The Arlington City Council convened a regular meeting on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at 6:30 PM in the City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting included a consent agenda with numerous routine contracts and approvals, public hearings on zoning cases and gas well permits, and extensive public testimony. The council approved all consent agenda items unanimously (9-0), continued two zoning cases to later dates, and approved a resolution authorizing ten new gas well permits for the Maverick Drill Site despite strong public opposition.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Arlington City Council. I appreciate everybody coming out here tonight. I'm gonna invite a Mr. Doug Widgard from the Grace Lutheran Church to please come forward and lead us in an invocation. If y'all could please stand for us. Father, we thank you for the leaders you've appointed, and we thank you for this excellent city in which we live and dwell and make our presence known. Grant all gathered here tonight. Wisdom and discernment and vision for this city. Not for their glory, and not even for the glory of those who live here, but for your glory, the God who died, that we might have life, that your presence and peace and your shalom might dwell among us. Amen. Buskin, can you give me the speaker guidelines, general decorum, please? Thank you, Mayor. We ask that the citizens and other visitors in attendance assist in preserving the order and decorum of this meeting and to provide for attendance at and participation in the meeting without fear of intimidation, threats, or hostility. Any person making personal, profane, hostile, slanderous, or threatening remarks, who uses vulgar or obscene language, who engages in any other actions that disturb or are calculated to disturb the meeting, or who becomes disruptive while addressing the mayor in the city council or while attending the city council meeting may be removed from the council chambers. All speakers shall address the city council and not the audience or city staff and shall not call out individually named members of city staff or the public. For speakers tonight, when your name is called, please come to the microphone at the podium and state your name and city of residence for the record. Speakers may not use music, videos, other forms of media signs or props. During public hearings for zoning cases, the applicant will be asked to speak first and will be given five minutes to make a presentation. Speakers in support or opposition of the item will be given three minutes each to make their statements. The applicant will then be given three minutes for any rebuttal. For all other items on the agendas, speakers will be given three minutes to speak. If multiple speakers plan to provide the same or similar comments, those speakers may, if they so desire, designate one or more individuals to provide public comment on behalf of the group. A bell will signal the end of each speaker's time. In consideration of other speakers, please conclude your comments promptly when you hear the bell. We ask that you address your comments to the mayor and council. Thank you, Mr. Buskin. I'm going to skip all the way down to item number 11 on citizen participation. We have one individual signed up for that tonight, I believe. Uh can you handle citizen participation, please? Yes, sir. Citizen participation gives the public an opportunity to make comments or address concerns regarding matters related to city business or affairs that are in the scope of the authority of the city council and which are not posted on the evening agenda. However, please understand that the mayor and council are not permitted by law to respond to, discuss, or address the comment at this time, as these items are not included on the posted council agenda for this evening. The mayor and council may only ask clarifying questions and or direct staff to take appropriate action. Speakers who have pre-registered will be given two minutes to make their comments, except that if 26 or more speakers have pre-registered, each speaker will be given one minute to make their comments. Our speaker this evening for citizen participation is Tera Cooper. Ms. Cooper Good evening. I'm here for the Zeta Delta Sigma chapter of Sigma Gamma Row here in Arlington, Texas. Um Mayor Ross, Council members. Uh I stand before you. I'm Thera Cooper, the president of the Zeta Delta Sigma chapter, Sigma Gamma Row Sabority Incorporated, serving Arlington, Texas since 1982. Our undergraduate chapter, which we advise uh at the UTA, has been serving that campus since 1993. Um with me today are also members of our Philo affiliate. These are a group of dynamic women uh that serve alongside of us in the Arlington community. We also have youth affiliates, our Rower Club and Rosebud Club, uh, which nurture the future leaders uh in this community. Sigma Gamma Rose Royal Incorporated is commitment to service is expressed in our so slogan greater service and greater progress. It is Zeta Delta Sigma's uh mission to advance those principles in Arlington. To that end, we are committed to protecting voting rights and expanding voter registration.