Yeah.

And then like something real fast.

Like they said, that's a beautiful half.

Just think we're having a big one.

Okay, folks, we'll go ahead and call it the afternoon, or technically, I guess this is the morning session.

And pursuant to BTCA Government Code Chapter Five Five One Point Zero Seven One Zero Seven Two And Zero Seven Four and Zero Eight Seven.

We will now go into an executive close session.

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

We close the executive session when we were in the other room just a little while ago.

So we're gonna move on down to three point one council priorities on enhanced mobility.

All right.

Um good afternoon, Mayor, members of city council.

So this is the quarterly opportunity to talk about one of your business plan, excuse me, your council priorities.

Um originally called enhanced regional mobility was established in 20 um 13 and renamed for 2026 um simply with enhanced mobility.

So we're gonna talk about um some of the business plan items here, and then we'll have some follow-up um discussion regarding some of the communications regionally regarding um transportation.

So just uh a few updates.

Um one thing you'll note that parentheses one uh slash three uh that references the new ADA requirements that take effect uh near the end of this near the end of this month, and so um those are a required designators uh that you'll see throughout the presentation depending on where we are there.

The OCI uh index is an important measure of the quality of our road surfaces as you're aware.

Um we have three different ratings, uh green, yellow, and red.

Uh we've had some slippage, and we'll talk a little more detail about the um increase in the number of miles that are rated red.

However, we've got some good news along that front uh in in reference to the 35 lane miles that are um underway or will be underway over the next year, so it will improve that score a little bit.

Uh the traffic uh management technology improvements are moving forward.

Um and so it's a technology um from a company called No Traffic to optimize uh first Matlock Road.

Um so in the second quarter uh you'll see this item on track.

And then the entertainment district pedestrian bridge uh conceptual design.

We're looking at three um areas there uh for potential for this first pedestrian bridge, Randall Mill and Collins, Sanford and Collins, and Randall Mill and ATNT uh way.

And so here um we've selected a firm called um Tylen, which specializes in bridges and it will complete a com conceptual design including landscaping and security elements.

And so the idea here really is to um more effectively separate pedestrians and vehicles in the entertainment district.

It's a certainly a very vulnerable uh situation every time we have an event with the number of pedestrians and vehicles entering that area.

And so we're hopeful um through development that this will help allay some of the concerns about pedestrian safety.

So sublet road, uh the rebuild, you see some images there of that completed project.

Um it was voter approved and began construction in May of 2023.

Uh currently it's a three-lane roadway with Orange Street bicycle lanes and a new bridge over key branch.

Also included sidewalks, water utility renewals, and a new storm drain system pavement markings and street signs and and street lights.

Um the first two references are Arlington on demand kind of active riders and completed rides, and so those are all uh well within the green uh and then our our handy train rides first quarter about 36,000 um handy train rides, and I know um the um transportation committee had a uh meeting a little earlier that you'll get an update on in a little while regarding more metrics there.

And then on time performance for handy train at 93% for the quarter.

So moving on to some additional scorecard measures.

Um you'll note in red, that's the OCI reference, but again, um we will actually have a net increase of about six miles in that red category once those 35 miles are completed.

Uh as far as our uh maintenance of our traffic signals, uh, we're at 100% of the uh the target for maintenance of those signals was completed, and then um let's say we we also have about three thousand of those that um needed to be referenced or maintained during the year, so uh more target there as well.

Some discussion about some upcoming projects.

Um we have um primarily through the sales tax again, the 35 lane miles um that'll be under construction, about 15.2 million dollars, a couple of different um maintenance strategies, including roadway reclamation, which would include Bernie Road, and that's from Greenoaks to City Limits.

It'll include Russell Curry Road from Eden to U.S.

Highway 287, Arbrook from Bowen to Malier, and then Beverly Lane and Garden Lane, all will be improved through uh roadway reclamation.

And then the concrete panel replacements will include Greenoaks, New York to Collins, Eden Road, uh Wicklow to Matlock, and then Sub Lead Road, Matlock Road to Collin Street.

And then finally, the Millen Overlay program.

We'll see improvements at Sanford between Bowen to Cousins, Mill Creek Neighborhood, Brown Boulevard, Collins Street to Hidden Ridge, and then the 2019 drainage ditch project, which is one of the joint projects.

So quite a bit of activity through that program.

Let's talk about some upcoming projects and initiatives.

Our safe streets program with the goal of 5% annually decreasing and up to zero deaths by 2050 is the goal.

Uh we've had some good news over the last year with the number of fatalities.

We had 37 the previous year and 30 last year.

Um there is a slight uptake uptick in the beginning of this year, but we're hoping that will stabilize and further reduce as the year continues.

And then the transportation group has a series of meetings and engagement updates that you see referenced on the slide for more activity relative to the safe streets program.

So this is a new section that we wanted to highlight to really talk about the opportunities that council has to engage on uh regional transportation projects.

And so these are the annual opportunities that currently exists through the RTC report outs monthly.

Um the presentations similar to this, four times a year.

Um our quarterly uh meetings uh often have this as a topic as well as the council retreats one coming up, which will have specific uh topic related to transportation and then the annual transportation services update.

In addition, there are opportunities that um you've taken advantage of specifically meeting one-on-one with staff on specific questions and uh initiatives that you have interest in.

So we wanted to really drive point uh drive home the the idea that there are a number of opportunities for um discussion on these topics.

This slide references um some communication uh recently over since last November, um starting with the council retreat, and um couple of letters that were requested relative to the high-speed rail and micro transit, and then the uh support for high speed rail.

Those two letters were not sent, um, but the technology-based transit authority uh letter was sent in January of 2026.

And then this next slide really refers to what's what's happening regionally in terms of some of the decisions that are that are being made, and so those member cities originally scheduled these votes due to concerns over high cost and and low ridership uh within DART.

So specifically, some of these cities really felt that their one cent tax uh was not their most efficient use of their funds, and they were not getting a sufficient uh return on investment.

As far as the local mobility funds, the return money must be used by cities for local transit related projects such as microtransit or infrastructure improvements, and then the transit 2.0 committee.

And then the transit 2.0 committee.

Um that one references to legislative approval required for the new Dart plan because it involves uh significant changes to the governance structure and legal and financial uh obligations therein.

So with that, uh certainly one of the opportunity for council to ask uh questions about anything within that presentation or other related matters.

We have uh a couple of uh staff members available for specific questions.

If I cannot answer them, any questions or comments for council?

Do you have a question?

Councilmember Delante.

Thank you, Lemwa, for the report.

I'm gonna address here what is being we've been discussing already in the past on presentations about the the road conditions, right?

So we have here uh the goal was 613 miles, so we have six forty nine miles uh below 50 OCI, yeah, 642.

Right.

So we 10 years ago the city had uh 10 percent of the streets uh below 50 OCI.

Now we have 20 percent of the streets according to the map that is available open data, uh little uh TX.gov.

Um, and we know uh this uh requires a significant uh change in approach to few cover the gap of 30 million dollars per year that we need for a road maintenance program that has been discussed here before.

Right.

That counting already with the reinstatement of the sales taxes uh dedicated for uh road maintenance.

So in that occasion last year, I asked what is the approach that we need to be taking.

And uh if we my question is if you guys take a good look at it in uh when you're bringing solutions for us, a new approach so we can get those roads back to 10 percent, 12 and a half percent.

That's what I that's probably what I heard on the presentation on the previous discussion uh to get the roads in a better condition.

Um twice as many roads an hour under uh 50 OCI uh compared to 10 years ago, and we're not gonna flat the curve, we're not gonna catch up, and the cost of doing nothing might be higher than we expected.

So, what do you guys have in mind to bring it over to us to make a decision?

Sure.

The the fundamental uh answer is is funding.

Uh frankly, there's there's there's not a uh a magic bullet on this at all, other than additional funding.

Um now, in terms of the different strategies that we deploy, um, we are certainly looking at at a couple of uh different ideas related to that, but we're not talking about substantive movement in terms of those numbers, absence um um unique funding formula that that we're still trying to define.

So I don't have an answer that's gonna get you to uh 10 percent um score on the on the red streets, um, but it's something that we certainly are hyper aware of and we're you know trying to uncover different strategies that might help us, uh but fundamentally it is a significant funding gap that we don't have a uh real solution for.

Thank you.

We'll continue discussing.

Absolutely.

Any other questions for Lemuel?

Thanks, sir.

All right, we're gonna go on down and discuss our informal staff reports for the sake of time.

Everybody's had an opportunity to review them.

We'll address any specific questions you may have about each of the staff reports.

We're gonna start with 4.1.

Yvonne's here to answer any questions you may have on our five-year professional service contract for 401k and 457 record keeper.

Any questions?

You got away with everything.

Look at that.

Perfect.

4.2.

Any questions regarding the commercial motor vehicle parking facilities?

The staff report on that.

I do.

Yes.

I don't mayor.

On the Stephen Yeah, on the report here.

Thank you.

Thank you for the the report for on the report.

You uh you go over what is the what other cities are doing and what can be done to create a uh dedicated parking, overnight parking for the trucks, so we can get them out of the uh residential areas and have a uh facility.

So I didn't see here some suggestions of you know areas in the city that are available for it.

I see here that we can do is is just take a decision from the council uh to create a parking.

Is that correct?

Uh Stephen Meyer for City Attorney's Office.

Uh Councilmember, for the currently private park, are you referring to private parking lots or the city doing parking lots?

Both.

We just need a solution.

So there are different options for a city-owned parking lot.

It would take some additional looking into to see what actual the options are, what's entailed with it, any drawbacks and the possibilities to do that.

With regard to the um private sector, that's actually, if I remember correctly, that's not a current use that's allowed within Arlington.

So that would take an ordinance amendment to allow something like that.

Well Councilmember Galante to add, um, Steven did some research, and we were unable to find any city in the state of Texas that was operating a publicly owned lot or or even any county for that matter, where you really see this as sort of state-owned facilities, um, rest stops, right?

That you might see on the side of a freeway.

Yeah.

But it's it's something that uh we can do it, right?

So it's not that we're not allowed doing it.

Correct.

If we find uh prohibited if we find a lot that is, you know, the city owned that is not we're not capitalizing and it's not gonna be uh uh hindrance for us.

At least we have a solution, not only a private solution, uh an amend uh an amendment to the ordinance.

That's one thing that we can look at it and find uh public uh facility that we can capitalize on the the piece of lot that is there.

That way we solve the problem having commercial trucks parking in the neighborhoods of which I think is it it's there and it's it's an everyday issue.

So is that correct?

So we can take a look at it.

Correct.

Legally, it's not prohibited.

It's the will of the council to explore a city-owned I'd like to know if my colleagues are willing to explore the solutions.

Yeah, I I'd struggle a little bit on trying to take city-owned property as the highest and best use so that we can park 18 wheelers on it to get them out of other neighborhoods.

I think there are sufficient ordinances out there that keeps vehicles like that that park in those specific areas, if if I'm not mistaken.

Um normally, if they're parking in those areas, it's they're doing it illegally, and it's a matter of enforcing the laws that are in place as it is.

And I I don't know that I'd be inclined to want to get into a parking lot business with the city of Arlington and trying to come up with something like that when we could use those properties, I think, for higher and better use than a parking lot for trucks.

So I council member Pham.

Well, Mr.

Mayor, um, I know they have the private parking lot that you gotta pay for it and on South Arlington and district number three is located on Webb Lane Row between New York on Weblin to 360.

It's called Web Lane Park in LLC.

I see a lot of trailer and tractor park there, but it costs money.

And these people that park illegally on the public roads in Arlington, they don't want to pay for that's an issue we have.

And then another issue we got is when the police put the red sticker in there, it used to be 72 hours, but recently they changed to 40A, and they scrape it up, they they took off a week or two later they came back again.

If we put in our red sticker, they do the same thing, but we should have given them a citation.

But I request last week, you know, if uh city office can look in that the two uh uh city owning, so we can do something and add the fine, like if they do it one time, we got one red sticker.

If you take it off, and we have the USD um United State Department of Transportation number, and we got the VIN number, we can always track it back, and then the next time they come back, we can give them a citation.

There's no such thing as warning and no, shaking hand and give you hugs.

Hey, don't do that again.

It doesn't work.

They keep coming back.

Okay.

So, or we can put some uh no parking sign.

We did that on the street, uh, thanks to council member Gonzalez.

We talked to Mr.

Brooks, and thanks to DP DPW on the corner, the T Bow in the section of Shoshone and Tony Wanio, they used to park the big truck all the time with trailer and without trailer.

And it's in the day that uh DPW is installed in no parking sign.

I don't see that issue anymore.

Because they know they're gonna get ticket.

And um, you know, that uh that's the only way to do that.

And recently uh I discussed it, uh Deputy City Manager Jennifer Wickman about uh north northwest, north east green note that go from 303 run north all the way to Chase, East Chase, and on the left side, on the west side that Fort Worth.

So the other day I had a meeting, uh team meeting with uh Folkworth Council member Deborah People.

She would reunize talk meet her staff and her uh police sergeant, and they we enforce that.

They would come out and give us a citation, and then we would install uh the no parking sign because uh most of that size is uh it's not the the bowling line, it's not the uh the road to get like a little straight line and zigzag and all belong to Fort Word.

So at least I reach out to uh council member Deborah People and she would nice enough and uh sit down with me the other day.

We do it, we had a great conversation with her staff and the police officer.

So uh at least we got to work together with our uh elected official from Navin City, and we can eliminate some of that stuff.

So that's what I did.

But the only way I know that parking to pay for the one on Weblin parking LOC is is on Weblin Road down South Arlington.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Mr.

Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Um you mentioned an ordinance that doesn't allow trucks to park in Walmart parking lots like that.

I mean, is that what that is?

I mean, there's there's so much space, and we see them all the time.

No, with regards to what's not allowed is having a designated commercial space within Arlington solely for truck storage parking.

Okay.

It's a commer uh use under the UDC for something like that.

If someone is just parking in the Walmart parking lot, that may be a city ordinance violation under, say, the parking chapter, but it's not something where it's an illegal use in by Walmart in that aspect.

That's where you see most of the cities like Waxahatchie, most of those trucks are are put there.

And I don't know if that's a solution, but at least that's something that we can think about.

I mean, I don't want parking lots in Walmart.

I'm just thinking of the one by my house, the one on South Cooper down there.

I mean, there's there's a whole left area where it's always nobody's ever parked there.

And you know, if we want to get them rid of the streets, maybe we can come up with some solution or think about working with Walmart or I don't know.

I mean, it's just, you know, I I know this has been coming up a lot, and you guys keep hearing this over and over, and there's no real good solution.

I'm just trying to find some some type of working with somebody else to see if we can make it work.

So thank you.

Any to finalize here, just to follow up of what the other council members said.

I was the one bringing up this, or the North Arlington is a real problem.

It's a real problem in North Arlington.

We have trucks parking everywhere in the neighborhood streets.

And they're destroying the neighborhood streets.

They come with their trailers, and those trucks are coming with license plates from Illinois for another state out of state license plates.

I take pictures of them, I call 9-11 like the chief, the police chief asks us to do it, and next day they are there again.

The following day they are there again.

We didn't have to change the procedure to solve the problem that we have the residents asking us to solve the issue.

We either have to enforce, and there's no warning anymore, and really ticket those and and find them.

And what I've been seeing, the police is doing a good job.

They going after.

They are pushing them out, and they are parking exactly what Mr.

Rogan's always said.

They're parking on Walmarts, they park on private businesses.

And north of Waffle House, Waffle House at night, you you'll drive them callings, you're gonna see two or three trucks parked there in the guitar center.

They are parking uh legally because really apparently there's nowhere to go.

And I will ask the the consent ask you, mayor.

Let's take a uh another dive on the end and give options.

Either either uh take a look at the ordinance, either create a business that is a parking for trucks, or explore solutions.

And I agree with you that it's not the highest best use of the land, probably, but maybe temporarily, like for one, you know, uh uh a land that we don't have use for it.

Temporarily, we create a parking.

And then once we have a development on that on that property, then we then we we don't have a parking lot anymore.

But we need to take action.

They are out there in the streets on the on the neighborhood streets and they're destroying the streets because they're heavy, they are not supposed to be there.

Chief Disco, I know you're not scheduled to talk on this, but you're sitting there, so I'm gonna take advantage of you.

Yes, sir.

Back in 1804, when I was a cop.

We had uh uh we had units that would weigh trucks and do we have we still have similar units, correct, within the police department.

So why don't why don't we do this to maybe do that and ask you to go on back and talk to Chief Jones and see if we can get some type of staff report that could demonstrate how we could have more stringent uh enforcement of these parking violations that we're talking about out there and maybe target some of these areas rather than looking at creating parking lots or other options for stuff, and let's see if we can get a staff report to target.

Could you do that with the chief force, please?

I can, yes, sir, mayor.

Thank you.

Okay.

I appreciate it.

Maybe any other questions on 4.2 for Steven.

All right.

Let's move on down to 4.3, Chief Disco will uh get you back up here.

Any questions on the door-to-door solicitation for the Chief?

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Chief, for being here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so what I read, it sounds like any door-to-door selling, they need number one a permit, they're supposed to register.

Yes, they have to get a permit through our records department at the police department.

This year we've had uh 29 applications, and we've approved 27 door-to-door soliciting applications that go through our records department for people to be doing this lawfully in the city of Arlington.

And that includes everybody.

What about like Girl Scouts selling cookies?

They get permits.

If you sell if you sell any kind of item door to door, you have to have a permit in the city of Arlington.

Okay, and they're supposed to wear an orange vest.

Yes, but we're enforcing that.

Now, what if you're going door to door and you're not selling anything?

You're passing out pamphlets or you're campaigning.

Well, uh, they wouldn't fall under the door-to-door soliciting ordinance, but obviously we have other laws where if you're on private property and you're not welcome there and someone asks you to leave, we could trespass someone.

There's other things we can do to keep people off people's property if they don't want them on there.

Many times though, that takes the homeowner calling us.

And first of all, that's the most important part of this is people got to call us when people are in their neighborhoods and they're not supposed to be there.

And uh instead of sending emails two days later, give us the opportunity to go out there and identify the person, work with the person, educate the person.

But yes, if there are if there are people just knocking on people's doors and they're not selling anything, that makes it a little bit more challenging.

But I think that behavior might be seen as as irregular or suspicious, and it might warrant us coming out and checking out the person and and maybe doing our due diligence to contact that person.

Yeah, I think they're not always selling something.

Sometimes they're just passing out pamphlets, and now we're in campaign season and we've got candidates knocking on doors campaigning.

So they are not covered under this ordinance.

The door-to-door solicitors no, they're not covered under that ordinance.

And they don't have to wear the vest.

No.

Because that yeah.

That that just strictly if someone is selling items.

Just if they're selling.

So we have no control on other people going door to door, unless they're selling.

Well, I think they're uh I mean, obviously, I don't know all the campaign rules, but I do think that if you're leaving materials on somebody's porch that they don't want, uh, there's there's potentially other things we could do uh that might be seen as littering and might be seen as trespassing.

I mean, I think we would have a conversation with that person versus trying to write a ticket for something like that, though.

Yeah, I saw that also included if people would just take in orders or work done that because you'll get people roofers come through this is definitely gonna cover roofers, people uh soliciting for fast food restaurants, things like that, all those things are gonna be covered by this order.

Painting your house number on the curb.

Absolutely, that would be covered.

Okay, yes.

Hey Chief uh when you apply for the permit, only one person apply, get uh the batch for an individual.

So if I got five employees for my company, I gotta pay for five of them, right?

You got you have to each person has to be vetted and have a permit.

The permit's not transferable from one person to another.

So if I campaign next year on a knock on door, I can put me, I can ask, I can buy the permit, right?

That's correct.

Because even doing I'm not gonna sell anything, but you know, it's just I should go ahead and put you to permit to be safe.

You know how much it costs for the permit?

The permit is there's no charge for that.

No change, it's just a background check that we're completing.

All right, thank you, Chief.

Councilmember Boxel.

I would just wanted to remark that I have been out in the neighborhood block walking this last couple of weeks, and I have seen several signs that say no soliciting, but underneath the sign is a note saying except for Girl Scout cookies.

The cookies must be good.

Well, I suggest you carry a box of Girl Scout cookies with you when you block walk.

Any other questions for Chief Disc Dishko?

Yes, Dr.

Odin Wesley.

I guess let me just conclude.

So do you perceive this as a problem in Arlington?

I think you said you had 29 requests and granted 27 last year.

I do I do I perceive that people are soliciting without permits.

Yes, I do.

I think the the education component for all of us in this room is to tell our public to call us if somebody's in their neighborhood and they're not supposed to be there.

If there's people being having their doors knocked on with someone trying to sell something, we should be called.

We should be allowed to come out and check to see if that person has a permit, if they're following all the rules and doing what they're supposed to, because as you saw in the background portion of this, there's a vetting to this.

We want to make sure we know who's going door to door in our communities, and we want to make sure that are following the rules.

So that's a very important part of it.

I do think people are violating this.

We should have a lot more of those permits being given out.

And the other thing that a citizen could do is put up a no solicitation sign.

They could absolutely do that.

And now, does that mean that the person is going to read the sign and not come knock on their door?

It doesn't.

But if they do violate that, that gives us an enforceable action against them where we could issue them a citation.

Okay, so it's complaint driven.

We need to educate our public.

Yes, we we can't go do anything about it three days later.

We need to go out there when this is occurring and allow our officers to contact the person that's that's soliciting.

Because as you guys may well, I mean, you guys are are aware of this.

Many times it's a company sending some young person out there, and they may not be the right person that needs to get the citation.

It may need to be that company owner or the person that's driving that sale.

Because you know, sometimes these are just $12 an hour folks that are just trying to make an honest living, and they didn't know any of the rules, so education can be part of that.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Barbara O'Neill.

It is a problem that I asked for it to be on the agenda because I mean it's it's been a big issue, and I know Fort Worth did some changes to their ordinance at that, so I don't know if there's anything we can do, like you say, it's mostly enforcement, and also people need to complain or let them know.

So one thing I've been telling my citizens or anybody that reaches out is ask them, do you have a permit?

And they usually say yes, like, well, I'm gonna make sure, and I'm gonna call, and they usually stop.

And so I think that's really important.

Uh, but uh citizens have to, you know, have to get involved.

Uh, I know there was uh one gentleman that called me all the time because uh uh state rep was sending people to put stuff on his door and he kept complaining.

Y'all went after the guy and said, hey, no solicitation means nothing.

And so thank you for doing that.

But it's like our citizens think we can just drive around looking for these people, but we can't, so it's really complaint driven, and and you all need to see, like you say, where it's at, not take a photo.

You have to catch them in the act.

So well, and I think the other important part of that, councilman, is that permit has to be displayed where they can see it.

They shouldn't have to ask for it, it should be seen already.

That's that's good to know.

I'll be sure and let that it has to be it has to be visible, it's part of the requirement of the ordinance.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hunter.

Thank you.

I was just gonna say in Southeast Arlington, one of the biggest ones that we see is the roofing companies.

But a lot of people do have the no solicitation on their doors, and I've heard stories of when they ask them to leave, they're still kind of getting a little bit aggressive.

But so this is a great presentation that we can go back and tell our residents.

So thank you for this.

Yeah, I think that's an important one for people to call us on too, because if you've asked somebody to leave your property and they're refusing, that escalates that to an arrestable criminal trespass offense.

Real quick.

Councilmember the Office of Communication on the police.

So do you guys post on the on the on your Facebook page what the requirements for uh door to door?

Yeah, and they're in the city ordinances, which are also posted online where everybody can see exactly what the is it over there or not?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

The ordinances are posted online.

Oh, we're gonna we can help uh publicizing this, making people aware what they need to do, right?

Yes, sir.

So somebody's walking without the vest, it's already a red flag.

If they if they have the vest and they try to disguise and they don't have the permit visible, another red flag.

If they don't have any fee, call the police.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Councilmember Hogg.

I think it's a good discussion.

I think we also have to remember the First Amendment does protect this, right?

Now, the first amendment allows us to put reasonable, and the old our lawyers look around the word reasonable is in there.

So if we need to look at a policy, I think y'all said it right more communication, because I think we already have pretty reasonable ordinance in there, but more communication to our residents of how to alert APD and some of these things to those.

In listen, it's those bad culprits that always cause the issue.

But let's let's we we just always have to be careful, like this is a very First Amendment protected item, but we can put reasonable things in place to uh to limit it or making it make it more appealing to our residents.

So that's all I'd say, Mayor.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions for the chief?

Thank you, Chief.

Appreciate you.

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

Uh Councilmember Boxel 4.4, please.

Okay, this the community neighborhood development committee met this morning.

Um all members were present.

We talked about the annual action plan for the uh for the program year for Arlington HUD entitlement.

The grants management team presented an updated 2026 annual action plan uh final review.

We're still waiting on getting uh the the actual number that we will be allotted by the federal government.

Um we're hoping to get that later this week.

Um during the meeting, the staff also provided updates on public comments received to date and reviewed how priorities align with the city's five-year consolidated plan.

So a couple of the uh key points from the presentation.

The purpose of the plan is to represent year two of the city's 2025 to 2029 five-year consolidated plan.

The annual action plan outlines specific activities and funding allegations for CDBG, home and ESG during July the 1st, 2026 to June the 30th, 2027.

Um estimated uh estimated, this is the estimated numbers three three million uh 9678 for CDBG, 1,145 for home, and 280,456 for ESG.

Um so the allocation adjustments.

We we discussed um what we would do in the event that these allocations are less than what we're expecting, and we determined that if a variant if there was a variance of either 10 10 percent less than what we're expecting, that that we would go back and review all of the applicants and see which ones we need to fund rather than doing an across the board cut.

Um 22 nonprofit agencies expected to receive support.

The funding supports council priorities, strengthening our neighborhoods and economic growth.

Um the citizen participation comment period from March the 12th to April the 10th, 2026, which is three days from today.

So you still have three days to make a comment if you would like.

Uh two public hearings were held on March 19th and March 31st.

A couple of other discussion points.

We discussed homelessness, homelessness funding concerns.

Committee members expressed concern that Arlington may not be contributing enough to uh general fund dollars toward homelessness compared with the scale of need.

They discussed the 280,000 dollars in ES fund ESG funds being insufficient on its own and emphasize the need for broader public transparency about city funded homelessness efforts.

Um staff share that the city homelessness response involves police, code compliance, and the heart team with some support funded by the general fund, such as behavioral health positions and encampment cleanup.

Uh the public engagement and transparency members express interest in expanding public discussions about homelessness, possibly through a town hall, community forums or integrating the topic into counts and council budget sessions.

They emphasized the public need to clear need for clarity on cost of various strategies.

Uh, for example, tiny home villages, trade-offs, such as tax increases or reductions in other services, and realistic expectations of what additional funding could achieve.

So that is the that is the end of my report.

Thank you.

Any questions for council member Boxel?

Thank you, ma'am.

We'll move on down to Councilmember Gonzalez 4.5, please.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

The Transportation and Municipal Infrastructure Committee met today.

Uh we had a corn present, everybody was there.

Uh we received a presentation on several handy handy trans items.

Handy trans staff revisited proposed updates to the handy tram policies and procedures.

The committee approved the implementation of an eligibility renewal process in which handy trans clients are required to renew their handy trans status every two years.

Part of the updated information is uh what kind of um whether they're wheelchair bound or whether it's uh you know crutches or whatever it is, so they they want to keep up to date so they knew what kind of truck or van needed to go pick them up.

The committee also moved approved moving from a two-week booking window to a seven-day booking window.

This change will reduce late cancellations and no shows and increase system efficiency.

Then we also discussed the handy trans service area boundary and trips taken outside the city limits.

As a reminder, the handy trans service area includes city limits plus one and a half miles outside of the city limits.

Staff presented data on all the trips taken to and from an area outside the city limits from December 24 through November 25 or 2025.

They also gave us information on non-residents that use the service and how much those trips cost.

And then they provide information on the top medical destinations outside the city limits and the cost of those trips.

There's a lot of activity outside the city limits.

Uh, to give you an example, 974 users took over 50,000 one-way trips to and from 18 different cities outside of Arlington.

165 non-resident Handy Trans riders from those eight cities, took over 20,000 trips at an estimated cost of $655,000.

And over 2,000 trips were taken to and from the six top medical destinations outside the city at an estimated cost of 64,000.

The committee concluded the meeting by discussing potential options for recouping some of these costs associated with service outside the limits.

Excuse me.

These options were presented, and the committee agreed that they would like the staff to look at all three in more detail.

Uh option A was to consider asking cities to help pay for the cost of the trips that were coming into or not of our city since both residents and businesses are benefiting.

Option B was to explore asking businesses in other cities to contribute to the cost of trips to and from their location, and finally, option C was to look at developing zones so that trips that go outside of the city might cost more.

Staff will come back in the near future with follow-up information related to these three options.

So any members want to add anything or uh is there any questions to this report?

Any questions, comments from council?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

4.6.

Mr.

Buskin, do we have any appointments, boards or commissions this evening?

Thank you, Mayor.

We have two appointments to boards and commissions this evening.

Thank you, sir.

Evening agenda items 4.7.

Any council members have questions on the evening agenda items?

Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Have a couple of questions.

Um 8.8 on this evening's agenda.

Let me remember what it was.

Oh, yeah.

This is the um sponsorship agreement at active.

What's going to be powered by THR?

Do I need Gary here?

So is there somebody who can ask?

Come on in, Gary.

Good afternoon.

Hi, Gary.

Thank thank you for being here.

I I got a call this week asking a question about THR being at the active and taking up parking spaces.

Can you share with me what we're doing there?

So this agreement specifically is uh the same agreement that we've had basically for the past 10 plus years.

It's a organizational kind of broad department sponsorship, so this has no parking entanglements with active.

Oh, this is not the one where we're selling the naming rights and giving THR some.

That one was a couple meetings ago.

Okay, we already approved.

Yes, ma'am.

This is uh kind of a citywide part department wide uh agreement.

Okay, and so there's no parking, so there will not be.

Okay, the complaint I got was that THR was there taking up a bunch of parking spaces.

That's not the case.

That's not not the we're aware of, but we can look into it for sure.

Okay, I don't know exactly what day it was, but I was contacted.

Yeah, unless unless they had a rental out there for that type of thing, that would occur.

Uh, but that would be the same for anybody that's using that facility that has a rental space, but as of right now, there's no specific parking allocation for them in the I could think of was if they had like a mobile health unit out there and it was taking up spaces.

I could think of if they had like a mobile health unit out there, and it was taking up spaces.

Okay.

I can I can look into that and get that.

That's not that's not an evening agenda item right now.

That's not the agenda item.

Yeah.

The sponsorship agreement.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

Any other questions on evening agenda items?

Oh, I have one more.

Yes.

Not for Gary.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, let's see.

Thanks, Gary.

8.19.

The um election polling places.

Okay.

I see we have six early voting locations.

Um is this any different than what we previously have had?

I know it does include TCC, but it does not include UTA.

That's correct.

UTA was not included on the list.

Um in 2025, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 2216, which had several changes related to storage of election equipment.

Um, one of the changes requires the equipment to be stored in a locked room during the entire voting period.

Um Terrant County reached out to the university to try to determine if they would have space where they could lock the equipment during the entire voting period, and they weren't able to come up with a solution for a place to hold early voting there.

Um so they have not used that site since May of 2025.

They didn't use it in November of 2025 or in the Senate District 9 runoff earlier this year, or the primaries.

Um I believe the uh commissioner's office also attempted to reach out to the university and they were not successful in trying to find a different spot on campus.

So that's why UTA was not included.

Is that the only site that's been removed from the list?

For early voting, yes.

Yes.

What about on the election day?

Election day, the only shift was uh we previously used the Ron Wright Library, uh, but we've since shifted to active in in that part of town.

Okay, and that started in November of 2025.

November 25, okay.

Yes.

One um additional question at the uh El Zodam Athletic Center.

I know long well, some time ago, they used the sidekicks room upstairs, and then I thought the decision was made that it was more accessible if we use the burn room downstairs, but I noticed on this year's polling locations, they're back to the sidekicks room, which is upstairs.

I'd have to double check um why they made that change.

I know they you're correct, they have used the burn room.

Um I'm not sure what the reasoning was for shifting to sidekicks, but I can certainly check on that.

Yeah, can we look into it and see if we can't keep it in the burn room?

Because what I hear from the citizens is it's it's too much walking to get to the sidekicks room.

Yes, ma'am, I can certainly check on that.

Thank you.

Any other evening agenda items?

Okay, issues relative to city or tech stop projects.

Any questions or comments?

Seeing none.

Uh council external committee and training reports will start with Mr.

Gonzalez with RTC transit vision subcommittee.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Uh the vision subcommittee met virtually on Wednesday, March 25th.

Uh connected and waited almost 40 minutes to or 30 minutes to get on to be accepted, and I was not allowed into the meeting, and they don't know what caused it, so they apologize.

So I do not have a report.

Thank you, sir.

Why don't you go on to Terrent Regional Water District Advisory Committee?

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

The Tarrant Regional Water District uh advisory committee met in person on Wednesday, March 25th.

During the meeting, we elected advisory committee officers for 2026.

CB team who is with uh town regional water district was elected, was re-elected as chair.

I was elected as a vice chair, and Fort Worth Councilman Carlos Flores was elected to Secretary.

Uh TRWD has submitted applications to the state water implementation fund for Texas, uh, other as no other as known as SWIFT for two major projects, which could secure low interest loans and possibly some grant funding.

Uh this is obviously a positive step towards stabilizing future water rates impacted by capital improvement plan.

Additionally, the TRW is reevaluating several capital improvement projects in response to advisory committee input, which could lead to further cost reductions.

Overall, it was a productive meeting that demonstrates between the advisory committee and members of TRW.

D.

Thank you, Mayor.

That is the end of my report.

Any questions?

And I do have to report Alex.

I mean, he he goes there and he he's really um knowledgeable of what he talks.

I'm proud to be next to him and listen to him.

And uh we took two staff members also, and they're very acknowledged.

So it's really proud to be part of Arlington to be in that room.

Cool.

We have great staff, and they're well respected by everybody there.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hogg, North Texas Council of Government's executive board, please.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

We met uh March 26th on Thursday, our normal meeting time, and uh as you can imagine, uh a lot of FIFA talk again is some allocations.

Um, Mr.

Brooks had me prepared.

Um, we, as you all know, um, council of governments funded our lot eight parking lot improvements that came in under budget.

Um, and so we reallocated and made the request to make some other changes to the expo in e-sports for some extra money.

Um, I was prepared to fight for that $60,000, and it went through really easy.

So uh zero problem whatsoever.

So we do have that approved.

But uh some other big items that are coming up.

There the council of governments was approved, as y'all all probably heard.

There was a 61 million dollar federal grant um approved by Department of Homeland Security and uh FEMA for host cities, and that was given um to the council of governments to fund for our Dallas area.

So it will be um allocated, and it's based on pre-approved expenses, and it's a reimbursement-based structure.

So we can reimburse for police, fire, um, any of our costs that are coming through there.

There is a list of included cities.

You have to be hosting something within there, and uh while we didn't hear every detail of how it's gonna be approved, it is based on, as you said, your expenses.

So if you're just hosting a city, you're just hosting one of the teams, you have less expenses than than what the Dallas Convention Center or Arlington were gonna have hosting the game.

So we will be applying that.

Um, it'll be a four-month time frame um to go through and get those reimbursements.

So um we did add one city in there.

Irving was not on the list, so we did have to have Irving um to the list of approved jurisdictional um cities in there.

We also had multiple other FIFA transportation updates.

Um, there's an additional 10 million dollars FanGel Transit funding we received.

Um, this is mainly going to be used for transit passes for media personnel.

Um, also uh volunteer transportation to venues and charter buses replacing transit authorities.

Um of the other things I think people will find interesting is we've had multiple reports, but we get more.

They will be running four car train operations for a full 30-day period.

Um, this is a lot to keep them all together, so it's an extra cost of what they're doing.

Um, also with road closures and tow truck stagings, and they are also planning multiple tests of this to run um coming over for baseball games uh for the rangers.

So we will see um the pieces that are brought through in our FIFA talk.

Um, and by law amendments, we did get into uh they'll all come up for the general June 12th General Assembly for the council of governments.

Um big pieces, and we corrected it.

Um, some of the cities, as you know, we are guaranteed a spot.

Um, some folks wanted to make it where if someone didn't appoint, then the board would be allowed to appoint.

Um, Mr.

Flores, uh Dallas, and myself, and some others said no, no, no, no, we get to determine who who's appointed instead of the council of governments because Dallas sometimes in the past has left a seat empty and vacant for a while.

So that is just a little fix.

Um, the board can appoint if someone hasn't been voting on, but not for large cities that are guaranteed spots from there.

Um, also big piece transportation search.

It is in process.

Um, the application deadline just passed, or it's about to come up on the deadline.

Um, and interviews will start, and they're hoping for June, July as uh of a timing of selection um for that.

And the panel will include three members from the executive board and from the RTC to be able to make that determinations um from what they're doing.

And then the last thing um they we did move our council of governments board meeting to um from June 25th because there's a FIFA match, so we're moving it up uh early that morning to be able to go through that process so that everyone who has to drive to Arlington doesn't get caught in potentially all the FIFA traffic, um, which we'll see.

I don't think anyone really knows what it's gonna be like, but we're preparing for that.

That's our report.

Any questions for council member hog?

Thank you, sir.

Uh I'll address the Tarrant County Mayor's Council.

We met yesterday in downtown Fort Worth.

I think we had about 18 mayors in Tarrant County present, and about 20, there's another eight or 10 representatives from other cities that were there representing their city.

Um the biggest most important thing that came out of there was a presentation by Dr.

Brian Byrd, who is the director of public health for the Tarrant County, and his epidemiologist was there as chief epidemiologist was there with him to talk about Terrant County's preparation of the World Cup.

It seems like everybody has World Cup preparation.

Um two things of note that were addressed were something called the nor norovirus.

I don't know if anybody else has heard of the norovirus.

I hadn't heard of it, but I was told by Dr.

Byrd that it is something you do not want to get.

Um it is a very severe gastrointestinal uh illness that will make your life miserable for three days or so.

Um the problem with neurovirus is that they are seeing European countries starting to come up with some of this stuff.

So they're trying to track those in the United States to see if anybody's coming in.

But the big problem is hand sanitizer and stuff like that doesn't protect you from the norovirus.

It doesn't get off of you.

Um you actually have to scrub yourself with soap and water to get that off.

Um makes me want to stay away from everybody.

Uh there's also a new strand of uh COVID that is out there that um apparently has been more fatal in young people uh than it is in older people.

And he says that's an anomaly because typically speaking, older people are more susceptible to these type of illnesses, but in this particular strand of COVID, the younger people are being hit even harder.

So they're tracking everything, they're looking at the countries of origin on what type of illnesses and diseases they've been known to bring in.

Um remember a few years ago there was Ebola virus out of Dallas they had, and they want to make sure that they don't start attracting those type of things here during the World Cup.

So uh other than that, uh Wattaga presented on their um spotlight on the city and told us all about Wataga.

So any questions.

Yeah.

All right.

Uh future agenda items.

Council has future man, uh you and Ms.

Boxel race to get your hands up.

We're gonna go, ladies first.

Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I would like an uh ALPR data safety update on data collected in Arlington.

That's the uh colloquial term is the PLOC uh safety system.

So recently it's been reported that there have been data breaches by third-party vendors ending up on the internet search sites, open to the public.

Uh and there are also concerns about accuracy.

And so uh if you remember when we instigated this program a few years ago, that was one of the issues that I brought up that was that was of concern to me.

So I think that uh we need probably needed an update anyway, but in light of these new concerns, I'd like an update about our vendor and whether there have been any complaints lodged and just a general report about our ALPR um data collection.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Pham.

Uh yes, uh I um I had a question for city attorney, Miss Uh Marley Shortal.

Uh I think last time we have the um a future agenda.

I bring up the uh the uh the parking up soon vehicle, uh chapter 5.07 uh in Arlington and chapter 4.2 recoperation authorized towing.

Have your staff been working on that see we can uh well can we get the uh yes, and I believe we were gonna connect with you to to discuss as opposed to per mayor's request, not to bring back as an informal staff report.

Oh yeah.

Uh thank you.

Any other future agenda items?

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Yes, Mayor, thank you.

I know we got an email from our uh city manager, but I did see a report the other day that got me kind of concerned.

And uh I I know we're taking care of but uh workers comp uh it's across the the DFW, and that's an issue that they're having people are having cities are having trouble with workers' compensation companies, and I just want to make sure that you know it's not affecting anybody else.

I mean, not just first responders, but uh anybody that works in the city, so if just a report.

You want just sort of an informal report to you on this.

Okay.

Um, Councilmember Galante.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'll like to propose for uh uh take a look on the boards and commissions policy statement uh to see what what is the eligibility for people to serve on the boards uh and also continue serving the boards when they run for office.

I appreciate it.

Okay.

Any other questions, comments on future agenda items?

All right.

Well, thank you all very much.

We're gonna adjourn the afternoon work session, and we will see everybody downstairs at 6:30.

We are hereby adjourned.

And it was part of the Great Southwest Industrial District, and so he believed this.

He was an early advocate of public-private partnerships and the fact that we could have this large industrial complex district where business was being generated, jobs were being created, coupled with entertainment that would keep people here and keep them coming, which would theoretically, and it did and still does a lower tax base for the citizens.

It would be supported by entertainment activities, people coming and spending money here, staying in hotels, eating in restaurants, and of course, large business interests wanted to be around uh happening going place.

I did see how much he wanted to have Arlington grow and in a positive way.

He really did.

He he wanted to promote the economic development, and he had been to school at the University of Southern California.

He saw what the area was like, and he just wanted to have that much opportunity for people in Arlington.

My grandfather's journey for Major League Baseball really began uh in 1958.

1958 is when it all started, I would say.

Um and he began writing every major league owner uh from Wall through O'Malley uh to horror stone him with the giant.