Hey Raul, can you hear us?

I'm Barbara Odom Wesley, Mayor Pro Tim.

In the absence of the mayor, I'm calling to order the city council meeting on Tuesday, September 16th at 2 o'clock PM.

City Council will now go into closed session at 2001 on September 16th, in accordance with the following sections of VTCA government code, chapter 551, section five five seven, point zero seven one, consultation with attorney, section five five one, point zero seven two, deliberation regarding real property, and section five five one eight seven.

Good afternoon.

I'm Dr.

Barbara Odom Wesley.

And in behalf of our mayor, Jim Ross, who's out of town, I am presiding over the afternoon City Council meetings.

And the meeting is called to order at three thirty PM.

Three point one.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I am here to talk about one of your favorite topics, the Terrant Appraisal District board appointments.

We're going through this process just like we did last year at this time.

The types of entities, you've got 21 ISDs, 42 cities, the county, the college, the water district, um the top five entities as far as size and number of votes are the city of Fort Worth, Fort Worth ISD, the county, AISD, the college, um, and we are the seventh largest.

Kennedale ISD is the sixth largest.

Um, and so historically, we've done five nominees at a time, and so there have been five thousand votes.

Now, since there's only two up for nomination, there are going to be two thousand votes.

Uh, we will have ninety-one of those votes, or a little bit above four point five percent.

The TAD has added six conservation and reclamation districts, so which now gives them 17 votes out of the 2000, so it's less than one percent of the total votes.

Um, the six are as you can see on the list with the um Terrent Regional Water District being the largest and Viridian being the second largest.

Hoping I hit it.

Um, the calendars you can see is uh the chief of praiser supposed to calculate the votes, he's already actually done that.

They then expect nomination of candidates by all of the different boards and big councils, school district boards, whoever else wants to uh put forward nominations.

So your next council meeting is October 14th.

If you have interest in nominating anyone, that's when we will have uh that put in front of you on that council evening's agenda.

Uh they will receive all of the uh will receive ballots back October 30th.

That's when we'll know who all has been nominated, and then because we are not one of the uh top seven or top six um votes which have at least five percent.

Our nominations actually are our votes aren't due until December 15th.

So this nominating process, as I said, uh Ms.

Burgess and Mr.

Alford are in this schedule.

The next time we you will have the chance to appoint anyone will be two years from now.

And at that point, Mr.

Blalock, Mr.

Campos, and Ms.

Pena will be up for nomination, and then it'll happen every two years thereafter, going from two to three back and forth.

Um, as you look at it, depending upon the number of of candidates.

If long as there are at least three candidates to guarantee an appointment, you would need at least 667 votes or about a third of the votes.

No individual entity has the ability to appoint someone by themselves.

If the ISDs all collaborated together, they could control one of the two.

Um as stated before, only the top uh five.

If you have more than five percent of the vote, they have to have voted by October uh November 30th, otherwise we get until December 15th.

Um and I believe this is the information I've already told you about the other elected board members, three of them are elected by the public.

The next time those three will come up will be next November in 2026, and thereafter they will be on four-year terms.

The county assessor tax assessor collectors also on a four-year term, but his next cycle will be in 2028.

So you can see how it is now staggered between the two nominated, three elected, three nominated, one elected, just back and forth.

So every year there will be new blood on the board or the potential of new blood on the board.

And with that, your next steps are October 15th to nominate any candidates that you have interest in, um, and then receiving the ballot by the end of October, and then we will make a decision and vote on that December 9th.

We have until the 15th, but December 9th is a scheduled uh council date.

And with that, I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions or comments from council?

Councilmember Lam.

Um Mr.

Claus, um council members, I can nominee anybody in Terran County.

Correct.

Do I need to support of my colleagues or uh how to if I nominate somebody?

Um I believe it's voted on by the council itself.

So uh that'll be on the October 14th.

Uh is it a Molly?

Do you know if it's um a majority vote?

Simple majority vote on a resolution making nominations, correct.

So if I want to nominate somebody right now, can I do it?

Have to send it to Mr.

Claus too.

Well, we'll officially nominate.

You can uh let me know beforehand, but we'll officially nominate on October 14th.

We can nominate up to two people, two individuals.

Oh, okay.

I do have uh one person in mind that Miss Sayada Sayed, and uh I think I leave a copy of her resume, that's how I need to nominate her, and uh I would hope that uh my colleagues support me because the current TAD board of director right now that put us in that uh predicament that we short 25 million dollars, so they don't have our best interest at heart, but we don't need to reappoint the people that they don't care about our city and our people.

So I strongly um ask you if you don't mind because the last time when I speak to my colleagues, and some would tell me that Miss Sayed don't have no chance.

If you give her a chance, uh I can go around out of city and other tax entity and ask them to support her.

If we get her in there, she did a good job.

We keep reappointing her.

If not, then we can um move her out.

But uh, but uh she needs an opportunity to go in and serve the the this is the reason of town county because as we can see uh we got a budget shortfall because that does the people that you saw earlier the cost or the problem, and that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Any other council members, Mr.

Hogg.

Thank you, Ethan, for taking on this challenge each year.

This used to be a really easy challenge, and it's become a very complicated one.

Um let me ask this, and and in light of you know, Mr.

Pham, which I agree, Miss Sayed is constantly around here.

So if someone wants our nomination, can we as a council ask them to come up and spend a few minutes talking with us on that?

Can or do we need to just have individual meetings with them to make that type of decision?

You can do either.

You can have them come up and physically talk to you, or you can have individual meetings.

Yeah, I I would say if anyone's not willing to come to our council meeting, I have no interest in nominating them or even voting for them.

So uh, because the number one thing I'm gonna look at is how who represents who's gonna represent Arlington the best.

Um we are a part of Tarrant County, but our votes should be going to who we think will represent our uh council's interests is the best.

So I I would tell any candidate that wants a nomination or wants any votes to make sure you either reach out to us or you're speaking at council at some point.

Right.

They they essentially have between now and October 14th.

Do we have any published criteria qualifications for members of the TAD board?

Uh I will get back with TAD, but I believe the only qualifications are that you live in the county and that you do not have a lien on your property that you've paid uh your property tax.

Um besides that, there are no other qualifications.

Uh I think over the age of 18.

Um otherwise there is been put into place under this last legislation.

Uh I think it passed that there uh are now the board members will have to go through training once they are on the board.

So Mr.

Fan.

Um Mayor Pro Tim, uh, I leave a copy of the resume for Miss Sayet or your desk, so you can review that.

And by the way, she she's here today.

If anyone allow her to speak, uh I think she would uh be an honor for her to send up here and talk to us why we should nominate her and she's sitting in the audience right now.

Mr.

Calante.

Uh maybe I agree we'll with uh council member hog uh just said in an uh if somebody wants to come out and present their case and present their platform, how they can represent better the City of Arlington Tad, uh maybe today uh is short notice, but we can go ahead and set up a uh uh work session, afternoon session, um before we vote, so they get it gives them time to visit us individually, and also any candidate, two or three or four, come out and have an afternoon presenting their case so before we vote.

So I'll also part that can you do it today?

Do it today, or you could do it in the future as Mr.

Bye.

City attorney says if the council is in agreement, we can ask Miss Sayed to speak today.

What's your pleasure?

I agree.

I mean, if we'd like, I that's fine.

I would rather, as we get closer, have multiple at the same time if she would like to go today about it.

If she would like to go today, but that's what I say.

That's what I say.

I'd rather have be more productive that way.

Be more productive at the same time, yeah.

That'd be my opinion.

They will have the chance to talk to us individually, and then they come out here.

We'll be more productive, probably.

So do I hear consensus we're gonna wait and have more people at one time?

Ms.

Boxel, did you have your hand raised?

Okay.

Mr.

Gonzalez, did you have your hand raised?

Okay.

Okay, then we'll wait to a future meeting date to uh and between now and then we can have individual appointments, and then we can have the um potential nominees visit at an afternoon work session.

And our next meeting is October 14th.

Thank you, Mr.

Kloss for navigating this difficult process.

It takes us to 3.2.

Council priority leverage technology.

Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph.

Thank you very much.

Mayor Pro Tim and members of City Council, Lemuel Randolph, Deputy City Manager.

Um so this will be your third quarter report for the leverage technology newsletter.

Um as you'll recall, there are 28 business plan items within this priority, and we'll talk and highlight a few of them in the next couple of slides.

So the APD e-citation technology is a new uh kind of addition to Tyler Technologies platform that will allow criminal trespass warnings and police initiated tow cards to be done through this e-site e-citation technology.

In addition, APD internal records and performance solution.

Um there's an end of life to the old system, and so this will update that uh that projects on track, as well as the uh citizen engagement tool for the police department uh will be introduced, and really we hope to strengthen communications with the public with this uh online platform.

So all those are are on track.

Uh a couple of program highlights the Arlington Water app.

And so uh for a number of years, uh any Arlington water utility customer can go online and track their usage, set alerts.

Well, this brings it to a mobile app platform.

So this will be the first opportunity uh for a mobile app to be used for that purpose.

And so uh customers can track their usage, they can set water alerts.

So, for example, they can set it for a certain limit if that limit is uh approached, they'll get an alert that can help them um more effectively track their their water usage.

Um special event permits.

This is another one that we've been wanting for quite some time to allow more seamless uh application process um and online application process for all the various special events that the public um takes advantage of.

So we're uh excited about that one moving forward.

Just a couple of up updates on the scorecard, uh a few snapshots.

You'll see in the email uh phishing snag rate about 16 percent.

So that's a pretty notable jump.

Um it does reference though that those uh tasks get a little more sophisticated, a little more challenging, which is the point.

Uh we want it to uh effectively protect our environment, and so we need to test that environment on a regular basis.

And so our IT folks are pretty creative in developing scenarios that um many of us have probably been uh witness to over the last couple of months.

Uh but what you know, our standard really we want to be around two percent, and so that's a little high.

And so we'll be uh hoping to push out some more information about how diligent everyone in our environment needs to be to ensure that emails that they receive are are appropriate.

The last two the smart water meters and the open data portal users, you'll see uh really good trends there.

Um so our target on our smart water meters is 10,000 per year, and we're averaging over 5,000 per core per quarter to double our goal, and then the target for open data portal again, 15,000 annually, and uh we are had about 12,000 last quarter alone.

So that suggests that we may need to look at our grading system and not make it so easy on ourselves to to score in the green area, and so we'll be looking to to augment that over time.

It's not really effective if all of our scores are in green because we always want to keep ourselves as you know for room for improvement.

So we'll be looking at that.

Couple of projects um nearing completion.

The uh Wi-Fi expansion at 12 facilities throughout our park system is uh very near to completion.

The content management system for APD as well as the contract routing software, uh both those projects are are nearing completion.

And so uh our contract routing process is uh very paper centric.

Uh a lot of goldenrod, a lot of signatures required, so this will expedite the contract routing process pretty significantly.

And then as far as uh our AI update, we have 371 employees um enrolled in training.

Um 56% of those were employee initiated, and so we're really trying trying to get our employees to embrace the the opportunities that AI provides, but also to be aware of safeguards to the use of that that data in the environment.

So we're we're pleased to see the the growth of that use throughout the uh the environment.

Uh I will let you know that this is the second to last of the updates on the leverage technology uh priority.

If you recall a few months back, um you adjusted your priorities, and the leverage technology one was one that you determined because of the extensive use of technology throughout all of the the environments within the city that you felt best to embed that really within the other priorities.

And so you'll have one more update for the fourth quarter, and that will um put to put to rest, at least from this perspective, uh formal presentation.

But with that, I'll certainly answer any questions, and we've got some staff available if there's something that I can't answer.

Thank you, Mr.

Randolph.

Any questions from council?

Mr.

Peel.

Is there any update on the city's pursuit of uh platforms that utilize AI to streamline like um plan review or help the planning department or any other departments with uh their work?

Very timely question.

Uh we are in the process of concluding negotiations for a platform that does just that.

Um it takes advantage of of AI, specifically related to the the permitting process, and so you'll be seeing some news in fairly short order along those lines.

Mr.

Galante.

Thank you, Lemwell.

Um, personally uh big fan of the open data portal, and it's is a great tool for all the citizens see what's going on.

Work in progress.

Uh congratulations to the team.

They really keep in update.

I love it.

I have a question, specific question.

Is there any initiative out there to study the AI implementation on police reporting, like we see other police departments doing or grand prairie is doing a pilot program?

Uh Kansas City is doing um pilot program.

You guys have anything on the radar?

I think.

Oh, yes, Chief.

He would know.

Yep.

Al Jones, chief of police.

I'm sorry, I didn't uh get the AI integration for police reporting.

So we can only streamline.

Are you guys studying something?

You guys uh uh looking at and any at implementation costs or any study uh being conducted at this time.

No, we're not conducting any studies.

I'm just telling you, we jumping in with both feet.

Um we are we just signed on and you guys just approved it uh last council meeting, uh, where we're working with Motorola Solutions to change out our radio systems.

Uh part of the radio system is tied with the body worn camera.

Um, through that body warm camera and the radio system, we're going to be able to uh help our officers write reports much quicker.

Um it's not going to write the report for the officer, but it's going to uh do a lot of bullet points.

So the officer have to go into the system and say, okay, I want um it through the body warrant camera, it's going to pick up all of the uh conversation.

Uh the officer has to go into the body warrant camera and say, hey, um this just is a robbery.

Can you label this as a robbery?

And based on the conversation that is had between all of the parties out there on the scene, uh the um body warn camera will start doing bullet points of exactly what occurred in in in you know and give all the elements of a robbery.

So from there, they're going to be able to tie the body worn camera with uh the report, and it's gonna make it much easier when we actually uploading those things uh for the district attorney's office.

So we are moving forward towards it.

Thank you, Chief.

That's exciting news.

Um you know, if I'm if I'm not mistaking, uh, I read the the police um the annual report.

It's like 81 minutes for each occurrence, that's average, right?

Is that correct?

Are you talking about on time on call or what?

Time for occurrence, total occurrence.

Right.

That includes already the the writing.

The police report.

It's it's a combination of our response, police report transit, and and sometimes those call sometimes a little bit longer, depends on what type of call it is.

Yeah, but that's average.

Yes, some are longer, some are shorter, correct?

But uh so how long do you think is the reporting the the reporting, the writing that is today?

How long are you gonna save time?

I don't I can't really get into that.

I can give you data after we get uh make the transition.

Okay, um, and then we can come back and report out on it.

But I don't want to tell you that it's gonna cut this amount of time if we don't know until we actually get it in hand and into our men and women's hands uh out in the field, and we can actually do some study after.

So we're navigating in uncharted waters, right?

Exactly.

All right, keep it up, Chief.

Thank you for thank you so much for the update.

Sure, thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Any other questions for Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph?

Thank you very much.

Now we'll discuss our informal staff reports.

Council members, you have received written reports on the items that are listed on the agenda.

For the sake of time, staff will address specific questions you may have.

So we'll go item by item.

Any questions on 4.1?

Yeah, real quick.

Councilmember Hog.

Yeah, thank you.

Chief Chief.

Chief, I know we've talked about this a lot.

Um, it is something that we hear a complaint of constantly, and and I appreciate uh from this report, and then I know your staff is working on this.

Let me ask a question.

So, like example, this Saturday, this last Saturday, out at uh the soccer fields.

I always say the old hypermart, I can't remember the name of the soccer fields off the top of my head in South Arlington.

The old people know hyper Patterson, thank you.

It just couldn't pop in my brain.

There was an 18-wheeler parked in that parking lot, blocking like 15 parking spots, 10 parking spots.

And of course, I didn't have good cell service, so I didn't couldn't report it.

What's the best way for someone to report a truck parked in a public area that is a violation, right?

These commercial motor vehicles.

Is it is it reported on the Ask Arlington app?

Is it called non-emergency line, the action line?

What's the best?

Uh you know, I don't want to type 911 lines for something like that.

Both, both.

Um, but I would actually want to do the non-emergency line because it'll give us a much quicker response than ask Arlington.

And when you ask Arlington, I don't know how long it takes for that information to get to us.

By that time, the truck is already gone.

So if we can actually have people start calling the emergency, the non-emergency number, uh, that would be great.

Like this week, I mean, they were blocking that's a full parking lot when soccer's going on, and it was blocking as many spaces as a full 18-wheeler and a trailer um take up.

And so in first I thought it was a repair, someone was doing work, and obviously it was someone in the apartment complex across the street that decided to park there.

So uh I just want to know.

So when citizens ask me how to report, that's the best way to report it.

Thank you.

I think I read in the report, Chief, that um the vehicles will be ticketed after more than two hours if they're parked on a city street.

If they're parked on, yes, um, that's the idea.

Um, but we like to first uh educate because not everybody understands, so we want to educate first.

Yeah, um, but if it's something that is uh constant and habitual, um RPSAs have been going out and writing citations.

Uh matter of fact, uh since January of this year, we wrote up close to two uh three thousand uh citations, parking citations in across the city.

Um so I know that these men and women are out there taking this uh complaint serious because we hear it from a bunch of our community.

Do they get a warning?

Uh first first it is a warning.

Okay.

Um if we go back out again, then we ticket it.

And if we go out again, then we'll tow it.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief.

Any other questions?

Councilmember Pham?

Uh Chief Jones, uh, last Friday when the police uh um promotion ceremony and on uh I went up north on Green Oaks and come to the church.

And by Dotty Lens, I saw a bunch of my truck with trailer.

They they serve and there they park.

And they uh one side I see at least three, the other side about two.

That's five vehicles.

And uh if that area is part of the seat of Arlington, we do have the right to put the no parking sign for the area, that correct, Chief?

That is correct, but I think where you're talking about is a good portion of Fort Worth.

Yeah, it's uh I um I probably have the staff do step study, find out exactly where the border line is.

If the border line operated with the I I can leave that alone.

We belong to the seat Arlington.

We should have Mr.

Brooke put up the no parking sign because uh council member uh Raul Gonzalez and I we have issued out of turn the one nailed and um Madlock area, they park a bunch of tow trucks, see my truck, trailers, and sitting the Mr.

Brooks put in uh four or five no parking sign, solve all the problems.

So and uh the new uh Mr.

Councilmember Gonzalez done the request Mr.

Brook put the same thing on Circuit Drive or 287, and that kind of eliminate every now and then I might see one, but majority time they they don't park there on that separate drive of 287 because that part of uh Arlington.

So yeah, you know, if we can get help with parking signs, because uh it'll make it much easier for us to enforce uh the no parking.

So those signs do help.

Yeah, so uh I I can talk about future agenda on that one, uh Mayor Pro Tim.

And thank you, Chief.

Sure.

Thank you, Chief Jones.

Yeah, you can't do that.

I'm just gonna stay right here.

I'm gonna be here for next year.

Go ahead and stay.

Because uh I'm good, let's go.

4.2.

Are there any questions?

Yes, Councilmember Galante.

Well, thank you for following up, Chief, with this uh report here that I was requested by me.

So send a B 857 give uh actually more extra powers for the the assistant, right?

Uh police to toll V vehicles?

Yes.

So uh under the well, under Texas Transportation Article Um 545 that uh point 305, it gave our officers the ability to uh tow vehicles when they're obstructing traffic or abandoned or stolen.

Uh 857 just gives us a little bit more uh a teeth in the police officer doing yes, peace officer what we're doing.

So if somebody is driving a vehicle that is um unregistered, then yeah, we can we can tow that vehicle.

If someone is uninsured, it gives us an opportunity to tow, and then it's license.

If you don't have uh proper license, whether it's uh if it's expired, cancel, you've revoked or suspended.

Uh you can't drive in the state of Texas, so you can your car can be told.

Uh the last area is for a person that is under 17, they have to have the proper license and insurance.

So my question specifically is section 60191, which is the financial responsibility of the insurance.

If they don't show the insurance card, uh of course the drive license.

What is the what is the procedure today?

So when the person stopped, it doesn't have a drive license uh or insurance card either or so what is what is done today?

So it depends what what it is.

If we can go into our system and see the vehicle was registered uh and they have insurance, we're not gonna tow the vehicle.

But if we go in there and we see that there is no reg, they don't have any insurance.

The car is not registered.

Um we depending on what it is, because if it could be expired, and it could be expired one day.

Um and we don't want we want to use good discretion and we don't want to tow a vehicle that uh their registration expired for one day.

So we uh so as officers come across those situations, um they have to get approval from their supervision to be able to tow the vehicle.

We're just trying to make sure that we have a common sense approach behind it.

Okay, but this SB57 states that uh uh you know the uh enforcing the state law of towing them.

Uh are we uh do are we are we in constant uh uh are we uh working together with the uh state law so we are we enforcing or are we letting people go uh without insurance?

No, normally normally normally we would actually tell them to pull their vehicle over.

And we try to like said we're trying not to put extra due uh pressure on our residents.

If we can have them pull it into a parking lot, not drive it and get all the paperwork that they need uh corrected, then that's what we want to do.

We have uh uh safer streets plan that was implemented last year, took a lot of planning, a lot of time.

So, in your view, do we see that we could be stricter on towing the vehicles that don't have insurance or drive license out there?

We could be.

We could yeah, we could be.

And then it's all about discretion uh for our officers, and and it's about has this person been pulled over several different times.

So we want to make sure that we're giving our I don't want to make a blanket statement and saying, well, our officer has to tow the vehicle.

I want to give the men and women discretion about how to handle those calls out there.

Do you can you produce us how many, you know, in a year base or period of time, like uh a year base, how many cars were stopped out there without insurance or drive license, and how many of them, how many of them will let it go with another chance, and how many them of them were told?

That's gonna be hard.

That's gonna be hard to come up with.

But not impossible, right?

Uh it may be impossible because I we're not gonna be able to say, okay, every vehicle that we start or every traffic stop.

Uh we don't put in, well, we stop them because of the insurance.

We don't document unless we write a citation or a warning.

I can tell you how many citations or warning we probably wrote for that, but I don't know if we can go back and say how citations and warning, yeah.

Yeah, I don't know.

I I don't I don't know if we're gonna be able to go back and say every or every traffic stop and look at every traffic stop and say was this car registered or not.

But you have the ones that you you you gave a citation because they didn't have it, right?

Yeah, I'm sure.

And the ones that you gave a warning asking them to produce the insurance card or drive license, correct?

That's correct.

Can you produce that data to us?

Sure.

No problem.

So my colleagues can elaborate a little bit more on that.

So what's your position on on being tougher, or are you satisfied with the procedure that we have right now?

In lieu of the the safe streets uh program that we have in place.

I feel comfortable about how we're handling it.

And it's about giving my officers discretion.

I don't want to tell them they have to write a citation where they have to tow somebody's vehicle, because not everybody uh needs a citation and not every vehicle needs to be told.

Councilmember Pham.

Well, um, let me ask you this question, Chief.

If I'm driving in the city of Arlington, I live here, and my insurance expire, or it's laps, I have no coverage, and I re-end somebody, and the police show up.

Uh can the issue be a citation for uh no financial proof, financial liability, the proof of insurance.

Yes, they can do that.

Okay.

And um if my driver license is expire, revoke or suspended, uh, do I get the citation, right?

Uh, not in average, sir, because I just gave you an example where your uh expired.

You can be the let's say tomorrow your uh license will expire and you didn't know, and we stop you.

We're trying to make sure we have some common sense about it.

Uh if it's 30 of days or further, then yeah, but if somebody is expired one or two days, I don't see my officers writing citations.

Or they could.

I'm not saying they can't, but I don't want I you know me.

I want to give them discretion.

I don't want to say you have to.

Okay.

And uh, how about when somebody re-indust someone here in Arlington?

This did this happen.

I did contact one deputy chief that this individual couldn't speak English, hit somebody, but got no driver license, and then up the officer paperwork handed to the person to get struck by that vehicle, and so that person had file his own insurance, and that person get in the vehicle and drive home.

Now, should that should that police officer should have called that guy, say get your family member come out and take the vehicle back instead of let that guy get in?

Because if luckily didn't nobody got killed that night, if that individual drive around hit and kill somebody, that's great, big live beautiful insurance for for our uh city because they can sue the city because when our employee allowed that to happen, that would cause me some great concern.

And uh, I did uh notify one of the deputy chief.

But um, but that that's one thing that I uh I'm very concerned because there's a lot of people putting it right around Arlington, but don't have uh a driver license at all.

No, if they don't have driver's license, I don't expect my officers to allow them to continue to drive.

Um but what I'm what we were talking about is expired, and if it's expired a day or two.

No, no, that's something don't have a driver license at all.

Then we probably won didn't want them to drive a continue to drive.

But that person did because the person that got hit, he called me at the scene and tell me I see a document station in my phone.

I don't make this stuff up, but I contacted every chief, he got that taken care of.

But uh that caught me some great concern because if if that individual got no driver license, they shouldn't be driving around, you know, after he hit somebody involved in an accident.

That will cause me some concern too.

Yeah, yeah.

So I would tell you to bring those uh those situations to my attention so that we can properly address those.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Chief.

Sure.

Councilmember Hawk.

Yeah, thank you, Chief.

And and Chief, let me just say thank you for there's nothing more important than officer discretion.

Um, and I really appreciate hearing you really re-emphasize that.

Um, it is our our officers have so much authority, and they need to be able to have that discretion without blanket policies on certain things and being able to cut someone a break when they need it or sometime.

I mean I don't want to blame myself, but I may have let a expl uh registration tag go longer.

Um my wife would blame me on her car.

You know, people get busy and things like that, but uh knowing that the officers have the discretion and but really emphasizing the law on habitual offenders is what we have to look at.

Um, and so I really I just know my colleagues are maybe pushing this a little more.

I think officer there's nothing more important than officer discretion and allowing them to make those determinations whether someone's code because everyone does have a different instance in what's happening in those cases when they're pulled over.

So I just wanted to say thank you for really emphasizing officer discretion.

Thanks for the comments.

Other questions?

Thank you, Chief Jones.

Thank you.

We appreciate you you and your officers and the job that you do.

Thank you.

This moves us down to our committee meetings.

4.3, finance and audit.

Councilmember Nikki Hunter.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, today we went over um proposals for a new electricity providers.

Um the overall market conditions suggest um securing a long-term contract as soon as a feasible amount of time.

Um the current contract expires at the end of December 2026, and staff recommends that we go ahead and pursue contract language with two finalists on there.

And um, staff aims to come back to council within the next six months to request authority to um negotiate and execute a new contract that secures the best pricing for the city.

Um we did have all members present this morning.

Does any other members want to add anything to that?

All right, thank you.

No questions for Ms.

Hunter.

Thank you, Councilmember.

4.4 community and neighborhood development.

Councilmember Boxall.

Thank you, Madam Pro Tem, Mayor Pro Tem.

Um the community and neighborhood development committee met this morning.

All members were present.

Um the first item we discussed was the downtown Arlington Farmers Market.

We got an update.

Planning and development services provided uh information about this, the performance and possible amendment to the license agreement.

Between March and the end of July this year, the farmers market had about 15,000 visitors, which contributed to a significant increase in overall visitors and spending in downtown.

Based on a visitor survey conducted by downtown Arlington Management Corporation, community members found the market to be an important resource that strengthens both local businesses and community connections.

Survey respondents expressed high satisfaction with vendor quality, market variety, and organization of the market, but would like to see more food and produce, arts and craft, and a larger market.

Two license agreements considerations were presented to the committee, which would allow the market to expand in footprint and to operate year-round through an administrative approval process.

Following presentation and discussion, CND directed staff to highlight the farmers market on all city and Arlington social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, next door, and newsletters more regularly.

Uh work with the market operator in downtown Arlington to consider special and seasonal market themes.

Continue to consider options that would provide for a pavilion or other types of facility for downtown farmers market, and provide license agreement language to allow the market to expand to footprint and to operate year-round throughout through an administration approval process.

I had one question.

Thank you.

Um okay.

Councilmember Hogg, did you have a yeah?

One thing I think to add for one, it's going really well, right?

The farmers market, they're looking to expand, they're continuing it.

So I think a lot of positive signs point from that.

Um, also with UTA, their uh architecture class and the professors are looking to how they could do a design of uh covered uh farmers market, which is something to look at, which definitely increases farmers' markets from what's happening.

But overall, and and Ms.

Boxall and our committee had a good report.

It's a it's a positive sign on what's worked really well for the farmers market, and they're constantly enhancing to make it better.

So overall, just a good report.

I agree.

It was a very good report.

The second item that we discussed was a summary of the PY 2024 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report, otherwise known as CAPER.

This report evaluates the city's progress towards the goals outlined in the 2020 to 2024 consolidated plan and the PY24 annual action plan for CDBG, ESG, and home funding.

This is federal funding.

Sarah Kanema from Grant's team presented an overview of the project accomplishments, funding allocations, and performance outcomes in key areas such as housing, homelessness, community development, and services for special needs populations.

The CAPER shows that the city invested approximately $4.9 million to support programs benefiting over 27,000 residents with a strong emphasis on affordable housing, homelessness prevention, and youth services.

Most sub-recipients met or exceeded their performance targets.

The representation marked the closeout of the 2020 to 2024 consolidated plan.

Public engagement efforts and funding application opportunities are already underway, including nonprofit training for PY 2026, HUD grant applications scheduled for October 23rd, 2025.

The committee raised the following action items and follow-up requests for future consideration and reporting.

Exploring expansion of the NRSA area.

That's the neighborhood revitalization revitalization strategy area, assessing street outreach effectiveness and encouraging more nonprofits to apply for HUD funding.

That concludes my report.

Anyone have any comments about the meeting this morning from the committee members?

Any questions or comments from council members?

Thank you, Ms.

Boxall.

Ardington Housing Finance Corporation.

Councilmember Hunter.

Thank you.

This morning we had pretty much one action item, and that was to go over and approve the FY26 budget.

The revenues are projected to be 75,000 expenses projected to be 233,000 with a net of uh 534 K.

Um revenues of the 204 uh 247,000 are from payments in lieu of taxes, which will go to support the general funds on there.

Um that's pretty much all that we had for you this morning.

We did have all members present.

Does anybody want to add anything or have any questions?

Seeing none, thank you very much.

This takes us to 4.6 appointments to boards and commissioners.

Mr.

Buskin.

Yes, ma'am.

We have 24 appointments to boards and commissions this evening.

Thank you.

And 4.7 City Council External Committee and Training Reports, the Regional Transportation Council, uh Council of the Family.

Yeah, Regional Transportation Council is short for RTC.

Uh RTC approved several items, uh funding for transportation, education campaigns in fiscal year 2026, regional transit safety performing measure targets uh for fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2029 as part of the federally required public transit agency safety plan.

Also, update to the uh center of government public transportation, plan to reflect new uh federal policies and regulations, uh fiscal year 2025, uh federal public transportation funding, including Arlington uh formula funding for the handy train and uh on-demand service.

Uh RTC also provide uh information on the next uh federal five-year surface transportation legislation and upcoming transportation survey and regional traffic signal projects.

Uh the first meeting of the uh transit vision subcommittee was held before the RTC meeting last Thursday.

Uh this group we meet twice a month and report back to uh regional transportation council on their work uh in the next um RTC meeting is scheduled for October 9 of uh 2025.

Did anybody get any question for me?

Any questions or comments on RTC?

Thank you, Mr.

Fan.

Thank you.

That takes us to 4.8 legislative update.

Natalie Ralston.

Good afternoon, uh, Mayor Council.

This is uh Natalie Ralson Intergovernmental Relations Manager.

I don't have any updates beyond what's in the memo.

This second special session closed since I last saw you.

A third has not been currently scheduled.

And as a follow-up to Ethan's presentation earlier, that appraisal board member training bill did pass, and it'll be effective with the January 1st terms.

So if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer those.

Any questions on the legislative update?

Thank you very much.

4.9 evening agenda items.

Anyone have anything on evening agenda items?

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Moving on to 4.10.

Issues relative to city and text dot projects.

Did I miss something for our chief?

Um mayor and council, I would like to direct you to a memo that's that was placed before you it's evening agenda item 8.7 fee adjustment authorization related to fire and permit fees.

So as we were going through the process and looking at it to um change our fee schedule, we were comparing it to planning and development, and so there were a few discrepancies, mainly in um name only.

So you see the summary of changes below fire plans reviewed fees by evaluation.

We removed that one because it's already covered by PDS and so forth.

So if anybody has any questions over any of these, I'll be glad to answer them.

Okay.

Any questions, comments?

Seeing none, thank you very much.

Thank you.

4.10.

Issues relative to city and text doc projects.

Anything on that future agenda items 4.11.

Councilmember Sam.

Well, I'm glad to uh step, do a step study on that uh that border between Arlington and Fort Worth on Green Oaks by Dottie Lynn.

So which area belongs, you know, if they can put the sign, say this is Fort Worth border, this Arlington, so maybe we can put some uh no parking sign to prevent illegal commercial parking on on uh both sides of the road on uh green oaks heading up north toward Fort Worth.

So you want a staff report?

Yes, so uh according to Chief June, because it's right there that the border line between Fort Worth and Arlington.

So I don't know where the exact border line is until they have the uh council member fam, is it alright if staff just takes a look at the the boundaries and if there's appropriate places in the Arlington City Limits Center Place signs, they will if they're in Fort Worth, obviously we can't address those.

That's correct.

If it's in Arlington, I would uh recommend uh DPW director Mr.

Brooks put up no parking sign.

We that that would help alleviate all the illegal parking uh in all uh on the border of uh Arlington.

Okay, thank you.

Any other future agenda items?

Okay, seeing none, we stand adjourned at 420.

Oh, sorry, Councilmember Raul Gonzalez.

Yes, can I just make a brief thing that I want people to know?

I was hospitalized with uh bacterial um double pneumonia, and that's why I'm not there.

Uh so just letting people know I apologize to their citizens not attending at the meeting, but I did not want to miss the meeting, so um I'm being treated at home and hope to get well and be back in the saddle.

Thank you.

Thank you for being present online.

We miss you and feel better fast.

Anything else?

Thank you all.

We're adjourned until 6:30 downstairs in council chambers.

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