Okay.

We're gonna go ahead and get started with the presentation.

All right, is that better?

Test test.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, great.

Okay, if you have not seen yet, there are a couple of QR codes located on the screen.

One is to the bond website.

The second is to the bond book.

If you're present here today, we do have some booklets that are available for you to take home with you today and share, as well as some charter details that will take us to the charter website.

You can always visit Fort Worth Texas.gov, uh 2026 bond or 2026 charter if you'd like to know more.

Okay.

And with that, we'll go ahead and get started with the presentation.

So thank you all so much for being part of the very first presentation related to the 2026 bond and charter election.

We will walk through the purpose of our presentation today.

An overview of the 2026 bond program, all the development, a program summary, and introduce the sample ballot of what to expect, as well as bond propositions.

Uh move into charter amendments, in which we'll have Gavin Mitchley uh take over and then also share the upcoming schedule with an opportunity for question answers.

Uh, we do have all of our technical experts here today, so uh all the various proposition teams um are available.

So if you happen to have some really, really uh you know specific questions into project specifics, uh, they're more than happy to go and dive into all of that.

So the purpose of today's meeting is really to provide information on the proposed 2026 bond program and charter amendments.

This is really your opportunity to ask any questions regarding the two, as well as review further opportunities for public education.

Okay.

And so again, if you have not taken a photo of this particular QR code, it is located here.

And if not, we'll go ahead and get started with a quick little video.

So let's go ahead and hit play on that.

Every four years, the city the city prepares a bond program.

One way of funding large capital projects such as roads, parks, libraries, and public facilities that are appropriate for long-term financing.

During this election, you might notice language on the ballot that says this is a tax increase.

This is new language mandated statewide for all bond elections.

However, here in Fort Worth, we've structured the bond package so that we don't anticipate a tax increase.

The City of Fort Worth's 2026 bond program totaling 845 million is organized into several propositions.

Each proposition outlines a set of projects that could be funded through bonds, pending voter authorization.

Proposition A proposes 511 million dollars for streets and mobility infrastructure projects.

The proposal includes funds for 12 major roadways.

The largest amount of money in Proposition A, roughly 328 million will go towards rehabilitating our streets.

Other funds will go towards intersections, bridges, traffic signals, street lights, adding sidewalks, and improving safety for street crossings around our schools.

Proposition B includes 185 million dollars for parks, recreation, open spaces, including land acquisition, facility improvements, and trail enhancements.

Park improvements may include renovations to existing community park areas, as well as development of new outdoor park amenities.

Some projects in the proposition include a new outdoor pool, renovations and expansion of some athletic complexes, provide more open space areas throughout the city, and replacement of an aging community center.

This will include remodeling three of our existing locations.

Proposition D provides 10 million dollars for affordable housing initiatives across the city.

This proposition would provide funding aimed at creating new affordable home ownership and rental housing opportunities, specifically for households earning up to 120% of the city's area median income.

Activities under this proposition may include land acquisition and site preparation, construction of affordable housing, construction of infrastructure to support affordable housing, home repair programs, and loans and grants for affordable housing.

Proposition E proposes 64 million for police, fire and emergency communications facilities, including new construction and renovations to existing buildings.

These improvements support long-term operational projects for the public safety departments.

Proposition F allocates 59.8 million dollars for a new upgraded facility for our residents and animals, which would replace the Chuck and Brenda Silcox Animal Care and Adoption Center.

This proposition would fund the construction of an upgraded shelter with expanded veterinary facilities.

Also including new modern kennels with natural light and upgraded play yards for animal enrichment.

The bond election is scheduled for Saturday, May 2nd, 2026, with early voting available between Monday, April 20th and the following Tuesday, April 28th.

For facts and resources, visit Fort Worth Texas.gov/slash 2026 bond.

All right.

Well, there are some familiar faces in the audience.

And so with that, you may be familiar with sort of the process that led to the 2026 bond program that was presented in the video just now.

Even starting all the way back to March 4th, uh 2025, we first proposed an entire bond list that we sent to City Council.

Uh, from there on August 5th, City Council approved the proposed list to begin that community engagement in which we've seen a couple of each other in different scenarios and asking a couple of questions.

Um, and to the point where we were able to uh really begin all that citywide bond.

We were able to collect some great um continuous public feedback, which I'll go and dive into the numbers that we received, as well as uh an opportunity in which we close our public comments on December 31st, and then in January, we uh actually presented the final project list for city council uh review and approval, in which that list was finalized on February 10th, in which council was able to order the bond election that then that then led into the bond program that you see today with the project list.

So, based off of city feedback, just want to recap all the great work and all the feedback.

We received 329 uh submitted comments through the balancing act submission as well as through uh feedback within all the various council meetings.

Uh, there were over 260 residents that attended the 11 district meetings uh in the first phase.

There were 18,220 website views, as well as 1,109 YouTube views.

Um so again, great engagement, and we thank all of you for being part of that first phase.

Um, but all that really led into this final bond program that you see today, and that is an $845 million program.

If you're part of the first phase, a lot of these numbers would look familiar to you, and that's proposition A for streets and mobility infrastructure is as shown, uh $511,480,700.

Um, you may notice that there was an increase to the overall bond program uh during the first phase of engagement, the bond program was at $840 million.

Uh the bond program has since was increased, uh how we finalized it, and that was because we added an additional $5 million to proposition D for affordable housing based off of feedback within that first uh phase of bond engagement.

I also want to note that this also includes for each one of these propositions, does include public art funding.

So each proposition includes funding that can be used towards public art, specifically related to one or more of the projects in that proposition.

So as shown here, each proposition is treated a little differently as to how much of a percent is allocated towards public art.

So for example, proposition A for streets and mobility, there's up to 1% that can be allocated towards public art, and that is the amount that's shown here.

Uh, there's also B C E N F that is up to that 2% amount.

Um, there is affordable housing, and that is set at zero percent.

Um, the idea there is that this is a citywide proposition, and um a lot of this also ties back to the capital and where it would where because there's some specifics about where public art can be placed in relation to the projects themselves.

Um so that is why you'll see that zero percent with affordable housing.

Um, but know that there's about 10 million 752,000 um up to that amount, and this uh of course will be dependent on some a little technical ordinance update that we'll be presenting to council um in April 2026.

So, how does bond funding work?

Well, how do we exactly reach that 845 million?

This actually dives into sort of our fiscal year budget process, right?

Um, so the city has a property tax rate that is collected, and for every 67 cents per 100 aluation, that 67 cents is split into two separate buckets.

All right.

So the first bucket is operation and maintenance.

So whenever you see me here, I am funded through the general fund, and I am technically in that operation and maintenance, you know, bucket.

Whenever you go to a parks and you see that the park is maintained and there is city staff that is, you know, tending to that specific area, that also falls under the operations and maintenance um type of bucket in that in that spot.

Now, another bucket within that 67 cents goes toward or is allocated specifically and can only be used for city based debt.

And so what you'll see here are the three bullet points that I'll walk you through it that I'll walk you through.

As mentioned, the bond election is a way for the community to vote on measures that allows the city to borrow funding for larger capital projects.

It also allows that a portion of that city property tax rate, that portion that I spoke about just a moment ago that's shown here in blue for debt specific, is set aside to pay for the bond programs and other city debt.

So the city of Fort Worth has historically and even in this 2026 bond program structured its bond package to work within the city property tax rate so that bonds are planned to be so that the bonds are planned to be fully paid without raising the city property tax associated with that debt.

I say all of this because here is shown a sample ballot.

Um and this is just for awareness as well.

Uh, this is what each resident, if as they go out and they would like to cast their vote, they will be met with this type of information.

One, it will ask you if you are to vote either for or against.

It'll also show you that this is a city of Fort Worth special election in relation to whatever proposition that you would be casting your vote for.

In this case, it's proposition A.

Now, at the start of each paragraph, and this is state mandated, the attorney general has for the state has uh stated that this has to be included.

Um, we have to have this is a tax increase in capital letters, which is why we're also here today to be able to provide that education to again inform you that how the city of Fort Worth structures its bond program.

So again, in all caps, it will say this is a tax increase.

It will also state the issuance of the amount for that proposition.

So in this case, proposition A, as mentioned, is $511,480,700.

And it will also tell you what type of proposition it's for.

So in this case, it's for street and mobility infrastructure improvements.

And this is pretty much what you will see for each ballot.

We're not allowed to add any additional information.

Um, so if you happen to have any questions on again, how we structure our bond program, how we end up paying for our bond uh program and our debt service, we're more than happy to dive into any of those specifics.

Um, and we'll go ahead and take some a few questions at the very end, but I have you noted, sir.

All right.

So we'll dive into the bond propositions rather quickly here.

Uh the video pretty much did a great job at summarizing, but again, we we do have a photo here.

We have the large exhibits at each one of our proposition tables.

Here you'll see that major roadways as well as minor roadways, these are known as neighborhood streets, are shown on the bond exhibit.

Uh, this also includes some of our more like bucket categories whenever you start to think about mobility infrastructure, whenever we think about traffic lighting and so forth.

We have pedestrian ways, bicycle infrastructure, streetscapes, a lot of the specifics you can dive into that bond program that we handed out.

Um so if you have any questions, feel free to dive in.

So park B, Park Recreation Open Space Acquisition Improvements at 185 million, 140,000.

And that is for what Dave pretty much did also dived in dove into in relation to the water gardens, service center, gateway park, uh botanic art infrastructure, community centers, and various community parks.

This does include also that open space that is in the previous bond cycle was a standalone proposition, but again, in this uh particular 2026 bond program cycle, it is included in proposition B.

Next for public library improvements, the amount is as shown, 14,586,000 for relocation, renovation of various of our various facilities.

For proposition D, this is affordable housing.

Again, this is a new proposition to the city of Fort Worth, and also based off of your feedback and also city council feedback, we did expand the scope of how the dollars can be applied.

Uh, we do want to also know that these 10 million dollars that are shown here as proposed for proposition D, the intent here is to be able to also use these dollars to leverage.

Um, so for each dollar that the city puts in, there would be an additional leverage to be able to really make that 10 million expand.

Uh so that is shown for could be used towards land acquisition, construction of housing and neighborhood infrastructure to support affordable housing, funding affordable housing and home repair programs, funding loans and grants for affordable housing purposes.

There is an asterisk there just to note that it is as permitted by law.

This is new for us, so we will definitely be working with the community in for this particular proposition.

So for proposition E, police, fire and emergency communities communications facilities, 63,919,300.

And proposition F for animal care and shelter improvements at 59,874,000.

With that being said, I'm gonna go ahead and hand the mic over to Gavin Mitchley.

And after that, we'll go ahead and take questions and we'll open it up.

All right.

Here you go.

Thanks, April.

All right.

Good evening.

My name is Gavin Midley.

I'm an assistant city attorney in the city attorney's office here to discuss the uh charter amendments.

So moving into the first charter amendment, uh proposition G, uh, mayor and council pay.

This proposition would increase the mayor and council pay from its current rate, uh, which was established uh or set back in 2006.

So mayor pay would go from 29,000 to 60,000, and council pay would go from 25,000 to 50,000.

If approved, it would be effective at the start of the next uh the city's next fiscal year, so it would give uh budget time to plan uh for the fiscal impact, which you see there at the bottom 285,000 for the fiscal year 2027.

And on all of these propositions, I have the ballot language there at the top.

I'm not gonna read it, but I have it there just in case uh you wanted to see it in advance.

Um, and it is also in the ordinance.

So, like I mentioned, this was the current mayor and pay mayor and council pay was last set in 2006.

Um, let me go on.

All right.

Proposition H is a proposition to remove department director hearing requirements.

Um if proposition H was approved, terminated department directors would not be able to force a public hearing before council regarding their dismissal.

Um, and this is to uh result or this is to um make the uh city charter more consistent across uh the various articles.

Um so the city it it reflects the council the merit the council manager form of government and it reflects that the city manager has final say over employment decisions of his subordinates and that council has no authority to directly override his uh decision employment decisions without also violating the city charter.

Um proposition I would remove uh redundant hearing requirements for council appointees.

Um so currently uh appointed officials under the charter are the city manager, city attorney, city auditor, city secretary.

Three of those positions, uh there's a provision in the charter that requires uh it doesn't require, but it allows uh those officials to request a public hearing before the hearing on which council takes action uh to remove them.

Uh this is a redundant hearing as council would have to hold a public hearing in order to take a vote on removing them.

So it's sort of asking uh council to confirm that they really do want to remove uh a city manager, city attorney, or city auditor before the before that.

Um proposition J would remove a separate budget hearing requirement from the charter.

So currently under the charter, uh it states that the that the hearing at which the budget is to be adopted can't be at the same meeting as the budget hearing.

Uh this is not required under state law, and it creates uh an additional procedural hurdle hurdle for uh staff and council.

Um separate, like I mentioned, the separated separation of meetings is not required under state law, which already imposes numerous procedural uh requirements that allow for public input.

Um the proposed budget would still have to be presented by August 15th, placed on file with the city secretary uh 10 days before the budget hearing.

Um so it in practice the city holds this additional public hearing uh in order to adopt the budget 15 minutes after the budget hearing is occurs anyway.

So the removal of this uh separate budgeting here requirement will just remove a procedural hurdle.

It doesn't actually provide additional uh transparency.

Proposition K would remove uh public service corporation annual reporting requirements currently in the charter, public service corporations are required to file an annual report with the city, and these are going to be corporations uh like your natural gas companies, your electricity providers, water, um historically franchised uh franchised uh companies that use city city right-of-ways.

However, much of the regulatory authority for those entities has shifted to the state since the charter was adopted.

And so a lot of that information is available online through whatever state agency regulates them, whether it be public utility commission, so forth.

And so rather than have those reports, which sometimes aren't even filed with the city, despite being required by the city charter, this proposition would remove that requirement just to rely on the state information online for those regulated entities.

Proposition L would remove an ordinance requirement for granting of privilege.

Granting of grants of privileges are typically issued for solid waste haulers.

Council has already adopted some administrative requirements for franchisees who wish to become wish to receive a grant of privilege to operate within the city on this on the city streets.

Proposition M would remove the ordinance requirement for city department reorganization.

So if this proposition were approved, council would not need to adopt an ordinance for the city manager to create a department, eliminate a department, or combine a department that is not required by charter, existing ordinance, or future ordinance, or to reorganize departments not required by charter ordinance.

Council could still create a department by ordinance, but it would not be required to do so.

And so if it were to create a department by ordinance, only council could eliminate that, eliminate that department.

So existing existing departments created by ordinance would still need to be removed by ordinance by council.

Proposition N would align vacancy timelines or align timelines to fill vacancies with the election code with regard to special elections to fill vacancies.

Vacancies occurring after the last day to order a special election on the uniform election date immediately prior to the city's general election, may be filled according to the existing city charter process for replacing late term vacancies.

Current state law only allows for elections to occur on uniform election dates, which is going to be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and the first Saturday in May.

Obviously, there's not going to be a vacancy on the May 2025 because that's the general election.

And then the next available dates, November 2025, following that's May 2026, and November 2026 is the last available uniform election date before the city's general election on May 2027.

So in essence, if proposition were approved, it would change the date by which council may fill vacancies according to the charter from 90 days before the general election to after the last day to order a special election for the November 2026 election, moving forward elections in November of even years.

So that's about mid-August most years most years.

An example of this might be if councilman Blaylock had resigned in, I think he was announced his candidacy for uh state rep in October of 2025.

However, if that had been in October of 2026, that would be past the last day to order a special election for that vacancy to be filled on the November 2026 election date.

So the next possible date would be the May 2027 election date, which is coincides with the city's general election in which that seat would be filled according to the normal normal process.

And so this cleans up uh the charter, the charter's election code or election timelines for vacancies.

Proposition O would modernize language uh for documentation required to pay claims currently in the city charter, it says that a claim uh maybe may only be paid uh upon a supporting purchase order, however, not all claims paid by this, not all legitimate claims paid by the city are called a purchase order, and so this really just modernizes the language there, um and it would if it's approved, it would allow the city to pay um any claims that support or play legitimate claims supported by appropriate written documentation, um, whether regardless of whether or not those claims are called a purchase order or not.

And that's the city charter amendments.

Turn it back over to April.

All right, thank you, Gavin.

So you're here today, and that is great.

Thank you again for attending.

Um, but if you have friends, if you have family, if you have neighbors they'd like to share additional dates, they're more than welcome to you go and attend any of these.

We have six more of these bond and charter election education meetings uh located regionally all across the city of Fort Worth.

Um, as mentioned, we are also streaming this live.

So if any individual wants to listen in, or if you want to hear this again at any point, feel free to hop onto YouTube and uh we can go ahead and go from there.

So the 2026 bond election and charter election, we've started our election meetings.

The last day to register to vote is April 2nd.

Then of course, we also have that technical update that I mentioned earlier.

The meetings will end on April 18th with early voting beginning April 20th through April 28th, with the election day on May 2nd.

With that, we'll go ahead and open up to questions.

Both Gavin and I are here.

We also have all of our staff present.

Um, so I believe you had the first question, and we do have anybody.

I'm glad to have some microphones that we'll ask uh individuals to use if you happen to have questions, um, just so that individuals listening online can also hear your question.

So here we go with the mic.

Oh, okay.

Very good.

Maybe I can hear my question.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah, the first question I got is how many do we have more bonds and assistance that we are paying, still paying on right now?

How many bonds do we have that we're paying on?

And why is the arch not singled out on our deal up here to vote on whether or not we want to get money to art?

It looks like they automatically get a percentage of money, and I don't know why we don't have it on there for us to decide the people to make that decision.

It seems like it should be on our regardless, we should have that choice.

So why is the arch not on there?

And is there are we still paying on any other bonds and how many?

All right, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Great question.

Um, I will distill this into two separate questions, and I may tap into a few folks to also help supplement my answer.

Um, on the first one related to how many other bonds uh are we still potentially still covering and everything, that goes back to that debt service.

Remember, we had two buckets, operation and maintenance and debt.

Um, that debt is used to pay towards um our bond programs that we have in place.

So that 14 and three-quarters of a penny, so 14.75 cents can be used towards bond programs and other city debt.

So the 845 million is what that 14.75 cents can pay towards bond programs, but we also use that same debt service to pay for the 2022 bond program with what's left as well on that.

And so with that, we have our city manager, Mr.

J.

Choppa that will be joining in on that.

Sure.

So typically bonds are sold either 20 year or 30 year, most are 20 year.

So the 22 bond program won't get paid off till 2042.

Okay.

2018 bond program won't get paid off till 2038.

2019, we've got 2022.

You can go back 20 years and we're paying those.

Right.

So in a growing city to build streets, you have to issue debt to have the dollars to do that.

So what we were what she was saying earlier is the way we structure our debt is that we don't issue debt until we pay debt off, so we don't have to increase our tax rate for the debt service side.

So we're in a position where we've paid off enough of our old debt where we can issue $845 million in new debt and leave our tax rate the same.

I'm just asking it should itch I ask you a question.

Go ahead.

We got a two billion dollar budget.

One or our tax money pay for this.

A bond is money we're bond.

We actually on the general fund we have a 1.2 billion, we have a 1.2 billion dollar budget.

A portion right a portion in the general fund.

We have a 1.2 billion dollar annual budget.

Overall, we have 3.2 billion.

It is part of that.

Well, because 845 million would take up almost the whole budget.

So how would you pay for police?

How would you pay for fire?

How would you pay for operations?

How would you pay for all those other things?

No, we shouldn't have so much growth.

Our income does not mean our growth.

Our growth is expanding our income.

Do you have another question?

No, that's just and the second question that you had relating to public art.

We do have a public art ordinance, and that is what we tie back to our percentage to art, which is why it is in a way baked in and it's it's allocated per each proposition in the way that the art ordinance is written today.

Could it be done separately though?

That would be uh it could be brought up to city council and um for for mayor and council.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, hi on the um housing, the 10 million going to the housing and it's going to be leveraged.

Okay, uh, how much would be that 10 million go to homeless as opposed to going to working families that are lagging or needing assistance?

Uh and of that leverage fund that would uh the money that would be leveraged on the 10 million, how much of that would go for the homeless?

Yeah, and so I'm gonna invite uh Casey Thomas, our director uh for neighborhood services, um, and she can really dive into the affordable housing, probably also existing programs we have today um that can expand on that.

Casey.

Sure.

Thank you for the question.

So, in terms of how much we're going, Casey Thomas neighborhood services director, in terms of how much would be allocated for those specific groups that you've indicated.

Um, we don't have that answer right now because one of the things that we want to have with this um bond proposition is to allow flexibility for the best affordable housing opportunities, and so our focus would be on home ownership opportunities and then also rental housing opportunities.

Would that be under the manager or the council in terms of looking at the projects?

So as far as districts and so one of the things the city already has an housing affordability strategy, and so we would use that to guide us in evaluating the different projects that we would get from um nonprofit developers and also for profit developers who work in the affordable housing industry.

Is that any more questions?

Yes, question over here.

Oh, in terms of the um road and street improvements, uh the specific location of those certain streets are is that already been decided, or does that need to be or will that be decided in the future in terms of letting the community know where?

Um so if we need to schedule or know what's coming up, is that already been has that already been decided?

Yeah, that's a great question.

Um, so the bond booklet that I believe, yep.

So uh within the bond booklet, and again, there's a QR code, it's also on our website.

Uh we do detail the major roadways that are all named, and they do provide the limits in which those major roadways um are planned to be delivered uh with should the proposition pass.

And there's also a list of neighborhood streets, and so you can also see within that uh where that's located for each one of those streets.

Now, the status of the programs and and when they're gonna go to construction and when they're in design, um, we do have a capital projects like city website.

You can search City Fort Worth Capital Projects, and there's some specifics that you could dive into there once the projects are up and running, or the ones that are up and running from previous bonds.

Okay, thank you.

Great question.

All right, any more questions?

All right, going once going twice.

Is there any way to tell how much the golf money is coming out of the force that go account?

I'm on the parks, you got golf courses.

Yeah, absolutely.

But yeah, we put 20 million dollars in golf courses, you'll lose our money, we should sell them.

And here again, we got golf course on there again.

Is it broke down somewhere so we can find out the or do you know what the number is?

So the question absolutely.

So the question is um are golf courses included in the bond proposition, but also how much and if it's named and what type of projects uh within the bond book, we do list uh the golf course specific projects on there.

You're very welcome.

Okay, oh, we have one more question up here.

Well, I have one more uh yeah, we have the mic real quick.

On the uh parks, uh we're looking at um was it the botanic gardens.

How much would be going to the botanic gardens?

Yeah, the botanic gardens is currently in 10.5 million.

Thank you, Dave.

So 10.5 million.

And in the bond book, it actually details the proposed like project scope.

Uh so you can dive into that detail as well.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay, so we do have all of our staff here.

If you really want to, you know, if you have further questions about parks and recreation open space um or streets of mobility, uh, feel free to walk around the room.

Uh we are here at least until through seven.

Some 7.30.

Um, so you do have time.

Thank you all so much for being part of our very first presentation on the officially proposed uh final bond program that will be out for vote on May 2nd.

Okay, thank you.

And charter election, thank you on the same day.