Check mic check.

Mic check for mobs.

Check, check, check one, two.

Oh, okay.

One, two, three, four, check, mic check one, two, three, four.

Check, check.

All right.

I don't know if the rest of the room is good.

No, I just have to see that.

There we go.

Good evening, everybody.

Well, you say we get this show on the road and call the Arlington City Council meeting to order.

Um if I can get my stuff together.

I'm going to ask Reverend Kate McGee from the Westminster Presbyterian Church to please come forward for an invocation.

Please stand if you can.

Thank you, Mayor Ross.

Before my invocation, I'm also going to mention that I am a summit high school mom.

And I am so proud of our basketball team.

That's all.

We plan this perfectly.

Perfectly.

Perfectly.

All right, let's pray.

Creator God, we humbly come before you asking for your blessing on our city and its leaders.

We give thanks for our mayor, city council members, city manager, and other city staff members who serve our community with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

We ask your blessing on those who serve on city boards and commissions as well.

Continue to sustain and uplift them in their leadership of our wonderfully diverse city.

As we kick off early voting, we give thanks for all of those willing to engage in public service in its variety of forms.

We pray for thoughtful, forward-thinking conversations that focus on the public good and the possibilities for our people here.

Football team lease extensions, housing developments, and gas wells may not seem at first glance to be things you're concerned with.

God on high, but you desire the welfare of the city, the welfare of its people, the peace and wholeness and justice, not just for some but for all.

So may your wisdom guide all the decisions that are made tonight, especially those concerning the poor, the hungry, the lost, and the least of these.

Loving God, you know that these are uncertain times for many of our city residents.

Fears and doubts lurk around every corner.

Help us stay focused on the differences we can make, on the good we can create, on the light we can share in the work that lies before us.

May we continue to lift up the American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all of your beloved children.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

One nation under God, an individual with liberty and justice for all.

And whereas in the Arlington area, high priority areas, including downtown Arlington and the entertainment district, represent some of the highest concentrations of children in need of advocacy.

And whereas court appointed special advocates, CASA of Tarrant County serves nearly 900 children annually, yet approximately 400 children in our community are still waiting for a volunteer advocate.

And whereas a CASA volunteer often becomes the most consistent adult present in a child's life, focusing on one child at a time to ensure their voice is heard when critical decisions are made.

Whereas this consistent advocacy is transformative, helping to create a new normal defined by stability and hope in making children less likely to reenter the foster care system.

And whereas the City of Arlington recognizes the critical work of CASA volunteers in protecting our community's most precious resources, our children.

Now, therefore, I, Jim Ross, mayor of the City of Arlington, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Child Abuse Prevention Month, which I'll eat to get aware.

Thank you.

I'm Natalie Stalmach.

I'm with CASA of Tarrant County.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, City Staff, and concerned citizens that are here.

CASA is a volunteer powered organization that advocates for children in foster care.

While there are certain areas of the county that have higher rates of child abuse than others, children are victims of child abuse and neglect in every zip code in Arlington.

So if ever you've thought about a really meaningful volunteer opportunity, court appointed special advocates could be for you.

Our website is SpeakUpfora Child.org.

Thank you for recognizing this vulnerable population this April of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you do.

All right, what are y'all doing here?

There's no basketball court in here now.

Y'all get on up here.

Come on.

We go from a very serious and very important child abuse prevention month to something very exciting and a whole lot of pride with these young men here with Mansfield Independent School District and the City of Arlington.

The proclamation reads as follows, whereas the boys' basketball team of Summit High School has achieved an extraordinary milestone by winning back-to-back state championships, bringing tremendous pride and distinction to their school and the community.

And whereas under the outstanding leadership of head coach Edmund Pritchett, the Jaguars demonstrated exceptional determination, discipline, and teamwork, cumulating an impressive 33 and six seasons.

Y'all lost six times.

Sit down.

No season and a second consecutive state title.

And whereas, despite graduating many key players from the previous championship team, this year's student athlete athletes rose to the challenge, exemplifying resilience, perseverance, and a steadfast commitment to excellence, both on and off the court.

Whereas the achievements of these young men reflect the dedication of their coaches and unwavering support of their families and friends, and the enduring spirit of the Arlington and Mansfield communities.

Whereas the City of Arlington is proud to celebrate Summit High School's continued legacy of athletic excellence and to recognize the team's positive impact as role models who inspire future generations to pursue their dreams with integrity and determination.

Now, therefore, I, Jim Ross, mayor of the City of Arlington, Texas, do hereby proclaim and recognize an accommodation of Summit High School Boys basketball team for winning back to back state championships and urge all citizens to join in congratulating these outstanding student athletes and their coaches on this remarkable achievement.

Congratulations.

I just want to say thank you to the mayor and thank you to the council members of Arlington and Mr.

Gonzalez.

Uh but I can tell you these guys are champions uh in the state of Texas, but they're also champions every single day in the classroom, on the court, off the court.

I'm so proud of them.

And if you want to see what family and what unity can do, uh mantra is tough.

Uh we put it everywhere, and it means throughout unity, greatness happens, and greatness happens because we were united.

Thank you.

Okay, hold on, don't get anywhere.

Okay.

I know the school's in Mansfield, but where how many of these athletes are live in Arlington?

Raise your hand.

Okay, these are Arlington people.

All right, remember that.

Thank you, guys.

Congratulations.

Now, don't we have a Mansfield superintendent in here now?

Well, aren't you a little bit proud of these kids?

Thank you for coming out and supporting these guys.

We really appreciate it and thank you for all you do for the children here.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mr.

Buskins, General DeCorum and Speaker Guidelines, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

We ask that the citizens and other visitors in attendance assist in preserving the order and decorum of this meeting and to provide for attendance at and participation in the meeting without fear of intimidation, threats, or hostility.

Any person making personal, profane, hostile, slanderous or threatening remarks who uses vulgar or obscene language, who engages in any other actions that disturb or calculated to disturb the meeting, or who becomes disruptive while addressing the mayor and the city council or while attending the city council meeting may be removed from the council chambers.

All speakers shall address the city council and not the audience or city staff and shall not call out individually named members of city staff or the public.

For speakers tonight, when your name is called, please come to the microphone at the podium and state your name and city of residence for the record.

Speakers may not use music, videos, other forms of media, signs, or props.

During public hearings for zoning cases, the applicant will be asked to speak first and will be given five minutes to make a presentation.

Speakers in support or opposition of the item will be given three minutes each to make their statements.

The applicant will then be given three minutes for any rebuttal.

For all other items on the agenda, speakers will be given three minutes to speak.

If multiple speakers plan to provide the same or similar comments, those speakers may, if they so desire, designate one or more individuals to provide public comment on behalf of the group.

The bell will signal the end of each speaker's time.

In consideration of other speakers, please conclude your comments promptly when you hear the bell.

We ask that you address your comments to the mayor and council.

Thank you, Mr.

Buskin.

Do we have any appointments to boards or commissions this evening?

Yes, sir.

We have one appointment to boards and commissions this evening to the Arlington Economic Development Corporation, Scott Miller.

Thank you, sir.

Do we have any speakers on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Thank you.

I have a motion from Councilmember Pham and a second from Councilmember Galante.

Please cast your vote.

Okay.

You hear that, Mr.

Buskin.

Voted aye.

Mr.

Peel's kicked out of the system for some reason, but he votes aye.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Consideration of items from executive session, Mr.

Buskin.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have two items for consideration from executive session.

6.1, a resolution authorizing the settlement of negotiations for fee simple ownership of approximately 1,434 square feet, otherwise known as 505 East Division Street, Arlington, Texas, for the public use of sidewalks and landscaping improvements for the Division Street Text out Sidewalk, Cooper Street to Collins Street Project.

6.2, a resolution authorizing settlement of a condemnation action to acquire a street right-of-way easement of approximately 421 square feet and a temporary construction easement.

Tract one of approximately 1,439 square feet and tract two of approximately 65 square feet, otherwise known as 1400 Debbie Lane, Arlington, Texas, for the public use of street improvements and all necessary appurtenances for the Debbie Lane City Limits State Highway 360 project.

Thank you, sir.

Do we have any speakers in support or opposition of either of these two items?

No, sir, we do not.

Thank you.

I have a motion from Councilmember Galante, a second from Councilmember Gonzalez, please cast your vote.

Mr.

Buskin, Mr.

Peel votes aye the motion passes.

Consideration of minutes, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Minutes for consideration this evening or the afternoon and evening meetings from April 7th, 2026.

Thank you, sir.

Do council members, do y'all have any additions or corrections to the minutes?

Seeing none, Mr.

Buskin.

Any speakers on this item?

Thank you, sir.

I have a motion from Councilmember Odom Wesley.

A second from Councilmember Pham.

Please cast your vote.

And the motion passes.

Consideration of consent agenda, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

The consent agenda this evening contains 12 minute orders, seven ordinances, and six resolutions.

The minute orders seek to authorize one renewal of annual requirements contract for generator maintenance, two and three annual requirements contracts for preventative and comprehensive chiller maintenance, and for the purchase of bunker gear for the fire department, four through six, purchase of three replacement apparatus for the fire department of a hydro excavation trailer for the Arlington Water Utilities Department and of two fairway mowers.

The ordinances seek to authorize 13 Unified Development Code, UDC Text Amendment, adoption of form-based code provisions.

14 zoning map amendment to establish downtown form-based zoning district.

15 zoning case ZA 26-2 2401 West Greenoaks Boulevard.

16 zoning case PD 20-22 R1 109 West Rogers Street.

17 specific use permit SUP 08-2R1 8380 Glen Glen Day Drive.

18 amendments to the health and sanitation chapter related to regulation of smoking.

The resolution seek to authorize 19 fiscal year 2025 Bureau of Justice Assistance Block Grant Program, Memorandum of Understanding, and Interlocal Agreement.

20 Lowe's 2026 Community Impact Grant Program Nomination for Arlington Police Department.

21 A and B amendment to 2020 through 2024 consolidated plan and program year PY 2024 annual action plan and reprogram reprogramming CDBG funding.

22, 5 year renewal of pipeline license agreement 06-200 with Texas Midstream Gas Services LLC at Village Creek Linear Park.

23 authorize the request for proposal procurement method for the purchase of replacement vehicles for handy tram.

24, April Housing, Mayfield Park Apartments, Resolution of No Objection.

Thank you, Mayor.

This concludes the consent agenda for this evening.

Thank you, sir.

I'm going to recognize Councilmember Boxell.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to um pull eight point two four from the consent agenda.

Thank you, ma'am.

So that um we'll pull 8.24 for separate consideration.

Thank you.

I'll recognize council member Nikki Hunter.

Thank you, Mayor.

I would like to pull 8.17 for separate voting as well.

Thank you.

We're going to pull 8.17 for separate consideration.

On the remaining items on the consent agenda, do we have any speakers on those items, Mr.

Buskin?

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker in support on item 8.18.

Jimmy Burke.

Ms.

Burke.

Mr.

Burke, come on up, sir.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Jimmy Burke, mailing address.

4104 Steeplewood Court, Arlington, Texas.

76016, but I'm homeless.

Briefly, the reason why I signed up for this agenda item.

I uh meant it was a rare more spontaneous thing in the specifics.

And in the specifics, I definitely support this being stricter on smoking.

But if you'll bear with me for a moment, I would like to say in general, if it's not too rabbit trail, that I come from of a mentality in general that we need to be way stricter on the concept of smoking.

Here's why.

I admit it's radical, but our rights as people in general should end when it can be proven to impinge or be detrimental to somebody else by the effect of the behavior by proxy.

This is not complicated.

Secondhand smoke, we know what it does to people when they have no choice in the matter at all and should not have to always remove themselves from the location.

And something like that is more made this more sensitive.

It doesn't take being too close for it to affect me medically.

Now I admit I believe I'm radical enough that we should just ban for that reason smoking of anything anywhere.

Being probably more plausible, I believe we should do that, and thanks for bearing with me because I realize I'm taking the specific and soapboxing for a minute.

I concede that.

But anything outside of tobacco for sure should be banned anywhere, with of course tobacco being what we're doing of at least isolated at most.

Another thing I'd like to add briefly, and I appreciate your bearing with me, is think about it.

Even besides affecting the person themselves, is even more dangerous for everybody driving that person in the same context of drunk driving, because as bad as drunk driving is only that person is intoxicated.

I'm saying this for the perspective of the concept.

To some degree, if somebody's driving smoking in their car, marijuana especially, to some degree, everybody within affected range around their driving is X amount high.

Hence, that's why I believe we need to be radical on these things, because I myself shouldn't have to fight so hard not to be around secondhand smoke.

And I do support the strict the stricter things that we're doing if we have to do a bit by bit anyway.

Thank you all so much for bearing with me on this issue, but I had to share that.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Any other speakers on that item, Mr.

Buskin, or any other items?

No, sir.

No additional speakers.

We do have two non-speakers in support on item 8.18.

Thank you, sir.

With that, I have a motion from Councilmember Odom Wesley and a second from Councilmember Galante.

Please cast your vote.

And the motion passes.

I'm going to go back to item number 8.17 that was pulled for separate consideration.

Mr.

Buskin, do we have any speakers on that item?

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker in support on this item and two non-speakers in support.

Our speaker in support is Leslie Garvis.

Ms.

Vargas, you don't have anything to say.

Thank you.

Yeah, two speak two non-speakers in support.

Yes, sir.

Two non-speakers in support.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hunter, you wanted to pull it for separate consideration.

Did you want to be heard on anything, or you just want us to vote?

Where'd you go?

There you are.

You're good.

Okay.

With that, I have a motion from Councilmember Galante, a second from Councilmember Gonzalez.

Please cast your vote.

The motion passes.

We're going to go on down to 8.24.

We pulled that for separate consideration.

Mr.

Buskin, do we have any speakers on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Boxell, you wanted to pull this one.

Did you want to add anything?

Yes, I'd like to ask uh Mindy Cochran to come to the podium and uh make a few clarifications for the for the public.

Um Ms.

Cochran, I just had two things if you would like explain briefly what our HFC is.

Sure.

Well it what it does.

And then if you could talk about our payment in lieu of taxes and what and how that works and and just to for informational purposes for the public.

Absolutely.

Excuse me.

Mindy Cochran, executive director of housing.

The Arlington Housing Finance Corporation is a housing finance corporation that was created by City Council.

Um in accordance with local government code chapter 394, which allows you to do that.

The city council many years ago found the need for affordable housing.

And this is a vehicle to create affordable housing in the community.

Um housing finance corporation is working on a transaction related to this resolution.

I have no objection.

Um and as part of the negotiations, because the land will be owned by the housing finance corporation, it will be property tax exempt.

However, those developments have services that need to be paid for.

And so we traditionally, and we are in this case, negotiating with the developer so that they will make a payment in lieu of taxes, which will be in the amount of what the city's taxes would have been had it not been exempt.

And so they'll make that payment annually, and that will increase by three percent each year.

That's something we traditionally do with this type of transaction, so that the developments are paying for the services that they receive.

Thank you.

I have a motion from council member Odam Wesley and a second from Council Member Hogg.

Please cast your vote.

And the motion passes.

We're gonna move on down to 11.1.

Mr.

Trey Elverton, the city manager.

Thanks, Mayor.

Members of the council appreciate the opportunity to uh go through this proposed um lease extension again.

We had a lengthier briefing this afternoon.

I'm gonna use the same slides.

I'm gonna try to go through it a little faster, but happy to happy to stay and answer uh whatever questions you all uh may uh may want to have.

We're trying to make this as clear and simple as we can.

And for sure it is a complex transaction, but we're wanting to make sure that we're uh summarizing that, providing um uh tangible community uh benefit evidence as well as validating how we're using the resources to enhance uh services to our residents.

The bottom line on this really is that we're working on the same venues with the same taxes on the same term.

It's it's using the existing authorities that all exist and moving forward.

So, in summary of the overall transaction, I want to make a couple things clear because there's a lot of folks that get confused around this.

We'll make it clear that the city owns both the stadiums out there and received private participation from um the Jones family of 925 million on ATT and over 700 million on uh from the uh uh ranger ownership at Globe Life Field to leverage the public resources that were put.

They were put both before the voters.

Uh voters approved the development of both of these um uh uh venues.

And what we're here today to talk about is extending a 15-year option to the original term of a 70-year agreement.

This agreement was entered into back in 2004, covered um many terms of renewal, uh, and this is exercising uh a 15-year window, which is a couple of renewals into that in return for the certainty that the community uh will have.

We're doing so out of utilizing savings from the the plan of finance that we've got on the venues from both stadiums, have gone into our venue fund and actually realized better than expected savings of about 350 million dollars according to the plan, and then in turn using 273 million of that back towards improvements to lasting, improving the legacy of the um the facilities.

The team will advance the cost of the improvements and pledge 750 million dollars of investment into the complex in addition to the resources the city has, and as I said, no new taxes, no increased taxes, and the original term at the same venues stays 2048.

It does not change.

So the opportunity really is to extend 15 years from 24 2040 to 2055 under the current lease.

There's about three million dollars of direct revenue that comes in from the transaction itself.

$2 million in rent, $500,000 in naming rights, $500,000 in charitable contributions.

Um if we go through the existing lease term, that all will drop to $1 million.

Um there will be a reduct reduction in those revenues.

So the the goal here was to in enhance certainty for both the team and the city while at the same time injecting new dollars back into the transaction.

Based on that, $32 million in new revenue from enhanced uh from maintaining the rent the same, keeping the naming rights and charitable contribution the same, those dollars that were not otherwise scheduled to come during this renewal would then come.

Those dollars that were not otherwise scheduled to come during this renewal would then come.

As I said, the um the city the team will advance the improvements for the complex that will be reimbursed by the city over time.

We'll talk about that a little bit more in just a second.

And the revenues come from voter-approved venue taxes that are dedicated solely to the venues.

These taxes cannot be used and transferred for potholes or police or street lights or anything like that.

These taxes are levied for the venues only, or they're not levied at all.

All right, they go away.

No newer increased taxes, and again, within the same terms 2048.

We've got a long history of building a sports and entertainment tourism history in Arlington.

It's long underpinned by significant public policy documents that all work at securing Arlington is the position in the Metroplex for major activity hub based around sports and entertainment.

Just to help everyone understand how these transactions work, try to simplify it a little bit.

One of our folks that helped us work on this many, many years ago, Ray Hutchison, who's been uh with the company that helped us uh create these uh came up with this metaphor that I've that's always stuck with me of the three-legged stool.

That this isn't just city investment, and it's not just team investment, but it's user and fan investment also.

So the way these venues come together are through city funds, voter approved sales tax, hotel tax, and rental car taxes.

We know a little bit about where those taxes come from.

Hotel taxes and rental car taxes are mostly visitors, and we've also done some subsequent work with Visa to uh indicate that 53% of our remaining sales tax also comes from non-Arlington addresses.

47% from Arlington, 53% from non-Arlington.

The fans, that pillar of the of the stool uh are engaged through ticket and parking taxes, a 10% uh ticket tax, a three dollar parking tax.

The economic impact of those activities from people who come from all over the country and all over the world to entertain here, uh, help partially finance uh the venues, and then of course the teams through their debt and equity, as well as the operating cost of what they uh they put in the facility.

So I talked about before.

Um sometimes you hear a lot of conversation about how come the city gave the cowboys $325 million dollars.

It's in my mind it's almost the opposite because the asset is the city's, we own it, we're responsible ultimately for it.

So it's how come the cowboys gave the city $925 million?

And it's to invest in something that's good for the team, good for our economy, uh, and and working together and how we do that in a very proportional way compared to some of the transactions that you might that you might find out there across the country.

What did voters approve uh in this or these particular transactions?

So back in uh uh 2020 2004, the ATT stadium ballot was put before, and it basically includes three key provisions.

It's like what's the project, under what statute, and what are the taxes?

Both um both include a half a cent sales tax, a two percent occupancy tax, a five percent rental car tax.

They also include 10% ticket taxes and three dollar parking taxes.

They are approved venue projects under the law authorized by voters.

This is the ballot language from 2004, similarly worded, and I think uh crafted mostly through uh what the statute requires and with our bond attorneys and such.

This is the ballpark language in 2016.

That's very similar.

What's the project?

What's the authority to levy taxes under what statute?

So to summarize in that way, in 2004, the Cowboys Project was approved by voters.

It levied bonds that were sold in 2005 for sales tax, hotel tax, motor vehicle tax.

There were also bonds levied for ticket and parking taxes that were sold in 2006.

Subsequently, in the intervening years, uh the 2005 bonds have been re-in-re um refinanced three times, uh, once in 2008, again in 2009, again in 2017.

The first two were during the economic downturn of the housing crisis in 0809.

And in 2017, it was done to make room for the new uh ballpark to create headroom for that to uh make its way in, which is not too dissimilar from what what we're doing today.

In 2016, the ballpark project was approved by voters.

The finances were similar.

The bonds were issued in 2018, they run out till 2048.

That's a key date that I'm keeping repeating myself because these are the bonds that we're talking about refinancing.

They go out till 24.8, they will be no longer than 2048.

Um the ticket and parking taxes also were sold in 2020 relative to this project and remain uh uh outstanding.

So if you have bond approval, voter approval, what does the statute say that you can do with the various resources?

It's really kind of key three things.

You can reimburse and pay the cost of acquiring, planning, establishing, developing, constructing, et cetera, of a venue.

You can pay the principal and interest of the bonds and other obligations related thereto, or you can pay for the project cost of operating and maintaining one or more approved venues.

In our past history, we've focused on bullet one and two.

And today, really what we're talking about is editing our lease to get extended period of time using point three, but with a commitment from the team to help us invest back in the facility to elongate its value.

How we do it is through enhanced revenues that are there because we're realizing savings in our financing.

We did a very conservative financing and it's performing well for us.

And to the degree that it excesses performs an excess of debt service that's required, those dollars are required to be used on the venue.

And so 334, the chapter that we're using, the venue statute does not provide a secondary requirement for voter approval once you are changing the use of funds out of the statutory provisions.

Those three provisions exist.

We're changing by adding one.

There's not a supplemental vote or process that's required pursuant to the law.

So where does the money actually come from in a more specific detail?

The dollars that I talked about go into a venue fund.

That fund is represented here largely with the blue and green.

That's the that's the revenue that's there.

The blue dots that go across the line is our tax or our bond payment.

You can see how that goes.

It's kind of flat, it comes up a little bit and then it goes back down.

But the green is all revenue that's in excess of the debt service.

So it's required to go into the venue.

Historically, we have used that to accelerate debt payments.

Today what we're talking about is making that modification to use it for operations and maintenance with the requirement that the team use it on additional improvements to the facility, pursuant to some things we'll talk about here in just a moment.

We would do that through the restructuring in 2028, which is coming up, uh 10-year mark of those initial bonds, and then we would uh make that uh adjustment then.

So, why do we why do we care about all this?

I get this question a lot.

Prove to me the stadium's worth it, prove to me the benefit to the community.

How do we how do we do it?

And I'm I'm open to any kinds of objective uh uh ways to do it, but we've we've tried to do it a couple of ways here to kind of triangulate this.

One is our friends at the CBB, they do an annual analysis of the impact of tourism and visitors to Arlington in 2024, 16.3 million visitors, 3.1 billion in economic uh spend in Arlington, not in the country, not in the state, but in Arlington.

We uh we also did some analysis like I alluded to earlier with visa, taking a look at our at the cardholder data where the spend occurs.

53% of it comes from outside Arlington, 47% is from inside Arlington.

So as we look at tourism dollars that come in in hotel tax and rental car tax, sales tax is something we all kind of contribute to.

But in according to this data at least, slightly more than half comes from outside the city.

So that's all uh interesting information.

It certainly helps underpin.

But then I started looking and asking the team, well, what else?

What else can we show?

And so we engaged HRNA advisors who helped us look at the economic impact on previous transactions with uh both venues.

Asked them to do an update that we did here just this last couple of weeks and found out from them after their involvement with the team to look at their books and their data and how things are going at the venue site.

$324 million and economic impact to the city.

So, what does that really mean?

I know sometimes people get confused.

Economic impact, city impact.

My my simple way to explain that is that economic impact is everybody's cash register.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, people serving the users here, that's economic impact.

So $324 million of economic impact coming in to the broader community.

And then when you add that to the incremental time we're talking about, the 15 years, that economic impact is calculated to go out is 4.9 billion dollars.

If you include the time we're at to now, the remaining term plus the 15 years, it's 9.7 billion dollars.

Economic impact, everyone else's cash register.

Fiscally, simply put, that's the city's cash register.

What comes into the city and in what form does it come in?

And so, similar uh statement here about the fiscal impact from uh now and through to the end of the extended term period that we're contemplating 1.28 billion dollars fiscal impact, and for the 15 years that we're suggesting that you all add 458 million dollars, 65 million dollars a year in today's in today's dollars.

And so um that was helpful uh and but but yet you know in my mind not enough.

Let's keep digging, all right?

Let's keep looking.

So, what other data do we have?

Let's just take a look at some real trends here.

This is a 25-year, 26-year trend on sales tax.

This is blue, green, and red, one year, three years, five years.

So we can see the rolling trend as well as all of that.

And the vertical lines represent some key moments.

The one on the left is when ATT opened.

The one on the right is when the ballpark, Texas Live and Live by Lowe's, et cetera, opened.

They're interesting because um, you know, um, a few things we take a look at here.

Um I've been here during this time, so I kind of know what it felt like in the early 2000s after 9-11, and we had a trajectory that was pretty sleepy that was kind of probably gonna look something like this, right?

Without any kind of adrenaline injection.

Um, and in 2009, the council made the choice to say, let's go get the Dallas Cowboys and bring them to Arlington because we needed to give a boost to the economy.

You start to see this is not completely, you know, the stadium, but clearly there's an inflection point at that moment in time that starts to say these dollars, at least uh a lot of them would not be here but for um the stadium.

Okay, sales tax, that's interesting.

What else, Trey?

Um hotel tax, same, same same, pretty sleepy during this time.

2009, you see a clear inflection point and trend that starts to change.

The character and the investment of what's going on in the area lifts, and we bring in more hotel occupancy tax during that time.

Also interesting, but let's keep digging.

Mixed beverage tax.

It's interesting that these all are they're kind of titled separate differently, but they all look really pretty similar.

Kind of flat till 09.

What happens in 09?

Something different occurs, and there's a different trajectory.

Our entertainment district is bringing dollars to our city so that we can reinvest them in the public services that our residents expect.

Let's keep digging, Trey.

Advalorum tax.

This one's one that a kind of a geeky city manager appreciates, which is tax base.

That's sounds great, but what makes it greater is how it distanced itself from the balance of the rest of the city at 192% over this 25-year, uh, 21 year period of time.

That's uh not quite double, but it's doing much more robustly in the area immediately around the stadium, the ad valorum.

This this would equal to about three and a half million dollars of annual ad valorum dollars that are coming into our fiscal impact to our cash register for uh use.

So, all that's great.

Uh, economic analysis, economic impact, uh, fiscal analysis, fiscal data that we've been able to produce ourselves and have others take a look at.

But how do we invest the dollars to enhance our public services?

Same date period, 2009's magic date.

What have we done in our budget since then?

91 new police officers, 172 new firefighters, a new fire station 17, a new downtown library, two new rec centers, which were brand new to their markets.

Um they were not replacements, and 66 lane miles of road that have been installed through using these dollars that but four of the investments we were making were not otherwise, other otherwise present.

All right.

So the difficulty for the public sometimes is this we see this on a year-to-year budget to budget basis, but when you look at it from a time period, you get a much more significant window of how the trend is going instead of year to year to year, where it's 12 positions, 14 positions, etc.

Cumulatively, there's a lot of symmetry back to that 2009 date that all correlate.

So, what else have we done?

Let's go back to 2009 here.

I'm gonna look at this.

This is our CIP.

Um, so I have services, police, fire, parks, libraries, but what else do we hear about?

Build more streets, fix the streets.

Well, how do we do that?

We do that through our CIP process.

Interestingly, uh, a similar trend of upward trajectory of ability to invest in our public infrastructure, roads, parks, libraries, police fire facilities.

Um, all while continuing to lower our debt ratios.

So economy growing, all the revenues that we talked about before coming in, able to allow us to do more in our community and meet uh you know improve to meet the expectations that our residents expect.

So elongating uh the the life of the stadium, really protecting the public value that we've created and the asset itself, in the people uh that go to it, and in the economic and community impact that's around it.

This is really about protecting that public value by enhancing the life for 15 years with certainty, sustaining that economic and fiscal impact, enhancing, and I'll talk in more just a second about the facility and public safety infrastructure that we want to make sure is enhanced, as well as improvements, which I often hear a lot about the pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns around the venue and how they need to improve.

So more particularly in Exhibit A under the complex complex improvements, we talk about things like Safety Act asset hardening, which is a federal government program that uh delineates the things that we would do to this facility that the team would do to this facility to make sure it's uh hardened uh and uh enhanced as time goes by.

As uh a future uh is the modern necessity of safety and security evolves, we have to be able to evolve with it and make sure we have solid facilities there.

Pedestrian and vehicular separations on the on the right hand side, you see here kind of three spots we've identified.

I'm not sure we're gonna be able to do all three, but we'll probably end up working on uh two of those at the at Randall Mill at the northwest and the northeast.

That's where we have major pedestrian and uh vehicular conflicts.

And a conceptual rendering that we've been working on is an example on the bottom right is really kind of what I would call a halo.

It's really just taking the sidewalk and the and the crosswalk and elevating it and forcing people up and over the streets as opposed to on the street so the cars can get through and the people can get over.

So these these uh assets are this investment is really a lot about safety, security enhancements.

It's about pedestrian and vehicular safety and uh uh improvements in the area.

It does have some other things though that are tied to revenue enhancements that allow the team to uh make more revenue to pull back into this facility and to reinvest in it because we want that competitive edge to keep this the nicest best facility uh in the country.

So some other terms we put in, emphasizing Arlington, we all fight it, you know, Arlington, Arlington, Arlington.

How do we do more?

Uh we've put some things in there about let's make sure that that's uh an intentional statement by the team and their various ways that they distribute.

Um we've had a sweet commitment from them uh for years, which has never been papered, it's papered in the ranger deal, so we're papering it here just to be uh just to be clear.

Uh efforts to help us with the entertainment district on other economic development projects and enhancing and aggregating land to activate in the area, uh using and developing parts of the parking areas to make sure that we're doing more of the Texas Live, more of the live by lows, all of those kinds of things, and a commitment to work with us on mobility in the general with technology, whether it's uh EVTALs or autonomous vehicles or Uber and Lyft management, whatever it might be, we want to work on all this together, but most importantly, working on the Safety Act certification.

So, as I talked about before, the team, 750 million dollars of their commitment over the uh uh term of the lease, they've already made, I just want to clarify they've made 300 million of that uh already here in the last year or two.

So they won't be seeking reimbursement under this program for that, but they do want credit for the investment.

Um and so since it's so new and recent, that is part of that number, and then the remaining part is uh future investments they would make as well as our investment that we would make with them using the revenues that I identified earlier.

We would uh consider making uh one payment in 2008 of 50 million and then annually 20 million dollars a year for up to through 2048.

No later than that, could be earlier than that, because the offsets to that contribution are just like we do today.

If we're paying early, because demand is great, uh interest or uh dollars are going well, we can certainly early redeem that.

We also have an offset against any kind of uh grant dollars we might bring in that are not local dollars.

And we also have the ability, should there be interest savings to uh have that be reameterized into the transaction.

We are not issuing new bonds here as part of this deal.

Instead, what we're doing is asking the team to advance the money, and because the team is advancing money, their cost of money is more expensive than our cost of money, probably a percent and a half, two percent.

Um if we're able to get interest savings below what we've got, um, then that accrues to reameterized schedule and we're able to save save some dollars.

We have it pegged at 6.375.

If it's better than that, uh we'll but we'll do better than that.

If it's worse than that, that's the cap, we're not going up after that.

So we all also had a lot of questions about uh uh should this have gone to uh the voters, and that's a fair question.

Um we talked a little bit before about the approvals that existed and the bond that existed.

Um if we went and had a project that was defined as a new project under the venue statute, what we'd have to do is go and define the project, define the plan of finance, get uh uh approval from the comp troller's office, that's a verified project, and then we would talk about the taxes that are necessary to be levied to facilitate the project.

Um and then we would talk about the taxes that are necessary to be levied to facilitate the project.

And let's just say it's the 273 that we're talking about now.

What that would mean is uh to finance 273, we would go and get bond approval and for 273 million dollars, we'd issue more debt, and when we issue debt, we'd do that for 30 years.

So we're talking about a project today that would end in 2048.

Counterintuitively, if you if you ask voters to to do more uh more of this, then you're really going out to 2058 under finance.

Now, could we do something more conservative?

We could, but at a couple of hundred million dollars, you want to make sure you're very conservative in your position, and you're over you're overcovered uh in your debt ratios, right?

So that's kind of was part of our thinking about all this is it's a shorter window of time, smaller commitment candidly.

Um and then, as I said before, the voters uh have already approved these taxes.

They are utilized within the same window of time and they're utilized on the same project.

Um, and there's really not a process that's articulated in the statute or anywhere else that would have a legal requirement for a secondary project election on something that you've already authorized.

So tonight um we are talking about executing or getting authority to execute a master agreement that will cover a number of things, a lease extension, a franchise commitment to cover that same period of team time, which is the team's commitment to play their games here, uh, and then associated other documents that underpin the guarantee of that lease payment, the purchase option, as well as their contribution to continue the charitable uh uh amendment or contribution amendment.

So if this moves forward, then what we would do is probably late next year, we would enter into a process of starting to refund and refinance in some layman terms.

This is kind of it's kind of like a refinance uh and improve your home.

We're we're kind of refinancing, improving our home and keeping the payments all about the same, right?

So that's what's gonna happen.

We're in the same period of time, we're not extending how much longer we need to pay, and we're not extending or increasing the taxes.

And assuming we're able to do that, then we would close in early 2028 and we would extend and execute all the documents, which then formalize all the commitments that have been made.

So, in summary, teams advancing the funds, we're reimbursing up to 273 from the items that were identified in exhibit A under the complex improvements, same taxes, same term, same project area for for the venues, um, and then we would refinance, and there is no um uh no requirement of the debt service to if you're changing to different uh venue expenses, all for the reasons for economic impact, protecting the public value that we've already invested in to protect our stadium, to protect the people that are in it, and to protect the economic impact that's around it, protecting the total public value that's represented uh in this um this uh situation.

So, in summary, uh complex transaction, I've tried to simplify it as best I can and clearly state the public benefit that exists as well as um you know just make sure that we're um improving our city because we take these dollars that are incrementally occurring and we're redeploying them into police officers and firefighters and street investments.

That's what the data shows.

So I'll be happy to take any questions and listen to comments and answer whatever questions may come, Mayor Thanks, sir.

Councilmember Bogsel.

Uh thank you.

Um Trey, can you go over real quickly?

Um, you know, we've refinanced before.

I think you said twice, maybe or was it three times?

And can you go over that and and uh whether we went out for uh a referendum on those times?

Let me see if I can find that again.

So that's yes, ma'am.

Um in 20, the 2004 cowboy bonds, the 2005 cowboy bonds, we have refinanced those three other times.

Uh 2008, nine, and seventeen.

Oh eight oh nine ties to the economic uh situation that was going on.

We had variable rate that was bouncing around and we refinanced it to a fixed amount.

And then in 2017, it was done to create capacity to fit in the ranger stadium project.

Um none of the ranger items have been refinanced before.

We would be contemplating uh refinancing that portion of the 2018 Ranger Complex to work on uh these venues.

Excuse me.

And so uh on those previous times, we did not go out for a vote on the financed.

Right.

We had a approved project, we had approved guardrails of the limits of the project and the taxes, we refinanced it, and as long as we could demonstrate that we weren't uh lengthening that time and we were working within the same windows, it's able to be approved per the statute.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Trey, uh I appreciate you working with all of us and trying to explain to everybody.

Um one of the things I know I want people to know is you know, there's a list of what needs to be done, and I want to make sure people understand that the stadium is safe, but they need to make the changes that need to be made because times have changed.

And so if you want to go over that, I I would appreciate that.

Yeah, so I go back to the Safety Act certification that's out there.

It's a federal program.

You see a lot of venues across the country that are motivated to secure that because it provides um that just that assurance.

The ballpark, as an example, does have that certification.

ATT does not.

So they're working towards that and would like to achieve that in the next couple of years.

And there's some simple things that you would you would think about.

So things where you would want to separate um screening areas from packages that show up in the building to have them go to another location, right?

So they can be screened more safely.

Employees being screened in a different location to create more uh more buffer in those areas, some some asset hardening of areas, some protection of of doors and glass areas that are kind of more insulated uh in a way, so that uh there weren't um challenges that might show up.

So it's a it's a litany of those kinds of things that are pursuant to that federal program.

It's nothing that the building code would require, but it's something that they want to voluntarily uh achieve because they think it adds shared value to that protecting of the public value like we're talking about to improve the facility, its longevity, and its enhanced safety in the future.

And that that's critical, especially nowadays.

I mean, you most of those changes have been done in other buildings, uh, you know, all over the country, and I think it's important.

So it's not it, it's safety for the the visitors, the city, and and and the rangers.

I mean the cowboys, so yes, sir.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hogg.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

And Trey, thank you for all the discussions, especially our long one this afternoon we all had.

Um I just re-asked two questions.

I think it's important.

Um talk through uh people always ask about police and fire, how that's funded there, and then also would you talk about how this spending would be reported back to council.

Okay.

So yeah, it's all that's uh I love that question because I get it often a lot too.

Is we see a lot of police officers and firefighters over there, and while they're over there working on all these events, no one's taking care of my neighborhood.

Not not true.

Uh all of the individuals that are there are getting paid off overtime off-duty jobs.

Um, and so uh we will use our own.

We also have interlocal agreements with others.

Uh so you might see Mansfield or the Texas Rangers or Fort Worth, you'll see other police officers there, but the the Joneses, the Cowboys and the Rangers pay all of that that uh group as part of their operating cost of the venues.

Um and so while they're doing that, you know, our normal schedule of rounds, our normal patrol, our normal firefighters are doing all the normal things that they would do to protect the neighborhoods.

Now it doesn't mean that if something bad happened there that everybody wouldn't take off and go over.

But for the main everyday activities and the number of people that are there that are just to keep the people that are there safe, uh, they're all off-duty overtime uh representatives.

We do keep command in that sense, so our police chief and fire chief and and or their delegates are over that, even though we might have some integrated officers because I you know here often, well, why was Halton City there?

Why is Mansfield there?

It's because we have to have a broader team and the interlocals let us do that, and the teams then uh pay for that.

From a reporting perspective, the way that the uh the flow would work is um once we create um the the funds that are in excess of debt service, they would flow into a uh operations and maintenance account that we control.

We control it's under our signature separately.

The team would be taking undertaking expenditures and submitting verification of that pursuant to a standard kind of AIA contract.

You know, here's the scope of work, here's what was approved, um, and submit the required documentation for review and approval.

And as that comes through, then the monies that are in the operation missions account are then able to send be sent to the disbursement account once they've demonstrated the payment, and those are all public information, public record types of things that will be able to be absorbed and reviewed over time.

Perfect.

Thank you, Trey.

And you know, when you look at this project, I think you know the cowboys have been a good partner to the city of Arlington for a long time, and I think we've been a good partner to the cowboys, and we've worked uh extensively on things, and you've seen what we've grown and what we've done this, and you know, so people would always ask me why are we doing this now versus later, and I would sit there and through discussions.

Um it's probably better to do it now than later because I think it would get more expensive as we went later on.

And so you think of those, and I'm the first to admit I'm probably blinded by the cowboys.

Um, you know, I'm a 20-year season ticket holder.

Um, I'm a lifelong cowboys fan, so I get a little uh silver and blue in the eyes, but I also know we've set the precedence of going to voters.

So I'm having a hard that's where I'm having a hard time with this.

Is uh I'm also there, and so I know we legally can push this through, and I don't think this is anything wrong that we've brought before.

I think it's just a decision then of how we go about, as I've said, trying to get a yes either which way about where going.

So that's where I have the trouble and trials and tribulations in this.

Thank you, Trey.

Thanks for all your work on those ones.

Mr.

Buskett, do we have any other speakers on this item?

Yes, sir.

We have eight speakers in support of this item and five speakers in opposition.

Our first speaker in support is Brent Durard.

Mr.

Durod.

After Mr.

Durard is Costa Demas, Honorable Mayor, uh members of the council, good evening.

I'm Brent Dirad, uh, CEO of the Arlington Convention of Histories Bureau.

Thank you for uh considering extending the Cowboys lease of ATT Stadium for 15 years.

Uh the Dallas Cowboys are the world's most valuable sports brand, and the Cowboys and Texas Rangers have put Arlington on the global sports map.

We at the CVB are uh proud to help welcome Arlington's 16.3 million annual visitors, and those visitors spend more than three billion each year on their Arlington travel.

The Cowboys and ATT Stadium are vitally important to attracting visitors and their dollars to our city.

Uh the Cowboys have led the NFL in home attendance every year since moving to ATT Stadium in 2009.

That's 17 consecutive years.

Uh the Cowboys operate ATT stadium tours that thousands of Arlington visitors enjoy annually.

Uh the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, uh, which is played in this ATT Stadium thanks to the Cowboys, staged a college football playoff semifinal game in January of uh 2025, matching Texas and Ohio State.

Arlington Hotels generated 2.1 million just in hotel room revenue uh that night, and that uh makes it Arlington's best uh hotel night in history.

Uh the Cowboys booked Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which kicked off at ATT Stadium with three sold-out concerts.

Concerts fill our hotels, restaurants, and retail outlets with visitors throughout the year.

The Cowboys were also a focal point of the very successful Java House Grand Prix of Arlington IndyCar race a month ago.

Uh the Cowboys also make ATT Stadium available for 12 UIL high school football championship games each year.

Those games attracted 131,000 fans this past December, and 57% of those fans traveled more than 50 miles.

50 miles traveled is our uh travel industry's definition of a visitor.

And that's much needed business during a slow time for Arlington Tourism.

It's important to note that venue taxes, which can't be used for uh general fund purposes, will be used to pay the city's 273 million dollar commitment.

One of these venue taxes is a 2% hotel occupancy tax, uh, which is obviously paid primarily by visitors.

Uh that hotel tax will generate somewhere between 60 and 75 million over the 15-year term of the agreement.

Uh, we're really proud to have skin in the game when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys and what's happening out there uh on this issue as well.

Uh partnering with the Cowboys, again, the world's most valuable sports brand has been great for Arlington's tourism industry and the city's coffers.

We strongly urge you to support this extension.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, Mr.

Buskin.

Our next speaker is Costa Demas.

After Mr.

Demas is Maggie Campbell.

Good evening.

My name is Costa Demas.

I work for Lowe's Hotels.

Uh, my address in New York is 9 West 57th, and I have two beautiful addresses here in Arlington.

Uh one is 888 uh Nolan Ryan, and the other one is 1600 Randall Mill.

I'll put a fine point on it.

We wouldn't be here with 1,200 hotel rooms and another 500 planned, were it not for the Dallas Cowboys.

We would not be here were it not for the Texas Rangers.

We would not be here were it not for the 400,000 residents of Arlington, three or four hundred of whom work in our hotels.

I wouldn't be here for sure.

Lowe's hotels wouldn't be here without the city council and the singular support that it has lent.

Arlington is a tiny city flanked by two major cities.

I travel the country studying uh professional sports teams and their placement and the economic incentive packages that accompany them.

You have a superb deal that was made, and it's why we continue to affirm our investment in Arlington.

Arlington for us has been a place that is about principles and not about politics.

It's about making a decision and a deal with the citizens in mind, and that's why we continue to reinvest here.

For us, the presence of the Dallas Cowboys allows Arlington to punch above its weight.

The same with the Texas Rangers.

Lowe's is a hotel company that continues to punch above its own weight.

There are much bigger brands and much bigger hotel companies out there.

It's been an incredible partnership for us in Arlington.

And in Arlington, what we've seen is that the whole is much more valuable than any of the individual parts.

My son, who's uh studying economics in college, asked me, because I laid out for him the study we did of the economic plan and the legality.

And he said to me, So, Papa, who would vote against this?

And I said, Someone who thinks Arlington is better off without the Dallas Cowboys.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Ms.

Campbell.

After Ms.

Campbell is Georgie Zhang.

Hello, Mayor, members of the council, thank you for allowing me to speak.

I am here as the president for the downtown Arlington organization.

I am coming to share information as your downtown subject matter expert, but also because our downtown organization started about the same time that this project started.

So I arrived in Arlington for a job interview in 2005.

ATT was a hole in the ground.

Nothing yet but the promise of what it could be.

There wasn't much of a downtown here, and in part because of the stadium investment and the stature of the Dallas Cowboys, I could see the potential for the investment that could be leveraged.

And so I took a chance.

So as the new downtown organization, our first big idea back in 2006, 2007 was to go get a Levitt Pavilion, which was competitive and required a lot of commitment from the community, a lot of civic support and a big commitment from the city.

I had the impression then, and I firmly firmly believe it now, that landing the Dallas Cowboys back then had given Arlington a renewed boost of confidence that spurred a willingness to chase even bigger ideas.

It was a rallying point.

When I recruited Babe's chicken dinner house not too long after that, I sat with Paul Vinyard, and he wanted to know how he was possibly going to sell 400,000 plates of fried chicken in downtown Arlington.

So I talked to him about the events that were coming and this major venue and how close it was.

And it helped close that deal.

And what about when the COVID pandemic shut down cities and businesses across our country?

This large open-air venue stepped up and became a national destination.

We went and got the Rose Bowl.

We hosted college and school graduations from a hundred mile radius.

That's what kept our restaurants going.

We only lost one restaurant from the pandemic.

I don't believe, and I can't imagine that we could support 50 bars and restaurants in our downtown if we didn't have all of the events being generated by this economic engine that's around the corner.

I can't imagine that her total barbecue would have signed a lease at the top of the pandemic without this customer support.

In fact, there hasn't been a real estate offering in the downtown over the last eight years that hasn't highlighted downtown's proximity to ATT Stadium.

I can't imagine where we would be with our downtown district without this major economic engine continuing.

So thank you.

We are grateful.

We are a different district from the entertainment district.

Our economy downtown is driven by the arts and by education.

We are the local authentic district where you discover what Arlington is all about.

Thank you.

But that is driving our big economy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Georgie Zhang.

After Ms.

Zhang is Michael Jacobson.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, and thank you for everything you're doing for this.

My name is Georgie Zhang.

I live at 2400 Perkins Road here in Arlington, Texas.

And I am here to really advocate on behalf of the small business owners that are around the stadium and in the city.

I have the opportunity to chair our governmental affairs for Arlington Board of Realtors, and actually had an opportunity to meet with that core group today and explaining this situation, you know, the importance of this lease extension.

Those are real estate terms, these are things we understand.

But what is interesting in that room is those people are directly impacted by what happens here.

It happens whether it's small business leases, those are very important to your local real estate community.

Um, the money it brings into the city.

I believe there was something like night there's the the jobs for police and fire that have been created because of the stadium, make our city safer, make it a better place to live, the money that's infused into our school systems and the charitable contributions given back from the cowboys to our community are critical for our real estate community.

I also in those discussions, it was interesting, the same comment as uh this gentleman's son.

They were like, what's there even to discuss?

And it is okay to have a difference of opinion or have questions.

Um and it is a complicated process.

Most people, if you get on Facebook and that's all if that's your go-to information, you're gonna be confused and you're not gonna feel comfortable supporting this.

But at the end of the day, when you look at the facts of the situation and you understand that we are the landlords, and as a landlord with an asset, we have to maintain that asset, and we have to make sure it's good and it's safe and people are comfortable there.

Because if you don't, you're gonna lose the tenant you have.

And that's the last thing we want is to lose this type of tenant.

And someone in the room made a comment, they said, Well, look at the last time the cowboys left.

Look at that city and what has happened around it.

And I would I hate that for any city.

But the honest truth is is if you drive around where the cowboys used to live prior to being in Arlington, Texas, it it is a sad state of affairs.

We do not want that to happen here.

It will impact us.

For people who don't want to support this, if we were to lose them, they would it would it would be they would wonder how we can get them back.

So I thank you for your proactive stance on this.

I think you for what you're looking at it, and and for just helping us understand as a community really the facts around the matter.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, Mr.

Jacobson.

After Mr.

Jacobson is Randy Ford.

Hello, Michael Jacobson 703 Finley Drive, President and CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council.

Um I appreciate what Georgie and Costa and and Brent and Maggie said, so I'm not gonna repeat those things.

We understand the economic impact that that occurs um with the cowboys being here.

And as Councilmember Hogs said, as a child, and still today, my years sometimes was made by whether the cowboys won or the cowboys loss, right?

It was so important to me.

So just know, yes, I love the cowboys.

I grew up here.

Um chambers uh mission is together we champion economic and community prosperity.

So yesterday our chamber board got together and um we had a presentation on the extension of the lease.

And I'm proud to say that we overwhelmingly agree to support the extension.

So I speak not only for myself, but I speak for our chamber of commerce.

I have a great respect for each of you and what you do every day.

I know how difficult decisions are, and I know the types of decisions in the and you know, the minutiae you go into on some on some decisions.

But tonight, tonight's one of those special nights to me.

Tonight's one of these nights when we can reverberate our can-do spirit.

We can speak to the world why others argue and fight over stadiums and try to win them and try to keep them.

We have a chance tonight to say we're Arlington.

We do.

We can do.

Tonight is about securing an economic vitality for this generation, but not only this generation, the generation to come.

Tonight's about creating a predictable environment in an unpredictable world.

For business to know that the cowboys and the rangers are gonna be here until 2055 or into the second half of the next century.

That's powerful.

If you have the confident business community, that confident business community, it invests, it grows, and it prospers.

So yes, I'm here to ask the council to secure the cowboys, and I'm here to ask that on behalf of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

But more importantly, I'm here asking you to secure Arlington's economic and community prosperity.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Ford.

After Mr.

Ford is Aziz Kopte, Mayor, how are you?

City Council.

It is an honor to be here tonight because all these numbers and all the work that you put into this, Jay Gilligan's Bar and Girls, we see those numbers.

We actually see people coming in.

We actually see people coming in and stay at the Lowe's hotels at the uh chamber.

I mean the convention district bureau.

It is an amazing deal on any given game day, concert or whatever.

We will do a minimum, a minimum of four times what we would normally do on a Sunday.

What we'll do when Texas and Texas AM and Oklahoma come to town.

All these numbers are just it's exciting.

It really is exciting.

I have a 31-year-old, and I ask him about this, and the you know, the council and their decision.

Sports venues in Arlington, Texas, and then we have in Arlington, Texas, what?

The most valuable sports entertainment, one mile from this location right now.

It's an exciting time.

That extension gives us an opportunity to continue the growth, allows Jake elegants to keep putting money in the downtown area.

It's just a wonderful, wonderful thing.

And that's the moms and the dads and the little kids and aunts and uncles to come to a uh monster truck, come to the little super cross, the shuttle cross, and stuff like that.

People are coming to Jake Elligans, and not just Jake Elligans.

We can't feed 1,500 people at one time, but with Fuzzy's taco with Twisted Root with the rockfish, I mean not rockfish, but the hell be up, boy.

The uh yeah, well flying fish.

Thank you, guys.

With that said, it's just a uh it's not just for Jay Gilles, it's not just for Arlington, Texas, it's for the citizens.

It's for the children, the generations, and uh go cowboys.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Copte.

After Mr.

Copte is Ricky Booker.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor.

Uh thank you for the honor to speak.

I'm here to speak to you guys on behalf of Prince Lebanese Grill, family-owned and operated restaurant in Arlington since 1989.

Um the Cowboys are huge for the restaurant and huge for our industry.

Not only Prince, but our neighbors, you know.

We get the opportunity to come out to Cowboy Games and be the celebrity chef of the game.

Stand on um on the screen, tell everyone to come see us at the restaurant and get to share that with other local businesses.

So the cowboys have a huge impact on the community.

Um we have our food truck out there at the games, and so we're we're expanding our footprint in the restaurant business.

With all that stuff comes extra hours, extra tips, extra impact for the city for the restaurants.

You know, I'm on the board for the visitor bureau for the chamber of commerce and for the Arlington Police Foundation.

I get a unique perspective to see how the Dallas Cowboys impact our city.

Um, you know, we have concerts, Grand Prix, um, cowboy games, even the staff that works at the stadiums, the big 12 houses out of the stadium.

Um, you know, we got to be on college game day to really share prints and the local like restaurant food scene to put Arlington more on the map.

So when you look at what the Cowboys do, it's not just for big businesses, it's for small mom and pop businesses, somebody raised in Arlington like us that gets the chance to be on these huge stages with them, share the food, share the hospitality, share the community with um with the visitors, you know.

Um I was gonna add to it.

Um also like we we uh had to kind of a pivotal point in the prints where we had to sign a lease and uh we looked at okay, we had to re-sign our lease for 20 more years.

We looked at it, and have the cowboys not been there, or if they're not gonna be there for for the future, you know, that would be a big impact on our decision, is that the future generation of our family would have a kind of a solidified future business and uh kind of a cornerstone to keep building the restaurant on.

So I urge you guys, I know you've heard a lot of great things.

It's hard to follow Randy Ford, he's the most likable guy in the world.

But um, I think you guys have a lot of good information and a lot of good uh feedback from people to we urge you guys to vote for this and um and to pass it through for an extension on the cowboys.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker.

Our next speaker is Ricky Booker.

After Mr.

Booker is C.

Philip Dobson.

Uh good evening, everyone.

I'm Ricky Booker, CEO and owner of the Breakfast Brothers.

Um I'm gonna speak on something a little different.

I had a little speech in my phone, but I'm gonna talk about the city manager, what Trey talked about in those speakers before.

I moved here in 1994 from Oklahoma City, so I was a big cowboy fan, OU fan too.

And um when I moved to the urban Texas, it was booming.

The economy, the market.

I worked for dealership back then called Frank Parchevelay.

You know, and at 183 Corey are you had Westway Ford, Toyota Irvin, David McDavid, Honda, Bandagriv, you know, you have all those big names.

And the Cowboys headquarters right in the center of two three cities, Louisville, Capel, and Urban.

And the headquarters was in the Valley Ranch.

And I moved my family in 2000 to Arlington and raised my children, and they went to high school in Arlington Mansfield district.

And I mean, it was Arlington's been great to me and my family.

But friends and family and small business owners that I knew from Urban, Louisville, and Capil, those cities was really impact.

The Urban Mall, Best Ridge Mall, Malls are empty.

No business anymore.

And the Cowboys really bring value in economic to every city they go to.

Now maybe it was time for them to leave Urban, but once they left Irvine, everybody in this room that know anything about those stories, they really impacted.

Louisville, Capelle, and Irvine, three cities.

So I know what, and Trey said it, and the speakers before me know what all the small businesses in the community and businesses that cowboys are helping here individually, we are making really good money.

Just like everyone before me said from the monster trucks, from the motocross, from the Grand Prix, any concerts, Breakfast Brothers on Front Street, is rolling.

And I appreciate it.

We have to have, you know, this is years and years down the road, but to have that type of impact for that long, everybody always asks me, why do you have two restaurants in Arlington?

I always tell them, it's the new Dallas.

It's the New Dallas, right in the middle.

And if you don't get involved and see what's going on and see how Arlington embraced me and my family, my son has a barbershop, he just opened next door to my South Arlington.

And my daughters are both general managers at my restaurant.

So those individuals born and raised, not born and raised, but raised in Arlington from this complete community and family that we got embraced by.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Dobson.

After Mr.

Dobson is Hal Hickerson.

Hello, Council.

Uh C Philip Dobson, live here in Arlington.

Once again, the people have been left out of this discussion.

A plan presented without public input.

You know, was there pressure for Jerry Jones to take possession of the stadium to actually start paying property taxes in Arlington?

Um, you know, we we want a council that doesn't just represent us, but understands that we want ownership of these programs and these developments because this is our city.

Again, our city, and you represent us.

Um I noticed that uh some of the numbers that there was 2600 jobs, uh, and they valued at uh 62 million dollars a year.

That is uh an average job, uh, average salary of 23 and a half thousand dollars.

Those people probably not likely on government assistance.

Maybe they find some other ways to get around, but they are not eligible for an $800 apartment on that income.

You know, very limited opportunities.

In fact, most of those jobs I believe go to people that do not live in Arlington.

Um we have uh I noticed also that there was a dedicated suite for the duration.

I would like to challenge all of y'all to give up your two tickets per game to Arlington residents in an open and public fashion to get more of the residents into those luxury boxes that y'all enjoy so frequently.

I'd like to remind y'all that we are not children.

The Dallas Cowboys is a sports team.

We do not owe them any loyalties.

They play football.

Now Jerry Jones has a larger economic presence, but we should not be operating from childhood uh desires to be a part of them.

And I even played football in the stadium in high school.

But we have to look at this as a means for Arlington residents to control the development of the economic of the uh entertainment district.

In fact, we should be looking at ensuring that all Arlington residents, because most of them have never been to that stadium even once, have some access to an audio visual feed.

We've paid taxes to them.

Why can't we watch the concerts in our home?

It would be simple, it would make sense.

Also, I want to point out during our uh false police stop scandal uh last decade, I believe it was last decade, um, that beneficial moonlighting gigs were being offered as part of a quasi-quota program to encourage police officers to engage drivers and make uh interactions.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Mr.

Hickerson.

After Mr.

Hickerson is Warren Norred, thank you, Council.

I'm Hal Hickerson, I live at 901 Rocky Canyon Road.

Um I'm here not for the cowboys or against the cowboys.

I feel like that that a majority of the citizens were deceived.

Whenever we originally voted for the cowboys, that was the cowboys.

That was not giving the council hands in our pocketbooks.

In other words, we didn't realize, or I didn't, that forever, if y'all want to extend, extend, extend, if you want to keep adding on to the bill that you all said that we would have paid and off in a few years.

Um that's not what was presented at the original vote to have the cowboys here.

Uh I don't go to the cowboy games.

Uh too much traffic for me.

Um, but whenever I do go by, all I see after the games are parking lots full of porta potties and dumpsters.

And that is really something that's nice whenever you drive through Arlington.

So, but uh I think that this should be put up for a vote.

This is a whole different deal than what y'all are presenting here.

This is something new.

It should be put up to vote to the citizens.

If they want to vote it in, fine.

If they don't, fine.

Let them make the decision.

Let us make the decision.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Norrit.

After Mr.

Norrit is Edda Ashley.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, council members, mayor, fellow comrades.

Um I have to make a couple comments, what I've heard so far.

Uh one of the people that sat in this chair a long time ago talked about us being no one's suburb.

Uh we are not a tiny city, kind of graded when I heard it's described that way.

I don't like us described as uh a new Dallas Dallas to me as a dystopian nightmare, and I don't encourage anybody to ever go there or want to be like that.

Uh but uh more to the issue.

And this is all this vote tonight is not about whether or not the cowboys are should should stay or go.

If somebody were to say, well, you want them to go away, I would remind them that in 2004 and I was there.

I was a member of Touchdown Arlington.

I said we should give them 200 million dollars if we're gonna play this game.

We don't have to give them all the money, we just have to give them more money than anybody else could, and that would have been fine.

That's all you have to do.

You don't have to give them all the money.

It was only when we hit to 300 300 million that I left it left the reservation.

So it's not about whether they should come or go or that they're gonna leave anytime soon.

The um I listened to Trey's presentation this afternoon, of course, again today.

What I did not hear is some legal support for the idea that the proposal that we're voting on should give more contributions or bonds or anything like that.

You guys can extend the lease all day long.

That's not a problem.

But the idea of giving them another 200 plus million dollars goes beyond that.

Um I heard discussion about refinancing.

Refinancing is not extending, it's not making more of a of a of a contribution, it's not an additional more money into it, it's just a refinance of what we already have.

Um I have a real problem with the idea that we're going to say, well, we're getting 32 million dollars here, but we're going to contribute all this additional money.

And so the question then is what can I do about that, right?

So, as some of you may know, I I practice law sometimes.

And so I did some research, and I'm going to encourage you all to pull out your Claude AI.

Of course, now every time comes to my office, they've they're armed with Claude AI or chat GTP.

And I would have you look up the phrase, contract with the voters doctrine.

I'm not making this up.

This is a thing.

Prohibits laws impairing the obligation of contracts.

And you say, well, what about this?

We're not impairing anything.

No.

You made you made a deal with the voters.

And so the way that this has been sometimes described is when this doctrine recognizes when the voters approve a measure such as bond issuance or a tax levy, the terms and conditions presented to the voters at the time of the election for a binding contract from the government entity and voters.

I could go on, but I'm going to take the time.

We've gone from zero to 200 plus million dollars in two weeks.

Send this to the AG.

I will stand down, and I know a lot of the people if we will stand down if you just send it to AG and ask the AG what they think.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Edda Ashley.

Miss Ashley.

After Miss Ashley is Pepper Cray.

Good evening.

My name is Ed Ashley.

I live at 224 Jennifer Lane, Arlington, Texas.

Mayor Ross and Council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

This issue is actually very simple.

We're talking about 273 million dollars of public money being used to upgrade a stadium.

That money does not belong to a team owner, a corporation or city hall.

It belongs to the taxpayers.

We're often told of deals that these deals will pay for themselves, but time and again, communities find that the stadium subsidies don't deliver the promised economic bone.

Temporary jobs disappear.

And taxpayers are left paying the bill long after the excitement fades.

Now think about what 273 million dollars could do instead.

Roads, schools, emergency services, tax relief, things that every resident relies on whether they attend a game or not.

Once that money is spent, it's gone.

Most importantly, voters deserve a choice.

Big financial decisions should never be rushed or decided behind closed doors because it diminishes public's trust.

If this deal is truly good for the public, then it should be strong enough to survive a public vote.

Saying no to this proposal doesn't mean that we're against sports or progress.

It means we're for fairness, accountability, and respect for taxpayers.

Let the people decide.

Thank you for your service and for your consideration.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speak speaker is Pepper Crairy.

Hi, I'm Pepper Crairy from Arlington, Texas.

And I like the cowboys and I like the Rangers, and I'm glad they're here.

But that's not my qualm.

My qualm today is this is the voters' right to make this decision.

Don't take this from the voters.

You promised us when we voted it in what four times for the Rangers and the Cowboys.

You promised us this would end when the stadium was paid for.

The stadium was paid for.

You bragged about it in August of 2025.

Now that's our tax dollars.

That money should be coming back to us.

You have no right to take this money without getting us to vote.

Let us vote.

We all like the cowboys and the rangers.

They have they're got a contract with us to 2040.

There's no reason for them to leave.

They're making money hand over fist.

I can understand saving a little bunny by being remodeling now.

I'd like to remodel my house right now.

But you know what?

My house values have dropped in Arlington.

My taxes went up.

This isn't right.

The if the taxes are getting we're getting so many benefits from the cowboys and rangers, why are our taxes going up?

Why aren't our taxes Fort Worth taxes went down?

Arlington taxes went up.

So there's something wrong with this balance sheet.

This isn't working for Arlington cities citizens.

We want the cowboys, we want the Rangers, but you don't have the right to spend our money when we voted to end this when it was paid for.

So get us to vote on this issue.

That's my point.

Thank you for hearing me.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next speaker, Mr.

Buskin.

Mayor, that concludes our speakers on this item.

We also had seven non-speakers in support.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Elverton, did you want to clarify anything here in the comments from the gallery?

Um just a couple of um things to clarify and then take whatever else questions you might have.

I do want to make sure that it's clear that uh these taxes pursuant to what was authorized by the voters will end in 2048.

They don't go forever, they end on the basis of which they originally voted, uh voted in.

So same taxes, same limit, same project.

And so um there it is not a forever thing.

It ends in 2048, and whatever happens after 2048 does need to come back to the voters.

That's the one thing I really want to make sure it was clear.

Thank you, sir.

We'll recognize council member Galante.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

I don't have a question for for Trey.

Trey, thank you so much for explaining uh little by little uh in the afternoon and also in the evening.

My take is this if someone does not understand what is being presented, not only in the afternoon session, plus tonight, so either the person doesn't want to understand or has a political agenda which is detrimental to the economic engine in the city.

Before I got elected uh here for the bench on the district one, I've heard a wise person telling me that Mauricio, sports team city is who we are, and your obligation when you get there is to keep it the way it is, improve if you can, be a team member, be a good team member, and I appreciate so many people, so many friends of ours of the community.

The community knows better.

So Georgia here, we have Michael Jacobson, Brent from the CVB, our friend Aziz, Randy, our friends from Lois, everybody came and gave a testimony that the sports teams are one of the most important economic engines we have in the city.

Yes, we're working hard to diversify our economy, bring our space engineer, biotech, biotech, bringing other kind of businesses that can complement what we have going in the city of Arlington.

And I feel was my obligation, and I've heard and I really hear those who are proposing having a vote on this.

So many many times were said the vote was already in place.

What we doing now is just refinancing, like we did before.

But I hear you.

I was not here in 2004, one was voted.

I was here 2016, but what is being done now is what had been done in the past.

And why now?

Why now we need to to have a vote on this?

The city management and previous city councils and this city council are committed to the economic development.

And look at the numbers the city showing.

Look at the progress you have in the last decades.

When did they lose your confidence in their ability to continue generating a long-term economic development to the city?

And that's our opportunity, like Mr.

Michael Jacobs said, it's our opportunity to bring light and certainty in a ward full of uncertainty.

You can count on me there on this, and you have my full support on the leasing extension.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Galante.

So I hear a few concerns.

And I just want to say I I do hear the concerns.

Um one of the concerns I hear all the time is why are we giving money to a bunch of billionaires?

They don't need the money.

And we are obligated to keep people safe as they're coming and going from that stadium.

And none of that money is going in the pockets of any billionaires.

Another concern I hear is well, if you pay the stadium off, we could use that money for fixing potholes or hiring police and fire.

And it can't work that way.

We're not permitted to do so.

With the tax revenue, it must go to an athletic stadium, either Globe Light Field or ATT.

If you don't use it for those purposes, you lose it.

You don't get it.

The third thing, which I really can empathize with, is this should go to the voters.

It's 273 million dollars of tax revenue, and the voters should be heard on this.

And I agree completely, except for the fact that the voters have already been heard on it.

And they overwhelmingly said, sell the bonds, pay this thing back by 2048.

That's exactly what we're doing.

This isn't unprecedented.

Refinancing this has been done three other times.

What this does for us is it ensures that we maintain our priority of keeping people safe in this community.

It works at how do we get people off of the streets and elevate them in a way that protects them coming to and from the stadium.

It makes sure that we're advancing our technologies to more properly and efficiently scan packages and people and crowds.

It makes sure that we have a better opportunity to protect our public, which is our first and foremost priority.

From an economic development perspective, the impact to Arlington from ATT alone is $324 million a year.

That's not just city cash registers ringing.

That are the that's the cash registers of Breakfast Brothers of Prince Lebanese Grill, of Jay Gilligan's.

That's the cash registers of our realtors.

That's the cash registers of all of our small business owners who make up the backbone of Arlington's business community.

So I intend to vote yes tonight because Arlington has already instructed me to vote yes tonight.

And we are doing exactly what the voters have required of us to do to protect this city the best we can, to bring economic development to this city like nobody else has done, and to do it within the parameters of what was already done in the selling of the bonds and paying them back.

Listen, I hear y'all, and I hear you with your concerns.

There's nothing more I agree with that this is something that the voters need to have a say in.

So with that, I have a motion from Mr.

Galante, a second from Councilmember Odom Wesley.

Please cast your vote.

And the motion passes.

Hi, Mindy Cochran, Executive Director of Housing again.

Ms.

Cochrane, nobody wants to hear you talk.

They're all leaving now.

I've always liked I've always liked you personally, and I don't know what that problem is, but go ahead.

I'm sorry.

11.2 is a resolution authorizing the submission of a general and no litigation certificate.

So Chapter 394 of the Texas Local Government Code governs housing finance corporations.

And one of the requirements it has is before an agency can issue bonds for support of an affordable housing development, the local political subdivision is required to complete this certificate.

What that means is the City of Arlington is required to submit specific documents, including a general certificate to the Texas Attorney General, excuse me, who will review all the documents related to the bonds, review them prior to allowing the issuance of the bonds.

The general certificate includes, among other things, a statement that a public is hearing is held related to these bonds, and that's item 12.1 on your agenda this evening.

Um that there's no pending litigation that would impact the corporation's ability to issue those bonds, and it authorizes the attorney general to execute and date the general certificate prior to the issuance of the bonds.

And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, ma'am.

Mr.

Buskin, do we have any speakers on this item?

No, sir.

We do not.

Thank you, sir.

I have a motion from Councilmember Odom Wesley and a sec a second from Councilmember Boxel, please cast your vote.

The motion passes.

We'll move on down to item 12.1, Ms.

Cochran.

Thank you.

This is this item is with the passage of House Bill 21.

Um, as was an amendment of chapter 394, added an a requirement for a public hearing if a housing finance corporation is intending to issue bonds.

So this is an action.

This is a um item on the agenda that doesn't require any action.

It's simply notification to allow the public to know that we are intending to issue bonds for support of affordable housing, specifically um the Mayfield Park Apartments on Worth Street, um, and to allow the public to speak related to that as well.

So again, no action required from council.

Thank you, Ms.

Cochran.

With that, I'm going to close the public hearing and we'll move on down to 12.2.

Ms.

Thopel.

Thank you, Mayor.

Item 12.2 gas well permit, GW 26-001, day two edge.

This request includes one well head on the day pad drill site within the just approved drilling zone through SUP 08-2R1.

On April 16th, the operator held the required neighborhood meeting per the ordinance.

The railroad commission of Texas has already issued a permit number for this requested gas well.

The gas drilling permit, if if if approved, is subject to compliance with the whole completed gas well permit application, including all the exhibits.

This evening we have Leslie Garvis representing Totel ENP, Barnett USA LLC.

If the council has any questions for her.

Mr.

Buskin, any other speakers on this item?

No, sir.

No additional speakers.

We had one non-speaker in support and one non-speaker in opposition.

Thank you, sir.

I'm going to close the public hearing.

I have a motion from Councilmember Gonzalez.

A second from Councilmember Galante, please cast your vote.

The motion passes.

13.1.

Mr.

Close.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I come to you in front of you tonight for two different parameters ordinances.

You have previously passed the capital budget as well as reimbursement resolutions.

This grants the authority to issue the debt to supplying the funds for those capital budgets, as well as refunding bonds in the amount for the GOs of 142 million five hundred and forty-four thousand.

And for 13.2 for water of 103 million eight hundred and fifty thousand.

So the new money is in there as well as the refunding.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Buskin, do we have any speakers on this item?

No, sir, we do not.

Thank you.

I have a motion from Councilmember Gonzalez, a second from Councilmember Pham, please cast your vote.

The motion passes.

13.2.

Did you already do them both, Ethan?

I thought so.

That's all right.

You don't have to, you don't have anything else to say, do you?

All right, on 13.2.

Any speakers on that one, Mr.

Buskin?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Mr.

Glante has eased the movement on here, and I have a second from Councilmember Pham.

Please cast your vote.

The motion passes 13.3, Ms.

Thopel.

Thank you, Mayor.

This amendment to the major sports complex chapter adds a special provision for an existing legally non-conforming static billboard located along State Highway 180 and in the entertainment district to be able to be replaced with a digital billboard of a certain size and standards.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Mr.

Buskin, any speakers on this item?

No, sir.

No speakers.

We did have one non-speaker in support.

Thank you, sir.

I have a motion from Councilmember Boxel, a second from Councilmember Hogg, please cast your vote.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Mr.

Buskin can uh citizen participation, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Citizen participation gives the public an opportunity to make comments or address concerns regarding matters related to city business or affairs that are in the scope of the authority of the city council and which are not posted on the evening agenda.

However, please understand that the mayor and council are not permitted by law to respond to, discuss, or address the comment at this time.

As these items are not included on the post council agenda for this evening.

The mayor and council may only ask clarifying questions and or direct staff to take appropriate action.

Speakers who have pre-registered will be given two minutes to make their comments, except that if 26 or more speakers have pre-registered, each speaker will be given one minute to make their comments.

Mayor, we had nine individuals register for citizen participation this evening.

Our first speaker is Marcus Mohammed.

Mr.

Mohammed.

Mr.

Muhammad, next speaker, please.

Our next speaker is Douglas Sevier.

Mr.

Seaver.

Mr.

Seaver.

Next speaker, please.

Our next speaker is uh Zainab Ali.

It's a lead.

Next speaker, please.

Our next speaker is Abira Muhammad.

I knew we'd find one sooner or later.

Come on up.

Good evening.

My name is Ibira Mohammed.

Uh my address is 1338 Bogard Lane in Louisville.

I stand before you tonight in several capacities as a critical care registered nurse who cares has cared for patients across the DFW Metroplex as a dedicated humanitarian and as a concerned citizen.

Most importantly, however, I'm here as a friend of Yakub Ira.

Yakoub is a resident of Arlington, a DACA recipient, and was abducted six months ago by ICE at gunpoint on his way to work, despite not having any criminal record.

In 2024, I returned from a humanitarian medical mission to Gaza.

There I witnessed the unfathomable, the targeted and systemic violence against innocent civilians.

I spent my days performing the most harrowing task a health care provider can face.

Upon my return, I met Yaqub at a community event to advocate for an end to an end for the ongoing state-sponsored violence.

All the people that I treated in Gaza were directly harmed by bunker bombs and other weapons of mass destruction made here in Texas.

Yakub and I connected instantly over a shared sense of moral crisis, specifically the absurdity of our tax dollars funding the very genocide that I had witnessed.

Yakub is outspoken as I am in his daily interactions and on social media about ending the military industrial complex that targets innocence.

I quickly started to notice Yaqou's present at every volunteer and advocacy event, whether it was raising awareness for unjustly incarcerated political prisoners or as an at an event to feed our unhoused neighbors.

Through our friendship, I have come to know Yaqub as a man of profound integrity.

While many lament injustice from the sideline, Yakub act acts.

Despite the demands of his full-time career at American Airlines, he consistently dedicates his personal time and talents to uplifting those around him.

Yakub has contributed honorably to the fabric of our society, and I urge the City Council of Arlington to adopt a formal resolution calling for Yaqub Ira's immediate release.

We must demonstrate that this city stands for justice, protects the advocates, and refuses to remain silenced while one of its own is unjustly taken.

Yaqub's detention is more than a personal tragedy.

It is a dystopian precedent.

It is it disturbs the fact that any individual can be targeted for free speech.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Our next speaker is Cody Warden.

Mr.

Warden.

Hello, I'm Cody Warden, and I wanted to bring something to y'all's attention as it pertains to people who are being arrested that are not breaking the law.

Specifically, identify an officer by the name of Tabitha Brown with Arlington Police Department.

She has made two separate false arrests on camera.

I personally was arrested for filming a police officers on a sub public sidewalk and obstructing the street, despite being ordered by the officer to stand there.

I filed a complaint with internal affairs which went nowhere.

And I've also emailed the mayor as well as the city manager.

I've not heard back.

Fast forward till now, there was another man that was arrested by Tabitha Brown for simply asking her name, which officers are supposed to provide their name and badge number when requested by a citizen.

She began shoving the man up against his truck and then did a leg sweep with another officer, which ended with him having his leg broken.

This case was dismissed three weeks ago, three or four weeks ago.

My case was dismissed two years ago.

I went to uh Lieutenant and the sergeant with the Arlington Police Department.

They do not want to watch the video.

Um I'm coming here today to demand that Officer Tabitha Brown be fired.

I don't think it's right that you guys can sit here and look at us.

How do you care about the citizens here when they're being treated this badly by the police department and there's no accountability?

You guys have the power to fire Tabitha Brown.

She does not want to go by the law, she does not respect our constitutional rights, and I think it's detrimental to the Arlington Police Department and the city of Arlington as a whole to move forward in a positive way with Tabitha Brown still being allowed to be a police officer.

With that being said, I hope you guys do the right thing.

Thank you for your time.

Have a good night.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Jimmy Burke.

After Mr.

Burke is Vanessa Strength.

All right, Jimmy.

I don't see Miss Strength in here, Mr.

Buskin, so you can call the next one, just see if they're here.

After Mr.

Burke is Justin Adorado.

Thank you again, Mayor and Council.

You get me twice tonight.

Homeless to the American Dream Part 5.

As always, I think about what to share in these brief two minutes.

Helps me be concise.

Last week, on April 15th, we very famously through Major League Baseball, celebrated what Jackie Robinson famously did in his history 79 years ago.

One of the biggest courage points that I believe he shared, which is I'm gonna apply it to us, is ironically tougher in regard to he was not allowed for his purpose to defend himself for what he had to accomplish.

He had to have a branch Ricky and a Pee Wee Reese to lay the groundwork to back him up for his purpose.

Sometimes in our life now, especially as homeless people in depravity, not just to not be in depravity, but even get to the point where if you're physically stranded somewhere, like I was the last several days without food, you have to even avoid being jammed up, trespassed.

Why do I say these things too?

Because just like with Jackie Robinson for us, albeit probably less historically, it's not so much a level playing field as the level reasonable opportunity as a responsible autonomous citizen to be a lot and entry point to be on the field at all, including income.

Practically speaking, we need to remove the logistical barriers to work and income.

Gone are the days when I grew up where you you didn't have any red tape unnecessarily to find work to even have a chance to the discussion for it.

Which had a little more time, but we gotta have where we can meet somebody personally and do that to be allowed to be on the playing field.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, Ms.

Buskin.

Our next speaker is Justin Adorato.

Hello, hello.

My name is Shasan Atarrado from Fort Worth.

May the peace and mercy and blessings of God be upon you all.

I am here to speak uh today to ask for a resolution of the activist and fellow Muslim and Filipino American Yaqub Iraviandre.

About a month ago, I and many in the community made the point of Yaquba's involvement in the community, which he is an immigrant of, along with his free speech being infringed upon, as just some of the many reasons for the freedom of the brother Echo.

Today, I did not come here to make the same points again.

What I said previously is already publicly recorded and archived to see.

I come instead with a story.

In Milwaukee, their city council passed a resolution for the release of a fellow Muslim and fellow activist for Philistine, Salah Sao Hasur.

Their resolution was voted on publicly by council members just like you all, and not merely supporting Salah from behind closed doors.

Now I get it.

Arlington is in Texas, which is not Milwaukee in Wisconsin, but Wisconsin is also not California or any state that is decisively blue.

Just because our state is a red state does not mean that our that we cannot work towards fixing the errors and injustices of our red pro-ICE counterparts who unjustly detain Yacoub for his speech that he is that he has not been protected by our first amendment like it ought to be.

Arlington, you are the American dream city.

This American dream includes our first amendment rights.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Sayeda Saed.

And uh I would like to talk about appraisal district.

Uh there is some information uh that you might not heard about it.

It's uh it's uh through an open record request, one of uh turn county residents obtained the actual market value Ted calculated for last year, that is for 2025, and they did not use those values that shows over 190,000 properties uh have had lower values, but because of their controversial reappraisal plan, uh they did not use it, and Chief Appraiser showed it during executive session several times to the board and show them hey this 190,000 property owners, they will overpaid in uh Tran County overpaid in taxes last year, and this number is gross this this year because they are not changing it, although uh a lot of people are paying more.

So uh the homeowners paid taxes based on the values that were given by the TAD.

TAD calculated these lower values but did not release them to the property owners.

The only reason this data is published now is because one of the Tran County residents requested it.

Ted is doing the same thing again.

Most people will assume they don't need to protest because of their values are not changing this year.

That uh assumption will cost thousands to the people, just like they did last year.

Most property owners will never see this data unless someone showed it to them.

So I encourage each and every property owner, please go protest.

The deadline to protest is May fift fifteen.

Although you as a taxing entity may not like it, but as a property owner, uh I know some of the thank you, ma'am.

That sneaks up on you, doesn't it?

Sorry.

You know, grip.

No, thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Okay, Mr.

Buskin, anybody else?

No, sir.

No additional speakers.

Thank you.

Council, do y'all have any announcements for tonight?

Yes, Mayor.

Mr.

Galante Well, um, yes, Mayor.

On the May 17, uh, we're gonna have the 1994 revival game.

There was United States soccer team playing against the Brazil team from that year.

If y'all remember, uh that game was uh all amateur uh players from the uh US national team playing against the favorites in that year that end up winning the World Cup in 1994.

So all those players are 50s and 60s now.

They're gonna be at Choctaw Stadium.

Game starts on Sunday, May 17 at 5 p.m.

is the revival 1994 World Cup game.

I bet more people in this room remember Super Bowls back then, don't you?

Anyone else on this side over here?

Any announcements?

Ms.

Buskin announcements, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to remind our residents, Arlington City Council evening meetings are rebroadcast on Sundays at 6 p.m.

and on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 6.30 a.m.

The council's afternoon work sessions are rebroadcast on Sundays at 1 p.m., Wednesdays at 1 30 p.m.

and on Saturdays at 6 p.m.

You can also watch the meetings online anytime at www.arlington tx.gov.

Thank you all.

Thank you all for coming out tonight.

Please be safe going home.

City council is adjourned.