thank you [Music] foreign foreign foreign thank you thank you all right everybody say blessed all right thank you okay good evening and welcome to the city council public comment meeting before mayor Parker calls a meeting to order we ask that you please turn off all the electronic devices for those of you who have wished to have requested to speak there are two podiums in the chambers 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 when your time has ended the Bell will sound again indicating that you should wrap up your comments before you begin please state your name thank you good evening and welcome to your Fort Worth City council meeting public comment I'll call us to order tonight's invocation will be provided by council member Flores please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance the mayor council city manager and uh staff including our guests here tonight let us pray Lord God we ask that you bless our meeting tonight give us the wisdom and the patience to listen to one another and make us channels of your peace as we do the business of the city in this we pray amen ities the first item of business tonight will be a consideration of the minutes from the August 1st Council meetings in the August 8th special called work session second got a motion in a second any other discussion Council please vote [Music] motion carries mayor that concludes the business thank you Jeanette our first Speaker this evening is Leticia Wilburn followed by Bob Willoughby is Miss Wilburn here Bob Willoughby followed by Rosemary Galindo if you start that video just one second you use if there's anything wrong with the video they won't play it at all so stay up your buttons okay it's already been approved or they wouldn't play it they let me know okay will you do that go ahead foreign will be back on the council agenda in November or December call your council member and see if they will answer your request you know they know when it will be on the agenda they do not want us to know when in fear that we may not agree with them if you should find out let us know the lowest thing a mayor could do to a city is to put a stop to free speech at City Council meetings it's so Un-American and you want to know what is more on American is the people that let her do it between now and October 24th call 817-392-1234 and demand that the mayor to vote no to the new schedule this is a Cause worth fighting for we are looking for Americans that know how important it is not to let free speech be taken from us at our city hall our next speaker is Adrian Smith Adrian you're not speaking tonight we can't address the audience I'll take a motion you're done Adrian thank you to CCP lunch you're done I'm sorry Bob thank you very much please get to it okay I'm just trying to not be scolded or to be harassed or bullied by members in power no one's harassing we're David and you are Goliath we're done that's next item go ahead I want to address that I know you're done you're done last week or why it wasn't on the city website when you go watch it I don't know uh well that wasn't on there okay very good that's good there but uh see we came down here these comment meetings are just a joke we came down too we just go and played a video about this uh the money he got his contact number is five five five five five five and we almost gave a million dollars really okay we should know where all our pennies going that VIP guide and they should be responsible for it what's left it should be on the city website have they answered no so what good is these meetings they don't answer you know and we're not on the regular counseling that's what that other thing kind of on the agenda and November December they won't tell us when but if they'll vote knowing that we'll go back to four Council meetings a month like it's supposed to be and we'll be on the council agenda again all we got to do is get them to do the right thing and vote no and put it back like it's supposed to be they should have never took it from us in the beginning you know and also screwed up our agenda too when you talk you can't see what we're talking about during Council meetings and you're not supposed to turn around and talk to the people back there but you can't see either thank you our next speaker is actually going to be Cliff Sparks I'm going to have Cliff come down since there was a little miscommunication about our VIP relationship Cliff good to see you so much to talk about for less time uh first we want to start out giving someone a council thank you cards from VIP from the Chrysler Risen King Church uh the forward firefighter Charities donated a thousand dollars so back to school event um Jeanette Goodall thank you showed up at the church kids got more than what they needed for a back-to-school event next one is councilwoman Bivens uh I called her up and said hey would you like to be a part of this uh back to school event are you back to school event and she said most definitely most definitely we most definitely help out call Chris Nettles it's enough for a turn down wonderful um next one is Michael crane I don't see him gave him a phone call donated uh sponsored all the snow cones for the kids in the community along with VIP so it's a lot to be done in the community and you guys help make a difference with you guys help we can continue to make a difference with our young people and everybody getting up here saying stuff about VIP get your facts straight if you want some real facts talk to me and if you continue to talk down on VIP or Bishop McIntosh it's gonna be a problem our next speaker is Rosemary galinda followed by read bills wow my name is Rosemary galdiano thank you for correcting me sorry Rosemary right I reside in District 9. it is appalling that the Seminary South Branch library was closed without notice to the community when it is needed the most what do we want we want a brand new Standalone state-of-the-art modern neighborhood Library sooner rather than later I'm a registered nurse and hold a master's degree in public health I recently retired from a 30-year career developing and managing a mobile health program designed to bring preventive Health Services to people that have difficulty accessing the Health Care system in Fort Worth my first experience with a mobile bus was the bookmobile that traveled to the location of what would become the Seminary South Branch library in 1967. my family of two adults and five children lived in a 900 square foot house in worth Heights I would visit the library often because I loved to explore the bookshelves and I could find peace and quiet there throughout high school and college I depended on that Library as a place where I could study the neighborhood has not changed the houses are still small and families are still large the worth Heights and surrounding neighborhoods are Latino and most do not have access to Wi-Fi we have a major Public Health crisis in this city and it's not cut coven it's poverty the poverty rate and the census tracts it includes the worth Heights neighborhood is a shocking 25.8 to 29.1 percent the pathway out of poverty is through education only 33 percent of third grade latino children are reading a third grade level 65 percent of the Fort Worth ISD student population is Latino the Latino population represents the largest ethnic minority group in Fort Worth at 35 percent and the median age is under 28. given this data why on God's green earth would you close a full-service resource that served 80 000 people annually in the Latino Community the Seminary South Branch library was reduced in size moved from the neighborhood to a retail mall that is difficult to access has a history of criminal activity and named La Grande biblioteca this tiny library is an access point to the library system it is nothing more than a bookmobile without Wheels the space is inadequate English is a second language classes are being held at the previous location due to lack of space opened in February 20 2022 visits at La Grim La Grande biblioteca are at a new low at less than 40 000 in the last 12 months clearly it is not meeting the needs of the community it was meant to be Innovative but in fact it is a disparity in public library services to the Latino Community virtually every sector of the business Community needs qualified bilingual professionals right now there is an urgent need for a library where college-bound Latino adults can study we need a full service library to serve the growing Urban South Side Community at the end of the day we all benefit now and in the future thank you Miss galdiano thank you quick question for you have you had the opportunity to meet with our interim Library director or the assistant City Manager on this topic in the past once and it was long time ago and we have asked for a subsequent follow-up meetings and we have been unsuccessful we'll ensure that happens we appreciate you coming thank you very much our next speaker is Reid bills let's read here hi read my name is Reed bills and I live in District 6. I'm speaking tonight about the Fort Worth Public Library Advisory board I would like to read to you their mission to recommend to the city manager and the city council plans for development of Library facilities and services to meet the needs of the city I respectfully suggest that the library board members you appointed are not adequately fulfilling their assigned role as stated above this year the library has been in the news regarding two important issues closing and sell selling the Central Library and canceling the pride badge from the mayor's summer reading challenge complaints from library patrons have been numerous but mention of the board's discussion deliberation advice or recommendations do not appear anywhere in the media accounts of these two actions apparently The Advisory Board failed to recommend to the city manager and the city council plans for development of Library facilities and services to meet the needs of the city nine concerned residents of Fort Worth attended the recent board meeting held August 3rd at the Southwest Regional Library because we care about our libraries and have publicly expressed our concerns regarding these two issues the meeting was canceled because only three of the nine members of the board showed up there was only one important action item on the agenda endorsed the library Department's budget requests for fiscal year 2024 general fund operating budget there was no discussion of the budget at the board's last meeting so this was the last chance to advise the city manager what changes should be made to meet the needs of our library system and its patrons in 2024. the next meeting is scheduled in October after the budget has been adopted the proposed budget as summarized in a recent Fort Worth report article indicated that there is an addition of a new library in District 7 in 2024. nothing appears to address funding for a new Central Library having served on a previous Fort Worth library Advisory Board I know that a crucial part of the board's time and effort should be spent on listening to constituents and determining what financial support the libraries in the system need to continue to serve the city once the needs are determined board members have a duty to inform the city manager and City Council of those needs and advocate for funding to meet that budget thank you Miss Miss bills thank you very much I just want to say and what I'm here today I'm so sorry I hate cutting people off but we are at our three-minute Mark I am going to make sure Library staff gets with you because we have an excellent alternative to the Central Library they've been working very diligently to ensure there are downtown residents and Miss Beck has been an excellent Advocate to make sure that that happens but we understand your concerns our next speaker is Miss Christine Vaught followed by Daniel Hayes good evening my name is Christine Boyd and I live in District 9. during my career I've been a library planning consultant designer I was on the design team for the Dallas Irving Central Library projects recent changes to the plans for our library facilities have adversely impacted customers in District 9 and 11. these changes did not follow the approved 2020 Library master plan that is currently on the library's website it's still surprises me that a Central Library which makes up over half of all the Fort Worth library space was closed without any pre-planning for a temporary location or that plans were not in place for its new permanent home I've opened a few large Central libraries so I can imagine the effort and cost it will now take to move it twice I'm here to advocate for the library as I've heard that the space for the temporary location has not yet been secured I urge you to make sure the library staff has the support and budget it needs to accomplish this move before the December move out date city leaders have been heard saying that the new Central Library could be very small because books are going to all be digital in the future I would like to know what sources they are using to support such statements as I don't believe there is evidence or research that supports this your library master plan does not support this it states that most of Fort Worth Public Libraries current libraries are small crowded and many lack sufficient or appropriate space for programs I've done research in the central library and was required to order books and make an appointment with the library to see them it was all very inconvenient and I was not able to browse the collection in a single visit I was told the history and genealogy collection would be moving to a new location where materials would be available for browsing sadly I've found that the old Seminary South Branch building that it was moved to is too small to house the entire collection much of the collection is still being stored in the old Central Library basement and must be ordered but there the real Injustice is that the Seminary South library was not supposed to be closed at all the plan was to remodel it to better serve its adjacent Latino neighborhoods where many residents still lack home internet access the closing of this library was done without any notification or without with Community engagement a term that is used often in the master plan the biblioteca was not planned with appropriate space for programs so it is using the already too small history library for this purpose um so a new Seminary South Branch library is needed with adequate space for these for these South Side underserved Latino neighborhoods a new location is needed for the history and genealogy Library where the entire collection can be accessed at one time or perhaps it should be moved back into the plans for the new Central Library Fort Worth needs a new Central Library that is worthy of the 13th largest city in the United States it needs a parking garage it needs space for meetings and events and yes it still needs room for books thank you very much thank you very much our next speaker is Dan Hayes and then I'm going to go back to miss Wilburn I just saw her come in so you'll be next Miss Wilbur good evening my name is Dan Hayes and I live in District 11. I wanted to continue the progress report on East Lancaster Avenue I started two weeks ago to recap the public improvement district has had some positive effects which has given Property Owners reasons to be optimistic in addition Palladium USA will kick off the First new construction in 20 years early next year tonight I wanted to shift to Lancaster 2.0 which is a plan to rebuild the roadway and provide a new level of public transit referencing Trinity Metro's recently completed Transit oriented development plan I serve on the steering committee working with the city and a consultant the plan calls for as many as about 3 400 new residential units and tens of thousands of square feet of mixed-use space along the Lancaster Corridor so that an area that looks like this near Texas Wesleyan might one day look like this or this might look like this the consultant is to produce a final roadway design alternative in a trans Transit recommendation later this year but there are competing visions of what that Transit mode should be NCT Cog is recommending a curb-based bus solution and Trinity Metro is recommending a bus rapid transit in a dedicated Lane next to the median here is a comparison of the two options with the biggest difference being brt offers a dedicated Lane and stations that might look like this stations are level with the transit vehicle for strollers and wheelchairs where you're out of the weather can buy a ticket and maybe charge a phone some call it light rail without the rail it presents a substantial Transit mode and not just a bus Trinity Metro recommended brt to NCT Cog two years ago and I just supplied you with a copy of that letter many of us thought this would be the transit mode and then this article came out in March Fort Worth Transit offerings are uninspired giving its ranking as the 13th largest U.S city we have no brt no Subway and no light rail just buses and commuter rail meanwhile Dart is moving the equivalent of the entire population of Fort Worth every week 220 000 Riders every week excuse me weekday we are one of just three of the top 20 cities with no brt no Subway and no light rail Dallas has clearly shown it can work in North Texas when done right Transit is a symbiotic relationship between the people the build environment and the transit mode itself Transit can create a sense of place something that's important to many people and that will be my focus in two weeks thank you our next speaker is Philip O'Hara followed by ditra Hicks I'm Sorry Miss Wilburn I forgot come on down I'm back on track and then Philip O'Hara no you're good go ahead thank you for accommodating me I just want to say hi to all of you guys I know yeah I think I'm angry at you all but I'm not I hope we can all work together at some point in time but I wanted to say I am a Fisher meaning that there's mulattos in my family I am with the sending of John Fisher one of the signers and authors of the Texas Constitution I made my way to Fort Worth by way of being a witness to history as soon as the president's motorcade passed the window while I was looking that's when he was God down and my family moved to Fort Worth at that point so I actually loved this city but I think that this city can do better in his owning race-based zoning started around 1910. these black and brown communities suffer immensely from The Zone and that is in place in Fort Worth it has not changed in the community I live in Echo Heights there's so much exclusionary zoning going on which means that you cannot build homes nothing good can ever come in because of the industry and we have experience last week just sitting here listening to Bowie Highland and his company speak I came to understand that on the back of my community they are growing white wealth in white Prosperity what my community suffered they brought up race uh they brought up their property value has gone up but that only means that we're paying higher property taxes because we can never sell the homes for what they are worth they brought up crime crime is only in that area because of the industrial that's there now the people in my community where those Industries are they were supposed to that you all have the same information that we have that shows that there's illnesses and counselors and other illnesses and that particular community and I just wanted to point out and I don't mean this as an insult but when and it was brought up to me to bring to y'all's attention about calling the community rude and I was asked to tell you all that when black and brown people speak up for their Community its passion it's not being rude and they took that as a off comment when we were called Rude so I was asked to bring that up to y'all but I just wanted to say the city of Fort Worth need to do better and y'all can do better on y'all zone and right now it's racist and this city is better than that and that's all I have to say y'all have a good evening our next speaker is Philip O'Hara followed by ditra Hicks hello my name is Philip O'Hara and I live in District Seven um I'm a friend of Ola Psalms and oh we're here today to talk to you about the tnp warehouse building and also uh just kind of introduce that project to uh the new members of the board um I'm going to read a letter that she wrote to The Honorable mayor Maddie Parker in The Honorable City Council Members we recently learned about the call for the renovation of the existing Arts Center Fort Worth kind of nervous you're fine you're fine you're doing good we're here today to ask the city councils to support considering having an art center at to be renovated Texas Pacific Railroad building the tnp or within the potential ground up structure on-site that designed to reflect the new use of this in the spirit the art and live work artist Community has always been in our thoughts we are attempting to execute and we attempted to execute nine years ago after we thoroughly studied investigative successful similar projects Nationwide especially those in Minneapolis and St Paul developed in historic buildings uh the links are shared below the Schmidt artist lofts and the Amal artist sloth um we've we've shared all this stuff electronically we're familiar with how to do the PowerPoint and so um it is all available through the city web website for anybody um in 2014 we applied for the four percent housing tax credit uh coupled with the multi-family Bond program a tax exempt bonding financing for artist Community they were we were awarded a 50 million dollar State Bond inducement by resolution number one five zero zero five um and then the letters attached it's January 19 2015. the transaction was not consummated at that time not due to the owner the state qualified for the execution of the project as mentioned on their resolution rather that's relative relevant intended purpose despite all the efforts made by the owner through the end of the year to save it today today we hope that that can still be a viable current option and we seek the council support for that our proposed project was to provide not only an art facility but also to provide in the same location housing and amenities for artists at a rental rate they can afford attached in our PowerPoint presentation which I'm sure I won't be able to get to um is a segment of what we'll continue to show on this there's just so much to get into um you know I think the bottom line is um a large project like the TMP requires a public and private partnership maybe today we should be asking for a library that's what it calls for but uh we're just trying to get this stuff out there and and also show Mrs homm's side Cleopatra's inks thank you for your time thank you Phillip our next speaker is Detra Hicks followed by George Childs [Music] hi I am the senior pastor of True Praise Spiritual Church the Bible tells us to take care of the poor the widows and the orphans Sunday around 3 P.M we were located at the bricks lab on Kentucky we brought over 140 relief bags 12 big coolers full of ice and cold water bottles we were ordained to be there at that day and time one of the elderly homeless ladies had passed out from the Heat and that she was a diabetic we stayed there pouring cold water on her until the fire department and the ambulance arrived I paid four homeless men to clean up the trash before we got started and after we got done two of the employees from the night shelter came and threatened us to call the police because they wanted us to leave so if these are the people we are protecting why are we not helping them those with the tents those that live in the woods those that have to live outside we understand how hot it is just because you're homeless does not mean that you have mental health issues just because you're homeless does not mean that you're a liar a thief or a crook the signs posted offended me the most it says food prohibited it reminds me of the zoo that says don't feed the animals old the text that says 4144 does not work it goes to some children that you said is going to help the homeless in the future they need help right now so I want to say that I had contacted the homeless link that my son sent me and it doesn't work either you can feed the people on Saturdays and I want everybody in here to try just eating on Saturdays what you have done is discourage the churches and other people from feeding and and nurturing the homeless people that are on the streets my suggestion is that you put more barrels on that street so they can put the trash in them they have small little little bins to put trash in I want you to know something else it has a thing that says it prevents prevent uh illnesses have y'all looked at y'all's kitchens in these shelters because I've been in them and they're filthy and so if if this is what you're concerned about for us health-wise I've seen them Reserve food that we sent for lunch and the cook said that they're going to serve it for dinner and so this is not Justice for the poor and we ought to have a bigger heart than that if you can put on TV and they talk about uh the cruelty to animals what about cruelty to humans so the Bible says if you show no mercy you will not obtain any mercy and he told the police says so sorry I hate cutting you off it says to protect them to serve and that's what we're doing and I'm going to make sure have you spoken with Tara Perez or anybody at the city that runs our homeless program you'll be getting a phone call tomorrow and to walk through a variety of homeless programming understand better what you and your church members are doing for our homeless community and we really do appreciate you coming today and sharing your story thank you [Applause] our next speaker is George Childs followed by Chris Weaver my name is George running Charles I live in District 11. on August 1st I stated my belief that conflict is inevitable in a nation that must constantly find a workable relationship between the two opposites who ordered and Liberty so I was very interested when I came across the video that contains the provided document and more so when I found the statement quote anger can be very productive unquote that sounds radical enough that I hasten to say that in another video Ms Ripley views anger as an expression of disappointment and how she feels about violence is made clear by the last line in both classifications of conflict in the provided document I think it is significant that there is no detached academic theory in this video no influence of the publisher Parish syndrome it instead clearly displays nuts and bolts pragmatism that said what does this have to do with 200 Texas Street glad you asked Ms Ripley choses the person most emblematic of her views a very successful lawyer who grew tired of being adversarial and went on to be quote one of the world's most renowned conflict experts unquote in 2015 Neighbors in his small town in California asked him to run for office because quote it had gotten kind of ugly unquote and away we go he later stated that it took about an eighth of a second before he got pulled into high conflict I do not agree with everything said in this video and there are obvious differences between Fort Worth and the small town the interviewer described as quote a beautiful idyllic sounding Place everyone is well off there's not a lot of economic distress unquote but that cuts both ways it's not the fact that those who the average person might think have very little to complain about still found a lot to complain about it's not one of the best reasons to accept the fact that conflict will always be there as long as we're willing to pay the often irksome price of being a democracy not a police state not a monarchy not a theocracy not under the latest Honda to shoot its way into Power a democracy our next speaker is Chris Weaver followed by Chris Jackson my name is Chris Weaver I'm a owner operator of ntp plumbing and utilities I'm one of the only black utility contractors here in Fort Worth and uh I'm having a lot of trouble on one of the jobs that I'm doing down here at uh 9225 Crowley Road and uh so all the inspection department that uh I'm dealing with down there I need to find someone uh in between them and you all as we can have a meeting because I got someone coming out the office and uh telling me I need to put forty thousand dollars in a project a city the city of Fort Worth without me being able to be at the meeting and find out why we got that problem my name is Chris Weaver I would like to be able to run into someone that uh one of your pe's uh water district people or whoever I can get a meeting with where we can go over this and I'll need to find out how and why I'm getting a forty thousand dollar uh uh problem bro to our job I just want to thank you may God bless each and every one of you in the city of Fort Worth thank you thank you Chris we'll have someone reach out to you directly our next speaker is Chris Jackson who will be followed by Richard Gonzalez the only reason we still have any freedom at all in this country is because of the First Amendment to the Constitution protects free speech very broadly in our courts the Supreme Court defines all political and religious flowering as free speech I'll say that again the Supreme Court defines religious and political flowering as free speech the city council along with the district attorney Leanne Guzman and their City Manager David Cook have made an effort to influence and force the Fort Worth PD to prevent free speech in Fort Worth especially on public property public property is the people's property it is legal to put a political flower on a car in the eyes of the Supreme Court that is identical to putting up newspaper out in a home it is a legal and a transaction a free speech between the giver and the receiver of the information and no one else if you believe anything different from that move to communist Russia you are not an American the public distribution of literature newspapers Etc is constitutionally protected as free speech and is supported and defined by over 200 years of supreme case law but not in the city of Fort Worth no not this city this city encourages instructs its Army of blue the Fort Worth PD to detain issue citations and potentially arrest by threat of violence anyone who exercises their right to free speech activities on the most public of all city property the fairgrounds where we all gather where Free Speech should be the most free I ask you do you really have free speech on Fort Worth Public property no we do not the forward PD will admit that Will Rogers Public Fairgrounds is owned by the city but even the unsecured areas and parking lots that have always been free for you to enter walk and speak freely or quote not public property and Free Speech activities are not legal there that's quote from the police Free Speech as defined by the Supreme Court does not apply in this city so far no one can even locate this Phantom all-powerful unconstitutional city ordinance that allows our Police Department to threaten violence under our people for free speech activities but our police officers will admit that the city attorney's office consistently put pressure on them to enforce this ban on Free Speech activities on public property and that is tyranny legality is determined by the Supreme Court and highest case law not some anti-American city council and its legal staff of marxists your choices clear people pedophiles or Patriots political discussion or political destruction free speech or slavery find out about this and more at gtvflyers.com that's gtbflyers.com if I got I got a few more times that's enough [Applause] our next speaker is Richard Gonzalez followed by Adrian Smith honorable mayor city council members and administration my name is Richard Gonzalez in Sunday's edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram Silas Allen reporter wrote an article about the challenges that the administration teachers and students of the Fort Worth school district will be facing this school year one of the key challenges is to bounce back from the decline in Reading according to 2022 STAR testing 38 percent of the third graders were on level of course this means that 62 percent were not the covet epidemic added to the educational woes of the students students staying at home and learning primarily for computers made it more difficult for the students to stay on task and succeed Wallace Bridges School Board representative was particularly concerned of the decline of the reading scores for African-American students he said that he had been contacted by parents about their concerns about their children's reading skills the paper said that although it's the district Leader's jobs to come up with plans to fix the problems locally Bridges said the responsibility extends beyond the schools and Beyond the parts of the city that are most affected the fact that black students are lacking are lagging behind their peers affect the entire city because those students will eventually graduate into the war force that means Community leaders across Fort Worth including school board members need to find a way to get involved with solving the problems he's quoted as saying it's upon it's up upon all of us to find what role we can play and what we can do to make an impact on this area specifically reading I feel comfortable in saying that you city council Representatives mayor are probably readers and found libraries very helpful in making your making you literate and successful in college and careers it is my estimation if we were to produce literate citizens who will be capable of meeting the challenges and complexities of Fort Worth's future then nothing is more important than ensuring that Fort Worth students are able to read on level therefore it boggles my senses that the city's Library Administration that decided to remove a full-fledged library from the Latino Barrio on the south side instead they replaced it with a boutique library that lacks books and the basics of bathrooms and most importantly safety La Grant Plaza is not a safe place to send children alone I wager you would not send your children to La Gran biblioteca alone first of all we need books in the Barrios we need a full-fledged library on the south side of Fort Worth I request thank you Mr Gonzalez thank you thank you for coming our next speaker is Adrian Smith by phone followed by Vicki Vargas mayor we've tried Mr Smith three times and he's not answering thank you our next speaker is Vicki Vargas followed by Joe Guerrero good evening mayor city council my name is Vicki Vargas I live in District 11. and I'm here to talk about the library and how important it is to our community we need a brand new state-of-the-art Standalone Library just doesn't cut it it's it's a joke it's a farce frankly it's an insult to our community to think that that would satisfy our needs because it does not a very valuable resource was taken away and that is what we want back believe me that Library will be used because it was used before before it was taken away we talk about literacy all the time and yet you close a library but you keep building libraries and so I think that's a positive sign and I want another Library back in my neighborhood so I would appreciate you giving this very serious thought and put it in the budget if not for this next year by 2025. at the latest thank you thank you Vicky our next speaker is Joe Guerrero followed by Reverend Kiev Tatum he's not here okay thank you Reverend Tatum will be followed by Jim DeLong Council before I get started I would like to uh ask mayor if we could take up just a second to pause for the homegoing of Bishop B.E George he uh passed this week and his State funeral is Saturday at noon at new Mount Rose and he's meant so much to the city of course thank you Robert Tatum thank you thank you mayor and Council first of all I want to extend an appreciation to you mayor for today's gesture um it meant more than you can imagine um not just for me personally but for the mothers who have been trying to deal with the loss of their children one of the mothers who was to meet with us today we just found out had a stroke so she is now in the hospital and we will begin to see how do we help her to recover and and that is in essence the reason for my Rising today is not to go back and rehash what has happened in the past it's not to try to put blame on anyone in terms of our city it's how do we develop a road map for Recovery within our city particularly in communities marginalized black and brown communities where there's a mental health crisis going on and we're seeing it Time After Time with the black on black killing with the kids on kids killing with this you know uh just unbelievable inability in the community to manage anger and to respond responsibly so I really want to encourage the city we received a letter this past week from the aspect Institute in Washington D.C asking if we could host the 2024 Aspen faith and mental health Festival here in Fort Worth and I graciously accept it because we will have leaders from all over the nation coming in trying to help us stem the tide between faith and the Mental Health crisis in the black and brown communities not just in Fort Worth but across this entire nation so I believe once we address this mental health issue I believe our community can turn the tides but right now mayor there is not a sense of equivalentness there's no equality here and so we must find a way you know Bishop George was the chief architect of the 3E plan and that three e plans stood for equity and equality for everyone we hadn't made it yet men lie women lie but the numbers don't lie the black community is in the worst state it's ever been in and so we can solve it if we work together so thank you for today and your breakthrough and I look forward to working with you in the future thank you Reverend Tatum thank you for being here our next speaker is Mr Jim DeLong followed by James Smith good evening I'm Jim Delong and I want to address the pollution issue that we've been hearing about for the last number of months and we even had a speaker this evening talking about it I come to these City Council meetings and I listen and I think and I pray and uh if it's true that people in Echo Heights and other type of communities are sick various diseases some of their lives are shortened if that is true and I'm not debating that question that I'm saying that there's a responsibility everyone in this city has to help address that especially you on the diocese because you are our leaders you are in a position of influence you can ask for things to be done I hear it all the time during work sessions you asking I would like this to happen and I want to look into this Etc and I heard from the diocese last week that the police pollution issue those regulations are state regulations but if our people are hurt our people are getting sick because of pollution we can do something about that a couple of years ago there was a project and every residence has a water meter on it and electronically by the hour or even by the minute the city can look and see how much water I'm using and we just heard a couple of weeks ago in a work session now our Waste Management there's video cameras where we can video every home and see how they're using their garbage or abusing the garbage well if we can do that we can we can have some resources to look into this problem if if there are if there is pollution then we can do something about that and we should because if people are truly hurting in their health is at stake then there's something that we can do and we should all do it doesn't make any difference what your race is what your color is what your ideology is if people are hurting because of pollution we look to you to help eradicate that thank you thank you Mr Delong our next speaker is James Smith followed by Manuel Mata Council my name is James Smith I live in District 8. as we near the four-year anniversary of the Tatiana Jefferson's demise I'm reminded well I'm reminding myself of the first time I stood here four years ago not too much has changed in the four years that I've been coming down here and the question is why the city has some problems in the policing and the Sheriff's Department I'll speak about transparency accountability and truth and narratives and it's not it's not coming together for me you know I'm I'm like the gentleman before me that had so much to say that he couldn't get it all out the last meeting after the Como deaths in the Fourth of July shooting and the young man that lost his life on in my neighborhood on the corner of Evans in Rosedale from a police chase from a young man who died in the police custody at the hospital and as I said in this chamber tonight another young lady well she was 64 years old I'm gonna call that young lady because she's younger than me died in the custody of the Sheriff's Department that's number seven that's the problem and it's not being addressed because I'm not hearing it and by these occurrences continuing to happen is a clear indication that things are not changing in the city of Fort Worth I'll talk down to Jefferson again we're going to celebrate her October today October 13th 14th and 15th I'd like to see you guys there I've invited you to other events some of you came and some of you didn't so I'm giving you advanced notice to check your calendars and come across 35. come to the south side come see where we live and get an idea of what we're going through you cut my alley after they got this tall do you have this tall grass in your neighborhoods I don't think so and I don't want to see it in mine again we want peace we want togetherness we want Unity we're here we're on the south side we're on stop six we're in Eastwood come to us we want Unity in Fort Worth thank you Mr Smith our next speaker is Manuel Mata this manual here I haven't seen him there he is sorry hello um my name is Manuel Martha I live in District nine and uh I I try to stay out of here and uh try to help families that are impacted by officers actions right so I came today because I've been arrested twice for warrants that don't exist because I've already dealt with these cases over and over and over and now when I've been arrested they give me a paper that doesn't give me a choice to do anything but plead no contest and this is what I'm tired of right if I have to conduct myself in a certain way when I film police officers or come to a police station or even come to these Arenas right here why is it that they get to abuse something that they're not supposed to because I'll even give you another example right the body camera footage these officers can literally commit a third degree felony three times before anybody even addresses the issue which is a first degree felony with the criminal code or the procedures because I've dealt with them so this is a problem for me because I don't have an issue with Central Division B no more I walk up to their traffic stops they literally tell me to wait and they come and explain to me what's going on in my neighborhood so for officers in the west division to not understand and actually investigate if these warrants are real and not arrest me based on because they don't like me they don't like my YouTube channel they don't like my videos they don't like my narrating right because I bring these to the attention to y'all because y'all steady giving them money money I I know exactly how much I've given them in the past four years and y'all left out schools y'all left out uh community centers the one point million yacht they're talking about ain't nothing compared to what y'all give to these officers that have no one to hold them accountable because I went to Eternal Affairs and they said what they're doing is okay so I'm getting arrested for warrants that are not real they're forcing me to sign no contest where I'm allowed due process this is a problem right if I correct how I film police officers because I have to respect their feelings they should respect my rights that's all I'm saying man and I have a lot more to talk about but this is an issue because if they're doing it to me and I'm standing out for myself what about the people that they're doing it daily that don't know how to stand up for themselves I'll be the target but y'all have to hold them accountable thank you Mr Mata Council that's the conclusions of our speakers this evening our meeting is adjourned