Okay.

We're going to go ahead and call the afternoon session back to order.

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

Marty.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

And Council.

Marty Weeder, executive director of the Arlington Economic Development Corporation.

I've got Dus Garcia here with me, and I'm going to speak kind of for Big A.

Several things, a couple of different different items on behalf of both of us, but he's going to be here with me to respond to any questions if you've got any.

And our staff lifted listed there to the right, and a new piece that Teresa Burnett and Kristen Wagner put together, showing the working together piece.

And related to weekend we do.

And so you're able to see a picture on the far bottom right hand corner of all the team as it was a kind of a snapshot that we took over at Spark, I believe it was last summer, with the team that was in place at that time.

And that that involved, by the way, as you see with the staff, a lot of the folks that we've got involved from the finance department from the city attorney's office, and as well from the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

And as we did previously, we did want to make sure to include the the awards, the rankings for the city and specific to, as you might imagine, economic development related uh matters that uh cause people to want to stop and look at this.

And as I was telling Lindsay, as I was showing this to her before we got started while we were in the break here.

This is both a reporting document, but it's really a marketing document, too.

I'm uh I'm speaking to a couple of different groups in the coming weeks, and I'm gonna make sure and hand this to them.

It's a good summary of the things that took place in 2025, and I think it gives us a great opportunity to remind everybody as well of the demographics of the city.

Now, granted, this was based on what was published in 2024.

Lindsay was reminding me the Census Bureau just released new numbers a week or two ago in January.

So we couldn't, we didn't have time to include that to get it published or get it printed up.

Uh so that'll be included next year.

But we always want to remind people too of the uh of what we look like in the way of our census.

The the metrics for the year are included, and you're gonna hear about some of this in a moment too, because we're gonna do the grow our economy update for you.

Uh, but this will give you a full picture of fiscal year 2025.

Uh, and certainly good to see that what's been committed to projects, some of the efforts we've been doing, both in Gus's team and and I and the one I work with, as well as all the other departments that are part of that economic development team, as Trey likes to say, economic development is a team sport, and uh that reflects that.

We uh we amended this a little bit just to show, certainly we wanted to include within with the strategic plan the fact for those who weren't aware that we did uh have do a bond sale for the first time in the history of the economic development corporation, got an excellent number based on the city's financial strength.

But we don't think that should be missed out by anybody who's contemplating investing with the city.

They need to see that too, that uh that we've got an excellent rating, and I think that played into uh why we were able to get under construction in such a smooth fashion uh when it came to eSpace.

And in a moment we'll show you eSpace in particular.

Some of the things that we've introduced this past year, we wanted to talk about was the Arlington Development Network, the DevNet event.

We had our first one uh iced out a week or two ago.

We're getting ready to have another one in in uh February, early February, but uh or late February, but now uh we can get together with the theater and bring the development community together and talk about topics.

We also, there's those pictures I promise you can see the entrance in and the offices for the economic development corporation up on the third floor uh of Choctaw Stadium, and we love being there and certainly teaming up with the convention and visitors bureau beside us.

And then just a couple of other things related to EDC specific programs.

Part of that effort that you all agreed to put in place with exchange of funds, for instance, that we put in to help with uh wastewater uh line replacement for Main Street, and there were dollars that came back.

Some of the things that we do specific to small businesses.

I'm thrilled that Hayden uh Blackburn of our staff was able to restart the Strategic Solutions Fund.

Uh we'll tell you about in our subsequent presentation about some applications.

We're thrilled we're getting those contracts for applications for grants to manufacturers.

So we're seeing real enthusiasm with that.

Glad he restarted that to see the new industry-specific small business cohorts.

Kay Brown Patrick brought them to you a few weeks ago, I think, for a proclamation presentation and recognition.

And then we celebrate that we received, you received really an IEDC International Economic Development Corporation award for that innovative financing that we just described.

Uh, and it tied into the buy down program too.

They really liked the fact that you were willing to work with Lyft Fund to provide another source of zero interest rate financing for small business owners who had applied somewhere and didn't receive funding.

So we provided another alternative.

And then, of course, this is inside your piece, a two-page spread.

A number of you were there that day when we broke ground what's shown on the cover.

Uh, we're able to illustrate a little bit more of the site, the site plan, the jobs, the uh the salaries it'll generate and the benefits it brings to the city.

And uh, we look forward certainly to bringing updates for this after this year.

It'll be nearing completion at that point.

And then the the individual projects.

Uh the uh the a project, Benton Plaza that really involved both of our teams, and that's the case with a number of these.

We might be working with somebody, and then we realize, as we've talked about, it doesn't fit as an EDC under the state law.

So we'll go to Gus and his team, and they're able to see whether it fits in a TURS, perhaps.

Oh, there's another funding way.

Well, uh, much the same way.

The Benton Plaza had been something we kind of both work with, but they had primarily, and it qualified for EDC financing, and it's proceeding.

The Texas Trust Credit Union had headquarters.

We both were a part of it, but it didn't qualify for EDC.

And so really the economic development services picked that up.

You've seen recently, it's been pushed out on LinkedIn.

They've completed their tenant improvements.

They're in that building and adding jobs and growing.

Crown Plaza to see 24 million dollars in improvements coming with the rebranding that'll become the Lamar, uh, is Lamar, I guess, uh totally, but will be signed and rebranded entirely upon completion.

The UFL headquarters uh to see that uh be something we were able to tag team with the convention and visitors bureau.

That remains.

We've had recent meetings with those individuals, and we uh certainly are retaining the hub and the football advancement uh through sports technology with the University of Texas at Arlington teamed up with them as well.

Salcomp, you've heard about uh great to see that come forward.

They've received their their first payment and are hiring on and expanding and relocated their corporate headquarters, you'll recall.

The uh the Balfour, and that's another one of those that both EDS and EDC have teamed together on.

Balfour Lofts uh that has continued, and that is a TURS project, so the EDS was involved in that.

And then, as well, this was something that uh Councilmember Peel was asking me during the break.

What's the status?

Not only on your facilities, but on the rework of the bottom part of the space we share with the convention and visitors bureau.

Uh, there's been meetings taking place.

We just met again last week, reviewing plans for the showroom or the or the welcome center, whatever it's going to end up being branded to welcome business prospects and investors in and use that as an opportunity too, where Brent Durod and his team can visit with people that are contemplating bringing up uh perhaps a convention or a conference here and use that as a way to show our history and how others fit into it.

We also helped assist with the CVB with the Medal of Honor Museum mission to inspire spectacular.

We did put in place through an agreement that our board approved uh that that came to you as well to create the Japan Texas Economic Summit that's coming up May 11th through the 13th.

You want to circle the 11th.

They want you all to come to an opening reception if you're available that night.

I've made it aware, made them aware the the 12th is a council meeting day.

You won't probably won't be able to be there the full day, but they'd like you to try to come for the opening session if you can that morning.

You'll be amazed at some of the people that Steve Sakanashi has signed up already to come to that event at Live by Lowe's in this first year.

Uh again, something that I think is going to be somewhat of a game changer for our city and the opportunities to work with Japanese investors in businesses.

And we included within this as well economic indicators, and you're going to see some at the end that aren't in the report, but are some that we always try to present in association with this.

Again, data that we know others are going to want to see, brokers and investors and developers as we talk with them, the kind of things that they want to uh check out about the city when it comes to unemployment and houses sold and average house price, industrial retail office occupancies.

We always like to share about workforce distribution.

And so that's what this really educates or edge kind of illuminates is that you're able to see in sectors where our workforce shakes out.

To uh to see that the tracking of business personal property total.

You'll recall a couple of years ago we did see a business that ended up leaving, and that's what caused that one decline.

But things are actually getting a little stronger, uh, not quite as bad.

We're seeing uh employment growth in particular.

I think that's one of the best pictures of all of this to see employment growth continue to trend up the way it has.

We're gonna share something here in a moment too with grow our economy that I think you'll like related to that in particular, and then financial information, both for the economic development corporation as well as for the Office of Economic Development or Economic Development Services.

The summary of highlights, something that uh Lindsay and Sarah Stubblefield put together for you that's not in the report, but I think is always worth looking at with this.

This doesn't come in a timely fashion enough where we can get it to include in the document, but I wanted you to be able to see the types of things when it comes to uh chapter 380 or tax abatement projects that were completed or have been in progress since 2006.

This is kind of a summary you'll recall of everything that's taken place since that time.

And this is something that uh Trey and Lindsay have teamed up with over a number of years to make sure we show what's the compilation of all the economic development efforts that have taken place over a number of years.

Uh, you're able to see, you know, eight 18 million commercial square foot square footage added, to be able to see the one to 15 leverage private capital investment, the value of incentives, the value of private capital investment in Arlington through projects that are supported by economic development incentives or uh more so uh I think teaming up with somebody and trying to do co-investment.

To be able to see, and we like this average time to achieve return on investment, about 2.5 years, the the total initial value of economic development project properties, uh various other.

I'm not gonna go through all those, I'll let you look at those, but various other summary highlights that bear out the value.

That's what we always want to be able to show that we're bringing added value above and beyond the incentive, and I think these numbers kind of help illustrate that for you.

Uh I'm as I mentioned, Gus and I are here.

We'll be glad to respond to any questions you've got.

I want to make sure, though, again, and applaud uh Jay's team in the Office of Communications uh between Teresa and uh Kristen and Cook, who Cook did all the design, always does all of this.

We were so glad to get her back safely uh in time to be able to get this to completion.

So I realize if you've got any questions or comments, I'd be glad to respond.

Any questions or comments for Marty?

Nope.

Okay.

Thanks, Marty.

All right.

Gush, you got anything to add?

Good job.

Okay.

All right, let's go ahead and grow our economy.

Uh this is gonna be uh a good summary in the first quarter as we try to come and bring to you.

Uh we'll go through this somewhat quickly and give you some idea.

We'll go straight to the picture from business plan first.

And something that we uh for this coming year we're looking at is we really want to enhance impact through development and redevelopment efforts.

I'm always speaking uh when I go out and talking about the fact that we're so close to build out and that transformational redevelopment, as is called out in the strategic plan, has got to be constantly on our tongues and on our mind to remind people of the opportunities and our willingness to work with them.

The fact that we've got the quarter cent in the EDC plays into this.

That all comes through forging these business partnerships and investment opportunities to explore those with others.

And so some of the objectives that are included in here uh include business attraction.

I have got uh certainly we we stay in touch with the state, the office, the governor's office of tourism and economic development.

Uh you you've heard Trey talk about Christy Goodman Duke.

Uh I've mentioned her, our our director of targeted attraction and state affairs.

She has done a great job under Richard Nevin's guidance in uh working hard to further relationships she already had with the state.

We're seeing those benefit us when we respond to requests for for information with different prospects.

Uh and we're very pleased to see those come about.

We're pleased to share with you and and uh I'm gonna pass this out and let you see it.

But we did uh push out a press release with Kristen and Theresa's help today.

Uh when it comes to business attraction, we've been very pleased to see uh basically the ProLodges, Interstate 20 part come to 100% occupancy.

Uh pleased that in the the last quarter of the year, we welcome several new tenants and even saw one that's that's a uh a retention and expansion.

We'd already told you about Cummings Electrical setting up their integrated manufacturing center in uh that park this past summer.

They've already added on 86,000 more square square feet, are hiring 45 more employees.

We're seeing one of their vendors, uh, a group that's formerly known as Thomson Power Systems, but also as Regal Rex Nord out of Canada, uh, locate space adjacent to them, wanted to be side by side.

We're thrilled uh to have a General Motors Tier 1 vendor in Tennecoe located in that in some of that same space.

Uh and and then as well, a couple of other tenants that have lined up, one in particular is uh SNS truck parts and one known as liquid metal motorsports.

The best thing about what you see is that through the commitment that the city had with that initial plan that was put in place in 2020, late 2020 with them, uh, is that they were required upon completion to have about 400 jobs.

We hit 570.

Very pleased to see that.

And I think one of the best things too is that we were able to do that without any tenant improvement dollars.

We had several ask, and we made it very clear.

The city's already made an investment to make this happen.

And so they didn't push that, and we think that's important when it came to saving our economic development corporation powder for other things.

Lincoln Properties has a brand new industrial building, and then Provident Realty Advisors likewise has one there on MLK Jr.

So you're you're we're showing there's demand, we're getting those spaces filled.

Uh glad to see that come about and thrilled to make that public today and see those jobs get in place.

As well, um would mention you see their global connection between both departments, a lot of effort to work with foreign direct investment.

We we couldn't do all we're doing without the two groups.

Uh and so we're we're thrilled to see some of these different events we've shared with you going on that we're putting in place, in addition to what I shared with the annual report, for instance, with the Japan Texas economic summit that's coming up in May.

And then a few others that you see listed there with business retention and expansion.

We'll uh stay with the business plan and show you as well some things that we're doing with small business uh and innovation.

We held our first inaugural or inaugural state uh entrepreneurship summit back in November.

I was uh I asked my staff today about I didn't get to go, I had something else going on that day.

About 200 people participated in that that inaugural event.

Uh we like seeing those first industry specific small business cohorts that I mentioned to you.

We're so focused on trying to promote uh transformational redevelopment and have dove in with developers and brokers here recently and discussing Brownfield development.

And then uh I brought along, I know y'all have seen the things that we've done with the e-newsletter, thanks to Teresa and Kristen and getting that in place.

The the things that we showed you recently with the book of lists, and then I've given you all one of these previously.

We were able to put this in place as well, and updated, hadn't been really renewed or updated since 2012 annual report.

I'm sorry, map uh of the entire city, the aerial map.

So we're thrilled to see you know, those kind of things are tools we've got to have as well that uh make this business plan come about.

As to project summaries, just this will give you an idea of where some of these stand.

I believe we've got something for the one on top coming forward for consideration uh here tonight.

There uh, but you see that almost all those others are on track, and uh we're we're thrilled to see that that be the case.

Let's turn to the scorecard.

I want to share a couple of things.

Uh I made mention earlier on the EDC program grants awarded.

We didn't have any in that first quarter, but we uh I did talk to Hayden Blackburn.

Four uh different applications have been submitted.

He tells me one, he thinks uh they're searching for property.

We know they've looked a couple of times, we think they've found one that should be coming forward soon.

So I don't I feel very confident for the next time we're up here, we're gonna have several, at least two or three we'll be able to tell you about that I think will be in place.

Uh as well, would mention down there on the FTE jobs created and retained what I shared with you within the press release related to uh the Interstate 20 park by ProLodis.

Uh that number is amended with today's release to be 205.

So certainly a better picture than what was shown uh when we started putting all this together in preparation for this meeting.

And then upcoming projects and initiatives, uh very pleased to, as well with Christy Goodman Duke, to have had her history with the city of Fort Worth in putting in place the uh the very first Texas media production development zone that Fort Worth had ever done.

Uh she has been working in tandem uh with Jeremy and Jay's staff, as well as with Brent Derod and Matt Wilson, who both worked with film commissions in previous cities coming here and structuring a partnership with a film commission between the three.

I'm working with Christy, and we're gonna do our best to go up and see if we can send her up to meet with the principal of Great American Media up in Buffalo, New York.

I said we'll wait till it gets to be a little warmer before we send you up there.

Maybe it'll fall out a little bit, but we want to talk, continue to talk about how we can maybe line up an MPDZ here in partnership with the communications department and the CBB.

We uh, in particular with TURS number one, uh Gus and his team continue to work with with Maggie and Garrett, and uh feel like we've got a couple of other things we can explore there.

The international I mentioned to you previously, there's several things related to TURS number seven with the international corridor, the efforts with Benton Plaza, uh a conversation I'm having with a property owner uh that's there along the international corridor, not to mention, of course, the uh the Texas-Japan or Japan Texas Summit, FIFA, the World Cup, and then just the relationships we're seeking to continue to develop along those lines and innovation, which uh is admittedly is one of my most interesting areas uh when it comes to Hayden Blackburn and his history with Tech Fort Worth.

The real reason I wanted to bring him on.

He's been involved with it, he has a passion for it, and uh I think we've got a real chance through the strategic um fund that I mentioned to you earlier that he restarted of putting some things in place.

And then just uh so you've got them in terms of upcoming uh projects and initiatives, and sometimes uh it pays off to step out and support somebody.

We always love working with TMAC, and they wanted us to help sponsor their big uh Metroplex Manufacturing Resource Resource Expo.

And we set it up, and it was supposed to be on January 30th over in East Fort Worth at the UTA campus there for Atari, and uh it got iced out, and they came back to us and said we're gonna reschedule for February 27th, and we're gonna bring it to Arlington.

We said good, because we said all along we'd like it to be in Arlington, and so we're thrilled to see that get restructured and to happen there.

Uh I mentioned to you uh that's the logo they shared back in the fall at the US Japan Council 15-year anniversary celebration of what was coming with us being Arlington being the host city for the Japan Texas Economic Summit.

And then uh coming up, and and again, that's May 11th to the 13th, and then coming up in September on the 23rd through the 25th.

We were thrilled to have IC3 come back to the city uh through uh bio in North Texas.

And uh I think that's gonna be a great opportunity for us to continue to talk about the opportunities in association with properties we've got, the Center Street Gateway, as well as with UTA to foster health care uh investors and investment in Arlington, Texas.

So I know I covered a lot of ground, and you may have questions or comments.

Uh I'll be Gus and I'll be glad to respond to anything you see there that anything you want to know more about.

Any questions or comments, Councilmember Hunter?

Thank you.

I heard a couple of numbers for the total jobs at the um Prologis.

What was that number on there?

It's 570.

And and by the way, I want to make sure I didn't do it, but I want to applaud Ryan McNaughton with Pro Lodges and Joe Rudd with Trans Western.

Uh they've they've been tremendous in working with us uh in making that all come about.

But we were relentless in trying to particularly real recall to get Cummings in there and then all these others.

Uh we pursued TENECO for a number of months and had a broker call us and then also had a site consultant call us.

We had two separate names uh in our matrix, and lo and behold, we heard about the same week from both parties.

Oh, it's Teneco.

We were like, great.

We wish we'd have known, but no problem.

We pressed hard for both of them.

So 570.

Let me ask you this.

Uh are all of these vendors open or companies open yet there because I haven't seen any signs other than Cummings.

They're not all open yet.

No, they all signed leases, they're doing their tenant improvements.

Okay, uh, all those that I mentioned signed leases in um November or December.

Anybody else?

Thank you, Marty.

My pleasure, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

We'll move on down to 3.3 Spencer.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Spencer Slider, your interim director of finance.

Uh, we're here today to talk about the first quarter update for FY26 Council priority, preserve financial stability and resilience.

And real quick before we get into the priority, I just want to we'll hear more about it from uh the report on your council committee meetings.

Uh, but just want to follow up with you all on the complex financial summer we had.

Uh council gave us directions, staff executed, and the end result is we were able to finish FY25 in a good strong place financially.

So getting started with uh this priority.

We have 43 business items for this year.

Uh, and we are going to cover a few different topics than we covered last year due to the amount of projects we have, and I plan to show different projects every quarter for you all.

Uh one project that I am gonna leave on here because it's of high interest to a lot of people on the council and the city at large is the new police north substation.

Since we've last met, a contractor has been chosen, construction is underway, and we are still on track for completion in March of 2027.

A couple internal policies that we are taking to ensure we are continuing to provide the best value and cost effectiveness for the city.

Our purchasing office is doing an internal uh update to some of our procurement policies, maintaining internal controls, updating as needed.

We expect to have that finished by the end of the summer.

And our fleet team is doing an internal analysis of cost drivers for non-target lack of warranty or vendor covered uh maintenance on our fleet vehicles so that we can look and work with departments to identify ways to reduce those and mitigate our spending on non-target fleet moving forward.

And then calling out real quickly, uh water department's annual change out of their meters is underway and well ahead of its normal or well ahead of its progress.

I believe they have 41% of their annual uh installs already completed in the first quarter.

Uh touching base on a few more larger projects, uh, the city office tower is nearing completion.

Uh, most of the departments have now moved back out of Chase and into the city tower.

Finance moved in this week.

I believe HR is scheduled to move at the end of this week and into next week.

A lot of the major infrastructure improvements have been completed.

Uh, bathrooms, office remodels are being done so they can continue to use that as an anchor for downtown staff, as well as update the elevators, which are our first brand new elevator is up and working within the last couple weeks.

The second one is being installed, and once those two new elevators are up and running, uh, the final older elevator will be taken offline and replaced with the target goal of the end of March.

And last time we talked, uh, I previewed our enterprise lease pilot program for you.

Uh, since that time, we have received the majority of the vehicles for our phase one of the pilot.

Uh, phase two uh department chosen for the pilot vehicles are expected at the end of this fiscal year.

And this will be a five-year pilot as a reminder to continue to look at what the most cost effective option for managing our civilian fleet is, whether a lease solution or a own solution.

Uh another program we uh previewed last quarter was the payment work security innovation systems.

Uh right now our team is currently coordinating with the IT vendor that we've coordinated with and our bank's IT team working on the integrations and securities between all three softwares.

Looking to go live with this in March.

And as a reminder, this is the software that will help verify vendor data to safeguard our funds to ensure and reduce and mitigate fraud from vendor payment systems.

Quickly touching on the Northeast Library improvements.

Uh, this project is almost complete for the Northeast Library that is on uh 1905 Brown Boulevard.

I believe that uh location was originally built in 1995.

Uh the roof, windows, a lot of the entryway has been replaced, and I think they are finalizing the uh west ramp walkway.

And once that is complete, you'll have a refreshed look on that facility to continue its use to the community in the near future.

Uh touching on some of our scorecards, uh court revenue is continuing to climb in what we've seen in recent years.

Uh, revenue coming in is good, it's being largely driven by increase in traffic citations.

Uh, our percentage of supplier payments paid electronically to kind of reduce the potential for payment uh fraud through checks that we've seen in recent years is continuing to meet our standards and goals.

Uh, as I've talked about before, this is a goal we'll continuously try to push the scorecard up to get as close to 100% as possible.

Uh recycling collected on the curb side in tons is continuing to meet the goals we set for ourselves, as well as public works uh percentage of pothole repairs completed within three days.

Uh and then touching on some new projects uh that I don't believe we've talked about, but we will continue to see.

Uh, another East Police, uh, the East Police substation, another police renewal project that we have is currently undergoing underway.

Uh an architect has been chosen, design is underway.

Uh, it will be getting a new roof, new windows, uh, some HVAC components replaced, as well as any kind of interior pieces that are needed to kind of continue to make that an anchor for the east side of town for the police department to have a good place to operate and for the community to feel safe within that area.

Uh water is undergoing a PFAS mitigation study to look at what needs to be done to continue to enhance the Pierce Birch water plant, remove any PFAS issues that are within that water plant and kind of move forward into a construction phase in future years once the study is complete.

We are currently at the precipice of engaging a third-party vendor to do a uh franchise fee audit to ensure we're getting all the funds due to us from our franchise fee payers.

We believe you'll have that first report at the end of the summer.

And then coming up very soon as well, kind of wrapping up some of the large financial softwares that we've been implementing over the last few years.

Uh, we are about to undergo the RFP for our budget software, and that'll be a time to look at what is on the market.

Can this integrate into workday or what solutions are to integrate into workday?

How it'll help us not only maintain our movement forward in software, but uh continue to provide strategic uh budgeting and forecasting for the city's revenues.

Uh so that is all I have today.

I am happy to answer any questions for anything you'll have.

Questions or comments for Spencer from Council?

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate you.

All right, we're gonna move on down and discuss our committee meetings.

We'll start with 4.1.

Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh bear with me.

This we had a long meeting and we covered a lot of ground, so I'm gonna try to go through this as fast as I can.

Um, the community and neighborhood development committee met this morning with a quorum present.

Uh the first thing we discussed was the multifamily inspection program and our current enforcement tools.

So uh the CND reviewed the city's multifamily inspection program as it relates to current inver enforcement.

The presentation included current enforcement measures and processes, multifamily license enforcement, complaint process, and multifamily license and annual inspections.

The committee requested that the staff bring back information on several topics.

One, when does the when the renovation when does renovation trigger bringing the property up to current fire codes, inspection checklists and information on the new housing and urban developments inspire inspection process?

Uh we requested a refresher on the citation process.

What triggers a property to move to a move a tenant to another unit?

Are current inspections uh time frames reasonable?

How is rodent and insect infant infestation addressed?

We also discussed um the uh PY 2026 action plan for CDBG review.

That's community development block grant program.

So we convened and we reviewed the introduction of the program year for 2026 covering July the 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027.

We reviewed the funding request, which we've received uh for public improvement projects not subject to the public services cap.

Um the discussion included questions regarding the potential to supplement CDBG public service funding with general funds.

The CDBG funding discussion will be continued at the next committee meeting on February the 24th, which is open to the public if you're interested.

We also reviewed uh 9% and 4% uh proposals that we've received for this year's tax credit application.

So I'll go over the nine percent first.

Um all applications were generally consistent with the city council approved policy, with the exception of one application not considered consistent with our comprehensive plan.

All the applications proposed to provide units affordable at various income levels from 30 percent through 60 percent AMI, which is consistent with the housing needs analysis.

All three applications intend to pay full property taxes.

The committee asked staff to return on 2020 uh on February the 24th with uh a work session presentation before they consider any resolutions.

Uh the four percent housing tax credit applications.

We received one, the developer dominium development has uh proposed a tax credit uh housing proposal for 1801 East Arkansas Lane.

Um they had previously submitted an application for this site, but because uh there was a gas station, uh a gas site adjacent to this gas uh to this uh proposal.

The Arlington uh Housing Finance Corporation and neighbors both requested that the developer address the gas well before returning.

The developer now has the gas well on site under contract, and if the project moves forward, the current operator will remove the gas well and sell the property to Dominium in a buildable condition.

The additional land allows for the reduction of a four-story wrap style building to a three-story and provide space for a pu uh future um pre-K or child care center.

This project will also need support from the Arlington Housing Finance Corporation to issue tax exempt bonds.

And we'll do and we'll develop a partnership.

The partnership will entail a property tax exemption with the expectation that the development will make a pilot that's a payment in lieu of taxes in the amount of what the city property taxes would have been.

So that um I think that concludes my report.

Thank you.

Any questions for council member Boxell?

Councilmember Odom Wesley.

Thank you for that report and all the topics y'all addressed today.

Um, there was some statistics in the presentation that got my attention uh regarding the affordability of housing.

I think I read that almost half of the households in Arlington are cost burdened by housing, and 59% of the older households are cost burdened, and eighty percent of our rental housing is at least a thousand dollars a month.

So this causes me concern about the affordability of living in Arlington.

Uh, were y'all able to address that or can we address it moving forward?

Uh yes, we are we are addressing that, and we're looking into um where the the limited funds that we do receive from the federal government where they can best be used for the most effect, and that's what we will be focusing on going forward.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Councilmember Boxel.

Councilmember Hunter, 4.2 finance and audit, please.

Thank you.

Um, this is kind of a continuation of what Spencer went over.

Um we met this morning.

Um, we did have a quorum.

We went over the FY 20 uh 25 year end budget report, so all operating funds finished the year with a positive ending balance.

Um, general fund revenue was 4.7 million less than budgeted.

This was largely due to property and sales tax revenue collections being listed and budgeted, and the general fund expenditures were under budget by 11.5 million with savings largely um to the number of vacant positions, the implementation of hiring freeze, which has since been lifted.

Um that's pretty much um the gist of what we went over.

Does anybody have any questions?

Any questions for council member Hunter?

Thank you, ma'am.

4.3, please.

Oh.

Who had one role?

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Mayor I just want to stress I I want to thank city staff and Trey Overton for what they've done.

We wouldn't have been in the numbers, the positive numbers if we hadn't done what we did, and hopefully for the next year, it's gonna also impact that.

So thank you to city staff for doing what they had to do.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, councilmember Hunter, 4.3.

Okay, the Arlington Housing Finance um met this morning.

All members were present.

Um, the board reviewed a presentation by um Dominion Developments, which proposed housing development at 1801 East Arkansas.

The board had previously asked the developer to address the gas well issue which was on site, and he did so by putting the site under contract with an agreement with the current owner to remove the entire gas well if the project moves forward.

So the board members were supportive of the project moving forward.

The next step will be for the Arlington Housing Finance Board consideration of an inducement resolution, which will be on their um 224 agenda.

The board also took action to approve a resolution to provide funding for the acquisition of property at 1220 West Division Street for future development of affordable housing.

Thank you.

During the city's evening um during the um city council's evening session tonight, city council will consider two resolutions related to this acquisition.

Number one, accept the funding from the AFC, and number two, to execute a contract of sales to acquire the property at 1220 West Division Street.

Um that's all I have.

Does anyone have any questions or does any committee members have anything to add?

Any questions for Councilmember Hunter?

Thank you, ma'am.

4.4, Councilmember Odom Wesley municipal policy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Municipal Policy Committee met this morning with a quorum present, and we had two items on our agenda.

First, we talked about uh naming opportunity on our senior recreation center active.

And this was actually presented to the council at our retreat in April of 2025, and the direction given at that time was to pursue sponsorship opportunities.

So looking at the long-standing partnership with Texas Health Resources, THR, and their corporate offices are located in Arlington.

The Parks and Rec Parks, Rec and Culture Department pursued looking at naming rights, and they contracted with now I can't find it, HLP, high level promotions, to seek out a appropriate partner and enter into uh well consider entering into a partnership.

So the key terms of the agreement, it's a 10-year term valued at 1.1 million, and HLP, the high level promotions, would receive a 30% sales commission.

So the partnership with THR would not restrict future opportunities with other health-related sponsorships across additional facilities.

The staff presented multiple conceptual designs and placement options so that it would read active powered by Texas Health.

So we saw the signs powered by Texas Health, much smaller font than active, and various select locations throughout the Active Center.

And also the active would partner with THR to provide workshops, some health screenings, and other benefits and services for the members at Active.

So the committee recommendation is for the full council to support and provide additional input.

And we did support the staff moving forward to consider this partnership, this naming rights for THR.

And it would be on a future agenda anticipating March the 10th, which would be for consideration.

Any questions on that agenda item or additions from other committee members?

Dr.

Owen West also just had THR.

You may have said at the very start, they also this is not what they provide the city currently.

They provide the city for some basic funding for some other promotion items of what they're doing, and I think also I have to commend our staff for, as they said, they're not NASCAR up the Active Center and putting logos everywhere, even though I would be totally for that.

Um I'd name the council after something if the sponsorship was big enough.

But uh I think they're doing it really classy, and I think it'll look really nice, and I think it's a nice addition to uh our really good facility.

Anybody else?

Okay, our second agenda item was an update on the farm-based code.

Seems like we've been talking about this for a while.

So we got update on where we are with this zoning change and any and the related initiatives.

So today we talked about development process, parking standards, density bonus program, and adaptive reuse.

There are no significant modifications to the development process, and the staff will work with legal to affirm the appropriate process for any major modifications to the form-based code, if we have any exceptions.

We talked a lot about providing parking and some incentives in place, and one of the recommendations that came out was to exempt the first 2,000 square feet of any non-residential building from the parking requirements.

And the committee also mentioned that reverse angled parking should not be recommended in the proposed form-based code based on the feedback we've been getting from our citizens about the current back end parking situation.

We also talked about a density bonus program.

So if there are any projects desiring higher density than the current 36 units per acre, all the way up to a hundred units per acre, then that committee that uh development, we would cross-reference to the bonus density program, apply the sub-district tables, firm up that requirement, and then have them make a contribution to our downtown beautification fund, arts and beautification fund in exchange for the extra density.

So it's a higher density bonus program.

So following much discussion, the committee directed the staff to create a one-pager outlining how form-based code is faster, simpler, and easier, and a comparison of the current development standards versus the proposed FBC standards would also be provided to also create a two-page guide for each subdistrict within the farm based code area, which is downtown Arlington for our residents and prospective developers, showing the benefits for residents as well as benefits for the developers.

Then we would define better define the arts and beautification fund amount because we talked about increasing that, and then coordinate with downtown Arlington Management Corp Corporation for administering that fund and receiving those monies.

Questions, comments?

Any questions or comments for Dr.

Odom Wesley?

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Buskin, tonight do we have any uh appointments, boards or commissions?

No, sir, no appointments this evening.

Thank you, sir.

Evening agenda items, council.

Does anybody have a question or a comment about any item on the evening agenda?

Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to make a comment about item 11.1, the anti-discrimination ordinance.

Yes, ma'am.

I want to make it clear.

I those of you who know me know that I deal in facts, and I want to talk about facts.

And there are there is unfortunately been some missing information out there.

The original ordinance in 2021 had no enforcement mechanisms.

I repeat, they had no enforcement mechanisms in the original, nor do they have it in the one that's being proposed tonight.

I can repeat that as often as necessary.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Any other comments about any uh evening agenda items?

Councilmember Odin Wesley, were you trying to raise your hand earlier on something or I have a couple of items that have questions on?

Sure.

Sure, go ahead.

Um 7.11.

This is the uh rescind and reward construction contract for the dynamic messaging board.

It's it seems that the original bid winner couldn't get the materials that we needed, and we went to the next lowest bidder.

I'm just wondering, did we have any delay in this process of when uh where are we with the timeline to get that done?

Oh, as far as getting the project done, yes, sir.

There's a there's there'll be a little bit of delay.

Uh the ideal is to have this up before the uh uh before World Cup.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, sir.

So there'll be a little bit of the delay, but we should be done before World Cup.

We'll still meet that.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, okay, thank you.

And I had a question on 7.28.

Um, this is the appointment of the Arlington Entertainment Area Management District Board.

We're reappointing two people.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, and they serve staggered four-year terms.

We don't have term limits.

There are no term term limits currently.

So, how long have these two people served on this board?

Do we know?

I can get you that information.

I don't have it.

Uh okay.

I was just wondering um about turnover opening up opportunities for other citizens to serve on the board.

So if I could just get a little more information about how long the people have been on there and how many times they've been reappointed, and just a little more information about that.

Sure.

One thing I I will add is that to be eligible to be a board member, you have to either own property or represent property, either be an employee of someone or some entity that owns property within the district boundaries.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other items, Dr.

Odom Wesley?

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Anybody else on evening agenda items?

Okay.

Seeing none.

Anything on 4.7 issues relative to city or tech stop projects.

Seeing none, we'll move on down to 4.8 council external committee and training reports.

I'll kick off with uh letter A on the Terrant Regional Transportation Coalition meeting.

We had a meeting on January 14th via Zoom.

We discussed the ongoing master plan development for the Tex.

Fort Worth district, talk specifically about the Southeast Connector and how well it's going.

It seems to be going ahead of schedule, although it's still a mess when you drive through there.

We're hoping the mess won't last as long as the 360 interchange did.

I don't remember off the top of my head, Trey May.

I'm I may not ever live to see it, but but thanks for bringing that up though.

Um on January 20th, 28th through the 30th, I participated and presenting and um participating in the U.S.

Conference of Mayors winter conference in Washington, DC.

There were three or so main issues that we talked about there.

The first and and most important issue with all municipalities around the country continues to be housing or the lack thereof and what we can do in connection with that.

Um we had uh very robust uh host city meetings for the FIFA World Cup host cities.

Uh the FIFA president came and spoke to us um about all of those.

Uh if you happy happen to see Natalie running around, give her a hard time because she almost got emotional being able to take a picture with the World Cup.

And uh so I I gave her a hard time with that.

Um also the other issue that was addressed at nauseum was the issue of ice coming into uh various municipalities.

Mayor Fry from Minneapolis was present and presented to the mayors about what's going on in Minnesota regarding uh ice operations up there and how that's impacted their community.

Um and those were the three main takeaways of that.

We'll move on.

Any questions for me on the first two A or B.

We'll move on down to C.

Uh, Councilmember Gonzalez, RTC, please.

Or the transit vision subcommittee.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Uh the subcommittee met on Tuesday, January 27th.

Uh we received report on circular Tory street cars inventory regarding transportation versus economic development.

Uh the circulatory buses are short distance, they run a circular fixed route that takes riders around a specific area with major destinations.

Uh shuttles are for are an example like the UTA Mav Mover, which works during weekdays, and the U Arlington trolley, which is a seasonal based on events.

So we just went over all the inventory because we're still trying to get everything together, how it's all going to work with regards to uh what we're looking at with regards to transit throughout the um DFW.

Uh we then spent 40 minutes on the transit authority scenarios and financial resources to assist DART or DART cities when requested.

Uh I really believe that was a little a lot of it too much information.

We didn't need basically was about the things that were going on between the cities and uh Dart, and if they were to pull out how much they would have to get back to the RTC and stuff like that.

So I don't understand why it came to us, but we had a lengthy discussion on that.

Um they did mention that the population uh for the state of Texas, which is I think many of you have heard this, but uh Texas, they expect the population increase uh by 2050 uh by 8.6 million, of which 3.7 will be in DFW.

So 8.6 million people will come to Texas, of which 3.7 will be in DFW.

Florida during that same time, they expect 5.1 million, California, 3.1 million, Washington 2.3 million, and Colorado 1.7 million.

So you can see 3.7 in DFW is a big number for us, and that's why we're really focusing on uh transportation.

Um, seeing we can find something.

Um the next in-person subcommittee is scheduled for this Thursday.

Uh, since the last time uh we the subcommittee and the RTC met, uh the city of Arlington sent a letter to Rick Bailey, chair of the RTC, and Jill Jester, chair of the transit 2.0 subcommittee, uh, requesting the exploration of technically based transit authority under the leadership of the RTC and Transit 2.0 subcommittee, and I want to thank Trey and the staff for sending that out.

So maybe it'll help our meetings focus a little more.

So any questions or concerns?

Yes, ma'am.

Dr.

Odom Wesley.

There was an article in the Arlington report this morning about um a regional transit authority.

And it says the recommendation came from Arlington.

That's what he was referring to.

Is that what he just said?

Okay.

We sent a letter, it came out of Trey's office actually, and we had previously had discussions with RTC about this.

And essentially, you know, there's you have a number of non-member cities, Arlington being the largest in North Texas of a non-member city where we're not a member of a transit authority.

And what we have said is listen, we're willing to entertain the exploration of a high tech transit authority to explore the futuristic options associated with transit here in North Texas.

And uh I'm hoping that that will help to generate some willingness of both other other cities that are either members of other transit authorities and um other non-member cities as well to sit down and talk about what's what's the future hold for transportation and transit here in North Texas 20, 25, 30 years from now.

Is the answer gonna be continue to do a bunch of fixed route buses around here, or do we have to start thinking outside of the box on some technological advancements here, like we're doing with our autonomous vehicle program here in Arlington, like we're exploring with Evitol and things such as that.

So we're help hoping that at least that exploration gets uh a census of collaboration going amongst all cities here in North Texas, and I think it already has.

We've had reports from media reaching out to us, and I've had uh uh two phone calls from mayors today about what's going on with it and and happy to work with us on it.

But that letter really helps because the meetings that we've had.

I when I got on the subcommittee, I thought that's what we were gonna be doing, but it turned out to be something totally different.

And uh I really believe there's people within the cities that are involved with DART, they've taken over that committee, trying to get information that doesn't need to come to us.

So I really thank you all for sending that letter because it's I feel like it's just we're sitting there for 45 minutes an hour and not getting anything done.

So I don't want to get the cart ahead of the horse, but there are discussions going on currently right now with member cities and Dart regarding some of their issues associated with cost, and uh it seems like they're getting close to having a resolution to stuff.

Yeah, mayor, thanks for doing that.

And uh I think and Molly, not to get beyond what's on the agenda, but is that something we should have a council discussion to say?

Because I think we all think that's a pretty good piece, and really start taking a lot of ownership as a council and like fully here's where we're trying to go.

I don't know if it's ready for a presentation yet of where we go, and then start automatically.

We know legislative session is season is starting soon.

So do we start that process?

Um yeah, the council discussion on what part of that on the regional taking ownership of a regional uh transportation coalition or whatever we're calling it um on that high-tech piece.

Yeah, I I mean I think that's what we're doing now.

Um I'll let Molly address that, but I think that's what we're doing now.

You know, essentially what we're saying is we're not taking a position one way or the other.

We're willing to explore the possibility.

And that's what I'm saying, Mayor.

Should we as a council tell you more and possibly then you get to a resolution, you get to the things of saying we want to explore this and then possibly put in our legislative uh agenda for this upcoming year?

Yeah, I think that's something we also discussed during our council retreat when Michael Morse was in.

That's the letter you sent was a letter that he asked for because he kept asking when's that letter coming coming?

So we did discuss it during the retreat, but we probably need a refresh on that.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's why that letter was sent.

Council member Peel.

It seems to me like it's an opening for the development of an intermediate level participation level in DART at a lower cost than a one cent of your whole sales tax.

And you know, we've always kind of talked about maybe something like that could make sense for a future council if the cost was not so steep.

Is there any intelligence out there on whether or not that's what's happening in these discussions?

And I mean it's more than likely than not, it's not something that Arlington would ever find attractive, but a lower price point entry would be a major compromise on the part of Dart given their history.

Any any ideas?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to agree with uh council council member uh hog that I think this council needs to be a little bit more involved rather than just getting the the reports every two weeks of what's going on.

Maybe we need to take a little bit more interest in regional transportation in terms of being informed about what's going on and and being participating, uh putting ideas out there, and just letting it be known because I I think there are there are people who ask me what are we doing?

What why aren't you guys working on regional transportation?

They're not aware of what the work that's already been done by yourself and the other members of the committee.

So if we could uh discuss that more in open forums, I think that would be helpful for the public.

We'll see if we can get more engaging.

Okay, thank you for that.

Any other questions or comments?

Suggestions, ideas.

Okay.

Anybody want to talk about Molly or regional transportation.

Future agenda items.

Anyone have anything that we need to talk about on future agenda items?

Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Yes, Mayor.

Uh I think many of our citizens know that Arlington is celebrating our sesquicentennial.

Can we get um update on what we're doing to celebrate?

You can.

I just realized I skipped D though.

Oh, the Tarrant County Mayor's Council.

Go back to that real fast, and then we can do your your thing just so I can not forget everything.

Um I participated in Tarrant County Mayor Council recently.

The only real thing that came out of there was uh Fort Worth was the showcase city this month, every month.

Each city gets to do a little dog and pony show of what they're doing.

Um Matty Parker came and presented about everything going on in Fort Worth.

I wish we had all of the acreage that Fort Fort Worth has available to them for development.

Uh that must be nice.

Um, but it she did brag as we did when we did our presentation that uh Tarrant County is home of the two safest cities in the entire state of Texas, Fort Worth ranked number one, Arlington ranked number two, and uh it was still refreshing to hear that we got it going on in Tarrant County.

And with that, um you want to know what we're doing specifically on all of that?

I don't know that any for the 150th anniversary.

I don't think we've had a report.

You want to get into this, Jay, or do you want to want me to talk about some of the other well it's the future agenda item?

I don't think we can talk about it today, right?

Oh but I don't think we've had an update.

Am I am I forgetting?

We can we can put on I I think it's gonna we'll put it on the future agenda item to come in and talk about some of the planning for Arlington's 150th and the United States 250th here.

Okay, anything else?

All right, with that, we're gonna stand adjourned and we'll see everybody downstairs at 6:30.

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