City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. I know, I know. Hey, how are you? Hey Mike, how are you? Look at you and Gary being here today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Arlington City Council Chamber. It is September 8th, 2026, 630 p.m. We're going to get started right away. I'm going to invite Matt Hart from Mission Arlington to come up and give us an invocation, please.

Amen. Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag.

Thank you. You may be seated. Ms. Garcia of Speaker Guidelines and General Decorum, please.

Thank you, Ms. Garcia. Do we have any appointments to boards and commissions this evening?

Thank you. We'll move on down to 6.1, consideration of items from the executive session.

I want to recognize Council Member Pham. Do you have something you wanted to talk about on this? Or did you hit the wrong button? You hit the wrong button, perfect. Ms. Garcia, do you have any speakers on this item? Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Gonzales, a second from Council Member Pham. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. Consideration of minutes, please.

Thank you. Do you have any speakers on any of these items? Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Ware, a second from Council Member Hunter. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. Consideration of consent agenda, please, Ms. Garcia.

Thank you. I'm gonna pull 8.21 for separate consideration. Do we have any speakers on the remaining items?

For 8.21? Yes. Okay. Can I get a motion and a second for the remaining items of the consent agenda? Raul, Council Member Gonzalez, did you have something else?

8.24. Okay. We'll pull 8.24 for separate consideration. All right. Now can I get a motion and a second for the remaining items on the consent agenda? I have a motion from Council Member Galante, a second from Council Member Pham. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. I'm going to go back to 8.21. Ms. Garcia, do we have speakers on that one?

Howard, do y'all want to just come? Both of y'all can just come on up if you want to.

So I'm gonna be candid you know when when you first brought this thing up here I called you and I said I think it's ugly and I was candid about that because Viridian is not ugly Viridian is a beautiful development out there that's done some great things I'm still not a huge fan and my concern is others aren't a huge fan as well. We're a big fan of Viridian, not a huge fan of this particular development. Why should we approve this particular development on here?

Do we have any prospective tenants coming in there that's going to be decent tenants? And I'm not looking for a dollar store type of tenant either.

Hi, Howard. Hey. Thank you for bringing this to us, and I really appreciate the conversations that you're having with us about this. I don't love, as I call them, the butts of the retail showing to the street as well. And you mentioned Champions Park, but there's also South Lake Town Square. We have examples of it working well. And I know that there's talk about walkability, and I know that that's not the only thing that creates walkability. My concern about this retail space is, one, in this rendering right here, it's not actually all those clouds behind there. It's apartments and office spac

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Fibonacci. Thank you for working on this project. So we had the first sketch and then a lot of changes on it, especially on the facade and the colors, a lot more vibrant. And the columns, I like the columns too. It looks like, it feels like Viridian, more Viridian now. You talk about the retail stores that you have been planning to put in there. Of course, there's retail stores across the street, right? So when you offer... I guess you have several of those in the state of Texas. You already have a clientele, correct?

All right. But you also do a study on understanding what is going to fit in to the entire area, right? So there's a market over there. So you want to fit something that doesn't compete with other brands. That way you maximize your, what do you do different here on this location?

Thank you. I would like to see some lighting. You put up the towers, right? The towers look so good with some lights out there will really call the attention for anybody driving. Hopefully not 50 miles per hour.

I don't love it. But you love me. I don't hate it. That's more important. Okay. Thanks, baby. Thank God Council Member Ware just hit his button so I can defer to him. Maybe he can enlighten me with some incredibly wonderful questions that I haven't been able to come up with on this. Because... You know, I want to defer to everything you've done out at Viridian and say you're going to make this great like the rest of the place. My instincts tell me no. But I'm on the fence right now. I've got to be honest. You know I'm as candid as they come and sometimes do a fault. But I'm really struggling.

I'm a reluctant yes on this. I think we wasted our chances.

Well, I think we wasted our chances when sometime back, we put a business park back there. You're saying if that wasn't back there, this could have been nice, more of a mixed-use development and walkable and all those things we wanted. Howard's been pleading with me to believe that that wouldn't have happened. I'm not so sure, but... The proof right now to me is in the retailers you bring to this building.

If my daughter, granddaughters, all of their friends can spend their money in Arlington instead of going to South Lake, I'll come pat you back, buy you some coffee, and we'll all be happy. But the pressure's on... to bring those type of retailers into that area, and if we can't bring them there, we can't bring them anywhere.

I've been in retail, so I grasp what you're saying, mid-block and all of that. But the smaller retails, you can get them.

Yeah, I'm like the mayor and Tom. I'm pretty much going to vote for this. But what raised the red flag for me with respect to retail, and I live in South Arlington, so I have some friends in Verde, and I'm not up there very often. But I know that they want retail up there. But what raised the flag for me is, and please explain, a dentist, you know, a doctor's office, I feel like people, that's not the retail that I think Tom and I are sort of expecting is that I guess when I go hang out with my friends up there, I want to go eat. I want to go do a little shopping. I want to walk around. I don'

Thank you. Okay. All right. I got nothing. Ms. Garcia, we don't have any other speakers on this?

Okay. I have a motion from Council Member Galante and a second from Council Member Hogg. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. Please don't make me regret this. Congratulations.

Thank you both for coming up and helping us out.

I'd love to get an update on leases and stuff like that.

I want to, before we go on, well, let me just do 8.24 first. Council Member Gonzalez, you asked that we pull that one.

Yes, please. Lindsay, do you mind coming up? It's the same question. It's regarding the financing. Just an explanation. It's a canala, so it's the same thing. So why is this being done with regard to the third-party financials? How does that change to taxable income?

And so when the taxes are paid to the finance company?

Thank you. Sorry, Lindsay, to put you on the spot.

Ms. Garcia, do we have any other speakers on this item?

Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Garcia-Dumont. Can I get a second? Council Member Pham has seconded. Please cast your vote. And the motion has passed. It's my understanding, Ms. Garcia, that we have subsequent to our vote on the remaining items on the consent agenda, we had one speaker sign up for 8.3. Is that correct? Although we have already voted, I'll allow that speaker, if he or she wishes to be heard, to come up and talk to us on 8.3. Do we know the name?

Come on up, Jeremy. They'll lower the podium for you.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you. We're going to jump on down to 11.1. Ms. Stoppel?

Mr. Armstrong, I'm going to tell you, I don't know about you agreeing to everything, but y'all have got to be the most patient, understanding business, one of the most patient, understanding businesses in the entire city. I think not only have you agreed that go through all the hoops that you've been going through, but when things happened and it didn't go the right way, y'all have handled it with class. I appreciate what y'all have done. Um, I appreciate that the fact that you've been here for 40 something years in Arlington and you're continuing to stay here. More importantly, I appreciate h

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. Council member Garcia Dumont.

Yeah. Mr. Armstrong, thank you so much for your conversations with the HOA and, uh, You know, when it was approved with the same image at the 15 feet, things happen. And you guys were so gracious about it. And you talked to the HOA. And you talked to the homeowners. And you did everything that you could. And this is just best case scenario for encountering something like this. So I know that you're going to move forward with the mutual agreement of the live green wall. I look forward to seeing that. I think it'll be great for them and also great for you guys as well. And congratulations on all

Thank you, sir. Ms. Garcia, do we have any other speakers on this item?

Thank you, ma'am. I am going to close the public hearing. I have a motion. You signed up to speak and we haven't paid you any attention whatsoever? Lord, so far it worked really well. I told them that if you signed up to speak, not to allow it to come through. I don't even know your name, sir, but we're going to let you come up and talk anyway. Mr. Armstrong, you could have a seat. We'll let this gentleman come on up. Thank you. Thank goodness you waved us down and stopped us.

You're about done. I need you to wrap up in about three seconds.

Well, no, no, no. I wish I could say that's the first person that's ever told me that.

Thank you for your time. All right, any other speakers, Ms. Garcia?

All right. I'm going to close the public hearing. I have a motion from Council Member Hogg, a second from Council Member Galante. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. Congratulations, sir. We're going to move on down now to 11.2, Spencer Slider.

Ms. Garcia, do we have any speakers on this item?

Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing. I have a motion from Council Member Garcia-Dumas, a second from Council Member Hunter. Please cast your vote. The motion passes 11.3. Mr. Slider, go ahead.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Garcia, any other speakers on this item?

Thank you. I'm going to close the public hearing. I have a motion from Council Member Galante, a second from Council Member Gonzalez. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. 11.4, Mr. Gary Packin.

Thank you, sir. Any other speakers, Ms. Garcia?

Thank you. I'm going to close the public hearing. I have a motion from Council Member Galante, a second from Council Member Ware. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. 11.5, Ms. Carrie Parker-Berry.

Thank you, ma'am. Ms. Garcia, any speakers on this item? Thank you. I'm going to close the public hearing. I have a motion from Councilmember Garcia-Dumas and a second from Councilmember Galante. Please cast your vote. And the motion passes, thank you, ma'am. 11.6, Mr. Slider.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Garcia, any speakers on this item?

Thank you. I am going to close the public hearing. I have a motion from Council Member Hogg and a second from Council Member Ware. Please cast your vote.

Thank you, sir. I'm going to recognize Council Member Hogg. Well, let me ask this. Ms. Garcia, do we have any other speakers on this item? I'm going to close the public hearing now. I'll recognize Council Member Hogg.

Thank you, Mayor. And Mr. Schlatter, I see you and your whole team down there. I just have to thank you. I think we all thought. Budgets are worked on year round. We know how long y'all work on them year round, so we appreciate all the work on that. So with that, I move to approve the substitute ordinance that levies a tax rate of 62 and 98 hundredths of a cent per $100 valuation, which includes an interest in sinking fund rate of 18 and 52 hundredths of a cent per $100 valuation and a maintenance and operations rate of 44 and 46 hundredths of a cent per $100 in valuation.

Thank you, Council Member Hogg. I have a second from Council Member Gonzales. Please cast your vote. And the motion passes. We're going to move on down to 12.2, Ms. Thoppel. I surprise you going so quickly. I know, I'm pretty good like that. Don't need to thank me. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ms. Stoppel. Ms. Garcia, do we have any speakers on this item?

Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Gonzales, a second from Council Member Garcia-Dumas. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. 12.3, Mr. Brooks.

Thank you, Mr. Brooks. Ms. Garcia, do we have any other speakers on this item? Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Garcia-Dumont and a second from Council Member Shelton. Please cast your vote. The motion passes. Thank you, sir. 12.4, Mr. Whiteway.

Thank you, sir. Ms. Garcia, do we have any other speakers on this item? Thank you. I have a motion from Council Member Ware and a second from Council Member Gonzalez. Please cast your vote. And the motion passes. Thank you, sir. Citizen participation, Ms. Garcia.

I started your clock when you got called way back there already. Gotcha.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Next speaker, Ms. Garcia.

Thank you, ma'am. If you have something you'd like to leave for counsel, you can leave it right over here with this police officer and he can make sure we get it.

Thank you, sir. Any other speakers, Ms. Garcia? You sort of scared me, to be honest with you. There you are. Scared the britches off of me. Any other speakers, Ms. Garcia?

Thank you. Council, do you all have any announcements this evening? Council Member Gonzalez? Yes, sir.

Yes, Mayor. I want to remind all city, county, state, and federal law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, and their families. St. Maria Goretti is having their annual Blue Mass. It's September the 28th at 6 p.m., which is located at 1200 South Davis Drive. And then they'll have a reception after at the Holy Family Center with heavy hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served. So this is for all city, county, state, and federal law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, and their families. And thank you for protecting us, and may God bless you and protect you all.

Thank you, sir. Any other announcements from Council? Seeing none, Ms. Garcia, you have announcements this evening, please.

Thank you all for coming out tonight. City Council meeting is hereby adjourned.