All right, good morning everybody.

It is uh 10 a.m.

We're gonna go ahead and call to order the public safety committee uh meeting for uh Tuesday, February 3rd.

First order of business is the approval of December 2nd, 2025 minutes.

All right, all in favor?

Any opposed?

All right, motion passes.

Next is a uh well, the written report uh considering that or regarding the lift help fees uh from Fort Fire Department.

Do we have a presentation on that or just just a report?

Just a report for the committee's information in response to the request.

Okay.

So as expected, uh, whenever we we'd ask for this, um, just because of the large number of calls to private facilities for lift assist uh in non-medical emergencies uh and the amount of time and resources it was taken, uh seeing what other cities are doing to try to mitigate some of those um resource uses, uh, you know, whether that be in the form of you know smaller fees or higher fees.

I don't know if everyone on this uh this body has had a chance to take a look at that report.

Um, but I would certainly recommend taking the mayor and council um a policy where we do enact some sort of fee structure for those non-emergency lift assist fees, especially for those private facilities.

And again, these are for the facilities that are really taking these resources uh when they should be employed, in my opinion, should be employing the resources to be able to do that job for them, uh not leaning on our taxpayer resources, taking them away from what could be real emergencies.

Uh it's unfortunate situation they're in there.

Uh however, that's uh that's some of those facilities I believe should figure out.

I don't know what the city stance Mr.

Chair if I if I may I would um just like to add that staff is looking at a number of fees in addition to this fee, and we are planning to come back to you later in the year, probably as part of the overall budget process to make recommendations that would that would address this fee and many other fees that we're looking that we're looking at now related to fire EMS, public safety, et cetera.

Got it.

And then looking at some of the other fees that were in this report uh regarding uh vehicle accidents.

Um is there any process now where insurance companies are charged?

I'm sorry, councilman.

Yeah, are there any um are there any processes now where these insurance companies are are being charged for the resources that the city is using to help clean up uh and take care of some of these motor vehicle accidents, or is that just something that we take on?

I think we we take on most of the cleanup, but I know that we work with risk to to look at opportunities to go back and subrogate, go after other insurance companies, et cetera, or damages that might be caused to our equipment, et cetera.

Okay, okay, because I do remember at one point, I believe it was last year.

We discussed uh you know some accidents that were, you know, when did they damage city property or it'd be signals um you name it, and the success rate of getting the insurance companies to pay for those was so low that from what I understand or remember it was we just kind of stopped going after that.

So if we can just get an update on where we're at with that, uh, so we can make sure that if damage is caused by motor vehicle accidents and some just not paying attention uh that their in that their insurance if they are insured is covering those those charges.

Our taxpayers aren't having to pay for that.

Um then in the meantime, while we wait on those reports for the uh the the lift fees, um, is there a way to look at because I'm I'm just trying to make sense of the uh like this these institutions where it looks like uh Green Oaks Boulevard, for example, 88 calls in 2023, 109 and 2024, 83.

Is that one specific facility that was that's having all these calls out uh call outs?

Or Chief Hill if maybe you might have any insight on that.

So looking at that report um where it has the uh the the chart uh for all these different roads, but it says institution, but it has this the street name, and then how many calls for lift assist they got?

Is that one specific facility that's right here uh interim fire chief?

Uh actually it's the uh independent leaving facilities, and we do have a high number of repeat uh dispatches to those places.

So those are the majority of our non-emergency lift help.

Okay, got it.

Um these are specific, like one specific facility with numerous calls.

Got it.

Is now on those calls, is it explained like because right now the policies we we go out there we provide the assistance, correct?

Like there's no questions asked.

Yes, sir.

Um are we doing anything at the city leadership level to basically tell them hey, like you're taking advantage?

So at this point, we're looking at what we what we're gonna be able to come back with in terms of proposing fees.

Okay, uh, to address the especially the excessive repeat folks that are calling for lift assist right now.

It's there's no charge for that service, no additional charge for that service.

It's just something that historically has been done, right?

Yes, sir.

Uh at no at no cost.

So we're evaluating everything.

Now that we have I guess had to really focus on this with incorporating AMS into fire, and a lot of those calls, some of those calls may come to what used to be Med Star, et cetera.

We're looking at all all of the fees associated with it and uh the impacts that it has on operations, response time, and revenue generation.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, so we will look forward to uh to getting that report, Chief Phil.

Thank you so much.

Um anyone have any questions on this?

Yeah, I don't I hadn't seen what we're talking about, but are they going to the hospital what is where are they going?

They're not going anywhere, they're just simply going there to help get them because they fell down and they're large, or they don't have the staff on hand that can actually get them back up.

So it's not emergency, they're not taking them to the hospital, they're just putting them back in the the lazy boy or the bed.

Thanks.

So any other questions, comments on this one.

I think if we're gonna talk about a free structure, though, we need to make sure that we are delineating between uh frequent users that are private citizens who need that support.

We shouldn't be charging them.

Um like you even frequent flyers need help.

Um, but institutions where they should, by the nature of the facility, have people on staff that should be able to provide that level of support.

I think the problem that we're gonna run into is that for many of those um institutions, the reason that they call for a lift assist is because of liability purposes.

They don't want to be the person lifting in case there's a drop or a fall.

And so I think that's probably uh a bigger reason why we're getting those.

And it shouldn't be for us to mitigate risk.

So in that essence, or to that end, we need to be looking at institutions, not individuals.

So that's 100% what this is.

Is this not as far as the uh the the home calls that would just be status quo?

This is for those facilities who probably don't like you said that they're trying to mitigate risk there, and uh maybe they have workers' comp issues there too.

So uh okay, so we'll look forward to getting that report.

Um the next is uh opioid responses uh presentation from Keisher Light.

Good afternoon, good morning, excuse me.

Keisha Light, Assistant Neighborhood Services Director, here to give you a report and overview on the Texas opioid settlement funds.

These are some funds that we've received from pharmaceutical settlement in the last few years.

Um also here is Deputy Chief Horton and Bethany Warner and Tower Perez, so they'll also be available to answer any questions specifically to their funding requests and the programs that they're um that they're doing with these funds.

I'll first give an outline of the presentation.

Um where we started to where we are now to where we're going, and then we'll talk about the awards that we received to date, talk about some allocations of unprogrammed funds and how the funds have been used, and then we do have some monies we need to allocate.

So we'll talk about those funding requests, and at the end, we'll have time for questions and discussion.

So November 2021, City Council approved a resolution which approved city council.

Um approved city of Fort Worth being able to receive some of the funds from this settlement.

In March of 2023, we received our first payment of around 665,000 dollars.

The following month in April, there was an MNC approved by city council to not only approve the funds to be used in our city, but also to designate neighborhood services as a lead department to oversee the allocation and use of the funds.

So we're anticipating over the 18 years the total payout to be nearly 2.6 million dollars from the initial settlement.

There has been a subsequent settlement, and we're anticipating an additional two million dollars from that one over during this time period.

In October 2023, we conducted our first RFP soliciting nonprofits and social service agency and city departments to be able to um request funding to be used for um the opioid crisis that we're experiencing to be able to use those funds.

In December 2023, there was uh another MNC um actually awarding the agencies that have applied to the RFP and were awarded, and that was UNT Health Science Center, My Health, My Resources of Tarrant County, and the City of Fort Worth Fire Department.

In April the following year, we received our second payment around 229,000.

And in March, we held a second RFP process, and also two information sessions were held to explain more to the community and have opportunity for them to come and hear more about the funds and how to apply.

And in April 2025, we received a third payment of $631,000.

That's the amount we're looking today to discuss with you for the funding request that we have received.

In June, City Council approved the MNC, approving the use of the second and third payments, reducing the fire department's allocation, and awarding funds to only one agency at that time, and that was UNT Health Science Center.

This chart here shows our initial settlement award in that first column, the second, and what's been revised, and then what we spent today.

So to date, we spend $427,000.

And you'll see the remaining funds is just under a million dollars.

You see that $632,000 that I mentioned earlier.

That's what needs to be allocated.

That's on program funds right now.

We are anticipating, you will see in a moment to give those funds to the fire department to our home and strategies team, and then also a small, very small amount to admin expenses.

We've also learned recently with these funds, we have interest earnings around $75,000.

So we're working with FMS right now to figure out how to allocate those monies as well.

Can I stop you real quick?

Can you let us um can you tell me a little bit more about what the program the uh the UNT Health Science program does?

That program Safer Care Texas program.

Yes.

I'm sorry, I'm not as familiar with this program.

I don't know if some of my helpers here have deputy chief or home strategy.

Are y'all familiar?

Homeless strategists.

We can definitely get that answer back to you.

Okay, thank you.

Here's a list of how those funds can be used.

So we can use to purchase medicine, treatment of incarcerated populations, uh services to pre pregnant and postpartum women.

There's a host of activities that we're able to use the the funds for, and you'll see in a moment with the two um new funding requests how they plan to use the funds.

This list um shows the approved uses based on treatment, prevention, and other strategies.

And here is um funding request allocation.

We'll get into the details in just a moment.

So the fire department was requesting a 410,000 dollars for peer support, expanded treatment access, and community out engagement.

We'll do outreach out in the community.

Homework strategies requested 297,200 for the high impact program, but just with the numbers that we received, we had to reduce that amount a little bit.

So they'll receive 221,385.

And then neighborhood services, as I mentioned earlier, it's a very small amount of just $500 for administrative expenses.

I'm glad they're getting that extra penny though.

That's sure they're very thankful for that.

Okay, so the fire department's funding request, the ultimate goal is to improve recovery, reduce overdoses, and build community resilience.

So in both um in the positions that you would hear from fire department and in um homeless strategies, they will be contracted physicians or working with a nonprofit organization to um actually contract over, they wouldn't be city-led positions.

So, first is to fund a peer support specialist for the overdose response team.

They also want to get more out in the community and um provide more awareness and reduce the stigma, do more community events, then can compute to support existing roles of peer support specialist and a mobile integrated health parademic, and then also expand medication assisted treatment so purchase more medicine to assist our residents.

Yeah, Mayor.

And this may be a question for the police for the fire department, but related to the overdose response team, prior to our act our partnership with MedStar coming in-house with the fire department, those services were in partnership at MedSTAR with Recovery Resource Council, and it was a very effective program.

My question for the fire department is to make sure we're not creating redundancy, and have they had a conversation with recovery resource council to make sure that's not a service that they could be providing today in the community.

Mayor, yeah.

I I can answer some of that question for you because we actually recently just had a meeting with the fire department and uh resource recovery council to make sure that we weren't duplicating efforts.

And um, I don't want to speak for Chief Hill, but I did hear from uh his counterpart at the resource recovery council that um thanked them for that meeting and has said that since that meeting there has been enhanced coordination and communication.

So I'll let you tell us what we're doing, but that's my uh pat you on the back for doing that.

So the um the the funding that we'll receive, we're gonna use that to increase the overdose response team.

Uh right now we have a uh MIH paramedic, which is already authorized staffing for the fire department.

They will team up with a peer support person.

Uh right now we're going out two days per week with the additional funding, we'll be able to offer services four days per week.

So it's not duplication of services, is expansion of services.

For clarity, how do you work?

How do you currently plan to work with recovery resource council?

Uh, we'll use this funding.

What we don't have funded is is the social worker, which is another component of the overdose response team.

Okay.

So that funding will help.

We'll partner with another agency for a social worker.

We will expand the expand our services from two days to four days, and that partnership is with recovery resource.

Okay, that's great.

Thank you.

So here's the layout of their budget requests.

So that existing mobile integrated health parademic paramedics, excuse me, 223,000, the contracted peer support specialists, 114,000, the community events, 30,000, medication, 32,000, and then administrative expenses for 10,000 for a total of 410,204.

Um I have some questions.

Okay.

Uh thank you so much for putting this together.

I appreciate it.

Um, so in regards to the funding that was that was requested from the high impact program.

Is that going to uh be additional resources that we're putting into the high impact program, or does that help subsidize the total budget budgetary cost of the high impact program?

Tara here come up, Tara.

Uh Tara Prez with homeless strategies, thank you.

It is an expansion, it is to add a position through MHMR for a chemical dependency counselor.

And what this does is as y'all know, we're in the process of expanding the program that that you requested we do.

And so when we add another staff, we also are able to utilize 10 more housing vouchers.

So this helps us on the housing and the services side.

So with this addition, what is the total number of housing bachelor vouchers we'll get?

We'll be able to request 10 more just because of this position.

So if we added, say if we decided next year we got um 800,000 and we wanted to add a second or you know, another um chemical dependency position that would open up again another 10 more vouchers.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, this is exactly what I was gonna ask that we do with these fundings.

So I appreciate y'all uh reading my mind on this.

Um, that I wanted to make sure that um in our high impact program that um we were looking at funding specific to chemical dependency.

Um and so uh I like what we're doing with it.

I don't like that I don't know what UNT Health Science did with it, but I think moving forward it would be my preference that we keep this money in the city.

Um, just by the two funding requests that we've seen here um with our high impact program and our um hope, our fire department expansion.

I think that um there's more than enough that we can do um to capture that money and do it here within the city as opposed to our current programs as opposed to future RFPs um for um for outside agencies.

So the funding the funding requests today, we did decide not to do RFP and just the allocate city department.

So I believe that would probably be what we do moving forward.

And then my one last question.

So I noticed uh it looks like we got 600,000 and then 100,000 and 600,000.

So is that a pattern that we can expect over the years?

Because it says it's gonna pay out over 18 years.

So do we have a schedule for how that funding is gonna look for budgeting purposes?

From my understanding, it's pretty random.

Um we're anticipating another um set of funding sometime this spring, but we don't know when or the exact amount.

Oh, that's perfect.

Thank you.

Unpredictable government.

Say it ain't so but to Elizabeth's point.

That's a even more reason why if you keep it in-house within our own departments, you can create consistency so that if there's a delay in potential funding, say on the program we're working on, then they have a better chance to keep it sustained rather than having to wait on funds or cutting things off.

So exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

Sorry, go ahead.

So here, Lisa, we want to make sure we're measuring our impact and make sure what we set out to do that we're actually having that impact out in the community.

So this is the evaluation plan from the fire department based on their grant funding requests.

So they want to track the number of individuals supported by the paradigm.

Excuse me, I'm gonna keep saying that paramedic and peer support specialists, as well as monitor the degree decrease in repeat overdoses within six months post intervention, and then track the percentage of opial use disorder patients, measure attendance and engagement at those community outreach events we discussed earlier, and then also do some uh feedback surveys and bulkers groups with those that actually participate in their programs.

The homeless strategies funding request the goal is to increase the use of substance abuse services and benefit clients as well as the public safety and well-being of the city as a whole.

And um, Tower just mentioned they're wanting to hire a licensed chemical dependency counselor, um, hopefully to be able to keep that person in place over the next two two years and increase um their number of clients are able to serve by 10, and then of course purchase some medication as well.

Here's a breakdown of their budget.

So 140,000 would go to the counselor that would be um contracted through MHMR, operating expenses of 3200, administrative expenses around 10,000, and then the medication around 68,000 for a total of 221,385.

They too want to make sure they're having the impact, and you'll see their performance criteria what they're planning to track.

They're gonna track the percentage of individuals accepting a housing offer after being housed, percentage of clients that stayed housed, and then a percentage of clients being treated for opioid substance use disorder.

So the this particular funding after she strengthens the ORT through peer expertise and expanded treatment at emergency point of care.

Those community events, as we mentioned, will increase awareness and reduce stigma out in the community with these types of activities.

Funding also provides opioid substance abuse counseling services and medications for formerly unsheltered residents for those really in need in these services.

So combined efforts, our overall goals are to mitigate overdoses in Fort Worth, promote healing, and build community resilience.

Next steps.

So next month, February 24th, those meeting requests for those um program funds will be presented to city council for approval.

We're also working with, as I mentioned, we have the 75,000 dollars monies that we need to allocate as well.

So we're working with FMS to figure out um where we put those funds and then identify additional funding opportunities as future settlement payments are received.

With that, I'll stand for any questions or open discussion.

Yeah, that's just that's uh any questions on that?

Something uh Mr.

Johnson's just brought up is big possibly being able to use that those um those interest earnings and increasing some of those numbers since it looks like there's some that were lowered because of budget shortfalls, but then looking to see where we can allocate the 75 really makes sense to be able to allocate to that.

So looking forward to hearing back on that.

Um questions or comments.

Okay, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

All right, next uh is the public safety partnerships and homeless strategies programs, and Tara Perez is here to give that presentation.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So, really quickly, I'd just like to overview our our homeless system and homeless strategies, and then talk about two programs specifically that um overlap with public safety.

So this is our homeless population.

Um, as you can see, the light blue line is our continuum of care, which is here in Parker Counties, um, whereas the city of Fort Worth is the black line.

The city of Fort Worth is a has about 81% of the homelessness in our area.

This is a snapshot of our continuum just for this past December, just breaks it down a little bit about who is homeless.

As you can see, we've had a lot of success in being able to house a lot of veterans.

Also, there's some dedicated funds for young adults and families.

The vast majority of people are single adults over 25, though.

This is our continuum of care structure.

The Continuum of Care Board is the policy making body.

Mayor Parker serves on the leadership part of that COC board.

I serve and represent the city on the membership part of the board.

Partnership Home is the 501c3 nonprofit, formerly Tarrant County Homeless Coalition that carries out the mission of that board.

The city participates in several ways funding different interventions.

So homeless strategies is a two-person unit in city manager's office.

We oversee about six million in general funds and also some state funds.

And we also work cross-departmentally on problem solving and organizational alignment because there are a lot of departments that are involved in homelessness.

This is an overview specifically of our general funds.

As you can see, today we're going to talk about two programs specifically, which are the high impact program and also our street outreach program.

Wanted to point out that through conducting stakeholder interviews, and in particular listening to the wishes of many city council members, we were able to triple the budget for street outreach.

So instead of having two street outreach workers, we now have six.

So that tripled that outreach buzz.

Okay.

The first program that overlaps with public safety is our high impact program.

As y'all know, we targeted seven specific areas of the city with a lot of unsheltered homelessness, and these are the areas in several different council districts spread throughout the city.

The criteria to be referred, almost all the referrals came from our NPOs.

And the person had to be unsheltered in that area and either unsheltered in that area two years or more or suspected of having severe mental illness.

So what our hope is is to reduce the law enforcement time and interactions with these individuals.

So a lot of these individuals are very disruptive, not only to neighborhoods, but also to businesses due to their severe mental illness.

These were our goals, and these were the outcomes of the 17 month pilot.

At that time, 86% of people accepted their housing offer.

So when we look a little closer at our client profile, 95% of the folks suffer from severe mental illness, and 73% also have substance use disorder.

When we looked more closely, we found that 10% of those clients suffered specifically with opioid disorder.

One of the things that we've noticed is we're tracking is what percentage of clients accept services.

So there's a psychiatric physician assistant on the team, and we're now seeing a rate of 63% of clients that are receiving psychiatric services.

And that was behind our ask for the chemical dependency counselor from the opioid settlement because we hope to boost that number.

Again, we saw this working with NPOs, really influenced some of our future decisions about outreach, just understanding how NPOs know their areas so well and are able to leverage those relationships.

We are in conversations with FIRE and EMS, thinking about our program growth and effectiveness for high impact.

So the second program that we think overlaps with public safety is our targeted outreach.

So we have six outreach workers that are funded by the city.

So it's now three teams of two.

And so we have divided them up.

We selected the high impact areas because they have large percentages of unsheltered homelessness.

And again, high impact just serves those with severe mental illness.

But those areas have a lot more unsheltered folks than high impact can serve.

And so we went back to some of those same areas.

So now outreach is targeting in Northside Stockyards.

We also have folks that are on near South Side and East Lancaster.

So in the first quarter, um they met with over 613 unsheltered folks.

The big emphasis now is that traditionally outreach has been the purpose of outreach is to connect people who are unsheltered with housing.

So it's it's been a lot of discussion about when there is a pause in housing resources available, what is outreach's new role?

And so we are really exploring more pathways leaning more toward employment or diversion or treatment.

We continue to find that it does make a difference who asks people for services.

Outreach continually has more people that say they accept services than a lot than if someone in law enforcement asked them.

Any questions on those programs?

Thank you so much, Tara.

Any questions?

So one from me is on the severe mental health.

Uh, whenever you said they there's uh they're disruptive.

Can you explain a little bit more like what do you mean by that?

Just the presence or they're causing issues in the neighborhoods or the businesses.

Can you provide clarity?

Okay.

So some examples from some of our high impact clients.

Um, like if you have someone that's downtown, that's not always clothed, or that's screaming at people, that's disruptive to the businesses in that area, and so they get a lot of calls on that person because of that person's mental illness.

So when we're able to house that person, that gives them the opportunity to connect with treatment and to be in housing and not to be that disruptive person in that area anymore.

Got it.

Okay, and then for those um, I thought it was great that 63% are receiving psychiatric treatment.

Um, and then seeing as how 95% uh do have severe mental health issues, what's I guess what's happening with those who aren't receiving that psychiatric treatment as far as like still being disruptive or their house now, so they're not they're not disruptive, or what are they doing as far as like ensuring we do get them the care they they obviously need if it's severe enough, uh knowing that we can't force it on them.

Right.

But if we're gonna house them and then not provide, or we're trying to provide services, but they're not accepting them.

How do we I mean, what are we doing to handle that?

Right.

That's a good question.

What we've seen is um it's been gradual.

So when we checked in at the beginning of the program, um, hardly anyone was receiving psychiatric services.

So we check in over the life of the pilot about every six months or so and have seen that increase.

So at six months, it was not at 63%.

I think it was around 15 or 20 percent.

And so that's something that's growing gradually.

Um, we're very fortunate to have an excellent psychiatrist, and this is a unique program serving really hard to serve people.

And so sometimes we just have to do things differently.

So sometimes um, if you don't have a lot of money, just getting your laundry done is really difficult.

So some of his psychiatric visits are taking people to the laundromat and doing their laundry with him as a way of building rapport and getting people into treatment.

And so they've been very creative, and so far, like we've seen a lot of success, and success we define as like is that percentage of people that need that treatment increasing that are receiving that treatment.

And so we've seen that gradually go up, and we anticipate that that will continue to grow.

As far as if they're still disruptive in the home, so everyone has a hey lease, and so they're not on the street being disruptive.

And I think some of the behaviors, so for example, um, like yelling or cursing or not wearing all your clothes, it's not a disruption if you're in your own home.

Right.

And so we haven't experienced those problems like we have when that person's on the street.

Got it.

Okay.

And I think it'd be really good, um, especially in future presentations to make sure we include that as well because I think the image in a lot of people's minds is going up to somebody and throwing some pamphlets at them and like here, take services, and like I don't want them, and then that's it.

But hearing about some of these more creative ways of getting them the help they need, um, I think it's great.

And I think the statistics too, uh, moving forward and in future reports, you know, where it was 15%, then it goes up to 20, and then up to 30, and then 60.

I think that'd be really helpful as well, just kind of help paint some of the successes of the programs, and also where we need to work on more uh and how potentially more outside resources could help with those.

Uh because I'm sure there's more psychiatrists, or if we had more that were willing to think outside the box like that, it'd certainly be more helpful.

Um, so any other questions or comments?

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you so much, Sarah.

Okay, that was the the last of the presentations.

Um any requests for for discussions, councilman?

Uh William, I read your email that you sent uh this morning about the hope team, and I appreciate that that y'all are gonna bring some information back to this committee.

When you do that, can you make sure that you include um like resources allocated for PD and fire?

Um, but I'd also like to see historically what we've done, how we've allocated resources over time to the um to the hope team.

Absolutely, we can do that.

Anyone else?

I do have something.

Oh, yes.

Thank you, sure.

Um, I just want to take this opportunity to uh bring up the uh topic of illegal gunfire.

Um and and the fourth quarter 2025, district six experienced the highest number of homicides in the city of Fort Worth, um, with five lot five lives lost in our area alone.

Um during that same period, there were 24 murders during that uh during quarter four of 2025.

And this past weekend on Friday, we lost yet another life to a stray bullet.

Um and so this is not just providing you with the statistics, it's just the fact highlighting the fact and emphasizing that these are real people, these are neighbors, our families, and our kids.

Um illegal gunfire and gun violence, they're not just affecting District Six.

It seems to be an issue impacting the entire city, and it's stealing the sense of safety that every Fort Worth then uh deserves.

So because it's preventable, I think um that there should be some action taken.

Um and I'm actually calling on RPD uh to launch a comprehensive campaign to educate race residents on the dangers of illegal gunfire, um its elac illegality and the consequences for those involved.

Um I want to encourage neighbors to get involved, um, organizing citizens on patrol groups and partnering with the city's police department to prevent these incidents and providing ongoing public service announcements and community meetings.

So I don't want this loss to just be um an opportunity for us to say a message or share a message one time.

I really think there's an opportunity for education here.

Um I think there's a lot of guns in the hands of youth.

Um I feel like this is a senseless, avoidable uh death.

And I feel like we need to have a campaign that's visible, consistent, and collaborative.

And this is not assigning any fault or blame and at the foot of anyone, but I do think this is an opportunity for us to work as a city to wrap our hands around each other um and reduce illegal gunfire and empower our residents also to take some action.

So that's the challenge, and that's the ask.

If if I may, um thank you for that request, Dr.

Hall.

That is not the first time that this request has been made at the city.

I first made a request that we go um get, you know, do a creative, truly media blitz style PSA campaign about gunshots back in 2021.

I think it was 2023 that I asked again that we um seriously look at how we're communicating this for some of our residents.

Um it's a cultural thing.

Um they don't know, they might not know that it's illegal.

Um for others, they need to understand the harms associated with it, and that Fort Worth PD is cracking down, and I don't think we do that through our normal media channels.

Folks uh firing uh weapons in the air probably aren't also following Fort Worth PD on social media, and so we need to look at um a true media campaign when it comes to this, which is television print, um, you know, out getting out there, make sure we're getting this message out.

Okay.

Um I think it'd be great.

Oh, sorry, we're still taking IRs, right?

Correct.

Okay.

Uh I have one.

Um during the point in time count, uh familiar things, but also saw some new things come up.

One of those things that I saw was uh damage to playground equipment.

Apparently, in parks where a lot of uh homeless people tend to congregate, especially after hours, there's been damage to facilities there, uh from roofs to pavilions to playground equipment that's been burned.

So I'd like an IR on that.

Um much has that been you know affecting you know our parks, uh costs incurred, uh what what types of preventative measures that we're taking to uh prevent that from happening.

Um and then uh William, I think it'd be great if this body could get a presentation on some of the diversion programs that we have in the city.

Um which ones are more proactive versus reactive, uh, and which programs they exist for the teens.

Um where well utilization rates figure out you know which ones should be sunset, which one should be expanded, that we can take back to mayor and council for um you know consideration to expand.

Um I think that'd be incredibly helpful for this body.

And then another one that I know is at the top of everyone's mind right now, because it's certainly been the top uh top of the media.

I know the mayor has been incredibly helpful uh in this endeavor as far as getting getting things fixed where we can, as well as City Manager Jay Choppa and and yourself, Mr.

Johnson, uh, and that is in regards to the workers' comp uh issues that have been brought to light uh that have been going on for quite some time.

And uh so I think it'd be great if the if we this body could get a presentation for I mean not just for us but uh for also public consumption for uh the SEG's claims process.

I mean, almost step by step, average time it takes the appeals process, um, and then really ensuring that we're holding CEDWIC accountable for ensuring that our first responders are treated not just promptly uh but properly to get them back to the warrior athletes they were prior to the injury.

Um and then something else, you know, hearing about was you know some things being cosmetic in nature, um, and maybe this is way off base, but the way I see is if uh if a firefighter or police officer, if they go into um, you know, they run towards chaos and they are injured and there is something that is a cosmetic injury, whether it be from a fire or uh gunshot wounds, stab wounds, you name it.

Um I think the city should be looking at how do we get them back to their former selves the best it's possible, not just from the health perspective, uh, but you know, you consider something as simple as scars.

Uh we may consider that cosmetic in nature, but what's that doing uh for that that first responder that that young woman, young woman, young man, uh their mental health.

Uh I mean we asked them to run to that chaos, and so I think we should be restoring them back to them, uh their prior selves the best we can, whether that's cosmetic or just strictly from a physical standpoint.

So I think the city has the ability to do that.

We should absolutely be looking at that because I think if you hear from our police police officers and our first responders, our firefighters, our EMS, I mean they they come here to work here because they love it here, and while we appreciate them, we want to make sure that we're we're taking care of them.

So I think just to kind of shed some light on what we can do better where our hands are tired tied from maybe a state perspective, uh, but where we can do better.

Um and I think that'd be incredibly helpful.

But again, again, mayor, thank you so much for your your help and getting some short term and and long-term things taken care of and working with our state uh level partners.

Um, but I think it'd be helpful to take that to public so that way we can also dispel any rumors or myths, uh, and also you know, hold us uh as leadership accountable uh if we could be doing something more.

So we'll bring all of those back to this committee.

All right, uh, there's nothing else, uh meeting adjourned.