Hey Siri, make sure you give them a Council member Martinez, can you hear me? Can we do a Council Member Martinez, can we do a mic check? Mic check. Yep, we can hear you. Thank you. No, they they think it's a mild concussion. I'll get X-ray tomorrow. Gina, just FYI, your mic is on. Oh, thank you. Wow. Thanks. Good evening and welcome to your city council meeting. Before Mayor Parker calls the meeting to order, we ask that you please silence all electronic devices. For those of you who have requested to speak, you will approach the podium in the middle to do your presentations. The bell will sound when you have 30 seconds left. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to your for city council public comment meeting. I'll call us to order just after 6:02. Tonight's invocation will be given by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Seaman from the US Air Force Reserve Chaplain. Please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of allegiance. Would you bow with me as I pray to my God? Gracious and holy father, we are gathered here as so many of our ancestors have done before to acknowledge this is your day and to acknowledge that you are our creator, Father, as we look about how magnificent and how wonderful a place you've created. This place we call home, Texas, Father, this beautiful rugged city which we call our home, Fort Worth. Father, we're thankful for your creation and for this place. Father, we pray for those who protect this place. We pray for our police, our paramedics, our nurses, our doctors, our our military, Father, who are willing to give of themselves wholeheartedly for our protection. And Father, we pray for those who manage our city, Father, the administrative part, all the way down to the municipals. Father, we thank you for their diligence and their working hands. And then, Father, we pray for our citizens. Father, what a great group of people that have been gathered in this place at this time. Father, we pray for their safety. We pray for their prosperity. Father, we pray that uh they enjoy Fort Worth. Then, Father, we pray for this council, Father, that uh you would watch over them and protect them. We pray for our mayor. We pray for our city manager, Father. We pray the prayer of King Solomon, Father, that you would give them wisdom and discernment to bless the people, Father, to lift them up and truly make this place Fort Worth, Father, the place that you smile upon. Father God, we pray for our president. We pray for those who have authority over us. Father, give them wisdom, too. We pray this all in your holy name. Amen. Council, our first action tonight will be the consideration and approval of the minutes for the February 25th March 4th council meeting. Thank you. I've got a motion and a second. Council, any other discussion? Not. Please vote. Mayor, who made the motion? We did. Councelor Nettles. I guess it's from BL Martinez. Motion carries. That concludes all the action items. Thank you. First speaker this evening is Chris Wood followed by Bob Willoughby. Hi, my name is Chris Wood and I'm from District 9. People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are people without homes. A quote from housing campaigner Sheila Mcknne. My friend is facing a dist distressing situation with the business manager at her Fort Worth apartment complex. Last fall, just as the cold weather was about to set in, she began to have issues with a trash pickup. When she informed the leasing office she was shockingly fined $50 for being disruptive. When she calmly requested the fee be removed as she had done nothing wrong. The business manager gave her two more leasing violations for making this request. To warn others, she wrote a negative review on Google and Yelp leading to yet another lease violation along with a threat of eviction right before the temperatures were going to dip below freezing. Her friends advised her to communicate with the business manager only in writing, which she did, and things quieted down for a while. Recently, she received an email from the apartment business manager stating that if her dog urinated on the rocks within the apartment complex, she would be fined $300 and could lose the right to keep her dog in the apartment. Her dog is an emotional support animal similar to the one pictured. It provides her with much needed comfort and companionship. Department business manager seems to be on some sort of sick power trip. And my friend feels she's being unfairly harassed. She is worried her landlord will unjustly prevent her from keeping her dog in her apartment. She cannot afford a lawyer. My friend will leave her apartment before giving up her dog. She lives paycheck to paycheck. She has no family to stay with. She fears she will end up homeless, adding to the Fort Worth homeless population. Other cities have successfully reduced homelessness through eviction prevention, landlord mediation, and housing advice programs. Excuse me. I urge you to consider implementing these programs in Fort Worth to help my friend and others like her, ultimately reducing the homeless population. Thank you for your time and consideration. Our next speaker is Bob Willoughby followed by David Martinez. Well, I asked all the people that run in council in district 5 to come down to this meeting this Tuesday night and ask promp Mayor Gina Bivvens why she vote to give $5.5 million to post chip. It's a legitimate question. I just wanted to see the people running in my district. They could ask a question before they sat up there. Like most of these people, most of these never been to a council meeting up there. And here they sat. They didn't do their homework. They jumped right from going from elementary to college or joining an army and skipping boot camp and going right to being a corporate or whatever. They don't have no knowledge what's going on here. But anyway, that's why a lot of them voted $5.5 million Chief Fitzgerald. And apparently none of the people running district five can even come down here and ask that question, you know, but the pastor that's running, Michael Morris running our our district, he's he's favor of Gina Bibbons, promp Mayor Bibbons. He's he's proud that he learned under her and he has learned. Well, I offered him a $100 if he'd take five questions. Mr. Willoughby, let's keep our comments focused on city council business and not campaigning if you don't mind. This is a comment, free speech. I'm just letting you know we have to focus censorship. It's just not about this is a comment meeting. You don't have no general comment. Anything I want to talk about anyway. Okay. Okay. Tell me how to speak. Okay. You took away our right to speak here. We don't have it anymore at council me. Other cities do. We don't. Parker, that's the lowest thing you could do to anybody. Take away free speech on city council. And you did. And yet here you know what, Parker? I offer $1,000 St. Jude's Children Hospital just for you to answer one question. You couldn't do it. Same thing with Michael Moore. He couldn't answer five questions. Same thing with Gina Bibbons. I offered a vote for her when I was running against her if she'd answered three question. You people don't answer questions. And that's what we got to change. Until you answer questions, you're not you're not council members. You're not a mayor. You're dictators and you're incompetent and you're not to be trusted. I think you mean incompetent, not incompetent. Well, I got it wrong. Thank you, mayor. You're welcome. You know, one thing on the side of my car, it says you're a two-faced liar and you can't do anything about it because it's fact. Thank you. And the difference between fact, what I want people to learn, and sarcasm, a lot of people don't know the difference between sarcasm and fact. Fact is, when it's true, it's fact. And when it's sarcasm, you know, or or slander. Mine's not slander, it's fact. She can't do a thing about it. Nothing. It's fact. Okay? She's a two-faced liar and she's the mayor of this city. So, Parker, I mean, you're probably going to be in there again. That's sure. I'm sure you are going to be in there. But I'll tell you, you you've lost touch with reality, you people. You know, you don't realize that we're just a spirit contained in a body that's slowly consumed by decay each and every day. And when you leave here, you leave with that spirit, not your power, not your money, or whatever you can do. You don't take that with you. You're going to take your soul, and you're going to reap for it. And that's not my place to say what's going to happen to you, but I don't want to be you. Thank you, Bob. It was enlightening. Uh, our next speaker is David Martinez. Will be followed by Payton Jackson. Mr. Martinez, I love the hat this evening. Thank you. Um, sorry. I do apologize, mayor, but the reason why I I'm here is to announce that I'm running for president for Carter Park Neighborhood Association. Sorry. Um, but I told everybody that I was going to come here and talk about Carter Park neighborhood. um since I got involved because I used to be one of those people that complained and then I realized it takes work and instead of complaining I started getting involved and helping out the community in Carter Park neighborhood uh I started the neighborhood association a couple years ago um and I started the Carter Park neighborhood um elementary school PTA got that thing going and so because of my health I don't know if y'all know this but I had a quadruple bypass I had multiple strokes and I flatlined twice, but thank God I'm thanks to God I'm here and I'm on a mission to help my neighborhood. Um, district 8, nine, and 11 are in Carter Park. Uh, so uh, we had lots of challenges for Carter Park, but we are going getting things done. Uh, thanks to Councilwoman Martinez at District 11 for the motel uh, nuisance abatement thing going on there. Um there was lots of problems there and then we are getting things done like we used to have problems with the code enforcement. Uh but we're actually working with code enforcement now because we have the neighborhood association and a lot of our neighbors. We have less trash this past uh event that we had for the city. We picked up the park. There was more volunteers and less trash than ever before. Uh we had three almost three trailers on the first year that I started doing this. and then we couldn't even fill up a trailer this year. So, that's a lot saying a lot for district 8 uh at Carter Park. Uh our parks are cleaner uh thanks to the city's help. Also, I appreciate also with Fort PD. Uh the NPOS's have been great. Um we don't have Salazar no more, but we still have a good NPO uh on on the beat uh working in our community. But also, we also have a lot of people that are reporting everything with the city app. Thanks to the city app, we get a lots of results done. Uh we report some of the um the homeless uh camps that are happening in car park and they get take care of uh quickly. Uh it's not like same day, but you know uh we're happy that gets done within a week, maybe two days uh top, three days, but we appreciate everything that's happening. Um also just want to let y'all know Vasquez uh park is coming up. We appreciate the funds. We knew we had over 5 million. We appreciate that's going on and I have lots of plans. Uh we going we're planning on having the first Native American power hour in Fort Worth since 1996. So that's much look forward to. Thank you very much. God bless. Thank you. Our next speaker is Payton Jackson who will be followed by Carolina Rodriguez. Good afternoon council. When I first announced my run for Congress, I had this random white woman liberal walk up to me and ask, "Well, what about you isn't Democrat?" To which I responded, "Well, besides my skin color, what about me is Democrat?" And it was at that very moment that she realized that God gave her enough common sense to ask me about my values. Now, don't get me wrong, I was raised to vote Democrat down the ballot. So, when I first started, I would say things like, "I'm a Republican, but I'm not a conservative." But now I know all too well I am a full-fledged hardcore conservative and I'm proud of it. I mean my favorite saying is I was born black, not Democrat. But in all seriousness, whenever I began to think for myself politically, the choice was easy. I mean why would I want to belong to a party whose mission is to infringe on the Second Amendment as if a criminal would ever participate in something like a mandatory buyback? Why would I want to belong to and endorse a godless party? Because there is no such thing. And I mean no such thing as a trans child. We have confused children and sick enabling adult. Why would I want to belong to a party that takes pride in shedding innocent blood? Number one, as if that's not what God hates. Number two, as if there's not a black market for baby organs. And number three, as if abortion clinics didn't start in the hood. Because if you think Trump is bad, you should research exactly who Margaret Sanger was. But speaking of the black community, why would I want to belong to a party who's responsible for the foundation of the triple K? But it it's not just that. Supposedly in the 1900s, the party switched, right? But what never changed, what I noticed never changed is Democrat's love for immigration, how they have always prioritized that over the black community. I mean, imagine every single Democrat leader helping you joke about what a black job is in 2024, exposing your ignorance on 1924 and how imperative the immigration act of that year was. How it was all reversed in 1965 with the Heartsellar Act. How Congress refuses the advice of the Rockefeller Commission and the Hesverse Commission. And how to this day refused to adopt the Barbara Jordan blueprint, validating every single thing that Dr. Claude Anderson spoke of generally, but specifically what Mrs. King spoke of in 1991 with her letter to Congress. Now look, I'm not saying that the Republican party is perfect. No, nobody's perfect. What I'm saying is I sat with Malcolm X when he said that the Liberals were the worst thing that could ever happen to the Western Hemisphere, but y'all ignore that. Just like how y'all ignore LBJ saying, and I quote, "I'm going to have Negroes voting Democrat for the next 200 years." And by God, 60 years later, I see no sign of recourse. But rest assured, your vote is your voice, even if it is a whisper. Thank you, Council Mayor Parker. Whenever you're ready, you can call your next speaker. What's up we we man? That's what they're calling you on Facebook right about now. Our next speaker is Carolina Rodriguez followed by Basil Zengari. Miss Jackson. Thank you. Carolyn Rodriguez followed by Basil Zengari. Thank you. Let's start with a phrase that should resonate with all of y'all. Phrase is let them eat cake. This is a famous quote that is attributed to Marian Twinette, the last queen of France who was guillotine during the French Revolution. This phrase, "Let them eat cake," actually symbolized the disconnect between the elite and the struggling masses. The mayor probably knows that because she went to college, but for you guys who didn't go to college up there on the on the panel, whatever, you see, when Queen Marinette was told about the star starvation occurring outside the palace walls and the bread shortage causing the starvation, she said, "Well, let them eat cake." She couldn't comprehend that the poor people never ever could eat cake ever because cake contains ingredients the poor people could never afford in any of their lifetimes. So, let's take a look at this palace that we're in. You erected it without the people of Fort Worth not even really knowing about it. Nobody even knows about this palace. And especially since you cut the times that the public could actually tell you how they feel. Not that you ever do what the constituents want anyways, right, Bum? I mean I mean um for example, here's some ways that y'all approved of. You approved of Charles. He's not even here. He's not even up there either on the Zoom thing. His You approved of his little signs that say just say no to pan handling. Well, that was a big waste of money because what you didn't research was case law again. See, it's setting you up for lawsuits again because there's case law from the Supreme Court that says Schamberg versus Citizens for a Better Environment that says that pan handling is a form of free speech. But Chuck on one of his Facebook posts says that panhandling are not all really homeless. Some just do it and actually have homes. I've seen a couple of supposed gifies gypsy families and a few others doing that on YouTube, but I doubt that Chucky could produce even one example of this. We understand there's a difference between aggressive panhandling and non-aggressive panhandling. And I have a video for panhandlers who are ran over on on Berry Street and died. But since we all know that homelessness is a product of bad government, Chucky's idea of stopping panhandling does not stop homelessness. And he didn't come with any plan to help the homeless. So Chuck signs that say just say no to pan handling was a big waste of money. But let's look let's look at this palace a little bit more. 50 million over budget. The electric bill alone cost $75,000. I didn't say $7,000. I said $7,500 just for the electric bill. Yet we have homeless people living under a bridge on Lancaster Street just two miles away. So, like, who told y'all to build this palace? It wasn't the people because you never gave us a chance to speak during these meetings. Who did the trend research for this palace? Did you research how many people pay their bill online instead of in person dur during COVID? The city government didn't fall apart and we did everything by phone and the government. But again, you have the attitude, let them eat cake. But the truth is, you guys are forgetting who the boss is. It's not the city manager, the police chief, and not even you. It's us. We the people. And to prove it to you, everybody up there right now who's watching and listening, even the people up there on the screen, everything that you're doing right now is is making a public record. It's pretty public record. So, we can forward request all the little emails that you're mailing out right now, the Facebook time. Our next speaker is Basil Zangari, followed by Adrienne Smith. I appreciate you saying my name correct, Mayor. Um, and if I could get everybody off their cell phones because you guys have been disrespectful to everybody up here speaking, being on your cell phones. So, I appreciate I'm demanding the respect like you demand the respect in this city council. I stand before you today as a citizen exercising my fundamental rights. My right to assemble, my right to petition my government, which is what I'm doing right now. My right to free speech and my right to press. These are not privileges. These are rights that are enshrined in the United States Constitution and granted to rights that are granted to many of us, including myself, who have served to protect. Yet, in the past six months, I have faced repeated violations of these rights by the very individuals sworn to uphold them, the Fort Worth PD. Just yesterday during a live stream at the Trinity Metro Station on Jones Street, officers once again violated my rights by retaliate retaliating against me simply for exercising them. This is not an isolated incident, but part of a larger culture of abuse, intimidation, and retaliation that runs unchecked in this city. Fort Worth officers operate more like a goon squad than a professional police force. They're quick to escalate, eager to use force, and entirely unwilling to follow their own policies. If I were to engage in this same behavior as they do, I would be placed in handcuffs and prosecuted. But when officers do it, they face no consequences. This double standard cannot and will not continue. I am putting the council on notice. I am preparing to file three separate federal lawsuits against the city of Fort Worth and its officers for the first amendment retaliation, fourth amendment violations, and 14th amendment violations along with my wrongful arrest along with excessive force that was just dismissed last week. This city has a serious problem and the courts will soon be forced to acknowledge it. The Fort Worth PD itself contributed to a case law in its very issue with Turner versus Driver in 2017. How much did that cost the taxpayers? So I ask, why does the city, the city attorney and city council continue to allow officers to disregard both policy and the law? Change is coming. Whether it comes voluntarily or through federal intervention is up to you. I serve this country as United States Marine. I swore an oath. I defend the Constitution. I expect nothing less from those who wore the uniform of the Fort Worth PD. I understand that today is April Fool's Day. But let me be absolutely clear. What I'm saying tonight is no joke. This is a warning. The people of Fort Worth will no longer tolerate the corruption, the abuse, and the lawlessness from those in power. Heed my words. Something has to give. Change is coming. Or if you prefer, I could just accept your resignation now. But make no mistake, I will not stop. I will never stop. And you will not get rid of me until change is made. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. Mayor, our next speaker is Adrienne Smith, followed by Jim Dong. Your your your camera, sir. Yeah, no problem. Mr. Smith here. No. Next speaker is Jim Dong, followed by Rick Herring. Good evening, mayor and city council. It's an honor to stand before you tonight, and it's an honor to stand in this council chamber. Everybody needs something to draw them up, and what you've done here is excellence. No matter what economic place you're in, you can always strive for excellence wherever you are. And that's something that should inspire all of us. Well, tonight I'm going to pray a prayer. Lord Jesus, I thank you for your new city hall. I that it stands as a shining light on a hill. Lord, from this day onward, tens of thousands of decisions will come forth from this dis. May our council members and their supporting staff be filled with the wisdom and knowledge needed to lead our city in righteousness and integrity. Jesus, you are the prince of peace. I thank you that you have given every Christian your peace, equipping us to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Today, in this time, in this coun chamber, and in this city, I speak peace be still to every storm in the lives of our leaders, their families, the heads of each department, their staff, and every storm that attempts to come against our city to bring death, division, and destruction. Jesus, I thank you that you have given your word to personally break down every dividing wall of hostility that may exist between the people of all creeds, colors, and races in my city. I unleash the power of your peace that has the ability to influence and turn the hearts of every person and decision maker towards your will and your ways, including our mayor, city council members, city manager, and all of their direct reports, including all those whose aim is to destroy the foundations of freedom, liberty, and godliness that we enjoy. I thank you that your word is true and it will accomplish all you sent it to accomplish. I declare that Jesus is Lord over Fort Worth in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, Jim. Our next speaker is Rick Herring. Good evening, mayor, council members, city staff. Uh, I just wanted to say first of all, after going down to the old council chambers for chambers for 30 something years, it's surreal to be in this uh new chamber. Uh, beautiful. And thank you to all of you for giving it to the citizens of Fort Worth. It's something we can all be proud of. And I think you'll be pleased to know that I'm not here to complain about anything or criticize anyone or lecture anyone, but to ask you for something. Um, last I'm here to address the recommended amount of funding for Gateway Park in the 2026 bond program. Last May, you all adopted the Gateway Park master plan with a price tag of $140 million. When Richard Javala presented the plan to you, he described Gateway Park as one of the big four, his words, in the Fort Worth park system, including the Botanic Gardens, the Fort Worth Nature Center, and the Fort Worth Zoo. That night, Mayor Parker called Gateway Park the central park of Fort Worth. And since then, many of the council members and others have echoed that sentiment. Now, a year later, uh the parks and recck department have recommended that Gateway Park receive 21 million in the 2026 bond program. Those of us who have been consistently advocating for Gateway Park feel that this is wholly inadequate. At that rate and with a bond program every four years, it will take at least 50 years for the Gateway Park master plan to be fully implemented. And we also dispute the characterization of Gateway Park as a community park. And that's how was presented to you on March 4th when you uh had the presentation on the bomb program. The city's own website, and I checked it today to make sure again, describes Gateway Park as Fort Worth's only metropolitan park. No one could have said it better than you, Mayor Parker, this morning in your workshop when you said Gateway Park is catalytic for the entire city. For the past year, a number of Gateway Park advocates have consistently appeared at the public comments meeting asking that you allocate at least $50 million to Gateway Park in the next bond program, hoping that we may get 30 or 35 million because we knew the parks department already had about a $20 million figure in mind. Um, we humbly request that you increase the allocation for Gateway Park in the 2026 bomb program so that we can start implementing the master plan. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rick. Council, that is the conclusion of our speakers this evening. Meeting is adjourned.