remaining a bell will sound when you have 30 seconds remaining when your time has ended the Bell will sound again and you should complete your comments before you begin speaking please state your name thank you with that I'll call our public comment meaning to order tonight's invocation will be by Reverend Dr Russ Peterman from the University Christian Church please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance God of us all in this holiest of weeks in which so many of your people are in the midst of sacred days whether it be Ramadan or Passover Holy Week we pause to give you thanks and to acknowledge your presence in the city that we love and call home tonight we ask your blessings on the people who have been called to lead that City help them be the leaders that the people need them to be Holy One these are precarious times and as you have in times like this throughout the ages remind us all of your call to respect and protect the least of these Among Us those who are the most vulnerable those who are often forgotten give our mayor and all of our leaders courage and Clarity and conviction compassion give them wisdom and Grace this we pray in the name of all that we hold sacred and holy amen Council the first item of business will be approval of the minutes from the February 28th and the March 7th and 21st Council meetings Council any other discussion not Nettles yeah please vote motion carries mayor that concludes the action items the rest are the public comments thank you before we get started with public comment I'm going to take just a minute if you don't mind to say something about a misconception that came up during our last public comment meeting in March and first I should say thank you so much to everyone that I see here this evening and based on some of the commentary in our public comments we know there's some very important issues that you brought forward to your city council and that's what tonight is about during public comment last comment time some false and revolting personal attacks were made about me and rather than cut the speaker off I decided to do what I teach my children when they find themselves wrongly attacked just step away de-escalate as best possible and I decided to leave the chamber for 60 seconds and come back to the next public comment I chose not to engage in hateful vulgar lies and this type of political discourse frankly has no place in this chamber and in recent months we've seen it aimed at every single member of this Council in this chamber since my inauguration I promise to attack problems and not people and I have continued to live by that in office I believe this philosophy is more important now than ever we live in a divisive time to solve real problems we need honest debate and facts not attacks that have not a single shred of evidence to back them and again we are here to attack problems and not people what I learned from that moment and that in the future I will not be stepping away in these situations I will be acting in clear accordance with our point of order rules which means speakers who choose to engage in this type of behavior are allowed one warning and then your time will be ended everyone I serve with on this diocese deserves respect and so does this chamber our government and our residents who come here to engage with us I appreciate so much our constituents that are here tonight to share your voice and to help solve issues on behalf of the residents of the city this diocese is here to work together to solve problems and I want to thank each of you for being here and serving alongside me as your mayor we're going to help do just that so with that I'll close my comments and move to public comment thank you [Applause] our first speaker is Bob Willoughby and followed by Peter rokus thank you I can't read that but I'll get to it a little bit if you can blow it up where I can read that Top Line of that's good enough that's all right I can read that time when I get to it a little bit okay let's start off with well this is about a community center I got uh removed by the police from not doing a thing not one person a building can say I was disrupted the police no one we've seen the video I did didn't happen it's cost me a thousand dollars so I can go back to the community center to a meeting and I still might have to go so there's something I want to get into later on about this piece of paper with Ahab we should not have in the city we're coming under government control now I've got to give very subtle never get these people any credit down here because they keep doing things that are wrong okay you're saying right I'd be glad to put in a paper I had to give Maddie I have to give you some credit and I'm gonna try to say this without getting kicked out of here okay Mr Crane Jared Maddie has more blank than both of y'alls put together because she did spend 30 minutes with me and neither one of y'all have that to do with me okay now give her that point I ordered that was a personal attack was that a personal attack did I get killed or not just keep going Bob that's right keep going please that's your warnings okay okay but anyway I think you ought to have a personal meeting with me she did okay but you won't do that okay anyway but now the answer was the main one was about I always been complaining about and take away our right to speak and Maddie gave me an answer and she would have done that when I was offering a thousand dollars they've been good enough to accept but it's not the real one I believe deep down inside and not living but it's acceptable what you said well she took away all right speak because no one cared no one that's why I understood it that people didn't come down they didn't care about a right speaking to city council and the difference between a council meeting and this this is a public comment that's all it is you come down here you comment they go home you go home council meeting you should get an answer now I did ask Maddie how about changing this to a q a okay I could handle that now if you want to leave us out there and have a q a here that would be good but this is not a q a you just come down to comment now it's cheaper for me to come down here invent them and just go to counseling I'll take advantage of that okay but nevertheless taking our right away to speak the way I see it is it's like a weapon for us you may not never use it but you don't get rid of it I got a 38 special at home I had never had to use it but thank God it's there if I need it and my right to speak I feel the same way about it you got to put it back thank you all right get on that I still got 20 seconds oh that's about this point I'm here this is what I hate they gave this one here to me at the end of it says I can go back to it it says however just as any other candidate hey you talking about me must remember not to create a disturbance see they they're setting me up at some kind of and I've never have and the video will show this and I'm going to document it it'll come down here and apply and it'll actually show that Gina bibbons caught that's not an attack Gina bibbons calls his service because you can see her pointing her finger she interrupts and she did all this but the police accused me we're going to change it before I'm through I don't care if I get elected or not we're going to change it thank you our next speaker is Peter rokus followed by Dan Hayes um Mr rocus no I'll come back if he comes in next speaker is Dan Hayes followed by Angela McKinney good evening mayor and Council my name is Dan Hayes and I live in soon to be District 11. last week my daughter and I went to the Water Gardens neither of one of us had been there in a long time and if you haven't been in a while I would encourage you to see the condition it's in the walls were dry and the quiet pool instead of water cascading down them the spray pool is obviously over chemicalized and has turned the adjacent concrete a blue-green color the active pool has lots of unattractive stains and areas where water is not flowing as intended every exposed aggregate surface is dirty and appears to have not been cleaned in a long time many of the shrubs are past their Prime and what flowers there are outside the entrances where nothing to get excited about overall there was a very evident need for maintenance I learned yesterday from Joe mcelhaney that there is Bond money to make repairs but not enough to bring this park back to something to be proud of Heritage Park has been closed for years for lack of funding for maintenance and repairs and is just now starting to see millions of dollars in renovations however unlike Heritage Park which will never likely see the same number of visitors the Water Gardens is within a short walk of several hotels and the convention center is right next door we are definitely not putting our best foot forward when these folks visit having spent my entire career in maintenance I know this park must be a major consumer of time and money but it must be done right and just as a reminder a lack of proper maintenance and upkeep or contributing factors to six people losing their lives and several others being injured in two separate incidents in the 1990s someone needs to take a hard look and figure out how to get this park back to being the beautiful and refreshing Oasis it's intended to be the bond money already allocated is not enough according to Joel the next bond election is at least three years away and that's a long time to have a major downtown asset showing its age thank you very much thank you Dan sounds like you're already connected with Joel which is just the right person but I know that several of us including councilmember Beck who's here remotely have talked about the prioritization of this water garden we thank you very much for coming this evening our next speaker is Angela McKinney followed by Jim DeLong thank you good evening Council my name is Angela McKinney I came and spoke about loud music happening in the Lake Como neighborhood on June the 21st 2022 here I am again today same issue the problem is documented undocumented Nationals from Mexico out of the good ones there is the bad group bringing loud Tejano music in the form of live bands and Loud bass speakers the Backyard Band will start at 9 00 pm and end the next early morning at 1 to 2 A.M or they were utilize their vehicles to blur their music this Behavior disturbs the elderly the physically disabled children and working class we are captive audiences within our homes residents are tired of the disrespect and choose not to do self-help but call law enforcement to terminate the violation it does not do any good when an officer who elects to show up four hours later after the group has decided on their own to stop I was told by a Forest Hill resident that Forest Hill Police does not allow this to happen in their City because if they have to return what is said to them is action will be taken this nips the action in the bud now when they start to move into the upper Elite neighborhoods and display this behavior is this when there is going to be a big outcry that will result in noise enforcement and control some Nationals are millionaires through the illegal drug trade and can't afford the elite neighborhood so don't be fooled that because they have a lawnmower in cutting your grass that they can't afford your neighborhood it's just a cover and also let them know that blue and red strobe lights on their vehicles are illegal enforce the noise ordinance it has gotten out of control thank you thank you Miss McKinney our next speaker is Jim Delong followed by Gwendolyn Buffington good evening my name is Jim Delong and tonight I want to talk about a bullet I love classic Western movies I watch them all the time and I don't know how many times in a movie someone gets shot sometimes they're out you know in uh in the plains and not around a town and what do they do when someone gets shot with a bullet and they'll take a knife and they know they got to get that bullet out of there sometimes you shoot and the bull will go through then you can patch it up and no problem but if you don't take care of the bullet you can clean the wound you can sew it up you can put a sterile bandage on it with the bullets still in there and you're going to have problems the Civil Rights Act 1965 from the Civil Rights Act to 2012. 14 trillion dollars were spent so if you take that up to to uh 2022 we're probably looking at around 20 trillion dollars spent we've spent 20 trillion dollars trying to patch up the wound sterilize it make it look nice but the bullet's still in there we have as much racial problems and angst amongst people and division amongst people today than we had in 1965. we've spent 20 trillion dollars and we continue to spend that much money and we're patching things up we're making it look nice but the bullet's still in there so the challenge is what are we going to do to address the bullet and the bullet has to do with our character the bullet has to do with the world view there are some people that are just naturally angry people I'm glad I'm not one of them I choose to be an optimist but if we don't deal with the condition of our hearts our hearts all we're doing is patching things up and we haven't seen much improvement after 20 trillion dollars that's a lot of money if you divided that money amongst every poor person in our country they'd have tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars individually so I encourage you all let's not try to patch the problem let's try to go and pick and get to the root of the problem the bullet and try to extract that bull so we can have a a city where we can live in harmony and unity together where we can respect one another and honor one another and and build consensus and grow into the city of The Shining Light On The Hill that we all desire it to be thank you our next speaker is Gwendolyn Buffington followed by Joe Guerrero good evening my name is Gwendolyn Buffington I'm speaking on behalf of myself I'm a 65 year old woman who had worked for Mr Gary Coston for over seven years as his caregiver I recently had to go to court Probate Court under judge Allen judge Allen has manifested a bad feeling and it seems as though it's just been chaos from the beginning of the trial to now she has asked me personal questions about my son she has came at me about things that are just inconsiderate and my lawyer as well as the attorney's in question from Mrs Fields have all gotten together since they've all gotten together against me but I found out that my lawyer Jack Schuster judge Brooke Allen Morgan Fields family and her attorney Moses Powell and Howell were all in this thing together the judge levied up my home my personal properties in all of my accounts because she said if I were to return to court again Mrs Fields would have the right to come at me in that manner taking everything that I owned Mrs Fields has stated that I worked for Mr constant and I was the only person involved in caring for him so therefore I was the only person in about in and out of his home in question during the year of 2016. I submitted records to her showing that there were two agencies in the home as well as myself the judge went on to proceed and asked me how many people were in the house I provided her with documentation uh they came at me again with saying that I stole money from Mr Carson's account I did not steal money for Mr Constance account I was a joint owner which was set in court Mrs Fields stated that I was not a joint owner I was only a beneficiary to sum up the whole thing in question was Mr constant left me a will a power of attorney which when Mr Carson felt sick I Gwendolyn Buffington adhered to everything in every condition that he had provided in writing to me his family was contacted I was concerned enough to even contact all of his friends after contacting everyone I was called by his sister okay so do you have 30 seconds oh okay so therefore like I said as a good person I acknowledge everybody's request what they wanted what they needed from me I went ahead and I made funeral arrangements I was attacked at the funeral home by Margaret and Benjamin field so therefore I turned over the conclusion of the funeral to be handled by his sister Miss Bonnie Raider all I'm saying is Judge Allen and everyone involved in this it has not been professional and I have been making this Buffington thank you for coming thank you our next speaker is Joe Guerrero followed by Victoria Vargas mayor members of the council my name is Joe Guerrero I'm the president for the worth height neighborhood association I'm here um in regards to some concerns that we've had and um the purpose of our organization is provide and organize framework to promote and enhance the quality of life and the value of worth Heights neighborhood I love the city of Fort Worth I was born to hear 79 years ago I'm still here thank God and um we've done a lot with work with the city of Fort Worth and uh we have um have have had a lot of good Ventures with City of Fort Worth I've owned a business in Sundance Square for over 30 years and my I have um some concerns that I'm going to pass over to our next speaker Victoria that we'll start it over no problem Madam mayor and city council my name is Victoria Bargas and I currently reside in District 9 soon to be an 11. um haven't just heard my colleagues presentation we have a good history of a neighborhood association and our involvement with the city of Fort Worth so you can imagine how shocked and quite frankly we were angry and I should say we still are that our library the Fort Worth Public Library Seminary South Branch was a very unceremoniously and rudely closed the issue is two-pronged the first is the very disrespectful way this transpired no notice was given to the community where the library resided and his residence patronized on a regular basis not just the orth Heights neighborhood but surrounding neighborhoods including brentmore Rosemont Clark South Hemphill Heights Fairmont just to name a few there was absolutely no transparency in the way this was implemented no Outreach no Community meetings nothing are these decisions made unilaterally and if so by whom are they made by a committee or by Library staff when you take away a valuable resource you should at least ask what the community thinks and how we feel about it that didn't happen is this the Fort Worth way second to find out what happened we had to reach out ourselves to library employees and ask why why were we not told and why was such a valuable Bill resource taken away stand-alone libraries are being built all over the city so why would this Library be closed we were told a seminary Branch was underutilized which came as quite a surprise since the library was always crowded and the parking lot was always full it is very difficult to believe since children and adults were always seen coming and going data was not offered to how this conclusion was reached don't take a resource away from a community that uses it and depends on it for so many things the things the library is meant for a place to learn to read to come together a library a valuable resource that has been in a community for 50 plus years is just shut down and taken away for no good reason for no reason at all thank you Miss Vargas next speaker on here is Laura Rios is Laura here Laura Laura will be followed by Richard Gonzalez just a second mysterious let's make sure the microphone's on just one moment thank you that's better thank you my name is Laura Rios I'm also here about the library this library was once very well used unlike the worth Fort Worth History Center whose parking lot sits empty most days what we got was a glorified storefront daycare now called a grande is very deceiving for the simple fact that there's nothing Grand about it truly it's nothing but a Bonafide joke that's putting it nicely this this decision was made with the input of a Hispanic organization from Clear across town who knows nothing about us rather than the input of its surrounding Community our community was stripped of its voice how disrespectful who in their right mind finds this justifiable once a year worth Heights Elementary School would make trips to the library to introduce the children to all the advantages they had at their fingertips you have managed to strip this neighborhood of its resources at a time when illiteracy is at its highest safety accessibility and lack of resources resources are the first thing that come to mind as this location this location's parking lot is dimly lit and crime ridden the location also has no access to a bathroom inside to get to the nearest bathroom you have two choices enter the marketplace or enter a long dimly lit Corridor there are no doors to buffer out the noise from the surrounding stores and there is clearly not enough books does this sound like a library you or your children would come to let alone does this Library sound like it would be your first choice to obtain knowledge and resources just think about it as elected officials you should work alongside and receive input from all communities to understand their wants and their needs because as we know one shoe does not fit all worth Heights neighborhood we were tossed a bone expected graciously to accept it I'm here today in hopes that a wrong can be made right as there is no other way around it worth Heights neighborhood deserves a freestanding state-of-the-art building and we will accept nothing less thank you thank you Miss Rios our next speaker is Richard Gonzalez followed by Adrian Smith thank you city council and mayor for this opportunity to speak about obviously a library need for the words Heights community I'm Richard Gonzalez and I'm a member of the worth Heights neighborhood associations books for the Barrio the city has a history of meeting book needs of various communities currently there are 19 libraries throughout Fort Worth however newspaper and Library reports show Vivian J Lincoln Library to open this year at a cost of 9.6 million taken from a 2018 bond election funding Community gave input through Community meetings about this Library about what that Community wanted to see in that Library over 5 000 votes were garnered to name the library Vivian J Lincoln for now for an admired outstanding educator of the Crowley Independent School District I read also that the city was planning to purchase land you may have done it by now on Avondale Haslet Road in Northwest Fort Worth for the anticipated population growth please note the word anticipated because there are no people yet there newspaper reports the city was a communication with John and Tracy Westrom who operate Westrom group property to purchase the land from them once the land is purchased City would contact architects for designs the Ruby Cary youth library opened on August 14 2021 funded by 2014 bond election for 3.25 million Ruby Carey was a respected educator and civil rights worker from the African-American community of Fort Worth do you see as you can see when there was a community need for books and state-of-the-art libraries Fort Worth citizens and the city Administration the city council stepped up and passed bonds to fund these valuable resources Community involvement and discussions were the method of determining and Discerning the needs of the community books for the body of solution we asked that the Fort Worth City Council utilize the same methodology that you did in the other areas of this city in planning and funding and expanding an expanded Library Services as you did in other neighborhoods with the worthwhites community center we want the same Mo that you saw in other areas we asked the city council and mayor promote reading and worth Heights by making available a new library for books in the body in worth Heights we appreciate the isaris but the isaris don't put books in the hands of children's and parents instead of the ice Aris we rather hear let's work together from the start we ask your support in putting in a new library however you need to fund that please undertake that immediately thank you Mr Gonzalez our next speaker is Adrian Smith followed by James Smith Adrian Smith I am one with the people the Fort Worth community Community Arts Center has been a light shining bright within the arts district for 69 years and counting it has provided opportunity space and an outlet for all creative minds with creative minds within the Arts Community for the purpose of expressing and sharing their Artistry Artistry gifts his continual contribution to the history of forward Fort Worth however is now up against a 26 million dollar revitalization effort that it can't fight alone to the Arts Community know that I stand with you in your resilience for ensuring that Arts can continue moving forward there's no reason you should be fighting for funding from this city given how much you've contributed to the livelihoods of all Native all visitors that have benefited from your giving it just takes leadership being willing to place the will of the people above that which only serves their personal interest to the appointed task force your recommendations are what this Council will adhere to however it doesn't pass the smell test why create a task force when a collective voices of the community are greater I get it it's an election year and this is the time when people usually say and do whatever that will keep them elected I ask you to do what's necessary to ensure the Fort Worth Community Arts Center is funded and content and can continue forward to this Council you've already fumbled the ball with the with the new city hall 50 million dollar debacle and let's not forget the 8.5 million dollar renovation initiative designated for the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum you do know that was the people's money right made possible by means of the American Rescue plan Act either you just don't get it or you just don't care it's that simple and as I uh return to my seat and I just want to say with that opening mayor Kudos but remember everything is for interpretation so that matter that occurred two months ago remember it's for individuals interpretations um I wish we would have had this same voice in you know stance when the POA attacked uh Council newly elected council members uh maybe was it a year ago when they made a had a had a vote against a particular agenda item and the people I heard of people talking with all y'all listening and Mr Mr Williams that's your constituent up there she's no longer in three she's in uh six Mr Smith that's your constituents she needs help she needs help our next speaker is James Smith followed by Kara Martinez good afternoon Council my name is James Smith I live in District eight I want to start by saying thank you to councilman Nettles and mayor Pro tem Bivens for attending the unveiling of the toxiana Jefferson car at Hillside as well as thanking the mayor and Mr Crane for the generous food offering uh a while back it was told to me that the city and some clergy were working on ways to honor Tatiana I'm still wondering and waiting with that honor will be her friends have honored her the community has honored her her family has created a foundation for her and I got a lot of feedback from the neighborhood saying what is the city going to do it wasn't just a South Side thing that's was from some of the people that were against the name change that obviously have softened up in in agreement with me so we're still waiting on the city's response months ago a young man was arrested and convicted of murder in the city of Fort Worth for a shooting it turns out to be a self-defensitive Act I remember that story I remember that story well and the revelations that have come forth now are nowhere compared to the original story that came out that brings me to their police accountability I'm not sure if you heard the 911 tape of that incident of the caller but it was clear on that 911 call that those patrons were being shot at when the police arrived to the scene the caller the callers were accosted and thrown to the ground and arrested narrative because I have a problem with narrative because it takes me back to 29 2019. narratives are important and if your narrative is a truthful narrative then you won't have any problem with the narrative but an untruthful narrative eventually would be uncovered untruth so I'll be back uh police accountability truth transparency and I was just given this survey of how to improve the quality of life and forward truth transparency and accountability thank you thank you Mr Smith our next speaker is Cara Martinez followed by Gerald Miller is Kira here no Gerald Miller followed by Manuel Mata my name is Gerald Miller and first and foremost I'd like to thank each of you for doing your Civic duties Madam mayor mayor Pro tem and the other esteemed members and you do have some exceptional members of the city staff you know Miss Washington comes to mind um many other people who serve this city Faithfully that are TransPass transplants and there are issues with this city I'm a Fort Worth native son I left in New York to enter the music business and had my first Grammy by the age of 21. I then became Lauren Hill's manager and talked to her into leaving the Fugees and committing creating an album The miseducation which we proudly did and when I came back home in 2018 I was proud to be back home I was happy I've always given to the community I've always tried to give back to people no matter what the age race religion sexual orientation anything and you know me as a gentleman who about Su about two months ago was arrested for theft of my own dog now I was arrested I was put through the system those charges after being put in the system and arrested within 36 minutes of being taken of my animal being taken to animal control they adopted my animal out again right they and it was a concerted effort in which animal Control Officers falsified information that they gave and provided to the police that was materially false and based upon that animal controls offers all officers statements which were knowingly false the police issued a probable cause one basically to just take my animal away so my animal was taken away three weeks later the charges were dropped but I do fundraising for large-scale events having crew having received funds from people like the Ford Foundation the National Endowment of the Arts so imagine what it looks like when I'm talking with people and they're doing background checks and they see now that there is an arrest for theft right so now I am going through the process where I have to spend close to seven to eight thousand dollars of my own personal money to get that arrest expunged from the record and from the system and there's no accountability being held anywhere by anybody last at the last meeting I gave y'all a 90 85 page document with a nine page timeline of all the actions and 78 pages of exhibits that I attained through City records from subpoenas and nobody has ever reached out and contacted me about those documents from anybody on this board even though you've shown up on a Friday lunch Branch ready to talk to people that's it I'll be back thank you Mr Miller our next speaker is Manuel Mata hello my name is Manuel Martin I'm a resident of Fort Worth and uh our medical examiners our chief of police the judges and family court the district attorneys the criminal court judges Internal Affairs police unions co-compliance some court appointed lawyers who have become Criminal Court Chiefs lie do you know why they lie you only have 30 to 60 days to file a complaint on a police officer to Internal Affairs which is the city of Fort Worth Police Department you have two years to file a claim for any misconduct or wrongful anything before it expires in Texas our annual budget goes to each of these while certain parts of the city suffer because of the misuse and violation of the public records request to withhold or destroy evidence to help the real victims who have to become lawyers public record request experts learn how to file emotions understand the policies and procedures in family criminal and civil courts how to file complaint to the state Commission on judicial conduct for judges and the State Bar of Texas for lawyers the residents of the city continue to speak out but it's only a certain part so it's okay over and over we're working on it we are going to come up with a plan soon we have to follow our meet and confer labor agreement that only a few in this room took pardon MNC 20-6356 the approved version on 8 4 2020 which is on the city's website under the legislation section right do do my question is do the intake sergeants look at both police reports and body cam footage not help them to write it over and take up to four hours two hours later that don't match because while the case is open we cannot get affidavits or body camera footage that proves our innocence or their misconduct lupus the family court is being used as a weapon to silence or get even not even thinking of the kids I have a question do any of you know if the kids have legal representation in these procedures everybody's saying the same thing and it's kind of like give certain people less of Hope right because it's like they come up here certain people are shunned ridiculed or whatever right but the message isn't getting through because some people are stuck on Kill the Messenger not the message so wow everyone picks their point on who it is Focus please Council I believe that's the conclusion of our public comments this evening with that meeting adjourned