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Record of Proceedings

Arlington City Council Special Meeting Summary – May 13, 2025

City Council — Tuesday, May 13, 2025
BodyArlington, Texas
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, May 13, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
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Transcript — Verbatim
4:59

Did you turn it on from up there?

5:03

We're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session over the Arlington City Council meeting to order it is one PM and we will now go in to an executive close session.

2:03:05

Call the afternoon session back to order.

2:03:08

We're going to move down to three point one fleet management.

2:03:11

Mr.

2:03:12

Warren.

2:03:12

Thank you, Jay Warren, Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs.

2:03:16

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

2:03:17

Glad to be here with you.

2:03:18

Primarily with an informational uh presentation on our overall fleet management and some of the strategies and the and the improvements we've made over the course of the last uh few months.

2:03:28

And I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying fleet services merged in with communication legislative affairs back in September.

2:03:36

We had a more or less kind of an overhaul of the staffing out there.

2:03:39

So Justin Grimsley, who's sitting behind me, Justin is our longtime manager, one of our managers out at convention and event services, but has been filling in as our fleet manager since then.

2:04:04

So I wanted to start off with just a kind of a look at some numbers here that may be interesting to you.

2:04:14

That's divided in a couple of different buckets.

2:04:16

Vehicle replacement, obviously, annually being one of those things staying on top of our fleet.

2:04:20

And I'll get into some of our cycles with that here in a few minutes.

2:04:31

We've been lucky with fuel costs of being stable of late, but about three million dollars annually in that.

2:05:01

A regular sedan, not as much maintenance, maybe 1.5, but then you get to some of our bigger pieces of equipment, more complicated, more expensive pieces of equipment.

2:05:11

The maintenance on those is much more difficult.

2:05:13

It takes skilled technicians and mechanics to work on those.

2:05:16

That VE count can get to five, 10, 20 pretty quickly.

2:05:20

So when you see the VE count, that doesn't mean it's the precise number of vehicles, it's actually the equivalent of that in terms of what we would have to do to maintain that piece of equipment over the life of its um time here in Arlington with our department.

2:05:34

And so you see the the kind of how the numbers balance out there.

2:05:37

PD has the bulk of it there, 31%, followed by public works fire and water all coming in pretty close at about 18, 19%, and the rest kind of divided after that.

2:05:49

How many pieces of equipment do you think we have, just out of curiosity?

2:05:53

Any guesses.

2:06:01

And we're going down here as you see on the chart, and that's intentional.

2:06:05

We had seen about a 16% increase, but we are looking at today's numbers going down.

2:06:10

And I'll talk a little bit about our strategy there here in a few minutes, but it is intentional, and hopefully you'll start to see that number continue to go down as we as we right size the fleet for the city.

2:06:20

Um the overall investment here though is is almost staggering.

2:06:24

Uh, this is a major asset for the city.

2:06:28

All of our combined vehicles end up uh have a value of 100 million dollars.

2:06:34

So there's a lot of money that's been invested by the city over the years in all of the pieces of equipment that we have here at the city.

2:06:42

Uh wanted to break out police and fire for you just a little bit more in terms of the inventory, and you'll see how the numbers have continually grown up 29% over that time period from 2019 to 2025 for our police department.

2:06:54

Some of the numbers that you'll see on this chart and another one, where you kind of see them go up and down, maybe a little misleading.

2:06:59

The number really is just kind of a gradual increase over all those years.

2:07:04

Sometimes we'll have a little bit of a weird accounting between auctions and when we get to auction vehicles off and they actually leave us as opposed to when they arrive.

2:07:13

So that's where you might see some little kind of jagged numbers going down, but overall the trend is up uh as we invest more into our police vehicles.

2:07:20

And the same with fire.

2:07:22

So again, it really just an upward trajectory and about an 8% increase from 2019 to 2025 in the investment we're making in fire.

2:07:30

With more of that to come, the bond passed by almost 75% at the May election.

2:07:36

So we'll be investing as a part of that, six fire engines, two ladder trucks, an aircraft rescue firefighting truck out at the airport, and a brush truck as well.

2:07:45

Um now, some of the these won't arrive immediately.

2:07:48

Uh fire trucks are big, expensive pieces of equipment.

2:07:51

It takes a long time for them to be built.

2:07:53

So we'll be looking at about an 18 to 20 month window once we put the order in, once the bonds are sold.

2:07:58

So that's it will be this will be phased in over the course of the bond.

2:08:04

The replacement schedule and what we look for in and trying to keep the fleet modern and up to date.

2:08:10

Our goal is to have, as you look at all the numbers over here on the right side of the screen, no more than 15% of the entire fleet above these thresholds.

2:08:18

So our white fleet means basically the white sedans, white pickup trucks, SUVs that you see driving around at roughly 150,000 miles or 10 years.

2:08:26

That's where we look to start replacing them.

2:08:28

Police patrol vehicles at 120,000 miles or seven years.

2:08:32

Part of the reason for the variance and the numbers there is police cars really the the patrol vehicles in particular run nonstop.

2:08:40

Uh there's three shifts on, they're constantly running.

2:08:43

So that runtime impacts the life of the vehicle and the maintenance that's required of that vehicle.

2:08:49

So we replace them on a faster schedule than we would uh our white fleet.

2:08:54

Fire engines, as you see there, 200,000 miles for engines at 12 years, ladder trucks 200,000 miles 10 years, and as you see on down the list there, um keeping up with those uh regularly, and then heavy equipment is done by runtime, not necessarily by mileage, and you see that at 7,500 hours that we tried to get these things replaced.

2:09:13

If you see a great way for me to judge this, aside from police vehicles that that have the old logo, but any other vehicle you see around town that has the old logo on it, it is it has exceeded its life expectancy because we're 11 years into the new logo and brand, right?

2:09:28

So that's a good indicator of that's a that's an old car that might need to be replaced the first opportunity we have.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Procedural█████████████████████████████████████████████54%
Economic Development████████10%
Public Works████████9%
Zoning and Land Use████5%
Public Engagement████5%
Transportation Safety███4%
Technology and Innovation██2%
Public Safety██2%
World Cup Planning██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Arlington City Council Special Meeting Summary – May 13, 2025

The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on May 13, 2025, beginning at 1:30 p.m. with an executive session to discuss legal issues, real property transactions, and economic development negotiations. The open session reconvened at 3:49 p.m. and included presentations on fleet management, unfinished structures, regional mobility, economic development, animal breeding, cost of living, micromobility, infrastructure improvements, cemetery ordinance, and committee reports. No votes were taken; the session served as a work session and discussion forum.

Discussion Items

  • Fleet Management (3.1): Jay Warren, Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs, presented an overview of the city’s fleet, including a $100 million asset value, 31% of vehicles used by police, and a 16% fleet increase. He outlined strategies to right-size the fleet, achieve 15% out-of-life vehicles, and a proposed pilot lease of 32 vehicles from Enterprise Fleet Management to improve cost savings and modernization. Council discussed contract oversight, maintenance, and potential electric vehicle inclusion.

  • Unfinished Structures (3.2): Gincy Thoppil, Director of Planning and Development Services, explained a new ordinance classifying unfinished structures (permits expired for 6+ months) as nuisances, allowing abatement without court action. The process includes citations up to $2,000 per day. Council discussed the stalled hotel at Arbrook and Collins, with a July deadline for the developer to demolish or restart.

  • Enhance Regional Mobility (3.3): Lemuel Randolph, Deputy City Manager, reported on street condition index improvements, the Southeast Connector project (on schedule), and the Safe Streets Arlington plan. Arlington on Demand ridership was 121,000 in Q1, but expected to drop due to budget cuts. Travel times on Cooper Street decreased due to adaptive signals.

  • Invest in Our Economy (3.4): Marty Wieder, Executive Director of Arlington Economic Development Corporation, provided an update on business retention, recruitment, and small business programs. Key highlights: 10 loans totaling $514,000 through the Lyft Fund, a new Arlington Business Certification Program, and a proposed Japan-Texas Economic Summit partnership with ABeam for 2026-2028.

  • Animal Breeding and Retail Pet Sales (4.1): Council discussed placing a contact for reporting unlicensed breeders on the city website.

  • 2024 Cost of Living Index (4.2): Sarah Stubblefield presented the first city-level COLI report, noting Arlington’s participation in quarterly data collection to track competitiveness.

  • Micromobility Pilot Program Update (4.3): Jana Wentzel, Principal Planner, reported on the scooter pilot. Council expressed interest in expanding hours to 24/7 and expanding the boundary into downtown/UTA area, but not into the entertainment district. The matter will be referred to the Transportation Committee.

  • Required Public Infrastructure Improvements (4.4): Deputy City Manager Jennifer Wichmann discussed developer concerns about impact fees and presented options for deferred payments or installment plans. Council discussed potential for commercial and residential applications.

  • Transportation Chapter Amendment – Special Event Pick-ups (4.5): No discussion.

  • Arlington Cemetery Ordinance (4.6): Councilmember Odom-Wesley reported that the Municipal Policy Committee reviewed the ordinance. The city plans to sell burial rights for about 1,100 plots, with a fee schedule to recover costs. First reading is scheduled for June 10, second reading June 24, and operator contract approval in August. Outreach to identify abandoned plots will precede sales.

  • Economic Development Committee Report (4.7): Councilmember Piel reported on Founders Arena (fourth cohort, regional venture fest), Historic Property Incentive Program (Chapter 380 amendment for exterior improvements on designated landmarks), Arlington Business Certification Program ($25,000 grant for small business certifications), and ABeam sponsorship for Japan Summit (three-year partnership to host Japan-Texas economic summit at Lowe’s Arlington Hotel).

  • Appointments to Boards and Commissions (4.8): One appointment noted for the evening agenda.

  • City Council External Committee and Training Reports (4.9): Councilmember Hogg reported on NCTCOG meeting, including funding for EV charging infrastructure and a $3.8 million Lot H project for World Cup bus operations. Mayor Ross reported on U.S. Conference of Mayors meetings, Bloomberg Philanthropies roundtable, and Washington D.C. fly-in, emphasizing local government messaging and district-level town halls.

  • Legislative Update (4.10): Natalie Raulston provided updates on priority bills: HB 21 (HFC) moving to Senate floor, HB 1893 (police license plate) pending, SB 2004 (IndyCar Grand Prix) awaiting governor’s signature, and SB 840 (allowing commercial/industrial property conversion to multifamily) causing concern over local control.

  • Evening Agenda Items (4.11): Council discussed items 7.4 (automatic door maintenance contract), 7.11 (Mitchell Street rebuild from Collins to Sunnyvale), and 7.28 (Sister Cities contract for $50,000 to support program operations, including logo, website, insurance, and audit).

  • Future Agenda Items (4.13): Councilmember Boxall requested a speed limit reduction on Mesquite and Center streets downtown and a new crosswalk at Center and Main, plus an update on the Rolling Hills Country Club housing project. Councilmember Odom-Wesley requested transportation options to ACTIV senior center. Mayor Ross requested a future item on Tarrant County Commissioners Court redistricting.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken.
  • The council directed staff to explore expanding the micromobility pilot program hours and boundaries (downtown/UTA area) and report back via the Transportation Committee.
  • Staff will prepare a report on traffic calming and crosswalk improvements for Mesquite and Center streets.
  • An update on the Rolling Hills project will be brought to council.
  • Transportation options to ACTIV will be reviewed.
  • A legal opinion on Tarrant County redistricting will be sought; a potential resolution opposing it may be introduced at the next meeting.
  • The Arlington Cemetery ordinance will proceed to first reading on June 10.
  • The Economic Development Committee items (Historic Property Incentive, Business Certification, ABeam sponsorship) will be presented for formal approval at future meetings.
  • The Sister Cities contract ($50,000) will be considered on the evening agenda.

Meeting Transcript

Did you turn it on from up there? We're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session over the Arlington City Council meeting to order it is one PM and we will now go in to an executive close session. Call the afternoon session back to order. We're going to move down to three point one fleet management. Mr. Warren. Thank you, Jay Warren, Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Glad to be here with you. Primarily with an informational uh presentation on our overall fleet management and some of the strategies and the and the improvements we've made over the course of the last uh few months. And I would be remiss if I didn't start by saying fleet services merged in with communication legislative affairs back in September. We had a more or less kind of an overhaul of the staffing out there. So Justin Grimsley, who's sitting behind me, Justin is our longtime manager, one of our managers out at convention and event services, but has been filling in as our fleet manager since then. So I wanted to start off with just a kind of a look at some numbers here that may be interesting to you. That's divided in a couple of different buckets. Vehicle replacement, obviously, annually being one of those things staying on top of our fleet. And I'll get into some of our cycles with that here in a few minutes. We've been lucky with fuel costs of being stable of late, but about three million dollars annually in that. A regular sedan, not as much maintenance, maybe 1.5, but then you get to some of our bigger pieces of equipment, more complicated, more expensive pieces of equipment. The maintenance on those is much more difficult. It takes skilled technicians and mechanics to work on those. That VE count can get to five, 10, 20 pretty quickly. So when you see the VE count, that doesn't mean it's the precise number of vehicles, it's actually the equivalent of that in terms of what we would have to do to maintain that piece of equipment over the life of its um time here in Arlington with our department. And so you see the the kind of how the numbers balance out there. PD has the bulk of it there, 31%, followed by public works fire and water all coming in pretty close at about 18, 19%, and the rest kind of divided after that. How many pieces of equipment do you think we have, just out of curiosity? Any guesses. And we're going down here as you see on the chart, and that's intentional. We had seen about a 16% increase, but we are looking at today's numbers going down. And I'll talk a little bit about our strategy there here in a few minutes, but it is intentional, and hopefully you'll start to see that number continue to go down as we as we right size the fleet for the city. Um the overall investment here though is is almost staggering. Uh, this is a major asset for the city. All of our combined vehicles end up uh have a value of 100 million dollars. So there's a lot of money that's been invested by the city over the years in all of the pieces of equipment that we have here at the city. Uh wanted to break out police and fire for you just a little bit more in terms of the inventory, and you'll see how the numbers have continually grown up 29% over that time period from 2019 to 2025 for our police department. Some of the numbers that you'll see on this chart and another one, where you kind of see them go up and down, maybe a little misleading. The number really is just kind of a gradual increase over all those years. Sometimes we'll have a little bit of a weird accounting between auctions and when we get to auction vehicles off and they actually leave us as opposed to when they arrive. So that's where you might see some little kind of jagged numbers going down, but overall the trend is up uh as we invest more into our police vehicles. And the same with fire. So again, it really just an upward trajectory and about an 8% increase from 2019 to 2025 in the investment we're making in fire. With more of that to come, the bond passed by almost 75% at the May election. So we'll be investing as a part of that, six fire engines, two ladder trucks, an aircraft rescue firefighting truck out at the airport, and a brush truck as well. Um now, some of the these won't arrive immediately. Uh fire trucks are big, expensive pieces of equipment. It takes a long time for them to be built. So we'll be looking at about an 18 to 20 month window once we put the order in, once the bonds are sold. So that's it will be this will be phased in over the course of the bond. The replacement schedule and what we look for in and trying to keep the fleet modern and up to date. Our goal is to have, as you look at all the numbers over here on the right side of the screen, no more than 15% of the entire fleet above these thresholds.

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