The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on January 28, 2025, from 12:18 p.m. to 5:03 p.m. (agenda listed 12:15 p.m. start). The meeting began with an executive session (12:18–2:21 p.m.) to discuss real estate leases and economic development incentives, then reconvened in open session at 2:34 p.m. for work session items and issues session items. Key topics included the FY2026 budget update (with a $21.5 million projected gap), the 2024 Multi-Family Housing Profile, the MWBE Report for FY2024, and discussions on pedicab programs, panhandling mitigation, out-of-jurisdiction housing finance corporation activity, and a proposed 2025 bond election.
City Manager Trey Yelverton presented a detailed budget outlook. Key points:
Councilmember Hogg urged revenue generation through fee adjustments and expressed goal of avoiding layoffs. Councilmember Gonzalez suggested council look at its own budget (travel, etc.). Councilmember Boxall asked about third-party verification for code compliance and potential volatility of a sales tax-based system (City Manager noted sales tax is a leading indicator with more volatility).
Sarah Stubblefield (Office of Strategic Initiatives) presented data comparing 2012 and 2023 conditions:
Councilmember Odom-Wesley asked if the city has averted a housing crisis – Stubblefield replied it's a policy balance of limited land, income growth, and assistance programs.
Erica Thompson (MWBE Manager) reported:
Councilmember Odom-Wesley asked about impact of state/federal DEI pushback; Thompson responded they will continue their work. Councilmember Gonzalez clarified that women-owned is counted after ethnicity (no double reporting).
Keith Brooks (Public Works) reported on a request to reauthorize pedicabs in the entertainment district. The city previously terminated the program due to persistent noncompliance (traffic violations, ignoring restricted areas, venue complaints). Staff met with a prospective operator but found no robust plan to prevent past issues. Councilmember Hogg expressed frustration that other cities manage pedicabs successfully and urged continued exploration. Mayor Ross noted the entertainment district partners strongly oppose restarting due to past problems. Councilmember Gonzalez asked about designated corridors – staff confirmed they existed but were ignored. No formal action taken.
Jennifer Wichmann (Deputy City Manager) presented results of a pilot program using signs at three intersections directing donations to nonprofits. Panhandling activity decreased at those locations. Seven new intersections were selected for sign installation (moving from 3 to 10 total). Councilmember Gonzalez and Odom-Wesley asked about donation impact – no measurable increase in nonprofit donations yet. Signs to be installed within two weeks.
Mindy Cochran (Housing Authority) reported on housing finance corporations (HFCs) from other cities (e.g., Pecos) acquiring properties in Arlington and claiming tax-exempt status, costing Arlington an estimated $400,000 in lost revenue per property. The city sent a letter to Pecos opposing the practice. Councilmembers Hogg and Ross expressed strong opposition and desire for legal action. Mayor Ross noted pending state legislation to restrict this. Councilmember Hogg suggested Texas Municipal League must address it. Council supported aggressive response including possible litigation. City Attorney Shortall is evaluating legal options to protest the tax exemption.
Lemuel Randolph (Deputy City Manager) presented proposed projects for May 2025 bond election. Council to vote on ordinance (first and final) at next Tuesday's meeting (February 4, 2025). Communications materials ready in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Well, hello, everybody. I hope everybody had a good weekend. I would be remiss if before we go into executive session, if I didn't acknowledge the celebrity presence here today. And if you can't see the back says Arlington jail with a lot of rhinestones, and many people propose those are our new jail costumes. We're gonna go ahead and go into a executive close session pursuant to VTCA government code, chapter 551. Okay, we'll go ahead and call the session back to order. We're going to move on down to three point one on a budget update. We've uh got this uh information for you uh uh uploaded into your agenda manager so you can follow it uh and all of that. But um, you know, there's a lot of a lot of challenging news out there, some things that are uh some good news and some challenging news, but we're going to uh need everyone's collected help, your your help, that of the public to kind of help navigate the things that we're uh working through, and you know, as I guess I would uh joke with folks when I go out to the suggestion boxes open, so uh we need uh we need everybody's collective ideas. You know, we started on this challenge uh last November as we kind of had our fall planning retreat. We kind of knew based on how we ended fiscal 24 that there were going to be some challenges. So we started foreshadowing uh that uh and uh we got a few questions from you all during that time. So I want to try to provide a little bit of response, but also kind of uh some follow-up on that. So one of the questions had to do with was uh kind of the venues uh and events and how revenues from venues and events are gonna help us kind of over the over the hump, right? So we've got a few pieces of data here to kind of highlight. Um this is a trend line as it relates or bar chart as it relates to showing hotel occupancy tax revenue history, and it's divided into two pieces. Kind of the the darker blue is the traditional seven percent city tax, and the lighter blue is the two percent that's attributable to stadiums, right? So when you hear a little bit about well, how are the stadiums doing and and kind of what's the you know, how's the performance, etc. You can just really go in here and you can point at a couple things. Uh right here. Let me get a better color. Here is when ATT stadium opened, right? So it was it was starting to kind of improve a little bit in this area, but really flat for the decade before, the 15 years before. Um Globe Life opened in this window, of course, against uh headwinds of COVID, but as that quickly rebounded, you see a new trajectory established not only in the growth of hotel occupancy tax, but in the growth of that that's generated by the venues, right? Which are indications, not of what you know, indie cars worth or what uh FIFA's worth or any of those things, but it's an indication of kind of how how it's working systematically, right? So to me, that was one way to show you all a little bit about how um the uh the clear there's a clear trajectory that has uh changed in that way, and and if that wasn't enough, I thought there's another way to show this. It's also equally as interesting on sales tax receipts. If you will go with me on kind of how this kind of will uncoil a little bit. Similar story, let's look at kind of pre-ATT stadium. And what we're looking here are some lines that are one, three, and five year moving averages over uh a decade, 15, actually, I think uh pending about uh 10 to 15 years in this area. You see a very kind of flat um deal. You're not not a lot of growth here. So then uh what happens? Um well, this is our trajectory, you know, it uh left to our own devices. This is where things were headed, you know, in the pre-ATT stadium kind of world. You can see the trajectory, how the growth is pretty modest. Um then uh in 2009, ATT opens, and you start to see uh kind of a notable inflection point, all right? A little a little climb up from that. You have to remember ATT also opened in a really bad time coming out of the 0809 housing crisis, and there was a lot of serious financial issues, but nonetheless, you can see a really clear um you know increment that's identified in this area that's a change from the trajectory that we were on. But even when you factor that in, you kind of take a look and say, okay, well, now what's our trajectory? You can kind of see how it tilted up. All right. So then we take a look at well, okay. Well, now Globe Life and the new convention center uh and other things going on. How's that helping us? Well, again, that all happened kind of May of 2020, COVID year, and you see the COVID dip, but then you also see a really strong COVID rebound and a really strong economic, you know, performance that are driven uh at least uh anecdotally from the things that are going on in our community. This incremental revenue is is what's being driven by venues and events in town. It's not exclusive, but there are clear inflection points in here that uh that demonstrate that. So when you look at it in summary, kind of before ATT stating, we were averaging around a 2.7% sales tax growth after that since it's about doubled 5.3% annual growth. Those are dollars that we now have to invest and to put back into our economy and in the things that we do.