The Fort Worth City Council held a work session on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, starting at 9:05 AM and adjourning at 10:31 AM. The meeting featured employee recognitions, multiple informal reports, and presentations on DFW Airport bonds, greenspace initiatives, and property management. Council members also made several requests for future reports.
Good morning and welcome to your Fort City Council work session. I will call us to order. Jay, the meeting is all yours. Good morning. Um show me some grace. Allergies are really bad, so if I sneeze or something goes off. Um, for upcoming and recent events, we don't have anything specific to announce, but organizational updates and employee recognitions. I'd like to call Lauren Prieer to recognize TPW team as recipients of the Smart 20 Award. Good morning, Mayor and Council. Fort Worth has been recognized internationally for our leadership in emerging mobility technologies. Our Smart ER Weather and Safer Mobility Initiative was selected as one of this year's Smart 20 award recipients by Smart Cities Connect. So this project uses an intelligent microweather sensor network to provide highly localized real-time weather data, improving safety and reliability for autonomous vehicles, advance air mobility, drones, and everyday roadway users. So the award presented earlier this month at the Smart Cities Connect Conference in Raleigh highlights Fort Worth's commitment to innovation, strong cross-sector collaboration. So we're proud to see our work making a global impact and strengthening the future of mobility in our community. But traditional tools weren't built for our roads, skies, or emerging technologies. Through the Smarter Weather, Safer Mobility Initiative, we're capturing real-time weather from the street to the sky, helping the city protect people, strengthen operations, and advance our Vision Zero initiatives. The project is powered by a partnership with the City of Fort Worth, U.S. Department of Transportation Smart Grant Program, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Hillwood, two other solutions, Turk Robotics, regional innovators, and the city are working hard to develop this system of weather intelligence software and hardware that helps us keep traffic moving, supports freight, and also enhances safety across our city and the region. Small powerful sensors now line key routes, measuring temperature, wind visibility, precipitation in real time. That data flows into a shared platform that we monitor, helping our crews and residents stay safe during weather events, trucks and autonomous vehicles navigate hazards, and drones operate with precision. The results are already clear. Safer streets, strong supply chains, smarter maintenance, and more resilient economy. At this project's core, this initiative is about people, our families, our crews that work at the city, the drivers that use our roads, and the businesses that make Fort Worth thrive. As the network continues to grow, we're going to continue innovating and keeping Fort Worth safe, connected, and ready for a world-class future. The future mobility is taking shape, and it starts right here in Fort Worth. Thank you all. You're not going to give a speech, Kelly. Not today. Good morning, Mayor and Council. It is my privilege to introduce or recognize Don Guy, who is a plants exam supervisor here with us as the recipient of the real estate council's Excellence Award. The award is given for exceptional dedication, innovation, and leadership in fostering urban and regional development. And we have a video we'd like to share from the recognition ceremony. Excellence Award honors exceptional public servants who go above and beyond to foster urban and regional development. Those of you who don't know Don Guy, let me tell you why we're honoring Don today. So if you ever been to City Hall and you've had drama with your building permit, whether it's commercial, residential, you've gotten flagged by code enforcement, can't get through building inspections. Can we get your plans approved in the first place? Don is usually you're gonna end up talking to. I'm Don Guy, plans examiner with the city of Fort Worth. I've been with the city just under eight years now. I like working with the customers, helping them solve their problems. The best thing is to be able to see the customers project come to life in there, and helping them understand the whys in that customer service is understanding what the customer wants when they're not quite sure. Empathy and uh just seeing their project through to the end. We all have the same idea and goal in mind is that economic development and getting into a safe uh building. The 2026 Excellence Award is sponsored by Post L Group. Congratulations to Don Guy. Thank you, Don, for everything you do and for showing uh leadership and and how you do it. Thank you. It was an honor to receive this. Congratulations, Don. That was great.