thank you good evening and welcome to your Fort Worth City council meeting public comment session I'll call us to order please rise for the invocation tonight's invocation will be by Pastor Christopher dardar from the East Point Church of Christ and please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance let us pray father we thank you so much for this opportunity tonight to serve our city and we ask the god of things that are shared tonight will be useful and advantageous to the overall growth of our city and for its residents we ask that you bless each council member and our mayor that they'll be used for your glory and your honor bless us tonight in Jesus name we pray amen the United States of America the first item in business will be consideration of the minutes from the December 6 2022 meetings and the January 10th and January 24th meetings good to approve a motion in a second any other discussion Council please vote mayor that concludes the action items for tonight the rest are the public comments thank you our first speaker will be Pam Hudson followed by Bob Willoughby good evening my name is Pam Hudson I live in Foster Park I'm here today to talk about the analysis of short-term rental data first let me quote the 2018 ordinance whereas in the city of Fort Worth short-term home rentals are not specifically defined expressly permitted or listed in any of the zoning use categories provided in the youth tables in 2018 stras were prohibited in residential zones solely on the basis that they were never allowed or provided for in the zoning use categories there was no public forum for debate about where they should be allowed and though data was gathered or analyzed in December a decision was made to not change where they would be allowed based solely on numerous complaints made by some residents are important decisions made by City typically based on numerous complaints alone for important decisions I presume the city gathers data analyzes data and engages subject matter experts to discuss the data before making a decision the city has had short-term rental complaint data for almost four years ever since the term was added as a category to the zoning Complaint Form and has had data from Deckard Technologies identifying the location of those in unallowed zones for six months has there been any data analysis to substantiate the concerns of those who protest allowing short-term rentals in residential zones do the unallowed Str properties have any greater occurrence of code compliance issues nuisance reports or property maintenance issues or criminal activity compared to other properties in the same neighborhoods either the data in City Records will substantiate the claims against short-term rentals and residential zones or it doesn't but without this analysis protesters can behind can hide behind and anecdotal testimony of that one house on their street that had a party one time and the city can use these unsubstantiated or few and far between occurrences to justify to continue to take away property rights of residents the decision to not modify where short-term rentals are allowed was based on conjecture and emotion no data has been presented that short-term rentals reported in the last four years or those identified by the deckard's report in unallowed zones pose any problems for residents other than the fact that they exist and some residents don't like it I encourage the city to perform analysis on data related to short-term rentals to evaluate if these assertions regarding short-term rentals are true do short-term rentals disproportionately impact residential zones by way of nuisance complaints or code compliance issues or crime if not restrictions on where they're allowed should be changed when decisions are made not Based on data but based on the opinion of one small segment of the population another segment is disenfranchised and in this case has had their property rights stripped without legitimate justification so I encourage you to please do some analysis our next speaker is Bob Willoughby followed by Peyton Jackson let me turn around I want you to see this is a City website and the first thing you'll not see anything about elections they never put on there about elections they don't put on there right now is it time to get on the ballot it's not on there Michelle gook's in charge of community engagement and news she won't tell you about elections nothing about it okay you got to know to go to uh what is it departments then City Secretary and then look down and see elections buried in there that's shameful thank you okay I'll give this one up right quick let's follow the money Trail that's what this one's about oh you gotta narrow it down there for me will you fix that whatever because what it's saying here is the money Trail we the people pay the police to protect us okay the police pay the POA millions of dollars in POA dues and then the POA turns around and buys candidates come on down a bit lower and you'll be able to see Gina bibbons uh mayor Maddie Parker they get hundreds of thousand dollars so the money starts off in the taxpayer goes to the police through the PLA and right back to them our money that's what they run on we got to stop this that's that's shameful and I'm going to show you something else here oh one other thing Gina bibbons uses the police to remove people from meetings they use the police remove me and the senator investigate but they're not going to do anything about it but she does I dare her to come on my show and defend herself she can't do that well I don't lose some weight loss running back and forth I hope okay I did this two weeks ago I put this up said I'd give a thousand dollars to Saint Jews Children's Hospital okay I'll do that without a heartbeat if these two mayor Maddie Parker who wants to be mayor again and promere Gina bibbons Who Wants To Be Your council member again if they'll answer a question that is the premise of the job to answer questions I'm willing to pay a thousand dollars to get to answer one question it's on here you go back and look at it question is why did you remove our Public Presentation from the city council agenda you know what's the difference between Fort Worth and Richland Hills Austin and Denton Texas you can speak at City Council meetings there you don't at Fort Worth they don't they think they're better than us they have put us down lower and them on a pedestal we're not good enough to be at Council meetings to speak there we're not on the gym anymore and they'll lie and say oh yeah you can speak it's not true we're not on the agenda you ought to be ashamed of yourself our next speaker is Peyton Jackson Peyton will be followed by Jeff Barlett noon Council and happy Black History Month it's been said that we can't get reparations on a federal level due to lack of national nationality you see black is a color and most of us actually weren't born in Africa to be considered African-American but luckily Congress already has something on the table just not on the floor called H.R 40. but I am here for a more local solution because what I don't understand is how we can be first in a nation to be committed to mining Bitcoin but not 12th in line to be committed to issuing reparations to the black community you can walk in as many parades as you want but I know Optics when I see them so if you want to say that you're not your ancestors prove it if you want to pretend that you run an inclusive Administration prove it if you want to portray that your racist Hometown that still holds KKK meetings to this day didn't have an effect on you prove it because there is a moral debt that needs to be paid about a year ago you participated in a panel and mentioned and I quote not talking about it isn't the answer now I'm not sure if you were referring back to your friend that's a part of a KKK family or racism itself but you are absolutely right Parker not talking about it isn't the answer but just talking about it isn't the answer either I don't have time with the three minutes that I've been given to break down how to fit this into your budget but let's move forward on what reparations could should and would look like we're in Fort Worth where the West Begins so I was thinking that we could recreate the original Homestead Act that gave away free land in the west to Citizens right before my people were deemed worthy enough to become citizens no what about making black residents tax exempt now seeing as though we represent the Lesser population of the city it shouldn't be a problem what about education she seems to be a great advocate for that two year four year Masters no well what about calling up Granger to tell her about HR 40. it's too much tell Gene I said good night next speaker will be Jeff Bartlett I am uh Jeff Bartlett I'm a resident over in uh Haltom City and today I'd like to speak up against uh the Fort Worth's uh vehicle for hire permit to regulations because I don't think this is a good regulation to have as a city like I think that if someone wants to run a simple business they shouldn't have to spend a 500 fee if they wanted to start like a taxi business for example and one fly I want to point out to this I think this is crony capitalism in my opinion because you have uh let's say if someone wanted to start a taxi business for example and this can be other businesses like the point I'm getting at is you have uh ride sharing companies that are exempt from getting a vehicle for hire a permit and it makes it to the point where uh if someone wants to go up go to start a business like this on their own what ends up happening is they'd have to pay a 500 fee for a permits to get a vehicle for like higher permits but if someone wants to go be a ride sharing driver they don't have to get that permit and uh these ride sharing companies are paying people as independent contractors which is kind of a concern especially when people are not making that type of money not making as much money as if they were to do something on their own and this this is crony capitalism in my opinion because requiring someone to get a permit than exempting like certain other companies I think this has caused big Tech monopolies to rise in this industry and I think this issue needs to be addressed thank you for your time and God bless our next speaker is Adrian Smiths who will be followed by lashondra Huggins Adrian Devon Smith let the words of my mouth and meditations on my heart be acceptable and thou sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer read it so first I stand here to uh offer my prayers and condolences and Thoughts with the people of Syria in Turkey who are currently in the midst of the aftermath of massive earthquakes which have shaken and just brought their countries to a standstill we know that war and um just a broken government and just the desire to destroy lives as pretty much uh made this situation even worser you know so and we are in the dead of winter so people are currently as they go through the recovery process now which they don't have the infrastructure or the necessary equipment to do what we we could do here in in the event of a massive earthquake they are basically depending on their neighbors you know hands you know physical labor you know they are concerned about their people so I just say let's stand uh it's my prayer and my condolences to those people who are dealing with this and then let's not forget about the um the uh what comes after when the earthquakes happen the the Tremors or the aftermath the aftershocks this that or the other so they still in the midst of that as well so I stand with you to the people of Syria and turkey now to what's I'm really uproot for I'm a frequent uh viewer of the Tarrant County medical examiners uh web page where you can see the causes of death for individuals and I do it often you know to see the causes of death for individuals or people having to research individuals to see what the causes of death are um but I stand up here because I have seen an alarming number of our elderly citizens who have transpired 60s 70s 80s 90s I mean this is week after week I'm seeing elderly people names or being presented on this Tarrant County medical examiners report a lot don't have causes of death so I'm assuming there's a backlog but I truly believe and I'm not here to and I don't believe in provoking fear but just thought for dialogue and conversation I'm hoping that the covert vaccinations uh are not the cause of all these deaths because it is very alarming to have all these elderly people passing at this rate and if you're interested by all means check it out thank you our next speaker is lashondra Huggins I don't see lashondra we'll come back if she comes in Bishop Kirkland followed by George Charles I must be honest after my last city council meeting that I attended about that I was done I took a vacation I went to joburg Soweto Durbin in Cape Town I visited the apartheid Museum dedicated to the lake South African president Nelson Mandela of all the exhibits and artifacts one particular exhibit caught my attention there was a room with 131 nooses hanging from the Raptors each of those nooses represented students that were hanging for demonstrating against apartheid's Wicked system I thought Within Myself if they could die for a cause and my work is not done I was upset at that meeting because you guys made an issue about a lack of trust with the cheap it was not about the chief then nor is it an issue against the chief now the chief Advisory Board cab is not what your constituency or the stakeholders ask for don't ask us for what we want and then when will you tell us then when we tell you you tell us what we need today I attended the work session it was confirmed that there's some fight left and Noel marine and the boy born in stop six mayor Parker I disagree with you only once today and that's when you say we have to have nice conversations but ma'am the scripture says that that iron sharpened iron sometimes things are going to be uncomfortable and combustible expects for Sparks to fly because I'm passionate about my Village and the things that we need to get done from the death of Christmas addicts in 1775 in the Revolutionary War to Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to Kings I have a stream speech from the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to 86 years later we're still asking for protection in the country which is our own councilman Beck I applaud you we need people like you to speak up for us in hard times so that when issues like sb4 come along that when we march with you you will fight with us miss bibbons thank you for speaking in the work session about cab is not what we asked for Miss Washington uh cystic uh city manager I love and appreciate the work that you agree and I do agree that cab is a step forward but it's a baby step and at this point we need to be making Quantum leaps I further agree with Council Nettles and whatever you do Chris please don't change um we need both boards to work together to right the ship I'm afraid that we won't have many opportunities to get it right after the next Jackie Craig or Tatiana Jefferson episode and I want to close and say uh Madam mayor your comments at the end of the work session on that agenda item made me extremely proud to call you my mayor thank you our next speaker is George Childs followed by Alanda Massey my name is George Childs I live in Fort Worth in 1989 I was convicted of the next next thing to a felony because of perjury on the part of then Fort Worth Police Officer Stephen Burrell Carpenter and police booster Buddy Lee Woody this in general is somewhat more than casual interest in the subjects of cameras and civil review as to cameras that's a done deal dude the only question about them now is that the police act the way they do while being recorded how much worse did they act before as to civil review I felt a short short-lived glimmer of hope about a couple of years ago finding out why it was short-lived led me to police unions and that inevitably led me to Ronald G the Lord who virtually invented police unions as they exist today on January 24th I felt a very strong glimmer if that's not a contradiction in terms even allowing for wishful thinking I believe I heard some speakers come right to the brink of suggesting that all they would need to reject a candidate for city council out of hand was that they were supported by a police Union it is to those that I now speak it is essential to understand that much of the support of police unions by ordinary voters is based on two undeniable facts the first is that police protect lies and property to some extent to some degree the second is that police unions protect police this is all that many people want to hear on the subject because it is so clear-cut this is true of many mindsets that ignore regrettable facets of human nature this wall is far from unassailable when seeking ammunition look first to the other side one unto you the Lord has co-authored three books teeming with expressions of contempt for many facets of democracy the first is close to being a collector's Adam with the second and third or not extend see especially if the cost is shared quoting statements for them to candidates at forums and other position statements will vividly illustrate just what they are approving of when they accept POA support and it's not just the books my favorite of Mr the Lord saying elected officials are willed or beasts who will get the message if the union cheetah strikes one of them down came off the internet try both Rhonda Lord and Ronald G the Lord attorney at law I'm saying this now because being 80 years old I've been statistically dead for over two years the chances of steadily declining that I'll be around for the next election or when Mr Gillard brings his band of wandering minstrels to town for the next meet and capitulate to those that have seen the truth spread it I implore you spread it our next speaker is Alonda Massey followed by Marlena Tillman good evening I'm gonna pick up where I left off when I sit everybody an email telling you I would explain to you how your decision to to change the name of Hillside to be a Tatiana Carr Jefferson Recreation Center at Hillside the hillside Rec Center has an after-school program it also has a an at-risk program called coming up for children that are at risk what message do you think you're sending to subliminally to the kids that go to that Rec Center when they see that name what do you think that's going to remind them of somebody that probably looks like them lives in that area was killed by a police officer do you think that's going to help or hurt their perspective of a police officer I talked to your board members and expressed the same thing to them I spoke with Mr Nettles and I didn't get to get as far as I wanted to get but I wanted to come back to you guys and bring this back up I saw where you guys are talking about naming renaming um the White Settlement Road and Miss Beck said she didn't want an oppressive name it should represent something that's not as oppressive I'll bring it the next time because I'm coming back um that's oppression for the people in that Community to be reminded that a young woman was killed in her home they don't need that reminder y'all y'all can do better than that I know you can it's not fair to your officers it's not fair to the community we get in that neighborhood we're going to get the officers that have the least amount experience based on a lot of different other factors that I understand I'm not getting into but you put them in danger too because they're going to be facing children who are reminded that someone dressed like them came to that community and kill someone that looks like those children y'all gotta fix that there are other names there are other places that you can honor Miss Jefferson and what happened other than the hillside Rec Center where they have children that are at risk eight out of 10 chances at some point they're going to run into a police officer at some point what do you think they're gonna say and what I can't forget is Miss Bivins said we don't want to be on the wrong side of this thing when it all shakes out you're on the wrong side because you're putting a bunch of children and I feel like at risk trying to honor somebody you have the right intention the best intention but you're putting it in the wrong place it's not going to help it's going to hurt and when I come back I'll talk about how economically it can hurt and I'm gonna talk to someone that does grief counseling with children I implore you to do the same thing Mr Nettles please address the rest of the council members thank you Miss Massey our next speaker is Marlena Tillman followed by Madeline Moore uh good evening my name is Maria Elena Tillman I've been a resident of Fort Worth since August 2021 and I'm here on behalf of your communities of interest in Fort Worth I'm from district four um we've had some issues with landlords in the area and I've consulted with many people in the area police officers fire departments and even the tenants within my neighborhood and we found that a lot of landlords get away with a lot of things that the city of Fort Worth get away with doing um the first thing I'd like to address is the fact that rent is really high aside from inflation the landlords and the communities of Interest are also sent are near areas of opportunity which is driving the rent up and we're already not getting the services that we're paying for I started attendance Association my landlord retaliated against me and the members of my the members of my attendance Association actually witnessed that happening and I'm expecting to be evicted from my apartment because I'm withholding rent just to have the opportunity to speak with my landlord on behalf of the tenants in my neighborhood to get what we are paying for and what we need um in addition to that uh with the rent going up it looks like a lot of the tenants are moving out of your communities of interest and if you push us out the Hispanic and the black community who are the diverse council members on our panel who are you guys going to represent if we're no longer there who are you guys protecting um who are you guys speaking up for and so that was one of my main concerns um secondly uh Fort Worth Police Department their budget I know that you guys already decided on the budget a while ago and when you you guys did all of that um that budget is 5.67 too high for the Department to be negotiating with the criminals in the neighborhoods and so I just want you guys to think about that thank you our next speaker is Madeleine Moore it's a phone call Miss Moore go ahead Madeline Moore I'm waiting for uh to address concerns that I have in my district about uh common things and that happened like New Year's Eve banging with the fireworks and the Fourth of July with the fireworks that are very very uh tremendous and um they uh my district person has not addressed those nor has he called any types of meeting to discuss things other than [Music] things that are not assigned to him like uh representing uh the judges of the court to order people uh to have a have a hearing or uh hearing date set for uh respectfully uh Tatiana Jefferson he has he has been out of his Lane and another dressing problems that we have uh in this particular uh District and I'm waiting for an ordinance to be passed also for them to uh for this person to address doctor uh at all odd times of the morning uh people play their music and uh they're playing it uh from sun up to Sunset those are the things that uh we as voters need to address first because charity begins at home and then it spreads abroad so if he'll stay in his Lane and attend to those problems that he has in his district uh I'm sure that everything else will follow thank you Miss Moore Council that looks to be the end of our speakers this evening thank you and meeting adjourned