Okay, let's start this while we've got quorum.

Good morning and welcome to your Fort City Council work session.

I'll call our meeting to order and turn it over to Jay Choppa.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Under upcoming and recent events, we don't have anything specific.

Um, organizational updates and employee recognitions.

I'd like to call Dave Lewis up to introduce his new uh deputy directory.

Good morning, Madam Mayor, City Council, Mr.

City Manager.

I am extremely excited to introduce our new deputy director.

She's gonna have to change it when she gets up here.

But uh Teresa Thomason, she is joining us with a wealth of experience in other municipalities in North Texas in the park and recreation field, including stops in Keller, Allen, and McKinney.

Uh, she is also currently finishing her second master's degree in uh public affairs at the uh University of Texas at Dallas, and she will be overseeing the park operations and the planning and resource management division.

We've kind of been calling it the two joels, and so she's in charge of the two jewels, so give her lots of grace with that.

But uh please join me in welcoming Teresa Thomason.

Thank you, Dave.

Um, hello, council and mayor.

I have had the opportunity to meet some of you in the Capitol Project Updates that we've done, and I'm looking forward to meeting those that I haven't had the opportunity to yet, and I'm looking forward to being part of the team here at Fort Worth and serving our community.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Welcome.

Welcome.

Uh, next, I'd like to bring up Jessica Rogers to introduce her new economic development assistant director.

Okay, my excitement definitely exceeds Dave's because I'm super excited.

Um let me introduce you, Council Brianna Brown.

She is our new assistant director of economic development.

She'll be overseeing our business attraction and retention team.

Um Brianna's actually originally from Bedford, so she's coming back home.

Um, and she spent the past two decades in Lubbock, but we won't hold it against her.

Um last 10 she spent um with economic and uh in the economic and business development.

She's actually worked both on the city side and on the um economic development corporation side there in Lubbock.

She has a bachelor's and a master's from Texas Tech.

Um, and her last position as the business development director with the city of Lubbock.

Um she is married to a Bobby, and she is a bonus mom to two sons, Caden and Logan.

They have a lot of fun with the teenage boys and a dog mom to Charlie, of which I have already received pictures of Charlie playing in the snow.

Um, and so we're very excited about that.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm Brianna Brown.

I'm excited to be here, excited to meet and get to know all of you.

Um gracious and thankful to be back home in the city of Fort Worth near my family that I haven't been uh close to for quite some time.

So appreciate the opportunity.

Looking forward to getting to work with you.

Congratulations.

Welcome.

And next, I'd like to call up Lauren Preer to recognize some award winners from her department.

All right, good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm pleased to share that our department received multiple honors at the 2026 American Public Works Association Public Workshop held here in Fort Worth earlier this month.

These recognitions highlight the dedication, innovation, and professionalism of the employees who serve our residents every day.

First, our stormwater operations dashboard received the management innovation award.

So this tool is improving real-time data access, streamlining field operations, and strengthening our decision making across the organization.

Our concrete also earned the Project of the Year in the structures category for exceptional craftsmanship and quality in public infrastructure.

So their work reflects long-term value and community benefit.

We're also proud to recognize Paul Oliah, recipient of the Field Excellence Award.

So Paul was honored for outstanding customer service, innovation in the field, and measurable gains in productivity and cost savings.

Jimmy Kersey is named.

You just got pointed out, Paul.

There's Paul.

And then last but not least, as you are mowing your lawns this summer, I want you to think about Kevin Stone.

Kevin Stone can do it better and faster than you.

Kevin has represented the city of Fort Worth with distinction, earning second place in the zero-turn competition at this year's road.

Now you say second place.

Trust me, he's going for first at states.

So collectively, these awards demonstrate our department's commitment to innovation service and operational excellence.

Thank you.

That's great.

Okay, y'all can't leave.

No, no, no, no.

Y'all stay.

We're gonna take a picture.

Y'all are worthy of a picture.

You're the real work of Fort Worth, and we're very thankful for you.

But I'm a little disappointed there are no videos of the mowing competition.

What's the deal?

Y'all come up, y'all actually gonna turn around and we're gonna face that way, and we'll take a picture that way.

It was an electric mower.

Let me be clear.

Those are tricky.

And thank you all for what you do every day.

Okay, moving on to informal reports.

Um first one's 26-0027.

The January 26th report on the release of area from the ETJ.

And Stephen Murray's here to answer any questions.

Any questions for Steven?

Keep rolling.

Next is 26-0028.

The ARPA reallocation plan.

Uh Kate Perry is here from Financial Management.

Meant to answer any questions.

Keep going.

Zero zero two nine.

Uh the how my Fort Worth app processes and stores uploaded uploaded photos.

And um Sana is here to answer any questions.

Councilmember Peoples and Council Member Hill.

Okay.

I was gonna ask me questions.

Dr.

Sunna, come on up.

Did she hear me?

She's like, I'm just not the first time.

Here she comes.

All right, that's good timing, isn't it?

Walking in from a doctor's appointment right as we're going.

All right, good morning.

Well, we are here to talk to you about the My Fort Worth app.

Uh, Councilmember Nettles had some questions about how the photographs were processed.

Um, and overall, the system is working, um, which is what we're going to show you here today.

Um, and we think we know what may have happened when he got that feedback from a resident.

So, how the Fort Worth, My Fort Worth app works is that it communicates with 10 different systems.

Um, and within 15 minutes, they're able to get the information across with address identification.

So here we've just listed all the different systems that we work with.

Um, one, as you can imagine, has its own system, water, parks, um, the hope team.

So this is how the whole system works.

My Fort Worth app open.

Select new report.

Next, attach one to six photos.

Key and the description of the request, or use the voice to text prompt to enter it.

Confirm and select the appropriate request type.

The address is pulled from the photos that are attached.

Next, complete any required questions for the service department.

Verify your contact information.

Review the summary of your request before submitting.

And submit the request.

Once done, the request will go into the submitted by you section and be transferred over to the service department.

Okay, so that was James West, our manager for the My Fort Worth app explaining how a user puts the photos into our app.

And then the next video will be from Code with some audio explaining how they see things on their end.

So here's the complaint that has come from the My Fort Worth app into Code Ops.

Here's the complainant's information, and here's the address where they made their complaint.

Here's the details of the things that they're concerned about.

And if the code officer dispatches to that location and arrives there, there is a convenient prompt here that tells them that there are attached photos to this uh complaint.

And it prompts them to click on the view photos button.

And if you click on the view photos button, you see the photos that the citizen has put in the micro work app complaint.

So those are visible here, and we can actually click on those and see them in greater detail.

So you click on one of those photos and it comes full size, and you can see all the detail from the photo that uh citizen has entered in the micro work app.

We wanted to show you how code sees the pictures because that was the feedback that we had received from Council Member Nettles.

Was that some code officers had reported or told residents that they are unable to see their photos?

Um there was a time where the systems didn't communicate properly, but since then my Fort Worth app has gone through upgrades over the past several years, and code about two, three years ago also went through an upgrade.

And so the systems are communicating now, um, and it's simply just going to a button hitting view photo, and they're able to see whatever the citizen puts in.

And I have the team here if you have any specific questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hill, did you have any questions?

Okay, Councilmember Pupils.

No, okay.

That was what I wanted to do.

Yeah, so okay.

Thank you, Senator.

Great over here.

One thing.

Yeah, Councilman.

Do you have to when you take the photo?

Do you have to enter it right there?

Enter it into the app you maybe.

Yeah, where what I'm getting to is that geo uh fences it knows where that photo was taken, so you can do it.

I've had people call before and say, Well, I'm driving and I can't do it, but I think when you take the photo, it knows where it was taken.

So when you upload it, it knows exactly.

Is that true?

Can someone answer that?

Yes, sure.

Yeah, great.

Sure.

Uh yes, uh a little closer to the microphone, Sharon.

Thank you.

So sorry, thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Uh this is what I tell people is to take the photo, move along to uh wherever you're safe or wherever you're going to uh be able to use your phone, then take uh put the request in.

It will keep all the data so you don't even have to know.

I never know where I am.

I I'm traveling all the time, so I just step step step and then I uh key key key when I get to where I'm settled.

So that's what I suggest.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Uh the next one, zero zero three zero.

Proposed text amendments to the floodplain zoning classification.

Dana is here to answer any questions.

Any questions for Dana?

No.

No, but I do want to thank Dana for all the work that she's been doing, uh, specifically in my district around floodplain management.

And uh we have some good things going on, I think, in District 5, and I am grateful to Dana.

Uh 0031 results for the incentive agreements reviewed in uh fiscal year 25.

Brady Kirk's here to answer any questions.

0032, an update on the door-to-door vendor regulations.

Any questions?

Uh I will mention that uh councilwoman Beck, who's not here, uh, call me and wanted to make sure on the record that she supports the changes that are being recommended.

Uh 0033, uh position subject to the drug alcohol testing program.

Kristen Smith here to answer any questions.

And 0034, uh Fort Worth PD response to DWIs.

Any questions?

Okay.

That was very fast through the IRs.

Qu uh council will move to any questions regarding changes in boards and memberships on commissions or questions related to the city MNC log for February 24th.

If not, we'll move to our presentation.

Alliance Texas Annual Economic Impact.

Mike Barry, President of Hillwood.

Mike, welcome.

We're glad you're here this morning.

Thank you.

Mayor, members of the council.

Well, I didn't know if that's kind of a that's kind of a muted applause.

So I've got to be.

Maybe you should wait until I'm finished.

Decide whether you like it or not.

Sounded like a rotary applause.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you very much, Mayor and members of the council for the opportunity once again to uh present the annual economic impact report.

It uh just a couple of comments.

First of all, this is the first time I've been in the new uh pre-council chamber, whatever the appropriate name is.

It's I'll say it's much more imposing and intimidating than the old one.

The old one, you know, I remember I used to have to like wiggle just to get myself to the podium.

Yeah.

Um so this is this is very nice.

But it smells better.

It does.

I I don't smell very well, so I I can't tell, but um I also just on a more somber note, I wanted to say that I miss uh former councilwoman Gina Bivens very much, and I know all of you do, and uh it's been a long time since I've stood here to make it this presentation where she hasn't been in the room.

Uh and she was always such a great advisor and mentor and uh uh supporter of what we were doing.

Um so we'll we'll remember her fondly as we go forward.

Um so this morning, for those of you who don't know the history, uh we started years and years ago on an annual basis to present to the council each and every year the updated economic impact uh of the Alliance Texas project, specific particularly on the city.

As you know, there's a lot of land that we have 27,000 acres, and we cover more than just Fort Worth, but the original partnership which allowed Alliance to happen started you know right here, not physically here, but started with the City Council of Fort Worth and the creative approach to public-private partnership uh in in conjunction with the FAA that allowed the airport to be built.

So that initial commitment uh has generated what I'm gonna talk about today uh 30 plus years later.

Uh but I would say to thank all of you at the outset, the partnership between Hillwood and the city and all of our other public partners, uh, the state, federal government is stronger and more active than it's ever been.

Um so we appreciate that.

Uh very few places have an opportunity to enjoy the kind of longevity of partnership that that we have.

Uh and I think that's that's a testament to the culture and spirit of the city and the fact that some of us at Hillwood have managed or survived this long.

So that's that's a good thing.

Um this is this is just the overview of the entire 27,000 acres, and and most of the core job creation occurs in those areas that are uh highlighted in blue around the airport for those of you who know the the geography.

Um all of the 27,000 acre acres that we have been developing over the years runs along Interstate 35.

Uh the economic impact report we do every year with an outside consultant insight research.

Uh this year's cumulative number, so from inception 1990 to to date is 142.9 billion dollars of cumulative economic impact to the region.

And if you look at just last year, 2025, uh it was 12.9 billion.

So, you know, almost 10 percent of the cumulative occurred just in last year alone.

And and the good news about all of that is you can see this from the graph.

Just look in the last five years, there's almost a 50 percent increase in in economic impact.

So uh from the standpoint of the city and the region, we hope, assuming the market continues to grow.

We hope that that graph just uh continues more steeply up and to the right.

Uh another number which we think is very important, and um I know it's important to to you on the council, and that's the property taxes that are generated from the project.

Uh you can see total over the life of the project, 4.5 billion dollars of property taxes.

And this is just property taxes off of the project, does not include sales taxes or any other uh residual uh tax calculations.

So to the city of that 4.504 million uh has been directly to City of Fort Worth, and you can see all of the other uh governing bodies that participate in various ways in the in the property taxes that flow off the property.

So I'm gonna try to be here the day that I'm able to tell you that it's a one billion dollars of property taxes, which hopefully won't be too long.

If you look at that chart, uh you can see uh it's as I said, it's steep and and rising to the right.

So maybe I can maybe I can have that number for you next year.

Um the other way we measure growth is through just physical um construction and job creation.

And so we talked to all of the companies that are at Alliance uh today, over 600 now, um, and we gather employment information.

There are now 73,134 people working at Alliance every day.

And uh we've got 60 almost 65 million square feet on the ground throughout the development.

Um I will tell you, and I think you'll also be pleased with this number.

We within the last three months, we've just uh started construction on another 3.2 million square feet in five different buildings, all of which are in land that is in the city uh of Fort Worth.

So hopefully we'll we'll have great announcements on those projects soon.

Some highlights from last year, many of which you already know about.

Um I wanted to point out the Wistern project, which the council was very involved in.

That involved a Taiwanese company coming in in partnership with Nvidia, purchased two buildings.

One of them was was at Alliance or in the one of them was Hillwood, one of them was owned by another party.

Uh, but that project represents 761 million dollars of investment, 800 jobs.

But I think the more important part of that deal is it signaled what is now becoming a trend for us.

We've seen three other projects come in right behind Westron that are all advanced manufacturing related to that AI uh tech.

Um and if you add up that project plus the other three, that's 4,400 jobs that have closed just in our portfolio in the last six months due to that that wave.

So, you know, we've been at it for a long time.

You don't often see the real tail uh or sort of draft uh off of one deal like that, but that's pretty that's pretty quick.

Um couple of other things, Torque Robotics, which is an autonomous trucking company.

They're I wanted to highlight them because they're owned by Daimler Truck, which is global company.

They anchored their headquarters at Alliance, uh, another uh autonomous company, A ASI also announced their headquarters at Alliance, and then last year we completed and opened 450,000 square feet of studio sound stage space with SGS studios for the production of Landman Lioness Madison and all of their other um shows that are in the SGS Taylor Sheridan uh portfolio.

So and you you know we've talked a lot about that over the last several months, but the impact is is significant.

Um with regard to the airport specifically, uh a lot of aviation activity.

Uh we work very closely with Roger Venables, as you know, um, and can't say enough about that partnership.

Uh but we just finished and and open a project with Embraer Air, one of the nation or one of the world's largest uh aircraft OEMs.

Uh we've got some exciting new innovative things happening around the airport.

True weather and airline are just two examples of innovation around aviation.

Um, and then lastly, MTU uh just completed a 30-year agreement with the city on the maintenance base, uh that's a huge investment.

MTU's a global uh engine aircraft engine company, and that's 1200 jobs.

And by the way, the maintenance base, which most of you were not around when we struggled through the bankruptcy of American Airlines and the city, Jay Chava was here and Mike Barry was here, and we had to figure out a way to sort of prop that thing up.

Well, it took us a while, but you'll be pleased to know that that asset is fully fully occupied now with a variety of different different companies.

A couple of other things acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock visited Alliance two months ago and presented the port study, the inland port study that the Comptroller's Office does every year around the state for all the major ports.

And we were uh highlighted in his statewide tour the the impact, you know, as they measure it, which is a different uh formula than we use, uh, showed that Alliance contributed 16.3 billion to the Texas GDP last year or 2024 and had an impact on 137,000 jobs.

So even even a more broader impact than we measure.

And then the Alliance Logistics District, which the city uh in partnership with us and BNSF were also involved in.

That was approved by the council two months ago.

That's a huge, I mean, it it may not sound very cool, but it will be one of the most unique inland port operating facilities anywhere in the country.

Uh we're gonna build a private bridge from the intermodal hub over to the Westport area, and then uh the council agreed to make that whole area special logistics zone so we can operate autonomous and heavy load uh vehicles throughout there, and that will create uh another attraction for a lot of different companies who will be able to utilize that.

A few final things.

Um, in March next month, we'll be hosting again for I think the fifth year uh our supply chain mobility innovation summit called Ford Fort Worth, uh, where we bring in about 150 leaders, CEOs, and founders and entrepreneurs from around the country uh to talk about mobility innovation.

Uh we're also hosting for the first time this year a community day around the UP Summit, uh, which is a very unique um national summit that we've been fortunate to work with a number of companies too.

We're now on the rotation every other year to bring it to Fort Worth.

And it it's sort of an air show for innovation and autonomy.

Uh and there will be a community day on October 11th, uh, where we'll open the airport uh and display all the different uh aircraft.

And then uh lastly, I just wanted you to know that about three years ago we created uh the Alliance Texas Foundation, which we did not have before.

We we funded all of our philanthropy in the community through our corporate um budget, but now we have a 501c3 to supplement that.

And so we're able to do some things, some additional things in the community uh that we weren't able to do before uh now that we have that vehicle.

Um so I guess in closing, I would say just big picture.

Um I think the economy here is stronger than I've ever seen it.

And I know there's a lot of there's a lot of national and global uh issues that cause a lot of uncertainty, but whatever is going on, that uncertainty is translating into driving business to North Texas into Fort Worth.

Um I mean, that stat I gave you on those four projects that happened in six months, 4,400 jobs.

I haven't seen that ever in my career.

So, and I don't know if it's sustainable, but it sure feels good right now, feels like we're positioned in a very unique place to continue to attract uh more activity.

And um with that, I will thank you very much for your time and I'll take any questions you might have.

Thank you, Mike.

Questions from council or comments.

No.

Um I I do want you to maybe mention the work y'all are doing to focus on job creation within Fort Worth and especially on the education front.

I know you're even re envisioning the TC TCC Opportunity Center with Alliance.

Maybe just spend a few minutes on that.

Yeah, um, thank you for that question.

Uh so years ago we uh stood up on at Alliance, a um with in partnership with Terran County College, a um center of excellence, primarily focused on aviation transportation and logistics.

Um that's worked very well.

They're they're able to plug in directly with a lot of the companies that are moving in and provide specialized training for those specific companies.

But you know, we're now moving into an era where we got a lot of there's sort of a lot of things cross-connected, but we're very focused on, as you all know, on our public education system.

We're very focused on connecting more of those students with career opportunities, and T3 is a great example of a program that's actually doing that.

But and I've told the mayor this, uh I think we've got to go, we got to go about three levels up from what we're doing now.

There's a lot of great work going on, but we need to we need to expand the skill sets that we're training people in because of these new kinds of jobs that we're talking about, whether they be you know, the the movie and film industry, whether they be advanced technology manufacturing jobs, whether they be computer programmers, software, um I think we need to we need to be aggressive in those areas.

Um and then I guess lastly, uh one of my longtime partners at Hillwood Tom Harris has been very involved on the mayor's council workforce development and education, and now he's he's helping me and others figure out a way to to consolidate all the resources that are out there and maybe elevate elevate our game a little bit.

Um obviously I'm focused on taking care of these companies that we are bringing in, but I think we need we need to do it at a broader level across the whole community.

So anything that we can do to help um, whether it be expanding the platform we already have with Terrant County College or whether it be uh some other things that um will impact a you know the broader area we're all in for that.

We can't do anything.

I mean, that's the most important thing we can do is train our young people for the opportunities that are out there.

Thank you, Mike.

Questions?

Any other counsel questions?

No.

We appreciate you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Welcome.

Council, that's the last of our official presentations.

Are there any um upcoming future agenda items or requests for management?

Yes, ma'am.

Councilman Peoples.

Uh I'd like to kind of delve into the Human Relations Commission.

And if we can get an IR on the Human Relations Commission specifically, how many complaints have been filed uh by uh people in the last decade regarding uh race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, and religious discrimination, and then how many findings for cause came out of those complaints, and if we can identify the top five um employers that these have been filed against.

Any other requests for IRs?

No.

This is uh Carlos calling all back uh Deborah on that request.

I think it's timely too for our new council members who haven't heard or engaged on the topic, you know, the human relations commission.

I think that'll be very uh instructive.

Thank you, Carlos.

Charlie, are you good?

Give me a thumbs up just making sure you don't need anything.

Okay, very well.

Council, I think that's the conclusion.

No IR requests, then I will um adjourn our meeting and prepare for counsel.

Thank you.

Okay, I'm gonna read you an executive.

The city council now convene an executive session on the following matters.

The city council will conduct a closed meeting in order to seek the advice of its attorneys that authorized by section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code.

Deliberate concerning real property matters is authorized by Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code.

Deliberate concerning economic development negotiations authorized 551.087 Texas Government Code and deliberate concerning the security as OsR as authorized by 551.076 and 551.089 to the Texas Government Code.