City Council - Regular Meeting

Let us pray. Gracious and eternal God, we come before you today with grateful hearts. Thank you for the great city of Fort Worth and every person who calls this place home. Lord, we ask for your blessing upon our entire city. From every neighborhood, community, from the north to the south, east to the west, may Fort Worth continue to be a place where families can thrive, business can prosper, children can dream, and every resident can feel valued, respected, and heard. We pray for the health and wellness of our city. Strengthen those who are sick, comfort those who are hurting, encourage those

I see the mic is being put into my face. Thank you, Jeanette. Mayor and Council, it's my pleasure to stand here for you with my colleague on Council, Jeanette Martinez, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. It's more than just a noteworthy month. It does represent traditions, people, cultures that continue to enrich our great nation. And I think that we would be remiss if we don't take some time and acknowledge just how special You know, this nation is just how great Fort Worth is to live and to raise a family. So on this occasion, Jeanette Martinez and I worked on a special recognition to ack

Thank you, Carlos. And I just want to say thank you to our council colleagues and leadership for being a part of our Hispanic heritage kickoff today. In the lobby, we had a wonderful celebration with various groups from across the city. You know, this is Hispanic Heritage Month, and we not only celebrate, of course, our Mexican culture, but we know we are a melting pot of other Latino cultures from El Salvador, Honduras, and so forth. And so we are celebrating in unity. And so today I am very privileged to read this special recognition. Whereas Fort Worth is a diverse and thriving city where H

Estela, can you help speak to the various groups? I know we had Federacion Zacatecana, Nuestras Raices, La Gran Plaza.

Mayor Parker, we want to give you the opportunity to say some words. I know that you were busy at a board meeting and couldn't attend our celebration out in the lobby.

And if you knew Vernell Stearns, you knew he loved his family. And so we're going to, as City Council, we're gonna step back and invite members of his family to come up and make some remarks.

And now if you all will join us, I don't know if you need to drive up here. I don't need to talk. He keeps trying to run over me. But if you all would join us up here, we would love to take a picture with the family and with the other council members. Come down.

All right, City of Fort Worth and Council Chambers, today we have a beautiful young lady with us today, and it's an honor to celebrate her today. And I will tell you that when you talk about cancer, sometimes it affects all of us, some indirectly or directly when it comes to breast cancer. the same thing my aunt passed about 20 years from breast cancer and so it's always been something special to my heart special to my life and so since i've been elected miss yolanda has been doing well she's been doing it way before i got elected but since i've been elected i participated in this beautiful oc

Lisa Moore is a four-time breast cancer survivor.

No one gets more excited about libraries than Midori Clark. So we have the right person on the job without question. So come on up. Come on. I only bite a little bit, you're fine. All right, so for those of y'all that don't know, September is library card sign-up month. The Fort Worth Library has been keeping us educated and well-read in the city for 125 years, so let's give them a big round of applause for 125 years. That is no small feat. Our libraries provide welcoming spaces where individuals from all backgrounds can learn and conduct while bridging cultural, ethnic, generational, and econ

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm joined up here by Winky Hicks and Matt McClellan, both retired now, police officers, as part of that. Last Friday, we recognized September 11th, the 25th anniversary. We weren't in session last week, but I thought it important for us to recognize that time that called a lot of us to service in a lot of different ways. And I know some people up here on the dais as part of that. Out of that, the aftermath, so many stories came together. One of the most amazing stories was a guy by the name of Steven Siller, who was off duty. saw the towers being hit, grabbed his

Yeah, of course, congratulations. Do you want to say a few words?

No? Okay. We'll take a picture. If anybody wants to join down here, please do to help honor. We'll take a picture really quickly.

the most important part is to provide for the protections or the site plan that is least intrusive, I guess, on the people that it's going to be the most proximate to. So I definitely want to continue on the moratorium process. But unfortunately, this was a case that was already in the pipeline and it's toothpaste out of the tube. And at this point, I want to do what's best for the residents, that it's greatly impacts. That's all I have.

Yeah, following on that, then, Chris, I don't know if you're planning to do this, but since we've already talked about increasing the setback on paper, I'd like to offer that amendment, which also puts that on paper, a further setback than the 150 required, so at least the community has that assurance. I don't know the process there, but I need to say something more than that to amend the site plan for 300 feet?

All right, let's get the first slide up. All right, on the first slide, I spent some time supporting the Northside Steers football team for Northside High School, and in turn, the Northside High Legacy Foundation, which raises funds to give a lot of support to the school and the athletics program, as well as the PTA side of things, Northside High School Steers. So we're supporting them for media day. You know, the team is going through some rebuilding, but their spirit is high. Second slide. Right. I joined the Fort Worth Public Library at Diamond Hill for our guest speaker reading program. An

Yes, I'll try to make this quick. All right, the first slide is a Goodwill job fair. We had about 113 attendees, 54 enrolled in the Goodwill for services. Next slide. Had the opportunity to visit Fred Rouse Memorial Tour. They're working on getting that memorial up and running. They have a Fred Rouse campaign going on, so if you want to participate, feel free to look on their website. Next slide. had the opportunity to participate in the Fort Worth Black Chamber Path Forward program as a guest speaker on their government panel, joined by Councilwoman Deborah Peoples, also Assistant Manager Val

Great. I'm going to get through some of these slides real quick. So next slide. Next slide. Okay. Really important day for the south side of Fort Worth. The ribbon cutting of the Marin Grove affordable housing development on the site of the old OLV convent. It is going to provide much needed affordable housing in very close proximity to our major job centers. So I want to thank city staff who was instrumental in helping getting that project across the finish line. Next slide. Congratulations to Medical City, 50 years strong here, making sure that Fort Worth remains a healthy place to live. Nex

All right, thank you, Mayor. All right, I have a few here. So, Mayor and Council request your consideration to reappoint the following individuals to the respective boards below with the terms effective as I will read. Maximilian Nielsen, first term beginning September 15, 2026 and ending October 1, 2028 on the Aviation Advisory Board. Sergio Garza, first term beginning September 15, 2026 and ending October 1, 2028 for the Board of Adjustment. Janet Lane, first term, beginning September 15, 2026 and ending September 30, 2028, Building Standards Commission. Andrew Bearden, first term, beginning

Council Member Larsdorf. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor and Council, request your consideration to repoint the following individuals to the boards listed below with terms effective September 15th, 2026 and ending October 1st, 2028. After Lee Ortiz, third term, Aviation Advisory Board. Bob Briley, first term, Board of Adjustments. Ty Lambreth, first term, City Planning Commission. Tyson Thomas, first term, Park and Recreation Advisory Board. Matt McCoy, second term, Zoning Commission and Alliance Airport Zoning Commission.

Mayor and Council, I request your consideration to appoint the following individual to the board below with a partial term effective September 15, 2026 and ending October 1, 2027. And that individual is an amazing servant leader, Raphael McDonald, to the Board of Adjustment.

Mayor and Council, I request your consideration to appoint Aaron Capone to the Aviation Advisory Board with a term effective September 15, 2026 and ending October 1, 2028. Mayor, I'm going to mention it in a second. Thank you. Please vote.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve this item with the following amendment. In the general fund portion of Exhibit B, under the park and recreation fees, add a $0 fee to allow for free admissions to the Nature Center for U.S. military veterans with valid identification.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor, Council. Before addressing my vote tonight, I wanted to express my sincere appreciation to our city staff. Y'all have worked diligently under the directive of our city manager's office to assemble this budget, and their hard work on behalf of the city deserves our recognition, so thank you. Tonight, I am voting yes on the city budget and a no on the proposed tax rate increase. As a law and order council member, my top priority has always been public safety. I ran on supporting our police, fire, and first responders, and I will not compromise on that commitment. There is

The tax rate vote is gonna be a separate vote from next vote?

Thank you, Mayor. On this item, I move to close the public hearing and move that the property tax rate be increased by adoption of a tax rate of 0.70565, which is effectively a 5.26% increase in the tax rate.

So I just wanted to clarify and make sure that I understood or that others understood. So when we see a vote unanimously to approve the budget, I don't know, it makes me want to anticipate that there would be a unanimous vote to approve the tax rate that supports the budget. But in the case that that were not the case and that there was not a majority to raise the tax rate, how will we then enact the budget?

then we would have to change the budget. So any support for a budget would imply that you support the tax rate that funds that budget. Logically. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that I understood.

I just wanted to add one thing. Go ahead, Carlos. Just for the sake of clarification. Again, a tax rate increase does not automatically mean that taxpayers will pay more. It's really involved in how properties are appraised nowadays and the property values have been appraised lower. And again, I think this council is unanimous in its concern about how we spend our public dollars.

I just want to make a comment on that, though. Just because there's a tax rate increase, it may not by default increase taxpayers' tax bill. For some, it certainly could, though. So I don't think we can ride on the backs of taxpayers and say, oh, your taxes are actually going to be lower because their property values went down. We had nothing to do with the property values going down. And I certainly understand what my colleague, Dr. Hall said. is the point that she's trying to make. However, I disagree that one can't support this budget for the very reasons that Councilwoman Hill stated in su

Sure, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Hall, for bringing up what seems to be a very apparent inconsistency. I would venture to say that I would use the term virtue signaling if you were to vote on the budget but not vote on the tax rate. Jay Chapa, can you tell me how many budget meetings we had? How many briefings? Briefings, us, for us on council.

10 or 12. And so in those 10 or 12 meetings that we all sat through, what I didn't hear was any meaningful discussion from anyone on this dais on how we get to the public safety levels that we want to have, both in police and fire, how we get to the level of TPW service we want to have, our libraries, or our parks. In fact, what we sat around this table and did was talked about what we didn't want to cut. And what I heard from everyone was the projects that they didn't want to cut and the services that they wanted to keep available to the residents. So I'm with Councilmember Hall on this one.

Because I don't like to virtue signal councilmember Nettles Yeah, and I'll just add there is another word other than virtual signal it's called gas lighting as well and that is when You allow the public to believe one thing while you do something different it is very prevalent that We have to have a balanced budget and support this tax rate. I have sat on this council for the last five plus years and I talked about each year how we lower our tax rate and there's going to come a time when we're going to have to raise that tax rate in order to provide these services. Just about two weeks ago, I

There we go. So I am on, but Mayor, I want to be very clear that I am going to support this tax rate increase because I serve the citizens in not only District 5, but in the entire city of Fort Worth. And when we had budget meetings and when we had the budget hearing, I wanna thank the city staff for being there to lead that discussion on the budget. But the residents of District 5 who sat in that meeting were concerned about cutting city services. They were very clear that they did not want us to cut city services, and several of them said, then we need to pay more taxes. But I believe that t

Thank you, Mayor. To my colleague, Councilman Peebles, absolutely, you can represent District 5, but don't for once think that you represent District 4 in any way. I'm just going to throw that out there. Secondly, our budget meetings, I was elected to represent the people of District 4. And at our budget meetings and talking to people in person, social media, you name it, we've got some District 4 residents here right now. Not a single one of them supported that tax rate increase. Therefore, I was elected to represent them. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. To Councilwoman Beck's point,

Council Member Beck. I just want to clarify something. If we're going to make recommendations for how to reduce the budget, we should do so in meaningful ways, ways that actually reduce the budget, not things that are associated with the bond. Thanks, Charlie.

Thanks, Mayor. I want to reflect a letter that we all received from the Real Estate Council last week outlining some things. Jay, I think you had a chance to look at this letter. I just want to make sure. And they brought up four points in this letter that would, and I think, what do you feel, are you okay with that? I don't want to lead you.

Great. So as part of this motion, I want to make a friendly amendment to what we're going to see here. Let me just read this really quickly. It says, and these, if anybody wants to see this, these are the four points that the Real Estate Council brought to us. It says, sorry guys, find my notes here. I move to amend the ordinance to require semiannual public reporting on transportation impact fees and the pavement management fee, a 12-month implementation review in a public workshop with an invitation to the Real Estate Council leadership, and language ensuring that pavement management fee rev

Yes, I'm requesting to recuse myself from this vote due to my position on the Texas Wesleyan Board of Directors.

Thank you. And Jeanette? I also will need to recuse myself due to my role on the Texas Wesleyan Board of Trustees.

I make a motion to approve, but I also want to bring up Dave. Is he anybody from Parks and Rec? I'm really excited about this. It will be a mini pitch, which is essentially a really small soccer field, which is not really a field because it's on a tennis court. But I wanted Dave to explain what this is going to look like and just really excited for the Riverside neighborhood.

Awesome, thank you. Look forward to bragging about this. Motion and a second.

I move that the Fort Worth City Council adopt the resolution authorizing use of the power of eminent domain to acquire a permanent water facility easement of approximately 17,814 square feet from property owned by Stephen M. Tidwell and Gwyneth Tidwell, located at 12259 Business Highway 287 North, being tracked 1C out of the W. M. Durnham Survey, abstract number 1787, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. The land rights and the subject property are needed for public use for the north side for 24-inch water transmission main phase 1C project to construct the proposed permanent water facil

Move to approve with the clarification that council is endorsing council member Peoples to serve on the advocacy committee of the NLC board.

I just wanted to say congratulations, Councilman Devil-Preebles. You deserve to be here because you won your election and you deserve to represent on the NLC. Thank you so much for your hard dedication work.

Okay, well, I was going to go ahead and do that, but if it's already done, let's just move on.

Council Member Hill has a motion. I do. I move to continue the public hearing at the regular council meeting scheduled to begin at 1 o'clock p.m. on Tuesday, September the 29th, and to take action on the petition and ordinance to create the district at that time.

I think it's only if there's opposition, Mayor. I'm not sure.

Thank you for the invitation here for the sake of our council members. I am not supporting zoning commission recommendation for denial. Instead, I am going to change the zoning from G to I. So that allows a use by right. And what is that use? Warehouse and office use. This follows a lot of discussion with the development staff. I appreciate you, DJ, and your staff members and the developer about estimated traffic counts for uses such as multifamily, mixed use, and warehouse uses, which clearly show that lower counts for this use, for the warehouse use. This is supported by the residence HOA an

My position on the Board of Trustees at TCU, I'll be refusing from this vote. Got a motion and a second on the floor. Council, please vote.

Yes, with the support of the new Mitchell Boulevard, I move for approval.