City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we have all the council members here almost. Deborah's here. Leanne's here. Chris is here. We have a required assemblage. We're just waiting on everyone to get settled. Good afternoon, everyone.

It's one o'clock.

Let's get our City Council work session started for September 1st. First item of business is a report by the City Manager, Jay.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our work session. I don't have any upcoming and recent events to announce at this time, but I do have one organizational update. I'd like to invite D.J. Harrell to recognize one of our folks in Development Services.

Good afternoon, D.J. Good afternoon, Mayor Pro Temp, Council. Today, I'd like to recognize Rachel Parrish. She's our interim building official here at the city of Fort Worth. Rachel has been awarded an award by the building officials of Texas. She's our assistant building official, our interim assistant building official, but she's been recognized as a code official of the year across the state of Texas, which is a huge deal. It's also fitting that today is Building Official and Code Staff Appreciation Day.

And so we also want to- Did you just make that up?

I did not. I did not. I did not. I did not. But we do, on September 1st every year, there's a recognition that goes out to those folks that silently, behind the scenes, keep all of our buildings safe and our built environment. And so we also want to recognize them as we recognize Rachel Parrish, our Interim Building Official, as the boat, Code Professional of the Year.

All right. Wonderful.

All right.

Thank you, guys. I just wanted to take a second and say how much I appreciate getting to serve the city of Fort Worth and the fact that DJ fought so hard to steal me. So thank you. I appreciate you guys.

Congratulations, Rachel.

All right, informal reports. Jay?

We have one informal report. It's a Tarrant County 911 Emergency Assistant District budget for 2027. And Aubrey Insko, Emergency Management and Communications Deputy Director, is here to answer any questions.

Doesn't look like we have any. There she is. Good afternoon, Aubrey. All right. Let's see. We have this IR in front of us. Are there any questions from the council? Really? You were looking so forward to our questions, weren't you? Good job. Good job, Aubrey. Thank you. And that's the only IR we have. All right. Next up, we have council discussion. Are there any questions regarding board and commission appointments, zoning cases, or MNCs for the September 15th meeting? Not at all? All right. Going through that. Presentations. I think we have a presentation here for a proposed economic development agreement with Harding Connectivity. Brianna, how are you?

I am well. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, Council, city staff. It's nice to be with you this afternoon to talk to you about a very exciting economic development project that is considering location in the city of Fort Worth, Harding Connectivity, Inc. Harding Incorporated is a German-based manufacturer and leading global provider of industrial connectivity. Harding Manufacturing Inc. is their U.S. subsidiary, responsible for manufacturing, R&D, and sales in North America. Harding Manufacturing is currently headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, and both manufacturing and headquarters operations are being considered for relocation. This project in particular is a multi-phased expansion and relocation project considering the city of Fort Worth that would support cable and component assembly and production as well as the corporate relocation. This product does support the production of a projected $900 million in goods for sale in the US that would otherwise be produced overseas. Company Commitments, as I mentioned, this is a manufacturing and corporate office project with a minimum capital investment anticipated at $192.7 million by December 31st of 2031. They are going into a set of existing buildings in District 8. And so that's why you'll notice a little bit lower capital investment of real property, but a fairly significant investment on business personal property. 31.1 million in real, 161.6 million in BPP, with the creation of 700 new jobs with average wages of $87,000. I do want to note that over the term of this agreement, which is anticipated to be a 10 year agreement, those wages, minimum average wage is expected to increase to over $100,000. So really great jobs and really great wages with this project. As I mentioned, they are looking at three existing industrial buildings in Carter Crossing Industrial Park and Council District 8. You can see a site plan of those three buildings on this slide. And then a rendering of one of the exteriors here. But this is at Wichita Drive and I-20. Potential impact of this project and the reason we wanted to bring it to you today for your consideration is they are looking at expanding into 700,000 square feet of new manufacturing space. The headquarters location would be at this same site. So you're looking at over a million square feet of currently uninhabited space that would be taken by this project. We are looking at 189 new jobs as part of the corporate headquarters. Also an expansion of Harding's existing research and development functions. So really exciting innovation and technology that would be proposed for this facility. Regarding the competitive landscape, we are competing with several other states for this project, several of those that have provided higher incentive offers than what the city is recommending. So our proposal for incentives today does play a significant role in this company's decision, location-making decision. They currently import approximately 40% of their components, and so our competing locations do offer more direct access to ocean routes, so that is something that we're trying to overcome with this project, and then also the impacts of different taxation laws that we have in Texas as opposed to other states in the country. We are proposing a 10-year tax abatement agreement for Harding of up to 65% of real and BPP. They would of course be subject to all of the performance requirements that we require any of our projects to meet related to minimum capital investment, jobs, and minimum average salaries. So again, to highlight the project, we are looking at $192.7 million in capital investment, 31 million in real property, and 161 million in BPP. A minimum of 700 new full-time jobs, just under 200 of those would be corporate jobs, with an average wage of $87,000. Estimated incentive for this project would equate to approximately $6 million, which is 4.2 million in net present value. City would be participating at a 3.1% with a private to public ratio of 32 to one. We would be cash positive on this incentive by year one and would be covering the total value of the incentives five years into the 10 year term. Following those incentive payments, we are projecting net new taxes of 3.2 million over the life of the agreement. So as I said, city staff is recommending that we enter into a 10-year tax abatement agreement for up to 65% of real and PPP should Harding choose a Fort Worth location. We would like to bring that to you for consideration at your council meeting on September the 29th. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you. Any questions from council members? Go ahead, Chris.

I was wondering, is there a deadline to when we need to get that across the MSC? I see the 29th. Is there a reason why we don't have it for next week?

Because we are proposing a tax abatement agreement, we do have to hold a public hearing. So we had the 30-day public hearing notice requirements, and so that was the soonest we could get that done.

Okay, thank you. All right, any other questions? All right, thank you. Seems like a really good proposal. And I want to acknowledge that in the audience, we do have an executive from Harding Connectivity here with us. Thank you for attending our meeting. We appreciate you.

And I will just note, thank you for mentioning that. I should have done that as well. But he is celebrating his 19th wedding anniversary with you all today. So please join me in congratulating him.

Thank you for being here.

So happy anniversary, but since you're here, if you could have moved it just a few miles to the east, it would have been in District 5 rather than District 8.

That's my cue to go. Thank you all. Thank you, Brianna.

All right, next up, Kirstie Ann Simmons. She's going to present for us the FY27 budget responses and updates.

good afternoon mayor pro tem and council so just like last week we don't have a formal presentation for this item this is just a placeholder for any questions concerns at this stage of the budget process a couple of notes i did send some follow-ups based on last week's questions via email on friday so i'll give you a moment to ask any questions you may have on those the first was about local sales tax uses in our five-year sales tax history And the lab produced that, so we have staff here if anyone has sales tax related questions.

Any questions over sales tax? Are we all clear? All right.

All right. The second follow-up was on credit card service fees. FMS produced this one, and they are here if you have questions on the way our credit card service fee program works.

It may have been Charlie Larsdorf who had asked that question, right? But anyone else have any follow-up questions on that? Okay.

Okay.

All right, moving on.

All right, and the last follow-up was a reminder on group health allocations, some of the drivers that have led to the group health fund situation, and the cost containment measures that we're currently implementing. This may have also been Councilmember Larsdorf, but I haven't received any additional questions. But HR is here if you have questions on group health.

All right, Elizabeth.

I just want to make sure, because I know I'd asked some questions about group health specific to the GLP-1 reimbursement, and I just want to make sure that this IR isn't covering that response as well. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so I guess if staff would respond to Councilman Beck's questions on that.

Yes, I believe there's another longer, more detailed response coming on the group health or GLP-1 program updates.

All right.

All right. So as a reminder, we do not have another budget-related work session. And since we don't have a meeting on the 8th, then this would be the time for additional follow-ups, questions, concerns, or direction to staff. We do have a budget public hearing today at 2 PM. I think we have one speaker registered to speak at that public hearing. And we have done eight of 10 budget public engagement meetings in your district. So I have three and 10 left this week. But at this time, I'm willing to obviously have any kind of discussion or follow ups or commentary based on those of you who've already had your meetings. I'm happy to respond to anything you might want to talk about.

All right, anyone? Yes, go ahead.

No, I just want to tell you that staff has done an excellent job with not only putting the budget together, but last night at my budget hearing, I mean, our budget meeting, excellent responses. It was well received. I think you heard everything. And so I think we're moving in the right direction based on the feedback that I got from District 5. So thank you. Great, thank you so much.

All right, anyone else? All right. Thank you, Christian.

So no, we're in the right, we're moving in the right direction. And apparently so. The 15th is the last opera, is our, we'll be bringing forward the budget for approval. So I just want to make sure that's the case. And last night we even answered a question about the Alamo.

Really? Okay. No impacts to our budget there, I don't think, but okay.

District 5 always is not afraid to ask the questions. And Jay answered it beautifully, so thank you.

Thanks to Jay and his staff for coming to our budget hearings. They were very responsive and very detailed in answering questions of the public, so appreciate them. All right, council, future agenda items. Any requests? Yes, ma'am.

Given all the discussion we've had about the budget and there was a lot of discussion about police and fire, I would like to ask, we added some new corporal positions in patrol. And so I would like to ask the police chief if we can talk about staffing, where he sees us going with these new positions. Is he going to add any more? And how we're going to look at people for those opportunities.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Chris?

Yeah, Carlos. Mayor Pro Tem. I'm looking at the staff tracking. I know we asked about this in the other meeting, the CCPD meeting, about the fly cameras. I don't see that on the staffing, the staff action tracking, so I want to make sure I put that back on the radar.

I had asked for an INR on that, I think last meeting.

I think we have it for the 29th meeting. Okay, and then also I want to, for the chief also to give us an update on all the appointments that he has made since he's been here. as well as a presentation on the sole bargaining unit is the Police Officer Association. And I know in other cities they have more than one sum. They have the Black Police Officer Association also has a bargaining agreement. I want to see how that looks in other cities and what that looks like for Fort Worth.

Okay, so you want a peer city comparison of what other cities have versus what we have here? Okay, got it. All right, anyone else? All right, seeing none, I think that closes our business. Keep in mind that we meet again for a specially called meeting at 2 p.m. today to talk about the FY2027 budget. Until then, we are adjourned.