City Council - Special Meeting

Welcome everybody to the City of Farmers Branch Special Call meeting for Thursday, June 11th. Our first order of business will be public comments. I have two folks that are signed up to speak this evening. The first is, well, when you come up, you'll have three minutes to speak. Let me remind you that everybody who signs up to speak agrees to the city's terms and conditions for public speaking. You'll have three minutes when the light turns green on the podium, and then when it turns red, that will be your time to stop. Please refrain from any discourteous remarks towards any member of staff, council, or fellow citizens. First speaker, Rick Johnson.

Council, city manager, good evening. It seems like we're here again because we have more issues. We keep on having issues. I understand that obviously they've been discussed with the individuals involved and we continue to have more issues. Them same individuals talk about how experience is what you have to have to be on here. I would beg to differ, maybe common sense, you know. Tonight we're going to get to the crust that's on top of the surprise. So tear it open, examine it, bring it out, and call it what it is. The problem that we have here is we have individuals that are sitting up there that want to hold other people accountable for their actions. Like, oh wait, maybe like you did Jeff Fuller and wanted him persecuted to the end of the law, Mr. Lent. But somehow you want to try to avoid anything that has to deal with you. Or maybe we have people here that are repeating what they've done before and they make accusations and then when they get found out that there's proof otherwise, they wanna rescind those and say, oh no, I didn't do that, I didn't mean that, it was my attorney. This place has turned into a joke and we deserve better and we want different. So get to the bottom of it, make the right adjustments, do the right things. People didn't elect you guys because you're the smartest people in the world. Far from it. They elected you because you promised to follow through with what they want so their voice could be heard. You'll stone block anything so you don't have to face it. Well, hopefully today's your day of reckoning. With that, I think we need to look at bringing in an outside source, like I said before, to do an investigation into this city because it seems to have a lot of secrets that need to be uncovered. And we also need to turn around and maybe look at some different counsel because it just doesn't seem to work, period. And that's a shame. We're spending all of our money doing stupid things because people don't want to be what they say they're going to be. And that's wrong. So here's your opportunity.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Alma hash.

Thank you, Mayor. Council, Almahash 3302 Water Court. Here we are again. Farmer's Branch stands at an important moment, our city with a proud history, a strong neighborhood, solid economic foundation, and residents who care deeply about its future. While recent discussions have highlighted the disagreements among elected officials, Farmers branch is defined by far more than the conflict itself. It is a community with great potential and shared responsibility to move forward together. Differences of opinion are not a sign of failure, they're just essential part of government. But when disagreements become focused, when disagreement becomes the focus, we risk losing sight of the people that you were elected to serve. Residents are not asking us to agree on everything. They're asking us to listen, respect one another, and focus on results. They want safe neighborhoods, responsible growth, quality parks, strong public service, and a city government that works to solve problems. Every member of this council and every mayor was elected by citizens who believed they could contribute. Our challenge is not eliminating differences, but to use them to foster productive discussion and better decisions. Tonight, I encourage you to rise about personalities, politics, and past conflict. Let's speak with respect, disagree with dignity, and remember, no individual is bigger than the city we serve. Let me say something about my council member, Roger Neal. I didn't vote for him. I had David Merritt signs all over my yard. He is a true statesman. Councilman Roger Neal has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to serving the residents of District 5 and the City of Farmer's Branch. Through his dedication, his accessibility, and genuine concern for the community, he has consistently worked to enhance the quality of life for residents while fostering unity, progress, and responsible leadership. His tireless effort Thoughtful advocacy and passion for public service had made a lasting impression and a positive impact on District 5, earning respect and appreciation of all the people. Thank you, Roger. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council.

Thank you, Al. Thank you.

Thank you. That is all the speakers that we have tonight. So with that, we will move into executive session. I'll read us into executive session. Item C1, City Council will convene and close executive session pursuant to Texas Government Code Section 551.071, consultation with attorney to discuss, consult with... Received legal advice from the city attorney regarding councilmember interactions involving matters in which the duty of the Attorney to the governmental body under the Texas disciplinary rules of procedures conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with chapter 5 of 1 What is that

FOR TRANSPARENCY PURPOSES, I REQUEST THAT THIS DISCUSSION BE MOVED FROM AN EXECUTIVE SESSION TO A PUBLIC DISCUSSION.

I'LL SECOND.

I'LL CONSIDER THAT A MOTION.

IS THERE A SECOND? I WOULD CONSIDER THAT A MOTION, I THINK. OKAY.

ALL IN FAVOR OF OR IS THERE ANY OTHER DISCUSSION IN REGARDS TO THE MOTION? Seeing none, all in favor? Motion passes, that's fine. We can start that discussion right here.

All right, so although the agenda item is identified as an executive session for the purposes of legal advice, the first disclaimer I need to make is that to the extent the questions are asked or discussion pertains to issues that I need to address, they will not be covered by the attorney-client privilege. So what I say and what I advise may be limited by the fact that I don't have that privilege. We don't have that privilege that we can assert. In that regard, to the extent that we are going to be discussing this in public, the purpose of the executive session, the purpose of this agenda item at all was simply to see if there was some way that this council can work together to achieve the city's objectives and to move forward in a workable environment. There are currently issues that are pending beyond tonight's proceedings, specifically an ethics complaint that will be adjudicated or discussed by the council in closed session, I believe, in a couple of weeks. This is not the purpose of this executive session. This executive session and this meeting was not to enable the council to determine who was right or who was wrong last Tuesday night. It is simply to see if there was some way that we could not resolve differences, but find some common ground that would enable us to move forward. Thank you, Mr. Berman.

And I will echo as he said. The reason I called the meeting to begin with was so we could find or try to find a path forward so we can take care in advance of the city's business. it seems like we've gotten away from that. And so I'm hoping that we can have some constructive dialogue tonight to figure out what is that path and how do we move forward to advance city business and try to provide or bring some unity to this council. So I'm interested to hear what each one of you have to say. I'll start at my left.

Okay. So I prepared a little something just to kind of keep me on topic. David Berman said we're not to discuss much of what's happening with the ethics violation. I want to start by saying that I did not want our working relationship to reach this point. I was elected to represent District 1 and serve the residents of Farmer's Branch, and I believe our community is best served when council members can communicate honestly and work together professionally, even when we disagree. Unfortunately, the difficulties between Councilwoman Villafranca and myself did not begin with the incident that occurred last week. For me, that incident was the result of a pattern of behavior that has damaged trust and made it difficult to work together effectively. One concern is that the statements have been made to members of the community that I know to be untrue. As one example, it has been publicly stated that I approached Councilwoman Villanfranca during the recent altercation. Because accurately and accountability are important, I would like the video from that incident to be shown. The video demonstrates what occurred and allows everyone to rely on facts rather than deferring accounts of the event. I believe it's important that we establish a sharing understanding of facts and if we are going to move forward productively. In addition to concerns about misinformation, I have also experienced being excluded from matters involving my district. As members of this council know, we have adopted a practice of notifying the council members whose district is affected when we are working with residents or utilizing city resources in that district. This is a simple matter of professional courtesy and respect. I would like to provide examples through emails that document actions and communications regarding District 1 in which I was not included. These examples are important because they demonstrate why trust has been broken down and why collaboration has become difficult. These patterns include starting back in November 24th, there was a resident needing smoke detectors. She failed to include me. Our city manager had to add me to the email. January 20th, no, excuse me, and February 16th, the Urban Logistics Realty invited me and the mayor to a tour. Mayor immediately added Elizabeth to the email chain. Elizabeth invited herself to the tour. in... May 6th, Elizabeth emailed city manager for Builders of Hope Monthly Reports as received a program in my district. She included the mayor and then had to go back and add me to the email chain. May 12th, Mayor Lin sent an email to the city manager about the Sunny Mart gas station to try to get information to allow beer and wine. He sent the email to the city manager and included Elizabeth. City manager had to later add me to the email chain. May 16th, I had been in communication with the resident about a retaining wall issue. The resident also decided to speak to Elizabeth and she sent emails to Ben, did not include me. City Manager Ben had to include me to these emails. On June 1st, Elizabeth emailed about a homeless issue. She included the mayor. Ben had to go back and add me to the email. Again, on June 1st, Elizabeth emailed the city manager about a Springvale speeding issue. Ben had to add me to the email. It's just been a pattern where I understand that residents are going to reach out to the representative that they know because they're friends, because they live in different districts. I understand that, but help build that relationship, help get us together, help introduce us to each other so that I can step in to help You know, people are wondering if I'm even doing anything to my district, and I can't when someone's not allowing me to do my part of this. I did not seek public office to engage in personal conflicts. I sought public office to serve my community. Unfortunately, through my timeline on this council, I have repeatedly found myself defending my character, my motives, and my right to fully represent the people of District 1. Going forward, I would like us to commit to three expectations, honest communication, inclusion in matters affecting one another's district, and addressing disagreements directly with each other rather than running through third parties of the community. I'm willing to do my part to rebuild professional working relationships. However, that effort must be based on transparency, accuracy, and mutual respect. I believe reviewing the video and documented communications is an important step towards that goal.

Councilwoman Bennett.

I too just wanted to stay on track. The jabs, personal attacks, snarky comments, name calling directed to council members needs to stop or we're not going to move forward as community. I asked our attorney within days of his return to representing us to help address these concerns before they escalated further. The city manager works for the entire council and should not be put in the position of having to referee elected officials. If a vote does not go your way, that's part of public service. We all win some votes and lose some votes. The answer is not to spend weeks or months attacking the motives, character, or integrity of those who reached a different conclusion. I've heard the comments. I heard that I tell my other council members how to vote. I've heard claims of a shadow government. I've been called the devil, a jackass, anti-transit, anti-development, a dumb woman, mean, told I need anger management when I literally never said anything. as well as been given information that my colleagues and many others. So it's really fatiguing. The reality is much simpler. I just ask a lot of questions. You just ask the questions of our city manager and he will figure it out for you. Early in my time in council, there was a moment when I felt frustrated. about that. And actually it was you, Marilyn, who told me to ask better questions. So I didn't take it as a dig or even take offense to it. What I did was I learned and I did better and I asked better questions and more questions. So, you know, hours doing this, you know, it really, we need to get back and remember that we serve everybody in the community. We're all neighbors. Unlike the state and national electeds, we don't get to go home from this. We're going to run into each other. So we need to be civil with one another. I did not campaign by going door to door speaking negatively about my colleagues. I've intentionally avoided responding in kind when attacked because I did not want to add fuel to the fire. But at some point, someone has to say what many of us are thinking, which enough is enough. We can disagree on policy. We can debate projects, budgets, priorities, and ideas, but different perspectives often lead to better decisions. What is not healthy is the constant assumption of bad motives, personal attacks, the rumors, the effort to turn every disagreement into a character issue. That approach does not strengthen our city, it divides it. All of us as elected officials, even the candidates, residents and supporters alike, need to do better. At the end of the day, our responsibility is not to win arguments. It is to serve our community. Let's agree to disagree respectfully, move forward professionally, and focus our energy on doing the next right thing.

Councilman Reed.

Okay. I did not come with a prepared statement, but I do have some buzz words or key words I want to address. I'm not going to highlight any individual council member interactions that I've had with them, except for one. Al gave a very eloquent description of Roger, which I agree with. Roger and I have been on the opposite sides of many big votes. We'll either sit down and talk about it, have a beer beforehand, or have a beer afterwards, express our opinion, express our thoughts, describe why we're doing what we're going to do or why we did what we did. and then you shake hands and walk away. There's no animosity, there's no hurt feelings, and I appreciate that, Roger. Roger's a professional. I try to be a professional as well. It is expected for people to have a passion about issues, items, projects, whatever the case may be. You know, if you didn't, you wouldn't be here, up here on the dais. And sometimes that passion can lead to emotion. Someone can be emotionally invested in something. But when something goes against the direction that you'd like to see something move towards, that's when you have to... curb that emotion or curb that enthusiasm to quote an old sitcom and just move on. Just because someone voted a way that is in conflict with the way you voted does not mean they're a bad person, they have ill, intense, bad intents, whatever the case may be. They're not out to get someone or get a group or what have you. It's just, speaking for myself, that's the only person I can speak for. I vote my conscience. I vote for what I think my constituents would like, and I vote for something that's the benefit of the city. My job is to, or my goal, I should say, is to leave the city in a better place than what I found it. And I think over the last couple of years, we're moving in that direction in general. The city's growing. Things are getting better. Differences of opinion are to be expected, as was said. But you can't let that lead to conflict. There has to be respect. There has to be maturity. There cannot be name calling. There cannot be backstabbing. I think social media is the bane of our existence, to be honest with you. And I think when disagreements are taken out into that arena, as opposed to dealt with on a mature level, individually, that just pours fuel on the flame. And that's what has led to where we are today. So my hope is that we as a group, we as individuals, develop some respect for one another. develop the ability to keep our emotions in check, our ability to, like someone said, learn from it. When I've had conversations with Roger or other council members, I learn things or perspectives that I might not have realized before. Sometimes it changes my attitude, sometimes it doesn't. But that's what we're here to do. I'm not a politician. I don't look to do backroom deals to accomplish things. I'm not looking for a personal spotlight. I just wish, I wish we could all get along. No, I wish that we could have more professional demeanor in a group. You don't have to like each other. to be honest, but you have to respect the position, you have to respect the person, you have to respect their opinion, and if it's not in alignment with yours, that's unfortunate. Have a conversation, and not one that involves yelling or name-calling. So that's where I'd like to see us go.

Thank you. Councilman Villafranca.

Thank you, Mayor. While I would like to comment on many of the things that have been said, I can tell you that I'm not at liberty to discuss many of the items because there's an active police investigation and charges that have been filed, as well as pending litigation. But I can tell you that as far as... residents approaching me about things in their district, I can tell you that my protocol is always to email Ben. And if you have been present, Mayor, if you have been present, I will copy you. And then Ben funnels it to whoever he needs to funnel it to. I don't always know at the top of my head whose district belongs to who. So if there's been a misunderstanding about that, that's just what I do. I always email Ben, and Ben figures out who he needs to get involved in the email. I really would like for the pending charges that have been filed to be fair and impartial, and so I'm not going to make additional comments at this time. But I can tell you that it has been really difficult to see a judge, jury, and conviction all on Facebook before anybody has any idea what the facts are. And this is very concerning to me because it's easy. All of you are very kind people, but it's very easy to take advantage of kind, gullible people. And so I ask you to be open to seeing what the truth is, what is really going on. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Neal.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to at least start by thanking Mr. Mahesh and Councilman Reed for their comments towards me. It's very much appreciated. And those don't come enough to the members of this board. And so I truly appreciate the comments. With respect to some of the comments that Councilwoman Gonzalez mentioned, Each of us are elected to represent our district. But in addition to that, we represent and should represent all our residents in this great city. And if somebody were to reach out for me from another district, I try to do my best to let that representative know. But I can make those mistakes. Just the other day, I was trying to save some of the trees over here at the Farmer's Branch Elementary, and I mistakenly copied Councilwoman Bennett Burton when it was really loop-based. I mean, things like that happen. We're not all perfect. We're going to make mistakes up here. We just need to be more understanding. among each other here. We need to take a little bit better personal responsibility for our actions and act at a little bit higher level of professionalism. Each of us are, as David said, very passionate about certain issues, and we're certainly not going to agree. And I don't know that the residents expect us to always agree. But it is important that when you are passionate about whatever issue, that you remain passionate and try to make your case. And as David said, we're going to disagree and I still remain and communicate with David as well as I hope the others. Again, just do the best that I can. I just feel that we need to rise above a lot of this seemingly childish or junior high school level attacks and activities. It doesn't do any good for this city. It doesn't help us. It doesn't help us as a council. It doesn't help this city either. We need to remain focused on those things that help our city and help our residents, in my view. And, you know, as we move forward here, I do hope we can improve here, and there will be more differences to come. Whether Mayor Lynn is reelected or we have a new mayor, there will likely be differences in the future, and just it's a matter of trying to handle those in a little bit more professional perspective. As representatives up here, we have to take the good with the bad. We get many times we're called all kinds of things by many supporters and then non-supporters. And that comes with being in public service. And you have to try to manage that in a little more professional or as professionally as you can and try to make better decisions based on the feedback you hear from residents that are both adverse to your position or in agreement. So I too hope that we can move past this. I know there's still some ethics issues to be discussed, and I'm hopeful we'll be able to manage that issue as well. So it's really only a few comments I have there, Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Again, the purpose of this meeting was not to rehash the events of last Tuesday night, but to figure out how this council comes together to advance business of the city. So How do we resolve conflict? I would suggest that the council engage in some leadership training. It might be time that we take a break and have a session where we can maybe have a professional come in here that will help us address our issues. I'm not sure that we have actually gotten to that point where, at least from what I've heard or had not heard, that how we're going to address this. Communication is key. And everybody has their issues that they're advocating for. I'm advocating at this time that I think bringing in a facilitator to help us with this and help us better understand how to be the most effective leader that you can be would be beneficial to us. My sole focus remains on moving City Farmers Branch forward serving our residents and fulfilling my powers and duties as responsibilities as the mayor. So how can I be better at doing that? How can you be better at doing that as a council representative? That's what I believe the question should be. So does anybody have any thoughts on that? Yes, sir.

I think your idea of having a third party come in and provide instruction, direction is, would be beneficial. My one suggestion would be instead of leadership, have someone come in specifically to address conflict resolution because I think that's where the crux of the issues lie is when there is any type of conflict between one or more individuals the way that it's dealt with is dealt with on a very personal and emotional level as opposed to a productive and professional level so having a having someone provide guidance, training, options for that, I think would be beneficial for the whole group.

Very good. Any other comment?

I'm going to agree with Council Member Reid. We need someone to help us and guide us how to better work together and not take it out into the community. We don't need to go and run and tell the residents a story just because we are caught up in our emotions. We don't need to take this to our state representatives and then have the state representatives' workers run and complain to the residents that they're unhappy with their council members because they were told lies or they're thoughts of what happened on situations or what's happening on this dais. We really need to learn to work together and not get caught up in our emotions and just be angry at a certain council member just because it didn't go your way. You've got to learn to let it go, move on, or at least speak to that council member face-to-face and figure out why you think that way. Back to how everyone was discussing with Councilmember Neal, there's been times where I don't agree with Councilmember Reid, and he took the time to explain to me why he felt a certain way, and I respected him for that. A couple weeks ago, Councilmember Neal was really frustrated because we didn't know how to amend or do whatever with the vote. And even though he wasn't in agreeance with me, I walked over to him and asked him if he was okay, because I saw him frustrated. Even though he didn't agree with what I was wanting to do that day, it still did not make me feel good as a human being that he was frustrated. So I took the time to walk over to him. It's not that hard for us to literally just be human beings and check on each other, agree with each other, disagree. Anything else?

No?

I would just add that it seems as though... And I, too, would be willing to attend or join in with whatever conflict resolution leadership class. I'd be happy to participate in that if I can help in any way.

Absolutely, conflict resolution is important. But one thing is what we say and another thing is what we do here at the dais. I've seen, you know, there's been one council member who's, in the name of transparency, constantly posting things that are to her benefit. We need to be really careful about taking advantage of the sensibilities of our residents, and we need to be professional about all of these things. But I absolutely agree that I have done everything and then some to get along with everybody, to engage everybody, to spend time with everybody, but I can't force people to engage with me.

So let me ask Ben and our city attorney, is that something that you all could put together some recommendations for somebody that could come in and assist in that regard? Yes, we can prepare that for the council to consider. Okay. If you can do that, I don't know if having that something to start with by next meeting would be, is that feasible or... Do we need to push that out a little longer?

We'll need a little bit of time, but we will bring it back as soon as it's ready.

Okay. All right. Anything else? Councilwoman?

Can we get that video played, Ben?

Mayor, I'd like to call a point of order on that comment that this issue and the video to which she's describing is likely a fact related to the upcoming ethics complaints. I don't really know if that is appropriate at this time. I would defer that to the city attorney. I'm not opposed to showing the video in any way. I just want to make sure that we are following appropriate procedures and policy from a state meetings law kind of thing. So I'm not objecting to showing it. I'm just trying to make a point of order and some clarification. That's all.

Well, I guess in response, the video is public information. Although there may have been an opportunity to ask for an Attorney General's opinion for public information, I could request purposes. That's not the appropriate thing to do. The video is public information. I think the people in the city, if they want to see it, they can see it. To your point, though, the purpose for tonight's meeting is not to adjudicate the ethics complaint. The purpose is... to see if we can't find some way to resolve our conflicts. I don't know if showing the video would serve that end or not, but if a council member insists on it, that's part of their presentation. They can, subject to a point of order and a majority vote. It can be shown. I don't believe that whether it's public or kept private is going to impair the council's ability to render a fair adjudication in connection with the ethics complaint.

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. As long as it doesn't impact the judgment or decision-making of this board regarding the upcoming ethics complaint, I would have no objection. If, however, the belief of this Board is that it would skew our thoughts in any way to adjudicate the complaint, I might object to that. But hearing that as your opinion, it would not skew any ethics, I would have no objection at all.

Council, anybody else have any comment on that? I'll just show a straw poll. Anybody who wants to see the video? Fine. Then we can... Thank you. Then... Ben, is that something that can be done?

Please play the video.

Sorry for the delay. They just went out to get some popcorn. We'll be for sale in the back.

Just let it go, Ariel.

Okay.

How many Aggies does it take? And how much are we paying all these IT people? You're going to have to drive.

It would take about $700,000 to show this video. $700,000.

There we go.

Is that the extent of the video? That's the video, folks.

Okay.

Hopefully that will put some rumors to bed. But with that, any other comments about that? Or any final comments before we wrap up?

My final comments to move on. I'd be more than willing to work with her and learn from her because she has been on here longer than I have. But the going out to the community has got to stop. You are more than welcome to support whatever candidate. I'm not trying to make this political. Do what you have to do, but you do not need to go and run with a different narrative out in the community. That's not going to make me want to go and work with you. Yes, it seems like Councilwoman Bennett and I are in some crazy shadow government and we control this dais, but she works with me. She takes the time to listen to my questions that I sound like a fifth grader trying to understand what is happening in this city. Councilman Reed took the time to teach me to share his thoughts and ideas when I wasn't okay with garage conversion and he wanted to do whatever and he was okay with it and he took the time to teach me. Councilman Neal reached out, we had dinner and he told me, hey, it's gonna be hard, it's gonna be tough, but you'll be all right. But if you go out and spread lies into the community and divide us and then have someone on social media trying to bring me down, no, I do not want to approach you for help. Mayor Lin has also extended his hand and said, please reach out to the council members. I will help you. People have wondered, oh, you're so friendly with him when he did all this for you at National Night Out. Yeah, but he didn't do anything directly to me at the time. So I'm more than willing to work with him. Don't take the narrative that we are controlling this dais, that we are trying to control the city and we are some crazy masterminds because we're not. We just so happen to get along. At one point, I'm going to disagree with her, and that's going to be okay. Because I know at the end of the day, I can come back and... shake her hand, and move on to the next item. That's the whole purpose of the video, just to show that's why I am having this hard time working with her, because the lie was spread. I know it wasn't true. I want to work with her. I want to do what's best for the community, whether we agree or not. We could never agree, but at the end of the day, I want to be able to stand in the room with her and know that we can move on and do the next thing.

Anybody? Thank you. Anybody else? Councilman Reid.

Yeah, I was just thinking of an analogy. If you look at your family, you're going to have disagreements with siblings, parents, whatever the case may be. But you don't want to go running out into the street, screaming at each other, Having having these disagreements in public like that. It doesn't benefit anyone if anything it makes the situation worse We're not a family but it we're a group that needs to work like one and If there's disagreements sitting around the dinner table That's when we have the conversations a respectful conversation and Or we go off in ones or twos or threes and have additional conversations. But the backstabbing, the bringing it out into public court for everyone to, you know, you ever played the telephone game? One person tells one person something, they tell the next one the story's a little different, they tell the next one the story's a little different, until it gets to the end and it's totally, totally different than what the original story was. That's what social media does. That's what handling these issues out in public does. Things get misconstrued, misrepresented. falsehoods appear. So if we can get rid of that, be the professional group that I know that we can be, I think this will go a long way to better serving the city.

Councilwoman?

Perception is reality. I don't know that there's a shadow government, but what I can tell you is I want you to start paying attention. And every time there is a power of three, that means that there are some of us that are being excluded from the democratic process. And so every time there is a power of three pooled, I want you to start paying attention. All they need to do is go to the mayor and add something to the agenda, and the mayor, I think, is more than amenable, more than amenable to add something to the agenda. I want you to start paying attention to that. From the day Lupe was elected, I can sincerely tell you that I have reached out to her. It's like sort of like a... I've invited her to coffee. She doesn't have time for coffee. I say hello to her every time I see her. In fact, I've told many of you that I thought it was going to be so much fun. We were going to be going to all these events together. I introduced her to elected officials, and I thought it was going to be. But my job is to work with everybody and get along with everybody. But I cannot force you. But when you're on social media constantly being transparent and informing the community, Beware, because not everything is what it appears. Beware. Thank you.

Councilman Neal?

I have nothing else, Mayor.

Thank you. Seeing nothing else, we'll move on to Item D. There's no action to take. The City Manager will work to... put his homework together. And so that is it. So we will adjourn at 549. Thank you all for coming out.