e the city council public comment meeting before mayor Parker calls a meeting to order we ask that you please silence all electronic devices for those of you who have requested to speak there are two podiums in the chamber the podium in the back is for individuals with Mobility concerns we ask all others to step forward to the front Podium each Podium has a countdown clock located to the speaker's right that will indicate how much time is remaining when you have 30 seconds left a bell will sound and when your time has ended the Bell will sound a second time indicating to wrap up your comments before you begin your comments please state your name thank you and welcome to the before city council public comment session I'll call us to order and turn it back over to Janette tonight's invocation will be given by Pastor Patrick Winfield of The Potter's House Fort Worth please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of allegience let us bow our heads for word of prayer father we love you and we thank you so much we invoke your presence into these proc seedings we ask for the spirit of counsel and wisdom the spirit of understanding father discernment we pray father that all things that are spoken about father uh would be heard and we ask and pray that this level of hearing father will cause for the heart to be comforted I pray father that things that need to be changed will change things that need to shift will shift and that you would be the author and the finisher of all things it's in the name of Jesus that we ask we lift up our mayor the whole Council we lift up all of the leaders that are here our chief and police and all of the police officers that are here and everyone uh standing in some position father in the community in the government uh in this city bless us all it's in Jesus name we pray amen unit States of America indivisible mayor and Council our first uh business items are the approval of the minutes from the January 30th and February 6th Council meetings second got a motion and a second Council any discussion please vote I think Charlie's absent motion carries mayor that concludes the action items for tonight the rest are public comment speaker thank you Janette our first Speaker this evening will be Bob Willoughby followed by Cindy bowling they don't want me to get to that thing at all they got you right in and I sent you an email in to tell me what the reason why my video wouldn't play tonight could you copy and paste the rules I couldn't understand why my video wasn't played tonight so let's do this I'm always prepared for two or three things with y'all nowadays I'll start off with the draw highest neighborhood associate okay I've gone through everything what it says in black and white on paper we draw the map we got the 51% we had a bigger map you can't tell what this is but on top the red sign is a John T white neighborhood association and the one underneath it on the next one down is the drawn Heights when we put it on there they took down the whole pole City and all and John T white probably got their sign back and they probably threw mine in the garbage but those are city city Cal horns on top so anyway this is how hard it is to try to get a neighborhood association here here if if it's a real one a legitimate one not one owned by the city not one that turns a blind eye to what the city does man I'm sorry I should be addressing Maddie I you know if I actually address him it's not on purpose it's just out of habit okay um but anyway I draw the map it's all signed and everything all done but Michelle goo doesn't want to give it to me she says no you can s the four houses you have to get 100% not 51% will work with you you have to have 100% so she says some of the people that John T1 they want to stay in their neighborhood association they don't want to op out they don't want to be in ours so my question was to Michelle goo was I sent her an email I said Michelle go would you did you tell these people to contact us if they want out that it's not your decision to make she hadn't answered yet I'd like to know why wouldn't she tell them that we're the drawn highest neighbor Association if they don't want to be in it maybe they contact us because by by the rules we have that but if they don't want to be in they contact us maybe we might redraw the map maybe they might find out they want to get out of the jont T because three of these houses were bullied we had them on the petition first and one was threatened that they couldn't get work DP from the city if they stayed they didn't stay with the John T wat and this proves it here because I can't get the map draw so that show us how crooked the John T white neighbor associ is they have power to break the rules it's owned by Gina bbman council member B controls that neighborhood association 100% And they're not a neighborhood association they're a cityhood so anyway they bullied people out threaten them and scared three out before they couldn't get out but anyway we draw them out I want Michelle good to answer that question and we want to get what's what come to us I done mention it to Ray the supervisor he said on tape that we met our dues we should have it you think you might do that I would appreciate it very much it'd be the first thing you ever done for me thank you our next speaker is Sydney bowling followed by Judy Taylor thank you I'm Cindy bowling I live in East for worth District 11 and I am here to say thank you to visit Fort Worth it was last spring when uh visit Fort Worth's contract came up for Renewal and uh I and my fellow Advocates Judy Taylor and Torchy white spoke in opposition to the contract uh because East Fort Worth wasn't represented at all and uh looking at their map as you see on the screen apparently Fort Worth stopped west of 35 but advancing forward to screen slide two slide two um I'll keep talking since I'm on the clock uh that evening in April led to a wonderful team coming together when Bob Jameson immediately asked us to meet with the visit Fort Worth group to remedy this oversight we started meeting in early May and together we created an amazing representation of East Fort Worth you see part of it if you go to slide three East Fort Worth was not only put on the map but if you click on the East Fort Worth box all kinds of East for worth places pop up if you go to slide four it it it's just wonderful and now Slide Five it was as soon as July of last year that the team met at mebrook library to memorialize our collaborative creation I had so much fun working on this project and it's one one of the most rewarding contributions I have participated in for East Fort Worth and our city of Fort Worth it's been wonderful and best of all all we had to do was ask thank you thank you Cindy our next speaker is Judy Taylor followed by Torchy white good evening mayor and Council I'm Judy Taylor I live in Hanley part of East Fort Worth having been a part of Fort Worth for over 80 years one of my greatest Adventures was the day that we became a part of working with visit Fort Worth to recognize things that need to be known by visitors to the city of Fort Worth until recently there was no recognition of there being anything part of Fort Worth east of I35 because the openness and the willingness of visit for SPS organization the work with members of the communities of central metab Brook Hanley and historic Carver Heights east of 35 there is now a presence of features such as Gateway Park Trinity Trails Tandy Hills Nature Center historic Hanley and our great wedding District that is nationally known and Texas Westland thank you for recognizing East Fort Worth we appreciate you all thank you thank you Judy next speaker is Torchy [Music] white good evening my name is Torchy white and I reside in District Five in historic Carver Heights we would like to share our Eastside Journey with visit Fort Worth a journey resulting in a praiseworthy outcome as you remember our original question to the representatives of visit Fort Worth last April was if we on the east side don't exist on the Fort Worth tourism map then why should East Side s pay taxes and why should our tax dollars support a $16 million effort that leaves us unrepresented since we are used to being ignored like where it is redheaded stepchildren we were amazingly surprised visit Fort Worth bravely reached out to address this Eastside concern we have often been told that the only time we fall or we fail is when we stop trying well Cindy Judy and I are here to announce that both teams persevered not just once but several times during a long hot summer and we all won we all won for the east side for the East Side residents for the east side business Community the whole of greater Fort Worth and Taran County we are here to thank the visit Fort Worth team of Bob Jameson Tom mat and especially Mitch wden who embraced our historic histories and courageously endured the weekly pushbacks to help bring forth this all-encompassing tourism map this has been a remarkable historic journey and this map gives proof that here on the east side we do exist thank you thank you Torchy and Mitch twt thank you for coming tonight and great work if you're you and your team next speaker is George Charles followed by James Smith my name is George V Charles my wife I live in for on September 26 2023 the mayor chose to make the following statement in video 1 hour 14 minutes 48 seconds quote let me just say for the record since Adrian's probably listening the reason he was trespassed and called calling in by phone is because he thought it was appropriate to curse at and scare the you know what out of our University Little League team that was here about 11 and 12 years old unquote on October 31st 2023 at video 51 minutes 10s seconds the mayor chose to expand that record in two ways quote the only reason our speakers are by phone is that they decided that it would be appropriate to curse at a 12-year-old Little League team unquote copies of the reasons given to the two band people are now before you written and signed by two department heads neither contains the word children or any variation thereof not for the first time I turned to the novel 1984 quote who controls the past controls the future who controls the present controls the past I believe that the mayor made full use of that unpleasant truth about using untruth in order to substitute the written reasons for Banning with statements that are Unwritten unsworn undocumented and could not be answered at the meeting where they were made the desire to protect children is as Primal as Primal gets if the children do not survive to adulthood the tribe does not survive it is that simple as a highly poisonous vein of human history readily shows that makes it very useful F instrument for othering in support of this view I suggest a section of the Holocaust encyclopedia mentioning the deadly myth of blood liable which was based on the LIE of children being butchered in ritual sacri sacrifices that never took place this began in England in 1144 then proceeded Eastward destroying entire communities until he reached Russia and was one of the main reasons for the use of the word pgam all in the name of protecting children from non-existent threats this madness was fundamental to the Nazi takeover of Germany and survived to cause a pogri in Poland in 1946 within my life time beginning on August 12th 1988 and ending two 2,489 days later the McMartin preschool case showed that the results of unsupported allegations concerning children need not rise to the level of Lynch Mob actions to incite a Lynch Mob mentality so I asked the mayor which record am might have believe hers or the one that await your consideration our next speaker is James Smith followed by Jerome Carlos [Music] Johnson afternoon Council my name is James Smith in District 8 I'm kind of surprised that I'm called this early but I signed up yesterday because I thought yesterday was to but that I digress this is my fifth going on my fifth year standing here speaking to you guys I was told the last time that I came here that the wheels of Justice move slow where for the record the wheels of Justice move slow depending on who you are and how much money you have that's just for the record I attended the Ora arguments of AR Aaron Dean for his appeal and in that oral argument the trial was delayed several times based on based on comments made by several dignitaries of the city that being said even though those arguments didn't win him an appeal in fact it was denied you probably know that we move the wheel a little bit more I'd like to regain my life and I can't do that until this incident is over for me and I'm sure the family feels the same way I know that you have a lot of work to do it's a lot of a lot of you got to put into it but the fact remains my neighbor is gone it's been proven that the cop was at fault so I need the city to end this ordeal for me the new ordeal I have is with a friend of mine his name is uel mar I met Manuel Mar three years ago and I'm not gonna say he's on a journey but the journey that I'm on with him I'm troubled by the way he's treated in this city Manuel made a 180 degree turn toward the city of Fort Worth in the police department but I see and I feel he's still being harassed he's being for for elementary term he's being picked on he was arrested a few weeks ago for jayw walking with guns drawn on him now who draws a gun on a jaywalker nothing Manuel has done in my opinion warrants him being arrested as many times he's been arrested just last week Manuel was at a funeral and he was mistaken for someone else that was wanted and he was placed in handcuffs he was put in the police car and he had to beg for his freedom because he wasn't the person they were picking up anybody in Forth knows who Manuel ma is so I'm upset with that particular incident because he wasn't who they were looking for and I'm quite sure they knew he wasn't who they were looking for now I've come down here for five years for Tatiana and if I have to come down here for five years for Manuel or any other body else is being mistreated in the city of for worth I will Justice for Tana jeffon and leniency for Manuel Mar because he's done nothing illegal thank you thank you Mr Smith our next speaker is jome Johnson followed by Yolanda battle good evening my name is Jerome Johnson I serve as the president of the Highland Hills neighborhood association I reside in District 8 in 1964 one of my favorite civil rights activist Fanny L hamr said the famous words we are sick and tired of being sick and tired we the members of the Highland Hills neighborhood association Echo those words that was spoken 60 years ago because we too are sick and tired of being sick and tired tired we're sick and tired of being a community that is not seen or heard by the powers to be in this city we're sick and tired of the Fort Worth way let me give you an example the first week of the year there was a collision on Oak Grove Road which is our main thare there was U some wreckage left there in the form of a car and it was left in front of the non-operational car wash that sits on Oak Grove Road at 1109 Oak grve Road several community members reported the abandoned vehicle yet it is still sitting there in that very same spot I reached out to our n and he advised me that it was a code issue because it's on private property Code Compliance came to our neighborhood association meeting at the beginning of this month and stated well part of the car is on the sidewalk so that means it's public property and it's a police issue I don't care whose issue it is I want the car gone so fortunately for me God worked it out where I had a conversation with Chief noes tonight and he's going to take care of it but it shouldn't take having something like that so simple escalated to the chief of police to move a car that's ridiculous and in my heart I do not believe that Cod nor the police would have taken so long if that car were located on Weston Center Boulevard hen Brian Irving or any other Street that's known for affluence this is common in our city non-responsive city services environmental pollution food deserts food swamps that's all common in poor and workingclass communities and it's nothing new because it's the Fort Worth way however let me reiterate we serve notice tonight that we are sick and tired of being sick and tired and we will make sure that our voices are heard by any means necessary we pray that the powers to be in this city would partner with us to make positive change in our community and again we vote and we have great memories thank you Mr Johnson I may ask a question really quickly if you don't mind thank you I know that you've worked really closely with Tanisha in my office in the past and she's been an excellent help I really enjoyed coming out to Highland Hills I just want you to keep an open communication with my office know council member Nettles as well you're right there's no excuse for that and I'm glad you connected with Chief noes but I will commit to you all Reach Out Tanisha has been ill the last few weeks but someone else in my off okay good she shouldn't be answering the phone right now I hope she wasn't called I figured that's how she is yeah but um we're still here for you and I'm happy to come back out again and visit with you and your neighbors and thank you for being here tonight thank you uhuh thank you our next speaker is Yolanda battle um followed by martesa James good evening cancel I'm Yolanda battle I've been living in Hoten Hills for 18 years now in District 8 I have a few concerns and issues that I would like for you to consider um I'm with Jerome about this car but thank God Chief NOS is going to take care of it um our concern was pointing the the fingers were being pointed from Cod and police so we did all that we were supposed to do but the car is still sitting there now they're ripping it apart you know it's being ripped apart and so it's looking bad in our neighborhood um our neighborhood Oak grve Road sits right I20 and I35 so the main Thor breads the main freeways when you come in our neighborhood it's not clean we need some TLC I love my neighborhood but we need some attention um the corner there's a it's been many things but it was a club at one point then we have uh a car wash that's been inoperable for years we have a drive-thru drug um store if you know what I mean drug store it's a drive up drive-thru window we also have a um another little market it's supposed to be our neighborhood store but it's nothing in there for us to eat or buy or anything that I would want to send my kids in there for so our neighborhood in the front end does not look good it actually disgusts me I live on the far end so I take Campus Drive instead of going up Oak Road because I'm so ashamed I drive around campus drive to go home I own and operate a transportation service so I pick up people and bring them to our community center specifically seniors because we have a new senior program in Highland Hills so just me bringing people new guests and visitors in our community is embarrassing very embarrassing I would like for you to consider a police storefront in hien Hills we would benefit as well as for police would benefit from a storefront in the lot where the taso market is there is lauding Gatherings taking place drug sales stabbings shootings attempted murders and murders have happened here so yes that's a good location for a storefront um and chief I don't know if he's Chief but outage officers he was in agreeance with that being a good location for a storefront which is parallel to our main uh generational drug dealers we have a thank you miss battle I have to cut you off but we'll follow up on the police storefront I'll be touch with you thank you all for being here thank you Miss Miss James is up next followed by Wesley Kirk you can go ahead and start Miss James sh zoom in thank you hello all my name is martasia James and I'm here with the echoist St sixs environmental Coalition and the Tuesday before last I spoke on our infrastructure within our neighborhoods and I do appreciate the necessary people reaching out to um try to schedule tour so that they can see the infrastructure that we talked about previously however the emails that I have received have stated that we wanted to put more signs acknowledging trucks that they aren't supposed to come down certain ways but there're already signs there so I'm trying to figure out what is something else that we can do to prevent trucks from coming down the areas then also right here where it says ehss is where the echo height stop six Community is predominantly and behind it is the Arlington Lake um I probably should have wrote In A Brighter color but these are the connecting interstates that's near us but also there's sagona there's Hearst there's these other communities the behind it within the northw hills area and South Lake that also have connections with other um intersections for freeways and whatnot to where we don't necessarily see trucking companies or more industrial companies or um factoring companies within those areas of those communities but we also see the connection that they have with the um freeways and whatnot that the same area which we stay in have those connections in which we still see the trucking company we still see more industrial companies becoming um more popular within our area and yes still our infrastructure being a concern um since we've been having the Village Creek Bridge being constructed on we've been having more problems at the Miller and um is that no Miller and will barger's intersection under that bridge the lights are too quick we buildt up with traffic that's right there coming out the magical moments daycare is a problem and having be able to able to go through under that bridge also when you come down whe bargain going to carry I believe it is or when you take the back roads on carry to go under the bridge onto Barger we have so many potholes and yes we have seen some people um try to come over and cover it up but covering up isn't fixing the situation and it isn't bringing a solution it's giving us a temporary fix which we will later have to visit again when we can go ahead and just fix it the first first time versus revisiting it again and us coming down here and restating the same things again um also I wanted to bring a light to the situation of our street lights and whatnot that we don't have in our area but yet we still having trucking companies coming through our area and when there are issues with our lightings as far as like the lighting the what is it called the the lighting the lining for the lights being on the ground or we're having just as Highland Hill show cars within the neighborhoods just posted up and whatnot if we could please get something done with it today thank you thank you Miss James our next speaker is Wesley Kirk followed by David Martinez hi uh my name is Wesley Kirk uh from the moment that I learned about the 1300 gendi task force I was concerned about how much the community would be able to give feedback about the fate of the community art center prior to the only task force meeting for public comment very little was known or publicly available about what the task force had discussed where their priorities were or um what feedback in particular they were hoping to hear from the community at that meeting over 300 people showed up and spoke passionately for hours about the importance of that building and everything that happens within it there were no other opportunities for Community input before the task force submitted their recommendation and the city's website had no updates about the following task force meetings I only knew what was happening because I took time off work to attend the meetings in person my concerns were proven invalid after the October 11th meeting where Garfield and Golden Rod presented their proposals for redeveloping the community art center and people would only have a mere five days to submit feedback the uh the meeting was not being live streamed so the hundreds if not thousands of people who wanted to be at that meeting but couldn't had no way of watching it took more than 24 hours for the city to finally upload the video where people could see the proposals for themselves at the meeting everyone received complicated instructions for how to submit feedback and despite me asking multiple city employees multiple questions to clarify the process no one was quite clear ultimately I discovered that the process that the city's public engagement Department had set up was that you were to go to the city's website find and download a specific PDF edit the PDF file with your feedback attach that in an email with a certain email address and a very specific subject line and if any part of that process wasn't done perfectly your voice would not be heard that's Insanity you might as well have asked people to send a fax or go through Pony Express I spent a whole day emailing City staff particularly Michelle good urgently trying to fix the feedback process making it easier to find and share and simpler to submit so that it could actually be accessible and reach all the people it needed to so that the city and developers would receive the feedback they desperately needed to hear if this is how our public engagement department handles something they knew was coming months in advance would have a lot of eyes on and would need to be handled delicately I find it deeply concerning how smaller and more everyday feedback opportunities are handled it feels like it's getting harder and harder to have your voice heard by the City by city council by city employees which is only leading to further tensions and difficulties Fernando Costa said that this was one of the most robust feedback opportunities the city's offered only five days of feedback is something to be embarrassed about not brag about I urge you to look into how the city handles public engagement and ask is it accessible uh how do we provide more context for people how do we hear from more people how do we improve the quality of our feedback how do we do better thank you thank you Wesley our next speaker is David Martinez followed by Tina James good evening Council uh City for worth I'm David Martinez I'm the vice president of carart neighborhood association before I start this is the second time i' ever spoke after that guy and that guy always says the same thing I'm going to say but uh ditto whatever he said all the art stuff is necessary because our community needs are uh in our community to deal with the trauma that they go through and also our children are better off for it now let me start on the Carter Park neighborhood association business uh we recently became uh we expanded our boundaries over to in Carter Park uh we have now we have we have the U seio Vasquez uh which is a relative of mine uh Park is now in our boundaries and uh we just found that out yesterday so um and so we're working forward to uh working with the community with the city uh the parks department and everything they've already contacted me already so we're looking forward to that development in our in Carter Park and thank you councilwoman Mar um Beck for the $5 million that you put to the community uh that is going a long way and it's going to be the beginning of development in uh Southside hopefully um we're going to have a meeting and we're discuss we're going to discuss with the community uh how we're going to move forward I have my ideas I am open to senior citizen uh development housing instead of those motels on I35 and District 9 um uh the Co in place was is a good example but if there's another way we can get that we also have the Tuskegee Airmen uh veterans uh State veterans facility I know Rosemont didn't want it but we do we love it we love our veterans uh I appreciate that and then we I would also like if anybody has any artwork that want or ideas for putting artwork there uh contact me let me know and um and a general request for anybody nonprofits uh anybody who has any resources that we could use to build up the uh the Southside L League uh and then and have something done there because we're going to need we don't have no uniforms we don't even have kids uh to participate so we're going to need new uniforms we're going to need everything and uh I was told 18 months is the uh pretty much we're looking at for the development of that of the park and the um Patrick DiMera uh baseball complex which is going to be beautiful and uh we like to expand and keep it going so probably with some HUD money if y'all have any HUD money you want to give a dish out that would be great um and thank you God bless thank you David our next speaker is Tina James followed by W Adel hammed good evening everyone it's a pleasure to see these smiling faces today not causing here to cause any Havoc I want to first of all say thank you uh Council Martinez uh for working with us and removing the 18wheeler companies that was trying to get on the corner of 287 in Village Creek behind the Eugene McCrae Center we truly appreciate you taking the time to work with us and hearing our our problems um also I want to also say thank you to Mayor Parker it's been a couple of months but there was an event uh that was over at the uh old theater on camboy street I thank you so much for how you came to rescue for the southeast part of footw worth and hearing and telling them what we needed as it relates to education and changing some things for our students also want to say thank you to uh councilman bons I want to tell her thank you for all the things that she's done in the stop 6 area and in the community as well I know normally I come here whining and fussing and yelling at people but today I want to tell you thank you and I know y'all don't get enough Kudos or or respect and thank you for the things that y'all do do we respect you as um City officials elected officials as well as humans and sometime we come to y'all in a rough way but we on the other side we would really like y'all to just kind of listen to us a little bit more uh when we're asking for help some of us gets a little frustrated when we're pushing because we're frustrated for constantly repeating the same things it's not an attack on y'all personally it's not it's an attack basically on your position that you're sitting in but not as a person and a human Chris nles I also want to apologize to you I think you thought I told you to kiss my tail which I didn't I was messing with you but I just want to apologize to you for that and I want to tell you thank you all for pushing and and taking care of but we still don't want those 18 wheelers over in the Echo Heights area we don't want any more industrial companies and or um uh different industrial companies coming over uh we appreciate the bridge almost being completed and and the other thing that I want to say those potholes are ridiculous over there um I just had a flat the other day so who do I pass that bill to I'm just looking anybody no well and then the other thing that's on Hillside uh East over we still don't have any lights so at y'all's Leisure if y'all could take the time to come over through their area at night time and kind of look up at the streets we really don't have any lights and we really would appreciate if someone would push harder for us to get some lights because we do have children over there playing and in the middle of the night well not in the middle of the night but you know of course it gets dark about 6:30 these children can't play outside anymore because the traffic can't see them the cars can't see them thank you for your time and you have a great day thank you Tina our next speaker is Mr he's gonna correct me I hope when you get to the microphone please Abdul hammed is that correct yes okay I greet you with the greetings of Islam peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings dear Fort Worth City Council Members it's time to wake up you are standing on the wrong side of history and time will surely tell the truth I'm not here to tell you more statistics that have already been presented to you time and time again so let me go ahead and remind you that your silence is complicit with genocide whether you deny it or not there are numerous unbiased trusted sources that have reported clear signs of genocide and it won't take you more than a few minutes to find evidence of injustices that are occurring in Gazza this country has been built on racism towards all minorities it has enabled systematic oppression and violence time and time again it was built upon taking people out of its land and the same way Israel has been taken the land from its people I generally don't understand the lack of empathy for your own community members is it because we stand for something you don't understand or are you a byproduct of a lifetime of being desensitized is it because you have been silenced and asked to comply or is it because you are unable to sympathize with those who do not look like you nor come from where you come from every day I open my phone knowing that I will see my people being brutally killed and murdered by the IDF I ask you to take a short moment and imagine it was your home your country your city think of your neighbor think of your family their names and their faces imagine that every day you are faced to see forced to see their brutal deaths in form of executions bombings or starvation can you even imagine your entire neighborhood being bombed to nothing but gravel can you imagine seeing babies your babies being bombed to shreds would you not want to defend that can you please imagine imagine that it was you and the only thing you could do was stand here at a city council meeting begging those who have more power to say something to help I as a Muslim Palestinian American standing before you call for peace we aren't rioting we aren't using foul language we are simply pleading and begging for Israel not not to be held above the law why do you free to listen to us or accommodate us I say this to plead with you as the son of Palestinians I could have been there voiceless and helpless the hate has reached us as far as it has affected our own community members here locally among other US citizen casualties I beg of you to educate yourself to be confident in the decisions in the decision that guides you to help the innocent Palestinians for a permanent ceasefire I would like to also invite all of you on March 2nd to an open house to come and learn and be more educated about your own community members here in DFW area there are Muslim Brothers Arab uh members black uh African-American Muslims that live in your community that are also affected by this this is not um a a race issue than not our next speaker is Ian leaden followed by Muhammad Faro Mr leaden you good evening mayor and council members my name is Ian Laden and I reside in district 7 I speak this evening to express my concern and great shame regarding this city and its inability to reckon that the genocide currently be committed abroad against the Palestinian people I'm ashamed to be a member of the community your community that has continued to watch a genocide unfold over 137 days with no actions taken to be a part of a culture that teaches its children that murder is a crime a sin even and then turns around and continues to Aid and be complicit in the murder of Palestinians a large majority of them children who will never get to know what life could be like I am ashamed that after ample time provided and plenty of opportunity our city and its leadership have been unable to do the bare minimum to join the course of other US cities to demand that our federal government do everything in it power to achieve an immediate and permanent ceasefire in gazar RFA in the surrounding areas where this genocide is operating it is shameful that after everything we know and see daily that for worth government has chosen to not condone this genocide and stand with those that it is being enacted upon especially today with our nation being the sole veto and another UN resolution seeking an immediate humanitarian ceasefire I myself and the Nash kanazi Jewish person and I never got to know a large part of my family due to the Holocaust I now watch as people lose their families every single day that we do not act and demand this killing stop I have not been the first to ask you this even tonight and I sadly will likely not be the last in the coming weeks and or months and for that that shame is yours thank you our next speaker is Muhammad faruko dear council members and uh mayor I greet you with the best of the greetings peace be upon everybody present here um I cherish the fact I'm sure everybody here would too share with me the feeling that we live in a democracy by definition uh of which governance by the people of the people for the people for that reason uh many of us have come here and spoken to you uh for a matter that that concerns us at home here in Fort Worth and obviously for our loved ones that are abroad um and when I thought about you know a lot of people again have come here and spoken well uh better than me is that this is uh one way monologue uh I in democracy I guess if it works best if you have a dialogue uh to that end brother Al here did invite um to an open house and I'll pass these out there's a there's a QR code on it too for rsvping uh again on March 2nd uh this is to break this ice uh between us we have reached out to all of you um to at least um have a dialogue about this issue again the reason for being this this is a fourr issue we are a global world we are no we do not anymore or live in silos anything that happens across the world obviously with with our taxpayer money is concerns us uh which is the reason I believe that uh again a response from from any one of the council members or us to at least meet and get to know each other on the levels that concern us mainly obviously anti-Semitism islamophobia racism anti-muslim feelings and anti- Palestinian anti-arab and last but not least obviously the most important that has gotten us to this point is calling out for really a ceasefire this is new to all of you I get it but honestly this is new to me this is new to us I wasn't born in Texas but the bumper scker fits just right to for me that I got here as fast as I could I've been here 15 years and I love it I think this is a great Community I think it has a lot to offer but at the same time I think we've been ignored to some degree and I really appreciate if if you guys are able to make it or respond to us let's have that dialogue and honestly I had this that we passed out last time but it's really premature this is a ceasefire um uh uh Pro uh proposal uh that other cities have also passed but honestly it's just not worth passing this out right now we did that last time too so I'd appreciate your time in responding to us and and really being our voice thank you thank you our next speaker is faral T followed by arsel and Joffrey good evening Council it's a pleasure to be here with you guys tonight and as you have already heard and mentioned we are here to represent the people of Gaza who need your help I remember coming in January maram Maddie Parker you did tell me you did not see it likely that we would pass a proclamation for a ceasefire however the controversy is already here you have already entered it back in October now we are not asking for your blind siding with us we're simply asking for you to level with this when we came last two weeks ago we heard from the count the office of councilman Williams to Olivia Heria who came and spoke to you since then we have not heard from him yet another constituent reached out to both councilman Nettles and councilman Williams saying please be more responsive we need to talk to you about this we still have heard nothing from you guys we are asking for your time which we have a right to as your our elected officials we need to feel heard I've heard a lot of your respected constituents speak tonight and what they say is pretty much the same pay attention to us we are asking what we want of you please consider joining the open house let us speak to you one on-one in a neutral environment let us discuss how we can equally destroy anti-Semitism and islamophobia in our community for that's why you entered in the beginning you want peace for all your constituents you want the hate crimes to go down and that's what we want as well we want peace for everyone and we simply ask that you give us the time and give us the floor we appreciate it and please do respond to the invitation to the open house thank you is Mr Joffrey followed by ruk Alam good evening so on October 17th this Council made a proclamation whereas the state of Israel is an important Ally to the United States and a friend of the city of the fort it's the city of Fort wor now it is day 137 of the live streaming of the genocide that is being perpetrated by the friend of the city as the saying goes friends don't let friends drink and drive that's normal friends let friends commit genocide that's not normal so far 5% of the population of Gaza has either been killed murdered or maimed 25% of the population is an active starvation dying this man-made famine is a collective punishment punctuated with the Raves held by the friends of these cities to block the aid trucks that could provide sustaining Aid sustaining life life that's not normal shooting children as they cross the street with white flags that's not normal shelling ambulances and murdering the First Responders as they go to rescue a six-year-old girl who is trapped by a tank that ends up killing her that's not normal if the US Army decides to set up a base in the new Texas amn building that is being built here in Fort Worth and after 3 weeks of using it as a Detention Center decides that the way that it leaves is by obliterating it we would be outraged but at this point we think it's normal for this to occur to the Ursa University in Gaza the rate of murder of children per day at this point is greater or equal to alitz that's not normal that's an outrage why are we normalizing genocide and ethnic cleansing why are we normalizing uh what M Mike mates right mentality why are we normalizing that this is a war and world has no rules when did we decide that it's okay to hand our friends the keys when they are drunk with rage at what point do we realize that we are enablers and not ends I'm asking this Council that to act in the way that it did whenever it spoke up against the PO groms that happened in Russia I am asking this Council not to be the America that hid and denied the Holocaust I'm asking for a ceasefire for which we' be providing the greatest preservation of life I'm asking this Council to be a friend our next speaker is Mr good evening council members should be pretty obvious what I'm here for today February 11th Super Bowl Sunday an event that millions of Americans were gearing up for for weeks and an event that none of my community could care less about at the very moment of kickoff Israel began their most brutal campaign of carpet bombing on the last piece of land left in Gaza Rafa currently houses over 1.5 million displaced Palestinians and is the southernmost point of Gaza it is an area smaller than the DFW Airport making it the most densely populated place in the entire world 16,000 is a very large number but your reaction will be quite different for what that number signifies if you lost $16,000 you probably be concerned and try to track it down cuz it's your money if you lost 16,000 pens you probably wouldn't think twice about it if you heard there were 16,000 Palestinian babies slaughtered by the state of Israel your reaction would probably be about the same losing an object like a pen sadly and it might not even cross your mind when the meeting is over but if I were to tell you 16,000 white American babies were slaughtered I'm sure you would all would raise hell to avenge those babies there are still thousands unaccounted for in Palestine imagine imagine if it was your child killed in an air strike by by a missile paid for and made by the United States this is not just a problem for the Middle East this is a Texas problem this is a Fort Worth problem since 1994 Texas has invested in Israeli bonds yearly and currently holds over $140 million in Israeli Bonds Fort Worth is also home to defense systems like elit systems and BAE Systems two of the companies sending the most missiles drones and military equipment to Israel not only are we directly funding the genocide of Palestine but we're supplying ammunition for this genocide too and we also have the power to stop it as of now 4 49 cities in the United States have passed the resolution for a seire in Gaza and it's well past time that Fort Wood join those 49 cities you may be annoyed at us coming up here continuously but I'm not we're not we are persistent and we are resilient and we will continue to come up here until Palestine is free if you really want us to stop coming then you should listen to your constituents for once and pass a ceasefire resolution because I can tell you as your constituent we will not remember your name on the ballot if you do not millions of lives are currently hanging in the balance and we at a critical moment in history if you were to ask yourselves what would I have done during the Holocaust you're your decision right now is a clear indication of what it would be then the only difference between the genocide of Gaza today and the Holocaust is that we still have time to put an end to this you have the power to put an end to this genocide the only question is whether you care more about the value of human life or your paycheck thank you Council that's the conclusion of our speakers um tonight we close the meeting in honor of Bobby weant who passed away on February 18th at the age of 97 Bobby was born on November 22nd 1926 in Lafayette Illinois after receiving her degree in broadcasting and psychology from Purdue University she did the one thing she always wanted to do she moved to Texas upon arriving in Fort Worth and 1948 Bobby joined NBC 5 formerly known as wbap TV two weeks before the station went on air she started behind the scenes hosted game shows and commercials and eventually became the first woman in the southwest to host a general interest television talk show Bobby went on to be an Arts entertainment reporter connecting with authors and other newsmakers and befriending the stars of Hollywood for as long as there had been an NBC 5 in north Texas there was Bobby wean her exceptional career in entertainment reporting not only made her a beloved figure in our community but also a cherished treasure with a wealth of knowledge and experience she leaves behind an incredible 70-year career and an indelible Mark in the industry we send our deepest condolences and thoughts to Bobby's family and friends during this difficult time thank you Council and meeting is adjourned