Arlington City Council Regular Meeting - September 3, 2024
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Arlington City Council Regular Meeting - September 3, 2024
The Arlington City Council convened in regular session on September 3, 2024, at 6:31 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber, 101 W. Abram Street, and adjourned at 6:49 p.m. All nine council members were present. The meeting included a proclamation for National Night Out, approval of a 16-item consent agenda, a public hearing for a Municipal Setting Designation, and first reading of a Construction Chapter amendment. All agenda items were approved unanimously (9-0).
Special Presentations
- Mayor Jim Ross proclaimed October 1, 2024, as National Night Out. Arlington Police Chief Al Jones accepted the proclamation and noted that the city registered over 140 National Night Out parties in the past two years and aims to increase registered parties by 15% to at least 200 in 2024.
Consent Calendar
- The consent agenda was approved without discussion or opposition. It included:
- Minute Orders: Renewal of contract for breakaway sign posts ($90,306); renewal for overhead door repair ($95,000); sole source purchase of meter data management system support/hosting ($57,623); sole source purchase of Biotage Horizon Extraction System ($78,093); 2024 street maintenance concrete repairs ($193,840); two-year contract for intelligent transportation system evaluation services ($580,485); engineering services contract for Stream VC(A)-1 drainage study, Phase 2 ($249,708); contract for Animal Services Center repairs ($111,789).
- Ordinances (Final Reading): Specific Use Permit SUP24-7 for a banquet hall at 333 South Bowen Road; Zoning Case PD24-11 for a Home2Suites Hotel at 4400 South Collins Street; Zoning Case PD24-14 for office/commercial and kennel uses at 107 West Randol Mill Road; Zoning Case PD24-16 for limited office uses plus massage therapy and personal services at 500 and 600 South Davis Drive; settlement with Atmos Energy Corp., Mid-Tex Division regarding the 2024 Rate Review Mechanism filing, approving rate adjustments and establishing a benchmark for pension and retiree medical costs.
- Resolutions: Renewal of two-year contract with Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP for delinquent property tax collection; renewal of contract with the same firm for delinquent municipal court debt collection; resolution supporting Mayor Pro Tempore Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley’s nomination to the National League of Cities Board of Directors.
Public Hearing – Municipal Setting Designation 24-1 (408 113th Street)
- A public hearing was opened at 6:42 p.m. Lance Crabtree of Terracon Consultants, representing the applicant, presented the request for a Municipal Setting Designation (MSD) for property at 408 113th Street. The site, formerly a bulk chemical distribution and cleaning operation, has groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1-dichloroethylene, and arsenic plumes. The MSD would prohibit the use of groundwater for potable purposes, closing the drinking water exposure pathway, while other pathways (soil, inhalation) remain assessed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. No other speakers registered. The public hearing closed at 6:45 p.m. Councilmember Odom-Wesley moved to approve first reading of the ordinance, seconded by Councilmember Galante; the motion carried 9-0.
Discussion Items – Construction Chapter Amendment (First Reading)
- Alex Busken, Interim Director of Code Compliance Services, presented the first reading of an ordinance amending Article XVI (Dangerous Buildings) of the Construction chapter. The amendment clarifies that any building constructed without permits or final inspections is presumed to be dangerous, allowing staff to address such structures through the city’s dangerous/substandard building program. No public speakers commented. Councilmember Boxall moved to approve first reading, seconded by Councilmember Gonzalez; the motion carried 9-0.
Citizen Participation
- No citizens registered to speak. No public comments were made.
Announcements
- Councilmember Pham noted that September 7, 2024, marks Brazil’s 202nd Independence Day and requested prayers for Brazil’s freedom of speech.
- Acting City Secretary Martha Garcia reminded that City Council meetings are rebroadcast on Sundays at 6 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays at 6:30 a.m., and can be viewed online at www.arlingtontx.gov.
Key Outcomes
- National Night Out proclamation: Accepted by Police Chief Al Jones.
- Consent agenda: Approved unanimously (9-0) with 16 items.
- Municipal Setting Designation 24-1: First reading ordinance approved (9-0).
- Construction Chapter Amendment: First reading ordinance approved (9-0).
- Meeting adjourned at 6:49 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Hello, what are we doing? Cynthia Lemus, the coordinator of communications of the city of Arlington. The University of Arlington will invite the residents to use the air in a Department of Agua coming after a while a new program of reparations of plomeria. The new program is part of the plan of conservation of a lot of Arlington. The program exclusively in the reparation of griffins, duchas, inodor and air that occurs in the interior of the parents or subterranean. The residents will qualificate for $1,500 in reparation. The clients with the normal ingresse that are verified by our society since the lucro in the Minister Urban of Arlington. Visit the page Care Share of the Department of the Agua and Services Public Arlington for a solicitor. The direction in panty. So often we get caught up with life. Things that have happened. And we can use that as a crutch, or we can use it to our advantage. I am originally from Greenville, Mississippi. My childhood was definitely unconventional. My mom being in domestic violent relationships. We experienced, you know, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and being shifted around from home to home. I come on a vacation in 1998 here to Arlington, and it was just something special and magical about this place. And I refuse to let my family go without. That's what I'm here for. The American dream means to me wellness, health, stability. And if my childhood didn't break me, then a team mom didn't break me, traveling to Arlington with $2,000 in the car that the repo man was looking for. I am Kenya Modley, and I am alive with the American dream. It's been eight months. She just taught me so much about life, about how to treat people, just how to do right by people in general. Uh, whatever capacity that you're able to do in skill sets that you have, utilise those to help people that are less fortunate. Bringing us moments like Kenny Rogers' perfect game. Neptolly police to Benji Molina sending the hometown team to the World Series. Evening, everybody, and welcome to the evening session of the Arlington City Council. I'd like to invite Pastor Gregory Key from Renewed Life Church to please come forward and lead us in an invocation. Please rise. Thank you so much. I just want to know before I started that my church is going to do a 10-day, 24-hour day prayer starting this Wednesday, and that each one of you will be mentioned specifically over and over again during that time. So if there is anything that you'd like us specifically to pray for, please let me know. We can talk later. Okay. And I'll tell you who those are later on, okay. Well, then why don't we just pray? So, Father God, we just want to pray, pray to you right now. We want to thank you for that you are our provider, our creator, and you are too good to do wrong and too wise to make a mistake. We on the other hand are frail and fallible, and so we need you to protect us from ourselves sometimes and our biases and our blunders. But God, we live in an amazing multicultural city. I pray that you just help us to continue to celebrate the diversity that's here and the different voices, and yet at that same time be able to distinguish wisdom from the rhetoric and propaganda so we can hear your truth. As you've called us to do, we are to be a blessing to the city. And so, God, I just pray that you help us do that, be with these council members, be with the mayor and everyone here as they make the decisions, not just for those who are rich and powerful, but also for the poor and the powerless in Jesus' name. Amen. 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. And whereas the City of Arlington has registered over one hundred and forty national night out parties within the city over the la over the past two years and is striving to increase registered parties by fifteen percent to continue fostering relationships with our community. Now therefore, I, Jim Ross, Mayor of the City of Arlington, do hereby proclaim October 1st, 2024 as national night out.
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