All right.

The time's 9 09 a.m., and I'll call this meeting of the Dallas City Council to order, and we are going to turn it over to our colleague, Deputy Mayor Pro Tim Maxie Johnson, who is also a pastor of the New Morningstar Missionary Baptist Church.

We'll have our invocation and our pledges of allegiance to the United States flag and the Texas flag.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Can we all please stand?

Let us bow our heads.

Father in heaven, we thank you this morning.

Thank you, God, because you let us see another day that wasn't promised to us.

God, not only did you wake us up, but you woke us up, clothing our right mind with the activities of our limbs.

And today we say thank you.

We thank you, God, because you've been better to us than we've been to ourselves.

You look beyond all our faults and you saw our needs, and God, we thank you because you've been a great God.

Even when we have bad days, you're still a good God.

And so, God, this morning, we come to give you glory.

We come to bless your name.

But we ask that you anoint us, anoint us to do the work that you've asked us to do.

Bless our mayor, bless his family, bless our city manager, bless her family, bless our council and their families.

God, I said that you bless our community, bless our citizens, bless our neighborhoods, bless our police departments, those that put their lines on our life every day for our freedom.

We ask that you look after them and bless them and their family.

No God in the world that seemed like it's full of hate.

We ask that you bring love right now.

We God, we call on you because we need you.

There's no one that can bring us together but you.

And so, God, we lift you up right now.

We ask that you let your will be done.

Not our will, God, but your will be done.

And God, we sing that song, that hymn that says, Father, I stretch my hands to thee.

No other help I know.

If thou withdraw thyself from us, where shall we go?

So we call on you because you're the answer.

Now God strengthen us now, and we praise you.

We give you glory, we magnify you because you are worthy God.

You're so awesome, and we love you this morning.

We praise you.

Despite of what we're going through, we still magnify you because we know that you are the answer.

Continue to strengthen us now and bless us, and we give you glory and praise.

It's in your son, we pray.

Everyone would please remain standing for the pledges.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Honor the Texas flag.

I pledge allegiance to thee.

Texas, one state, under God, one and indivisible.

Thank you, everyone.

You may be seated.

We do have some announcements this morning, so bear with me for just a moment.

Um, we will start with an announcement from the Office of the City Manager.

So I'll turn it over to uh Kimberly Tobert.

Good morning, Mr.

Mayor and to the City Council.

I'd first like to start with the recognition of a group of employees whose professionalism, courage, and commitment to service were on full display following the tragic apartment explosion that occurred on May 28th in Oak Cliff.

Can you all please come out?

What began as a routine day?

This webinar is being transcribed and summarized.

What began as a routine day quickly turned into a life-threatening emergency.

The explosion claimed lives, injured residents, displaced families, and left an entire community searching for answers in the aftermath of this tragedy.

In moments like these, Dallas residents look to their city government for help.

They look for leadership, coordination, compassion, and action.

And that is exactly what they received.

I'd like to thank the Dallas Fire Rescue DFR personnel who were the first to arrive on scene, and who immediately entered into an extremely dangerous and unstable environment to search for survivors, extinguish fires, and secure the area.