We're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session of the city council meeting to order.

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L'autre l'offre, l'autre, l'autre Oh Alright, we're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session back to order.

We're gonna move on down the 3.1 target for Chief, you gonna do this.

I'm a sergeant with me.

Alright.

Good afternoon, Mayor Council Al Jones, Chief of Police.

Today we're represent uh presenting the human trafficking.

As Arlington, we prepare to welcome the World Cup in FIFA for 2026.

We know that the spotlight is going to be on our city.

In anticipation, our human trafficking strategies that is aimed at making Arlington not only a welcome host city, but a safe one.

I'll turn the presentation over to Sergeant McSlamovich, who oversees our human exploitation and trafficking.

Sir, good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Uh my name is Terek Maslamovich, and I'm a sergeant with the Arlington Police Department, and I currently oversee our human exploitation and trafficking unit.

So again, thank you for this opportunity to talk about what our efforts are going to be this uh June and July, specifically as we uh look forward to the FIFA Raw Cup and what that's gonna bring to our city and how we will stand up to uh disrupt human trafficking.

Is there a there's got it?

Thank you.

Okay, I think it's appropriate to start off by just discussing a little bit about what human trafficking is.

Uh the most common thing that I uh get is that human trafficking and human smuggling are identical, and there certainly are not.

Uh we need to understand that human trafficking is a crime against a person, and that's what we investigate.

Uh, while human smuggling is uh crime against our borders.

So there's a distinct difference between those two, but to further identify what human trafficking is, it is um two components.

There is commercial sex trafficking, and then there's labor trafficking.

And in order to prove either one of those, we have to prove up the force fraud or coercion, or if the victim is under the age of 18.

And back in 2003, around springtime, through uh leadership of Chief Jones, we're fortunate to be able to stand up our unit, our heat unit.

And that unit's makeup is currently five detectives, a sergeant, and we also have a digital component involved where um we have a digital forensics lab at the Alliance for Children to examine our uh cell phones, computers, and other other digital forensics components.

When we were building this unit and we're looking how we can make it uh make it relevant to the our current time and age as it relates to human trafficking, we followed the four pillars that were created in 2021 by the White House.

These pillars were prevention, protection, prosecution, and then cross-cutting approaches, which is essentially partnerships.

We built our unit off of those four pillars uh to uh protect those vulnerable people in our city, hold those suspects accountable, but we spend a large amount of time educating our citizens and our stakeholders within the city on what human trafficking is, and we'll touch on that here in just a little bit.

So the big uh topic at hand is FIFA World Cup.

We know it's uh international large event.

Uh it's gonna draw a lot of international presence, it's gonna uh viewership across the world.

Um we know it's gonna bring a lot of uh visitors to our city, and we welcome them, right?

Uh but the thing that is, I think so important to mention, we're not uh city that's new to h hosting large events, and we're certainly not uh new to uh running operations around major events.

I can go as recent as April when we had NDCAR here in our city and we ran human trafficking operations.

So uh we are ready in that regard uh because we said we had now a couple years to really run some of our efforts to disrupt uh and protect those here visiting our city.

So why does it matter and why do large-scale events matter?

What's one thing is it brings a large crowd.

What we know is uh human trafficking suspects generally will seek large gatherings because that will keep their business of the criminal enterprise going.

They go to those events where there is a demand and then they exploit victims uh in that regard.

We know that traffickers explored through hotels, transportation, and online platforms.

We're in 2026, uh human trafficking has changed drastically, and it's certainly shifted to the online presence that we're very familiar with in my unit.

So our focus uh for FIFA specifically, and it this is true for really our general response to human trafficking, is recovering victims, connecting them with victim service providers.

We do a really good job as police officers to hold those suspects accountable, give the prosecutors a fantastic case and take it to trial and get those guilty verdicts.

But it is so important that we connect them to victim service providers because that is when the victim can get the chance to get out of that lifestyle and and begin their healing journey.

As I mentioned, holding suspects accountable is kind of our second goal, and the third one is we're gonna focus on sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and child exploitation.

Our unit's goal is not to just focus on human trafficking but the general child exploitation umbrella.

So we can we have to keep both encompassed because there's such a bleed over in those two categories.

And in the efforts of FIFA, we are standing up Operation Red Card where we're dedicating 13 uh proactive operating uh events for June and July, uh dedicated specifically to FIFA World Cup.

Our focus will be on victim outreach operations, demand suppression, online solicitation of minor operations, and traditional undercover operations.

I mentioned partnerships earlier.

Uh, a unit of five plus a sergeant certainly can do it alone, and then that is so true when it comes to large-scale events and operations.

So in this uh for uh Operation Red Card, we have Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, Fort Worth Police Department, Mansfield, Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, and the FBI all joining and dedicating resources to us when we stand up our efforts on uh on the partnership side along the alliance of victim service providers, we're gonna be working very closely with Rescue Hill, Alliance for Children, Unbound, A21, and the net.

All of these organizations are fantastic, and each of them provide uh different resources.

So they will be joining us in various different stages of these operations.

And then last but certainly not least, uh, our awesome prosecutors, both in with Tarrant County on the state side, Danielle Bonano and our AUSA Allison Monte, who's been assigned as lead over the Terran County district side for uh the federal prosecution.

So they're gonna be hands on deck with us to dictate which cases we're gonna take on the state side and which cases we're gonna take on the federal side.

Uh mentioned earlier, education is very important, it's important to our stakeholders, it's important to our citizens.

We spend a lot of time working with AISD, educating uh staff members, administrators.

We've brought programs such as traffic stop to AISD two years ago, which was a great turnout, it was a 12-week program.

We spend a lot of time speaking to healthcare professionals.

We know a lot of our victims visit hospitals routinely, so making sure our ER nurses and doctors recognize what trafficking looks like.

Faith-based organizations, uh, Faith in Blue and various different ones we're commonly and routinely speaking at.

Uh, and various different uh groups that we uh hold meetings quarterly for our stakeholders to come and simply learn more about it if they wish.

And then the big one is our hotels and motels.

Uh we spend uh a ton of time with them because that we, as we know, that is the uh baseline where a lot of this is occurring.

So everything from the front desk check-in uh employee all the way to up to general managers, would try to have some FaceTime, have some build dose connections and those relationships so they know us, they can trust us and know we're gonna step in and do the right thing uh by keeping their hotel and motel trafficking free.

So I spoke a little bit about the general uh educational base for community stakeholders, but when we focus on our city specifically, we um spoke to our code enforcement multiple times.

We spoke to our planning and development services and educated them on what that looks like.

We um developed an eight hour course for our patrol officers because they're out there 24 7, and when they come across something, if they're not sure, they know how to get a hold of me.

We have a 24-7 on call in my unit, and we can staff cases any time of the day.

Uh, the 25 2025 annual multifamily code compliance workshop presented at this event twice to various different um uh community members that have multi-housing uh units, so they know what that looks like.

Umbound, which is one of our NGOs, focuses on not in my city or not in my hotel initiatives.

This is when the day along several volunteers go to these hotels and provide them with resources and provide them with literature and and flyers to make sure they understand what it is, even though they are state required to have education.

This is just another layer of of information, so to speak.

A21 is going to be the lead NGO that is going to be presenting uh a about a 29 minute video.

It's very informational about human trafficking.

I think it's it's a great uh video, and then on top of that, they're gonna be rolling out a lot of short commercials throughout the year, uh, leading up to FIFA.

That QR code will take you straight to that video and um give give that information.

Um we're gonna talk about this just a few possible signs of what of what a victim uh that's being trafficked may uh display.

Obviously, not any one of these by itself screams uh a victim of trafficking, right?

But I think what we have seen in my experience is a couple of these certainly uh demonstrate that uh just being fearful, anxious, controlled, or unable to move or speak freely.

Uh, that is very common for those cues for our hotel and motel uh front desk employees to recognize seeing coaching what to say, not knowing where to go next, somebody holding their ID or driver's license, their phone belongings, uh, in a method or manner of control.

You know, signs of physical abuse, neglect, uh, not sure, not sure where they're staying at, what city or even what state they're in.

Uh we have had phone calls, nine-on-one calls where they can't even explain where they're at, and uh through our amazing dispatch, we're able to find a way to get to them.

Um, mentioned that the lack of control, avoiding eye contact, and and some of the just overwhelming uh emotional abuse that these victims endure is common, and uh certainly the ones that appear underage, those are red flags for us, and then accompanied by suspects or individuals that are um don't appear to be related.

So those are all concerns and red flags for us.

Some of the locations just to be aware of.

Um hotels and motels, as I mentioned, parking lots and transit areas, convenience stores and truck stops, large event areas, online ads, or suspicious social media activity.

Again, not within it itself, any of these uh hotspot or red red spots, so to speak, but the bottom line is when we run some of our operations and what we have our Intel tells us that any one of these certainly could display that um activity.

The national human trafficking hotline is going to be staffed 24 7 during FIFA.

Um, they already have everything up and running.

There's multiple different ways to report human trafficking.

Obviously, 911 if we believe somebody's in immediate danger, but the trafficking hotline allows uh citizens uh to text information in, call it in, go online, and give as much information as they can about a potential incident, and then the hotline will review that.

And for our region, or specifically for Arlington, I will get that tip, and then I will vet that information and get it assigned to immediately begin investigating it.

So this is a great tool and resource.

Uh it's currently up and running, it has been up and running just for the major event coming up.

It is going to be staffed 24 7 and with quicker uh notifications.

And that is uh that concludes the presentation on human trafficking and our response to FIFA.

Uh, yes, sir.

Can you give us some examples of what happened during these results?

Provided with human traffic.

Do we catch anybody?

Uh for IndyCar, sir.

During the uh the IndyCar.

Yes, sir.

Certainly.

The IndyCar was a three-day um operation where we arrested 16 individuals for solicitation of prostitution.

That's awesome.

So I just wanted people to know that we are on it.

You guys are getting we're getting results and everything else.

Absolutely, sir.

Uh, I mean, I believe when we put a lot of these resources together, um, we need to have some result, and providing victim resources and holding suspects accountable depending on which operation we run, is uh certainly there's there's value in that, and I I appreciate that.

And so with regards to cowboy games, is that very common?

Is that kind of low, or is that it's it's lower on the uh activity threshold.

Um, major events like bigger boxing events, IndyCar being one of them.

Um certain major events of travel tend to bring the bigger crowd, the not so everyday crowd, so to speak.

Uh, and so we we do pivot around some of those events more so.

Well, I appreciate the good work you guys are doing, and I'm uh I'm glad you're letting the people know that we're getting results out of this because that's I think that's the number that's increased more because we're able to have more offices around this.

So, thank you for making a difference.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Councilmember Boxel.

Thank you.

Um I know that there are several um neighborhood meetings that are going to happen about this issue coming up.

I know about the one with Hannah, but I would encourage you to reach out to other neighborhoods because this does go on in our neighborhoods as well.

It's happened in my neighborhood uh where we've seen uh young people in um rental homes or in abandoned homes, um, people taking over, and I really would like our pop our citizens to be aware of the signs that they can notice in our neighborhood.

And this is a really important issue.

It's something that's uh, in fact, it's the very first thing that I got involved in politics and in 2001 in Hawaii.

Human trafficking is a big problem with the big tourism trade there.

Um, and so I've been involved with this issue for a very long time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Odin Wesley.

Thank you for this report and and for all your work.

I'm just curious what kind or how big of a problem this is outside of major events, big events.

Just everyday Arlington.

Uh there's a presence of it.

I I think uh we as a city and as a police department recognize there uh we're a large city, and not just speaking outside of major events.

I do believe that if a city contains uh, as you mentioned, neighborhoods, homes, if we have hotels, that is gonna drive traffic, just even somebody passing through.

I'll give you an example.

Uh maybe somebody who's based out of Houston driving to Oklahoma to traffic the victim out in Oklahoma, they may come through Arlington and just take them take a day off of driving, but the exploitation, the victimization is gonna continue to happen.

So it's uh does it exist?

Uh it does, yes, ma'am.

And it's not just major events, uh, but I think that's why we uh it is my expectation as a as a supervisor of the unit to continue running proactive operations, educating our officers so they know what to look for, they can notify us and we can respond, and then we can take actions immediately.

I remember back in the 80s, when I was a cop, we had human trafficking then.

And things have gotten so much bigger and grander in Arlington over the last four decades that this problem is going to grow like everything else has grown.

Um for me, this is the worst kind of trafficking there is because I couldn't imagine losing a loved one to something like this.

So make sure that I don't want to say this in front of the city manager, but you're putting in your request to the chief who can relay them to the city manager come budget time because I want to make sure that we're giving you all all the tools you need to address this issue.

So thank you, Sergeant.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Go ahead.

Councilman.

I'm gonna talk too much after the mayor.

Thank you, Sarge, for the help.

So since we have a different public coming in, we have uh different languages, international um crowds, right?

And I mean, we're gonna have Jordanias, we're gonna have Netherlands, we're gonna have Japanese people.

And uh what are the the preparations behind for somebody that is victim of a human trafficking that does not speak our language at all?

So what what resources do you have there in um links that you have probably embassies or consulates that can help you guys on this?

Absolutely.

Um I certainly speak several languages uh can cover most of eastern Europe, but a lot of those I'm no help in.

But that is something we think about.

Uh so the most obvious one that always comes to mind is our language lines for instant immediate communication.

Um, knowing what we know, it's not the most effective way to communicate with a victim of trafficking because of all those things that I'm as I mentioned that are spinning through their heads.

Uh several of our NGOs uh have interpreters that we can lean in on.

And so as we are planning those uh events around those key match days with those uh visitors coming in, we just need to be aware of what are the likelihood of languages that we're gonna encounter and make sure that those uh entities are ready and prepared to translate for us.

Thank you so much.

We've got to think about everything, right?

And I know you guys do it.

Thank you for the work you do.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you, Sergeant.

Thanks, sir.

3.2.

Marty.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

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

It's time to give you somewhat of a quarterly quarterly report priority on grow our economy.

Uh and so we'll be taking you through somewhat of our business plan and give you some ideas of some of the things we've seen and things we see on the horizon too.

Uh the one thing I would stress when it comes to these business plan items, we discuss uh is the emphasis I place all the time on this, in particular, redevelopment efforts.

Uh, since we are so built out and uh and recognition too that it's as you and I talked about today uh with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas coming and having a visit here this morning with a lot of other representatives from adjoining cities, that relationships, continued follow-up with people is so critical, especially since a lot of what we do relates to uh what I would say is akin to asset management or and sometimes even distressed asset management.

So we've got to be uh resilient and and keep working hard as as it relates to the business plan with some of the objectives.

I I would call out business attraction, and in particular some things we've been doing with requests for information with the state of Texas, you're aware it's about a year ago that we brought on uh Christy Goodman Duke, who has all kinds of great relationships again with the state of Texas, but in addition to the work she's been doing with Richard Nevins, my assistant executive director that works a lot with that is further coordination with Lindsay Mitchell and the Office of Strategic Initiatives, and I think you're gonna you're gonna see some more come from from all that, but we're we try to respond as quickly as possible if we've got a match with the state.

Uh in terms of global connections, this has been one that and building on uh on being globally connected.

The big thing is foreign direct investment.

That's what that FDI stands for.

You can see all the level of activity that our team has been involved in, and it's somewhat been rewarded.

Jessica Byerley, our project manager has was asked by the Texas division of the European-American Chamber of Commerce to join their board over in Dallas.

So that's that's further proof that people are seeing how critical and how important it is to us.

Um we when it comes to business retention and expansion, and and let's face it, a lot of that's gonna be small business, but not necessarily always.

We're doing things continuing to do on the small business side, with this being small business appreciation week throughout the country.

Our lift fund, we've got 10 additional loans that have been approved for 514, 883 that create 36 full-time jobs, additional jobs.

Uh, we just as a head heads up, we will be we're already evaluating do we continue with lift fund or do we come back with another entity and propose to you another tranche of funds that's on the horizon.

Um we have been doing when we first had done the score cohort with the SBA.

We went ahead and took a surveyed our small businesses and they like industry-specific cohorts.

We've had three that have been put in place back in September.

The first one, uh professional services, construction and trades in October, and then now in the middle of another one, food and beverage that began in March.

Uh we also, you're well aware of that small business certification program, Arlington Business Certification, uh, that we continue to operate with.

And then for small, all types of businesses, small and large in town.

Our Arlington Development Network or DevNet, as we've branded it, continues to meet.

Uh, and this this past month featured the former Etna building at 4300 Center Place Way, uh, and have one coming up here next week on May the 14th, where we've got Trent Ballard coming out from the airport as well as a broker representing one of the two new industrial parks that have been built there next to MLK Junior's extension, and and talking about the opportunity for over 400,000 square feet of space to tie into what's happening with eSpace and Bell and others at the airport.

And and Trent will show the airport master plan.

Uh related to our business plan as well, we're focused on innovation and trying to do some industry-specific small business training.

We also have a new program that uh, if you hadn't seen it, the federal government voted, Congress voted, and the president signed on April 13th, refunding the what was known as SBIR STTR Small Business Innovation Research or Technology Transfer Research, which allows us to also propose a brand new program we're gonna call BERD Business Innovation and Research Development that'll allow us to uh to team with the types of businesses that are involved in that.

So there's more on that horizon and look forward to telling you about some of that.

You can see where uh our center street project for site assessment were trying to hire a firm to come in and do an evaluate the engineering that's there.

There's an RFQ process that's started, and then in terms of marketing and teaming with others, you know, we've we recognize how important manufacturing is, and we've done quite a bit with the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, have done quite a bit with their research resource expo recently, last week, the chambers small business resource expo, and then of course, this next week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

I've seen where some of you are scheduled to come.

The Japan Texas Economic Summit that our board uh stepped out and did a major sponsorship to ensure it's gonna be here for the next three years.

Uh and there's I've even seen it's been pushed out on LinkedIn, maybe you saw it, but they've released their hat they're gonna give away with Texas spelled in Japanese uh for that this coming Monday night.

When it comes to the business plan too, we're pleased to report that all of the projects that have been brought to you in the last year or so are all on track.

Uh there's been some great pictures.

We've driven by and seen, of course, what's happened with Benton Plaza, and uh and certainly expect these to continue on.

The one thing I would tell you is we're gonna continue to sharpen the pencil on our scorecard.

It's better than what we brought you before, but we're still a little concerned about some others.

Uh, in particular, we doubled apparently the approved process or approved project to execute an agreement.

Uh, more than doubled historically the average, and I think it makes sense to kind of rethink that a little bit, but I am pleased to tell you my staff team toured an Arlington business today.

We've been talking to that we briefed our EDC board on last week, and that I think is gonna be coming to you soon, uh, of an existing employer that wants to expand.

They've got about 150,000 square feet, I think it is now, want to expand another 100,000.

So that's gonna change uh that number, and there'll be some good investment that's coming there too.

So we're pleased at that and and expect to have more to share with you in the way of uh of others that are coming forward that are just right for Arlington.

In terms of upcoming projects and initiatives, uh film has uh has been great in working with communication, um, and as well linking up with the convention and visitors bureau.

Uh that I would say be ready.

There's an announcement coming soon related to the film commission.

Uh, and and you'll you'll be hearing about that through Jay in the coming weeks.

Pleased that uh in terms of downtown, Richard Nevins is teaming with the um the Office of Strategic Initiatives, as we mentioned earlier on the whole center street area adjacent to Anthem.

And so that's that's on the horizon on the international side, uh certainly.

I mentioned uh next week in the Van Texas Economic Summit.

We've talked earlier about just previously FIFA.

Uh thrilled that uh in addition to Benton Plaza and what we're trying to achieve there, but thrilled for FIFA that uh we put out working with small businesses, the game plan.

Um we're gonna be all prepared to work in association with the ambassador's road that Jennifer Wickman put in place.

Uh we'll even have a banner that's being made that we'll have there and in at Lowe's that will show you like what you see with a uh QR code for those who are contemplating investment, they and when they've come to Arlington to visit.

Uh, and then as I mentioned to you previously on the innovation, the whole part with SBRIR, STTR, and the opportunity to team with existing Arlington firms that have received grants before and are ready for a higher level.

We can come in and help with that and uh and create this new matching funds program that we're calling BERD for now.

And I couldn't, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this happens to also be economic development week according to 100 years now of impact with the International Economic Development Council.

This is uh this is the banner that we saw uh last October at the Japan or the US Japan Council meeting, and thrilled to see that now come to fruition next week, and then in September.

We're also very pleased to bring back to Arlington IC3, the effort that bio North Texas brings.

Uh the life science and healthcare innovation summit, they moved it away.

Last year, it's coming back to the Lowe's Arlington Hotel and Convention Center September 24th and 25th.

And uh I we are really committed and working with them, trying to keep them coming back here every year in the years to come.

Realize you've got may have questions, I'd be glad to respond to any that you've got.

Uh Marty, can you go back to slide number eight, please?

Yes, sir.

On the uh the department for the international, yes.

And uh I saw uh we continue to support the assistance cities program.

Um EDC now, the for which which department that for under now.

I think it's still to be determined, but I know there's a there's a plan, is there not?

Yeah, not really yet.

But I suspect that um someone in Lindsay Mitchell's shop will end up taking that over with.

But we have not we have not uh allocated that responsibility just yet.

So do we have any budget allocate for that since the city in case we travel to the next is the next uh one of the sisters cities?

Would that work with Arlington be?

Yeah, so the only dollars that are allocated for that are the fifty thousand dollars that's allocated for the sister city organization, which is intended to kind of nurture and create sister city partnerships across, and that's for capacity building, it's not for the travel side, and it's not for staff.

That's those were things we're excluded out of that.

But uh anything else that we would have to do uh would need to either be funded through private resources or uh or absorbed as part of a um a departmental uh travel budget.

If there was a uh we go on that fifty thousand dollar budget that we allocate for sister city, is that for the city employee to go visit the sister city or the mayor or council member?

No, that's for the sister city international organization, okay, who is our outsourced solution to navigating uh these and leading these efforts?

Uh we support them uh and to the degree that we need to travel to be in cooperation.

We will, you know, you all know that we had here a couple of months ago, uh Windsor Canada visited uh in the not too distant future, it'll be uh kind of our responsibility to uh uh go visit them and and continue to make sure that this is a partnership that we want to exist.

Uh and that's something that uh we've got to complete that process.

So we would need to uh you know handle that through our existing travel authorizations, there's not a specific um sister city travel budget.

So this the sister city international, they do to have the funding, like kind of like the city of Arlington that they can pay people sit on the board or uh no, they for trap for travel, they would need to uh make their own travel arrangements or raise funds to facilitate those travel arrangements.

So the so the sister city international gonna pay for that for those people, like the board members thing like that.

Okay, all right.

Well, thank you.

Anyone else have questions for Marty?

Thank you, Marty.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate you.

My pleasure, appreciate you.

Appreciate all of you.

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

We're just gonna address questions that you may have on the particular staff reports.

We'll start with 4.1.

Any questions for Chief Jones?

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Chief, for this report.

And um, I'm real happy that we're using the flock camera data, and we're getting the real real-time monitoring and all the advantages that that you talked about, but question came to mind about privacy.

I know you retain the information for 30 days, is is what I read.

And the information is the property of the city, but how is that different from the red light cameras?

Because the red light cameras were outlawed, but the flock cameras are okay.

Um I think uh that was before my time, and I'm gonna take me way back well past my uh time being here.

Um, but I can say the red light cameras.

I think that was, I don't know if it was a city or if it was state issued or whatever, but the I'll take a stab at it, Chief.

Uh just because it's a camera, doesn't mean it's the same type of camera, right?

Red light cameras were intended to do traffic enforcement in an automated way, and it was done so in a way that the public um uh grew resentful of and and put a charter amendment on uh to prevent, and then it was subsequently prohibited by state law.

Right.

Um flock cameras are uh intended for crime uh investigation purposes, and don't have to worry about it if you're not doing anything bad, right?

Um so but as we've seen, the police have used this tool exceedingly successfully in uh high clearance rates on high profile cases, but it doesn't mean that there doesn't need to be parameters and guardrails as it relates to privacy and information, which that's what this report is for that Miss Boxall has asked about.

Um but it's a it's an exceedingly uh valuable tool to police agencies across the country, but we need to make sure we're using it correctly.

Thank you, sir.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Fan.

I can tell you this uh flox cameras solve quite a few crimes here in uh in Arlington, especially when the restaurant owner down the uh near TCC so he's campus.

It was for block camera, they wouldn't have caught a person that uh uh cued an individual, uh the restaurant owner down to South Arlington.

So again, like I say, that if you commit a criminal act and you get caught, they're gonna come after you, but I don't think uh plot camera would invade your privacy, so and they pretty uh according to cheap, they pretty restricted what you can do with that, correct?

Only for criminal activity only, say.

So let me so we only capture or keep the data for 30 days.

The only data that we are capturing is something that is already visible, the license plate.

Um we don't you we don't capture any type of data in terms of who you are or uh any of that.

So anything that's based on your license plate, your vehicle, uh anything that is open that we can see, uh the the camera captures that, doesn't capture any personal information, it doesn't track you throughout the state, it doesn't do any of that information.

Uh it just tracks your license plate, it's it's just that moment in time when your uh car goes through the camera.

That's what we capture, and and as you said, this is a great tool.

Um we could not have a clearance rate of 100% for our homicide for last year without the technology that we are have in our city.

Well, uh thank you for explaining that so all our constituent in order to understand the uh the purpose of uh flock cameras and uh why we're using it.

Thank you, Chief.

Any other question?

Go ahead, Trey.

Um Chief, it might be uh helpful to explain just a little bit.

We're just one of a number of users of the flock camera system.

We can certainly control what what we do, but there's a lot of private enterprise that uses this for their properties to provide safety and evidence and those kinds of things.

So sure.

So uh obviously we're not the only um entity in Texas or even in the country that uses the uh flock cameras.

Um we control who has access to our data and the other agencies act to determine whether or not we give us access to their, you know, their data.

So we can show pick and choose who actually sees the information that we want to share.

Um, but we do share with a lot of uh, especially local uh between Grand Prairie, Fort Worth, Dallas, most of if not all of the North Texas cities have flock cameras within their city that we share data with.

Just to probe on that a little bit more, Chief, places like um apartment complexes or Walmart parking lots to the mall.

I mean, they all independently have their own capabilities here, right?

Yeah, so um any entity can go to flock camera or a flock uh international and say, hey, we want to get cameras uh on our property.

Um we have several HOAs, we have several apartment complexes.

Um Walmart has been a great partner with us.

They don't put it on their property but put it around their property.

Um, there are other agencies and other uh entities around um that share their information with us, um, so that anybody can go out and get a flock camera.

Um, and as long as they're willing to share their data and they just have to check the exports, anybody else for the chief.

Thank you, Chief.

Appreciate you.

Welcome.

Okay, let's move on down to talk about the committee meetings.

Uh 4.2 municipal policy, Dr.

Odin Wesley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Municipal Policy Committee was unable to meet today due to a lack of a quorum.

We have council members Andrew Peel and Bowie Hog are both out.

So hopefully we'll reschedule our meeting for the next council day.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Um, even though they didn't meet uh meet today, I'd like to make a comment about it.

One of the things that they were going to discuss was uh SB 2835.

This is a housing bill that passed them in that in uh recent legislature.

I'd like to advocate for this uh since I won't be here after today.

Um this bill is called uh colloquially called the single stair bill, but what it will do will allow small apartment buildings of up to 20 units, but typically it would be a lot fewer.

Um this will help kick start uh revitalization along Collins Street, which we desperately need.

It will also help uh in downtown and in our new uh form-based code.

So I would love to see uh the council support this being adopted into you our UDC as a housing type.

And if you don't like big apartment complexes, you want to support this bill, because and you want to support this uh adoption of this housing type.

And I'll tell you the reason why.

The reason why is because big apartment complexes need a big need a big piece of land, and what they do is they go in a um get a bunch of small parcels, and slowly over time they get a large enough parcel, they're going to build a big apartment complex.

If the property owner of a small parcel can build something that is profitable to him that will prevent big apartment complexes from accumulating all this land to build the big Texas donuts and other types.

So if you don't like big apartment complexes and you don't want to see any more of them, you need to support this being adopted into our UDC.

It's very important, and plus it will uh help revitalize Collins Street, which is I think is of the utmost important.

2835, Texas Bill 2835.

What that does is it allows cities to adopt it, it doesn't require it, and I'm suggesting that we should that we should adopt it for the reasons I just stated.

Thank you.

Councilmember Odin Wesley.

I would just thank you, Councilmember Boxall, for making those remarks.

I did get a briefing on uh Senate Bill 2835 yesterday, and it's also geared toward making apartment complexes more affordable because they're smaller, and then there were some safety features included, which is my concern that they have a limit on the number of apartments that are on a floor, because instead of having two stairwells, typically at the end of the building, at the at each end of the building, there's only one stairwell in the middle.

So there were some safety concerns that we talked about.

This this housing type also is very conducive to condos because you can because there's only one access point per floor, you can do lockout per floor.

So in other words, when you're in a big apartment complex, anybody can go up and down the hallways and their guests, it's not as safe.

This one you can lock out your floor, so uh it's much safer for the residents as well.

There are just so many advantages to this, um, and I would really encourage you to look into all the advantages, and if you have any questions about it, I'd be I'd be more than glad to meet with you about this any other comments or questions.

Okay, so 4.1, 4.2, neither met, correct?

Y'all met?

Okay, 4.3, I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um the community neighborhood development committee met this morning.

There was a quorum present.

We discussed two items.

One was uh the multifamily inspections, which I've been heading up on our committee for some months now, and we've made a lot of progress on this committee.

Today we discussed the international property management code and whether or not we should adopt that in the city, and we looked at uh other communities that have adopted it, how it has helped them with their code enforcement as an added tool.

Um we discussed uh which properties to include in the draft MPC or IMPC ordinance, and we can concluded that including all properties would be a good place to start.

Um the second topic we discussed was recycling at multifamily properties.

This was an issue brought up by uh councilman uh Mauricio uh Mauricio Galante, who is in our committee, and it's staff has uh been looking into that and also comparing other cities how they handle this.

Uh the idea is to add more right now.

I believe we only have four apartment buildings, is that correct?

That that uh voluntarily do recycling, and so uh staff presented details about how other cities approached it, the options for the committee to consider, and we're interested in exploring using the franchise approach in which Republic would provide recycling to the largest uh apartment complexes in the city.

Um, so staff is going to meet with Tarrant County Apartment Association and the Arlington Board of Realtors to further discuss, and we will report the findings to the committee.

Thank you.

Any questions for Councilmember Boxel?

Yes, Councilmember Gonzalez, I appreciate that report.

I just I just want I don't mean to be negative, I think it's important that apartments, but I know when we had recycle uh containers throughout the city, they were throwing a bunch of stuff.

So I mean stuff that was not recyclable, so the city had to get rid of those in the library.

So hopefully, you know, we probably can find some some type of solution for that because I know people abuse it and then we lose it.

So thank you for pursuing it.

Thank you all so much.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Mr.

Buskin, any appointments to boards or commissions this evening?

No, sir, no appointments this evening.

Thank you.

Anybody have questions on evening agenda items?

Yes, Councilmember Gonzalez.

Uh 11.4.

Debbie Lane and Glenday Drive.

Okay.

Jancy.

Good afternoon.

Jin C.

Dopal, director for planning and development services.

What's the question, Council?

With regards to the the setbacks or how far it needs to be.

I mean, can you go over that again?

Because I know there's been some confusion on some of the emails that I'm getting and everything else.

So if you can just go over the basics of what I mean, not spend too much time on it, but I'd rather have this now than later tonight, so we can hopefully people hear the the answers and questions that will be coming up.

Great.

Um so there's two types of setbacks.

One is a setback that gas well operators have to adhere to related to the protect uh related to protected uses within 600 feet of their gas well heads.

So uh protected structures have to be 600 feet from the gas well drill zone where which is where the permits will be taken for the well heads.

So that's 600 feet.

But what you're um seeing today in your zoning case is a residential development that is coming close to a gas well site, and they are providing that reverse required setback.

So residential uh developments have a reverse setback of 300 feet, so they can go as close as 300 feet from the gas well heads.

So that's what this applicant will have to adhere to.

And so they're all the they will follow that, correct?

That's correct.

So do others, I mean, do we have anything any other place like that here?

Uh any other development in Arlington?

I know Mansfield does.

So, but I haven't seen anything in Man.

I'm just curious.

I think the one that we had, we did have one, and that's the whole reason we started the reverse setback.

I think it was on Mansfield Webb Road, and there is a gas well site there, and um so that developed Mayfield Farms, if if I'm correct, uh that's the name of the subdivision there that they had to follow the 300 foot setback.

And so that's built there and they want to put another drill site.

They can't because now it's 300.

Is that correct?

So, yeah, but if they already have a drill zone approved, okay, then they don't need to come back to council to get any more well permits because the drill zone has been approved.

However, if uh gas well site does not have a drill zone and wants to now put in more well heads, they will need to go through a drill zone, and at that time they will not be able to get that because they are within that required setback.

Thank you.

Councilmember Boxel.

Thank you.

This is a good example of why I asked for smaller drill zones.

And I hope that the council will appreciate that going forward because this will protect us.

Um, I know this is a reverse, but if it were not, are the wells that are not in the current zero zone, would they if they were coming after the uh if they were coming after the uh residential was built, then they would be within they those homes would be within the 600 feet, all of almost all the homes would be within it.

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Odom Wesley.

Thank you, Gen C.

I know yesterday when we previewed this, you did a very helpful contextual review of Debbie Lane in its entirety.

Are you going to provide that tonight at the meeting?

Yes, I will do that.

Okay, good, because that's very helpful.

Thank you.

Any other questions on eleven point four?

Gen C why we have you up there, please don't run off.

Okay.

Uh 11.3.

Um the Harmony court.

You and I have spoken about the desire of the applicant to put a convenience store, a 7-Eleven on the corner there, and there are two other corners at that intersection that by right could potentially have gas stations as well, correct?

That's correct.

Um my concern is I've looked at that, and one of the things one of those we've addressed in 2020 and 23, and they were denied because of limited access because it's such a small lot if I remember right.

Collins and Debbie, they wanted access on both, and they couldn't get access on both streets.

Correct.

There were other reasons too.

I think the applicant from the 2023 case uh did not have a brand name.

They didn't know exactly which gas station was coming there.

And council, I I just heard that council meeting, so that's why I remember what's going on.

But that was another thing that uh council wanted to get some assurance as to what is the quality of the gas station.

And I if I remember right, it was also had something to do with them not being able to sell box liquor because of their close proximity to either a daycare or a school that was nearby there as well.

I'm not sure about that one.

Yeah.

Um in addition to those two sites, I did find two other sites on Debbie Lane that would also be qualified for um having a gas station use.

Okay.

I guess my concern is being qualified and being practical and an application to come in are two totally different things.

Absolutely.

And that's what I'm concerned about there.

Before we held off on not letting a convenience store come in with not knowing what kind of convenience store.

Here we have 7 Eleven, which is a legitimate good convenience store, and it's doing everything that we wanted it to do, where the other place could not do that.

So I'm I'm concerned that we just say we're gonna I guess hold off on approving something when the reality of it is the convenience stores coming on the other two intersections are not likely.

One of the other corners is a multifamily with a re retention pond as well, correct?

No, that other corner, which is the northeast east corner is also eligible for um uh having a gas station use a no development plan has come forward for that property yet.

But that would be the one where people coming west from 360 would be coming past that racetrack down there at 360.

Uh so it would be a less than optimal location because they're already driving past a a good racetrack gas station to get there.

This one is mainly for the eastbound traffic.

Yeah, there are two good gas stations at 360 and Debbie, which is racetrack and cute quick trip.

Okay, all right.

I just want to make make sure I'm understanding the practicality of having convenience stores there on the corner.

Any other questions on the evening agenda items?

Okay, thank you.

Issues relative to city or tech stoc projects.

We do have one issue relative to a tech stop project, but I'm gonna hold off on it because I think Mr.

Gonzalez, you're gonna be able to talk about the proposed MPO agreement a little bit that TechSot has submitted to RTC and North Texas Council of Governments.

So I'll hold off on that and let you deal with that here in just a second.

Let's go on down to the external committee and training reports National League of Cities, Mr.

Gonzalez.

National League Finance Administration and Governmental Relations Federal Advocacy Committee met virtually on April the 16th.

We had a great insight on city budget communications, where we had an excellent guest speaker, talk about how they present the budget to citizens and everything else.

And of course, there was our very own Jay Warren who did a fabulous job.

There was 36 uh different members of the committee on there, and they were really impressed with uh uh with what the city of Arlington did and what um Jay did.

Uh they had a lot of great questions, and um they you know uh it was great.

So they uh the committee gave them uh links to the previous budget videos, so they were able to see all that.

Uh then we also discussed the need to advocate for streamlining Federal Grants Act.

Uh if they're asking if we're medium congressional reps to please mention it and to ask for the support.

Uh we have state Senate version, uh Senate Bill 3709, and we're they're still working on the house side.

So it was also announced that the municipal 101 interactive tool, which I was telling you all about, where for new uh city council members that don't understand budgets, uh, to um they can go online and learn how about budgets work and how the different funds and everything else.

So that'll the it'll be available for testing soon.

Uh they're looking for examples like Arlington text like our budget video.

So that's really critical.

And then finally, we were they're looking for examples of the 2020 consensus consensus complete count committees.

Uh they reached out to Sarah Stubblefield.

Uh so um she's helping them with that.

And so I can just tell you the city of Arlington's well represented in NLC and uh I think um our person that's in charge of the NLC, Dante Moreno, she loves Arlington and she's reaching out to us all the time now.

So it's been good.

That's the bad thing about I think um term limits because I've finally got in the committee, and now that that's all happening, I'll be gone in a year.

So hopefully uh someone gets on the committee, but she's really really happy with Arlington what we do, so it's good to brag about our city.

Thanks, sir.

Any questions for Mr.

Gonzalez?

All right, RTC.

Uh the transit vision subcommittee.

Yes, the RTC Transit Subcommittee met virtually on Wednesday, April 22nd.

Uh Carolyn Mays, the TechSot Senior Director of Planet and Modal Programs, gave a 30-minute presentation on the statewide multi-mobile transit plan.

She discussed the why and the why and that why now in response to high public interest.

Uh the Texas State Multimodal Transit Plan 2050 seeks to make sure transit continues to help Texans thrive now and in the future.

As we all know, Texas is growing and Texans want options.

We also know that transit supports Texas economy and provides Texans with a substantial basic mobility service they need.

Uh we had a uh several PowerPoints uh that showed the current transit systems in Texas.

Uh they also showed the current inner city passenger rail systems in Texas, and then they had another slide that showed key transit needs in Texas, which I think we'll you guys will find interesting, especially those that are discussing the handy tram where we're looking at the um you know the service area uh because the purpose for most transit trips are for employment and job seeking, education and training, medical and health care, social and recreational activities, tourism and personal business shopping, and then mobility uh for like handy transit, you know, needed for veterans, adult sixty-five and older, individuals with disabilities, uh, choice riders, and zero vehicle households.

So Arlington again is uh was featured on what we have here with HandyTran and with our on-demand.

And then the Texas population is expected to grow in around urban areas.

More cars, more people, more congestion, the Texas Triangle, which is DFW, San Antonio, and Houston.

So that's big.

Michael Morris and Amanda Wilson then presented the subcommittee's vision statement, the next steps and responsibility matrix.

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 14th before the RTC meeting, and it will be in person.

If anybody has any questions or anything, why don't you go ahead and address the RTC part as well while you're talking?

Yes, Mayor, thank you.

Uh the RTC had an emergency meeting on Thursday, April 30th.

Uh, the main topic for discussion included approval of up to five million dollars in emergency funding.

Uh they talked about we talked about the lawsuit filed against COG executive board by Denton County and a resulting temporary restraint order, which was subsequently subsequently lifted.

Uh Michael Morris's final day as director of transportation at Cog was on April 28th, as a result of the restraining order being lifted.

Uh text out agreement that outlaw outlines roles and responsibilities for RTC and executive boards uh does not comply with the code of federal regulations.

RTC discussed most items in executive session after which we voted to join the lawsuit against COG executive board and pursue approval from TechSoup for a change to the MPO structure, giving RTC direct control over more aspects of the MPO as in done in other regions in the state.

Basically, it's real simple.

It's um the COG board is in charge of the money, and RTC is decides where the money goes, and sort of the the roles were sort of reversed, and so basically that's what the lawsuit's about.

Um since then, earlier today, I think you might have seen uh state district judge ruled that Michael Morris's firing last week was unconstitutional.

Mr.

Morris has since resumed his role as a North Texas Transportation Director.

Uh the next RTC meeting schedule for May 14, 2026.

So, mayor, anything you want to add?

Yeah, let me let me weigh in a little bit on this thing.

Um essentially, here's what happened uh last week.

There was a hearing to dissolve the temporary restraining order that Denton County had against the North Texas Council of Government.

They had originally filed the lawsuit in Denton and it was transferred to Tarrant County.

Um the judge held the hearing, and representations were apparently made by counsel for the council of governments that there were only three or four items on the agenda that needed to be addressed between that day, and the next day they would be in front of the court on the restraining order, the full-blown restraining order.

The judge said, Well, if those are the only matters that need to be addressed, then we'll lift the temporary restraining order because you don't have anything else on the agenda between now and when you come back.

And he lifted the temporary restraining order at one.

That was in the morning of last Tuesday, I think it was at 1:30 in the afternoon.

There was an emergency executive board session held by the North Texas Council of Governments that where they met with their attorney to talk about those things.

And then at three o'clock in the afternoon, the executive director of COG walked in, fired Michael Morris, and escorted him out of the building, taking his badge and everything else.

The hearing that was held today, it's my understanding that we had our attorneys present to watch.

Um the hearing that was held today.

We were represented as a member of the Regional Transportation council.

Um Mr.

Gonzalez said that we voted last week to intervene in that lawsuit because the judge had mentioned that he felt the only real party that had standing to express the harm associated would have been the RTC.

So we voted as board members of the RTC to intervene in the lawsuit in Tarrant County, and the judge was upset by the fact that there appeared to be I would say misrepresentations made by Cog's counsel and that Michael Morris was terminated.

He was consequently ordered to be reinstated, and he's not allowed to be terminated again until we get this trial over with.

Cog appears to be trying to treat RTC like it's a planning and zoning commission where they believe they have the authority to override RTC decisions because they hold the purse strings.

Solidifies the fact that that is not the case, that as a fiscal agent, all you're there to do is to hold the monies that RTC is using and getting from federal and state governments and other things to apply to what our RTC says they need to be applied for.

Text dot wants RTC and the North Texas Council of Governments to sign the MPO.

It is a three-part agreement between Texdot, RTC, and COG.

RTC is willing to execute the agreement.

We believe that it accurately reflects everybody's roles and things, and that Techstot has it right.

Of course, drafted it, and they're willing to sign it.

And Cog is trying to delay the signing of it because the current MPO agreement is scheduled to expire in 2027.

We currently have one member on COG representing Arlington, and that's council member Hogg.

So what I would ask this council is we need clear directions from the city because our representative at COG has to carry out the will of our city, not any other personal or otherwise feelings going on.

So my feelings are our representative needs to join in the cause to get COG to sign the MPO agreement.

Um, and it's really a matter for the executive board to do.

Once we have the votes on the executive board that says sign it, then they have to sign it, and that would eliminate the lawsuit because the MPO agreement does exactly what the lawsuit is saying it needs to happen.

So that's a long way of saying we need counsels to weigh in to say, listen, our cog, sign the agreement, sign the MPO agreement.

Molly, did I screw that whole thing up?

Okay.

Um, so that's my position on RTC.

We've we've fought this battle.

I am thrilled to see that Mr.

Morris has been ordered to be reinstated as the Director of Transportation and the executive director of RTC.

Um everybody here I think knows about Mr.

Morris and his history of what he's done for Arlington and North Texas.

Um, so what I'm asking from council today is a clear direction that we can tell councilmember Hogg what our position is so he knows what direction to go in the board meeting with the North Texas Council of Governments, Councilmember Galante.

Mayor, I agree with your position.

We arguably Mr.

Moore is one of the most capable and knowledgeable transportation directors, not only in the region but in the country.

We have uh big events coming to this to the city, especially the World Cup.

He helped to craft the plan, transportation plan is so important to the city.

I think the our best interest is to finish this lawsuit as soon as possible.

And I'm in favor for the city uh specifically give directions to sign that agreement.

We need to move forward.

We need to uh provide a transportation safety and security that uh our citizens deserve.

You know, I agree, and you made me think of something else.

We're what 40 days out from the World Cup or something like that now.

And the executive director of Cog walked in and fired the guy over all the transportation for the World Cup, 44 days out at the time from the World Cup.

Uh that was horrific.

Now, luckily we've been able to salvage that, but we need to resolve the conflict as soon as possible, and the soonest, quickest, easiest way to reach uh resolution is to execute the text.

Um, so I I just want to throw that out there because um being expedient in this execution is necessary.

There are others who are a part of COG that's trying to delay this process as long as possible, and I think that could be detrimental to our region, uh, from that perspective.

Councilmember Gonzalez.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

I just want people to know and you all to know.

I mean, our mayor is one of the leaders, his leadership in this has been tremendous.

Um, you know, there's four or five people that have been involved from Reg Bailey, who's the chairman uh of this of our commission, he's a uh commissioner of Johnson County.

Uh, you got Steve Babbick, who's the mayor of Carrollton, Elizabeth Beck, uh council member in Fort Worth.

You got Andy Eads, he's a county judge in Den County, and you got Manny Ramirez, who's the commissioner at Terrant County.

If you look at that, it's two sides of the table, but we're working together, which is really real neat because this is really political.

Uh, there was a uh a gentleman, a commissioner that was replaced.

Duncan Webb had been there for many, many years, and all of a sudden he just got replaced with one person that used to be on the COG board, and he went in there, and believe me, he threw a wrench into the whole thing, and it's all public.

You can see the meeting, he he said we vote a certain way, and we didn't let him stay in the meeting that he was gonna go after all of us, and he threw a thread out in front of everybody.

So it has gotten ugly, so it's important that we all stick together at DFW because you know it helps.

And like the mayor said, he's gone just before FIFA, and he knows, you know, Michael Moore knows everybody, and these guys are all on you, so thank you for your leadership.

Seriously, I can't imagine if you weren't there all those years, or if you weren't there ongoing, because uh you you you care about Arlington and you really speak very you know, everybody thinks a lot about you there, so thank you for your leadership.

Thank you.

I I appreciate that.

I think it's just that I have a big mouth and uh I don't like bullies, and uh some of these people try to bully people around, and I agree with Councilmember Gonzalez that that Commissioner Duncan Webb has been a tremendous asset.

Uh he was pulled and replaced by a uh another gentleman who was purposely brought in there to help garner votes and opposition of the Michael Morris position, and we immediately had a clash of rhetoric uh at the regional transportation council.

So y'all know me, I'm not afraid to to speak my mind.

So anyway, can what what my intent on doing?

Because I know Councilmember Hogg is out out of uh the state on business right now.

My intent is to both call him and email him saying council talked about this, and our position for counsel is X, Y, and Z, whatever that is, so that he knows as he gets to COG where he's supposed to be getting direction and what position we're taking as a city.

Yes, Councilmember Odin Wesley.

I agree with the recommendation to sign off on the text.mpo agreement.

So what do we need to do?

A resolution?

I don't think we need a resolution since we're we're uh in a public forum right now and we have a public record of this.

If what y'all are saying is yes, we're gonna, we're going to give our representative, our collective, um, thoughts that this is in the city of Arlington's best interest to encourage and vote in favor of COG signing the text dot agreement, then we'll give that to council member hog, and I would expect him to vote accordingly uh at the council's direction.

Okay.

Are y'all okay with that?

Yes.

Okay, seeing nods of heads and yeses all the way around, we'll take that on there.

Um, I'll go back up.

Uh Terrant Regional Transportation Coalition, Board of Directors.

I did not attend last week.

I had a few other things going on last week that didn't make me able to attend.

So I did not attend that one last week.

I did, however, attend uh just a few days ago on May the first, the uh North Texas Commission executive committee.

Nothing spectacular was done.

We got some legislative updates on that.

Uh we voted in a few new members, uh, one from Republic Services, one from CLEAR, and one from JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Um they were welcomed on board.

Uh but the big exciting part of what we did was on the 16th through the 18th, the U.S.

Conference of Mayors and the Griffin Institute of the National Medal of Honor Museum held a uh mayor's cohort where we had about 20 mayors come from around the country from as far away as Puerto Rico to uh the state of Washington and all points in between.

And we had a two and a half day cohort that uh was teaching mayors leadership with the character traits of Medal of Honor, recipients, courage, integrity, trustworthiness, things such as that.

It was it's a great program.

The first time something like this was done for mayors, uh the president of the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, um mayor David Holt from Oklahoma City participated in it.

Um the executive director, Tom Cochran was here from Washington, DC.

It was a tremendous success.

Um the U.S.

Conference of Mayors has now requested that we make this an annual event in Arlington.

So I'm excited about that.

The Griffin Institute with the National Medal of Honor Museum will also have the ability to take this on the road if there are mayors in other cities that would like to host this or other leadership programs that they could host with corporations and things such as that.

So I think it was a great jump start.

We did some pretty cool things as the inaugural program took place.

One of the things we did, Mr.

Elverton and I had the opportunity to go down and visit a cowboy hat manufacturing plant that we have here in Arlington, Twin Stone.

It's not a huge manufacturing plant, but it was pretty good.

They were one of our sponsors, and they made custom cowboy hats with the mayors' names on the inside of the brim for every mayor that attended that.

They were black felt hats, and they made two extra hats.

One that we gifted to the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, and one that was gifted to the National Medal of Honor Museum for the inaugural group where every participating mayor signed the hat and the cowboy silver colors that were on it.

It was really, really cool.

So the Medal of Honor uh now has the Cowboy hat on display and the U.S.

Conference of Mayors offices, they have displayed the inaugural hat for that as well.

It just so happened that Bruno Mars performed on that weekend, and uh thanks to Rev Entertainment and the City of Arlington, we were able to take the mayor's the Medal of Honor recipient, the Medal of Honor staff, the Griffin Institute and facilitators and all to the Bruno Mars concert.

So the mayors left here thrilled about Arlington and what was going on here.

They had a great time, it was a great program, and I'm excited for them to come back to Arlington on an annual basis.

I would imagine that the cohort will continue to grow.

They don't want to do too big of a cohort, it takes away from the intimacy of it.

But they said they can handle 30 to 40 at a time, so uh it can grow a little bit more as we go.

Any questions for me on the cohort?

How many were here?

How many mayors?

There was 19 or 20, somewhere around there.

Yeah.

And uh Republic Services was another one of our sponsors.

So we had some people step up from around here that helped sponsor it.

So the mayors that came, it cost them nothing.

We had some mayors from small communities that were here as well as bigger communities, Columbus, Ohio, Oklahoma City, uh, you know, good-sized communities that were here.

Um, but uh small communities were here, and um it was great that none of the mayors had to do anything but pay their cost of getting to Arlington and uh the room rates at the lows, and it was it was really a good group.

The Lowe's Hotel provided government rates that were very affordable.

It wasn't like you were stepping in and paying a massive amount of dollars for that.

So everybody pitched in and made it affordable on all of that.

It was uh a lot of fun.

Any other questions?

All right, future agenda items.

Anyone have anything for the future?

Yes, Dr.

Odom Wesley.

At our retreat last week, we talked about um quite a bit of data, and one thing that got my attention, and I mentioned it was the uh health indicators.

So I'd I'd like to see on a future agenda an overview of I guess the resources and the efforts and the services that we already have available, and what can we do moving forward to try to improve our numbers in the areas of obesity diabetes hypertension uh infant mortality maternal morbidity those statistics were pretty grim so what can we do to move forward.

Okay.

Councilmember Galante thank you mayor I was discussing internally with Trey that is a growing issue about the the creeks and the floods that is taking away private property sometimes city property the the stormwater uh people they have uh they they bring out some data to us uh what is the state of those those locations mudslide creek flood and uh then we can take a look at what solutions that we can we can we can come up with thank you um I want to take a little liberty for a second uh and talk about you Rebecca uh we all just went through an election cycle again and these things are just exhausting uh and they're difficult and they're hard sometimes we win and sometimes we don't you couldn't have an outcome that demonstrates the heart that you've had for this community whether or not you've had more votes or fewer votes those of us who've had the pleasure of working with you for the last five years know where your heart is when it comes to serving this community I have grown a little bit addictive to your damn index cards.

And I love it I used to cringe a little bit to be honest with you because I'm thinking here she goes again and then I started going oh wow here she goes again because you have some of the most informed educated questions and opinions of anybody I've ever had the pleasure to work with I have really loved working with you and I have really appreciated um your industry knowledge that you have brought to this council uh I I can't say enough about how I've become reliant upon you and you know that I I've called you and I've said I don't get this how to what about this and you've always been there to help with that so um I just want you to know because I know next week's gonna be a tougher week and it will be your last council meeting officially but um uh I want you to know how much I really appreciate you and how great it's been to serve the last five years with you so thank you for that yes ma'am and uh likewise I mean you and I when we first started out five years ago we had kind of a tenuous relationship and I think we've worked really well together and it's a good example of how you can work with somebody on common goals and where you have common goals and I I would encourage the council to keep doing that where you have common goals work with each other.

Where you don't have common goals just let it go.

I think that's how you and I have worked and it's worked out really well and I'm gonna miss all of you and we're gonna miss these wonderful conversations thank you thank you.

With that, we're gonna join or join.

Lord have mercy.

You're gonna miss me screwing up all my talking, aren't you?

We're gonna adjourn the city council meeting and we'll see everybody downstairs at 6 30.