Okay, we're gonna go ahead and go the afternoon session of the city council meeting to order.

Okay, we're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session back to order.

We had a nice little break.

We're gonna move on down to three point one.

Ethan, how are you, sir?

Well afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Your favorite topic, the uh last time this year I will be addressing you in person.

Um had board nominations.

So I wanted to start with where the current vote totals are.

Uh there are three quarters of the votes in.

This was as of this morning.

You can see we've got uh three of them bunched up at almost four hundred and fifty to five hundred votes, with one at about a hundred votes.

There are still plenty of votes out there that all candidates are still viable.

Um tonight on your ballot, you will be voting for how you want to allocate your ninety-one votes.

You may allocate them to all one person to split them up to amongst any of the four um or not vote at all.

It's entirely up to you.

There are still what I would consider five large entities and then a slew of small entities.

Um also since the last time we met, one of the current board members, uh Fort Worth Councilman Alan Blaylock has resigned.

He is not part of the two that are being voted in tonight.

Um, but instead is a third position that you have the ability to nominate for, where this one you nominate with the others you nominated and your voting on this particular one, you will nominate and then you will not vote.

It's the current board that will elect someone specifically out of those that are all nominated by all of the different entities.

Nominations are due by December 26th.

So we have it on your evening agenda item, but you can, if you so choose, push that into next uh the December 16th meeting if you haven't decided who you want to nominate or if you want to nominate anyone to begin with.

Uh with that, the next steps are we will allocate the votes tonight for the two seats.

And as I said, you can nominate to replace Mr.

Blaylock's seat tonight or next Tuesday.

With that, I'm here for answering questions.

Mr.

Fan.

Hey Ethan, can uh can we uh we have to do tonight, right?

So we have to mention it tonight how many vote we get it for.

Uh I want to discuss this with uh my colleagues here today.

Um I got a number listen listed down there.

The one for the replacement for Mr.

Blaylock, we can nominate, but we don't have to get any vote.

It's up to the TAT board to give it.

And uh sin I uh the last last time I request to be nominee for Mr.

Blaylock position.

Now I would like to withdraw my name and I'd like to nomine Miss uh Sayada Sayed because I spoke with her more than one occasion.

If if we nominate, we're gonna know nominee one, and I can ask the other small city uh mayor to nominate her, and then if they pick her, then uh the tent board director would decide who they they gonna select uh to be on the on the board.

But uh two pussy and tonight, we decide to vote a pretty critical because these are the people that are willing to do the annual appraisal and uh that's the people that uh uh we want to put it in there so we don't face that problem we did uh last year and uh next year.

So I want to share that with everybody.

But uh if you want to know to vote, uh I talked to one of my two uh one or two colleagues about the numbers I wanted to share.

We got 91 votes.

And if you want to talk now, uh week I can bring it up, or we can do it to nine.

So thank you.

Okay.

Well, uh what I what I would propose is um uh right now we have uh four candidates, right?

Uh Michael Alfred, Wendy Burgess, Eric Crowd, and uh Sayida Sayed.

And uh I would like to give one vote for uh Michael Alfred and Wendy Burgess get 43 votes, and then Eric Krause get 43 votes, and Miss Sayed get four, and then we can nominate her uh to replace um uh Mr.

Alan Blaylock.

Will you mind giving those numbers again, please?

So I can uh right now we got four four candidates.

Michael Alfred one vote.

One vote.

Wendy Burgess is uh 43 votes, Eric Krause, 43 votes, and then Sayeda Sayed is four votes, and then we can also nominate her because she don't have enough vote to get appointed, so we can nominate her to uh uh take over for Alan Blaylock.

Yes, yes, yeah.

So uh uh Alfred one vote, Burgess 43 votes, Crowell's 43 votes, and then Sayed is four votes.

Okay, Mr.

Gonzales.

Yes, Mayor, thank you, Mr.

Fam.

Uh, I did talk to all just in case y'all hadn't um I I agree with the votes.

Uh I like that.

I did speak or meet with all four.

Uh Crow is for one year appraisals going back.

Alfred wants to continue what they're doing now.

Uh Burgess wants to go to a uh she voted last time for a one-year appraisal.

I think that's important.

I have spoken to Mansfield, City of Mansfield, Mansfield ISD, and HEB, and they are splitting their votes with Eric Crowell and Wendy Burges, just like we are, uh, because they they feel like we need to get those people in.

So I just want to give you um I don't know about the rest, but those are the three municipalities or three entities that I spoke to.

So thank you.

Counsel, anybody else?

Um Mr.

Vellante.

Taking Mr.

Long.

You're uh you're a consultant for TAD businesses.

You know this stuff.

Yes, and I agree with those votes, and also having uh Sayed with four votes.

Uh I'll also agree.

Um appointing her to our nominee to replace the defenses, so she'll have four votes.

That means she can be our representative there.

Thank you.

Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you.

Long.

Would you share your rationale for dividing up the votes in this way?

Well, I I believe uh you I think the requirement you have at least 600 votes to be appointed, correct?

No, it's just whoever have the two highest number of votes.

Yeah, the two highest numbers.

So right now, because uh Miss Burgess, Eric Crow and Sayed, they believe in the annual appraisal, so we do it every year.

And I believe Mr.

Alfred he believed the old system uh go ahead and do it every two years.

And uh you see what every two years done for us, uh uh fiscal year 26.

So uh we have to face some tough time, make some tough decision, and uh that's the reason why I want to come up with we see we have a total of 91 votes.

That's why I I split it up.

I have discussed it with a couple of my colleagues, and uh I think this this is the best that we we can do to put the right person in there to help the city of Arlington.

Well, why give any votes to Alfred?

Oh uh if you don't give somebody one vote and they don't and they got in later because our tax entity gave more vote, and then you and you want you cannot do a recall.

That's why important to give somebody at least one vote.

So if you have 10 candidates, you gotta get if you select two and the other eight, you get even one one one one because you don't do that, and they got in, they done something terrible.

You cannot do a recall on them.

That's why it's so important to give them one vote.

The small entities Ethan, tell me where they're grouping from uh they are ISDs and cities from all over.

I mean, we're talking the um Forest Hills, the Crowleys, the I mean, just uh a bunch of small, as well as the um reclamation districts, the 17 that are now going to the uh water district.

Um but yeah, they they make up generally about five votes, two votes, one vote.

There's just a whole slew of them.

Has any counsel gotten any insight other than what Mr.

Gonzalez was saying on Mansfield from those other remaining votes by entities on where they think they may be placed.

Mr.

Gonzalez.

No, I I mean I don't have I have not spoken to anybody else.

I've heard rumors about some other ones.

But on Wendy, I mean, if we just give her half, I'm just look at the numbers.

I mean, I'm hoping everybody says they're gonna split.

I think they're trying to get both names up, but I'm kind of concerned that we're splitting 4343, and Wendy will have less votes than Eric Crowell, so that's all I'm looking at.

So because it's I think it's essential we get Crowell and Wendy in there.

But I you know we have other cities that are gonna do it, but um yeah, I I agree with your desire or assessment that we need to get those two individuals enough votes to be successful.

I'm just thinking our are we doing all those things necessary to do it because it wouldn't take much for no Eagle Mountain and Saginaw to throw towards Michael Alred for him to overcome that that's the one I don't I don't know that there's anything that can be done to change that potential outcome Mayor.

If you really wanted to, I mean you could throw 10 more to Burgess, so make it 53 and 33 for Kryle.

That kind of starts bridging that gap uh from where it's coming in there.

Yeah, I I think I'd probably be a little bit more comfortable with that.

Um to do 53 and 33 just because of the differential in the two of them right now.

And close the gap that I see Wendy needing a little bit more assistance with that.

Closing the gap, yeah.

I'm in favor to close the gap for sure.

Give give more to Wendy Bojis.

Mr.

Fann, would you be okay with something like that?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Counselor, is there a consensus that you want to cast your votes for something on the and real quick, Mayor Ethan?

I don't see City of Mansfield up there.

Are they considered a small entity or do we just they've already voted?

Oh, they did.

They have okay.

Yes.

Uh I believe so, or maybe they were still.

I'm gonna say because the votes haven't changed, but except one.

Yeah, I don't see the city listed up there as ones that were.

I I put random, I didn't put everybody that had voted in there.

Um I know that I put they may be I I will look at that really quick just to make sure where their voting is.

Uh on just a moment.

Um, they've they have voted.

Uh they put 21 votes to they had 24 overall votes.

They put 21 to Ms.

Burgess and four uh three votes to Mr.

Cryle.

Um is that included in those counts, Ethan?

No.

It is now not included.

So there's now three hundred there.

So the TAD board just updated within the last hour.

So there's now 386 votes total.

And the total number of votes is still 476.

It's now 493 for Ms.

Burgess, 552 for Mr.

Cryle, and still 93 for Miss Ied.

Mayor, with with those updates, I I would say you still stay on your same 1533, because that still bridges that gap if what you're looking at if the goal is to elect uh Burgess and Cryal.

I I think that's a safe bet.

Absolutely.

Council, are you all okay giving that direction for tonight?

Y'all can make that happen.

Can we do a final run?

The votes, please.

Yeah.

Can you do a final roll of the votes, please?

Heard me.

Can you do a final roll of the votes?

How many votes we'll give you?

Yeah, I think uh Michael Alred would get one vote.

One uh Alfred Alfred, sorry, already I don't know where I came from.

I'm trying to see that's all the race.

Okay.

Uh thank you.

Uh Michael Alfred will get one.

Wendy Wendy Burgess will get 53.

Eric Kryl will get 33, and uh Sayeta Site Sayed would get four.

Is that the way it was?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm okay.

Now on the other on the other part of that, do we want to nominate uh Miss Sayed for the thing?

And and I on the on the one position that the board is gonna select from the nominees, how many people have been nominated?

Is it still just the one gentleman?

You know?

Um, as far as I know, no, uh, Tad has not announced any specific nominations that have come across for to replace Mr.

Blalock.

But each tax entities allow only nominate one person.

Correct.

So we do it now, we don't have to do it again on the 16.

So Mr.

Hogg.

The reality, I mean, the nomination is just kind of a sign, right?

It's nothing saying, all right.

I I don't know of another candidate.

I would want the TAD board to choose from who it is.

Now, I do believe though, when you put a nomination out, usually like to stick with that person and tell them to vote.

Now we don't have votes, it's all appointment.

So we're asking the board to vote.

If we want to nominate her, I have no problem with that from her standpoint.

She's been very vocal at our council meetings.

She's been here, and that goes a long way in my book.

And so I if Mr.

Pham thinks the nomination is critical, I I'm more than willing to support that.

Yep.

I'll support it.

I'm fine with her.

I I think she's she's fine.

I agree with Mr.

Hogg that she has been very relentless when it comes to um uh what she's been doing and some of the stuff she's been doing.

You know, I I hate to say that there's probably already a foregone conclusion with who's being nominated and who the board intends to select on that.

So it may not matter a whole lot who we put up there, but uh one question is it the board members post this election that gets to select that person, or is it the current board members?

I have asked the TAD board that directly.

They have not given a response as to how they are planning on doing it at this moment in time.

Um, because the two not ones that are nominated and voting on right now uh are not supposed to be seated until January.

Um, and they are required to appoint somebody within 45 days after uh they get these nominations.

So it could happen before these people are seated, or it could happen after these people are seated.

And Blaylock won't be able to vote because he's already gone.

Blaylock is already gone.

He's already gone.

But it may be, you know, two of the current members that you know one or both of them may no longer be on the board, but may vote on that replacement.

Okay.

I'm fine with Ms.

Syed.

If you want to officially make that nomination, we won't have to go back over this again.

Again, yeah.

Uh council, are y'all okay with that?

I'm good.

Mr.

Pham, I cannot remember the last time you've been this daggone productive.

This was just absolutely you know, so this is the first time that I agree and vote with y'all for the past two years.

I mean no last year to loan no vote.

So uh these things important to my city and even to myself because I own more than one property, so and I can't deeply care about a tan county taxpayer, so and I appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right, that would be in front of you both uh the number of votes as well as the nomination for the uh discarded seat.

Thank you, Ethan.

Mayor thank you.

Yes, sir.

Uh I like what he said, but that that's all important to all of us, so it's not just you, it's all of us.

That's why we're doing what we're doing.

So thank you for bringing that up.

And so the grant tolls for Eric Cry will be 585, right?

When we vote, Mike Raffer will be at 477.

Wendy Burgess would be at 546, and Syed will be at 97.

Correct.

Thank you.

I'm just assuming Mr.

Gonzalez had correct math there.

So maybe a big assumption.

I'm ball for a reason.

Three three point two council priority, uh, financial stability and resilience answer.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Spencer Slater, your director of finance.

I'm here today to give you your quarterly update on the council priority, preserve financial stability and resilience.

You'll notice that this is a new priority created as a part of the business plan redesigned over the summer.

It is a consolidation of several core services that we have tracked for years that has been streamlined to focus what you all have told us is an important priority for you for the long-term vision for the city of Arlington.

You can see that we have 43 business plan items in this current fiscal year.

We don't have time to go over all of these, but I will be giving an overview of some of the projects that have recently finished or about to finish, as well as some projects that you will see in future presentations.

So from a high level overview, as we talked about, the business plan redesign was recently finished.

It is now in place, and we will continue to get your feedback and fine-tune any changes that need to be made in the future as we receive that feedback.

Additionally, over FY25, we have uh outsourced the compliance and administration of our hotel occupancy taxes to a third party.

It not only improves the compliance and reporting, but also streamlines taxpayer data and the payment processing into one efficient system.

And harping on some of the larger infrastructure projects that are key to this priority.

The Fire Station 8, the double company station up on the north side of town is just about complete.

I believe their move in date is actually scheduled for next week, so those firefighters and those crews can get back into their new permanent station.

As well as another long-term multi-year project, the City Tower Improvements are just about finished.

The city attorney's office as well as municipal court are already back in the city tower.

The reining remaining departments are scheduled to move back in in January, as well as buttoning up some of the other minor infrastructure improvements so that that can continue to be an anchor for city staff in the downtown environment.

Some other things we want to highlight that occurred over FY25.

You may be aware that we have outsourced our tax compliance and tax payments to the IRS through ADP.

In addition to doing that and improving the security and compliance we receive through that partnership, they also handle RW-2 production, which through partnering with them, we're able to produce W 2s almost three weeks sooner than we historically have.

And for the first time in history, we were able to offer electronic W 2s to our staff, helping them with their end of the year tax policies.

And we were able to do all of this for less than the cost of one vacant position, which was eliminated through the budget process over the course of the year, and those additional savings rolled back into the budget.

Another project that the accounts payable team and treasury team has worked closely on in FY25 is taking advantage of the higher interest rate environment we're now seeing.

AP is holding on to approved invoices a little bit longer to pay just in time, right before the net 30 due date.

And speaking of investment returns, I just want to highlight some of the great work Ethan and his team have done this year.

In FY25, our investment portfolio generated approximately 39 million dollars in interest earnings for us.

That's largely a byproduct of the rate environment that we're currently in.

But it does show the good work that his team puts in to not only give competitive returns but safe returns with our uh investment portfolio.

And we recently also compared to multiple other cities in the region, and we have one of the strongest performances, I would say, within DFW.

Uh additionally to that, we also outsourced our check printing services with JP Morgan.

Not only does that save staff time, uh, it largely further uh increases our fraud mitigation risks within our team, taking our hands out of that and streamlining that with our banking partner to go ahead and mail paper checks out for us.

Quickly glancing over the scorecard, uh, a couple points I want to note.

Um, our percentage of supplier payments paid electronically.

Um, when we first implemented workday in 2021, we found that we were spending about 50% of our supplier payments through paper checks, which is a kind of antiquated payment system, which is uh the most common area for fraud that we see in the city.

And we've made it a long-term goal to try and eliminate paper checks as a form of payment as much as possible and move to more secured electronic payments, whether that be ACH, wire payments, or using purchase cards where needed.

Uh so you will see that score slowly be going up over the next few years, uh, not to rest on our laurels.

Uh, you can see we're hitting our metric uh that we set for ourselves at 70% this year.

We are going to continue to up that score to continue to incentivize staff to shift new vendors and change vendors over to more secure methods of payment.

And then additionally, one other thing I wanted to point out on your scorecard.

You'll see that we tricked up a little bit into above where we want to be on the percentage of our citywide fleet beyond uh their useful life.

Uh, that was due solely to supply chain issues.

We've now kind of rectified some of those issues.

The cars are back in production and received, and fleet is back up and running in their normal area.

Now I quickly want to talk about some upcoming projects you will be seeing from us in future results.

Uh the North Police substation we're all aware of is scheduled to be complete in early 2027.

That will enhance and allow uh greater public safety response to our residents in the north side of the city.

Uh and speaking of fleet, we are in year one of a five-year pilot with Enterprise who is going to help us shift potentially to leasing our uh civilian fleet to help hopefully explore uh improving the efficiency, uh reduce maintenance cost, and having a quicker turnover, resulting in an average newer service life for our fleet.

Uh and these other two projects are specific to AP and vendor management within the finance department.

Uh, we are currently implementing uh with a company called RELISH.

It is gonna be one of the first AI uh services that we bolt on to workday.

And what this is going to do is have a machine learning process that works in the background 24-7 processing up to 24,000 invoices a year uh for half the cost of what it uh takes to employ a current AP clerk now.

So rather than us having to come back and potentially look at adding uh additional human capital through a kind of digital labor uh moment, we can expand our AP services and build some resiliency within that team for less than the cost of a new employee.

Uh and payment works is a third-party vendor payment software that we are currently also implementing.

Uh they will handle the uh uh onboarding of all our vendor management as well as vendor changes from tax IDs, ACH verifications, and they are so um sure of their product that they offer a two million dollar insurance policy essentially on Indy Vend any vendor that they verify.

Uh so once we get this onboarded, all new vendors as well as all of our vendors will slowly be going through their verification process to kind of get under that umbrella of coverage so that as we spend money through AP, they are taking on that burden of verifying vendor fraud to ensure we're safeguarding your funds.

Uh we spend about 340 million dollars through AP on an annual basis, so it's a very important project moving forward.

And then two other uh kind of projects to wrap up on.

Uh, we are Nora's team in construction management is currently in the process of relocating the traffic management center, which is kind of on top of each other and not cribs, to a new wider footprint in the city tower uh that's all scheduled to be done before the World Cup to handle their new operations, and additionally, we are currently uh entering the uh RFP process for our new budget software.

I've been with the city for 14 years, and I believe we've been using GovMax for that entire time frame.

It's been an excellent software, but it is starting to show its age, and we just need to make sure we're focusing on investing in tools that can help us move and invest your money in strategically smart ways forward in the future.

Spence roll on one second, Councilmember Hogg.

Yeah, and Spencer, I I wanted to ask one quick question for you.

On that software for your accounts payable on payment works, it sounds interesting.

And I've been a little out of the game, so uh correct please if I'm wrong.

On our workday, they offer some of that.

Do these integrate back into workday, or are we not implementing that finance side so of workday from that?

That's my question.

I always sometimes always get worried the city has so many different operating systems that that's always sometimes a concern.

No, absolutely.

Uh so relish is considered a premier partner with workday.

Okay, good.

So they operate within the OCR functionality uh that comes with workdays accounts payable module.

But where if we use the OCR functionality in workday, you have to program it and it will take an invoice for you.

But if it doesn't have every single little thing programmed how we want it to be read, it will kind of stop it down and divert to a AP clerk.

What this software does is through a process of historical machine learning, we'll see an invoice come in for a company.

Take for instance that will see goals, and then it will read the item on the goals invoice and say, this is an item that normally goes to police.

I'm missing the PO.

It will then route it to police's contact versus stopping down and sending to the AP clerk.

So it's really kind of working on workday's native uh processes and they're built in to go with that so it all works.

Yeah, okay, that's perfect.

Thank you.

I wanted to make sure we're still doing things off that main one system so that all departments it starts coming over, it helps us cover.

So HR IT finance, we meet regularly on a workday roadmap to ensure that we are staying in tune with uh strategic investments to enhance workday, not sidestep work deck.

And the same question with the new budget RFP, I would assume we're gonna do that.

That is going to be heavily in consideration as we evaluate what software is we move towards.

Perfect.

That's all needed here.

Thanks, Eve.

Mr.

Commander.

Thank you, Spencer.

Uh after the station eight uh is about to be manned.

And after that, when we expect uh inauguration there, I have a several residents asking me.

Uh I believe that's scheduled for some time in January.

Okay.

Uh I would have to defer to Nora or Chief Stedham on when they're actually scheduling that, uh, but I do know it's coming.

Oh, good.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Uh that is all I have.

Uh I am available for any further questions.

Anyone else questions or comments for Spencer?

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate you.

Okay, we're gonna move on down to committee meeting uh 4.1, Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you.

I didn't get any notes for this, so I'm just gonna wing it.

Um today we had a presentation of the uh Arlington Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area.

The acronym is NURSA.

Um this is an area of Arlington that is mostly in District 1, a little bit in District 5 in the middle part of town, that is uh a special area of of concern and of uh opportunity with regard to federal grants.

And so we just got an overview of that of that uh neighborhood development map and the strategies.

That's it.

Thank you.

Any questions for Councilmember Boxellas 4.2, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Municipal Policy Committee met this morning with um our members present, and we had actually one topic which was honorary naming, but we had two different uh aspects.

So the the staff presented um an opportunity because we got an email from Councilmember Nikki Hunter asking for recognition for Cleek McAllister and all of his volunteer work with Veterans Park to recognize a longtime volunteer by um let's see.

So first we got a brief overview of the established naming procedure that we put in place in 2021.

Where's Sarah?

I think it was 2021.

And the parks and recreation staff was present, presented that request along with five potential amenities at Veterans Park, inside Veterans Park.

And the five options that they gave us to rename a name the park trail, doesn't have a name right now.

MacAllister Honor Walk number two was the park drive, which also doesn't have a name, to MacAlista Way, the pavilion that's currently there, to the Cleat MacAlista Pavilion, the playground, Heroes Haven honoring Cleet MacAlista, or the band shell, which could be named the Cleet MacAllister Freedom Stage.

So the committee discussed the significance of each option, evaluated the appropriateness, the visibility, the long-term relevance.

Um while the trail, the drive, and the band shell were deemed viable, the committee reached a consensus that the park trail offered the most fitting opportunity to honor Mr.

McAllister's legacy of service and community engagement.

The staff also presented several sign and plaque concepts for the selected amenity, which was the trail.

And after reviewing all these materials, the design options and durability considerations, the committee supported the installation of a bronze plaque as the final recommendation.

And the committee gave direction to move forward with the honorary naming of the park trail at Veterans Park in recognition of Cleet McAllister's enduring contributions to the community.

Are there questions, comments from committee members or other council members?

No.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anything else on your committee?

Yes.

The second thing that the staff brought forth for consideration was um potential naming opportunity for section in North Arlington, which was developed as Parkway Central.

That was the name of the developers.

But a number of streets in that area are named after presidents, U.S.

presidents.

So the staff presenting a naming opportunity to possibly president's corner, and then encourage future developers and future opportunities to go with the theme using the names of presidents.

The developers in the 70s and 80s, that was Parkway Central, named many public and private streets after former presidents, including a multifamily development at Washington and Lincoln Streets, and that was the impetus for the word corner, Washington and Lincoln, President's Corner, and then expand it.

I'll come back to that.

And now we have new developments such as the Truman and the Roosevelt in the Arlington Commons that have continued that tradition.

So we have some current major projects going on in that area now, such as the Rolling Heels redevelopment, and the potential development of the city-owned property at Collins and I-30.

So the discussion was whether the city should make any effort to strengthen the president's corner identity in this North Arlington neighborhood by identifying naming opportunities in both the public and private realm.

So the ideas included street sign toppers, plazas, uh, and work with private developers in the area to bring additional presidential names and phrases to the neighborhood.

So the committee gave staff direction to move forward with this concept and develop a more comp formal concept, which they'll bring back to the committee later.

Questions, comments from committee members or council members.

Mr.

John have a question real quick.

The previous subject about the veterans park.

You guys are still uh brainstorming.

Uh where are you gonna put the name of the park, right?

Yeah, uhister park.

No, the recommendation for the recommendation.

What was that?

Was to name the trail, the walking trail around the park to the um let's see, what is it?

MacAlister honor walk.

Okay.

And that would be a bronze plaque where the trail begins so that people could stop and read why he was why he received that honor.

Okay.

This is already decided, right?

It's the recommendation from the committee.

Okay.

The council will have the opportunity to approve it or make another recommendation.

Why not the park itself?

Well, not the entire parking lot.

I don't think there was any thought of changing the name of Veterans Park and taking that away from all our veterans.

I think it's just honoring someone.

The options were the the band, right?

The place in the model mains in the trail, right?

In the park, correct?

The options were the trail, the park drive, the street that goes into the park, the pavilion, you know, where you go for your picnic lunch, pavilion.

The actual playground, and then the band shell where they have performers.

So it was those five opportunities that were that were offered by staff.

You decide for the trail.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

So I hit you all.

Other questions or comments I think Mr.

Glante, you said it's set in stone, nothing set in stone, right?

The committee's taking a review, we're looking at this, it's going to come back.

There they're going to get some cost estimates of what uh a bronze plaque looks like, what it would look like, and then we make that determination on all those.

I I don't think um I don't think you meant it that way.

I don't want to supersede like overpower the naming of Veterans Park.

That's a pretty serious name that I I would not entertain.

I also asking if you guys complete contemplated at all.

No, we didn't contemplate that at all.

It wasn't even a discussion because I don't think it was on the table.

And then I think our thought process, um, we had a couple of different ideas about honor, but Mr.

McAllister has been extensive on, you know, he's volunteer of the year, he's done these things, he's uh he's a decorated military veteran.

He grew up here in Arlington, went to UTA, he's been a dedicated, and he helped coordinate a lot of those memorials so having a connection between those.

We thought kind of just made more sense.

And some of our committee actually liked the drive, but then we realized there was a little more maybe recognition as you walk and you understand what just a volunteer who's loved this city and done a lot for the city has been able to do.

So that was a thought, but nothing set in stone yet on any of this.

So I think if you have a great idea, we'll take it and we'll look at it when it comes back.

But uh, but no, that that's where we are.

Yep.

Thanks for the thought.

I think in the in the uh attachments that we have, everybody has a copy of his biography, so you can read a little bit more about him and the contributions that that he's made.

Other questions, comments?

And I think it was supposed to be a surprise, but it's like the worst surprise.

Listen, our council doesn't do anything really good with the surprise.

So I thought this was supposed to be a secret.

If you see Mr.

McAllister, maybe don't say everything to him, but uh open meetings make surprises a little difficult.

So uh it is what it is.

I know.

Any other questions or comments for Dr.

Odom Wesley?

Okay.

Anything else from terrible surprise.

Any any other surprises you'd like to discuss today?

No.

Okay, we'll move on down to 4.3 housing finance corp update with uh council member Nikki Hunter.

Thank you.

Um the Arlington Housing Finance Committee met this morning.

All members are present.

Um everything has been reported out in executive.

Any questions or comments for council member Hunter?

Thank you, ma'am.

Mr.

Buskin, any appointments to boards or commissions this evening?

No, sir, none this evening.

Thank you.

We'll move on down to 4.5 on the city council external committee and training reports.

We'll start with Mr.

Gonzalez with the RTC transit vision subcommittee.

Thank you, Mayor Mayor.

The RTC Transit Vision Subcommittee met virtually on Thursday, November 20th.

Uh, we had a briefing on the North Texas Commission transit initiatives, which focused more on the cities versus DART situation.

Uh we finalized the North Texas transit vision statement and discuss the four guiding principles that will help us achieve this vision.

Uh number one is a regional system.

Uh the regional system should provide a spine service of rail and or bus rapid transit with an appropriate regional boundary to be identified.

Number two, a governance mechanism should oversee the regional spine transit system.

Number three, an equitable funding mechanism should be identified for the regional spine transit system.

And four and finally most importantly, cities should design local solutions to link communities to economic centers and regional transit system through menu-based services that can cross this jurisdictional boundaries.

Uh Michael Morris then presented the transit authority scenarios and the introduction of the financial resources.

Our next meeting will be in person.

I'd schedule for Thursday before the RTC meeting.

Are there any questions or yes, ma'am?

Go ahead.

I have a question.

I read in um, I think it was the Arlington report today.

Oh, yes, whenever it was, uh, that Michael Morris has submitted a succession plan.

So has he announced his retirement or what's going on with that?

It may be better if you'll wait for the next committee report.

I'll talk to you a little bit.

I can wait.

I I put I don't know, Molly.

I I uh stepped in for the mayor on the emergency preparedness planning council, but it's not on here.

Okay, that's fine.

No, that's fine.

Any questions for Mr.

Gonzalez?

Any other questions?

Mr.

Mr.

Hogg, uh North Texas Council of Government Executive Board, please.

Good segue, uh, Dr.

Odin Wesley.

Good segue.

Um, let me just talk a couple of real quick things.

Uh we lots of grants, lots of, I know it's not where y'all are really interested, and a lot of North Central Texas Council of Governments, a lot of grants are a little boring, but they're important things.

A lot of work on environmental quality, water, uh, wastewater treatment, some of those things.

Um, also some discretionary grants awards.

We wanted to make sure that the council and the executive board is understanding who all's applied.

Um, most people are winning these, so we want to see how many are applying and not getting them on some of those instances.

Um Arlington has one that we're getting awarded um from that, and so we just kind of wanted to see what all's being allocated and how many are applying.

Um, I commend our staff every time I look up, our staff seems to be working for every grant we possibly could.

Um, and trust me, I'm checking every time a grant's coming through the council of governments to see, you know, is it something that involves our city of Arlington?

Usually, if it matches with the city of Arlington, we're we're trying to take advantage of those.

Um, the main part of council governments, and I know you are interested in we talked about in our last council meeting is uh Michael Morris, the regional transportation director, long time maybe 40 years, 30 something, 30, at least 30 plus years um from there.

I I can't say too too much because a lot wasn't an executive session, but I will tell you as Dr.

Bar uh Odin Wesley, um we had an extensive two-hour executive session meeting.

Um as you can see, um they are working through a succession plan.

And from what I've and I have not seen the final succession plan that will, I think, come to the to the next council meeting.

I think they're bringing it to the RTC um this next week when y'all are y'all Thursday.

Thursday.

Thursday.

I think they're bringing it to RTC.

And some of that is um, I think the plan is Mr.

Morris is staying on with the council of governments through a a set time, um, and then he'll really step in from a role, and I think they listed it as director emerat emerettis.

I don't know, can you say it?

Um to emeritus, thank you.

It's been a long day, um, to be able to go through that.

And he will stay on to help through FIFA, get us through FIFA through those pieces and kind of like where he wants to go on this plan, and then stay on and help RTC as they're looking for eventual succession from him.

No hard timeline, no quick.

Michael using his knowledge.

He's also talked through um some of the people that are his number twos and threes that he thinks can start working in that role from that perspective.

I have not seen that.

I'm looking at a little on that report um from what we've had also, but I know RTC will have some pieces brought to you guys to get approved, and then I'll come back uh to the council of governments board.

Any questions or comments for Mr.

Hogg?

I can add a little bit since I'm not on the executive board and I'm not privy to the uh executive sessions that they have.

I um I am privy to communications that have been had with mayors throughout North Texas with a number of different county judges with some key stakeholders uh throughout Texas, including uh Mr.

Dan Hunt, uh Ross Burrow Jr.

with Hillwood, uh, who have reached out to Cog and the executive director of COG and expressed concerns about how this has come about with Michael Morris's separation.

Um there are a lot of concerned um community leaders in town about how this has come about and the position that Michael Morris is in and becoming a consultant that essentially would peel any authority as a director of RTC away from him or director of transportation with the North Texas Council of Governments.

Um of the critical things that have been discussed with the mayors uh and the majority of the people in RTC was the necessity of COG recognizing RTC's role in any search for a new director of transportation.

I think there is legitimate concern about the selection process and how that could potentially be done.

So I would say, Mr.

Hogg, if you have any influence on the rest of the executive board on there, I think it would be prudent for the Cog executive board to include as much as reasonably possible RTC's involvement with the search committee with maybe even having one or two or three representatives from RTC participating in the interview process for that and not and not leaving it to one or two individuals that are a part of just the executive board up there.

Um there's further discussions that are being had throughout North Texas, but it's it's concerning.

I mean, uh I just got back from Washington, DC, Mr.

Hunt, Monica Paul, all of those individuals are I think having legitimate concerns about um changing Mr.

Morris's position from director to consultant before FIFA gets here, and how that impacts what we're doing here, how that impacts any potential high-speed rail system between Fort Worth, Arlington, and Dallas.

And um, and with no pun intended or major pun intended, who's driving this bus.

And uh I think um RTC needs to really be brought into this because the replacement of Mr.

Boris will have a tremendous impact on RTC and the vision going forward on that.

Mr.

Gonzalez, you're there every month with me.

So that's been the talk we've been having.

Please.

Yeah, let me let me have a thing.

I think it's a good idea.

And it's a good thought process.

I don't know the process of what they're doing, and that's gonna come back to us.

Um, I would say I um you'll know me, I'm a pretty big governance person, and this is one as I told our executive director.

Um, we don't hire those people, but we judge you on those hires and what they do, just like we do with our city manager.

Our city manager is able to hire um his senior staff, and sometimes he gets a little of our opinions, and sometimes you know, he still is very cautious over what he's doing, but he also is very clear that these are his hires um and what he's doing.

And Trey knows we judge him on those type of hires.

And so it's a little that same way, but I do think having um some from the executive board and RTC involved in some of those, I think is a good idea um to do that.

So that's definitely something I I will bring up from that perspective.

So I you know it's not the none of these processes are ever the cleanest, but I I do think the the intent is going forward, and I do think I'll be interested to see the final plan.

But I think uh I hope I have hope that we're getting to the right place to be able to get to where they're trying to go.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments for Mr.

Hogg.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Uh Tarrant County Mayor's Council, not a whole lot happened.

Uh there was a vote.

I can't remember for the life of me who the new chair is rather.

I was sitting there racking my mind as I was looking at that, but that was essentially all that was going on.

We get a monthly update on uh from Dr.

Byrd on what's going on health-wise, Tarrant County has been pretty good.

Few COVID cases here and there, some flu cases popping up, but no real um significant problems in the county whatsoever.

National League of Cities uh City Summit, Mr.

Hogg.

Yeah, uh Mr.

Galante and I were able to attend, and uh I'll just talk through a couple of the really interesting items and um for my colleagues that sometimes go to NLC, and I know uh Dr.

Bart Odin Wesley could not attend due to her father's death.

And so I represented as well on the human development committee, so much that I even got on the committee and said I wasn't gonna do it next year, but I said these people need me.

So I am willing to do it again next year on that committee.

Um, because they are they're taking on workforce issues and some of those as we went to a human development um committee of what we're trying to do.

It was interesting, they had a Chick-fil-A in there that talked about their training programs at Chick-fil-A and what they do from those perspectives.

Some of the other interesting things from NLC is uh, you know, we're a just served city and it coordinates volunteers and brings those up.

And I think we we've got to figure out how to promote that a little more.

Um, we've had a lot of discussions about volunteer coordination, um, how we you know, especially through Tomorrow Foundation duplication of services through nonprofits and those things, and just serve helps us a little bit on that.

So as I've talked to the just serve folks, um, it's a little bit of what we do.

I think there's also potential in the future for like an interfaith audit to see what our churches' services are providing so that you know we can say here's some pieces we're missing to our churches because we do have a lot of our our uh and I shouldn't say churches, our faith community of whatever it is, whether whatever their faith is, whether you're Christian, Muslim, um, any of those, um, of what they're doing.

For example, you know, we've had a lot of discussions about um a uh a cold weather center activation center, and City of Plano actually has one of their faith organizations that runs that for them.

And so it's a really interesting piece of what they've come through.

Um, two of the pieces that I think are the going beyond that.

Um, NLC is rolling out a policy portal.

Um, we're dealing with a lot of policy items.

We've got one coming up tonight, and it helps to be able to see what other cities are doing in one place.

Um, NLC spent a lot of time so that when we are looking up anything on a policy, we could be able to go to NLC.

Let's just say tonight we're talking anti-discrimination ordinance.

You would be able to look and see what every other city has in one place instead of what a lot of us do, go and look at other locations.

So they're rolling that out.

I think they said first quarter of 2026.

Um, I think that'll be something for all of my colleagues to be able to use.

I know I search other cities and look up their policies when we start to get into that policy.

So I think it'll be a big piece.

And then the last thing I'll I went to one session that was totally not what I expected.

I thought it was how to battle extreme heat, and I thought it was like how to focus on cooling down concrete and not making it so hot.

And it was all the most drastic global climate change discussion I've ever seen in my life.

So probably not the best fit of what Arlington does.

Um there was a couple of interesting pieces, but boy, a little shocked at uh what what they were actually talking about in there.

Um, I think I was the only Texas city probably in that um room.

And then the last piece, and I've spoken to Mr.

Yogerton.

There was a really interesting as you walk through the exhibit hall, you get ideas and always make city staff, but uh there was a company that monitored all short-term rentals, and it actually went through.

And when we looked at our short-term rentals, when I looked at it on their site, there was 4800 short-term rentals in Arlington.

And let me tell you, about 70% were outside of our short-term rental location.

Um, the other thing that this did was it actually tracks hotel occupancy tax of what the estimates should be.

So I know our staff is reviewing that, and I think the more we can use efficiency and technology to be able to help us monitor some of those things, um, I think the better.

So I know something we're looking at, I think touches on us from big piece.

So that's more than y'all want to know about NLC, but it was uh it was a good you know, three days in uh Salt Lake.

Thank you, sir.

Any questions or comments from Mr.

Hog.

I appreciate you.

Evening agenda items.

Ms.

Box Thank you, Mayor.

I have several.

Um item 7.7.

Um five autonomous mowers.

I'm quite interested in this in this item and finding out more about their performance.

But I did have a question, and it doesn't have to be answered tonight, but um there are uh maybe maybe you can.

Um there are grubbing uh autonomous grubbing mowers as well that might be able to help us with our privat problem.

So I was wondering if that if this program is successful in terms of performance, we might look into the grubbing mowers as well that could get into places that some of our big mowers can't get in.

I know we're using goats in some areas, but this could be in addition to that.

You say goats.

Goats, goats, goats, yeah, like the animal.

Like, and so uh because the the privat issue in our parks and uh is very serious, and this might be a way we'll never get, you know, we'll never get rid of it, but maybe we can stay ahead of it if we got some grubbing mowers.

I just thought something something that we can look into.

Yeah, good afternoon, Gary Pack and Director of Parks Recreation.

Uh yes, that would be a great idea.

Um I'm not fully educated on a grubbing mowers, but we'll definitely look into it and report back.

Okay.

All right, great.

Thank you.

You bet.

Uh the next item is uh item 7.12.

It has to do with uh the new contract for electricity supply for all our city, the entire city, all our properties.

And I was just curious.

Uh I know we're getting several proposals, but I'm wondering what the expected rate increase is going to be over what we've been paying and how we're going to.

I think we need to let the public be aware that that is going to be uh an additional expense coming up.

And are there any plans to get that word out to people so people know?

Uh we have had uh multiple sessions.

Uh we've met with Finance and Audit Committee uh a couple times.

We brought that information to you guys earlier in this summer.

Uh I priority power is here and can speak to kind of what we expect, but I believe we are expecting to see, I think it's about a 20 to 30 percent increase in rates uh based on where we are in the market.

And a lot of that is based on the fact that the last time we took this contract out was nearly 10 years ago, and the rate in market movement has just continued to evolve uh in addition to that.

Um the load demand on the overall state power grid has continued to grow with the data centers and everything else coming online in the state.

And so we are seeking to work with priority power to put out those bids tomorrow it in an effort to try and lock in new rates earlier uh and we will seek to find the best rates possible.

Okay, so you said 20 to 30 percent higher.

Do you know what that translates into in kilowatt price per kilowatt or anything?

Uh you don't have to answer now, but I just have that.

I'd be curious to know what it is, and then so that you know we can talk about it to the public.

Um we do have that information from the initial bid that I can send you.

Okay.

Just just in response, I think generally Ms.

Boxell, it's somewhere between four and six cents a kilowatt, somewhere in that area.

It's 30, 30 to 50 percent is what we kind of have budgeted for, and we have actually started the budgeting process on that, actually last fiscal year, in addition to this and kind of feathering in kind of an expected increase, because we're wrapping up a nine-year contract, and we knew that the good thing was about to end because four cents is a really good deal, and it's gonna move up.

And so we've been planning for it in preparation to be ready for 2027 when it hits.

Okay, are there any plans to uh get the word out to the public?

Because I think this is something that they will need to know about in terms of future budgeting that this is a big this is a big item.

Yeah, I don't I don't I don't think it's needed any more than just traditional budgetary discussions.

I mean, in a in the tone of kilowatt hours, I think we were trying to grow our budget.

We we put I think $500,000 into last year's budget.

It will likely maybe be another $500,000 or so, somewhere in a million to a million five.

All right.

So in the big context, I mean it's it's real money, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it's it's not nearly what we've been dealing with on other issues the last uh the last 12 months.

And we've got this.

Well, that's good to know.

We've got this topic well planned and under control.

That's very good to know.

Thank you very much.

Um I have on um on item 12.1, the amendments to the animal chapter.

I don't know if we have anyone here to uh discuss that.

Oh, there we go, Ashley.

Thank you.

Uh actually I have one question.

Uh will the animal services, because this is dealing with uh the use euthanasia policy.

Will the animal services uh will this apply to people who bring in healthy animals?

And if and if so, when we have like a backup plan where people could uh there's some facility for people to adopt them before they're euthanized if you're talking about healthy animals that people have surrendered.

So mayor and council Ashley will know animal services manager.

Um this euthanasia um ordinance only affects animals that are being brought to us by the owners where the owners are requesting us to euthanize them for them.

And so if the owner requested, even if it's a healthy animal, that's it.

There's no other that it would be up to us to place it if we would like to.

I however, most animals that are coming in for owner surrendered euthanasia requests are gonna be animals that are showing behavior or medical concerns.

Okay, um, I was just concerned about possible and people bringing them for financial reasons, you know, and I was just thinking that we could have some policy that would give the animals a chance to be adopted.

Yes, and in that in that ordinance, um it does allow us that if it's not healthy and not part of the adoption, or if it's healthy and part of the adoption, could be part of the adoption program, then we can move it into that.

Okay, thank you very much.

Of course.

Uh that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Boxel.

Any other items council needs to discuss on the evening agenda items, questions or comments.

Okay.

Issues relative to city or tech stop projects.

Future agenda items.

I have one future agenda item.

I recently met with the American Heart Association representatives who have informed me that some of our neighboring communities have made amendments or changes in their ordinances regarding the smoking ordinance to include e-cigarettes and other items regarding children.

So I'm gonna they've sent me a proposed ordinance.

And Ms.

Shortall, I'm gonna go ahead and have Andy forward that to you if the city's attorney can look at that and maybe come back with a staff report for council to look at and consider if that's something that we would get in line with with.

I think Fort Worth is doing it and Dallas is doing it.

Um it may be something that council wants to do, especially regarding um uh some of the vaping and stuff that's going on with our our teenagers and and kids nowadays.

We'll do.

Thank you.

Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

We had one issue come up as we have reviewed this anti-discrimination ordinance from 2021.

And I asked the question do we have a plan in place to periodically and systematically review all of our ordinances?

And we don't.

So could we put that down as something we want to look into?

Um, I don't know, sunset or what other cities are doing, or um just an opportunity to review ordinances on a regular basis.

We we can put that in like the no smoke praise bucket of how to fix everything.

Okay.

Any anybody else?

Okay, with that, uh this afternoon session is adjourned, and we will see everybody downstairs at 6.30 this evening.

Thank y'all.

I'm thankful and I'm praying that those that are coming behind me can say the same thing.

I'm T Ca Kwetang, and I'm alive with the American Dream.

We're back with another episode of Arlington Eats.

I'm Jeremy Thomas with My Arlington TV.

And on this episode, we're headed to the doctor.

That way you can get a fresh prescription of a variety of shrimp that's in season all year long at Shrimp Dock.

We want to be simple and effective.

If I want to do it, I want to do it well.

You know, and that's and that's why we just stay in the shrimp light, nothing but shrimp.

Well, if you couldn't tell, co-owner David Harrison is very serious when it comes to shrimp.

You probably know, tasted, or have seen the food from Shrimp Dock at a Texas Rangers baseball game, or over the years at the State Fair of Texas.

So that's only 24 days out of the year.

And, you know, people over the years who are like, man, you guys got a location, man.

You know, oh, I gotta wait to I gotta wait till the fair to get this again, and blah blah.

So that's what prompted us to even initially start looking for a place and you know found all it.

Harrison and his family opened this storefront off Supplett Road in February of 2023.

We're known for the black and shrimp potato.

It's how we got into the state fair of Texas.

And we thought it would be like our number one thing here, but our number one thing here has been all of our fried shrimp.

Our flavors, everybody loves our zesty cooler ranch, Cajun Buffalo, hot lemon pepper.

They love the different combinations.

Our maple cinnamon waffle, grilled shrimp with you know, veggies and and rice.

We try to have something so it's not just everything is not fries, and we've got a few extra things here that we don't do at the fact.

You get a little treat if you get if you come in.

Even as the Harrisons look to expand their business to new locations, they're loving their community right here in the American Dream City.

Uh it's been honestly overwhelming.

It's been really good here.

Um we're seeing new faces every day.

It's not just within the community.

People are traveling.

Yeah, uh, the community, like she said, it's not just around in the area.

It's we get love here as well of Arlington, but I mean they're coming from everywhere.

And uh it's it's it's been it's been good.

All's really been a good place, and we really uh like it on to