's talk specifically about the DNA folks uh the people that work on rape DNA and then you you mentioned there's obviously there's other types of DNA analysis that's conducted are those the same pool of people yes okay and is there a rank order like how do you prioritize what work is done first is it by type of crime is it first in first out can you give shed some light on that it could be a few different things it could be the severity of the crime it could be something where the prosecution needs to proceed for some reason we've SE received that communication from the district attorney's office in the case of sexual assaults if there's a case that is on nearing a deadline we obviously want to get that through if it's an unknown offender we want to make sure we're doing everything we can to get that entry in as well so it it does depend on the circumstances but what I want everyone to know is right now this is the number one priority for our crme liveb when it comes to our those who are entering DNA okay um and we've explored using outside sources um to help us Shore this up uh is there anything do they have to be within the state of Texas can can it be performed outside of the State of Texas is that available to us it can absolutely be performed outside the state of Texas uh actually I think two of them on this screen are out of state so we're looking across the country not just here in Texas or locally okay um I think that's my last on the slide that talked about oversight um and it said Fort Worth PD and the cmo's office would be involved in oversight I'd like to also see the um opom be involved in that as well because I think this is such a high priority that we need um all of those that are involved in oversight in our um city to have eyes on this to make sure that we're getting it right that is a great idea thank you all right I think that's all I've got for right now Council Nettles yes thank you thank you Chief um I think you articulated a little bit ago but I wanted to know how many many cases monthly or yearly uh that we're seeing these rape cases come in on average it's about 350 a year so roughly one a day okay and so with the number that uh we see about the 700 we're probably about one or two years uh behind yes sir um on the um how are our victims notified uh where the process of their uh rape case kit is at do we notify them personally or is there a way they can find that information about it uh there's both notifications can come from the assigned detective on the case but the state also has an online resource where a Survivor could go on and look at that information themselves to track exactly where their kit is in the process is um is there some type of database when the officer contacts the individual of their case is there some kind of record to show that the individual has been contacted so we have about 700 do we have a reporting system to show that we actually contacted them or not what should be happening for detective investigating a case like this if it's not included in a summary basically a narrative in addition to the original report there are case notes that can be added to the reporting system and I know when I was a detective if a phone call was made a letter was sent if I went to someone's house or interviewed anyone I put a note with the date and time and a small summary what happened to make sure I tracked every one of those what we're doing is making sure our policy will reflect the requirement to add those to their case notes so it is tracked and it is trackable and we can look and see what the numbers are as far as who's been doing it so far but we're going to make sure going going forward that is tracked in the system okay and even with the online I think it's important if if we have some type of tracking mechanism uh and we start seeing numbers increase that we're having a problem versus again I'm like uh made protim I think all of us here um I first heard about this through media out Outsource and they were calling asking for a statement and I was like I actually need to find out information about what's actually going on before I can provide a statement um I was one who did speak and I spoke from the from the understanding that we just can't allow this type of oversight or undersight happen within the city of forward especially when it comes to victims uh I know personally victims within my family who has uh been raped nobody really knows that it can happen until it actually happens to you uh so I appreciate your position today taking uh the leader ship to uh Rectify this situation uh I did ask and I'll ask on the record again um uh can we Outsource those five vacancies because I as you talk about your timeline I'll give you two questions can we Outsource those five vacancies and then when you talked about uh the completion date of April 2025 is that also including new cases because if we're getting a case a day um that mean we'll have backlog cases as well as due cles is that included in that number as well yes that is included in that number as well and as far as Outsourcing um one thing I don't remember if I mentioned well I did mention that we're trying to hire people who were already right trained up certified and ready to go but we've also reached out to different agencies or vendors who have people on staff who are certified and we're asking if we can hire them on a contractual basis to come in and work in our lab to assist with the backlog doesn't mean they even have to leave their current job but if they want to make some extra money and want to help with this problem we want to hire them to come in and work with us part time what type of positions are these are these sworn police officers or what or what type of position is this no the these are all part of our civilian professional staff uh they are not sworn uh each one will have a bachelor's degree in something related to forensic science and then if it's someone who's new and has had no training in this type of work it can take between two and three years for certification because of all the Hands-On training and the certification that's required that they must acquire and maintain for both state and national accreditation bodies which is one of the reasons we want to try to hire people who actually already have that training and certification so we can cut down on the training and we can get to this backlog even faster right and so I know you have talked about in other settings that um we're under staff as waren police officers and we're looking to get fully staffed it by next year of 2026 for for the lab no for sworn police officers oh yeah end of next year end of next year but these positions uh that's admin is not included in that correct chart that's just for sworn positions do we know what other uh important positions such as these that need to be filled that maybe Council can try to make sure we put on our radar to help with as well CU we're been very focused on getting sworn police officers but I think this these was position are just as vitally important as sworn police officers you're absolutely right and I do want to thank the leaders around this table for always supporting that Us in that effort including adding two additional forensic scientists to last year's budget you've already helped us out there now it's just getting them hired and trained but what we can do is a review of all those other positions aside from our sworn positions that are absolutely critical in nature and see what we can do about Staffing up in those areas as well thank you Chief and I'll just offer up um just a personal apology uh as a representative of the city of forward to all the victims uh who uh may be represented on this slide uh please know that we me personally as a council member uh understands and feel for your hurt and do apologize for uh the backlog of these cases councilor Williams thank you mayor and thank you chief for um um all the work that you and your team have done over the past couple weeks um I know I've personally asked a number of questions and I know some of them weren't easy to get the data to so um you know thank you for you and your team for what you do um I know just like you and everyone around this table we stand in solidarity with um those who've been impacted um including those who are here um Miss Latrice Godfrey is a district 6 resident um and you know every one of these numbers um is a person um um and whenever we don't ensure that they get the Justice um that should be theirs um it it affects not only them and their loved ones it affects all of us and so um thank you and your team for your commitment to um being transparent through this process and also um putting on a Solutions had to um work with us to see how we can get this addressed to clear the backlog and Ure that this doesn't happen um to any um anyone else going forward couple uh questions and then just a few um comments um the first question is um you know are there um are there any other types of cases that are being affected by the lab's constraints um and are there any other critical delays impacting investigations and prosecutions um that we could be helpful with in this process as is one of the things we're doing now is doing a complete review of the crime lab to look at any the other areas that we may need to shore up hire more Personnel have more Rees have resources or more support and I know without a doubt that everyone around this table would support whatever initiative we needed to work on um I'm hopeful that when we come back in a couple of weeks for an update we can give you some information on that as well yes sir thank you um similar vein beyond the personal Personnel shortages are there technological or equipment limitations that could hinder the lab's full capacity to support ongoing investigations effectively that's one of the questions we asked uh the lab director and when I spoke to her about it she said the city has provided the equipment we need the city has provided the positions that we need we just need to fill those positions so from a technology standpoint we don't see anything that would hinder the process great thank you and um just a couple comments um um as far as next steps and other Solutions I know there's certainly a need um to fill these positions um and I would be interested in seeing if there's even a need to expand Staffing beyond that especially giving um unfortunately amount of sexual assault kits that are coming in one a day um is allowed to process on top of all the other responsibilities for the labs um and I know today we're focused on Labs um but I'd also during this process like us to look at other um Personnel that's needed to support these type of Investigations you know our detectives level do we have enough detectives to handle the volume um and are there any other um positions within PV that we need to focus on especially um um in bringing offenders uh to Justice I and so whether it's Patrol or PD or special task force on this matter um I'd love for y'all to look at that and know that you know I'm all yours and would love to support anything um along those lines and the second thing um that I wanted to just highlight is the communication thank you I know we have talked offline about um the need for codify and communication with victims in the Sops and so I I really appreciate your comments ear ear and your team's work to do that um I think it's important um um that we're um proactive about communicating with um you know those who've been impacted in this way um and not um put the onus on them to constantly be checking back in I think um there's opportunities for improvement um with that communication process and not only that but I think our survivors also could greatly benefit um from giving their perspectives on where we've missed the mark over the past couple years um and so you know I encourage you and the team to engage them um to the extent possible in the solution making process um and I just I want to commend you on the communication front for the regular reports that your team is committed to with us I'm and ensuring public transparency throughout this process so that the public um knows that we are also committed to making sure we get this resolved um there's an online resource that you mentioned earlier that um um survivors um um have to utilize in order to check the status of their kids being processed and I know this may not necessarily land specifically on the city um but there's challenges um that victims have experienced with um being timed out of that system um I don't know the exact time requirement but I think it's 90 days that if a a victim doesn't log into that system within 90 days they get timed out or locked out of their account and they then have to set up a new account and go through all the process all over again and so um I would love for someone on your team who's way smarter than I am to look into that um to see if there are way especially with the legislative session coming up to see if we can make improvements to that process so that we make it easy for victims um and and um to navigate the process and to um get regular updates through that system without having to deal with additional frustrations to an already traumatic process um the other thing is um you know I'm particularly concerned about the implications of um you know this lab to the prosecutorial process um and particularly I asked this earlier but with repeat offenders um and I would I just really want us to um work hand inand with Taran County and the DA's office and um to see um where are the gaps in the prosecutorial process process that we might could do better at especially with the lab and the evidence that's needed for these prosecutions to ensure that we're not letting um folks off the hook um from the accountability and Justice um that needs to be brought to them when they make a um a heinous crime like this and so I would like to know how many of the folks um how many repeat offenders um um are contributing to these specific cases um and then um if there's any other issues with prosecution um I think it's important for this body to work with Taran County um and with our own legal um Department to see how we can make improvements to ensure that um the the Justice process is actually um happening and that we're not standing in the way with important evidence um and so nonetheless um I know we're going to we have a lot of work ahead of us um it's important work and um EO the sentiments of my colleagues um this has to be our top priority um and even if we have to make budget amendments mid year I know we just approved a budget but if there are things we need to amend I do not want to wait until next budget cycle um to fix this um um not only do the victims um that are represented in today's presentation um need Justice as a part of their healing process but there's also uh criminals who need correction and who need um serious help and if we allow them to stay on the streets without um getting that Justice that correction and that help um then we are putting more lives at risk by not doing that so whatever resources we need to ensure um that gets done uh I'm committed to doing that and we can't wait until next budget to do that thank you any other questions comments yeah Carlos thank you mayor thank you Chief um it's concerning news I think council members on need to say we're all profoundly concerned about what you presented what we've learned um back in 2010 the ccpd board of which I was a part allocated funds to establish a crime lab there on the east side of town and one of the reasons was to have the in-house ability to do DNA analysis right is our city grow so does a need for that analysis as well uh it's apparent that not just from a staffing standpoint but somewhere along the line we we failed to see you know at what point we needed more resources right I think that's a fair assessment uh there is been only one path and I think you've heard it going around the table you know for us to take you know uh conceive of a plan that will fix the process maintain or certification integrity and ensure that provisions and measures are in place to prevent this from happening again uh I'm going to reiterate my request to see the data of number of sexual assault kits uh over time sent out for text you know testing and those including in-house as well to determine at what point you know should we have known that there was an issue building at the crime lab processes so those are my comments thank you sir thank you any other questions or comments from Council no um Chief a few questions before closing comments on this item do you know and you can get this back to us if it's not off the top of your head but is a test admissible um evidence for the tan County DA DA's office if it's a known as salent if it's not in the codus system or is that codus classification needed in order for it to pursue to prosecution if it is a a known suspect then that codus entry is not required for prosecution no okay so maybe in the follow-up report you do on the 5th or subsequent to you can provide a little more detail and if we need a a prose here to kind of walk us through that process I think that could be very helpful and there were some questions about that today um the other question for the T cand DA's office I would have is the number of cases we currently see in Taran County that result in actual conviction in our communities um and I'll reveal a few important statistics here in a moment that I think are reflective of why I'm asking that question um my next question is maybe also for management and for the police department um we need to demand as Council to have a culture of elevation in this city and what I mean by that is when a department head an employee a police officer um a lab technician sees a problem it is see something say something and in this situation as was reflected in mayor pettin Biven comments earlier a very simple phone call to someone like Chancellor Michael Williams is very important in a case like this one and it is unfortunate that it's taken a public outcry um and a and a beautiful victim and Latrice Godfrey who's here today to say help me and this Council and this body um this job sometimes is terrible but what is awesome is a connection point that you can create whether you're a mayor or a council member so let's remember that and that goes across every single department and I know that we have an open door policy but this crime lab has been a problem in the city of Fort Worth for 10 years and I mention that Chief because it's not just your problem it is a management problem and it at this point now lies at our feet to solve it and I can tell by the urgency and the voices of my colleagues that they agree that they're going to solve it um if we're going to have a crime lab in the city of Fort Worth it will be best in class period end of story and we have a short timeline to achieve that because we've lost the public trust and importantly um I understand why um I'm also feel like there's a needed apology not just to the victims that are included as numbers on the slides before us um and in including Miss Godfrey and people like Miss Masters who has very boldly and valiantly fought this battle in Austin and to Miss Masters we thank you very much for that um but it's going to take time and attention and personal connection with all the victims that are in the system to make sure they know that they're not treated as numbers and I know that you share that empathy that was very clear in your presentation today and your sense of urgency is greatly appreciated sir um my next point of information is important that according to the rape abuse incest national network which is really the predominant resource for victims in this this country of a thousand reported sexual assaults um 310 will actually go to police what does that mean two out of three assaults are never reported in the United States if you keep P coming down that pathway of the 310 only 50 lead to arrest 28 are felony convictions and 25 lead to incarcerations and in Fort Worth I know your department and your officers treat this very importantly but let's Elevate this issue because in my opinion the individuals who are willing to sexually assault another human being are the most violent sexually deviant in our society and in Fort Worth I say never again and I know that our department can be an example but we're going to have to come alongside them with the forensic science needed to prosecute these cases and work alongside the Taran County DA DA's office so those are numbers but to me they are human beings each of us around this table probably have friends or personal connections to sexual assault and while we should never pretend to put ourselves in those shoes think about those loved ones that you have in your own lives and I know that all of you have reflected that today um the last point I want to make is around media and some of this was discussed during executive session I've known Scott fredman at NBC 5 for probably 15 years he is a very well-respected a journalist and this goes for every department and our Communications Department and certainly the PD when someone like Scott reaches out with a problem treat them with respect and dignity and follow up immediately do not bury the email for two months and not elevate it to the chief's office to the mayor's office I didn't know about this issue until I watched the report myself on NBC 5 and I think most of the people around this table feel the same way so I have not out to Scott fredman yet but I will do so I wanted to get through today's report um but I trust that we're going to treat these types of relationships much differently whether it's Mr fredman or anyone else in the media because they are doing their jobs on behalf of innocent victims specifically like Miss Godfrey who's here today it looks like we have lots of followup to come November 5th will be the first report I hope the public knows that this council is treating this issue very importantly it is a top issue that I want management to also pick up the mantle and treat it with the dignity and respect that it deserves to the victims we are sorry there is no better way to put it but we're going to be pushed to be better and truly have the very best crime line in United States of America and we're not going to have one period end of story with that Council I think that's the end of our presentation today thank you Council I know we have future agenda items that's the last our presentations I know Miss Hill had one I'll just work around the table uh yes I would like a report from directions home and for worth PG on homelessness across the city um I do not want an update on housing I really want an update on homelessness and vagrance that we're seeing on streets um I'd also like a crime update on statistics across the city um specific District by district and lastly um an update from the animal shelter on live release rates and where we are General and now that um the new co- compliance director's been on board for several weeks thanks yeah and all those that may I think weren't a presentation not an IR some of those are big ticket items council member crane uh you can make sense if this makes to add on to council member Hills uh we've had problems with the the cleanup of homeless camps and I just want to figure out what is the cost of it of of doing that plus um other uh penalties that we put on the owners if they're not cleaning up the property there make sense if it's part of the presentation or just an IR or just report back um the second uh IR visited the fire stations that serve District 3 and I just want to make sure they've got some beautiful facilities going in we did the groundbreaking on 16 last week um but I want to make sure that with EMS and everything else coming over that we're right sizing the and we're looking forward at what those uh look like we also know that and I know there's some uh updates uh coming uh for some fire stations but some of them are 40 plus years old I just want to make sure that we're thinking about that as we're moving forward and also what the replace placement of the vehicles look like was at one of the stations 23 uh they tell me that it's constantly their truck is constantly being rehabilitated and when I was there they had a call and they had to send out the Quint so I just want to make sure that we're thinking about that and thinking ahead of all of our resources there and then the last one I want to look at is um we seem to have a purifer of parties that have you know it's TCU and the students around it I get it but we have portalets showing up in a in a large map on a regular basis so I want to look at something getting creative maybe our overlay or something the TCU overlay at poletes and I've seen pictures there's dozens of them being delivered to houses it obviously uh there's a balance between the students there and the neighborhood uh that are there but maybe uh something that we can do to give our code some teeth when it's clear they're going to have hundreds of students showing up that we can do something about it so uh that's the last one thank you Council lorf so I think we're all talking about homelessness today uh about six or seven months ago I'd asked for a reporter presentation on um any city-owned facilities that could be utilized as a safe place for parking for some of our homeless are still living in their vehicle um seems to be I mean I think a lot of us are just one paycheck away from living in our vehicle uh in today's economy so if we can just get an update on where that's at uh to see if that's possible I've weed a veteran who's living in his truck and there's a whole Community they're just living in their vehicle going from spot to spot and so if there's there's other cities that are doing do it they're doing it well uh so maybe if we can talk to a property management or whoever it is to find out there's something we as a city could be doing better uh to provide uh the space for them Williams I missed you earli I'm sorry if I was SC past you I was going down the road yeah no it's it's all good um thanks um I just have one informal report I'm I'm interested to work with Parks um to learn more about how we're expanding access for youth um to play golf um I know we don't have golf courses in every community Comm and so um and also I know the benefits of golf and so just curious to know um what programs are available how much does it cost for um our uh youth to play golf um and my goal is to maybe see if there's anything extra that we could do as a council to ensure that every kid across the city has access to golf is this speaking from someone who'll never get to play golf again with two children at home get to go play golf yeah okay so I'll say I'll say that for later but if I can convince my wife and kids to go my wife will be the design two car seats on a golf cart two car seats on it exactly very well council member back go ahead uh so I have a couple first um I'd like we did a great job with our boarding home ordinance but what we didn't do was put in distance requirements like we have for group homes and Community homes so I'd like staff to um bring back to us a process of updating that ordinance to include those um half mile radius like we see in our other facilities I'd also like an IR explaining the distance check process I'm going through a zoning case now and it doesn't seem clear which department does the zoning or the distance check um so I think we need to nail that down and no better way to do that than through an IR um in light of what we heard today I would like um probably a presentation from Fort wor PD I'd like to know what crimes disproportionally affect women in our community and what resources we're putting towards those specific crimes whether it be Personnel victim Services Etc and I'd like a comparison of what that looks like um to other crimes that we put um resources to as well I want to make sure that we are um putting our money where our mouth is and prioritizing um those types of Highly violent highly personal crimes that tend to impact women yes um I have a couple of one um in August we moved $370,000 uh from the south Community Center I meant to get with Fernando before he left but he's gone so uh I really want to make that IR um what that money was it was attended for improvements to the southide community center it was moved to veteran homes uh so I want to I on that also uh on our vendor process with our mobile um trucks that's selling food uh been getting some complaints about um a lot of our vendors most of our vendors are going through the process of getting permits to be at like dream park or other parks to sell food but then there's others during the weekend that's just showing up and they're selling food they don't have permits and so what are we going to what is our policy [Music] to uh cold compliance what are we going to do to uh uh am mitigate that because you have others that are upset they they're paying the monies and other folks are just showing up and they don't even have a food handlers um whatever the next one is music and permits uh so just like we have a lot of loud parties over in Ash Crescent uh even inside of the parks I know inside the parks if you going to use a microphone or speaker you have to have a permit uh so I want to get um some information on that um permit process for live m music and parties yeah they say the best food from a food truck is one that doesn't have a permit I I have convinced my friend if you don't see a sticker keep going you don't know what they're doing but uh I do have three uh recently mayor a friend of mine and yours uh the AT&T governmental Affairs rep that we met with police to talk about copper thefts and this was a month ago and so I want to report from the chief on copper thefts we've even invited the DA's office to this conversation it's moving further west real bad in Dallas now and the week after we met Dallas had a story about their copper thefts but when you hear about people losing internet access for weeks and weeks it's because somebody stole the copper and so we're also looking at stronger laws and the chap expects me to make this request so it's not going to catch him off guard uh I do want a report from development services if we are trying or claiming to be a walkable Community I just want to know while we're getting so many waivers for sidewalks from people who want to build and so I'd like to get a report you on that there's no real time crunch but I hate waivers and so we just need to know you know are we do we have policies in place that need to be modified because if you continue to get them maybe we we should tweak the policy I don't think so and so I think we need to bring this to the Forefront what's going on with our efforts to be a walkable city are we sabotaging our own efforts with these waivers and the final one is and this involves Code Compliance anybody from code in here B okay I I want a report on Code Compliance and I want the report to let me know if the cases code is working come about because a code officer was Proactive or is it primarily in reaction to and worse than that there are some people who believe code enforcement practices selective enforcement uh for example you can have a guy who gets ridden up for a fence and two blocks down the same kind of fence is there and nobody does anything and so I'll be willing to talk to Val and Brian and anybody to make English out of this but I want to know what's going on with Cod compliance because you can drive by things every day and forget to report them and then finally I wake up two months later and say oh hell I meant to report that it's still there and so I don't see proactive re reporting so that's what I have that's all thank you mayor I have one today so had an interesting situation with a constituent that reported a traffic hazard in their community and specifically was a tree that was obstructing view of a stop sign on one of our major thoroughfares uh as as we work to address this we became aware that uh it was difficult for staff to to propose a time frame for correction and that there is a dramatic backlog in into uh 800 plus pending service requests so I would like an informal report on uh the severity of the situation and the path forward okay Council last last of our agenda items meeting adjurned