City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Thank you.

I'm upset like that. I'm sorry, I'm here floating.

The title's gone.

Maybe even more confusing. You're like, man. I'm going to go hoarding homes where we found dead bodies.

Thank you. Thank you. ... ... ... ...

Right? As soon as you say it, you're like, did I burp?

Did that stay in?

what time is it all right yeah all right i think we're ready to get started right okay everybody settle in and welcome it's uh 19 minutes past three and i now call to order the uh what is the day september 15th meeting of the cdc so first item of business is the approval of the august 11th 2026 meeting minutes so i have a motion all right and a second any discussion Corrections? Okay. All in favor, indicate by saying aye. Aye. All right. I don't see any nays, so that passes. Thank you very much. Right there, biting at the bit, we have our Director of Code Compliance.

How are you guys doing?

Have a seat.

Excellent. That's what I need to hear. Let's keep that energy going because I'm doing the presentation whether you have the energy or not. Oh, yours, Brian. Thank you guys for having me. Brian Dougherty, Director of Code Compliance. I'm going to give you guys an update on the new shelter and animals adoption center, which was approved in the 2026 bond. Also, maybe not. Oh, dear. Okay, there we go. purpose here we're going to give you an update on obviously where we're at with the the new animal shelter some of the sites that have been evaluated the recommended site that we have and a lot of the factors involved as well as our next steps part of the design the stakeholders everyone we're going to have to bring into it i'm a little bit of the background voters approved a 59.8 new million for a new facility to replace the the chuck and Brenda Silcox Animal Care and Adoption Center. This is a really, really big move because if you've been down to Silcox, you'll very quickly realize it's sort of been piecemealed and added on and it doesn't require the right spacing for animals as far as natural light and a lot of just amenities animals need so that they're safe, healthy, happy, and they're adoptable. So with this bond approval, we'll be able to replace that and get these animals better care and serve the residents better as well. And then we're looking at around 600 for the capacity of it, which is pretty similar to Silcox now. I think we're around 540, 550 with Silcox right now. Just to go over everything that was in that 59.8, design was 5.9 million, utilities and site preparation is 1.4, and the construction is 52.5. A little bit of background here. We worked on this for about two years, Chris, myself, our team, the lab, and Maryland's group as well. And the first proposal we had was actually around 100 million, and we went ahead and had property look at it, and they were like, oh, it should be 107. So if it gives you an idea of the necessity, It was significantly pared down. However, what you'll see, what we plan on designing, we're gonna have room for expansion. So it'll still be way better standards and care than they have at Silcox. And then there'll also be rooms for expansion with pods similar to what we have at the Henry Adoption Center up north. The current location right here is just south of 287. And it's had three expansions um, over its lifespan. And it's coming up on 30 years. By the time we have the new shelter built, it'll be 30 years But it's a old school pound. It was never intended to be a fully functioning animal shelter. And part of that is the challenges we have now is every time we added on, you had to update the infrastructure, the HVAC, the wiring, everything. And inevitably by your third phase, it's just sort of piece milled together. And that's our current challenges that we have right now. What we're looking at is we want to get an area with around five to six acres so it has room for expansion, room for parking. The current location we have now is landlocked. It's in an industrial area. There's not much to be done. If you've been down there, you've probably parked somewhere different every time, and it's been all over the road. The sites that we evaluated here, the four listed, just to give you an aerial of where they're located in Fort Worth. Again, we had to review it based on the acreage that was available, the cost, access and location, the existing utilities and infrastructure, If we were to development, if there's any constraints, and then, again, with that size, the ability to accommodate current and future operational needs, and again, a lot of that goes to, we would eventually need to add pods, but albeit five, 10, 15 years down the future. And just a little bit of background on that, that is really, really good when it comes to disease mitigation. Very common, we have distemper or other things go through the shelter, and when you are all housed in one building under the same HVAC system, that's a really big part, it's very hard to keep all those animals safe and healthy. Whereas on the pod design, you can isolate each time. You're like, okay, B is down. We can't have anyone in or out. And that's what we're looking to do here, but it'd be an expansion going forward. This site was considered, it's 33 acres, it's also off of 820 on this side of the lake. However, they were not willing to break up the 33 acres, and I believe when we checked, it wasn't for sale, but they definitely weren't considering breaking it up. This was another location that we looked at. The elevation on it is significant, where there would be construction challenges. There's also a retention pond, as you can see on there, and then not something that we love, but it's directly across from a elementary school. That's not to say that our staff isn't on top of things, but a dog getting loose from an animal shelter is not unheard of, and I would rather them not have access to kids playing outside. This is a Brentwood stair location that we also looked at. It has the acreage. As you can see, there's some utility easements that are gonna make construction a challenge. There's also some residential nearby, and just like I really didn't, we didn't love it being around a school, it's also right next to a daycare right there. This is 6300 Willard Road. This is five acres, which is around the size we were looking for. There's no utility easements or lines that are gonna be challenging. It's gonna be able to connect to green space over there as well as the pass, and it also kind of feeds into redeveloping that whole side of Lake Arlington on this side of Fort Worth. That is the fourth location. Here's a lot of the stuff that we went over on each site. Will Barger, not willing to subdivide. Parker Henderson, the elevation was really a challenge and then up against the school. Brittwood stairs, the right size. It did have the existing utilities make it a bit challenging. And then there's some residential density nearby as well as that daycare. Then Willard Road is five acres. That is city-owned property. We wouldn't have to purchase. There's existing water and wastewater infrastructure. And then it does have a lot of trees on the lot, which if we could, if we have a preference, we would like to have that. The recommended site that we bring to you guys is the 6300 Willard Road. It's city owned, eliminates the need for property acquisition, which again was not in the bond. I realize that's a challenging hurdle, but that's one thing that we have to face. There was not money put in this bond to acquire any land. Has existing infrastructure that supports development of the site. It'll have the layout. We can use it that we need. We're expansion with pods, room for parking. And as far as the balance of everything that we need, as well as it's already city-owned, this is our recommended site that we have for the group. And to zoom out a little bit, here's the location.

I keep thinking you can, yeah, you can draw on this.

What are we doing here? I just, oh, anyway, here's the lake. I'll just, there we go. And there's a current, as you can tell. That's where the lake is. But no, we do love the proximity it has there as well as to the trails because a lot of our volunteers come out to walk the dogs. And I just think that's just a better setup right there. So that's really something. All right, we can get crafty with it. Look at that. Oh my word. We should have training here. Where are the emojis? Thank you, sir. The next steps we have is confirm Woolley Road as the project site, and then we are gonna advertise for an architectural firm to begin the design part of it. Then in January, begin looking at facility programming, and then in April of 27, put it out for, advertise for an RFQ as construction of the actual shelter itself.

Any questions? All right, questions for board members, or committee members, right?

Okay.

In the audience, we have a blast from the recent past, David Cook. David, welcome. All right. Could you put up that table with the timeline of next steps again, Brian, if you don't mind? Okay. I just want to take another look at it.

And Brian, if you don't mind mentioning the stakeholders that you might involve in the interview process.

Yes, my apologies. Yes, we're going to bring in a lot of the nonprofits we work with, so the Humane Society as well as Operation Kindness. We'll probably try to reach out to best friends. There's a lot of different partners that we work with, and yeah, we want everybody's input. We've already been, in addition to that, touring other shelters and seeing kind of what works, what doesn't. We've been out a couple of times to Operation Kindness. They have some two new facilities that they've had that they have a kind of different design, but we are trying to make sure we understand every possible scenario to make sure that we put the best foot forward with our new shelter.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. No problem. All right. Next up, Casey Thomas, Neighborhood Conservation Plan Briefing and Affordability Strategies.

Hello, everyone. And you do have copies of what we call affectionately the Brown Book at your desk if you don't have one already. So the Neighborhood Conservation Plan and Housing Affordability Strategy is a comprehensive roadmap that helps the city understand how we can help our distressed neighborhoods And then also, how do we address affordable housing? It's a five-year plan, so it goes from, it was adopted in 2023, and it goes through 2028. In the plan, there are 41 different recommendations. Some of those were intended for neighborhood services to work on, some of them are other city departments, and then some are external departments. We last came to you in January 2025 with an IR to provide an update on some of the strategies that we've started working on. And then the point of this presentation is to provide an update on some additional recommendations. Overall, again, as I mentioned, there are 41 different strategies, 17 in the neighborhood conservation plan. Of those 17, 16 we've either started or completed, and we do have one that we have not started. And then for the housing affordability strategy, we have 24 recommendations, 20 of those have been started or completed, and then four are not started. And I will talk a little bit once I get to that one about some of the challenges on the ones that we have not started. So the neighborhood conservation plan, the recommendations are broken up into three different categories, capacity, maintenance, and investment. And the ones in blue, those are the ones that we've identified where some activity has either been started or completed. And the ones with the diamond, those are the ones that I will be discussing with you today. And then the one in gray is the one that we have not started. If you're wondering what an NRSA is, that is a neighborhood revitalization strategic area, that is actually a designation that we receive, you can receive through Housing and Urban Development. Having that designation allows you a little bit more flexibility in using grant funds And so that's the one where we just have not started. In the recommendation, it does identify several different neighborhoods that it recommends for that designation. For example, Las Vegas Trail is one, Woodhaven is another. And so that is an effort that we'll be looking forward, looking to move forward on in the next years. So in terms of these recommendations, I do want to highlight the activities that we are sharing with you. These are not all of the activities that we have started on. This is just intended to give you an idea of some of the activities that have been started for each of these recommendations. But for strategy two, for example, the Engage Fort Worth Community Academy, as you all are probably aware of, That is a resident-focused academy that is being developed to help residents learn more about how the city operates. And the idea is by providing that training that residents are more able to be involved in city activities and become leaders in our community. The class for that was postponed due to budget challenges, but it is scheduled to kick off in spring of 2027. Yes. Go ahead, Debra.

Casey, how many people did we have apply for that? I know we postponed it, but I know that people were applying.

I don't know. I can get that answer for you. I know they did because it was paused in the middle of the application process, but we can find out from community and public engagement. They are the ones that are managing that, how many applications they have received at that time.

Okay.

And this is an example of one of the strategies where other activity is helpful. happening too related to this. For example, through our neighborhood improvement program, we do a lot of resident engagement activities as part of that. And so again, not all inclusive of everything that's happening, but just a sample. Strategy five was to co-locate departments and services in community centers. And we have two examples of this. One that will be coming to the stop six area is the hub that is going to be replacing the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center. And so the idea is that not only will we have Park and Recreation housed there, but we will also have library, police, neighborhood services there, as well as some external partners, some of which are listed here, including Workforce Solutions, MHMR, and Cook Children's. The idea is that we're providing residents with a variety of different services and programs. And then also LVT RISE is another example of one that it has city services and programs as well as some external programs as well. Strategies seven and 10, I included these both together. One, strategy seven was to specialize Fort Worth's code enforcement approach by neighborhood type. And then strategy 10 was to continue focused crime interventions in high need neighborhoods. And as you all are probably very aware, the net force program is a very good example of one that addresses both of these strategies. That pilot kicked off in December 2025 and has had some really good success and cleaning up some properties that were in the city. And so the idea is to be able to expand upon that program. Strategy number eight was to maintain a list of key vacant properties to seal, demolish, or acquire across the city. And so the idea behind this one is as we have a comprehensive inventory of properties that we could use either make sure we're cleaning them up or we can use for affordable housing. The planning division at this point has developed a map of vacant residential lots within the city. We're going to be using that mapping to help us as we move forward on the housing bond program. In addition, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act requires the city to have a list of properties that the city owns that are vacant that could be used for residential development. And that map will be available by October 1 per the legislation. Going into the next category, investment strategy 13 was to pursue a citywide parks initiative to ensure all residents have access to high quality public spaces. The Park and Recreation Department through the Good Natured Green Space Initiative has had some good success in this area as they've been able to improve their park score. We were 91st, the city was 91st out of the 100 largest US cities in 2024. We are now 58 out of the largest cities. And part of the efforts that they've done to help improve this score, one is working with Fort Worth ISD to expand access to their recreational facilities. and then also different activities that they've undertaken under the green space initiative. Strategy 17 was to ensure greening strategies benefit low income communities. As you all are, another kind of highlight this year has been as part of the bond program, $25 million was identified for open space And as part of when they're looking to acquire properties, one of the criteria that they have is making sure that natural areas do benefit low-income, underserved, and marginalized neighborhoods and communities. And so that factor is baked into how they move forward with the open space program. I will stop here before moving on to the housing affordability strategy.

Do we have any questions for Casey? Go ahead, John.

All right. Thank you, Casey. For Strategy 7, Specialized Fort Worth Code Enforcement Approach by Neighborhood Type, can you briefly touch on that, like what that means?

Yeah. So, for example, in this one, with the Net Force Program as an example, we're based on the needs of that, like the Echo Motel area, based on the needs. they have had intensive, I would say intensive code enforcement where they're really identifying all of the problem areas in those properties and facilities. And so an example of where we are aligning our enforcement activities with the needs of the community. Okay, I see, thank you.

All right, anyone else? We're good, let's proceed to the affordability part.

And then housing affordability strategy. So this one, as I mentioned, we do have a few more where we have not started efforts on those. One example that I would give you is, and then the different categories, one is related to the cost of building and preserving housing. We also have the cost of occupying a housing and keeping homes. And then the third category is just intervening and managing the housing affordability challenges. For strategy 19, it was identified that we would work with Tarrant County to expand the eviction diversion program for Fort Worth residents. This program is one, as I mentioned, the housing affordability strategy was adopted in 2023. They started working on the program in 2022. You all may recall that in 2022, we were deep in the COVID pandemic. And so as a result of the COVID pandemic, there were a lot of eviction diversion programs and funding that came about because of the pandemic to help keep people in their homes and programs. And so this particular program that was identified, funding for that actually went away in 2023. And so this program is one that actually no longer exists. And so this is one where we haven't started on it, but part of the reason is that the program no longer exists within the Tarrant County. So strategy one was to establish, I'm sorry.

So I hate that we're no longer doing this because evictions are up. And so Casey, I know that there's a question about funding But is there anything that you all can get creative to think about how we might be able to get involved to help with some of the evictions?

So some of the things I can tell you that Neighborhood Services is doing, one, through our Community Action and Partners Program, we do get grants from the Texas Veterans Commission. And that funding can be used to help with rents and mortgage assistance. We also have through HUD, we get funding that can be used for emergency rental assistance. And so the idea behind that funding is for people who are facing eviction or at risk of foreclosures, those funds can be used for that. So we are doing it a little bit. The other area where it comes to eviction is also the supply of housing, making sure people have a housing that they can afford. And so there are activities that we're doing through the Housing Finance Corporation and also our home grant funds where we're helping to, we're working to build the supply of affordable housing.

While it's not an official program, you are doing something.

We are doing activities related to it.

We ought to leave something in there that says we are doing something.

Yes, yes. Just not that specific activity, but we are doing activities that relate to helping to stop evictions. So strategy number one was to establish a land bank. And so this is an activity that we are moving forward with our Housing Finance Corporation. You all may recall over the last few months, we've brought to you some presentations where we've talked about being more proactive in terms of identifying lots that we can purchase through the Housing Finance Corporation and then also selling those to developers to get those developed. And so that's something that going into this fiscal year 2027, we will be more actively acquiring projects. acquiring properties, and then also as part of the bond program that was identified, there are, we can use those funds to purchase properties as well. Strategy five was to adopt a neighborhood pattern book of pre-approved designs. And so the idea is that we would have home plans, home design plans that have gone through all of the engineering design. They've gone through development services reviews. And so the idea is that these plans could be provided free of charge to either Nonprofit developers or individual residents, and then they would also potentially have faster development review times because they've already been pre-approved. The city received a pro-housing grant in 2024, and so as part of that pro-housing grant, we are using funds to develop this patter book. I'm excited to say that we are actually getting ready to release the RFP for this project. And so that's something that development, so we will be working with development services to complete over this next year. And so that will be an exciting new option for the city. It will be focused not only on single family, but also missing middle type housing. So duplexes up to, and then also townhomes as well. Strategy eight, which is one that we are really excited about, provide additional city investment in the housing affordability strategy. It did lay out some options that the city could use for bond funding related to affordable housing. And so this is the first year, as you all know, that residents approved a housing related bond program. And so $10 million, we are currently within the department neighborhood services working on building out the policy for how those funds will be used. and hope to bring that to you all in the next month or so. And so from that, we'll be working with Fort Worth Lab and the Financial Management Services Department in order to start spending those funds. And that will be not only for home ownership opportunities but also rental as well. Strategy nine was to offer development bonuses for affordable development. This is something that we see in some of the other cities, large cities within Texas, But the idea is how do we help incentivize affordable housing? Sometimes it can, in terms of penciling out affordable housing deals, there's not a lot of profit in it. And so one of the things that you all, the city council, approved was a pilot program that we're doing currently with Tarrant County, Trinity Habitat for Humanity. And Michelle is here. But it's a pilot program where they're building 88 homes, gardens, springs, And so based on the outcome of that project, we will determine whether we will come to you all with a permanent program that we will submit to you all for ongoing use within the city. Strategy 14 was to expand city rehabilitation program funding and improvement. So in fiscal year 2026, the city added, we have $2 million of general fund funding that goes to our priority repair program. That's in addition to $2 million of grant funding that we receive. In fiscal year 2026, an additional $500,000 was added to that for a total of $2.5 million. So even though I know in the fiscal year 2027 budget there is a proposed recommendation to reduce that funding by $75,000, overall we're still significantly up from where we were funded in fiscal year 2025. Priority repair, we can go up to about $25,000 per home, so at the max, assuming that most of those were at that higher end, that $500,000 represents an additional 20 homes that we're able to service. Strategy 17, it talks about follow through with code enforcement at rental properties, but then it also talks about the safety component of that enforcement. And so one of the things that we've noted here is not specifically code enforcement, but the police department does have the crime-free multi-housing program. As part of that program, property managers at multifamily housing go through several different trainings. And so as a result of the communities that have completed that training so far, the police department has noted that there has been a significant decrease in crime at those properties that are part of the program. And then also they've noted that those properties are experiencing lower maintenance and repair costs.

Can we get a list of those properties? I know Brian is left now, but I know the program they're doing through code enforcement, Shady Oaks Apartments in my district is one of the things that we're working on. And so I'd like to see who's gone through that training because I wanna be sure that those folks have.

Okay, we can do that. And one of the things that we've talked about too, for example, through the Housing Finance Corporation, we fund multifamily housing. And so one of the things that we've talked about internally is for properties that are getting funding either through the Housing Finance Corporation or the grant funding to make it a requirement for them to go through this program as well as the condition of the funding. Strategy 18, provide proactive support to homeowners at risk of losing their home. And again, I mentioned earlier, through our Texas Veterans Commission, we do receive funding that can help veterans who are at risk of eviction or a risk of foreclosure stay in their homes. And that is, I'm happy to say, this is funding that we've received historically, and we've actually been able to get an increase in funding over the last couple of years. So We are very appreciative of their support.

Okay, one more question. Can you send us a list of not just the names, not the names, but the numbers of veterans who we've been able to help with the program?

Oh, yes. We can definitely get that to you. Strategy 21 was to acquire properties at risk of foreclosure or tax lien. This was an exciting improvement for the Housing Finance Corporation because in 2026, we were able to acquire six tax foreclosed properties that the city owned. This was the HFC's first acquisition of properties in at least 10 years or more. And so it is something that we're going to continue to work with the property management department on to identify those tax foreclosed properties that the city owns that would be good or attractive for residential development. And so we expect to acquire more of those in 2027. We will be presenting the budget, the HFC budget to you all in a couple of weeks. And so you'll see that there are several hundred thousand dollars that we're allocating for the acquisition of properties. So the good news, while I would like for Neighborhood Services to take credit for a lot of these things, actually a lot of great work is happening even with us not actively championing these efforts, but we are seeing meaningful progress with these city departments that are touching on a lot of these different strategies. And as I noted here, a lot of time this work is happening not necessarily through concerted efforts to adjust the strategy. Some of the challenges that we've had as a department is one, we've had some staffing turnover, but also one of the key challenges is that when this plan was adopted, there was not staffing or funding associated with implementing these strategies. So a lot of the things that we've been able to do, we've been able to do without that staffing and funding, but it does limit how much we can do and how quickly we can do it. And then also I mentioned staff turnover and then also competing properties, as I'm sure a number of other departments would say as well. Kind of what's needed, next steps. One of the things that we're going to be doing is to go through the report and identify, prioritize what are those activities we think as a city we should focus on most. And part of the reason for prioritizing the strategies is again because we don't have funding identified to implement these strategies. And then we are on a five-year timeline. So the report was intended to go through 2028. And so we want to focus on what are those key activities that we can do before the report is scheduled to end. We would like to come back to you all in a couple of months with what we would identify as those priorities and then what are some things that we would recommend modifying. For example, when it comes to the Tarrant County tenant eviction, that's not one that makes sense now, and so that would be one that we would recommend modifying the report. And then within our department, we are going to be more proactive in working with our departments and our external organization to make sure we really are keeping our eye on the ball, that this report isn't one that gets stuck on the shelf, but really making sure that we are making meaningful progress towards these activities. And that is it.

Thank you, Casey. Any questions?

Thank you, Mayor. Just a few questions. Where are we at with the middle housing? Because I know you briefly touched on that, but we talked about actually having its own zoning class. It's not quite multifamily. It's not single, you know, a five residential more. you know, zero lot line cluster. It's whatever we can do to make it more, I guess, attractive to developers, especially on a lot of the infill lots that we have in District four, for example, where you can't really put house like larger houses, but we also don't want more car washes either. So I know this is really an issue statewide, but have we done anything to really kind of push that middle housing?

So I'll say, so I mentioned with the pattern book, the pattern book will address some missing middle housing types. When the report was adopted, part of the resolution indicated that we would do kind of a more intentional study of missing middle housing to determine what specific product types do we need in the city and what do those zoning changes or kind of the policy type of changes That part we have not started yet, and so that's something that I'm guessing later.

If I may, I'll jump in. So some good news there. We've got some available, we believe we'll have some available pro-housing funds. Development Services has had some turnover in their zoning staff over the last year or two, so they haven't been able to take this up. But we have existing zoning classification. So for example, our two townhome zoning class, right? Which allows single family duplexes, cluster housing and townhomes. It allows most of the missing middle housing types. We just need to add a couple of in, you know, some small multifamily and that kind of thing like triplex, quadplex, cottage court. So the idea was let's amend a zoning category that we already have because then it becomes cumulative through the other zoning districts for multifamily. but we might need some some external help to get it done and so that's one of the things we're looking at is would it make sense to once we have the pattern book that'll lay out some of those housing types and have pre-approved designs and then can we have someone help us with our zoning ordinance update so that we can get that as a text amendment through okay well i guess as we talk through that too if you could just let us know um how we could potentially or the pro and cons of

potentially doing any council-initiated zoning. Let's say some small commercial infill lots that's really not right for commercial. But it would be great for missing middle housing. And as far as priority goes, I know we all have priorities, which makes no one's priority a priority. But certainly, I want to make sure that we're doing everything possible for homeownership. Because I know that that's a big one. Next question I had, did the application process ever get separated for from community action partners for the priority home repairs for the civilian side and then also the forward home program, because I know that was an issue before where funding would run out on the civilian side first. Right. And residents were told, sorry, there's no funding, but there was on the forward home program for veterans.

Correct. So, yeah, so at this time we do, and it typically is on the civilian side, the funding does typically run out before we have the veterans funding run out. And so now we allow the veterans to continue applying for funding. And so we try and put information. We've revised our website now so that it says specifically which programs have funding available where residents can apply for. And so we're trying to do better in terms of messaging so veterans know that, no, you're still able to apply for funds even though our traditional Community Action Partners funding is not available.

That's certainly great news, and I would say just make sure we share that with Joaquin. Yes. So that way if someone reaches out to him, he could certainly help point them in the right direction. And then the last one was, maybe it's a report for another time or just an informal RFI, but what we can do working with police department, code whoever else we need to for strengthening the enforcement of issues at homes that are receiving housing vouchers because we know that there's a huge wait list for individuals wanting and needing those vouchers. And then we have some tenants who are not exactly good stewards of those dollars and causing issues in the neighborhoods and ensuring that we're doing what we can as a city to ensure that they're being good neighbors and that those who are on the waiting list they had that opportunity, so.

That's something, yeah, we can work on that, and we can also loop in, because vouchers, the Tarrant County issues vouchers, and then also our housing authority, Fort Worth Housing Solutions, and so we can work with all of them to come back with something on that.

Okay, awesome. That's all I have. Thank you so much.

All right, anyone else? All right. Thank you very much, Casey. Appreciate that. Next up, we have a report from the library literacy efforts. Are you giving that, or who is? Okay. All right. Midori, you escaped this one. Jana? How are you?

Great. Thank you so much. Let me get settled. Okay. So I'm really happy to be here today to share some of the results of summer reading this year and really how it fits within the broader literacy efforts of the library. The timing is really perfect because this happens to be National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. So it's a really great fit and it's a really wonderful time to be talking about this. So family literacy really has a focus on parents and children learning together, and you're going to see that kind of tied through everything we talk about today. In 2025 and 2026, we've really worked to bring Fort Worth Public Library's existing literacy focus much more to the forefront, make it a more core focus of programming, and help address Fort Worth literacy crisis and continue making learning fun. So today we're going to review some of those efforts and then also share what's coming for fall. All right. So in 2025, we really looked at the literacy components of what we were already offering and have made kind of a shift in our programming philosophy to recognize and prioritize different types of literacy. So you have your basic literacy, reading, writing. But you also have numerical, so math, digital, media, health, cultural, scientific, all of those things. And so here's how that kind of works for different age groups that we serve in the library. So we're always looking at early childhood and school age, and then for adults and parents as well. I always like to really emphasize that early childhood one. Because we hear, you know, why do you offer baby story time when babies don't read yet? But we're really establishing those pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre-numeracy skills as early as we can. A steady, constant reading habit helps people become better readers, which we know, but it's also a lifelong skill that helps people become better thinkers and problem solvers. So those are some of the benefits for younger readers and some of the benefits for adult readers. In 2026, the structure of the mayor summer reading challenge didn't change significantly. But we started intentionally framing it in training with our staff and in discussion with the public as a literacy and learning support that's aligned with our other programming. Here's the overview of the different components of the Summer Reading Challenge. The completion that's 1,000 minutes for youth, that works out to about an hour and a half a week. And 2,000 minutes for adults is around three hours a week, which if you're a big audio book user like I am, it does not take long to get three hours of audio book. And that was not the max. We had a number, a significant number of readers go well beyond 2,000 minutes and just continue breaking records. Here are the results from the Summer Reading Challenge. We had a really great kickoff at Trinity Park with nearly 1,400 people. We had a performance by one of the Amplify 817 artists, Trevor. Lots of outdoor activities and story time. Then we also had the minutes-based reading challenge that ran throughout the summer with just under 6,000 registrations. Of those, about 57% were active participants. which is a good increase from last year. We had about a 33% increase in registration, so sign-ups for our youngest learners out there, and then also significantly a 56% increase in registration for the Spanish language children's program. We had a record-breaking 5.8 million minutes read, which is a 32% increase overall from last year. But there's some other really exciting numbers kind of hidden in there. In two critical age groups, you know, we're really looking at that age zero to third grade right now. In those critical age groups, so for age zero to five, so our pre-readers, the number of minutes read doubled this year from last year, which means we have a lot of parents really, really paying attention to reading to their kids and spending that time with their kids with a book. We also had a 62% increase in minutes for elementary age children. So that's going to be your K through five. We have sent out a survey to participants for the summer reading challenge and the very, very preliminary results. It's a small sample, but I'm excited. Those results, according to the survey, were that 90% want to use the library more often. 85% say their kids maintained or increased their reading skills over the summer. 80% said their kids are more confident readers. 80% said their kids read more often. And 85% say their kids use the library more often. We also offered a number of special programs this summer. So we had story times with fire and police. We had special summer performers. And then we continued our tradition of story times at Log Cabin Village and the Fort Worth Nature Center. Here is our participation in the summer programs. So we offered 2275 programs, which is a little bit of a reduction from 2025 due to staffing. We wanted to right size the number of programs we were offering. But by doing that, we ended up with a 12% increase in average attendance per program. So when we did pair things back, we were very strategic in those reductions and kept our highest performing programs and our most meaningful programs. We also had a 40% increase in attendance at special summer programs in 2026. So those special story times and special performers that you saw on the last slide. And then this year, I don't think we've done this calculation before, but I looked back through the summer program attendance and over half of them attended a literacy program. So that would be things like story times, book clubs, ESL classes, high school equivalency, all of those kinds of computer classes. So literacy programs for all ages had a really great turnout. And then this is a kind of dense slide, but I wanted to share everything that's happening this fall that we really do put in that literacy bucket. So this is divided by age group and by audience. We have programs here happening in English and Spanish for babies through older adults. A couple that I'm really excited about that I wanted to highlight today are the college fair at La Grande Bibliotheca that's happening this Saturday afternoon. So that's going to be a college fair, but also a trade school fair. So it's going to be really good representation of all different options for that audience. And then Growing a Reader, which is up in the parent section, is a new program that was piloted this summer that really is specifically for parents to help them support their kids as they begin that pre-reading skill all the way up through becoming an accomplished reader using different kinds of tools collection materials, decodable books, learning to use Lexiles and things in the catalog that those tools librarians know about, but parents may not. And so we're going to be offering those twice this fall virtually. So one in the morning and one in the evening for parents who are home with kids and then working parents who have some free time in the evening. And then, if you want to look if you want to learn about more of those programs that I had listed on the last slide there's a qr code for you to look at our fun finder that is our online schedule of all of our programs for fall you can search it by age group by by location anything you need. Questions.

Questions. All right. Pick up a book, y'all, on occasion. I tried. Please do. Thank you. All right. Thanks very much. All right. We have no speakers, right? No need for an exec session. Okay. Very good. And then we have, let's see, by way of Councilmember Peebles, staff get a list of properties, I think, that she wanted associated with Strategy 17, and then a number of veterans helped through Strategy 20. I think, are we clear on that? All right, good. Good. All right, any other requests for future agenda items? All right, seeing none, we are adjourned. Now, nobody go anywhere because we have a sufficient number of council members here. I'm going to read in the script for the exec session, and we'll do that.