City Council - Special Meeting

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everyone and welcome Welcome to the special meeting of the Wednesday, May 13th, 2026. Pleasure to have everyone with you today. We are here to canvas the votes and swear in the elected officials. So, uh the first item on our agenda is citizens comments to Chené. Do we have anyone that spoke wants to speak?

No, sir. And the second item on our agenda is a canvasing of the returns and declaring the results of the regular and special municipal of the regular uh municipal ordinance held on May 2nd, 2026 for the purpose of electing positions of mayor and city council place 3, five, and six and providing a servability clause. I think we have all the things in front of us as far as the numbers. Are there any questions? If there are no questions, I'd entertain a motion for approval. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second.

Okay, we have a hand vote on this. So, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Are there any opposition? The same. It passes unanimously. That brings us to the next uh portion which is the administr administrator statement of elected officers and the oath of office for the elected mayor and council members in place five and place six. So if they would uh make their way down to the front and the judge would make his way to the I will call you one by one. Oh you're going to call one by one. That's not on my script. Okay. Okay, we're going to start with district five. Mr. Croninw, please.

Chenet, you're going to do it instead of the judge. Yes, that'll be the ceremonial. Okay. I didn't get my orders this morning. I slept in.

Would you prefer that I read it to you that you repeat after me? Um, I'll repeat after you. We're going to do the statement of elected official and then I'm going to ask you to sign it later. Okay.

Raise your right hand. Repeat. No, don't repeat it on me after me. I'm going to read it to you. I, Mark Coronowette, do solemnly swear that you that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered, promised to pay, contributed, or promised to contribute any money or thing of value, or promised a public office or employment for the giving or withholding of a vote at the election at which I was elected, or as a reward to secure my appointment or confirmation, whichever the case may be. So, help me God. I do. Thank you. And this is your oath of office. We'll sign them um up there. Okay.

All right. Here's the big one. I, Mark Carowette, do solemnly swear. Do you want to repeat it after me? Um either way. Um your decision. I Mark Carnoette do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of city council duties of the office of city council. Single member district 5. Single member, District 5, City of Irving, City of Irving, Dallas County, Dallas County, of the state of Texas, state of Texas. And will, to the best of my ability, preserve and and to the best of my ability will preserve, protect and defend protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States. Constitution and the laws of the United States and of this state. And of this state. So help me God. Help me God.

Congratulations, Council Mayor. On your second term. Second term. Thank you. All right. I'M JUST GONNA STAY UP here if I can have Where is he? Nope. Not yet. Is Fad? Where is Fad?

Fad come up please. That's where I can find you. You're out in the audience. Do you want to repeat after me or do you want me to just read it to you? The second one I'll repeat. The second one I'll repeat. You want to repeat? The second one.

Okay. The second one. You want to repeat? Okay. So, I will give you your statement of elected official first. Please raise your right hand. I, Fahad Ahmad, do solemnly swear that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered, promised to pay, contributed, or promised to contribute any money or thing of value, or promised any public office or employment for the giving or withholding of a vote at the election at which I was elected, or as a reward to secure my appointment or confirmation. Whatever the may whatever the case may be. So help me God.

I do. All right. Well, let's do the big one now. The oath of office. Repeat after me. Raise your right hand. I I Bahad Ahmad Bahad Ahmed do swallow solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of city council the office of city council single member district single member district six six city of Irving Dallas County city of Irving Dallas County of the state of Texas of state of Texas and will the to the best of my ability ility and to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend preserve, protect, and defend

the Constitution and laws of the United States the Constitution and the laws of the United States and of this state and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Congratul Congratul Councilman Elect. I'm giving you the hook. Council elect, please come up. Ah, thank you. Mayor elect,

appreciate it. Come on, Roelle.

The first thing is, mayor, you need to get down to my title. Are you ready? Yes. Go ahead and read it all.

All right. Please raise your right hand. I, Albert Sapont, do solemnly swear or affirm that I have not directly or indirectly paid, offered, promised to pay, contributed, or promised to contribute any money or thing of value, or promised any public office or employment for the giving or withholding of a vote at the election at which I was elected, or as a reward to secure my appointment or confirmation whichever the pa case may be. So help me God. I affirm.

Okay. And you want me to read the oath of office completely? All right. I, Albert Sapont, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of mayor, city of Irving, Dallas County, of the state of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help me God. And I know this is not the first time you've taken this oath. So help me guide, I affirm, and I swear. Congratulations, Mayor Zaponte.

Love you. Mayor Stoofer, will you stay and watch the rest of the meeting, please? Well, Mayor Stoer, and I will always call you that because that's how much I respect you. And so, I learned a lot, but more importantly, I count you as a friend and full respect of your time. and hopefully you're going to be continuing to be part of our our great city in a way that um I'm going to ask you to do that with me. Thank you at this. Okay, I have to now read u a paragraph that deals with um what we call an ordinance. Oh, mic went off.

I'm going to get used to this. Oh, what? You know what they did for me? Let me show you how much class we have in this city. They lowered this because I needed to be lowered so you can see me. We tried to keep that. You didn't need to sell yourself out. How could you keep it quiet? I mean, I saw it right away. We tried to keep that quiet, but he

Okay, you get better get used to me. I'm going to be doing a lot of smiling anyway. uh ordering the runoff election to be held on June 13, 2026 for the purpose of election or electing city council place three designating the places at which said election is to be held making provisions for the conduct of the election and providing the servability clause. Mayor Sapont, may I speak?

Second. I may I speak? I want everybody to know that there's a new ordinance in front of you. Um I have gone back and forth back and forth thinking about my recommendations for early voting and I deviated from my original recommendations of uh Valley Ranch, Irving City Hall and Arts Center. I have switched back to them. I think it's more practical. I think it's more fair and equitable and that is my recommendation that you have in front of me. North Lake College is not included as we just don't get many votes there. So that is my final recommendation to y'all. That's the early vote centers only. Election day centers stay the same.

Are there any comments from any of the members of the council? Abdul, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um my only request was since this um runoff election is going to happen in only district 3. So it would be much preferable that the early voting locations should be in district three rather than outside of it. All the three locations which just mentioned was out of district three. It would be much more convenient for the residents of district 3 to have the locations which are city- owned city facilities in district 3 if possible. That's all my um request.

Okay. Thank you. Luis, do you have your light on?

No, I didn't have the light on. Um yeah, thank you Chana for that because obviously you know you were we received a recommendation that was a little bit different than what we are used to and that's you know that's fine. I I respect the the judgment and um there were many arguments for that. I think it does make sense that we stick to the baseline and if we make a change we discuss the change um rather than than having things done in a very different way where all the locations were in the district which there's reasons to do that but I remember in my runoff you know there was everybody had to drive to city hall uh there were no locations in the district so that makes sense that we stick to it I think the request of uh council member Kabir of having the only city facility that we could that could be eligible is reasonable, you know, somewhat c centrally located in the district and I would like to know the thoughts on um you know from the rest of council on that because it's something that we should consider.

Yes, Mark. That's a like with Luis's experience. Mine mine was the same when I was in a runoff three years ago. These were the three locations for the runoff in none of these districts, the art center, city hall, or Valley Ranch Library or in district 5. And so, um, if we're going to be consistent, I think Chennai's recommendation makes sense. Are there any other comments at this time? Does everybody understand what we're discussing?

Okay, Chené, would you read the original what was calendared and what your recommendation? I recommended in your packets last week. Is that the request, Mayor Zaponte? The original recommendation was to deviate from the original early vote centers which are Irving City Hall, Irving Arts Center and Valley Ranch to move them to BAPS and West Library. After consideration and thought, District 31 runs north to south and I believe it is most fair and equitable that we leave them in the places where they are originally held. I and this gives all can I I I don't have the ability to get into the polit politics. My my job is to give the candidates the fairest option of where they can vote and that is North to South Valley Ranch, Irving Arts Center, and Irving City Hall. And that's my recommendation and final recommendation.

Dennis Web.

Yes. Uh I just want to concur with what Mark said and what uh Louise said. Um and I think we need to establish this early voting locations. so that um it's the early voting locations that we all know all the time. Um appreciate the effort that you was trying to accomplish the first time. Um but I think we need to yeah keep it as a constant early voting sites, Irving Art Center, Irving City Hall and Valley Ranch Library. Also realizing that on election day, for some of you who don't know, there will be the West Irving Library, JL Davis Elementary School, Thomas Haley Elementary School, WT Hannes Elementary School, and the BAPS uh Mandor. All of those in District 3. So, um I concur with the ordinance and the recommendation.

Okay, David, you got comment? No, I agree with Dennis. Okay. Is there a motion to accept? Just Yeah, I mean I think that does make sense in principle. It is true we have a city facility that could be used that we're not using, you know, maybe that would be something that because I heard some arguments about infranchising people, but uh you know um I'm not sure what the rest of the council is thinking as well. And if there's a motion,

air sponsor be before y'all make a motion, I just want to explain how early voting and election day voting runs. Um, the council is able to recommend vote centers. Now, they've gone away from precinct voting. We're not the Republican or Democratic party, so we don't vote in our precincts, and that created a turmoil in the primaries. We are vote centers and we have standard vote centers. Now, the reason I could pull BAPS is because I got permission from their entity and West Irving Library is our entity. Anytime we have an entity that is our entity, I it is within the election code that we must make it available to vote in. I cannot control any other entity. A church, a facility like BAPS, um any private facility, I can't control, but a city-owned facility I can. So, um those are considerations for y'all in the future. Um District 4 and District One are so far south. I don't think I'd ever leave Valley Ranch open just because there wouldn't be anybody to vote in it. I would leave Irving City Hall and Art Center open. But, you know, I'm District 3 runs north to south. District 1 and D district 7 and district um four run east to west. So, I'm being very practical, very equitable, very common sensical. That's that is how it works. Okay, mayor.

I'm open. Yes, go ahead, John. Thank you, Mayor. Um, yeah, I just want to echo and concur uh, you know, the the prevailing sentiment uh, Mark Dennis that everybody has said. Um, and with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve to approve the ordinance as recommended by Chennai in front of us. Okay. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, no. I just that was my wish that to have it in the district 3, the city- owned facilities in district 3. But if that's not what is available, then I'm all for it. Thank you, L.

Yeah, and I I agree with Dennis. Look at that. Um, I'm not allowed to say that. We can't we I can't say that. Um, no, but it does make sense that if we want to rock the boat and do things differently, we think about, you know, which runoffs, what, you know, for which district it would make sense to have a location and we do that uh with some time in advance uh rather than just um improvise. So, I I do appreciate the recommendation. I'll be supporting that.

But y'all do have to realize runoffs are a beast and we have very little time to to set any of the polling locations. So I work as quickly as I can because there has to be approval in advance from the entity. So um anyways that goes without saying but that's my final recommendation. So if there's clarity as what do we are voting on would you then read excuse me David did you have a

Yes. Uh Mr. Mayor and and to the the point a lot of the council members made the the clarity of the voting locations. It's the same ones every time for early voting. We didn't have any of these locations open during regular voting. Uh we're used to it. The campaign mailers all say the same things and I think that's important for electorate never to be confused of where they can go for early voting and we've done a great job of being consistent on that for a long time. Okay. So Chené, would you then make a final statement as to your recommendation as to what has been put forward for voting at this point, please? To include what locations.

Sure. My recommendation is to open Irving Arts Center, Ballet Ranch, Library, and Irving City Hall for early early voting. And um those vote centers automatically are opened as a result of being a early voting center on election day. In addition, on election day, we have West Library, J Davis, Thomas Haley Elementary, WT Hannes Elementary, and BAPS. So, an elect so that I'm clear, your recommendation is to include all those locations on and in district three. Am I correct? Or are we just going to go

early voting is only Valley Ranch, Irving City Hall, and Irving Arts Center. Okay, I've got it. And then on election day, it's those centers combined with the five vote centers. So, it's eight total. Maybe I'm lost, but are we going to have eight voting locations on the day of the vote on the 13th of June? On the Yes, correct. That's required by law and that includes that I also hear BAPS. Yes.

Okay. It's very important because if it was going to go differently depending upon what those rate locations were, it would have excluded certain areas excluding BAPS. And I'm going to make my statement. I would not be voting for it if that's the case. So hear me clear because I will tell you and I will vote for this amendment with that proviso that it is all in district three cuz if not it sends a very clear message that I cannot vote for and you know what I'm talking about. Okay, at this point show your vote. Oh, we need a second. Yes.

So I'll I'll second. Councilman. No, I had a second. I had a second, John. Okay, let me sure. I got this right. Uh, John Block moved the motion and Mark seconded it. Dennis. Dennis. Oh, Dennis did. So, who are you? Hand vote. This is going to be a hand vote. This is a hand vote. Okay. Yes. And thank you, city manager. This will be a hand vote. So, all in favor of this motion, raise your hand. Right hand. Okay. Passes unanimously. Now, what do I do? Journ.

Let me uh I want to say something and this is for my first year of the three years that I'll be your mayor is that what was just happening here would have put a different situation and something that I don't want to ever see in our city. And it pissed one group against another. and everybody understands what I just said and two of my colleagues would be put right smack in the center of that and I'd be with you, okay? But I'm also with the rest of the city and where we want to be sure that we balance and how we go forward. So the onus is on us. And so ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. At this point, we are adjourned. Oh yeah. Heat.