All right, so if you haven't had a chance to, uh, we do have a bond detail, some QR codes uh related to the bond book, the bond itself, as well as the charter details.

Um, feel free to share that link with your friends, your family.

I believe there's also physical copies of the bond book that were handed out, as well as uh just informational as well as for the charter amendments.

Um, if we haven't met yet, my name is April Rose Escamia.

I'm with the Fort Worth Lab, uh Senior Capital Projects Officer, and I've been really working through the 2026 bond.

Uh, we also have Gavin Midgley here who'll be presenting on the charter amendments uh that's coming through on May 2nd.

Uh so here we are today.

Uh just the purpose of the presentation and kind of give you a big overview as well as dive into the 2026 bond program itself, the development of the bond program, an overall summary, as well as what to what to look forward to when it comes to the sample ballot, different elements uh within the sample, it's the ballot itself, as well as a dive into the bond propositions.

Again, moving into charter amendments, the upcoming schedule, and then really have that opportunity for question and answer.

Come on through, come on in.

Yeah, take your time.

There's some seats right here at the front.

Um, in any area.

No, you're good.

Hi, welcome.

Come on in, come on in.

Perfect.

All right.

So the purpose of today's presentation is really to uh provide information as it's related to the to the proposed 2026 bond program as well as charter amendments.

Uh, feel free to come on take a seat if you'd like right up front.

Okay.

Um, as well as to offer opportunities to ask questions regarding uh the two, as well as review further opportunities uh for public education and the timing related to the election itself.

So we've already mentioned that.

Again, we will reiterate this QR code.

It's it's uh it's a hot little uh link right here just to continuously share with with people.

Um, if you've had a chance to at least open it up, uh know that we do dive into the various project scopes uh as it relates to the propositions um themselves, even some of the dollar amounts associated with each of the propositions.

Um, you'll see here today that we'll have some images on here.

You can see it both in your bond book, or if not, uh the various tables do have a larger 24 by 36 inch exhibit, very large with more finer detail in that.

Uh but before we begin, here's a quick little video.

Every four years, 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 need 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.

It represents the largest portion of the 26 bond package and is intended to fund long-term transportation 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, and 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.

Proposition C allocates 14 million dollars for public library projects.

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 acquisition and 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 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.

And this video is also available on YouTube.

So again, if you want to share that, feel free to.

But if you've been along for the ride in the development of the 2026 bond program, this schedule may look familiar to you.

But if you haven't, just to kind of do a quick recap, beginning as far back as 2025 on March 4th, we actually presented the first proposed bond list, and that was set to sit to city council.

During that time, all the way through August 5th, we were working with city council getting some feedback, tweaking, you know, finessing that particular proposed list, in which on August 5th, City Council approved the proposed list to basically go out for that community engagement.

So we went through a series of citywide bond meetings from October 20th to November 17th, in which during that entire time, all the way through December 31st, we had continuous public feedback.

So I'll go ahead and dive into some of the numbers for that.

But then moving into January 2026, City Council had the opportunity to review all of the input that was submitted through from all the residents, as well as really look at that final project list.

And then finally, on February 10th, council held a meeting to order the bond election, which is where we're at here today to present to you the final program that is out for voting on May 2nd.

So some of the quick engagement numbers.

This presentation live through YouTube.

So we actually had 1,109 YouTube views.

So you'll see that proposition A, for example, at streets and mobility infrastructure is at 511,480,700.

Move forward to say proposition C, public library improvements at 14,586,000.

What you'll also find is that the entire program itself is at $845 million.

Now, if you're part of the first phase of the bond program development, you may recall that the bond program initially proposed was at $840 million.

That actually increased that $5 million just be because and due to a lot of the feedback that we did receive during that first phase.

So you'll see proposition A has up to 1% towards public art funding.

Propositions B, C, E, and F, up to 2%.

And then proposition D at affordable housing that is set at 0%.

A lot of this ties back to how the public art funding and how the projects are sort of implemented.

This is a citywide proposition, specifically for affordable housing, for example.

It's tied back to where the capital project is basically ends up being delivered, and also the like how visible it is and so forth to that specific project.

So again, this is more of a citywide proposition, and so at this time it's set at 0%.

All of this, of course, is dependent on an upcoming ordinance, a public art ordinance amendment, and it's more of a technical technical update to the ordinance, which we'll move forward later this month.

So how does bond funding work?

Now, the city of Fort Worth has a city property tax rate, and that city property tax rate is set at 67 cents per 100 valuation.

That 67 cents is separated into two buckets, right?

The first bucket is operation and maintenance.

The operation and maintenance bucket is at 52.25 cents.

The debt bucket, and this is the interest and sinking fund rate, that's 14.75 cents.

The OM rate versus what's also collected in debt, we can't interchange and move any of those pennies around.

It's kind of set in those two separate buckets.

So whenever we look at operation and maintenance, like myself, I'm funded through the general fund.

And so I am technically under that OM bucket.

We are here at a community center.

That also is funded through the operation and maintenance.

Now we come over to that lighter blue box, and I'm gonna walk through these three bullet points.

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

A portion of city property taxes are set aside to pay for bond programs and other city debt.

Again, that relates back to that lighter blue amount at 14.75.

So Fort Worth has historically and in this 2026 bond program, structured its bond package to work within the city property tax rate, meaning that bonds are planned to be fully repaid without increasing the city property tax rate associated with that debt, that 14.75 cents.

So that goes back to the bonds themselves and sort of how they work, right?

So a city can go for a bond, that bond is basically paid off over 20 years.

Whenever that bond retires, that capacity, that amount of money that was being paid towards that bond, well, that's technically capacity available to go towards another form, in this case, another bond, if the residents so choose.

So again, a bond comes online, 20 years, it retires.

So imagine stacking that over time.

So in theory, 2006 bond, retiring 2026, there's capacity available, and so now there's an opportunity where in this case the 2026 bond program that's set forward at 845 million will still fit within that existing capacity.

So in other words, we do not add an additional penny to that 14.75.

Now, there are communities, even right now in North Texas, where they have a 2026 bond program, and there are cents that are going to increase their debt that's set aside.

That is not the city of Fort Worth, because again, if we look at this part right here, we have structured our bond package at 845 million to fit within the existing city property tax rate associated with debt.

So we'll go ahead and have an opportunity to ask some questions to dive into that particular topic at the very end, because I'm more than happy to talk in detail about it.

So all this to say is there's a sample ballot, and this is just a structure that we have moving forward.

This is what one can expect if they so choose to go out and vote in whatever which way for the bond.

So first, they'll be met with what the city of Fort Worth special Texas special election.

It'll state the city of Fort Worth and what proposition you are voting on.

As mentioned before, each proposition is voted on individually.

So you'll be asked either for or against.

And in capital letters, this is state mandated.

We cannot supplement additional language related to this.

It will state in all caps this is a tax increase.

Now, I just walked through the mechanics about how the city of Fort Worth structures the bond program, but we can't add to this in any way.

In fact, the AG has come out and said that we cannot add an additional information.

But all that to say is it has to be on there, state mandated.

Um, but it will also inform you of the amount issuance, should the voter so choose, at 511,480,700.

Again, that's tied to proposition A.

And it will also let you know what proposition it is.

In this case, streets and mobility.

So we repeat this again for proposition B, which is parks, recreation and open space, or proposition C for public arts.

You'll see that individually.

So I think the video did a pretty good job.

It was three and a half minutes in which we were able to detail all the various propositions in detail, but I'm a big fan of repeating things twice.

So proposition A, streets and mobility, that 511,480, 700, is and can be used towards improvement types such as streets, whenever we think of major roadways, as well as neighborhood streets as it relates to the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation of streets.

There are bucket categories such as intersections, sidewalks, bridges, signals, streetscapes.

All of that is detailed in the bond book as well.

So feel free to dive into those scopes.

We also have famously all of our fabulous uh proposition teams where they can also dive into all of the projects and all the various components that are in that bond book as well.

For proposition B, park recreation open space acquisition.

Um at 185 million, 140,000, we have aquatic facility, athletic complex, the botanic garden infrastructure service centers, water gardens.

You'll notice here that we also have included open space.

If you have participated in a previous bond program, uh open space is actually a standalone proposition.

For this 2026 bond pro 2026 bond program, it is now included to move forward with proposition B.

For proposition C, there's public library improvements at 14,586,000 for the relocation of the Fort Worth History Center, the renovation of the Southwest Regional Library, and the renovation of Diamond Hill Jarvis Library.

For proposition D, this is affordable housing, and this is for 10 million dollars.

And if you were part of our first phase, uh it's kind of continued on in terms of saying that a dollar that the city would put in, we are looking to structure the proposition so that that dollar can be leveraged with other funds.

And as listed here for the purpose such as planning, design, constructing, improving, and so forth of funding its neighborhood revitalization initiatives can be used towards land acquisition, construction of housing and neighborhood infrastructure to support affordable housing, funding affordable housing and home repair programs, as well as funding loans and grants for affordable housing purposes.

You'll see that there's a little asterisk on here, and this is of course as permitted by law.

We are stating this because it is a newer proposition to the city of Fort Worth.

Um Casey, who's our director for neighborhood services, um, she could definitely dive into additional details.

Uh, but we this is a a this would also be a newer proposition as mentioned before for the city.

Proposition E for police, fire, and emergency communication facilities at $63,919,300 for new fire station 46 at Southwest Fort Worth, the new emergency communications center, as well as the rebuilding of fire station 40 at Northwest Fort Worth.

And proposition F is animal care and shelter improvements, and this is at 59,874,000 for the construction and equipping of a new animal control shelter facility.

So that is it for the bond itself.

And I'm gonna hand it off to Gavin to join us for the charter amendments.

Thanks, April.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Gavin Midgley, and I'm an assistant city attorney in the city attorney's office here to discuss the charter amendment propositions.

So with that, uh we'll get into them.

So proposition G is probably the most simple charter amendment uh measure.

And this deals with mayor and council pay.

So currently mayor and council pay are 25,000 for council.

Uh or yes, 25,000 for council, 29,000 for mayor.

If this proposition were approved, mayor pay would go from 29,000 to 60,000, council pay would go from 25,000 to 50,000.

And that would be effective at the start of the city's next fiscal year, which would be in October.

Proposition H would remove department director hearing requirements from the city charter.

So currently under the city charter, uh if a department director is removed, they have the ability to request a hearing before council.

Uh this conflicts with another section of the charter in which council may not interfere with appointments of the city manager.

Uh and so this would remedy that and terminated department directors, if this proposition were approved, would not be able to force a public hearing before council uh regarding their dismissal.

And and really that's to prevent council because the hearing before council, council wouldn't be able to take any action because another section of the charter actually prohibits them from interfering with the appointments of the city manager.

So it clears up that conflict.

Proposition I would remove redundant hearing requirements for council appointees.

So council appointees are going to be the city manager, the city attorney, the city auditor, the city secretary, and municipal court judges are also council appointees as well.

But specific provisions in the sections for city manager, city attorney, and city auditor allow for a hearing if those individuals are to be removed and request a hearing before the hearing in which council may remove them.

So it's an extra hearing for council to hear any complaints that those individuals may have if they are being removed.

And then council would be able to take action at the following meeting.

The open meeting acts, the open meetings act requires it to be a public hearing on any action or any item that councils will be taking a vote on.

And so if they which they're required to do if they're going to remove one of these appointed positions.

So rather than have two meetings, this would just have one hearing.

So council wouldn't have to say, we're thinking of getting rid of you, and we're getting rid of you.

It would just be the one one hearing.

Proposition J would remove the separate budget hearing requirement in the charter.

Currently, the charter requires that the budget may not be adopted at the same meeting as a budget hearing.

And so this isn't a requirement under state law, it's just a requirement under our charter.

It imposes some additional complexities into the budgeting process, which is already pretty complex.

It has a number of statutory deadlines and notice periods already, required hearings for the budget.

So this isn't to remove any of those, because in practice, what the city does is they'll hold a budget adoption meeting 15 minutes after the budget hearing, the final budget hearing meeting.

So this would just remove that extra hurdle, that potential you know, uh complexity for the city to potentially trip up.

Um it doesn't actually provide any additional transparency, as like I said, uh the city just calls a meeting 15 minutes after the after the budget hearing, final budget hearing meeting.

The budget would still have to be uh posted at the city secretary office uh in accordance with the charter and state law and on file for a number of days for the public to review.

Nothing changes with that.

This just removes the one procedural requirement where the city can't adopt it at the same meeting as a hearing.

Proposition K would remove public service corporation annual reporting requirements.

So public service corporations are going to be your typical franchisees, they're gonna be telecommunications, natural gas providers, utility providers, uh, those sorts of entities.

Our charter requires that they submit an annual report to the city.

However, since the charter was drafted, way back when, probably in the 30s, maybe before that, uh, the state has really taken a lot of regulatory authority with regard to those public service corporations away.

So a lot of those corporations are now regulated at the state level through the public utility commission of Texas and other agencies.

And so they submit that information to them.

It's available online.

Uh, and in most instances, sometimes those entities don't actually even comply with this charter requirement.

And since regulatory authority has been taken away from the city, the city doesn't really have much they can do about it.

So this would just remove that requirement from the charter.

That information would still be available online at those state agency websites on the internet.

Proposition L would remove the ordinance requirement for the granting of a privilege.

Uh so the granting of a privilege could be then administratively approved if they met if the applicant met council set criteria without the need for council to adopt an individual ordinance specifically allowing for that grant of privilege.

So this would be what is normally a franchise trash hauler or a solid waste hauler coming into the city, applying to do business in the city, they would need a grant of privilege.

Currently, under the ordinance, that has to go before council, and they have to adopt an ordinance specific for that grant of privilege.

Council has already laid out some criteria in the code of ordinances, and so if they comply with that, then they go get the ordinance, and so it can delay a potential solid waste operator from operating within the city just until council approves the ordinance.

If this proposition were approved, uh staff could administratively approve the granting of privilege based on the conditions that council has set, and council could change those conditions if they wanted and without the need for an ordinance.

So speed things up.

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

Uh council would not need to adopt an ordinance for the city manager to create a new department, eliminate a department that's not required under the ordinances or under the charter or reorganize departments that are not required by the charter or ordinance.

So if a department was already created by ordinance, council would have to adopt an ordinance to repeal that department or reorganize that department.

It wouldn't eliminate that requirement for existing departments that were created by ordinance.

But in the future, if the city manager were to create a department, uh, usually at the direction of council, um, it wouldn't require an ordinance to do so, and then it would provide some flexibility to reorganize that, reorganize the department so long as it wasn't uh created by ordinance.

Proposition N would uh align vacancy timelines with the election code.

So the city has to comply with the elections code.

There's some timeline uh timelines in the city charter with regard to vacancies that don't currently comply with the elections code.

And so when there's a conflict between the charter and state law, we've got to follow state law.

This would align those two with regard to special elections to fill vacancies.

And there's a slide on there's a timeline slide on the next one.

A few times I've done this, people have told me it's really complicated.

So I'm I'm gonna throw it up there.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Um do my best to explain it.

But essentially, if there's a vacancy that's created uh any time after the last date to order an election on the uniform election date immediately preceding the general election for the city.

So city has general elections every May of odd numbered years.

Um so this is a uniform election date.

November 2026 is uniform election date, and that's the one that's immediately preceding uh the May election date.

And if the city misses that window, or if a vacancy is created after the last date to order an election for that uh November 2026 election or November of an even year to election date, the next available election that they could hold an election on to fill that vacancy is gonna be the general election when that seat would be up for election anyway.

So it doesn't really make sense.

The charter doesn't consider uh taking to effect the state law or existing election code law regarding the notice period uh for those vacancies.

And proposition O would modernize uh language requirements uh or language documentation required to pay city claim uh to pay claims.

Essentially it would replace the word purchase order with appropriate written documentation, and this is just to reflect that not all legitimate claims that the city pays are titled purchase order.

There's a number of other types of legitimate debts that the city's obligated to pay that aren't titled purchase order.

So this is just a modernization of that language.

It's just cleaning up some outdated language uh in the charter.

And that's the charter amendment.

Anyway, it's gonna give you a round of applause for that one.

All right.

Oh, it's fun.

Um, so this is the schedule.

Uh we are in uh education meeting number three, so Southwest Community Center.

We still have four additional education meetings.

Uh so if you'd like to revisit, which I see some familiar faces from previous uh education meetings, feel free to stop on by again if you are streaming this on YouTube, so you can easily share that as well.

Um, but this will go on all the way through April 18th, uh, which kind of tags into this next election schedule.

Uh so we've started our charter election meetings.

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

Um so mark that on your calendar and share that as well.

Again, public our ordinance technical update um later this month.

And then um, oh, it already passed.

I'm so sorry.

And that's like okay.

My name is April Rosescomia, and I should be in the month of April, knowing all that.

Anyhow, um so early voting uh does begin on April 20th through April 28th.

Um, and then election day is in fact May 2nd.

Uh with that, I will open this up to questions.

We do have our microphones.

Um, so please feel free to raise your hand.

We'll bring the microphone over to you so that people listening in and YouTube world can listen in.

All right.

Hey.

Um thank you.

Thank you for doing this.

Absolutely.

I kind of want to follow up on the last meeting.

I was if I understand right, you can correct me later.

Bonds actually will be paying on, they're every they're 20 years long.

Every four years we get one.

So we have five bonds we're paying on.

They're kind of like a credit card, it stays maxed out.

That's what I was saying.

Now, one thing I'd like to say, is there any way in all that y'all might hold a meeting where we can debate deeper on some of this stuff?

Because the next thing I want to talk about, I'd like to get deeper into it is the pay raise.

A lot of people don't know.

We used to have four council meetings a month before Matty Parker that cut their workload in half.

They show up 30% of the time late.

They were the last meeting, Tuesday, one hour late.

I was at 10 years, the other council members there with Bessie Price, never late once.

I just would like people to know more homework and research before they say, yeah, you know, for a race.

And I think money lose the integrity of our job.

We need people there because they care of the city, not the pay race, but but correct me if I'm wrong about the bond.

We have five, we're paying, we'll be paying on five bonds.

And if we had that money to put in our budget to pay on stuff, we wouldn't be at in the borrow.

I'd like to just start paying them off, is what I'd like to say.

I don't know about anybody else, but it's like a credit card maxed out.

Thank you very much for your work and your time.

Yeah, thank you.

We can well the question was am I right about that?

There's five bonds that would be paying on.

Is that correct?

So we can definitely dive into the bond.

We actually have um Alex uh here with uh he leads he's assistant director with the treasury um with our finance with our FMS team.

Um so I'm actually going to move over to just a slide.

We'll kind of lead into this discussion, and then Alex, here you go.

If you want to dive into that, uh good afternoon.

My name is Alex Loffer.

I'm an assistant finance director uh in Treasury.

And while we do have existing debt uh and we are taking on a new bond program, we have existing debt that is retiring over time.

So uh we're layering in debt with available new capacity that's coming online as old debt is paid off.

Um so that's kind of how we're able to support this additional debt without increasing the tax rate.

Um so I hope that answers your question.

How much do we pay for bond each year?

How much how much star, Bill?

Um if I was I I I would love to come back to you.

Uh you know, off the top of my head, I don't want to cite a wrong copy.

I I should know that.

I should.

Um it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Um I kind of like to put that number, but if we're playing that, that could go the streets, not getting along for the interest the pay percent.

Thank you for your time.

I'll call too much.

No, no, okay.

And I just wanted to point out in April Rose, I don't know if you wanted to comment on this, but uh to your point, we have had multiple bond programs over the years, uh, typically every four or five years, right?

Um, but as you can see, uh we've been able to actually decrease our debt service tax rate, even though we've been increasing our bond programs, and so we've done that kind of strategically.

Um, and so we're doing that again uh this year.

Okay, thank you, Alex.

Okay.

Hi, have a question right over here.

I'm with you on this one.

Okay.

I work, I work for a bank, and if I brought this proposal to my board of directors, I'd be fired.

Because if I look at it right, there's one, I believe your proposition D that says we yeah, we fund 10 million dollars, but we pay back 16 million dollars over 20 years.

Okay, that's a 60 percent return on our taxes.

What happens if we say no to these?

Yeah.

Um so also invite Alex up um to expand on this.

Uh but this does tie back to our 14.75 cents that we have set aside for debt.

Uh, that does allow the city to essentially be able to utilize the funding that is produced from that 14.75 to pay towards debt.

So, in other words, the capacity is there to pay towards capital projects and in that sense towards bonds or even other mechanisms, one can also have in, in a sense, tax notes.

But in this case, with bonds, that allows the community to go out for a bond with that has a lower interest rate to really make those dollars stretch so that large high dollar capital projects can be delivered as it relates to streets and mobility for affordable housing, for parks and recreation.

Um, but Alex, would you like to expand on that or add anything else in terms of that?

Yeah, sure.

Um so yes, as April pointed out, the debt rate is for these large long-term capital projects that we pay over a long period of time.

These are these are typically projects that are amortized over a long period of time.

So you kind of share uh the length of that project cost over a long period.

Um, but I think to your point, you know, without the debt rate or projects supporting the debt rate, uh the debt rate wouldn't exist, right?

Um, so I think that is probably your point.

Right, because I look at this and I see that we can reduce our property taxes per 100 dollars of assist value by $52.25 by saying no to these projects.

Yeah, I don't that part I believe is false.

The operations and maintenance tax is an entirely separate tax.

You just said that this is the bond proposal.

Right.

And that would maintain the 52.

Just the 1475.

All right, so we're staying with the almost 15% interest rate over the next 20 years, whether we want it or not, we can't do better than that.

So in order to support the $840 million of proposed new capital projects, uh we are issuing these bonds strategically to live within the existing tax rate at this time.

Now, in the event that there are you know in you know, sizable increases to property valuations, we can consider um reducing future property tax rates if that's you know a strategic decision of the city at that time.

And he's not wrong about city council members not showing up when they're supposed to, and anything else, they don't.

Okay.

Any more questions related to the 2026 bond or charter elections?

All right, we have one over here.

Um just curious.

Do you know when the last increase was for city council and mayor?

Yes, the last uh increase to compensation for mayor and council was in 2006.

So that's where those 25,000 and 29,000 came from.

Those were approved at a charter amendment election in 2006.

Okay, we have a question up here.

Sure.

One thing that might help to understand is whenever we're issuing bonds, they're essentially growth mechanisms.

It's the the main way we create liquidity inflows to the city.

So if we have a highway system that needs to be built, we can't raise it through any other means currently.

Um, there are ways to um to section off funds, but it would be at the expense of current current operational budgets.

So the the bank loans that we currently see in the commercial or residential experience, whether 510 or even 30-year uh AMD out, they um they typically base on the Fed target rate and then what we can pay based on our debt to collateral ratio, this is different.

This is a world betting market that takes a uh essentially a class A rating of a bond and says four is going to win the future.

Moreover, it it's um which means we'll make good on the debt.

It's planned debt as well, which means it's based on stagnation, but we're gonna grow, so we're gonna make good on the obligation and with new highways and other things that we need, uh, we're gonna have generative economy instead of just stagnant economy.

So think of this actually as de-risked.

No doubt a bank board should reject this because it's a city bond.

Totally different.

Totally different.

But it's still capital, still financial mechanism.

The question I have is um if we are essentially not able or doing something pretty remarkable, which is keeping our tax rate the same.

Uh, my understanding is we're still a little outsized with our residential tax base relative to or compared to the commercial tax base.

Is the city beginning to become more concerned about recruiting good companies in and maybe creating a little bit less reliance on residential taxes?

Yeah, um, I can go ahead and lean over to Dana to speak a little bit more expansive on that topic.

Hi there, Dana Bergdoff, assistant city manager.

So I'm not an economic development expert, but I did attend the economic development partnership quarterly investor um breakfast just the other day, and we're actually doing very well on that front in terms of attracting new corporations and also retaining existing businesses and encouraging their expansion here in Fort Worth.

So we're very excited about that.

And um there's a uh publication that's um that is about Dallas um regional partnerships, and they've just renamed it the Dallas Fort Worth Regional Partnership because of the attractiveness of business growth and opportunity in the Fort Worth region.

So we've added a lot of uh great new technologies to the Fort Worth area, particularly in aerospace and manufacturing, and so that's been really exciting, particularly in the Alliance area in the Alliance Corridor up north.

There's a new mobility innovation zone that's located there that is taking advantage of the intermodal freight hub that's located there with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, as well as the uh Perot Field Alliance Airport, and so that interplay of freight um coming in through uh the air as well as the the rail and then the trucking as well as the automation of of that um intermodal activity has been really exciting.

So a lot of good things happening, also um Alcon expansions to the south, uh weir minerals, um Siemens.

So there's a lot of really exciting things happening on that corporate front that are helping us attract thousands of jobs to the area.

So we're pretty pretty excited about it.

We're in we're in a pretty good place.

But we still do keep an eye on that in terms of making sure that in our comprehensive plan we're designating areas for commercial and industrial development as well as accommodating residential growth.

Yeah.

Okay.

Hi, um, I just have another question on that topic.

Um of the things I'm trying to understand as we move forward and grow is and I know that attracting jobs is important.

I think one of the points he was making was, you know, are we making and negotiating good enough deals that we're not giving it away for free?

We're making them do something to be here, right?

Like building a ramp off the highway, whatever they've got to do.

How can we find out what these people have negotiated?

We've negotiated with them to do.

What are we gaining besides jobs?

And how did we find out how that will long-term impact our property taxes and you know the residential burden?

And then another question, sorry, is how do you all determine what's zoned?

Like one of the things that I've noticed, especially in this area, it's really odd how many times something is built, and it's the same three or four businesses.

It's a car wash, a liquor store, a vape shop.

I mean, no thanks.

I've got a nine-year-old.

I'd rather have you know some kind of fun place for a kid to go, or you know, a juice shop.

I don't know, whatever.

Something, not those things.

So, how do we impact that?

And is that in the works?

So it's kind of a two-part question.

So the first part, let me let me start with the economic development piece.

So, one of the things that we're that we've just launched is and in a in partnership with our financial management services department, is we're achieving through the Texas Comptroller's Office transparency stars, if you will.

So we've uh are posting on our website all of the economic development agreements that we have and all of the companies that benefit, how they benefit, what their economic development agreements are, so that that's fully transparent.

Um certain time periods, right?

10 years, 15 years, what have you.

And one of the things that we look at is what is the amount of private investment, what's the amount of public investment, what's that ratio.

So we have an economic development incentive policy that the city council has adopted that provides the guidelines, right?

Whether it's minimum investment, minimum number of jobs, and then also a requirement that there be investment in small business enterprises, whether that's through construction or the procurement of goods and services or the employment of local Fort Worth residents, that kind of thing.

Um and then in addition to that, we have the flexibility as we're negotiating those incentives, whether there's a um a tax abatement, say on their real property, you know, the property tax value of the real property, or the business personal property or some combination, and then there's different percentages, right, that we can negotiate.

It's not 100%, it's less than that, because we still have to have revenue, right, to provide the services to that business.

And then we also have to do what's called a butt for test.

If we didn't incentivize them, would they come to us anyway, right?

Because we need to find out are we competing with other communities?

If you know, so we have to try to do some of that due diligence so that we're not just giving away the farm, so to speak, because we have to have integrity in what we do in order to be able to, you know, keep doing business.

Um, because that's a that's a that's that is something that under state law is is something that we have as a private negotiation, just like a real estate land deal, but those economic development conversations are also private.

But the policies, right, that guide those conversations are public, and the deals once they're made are also public, and that debate around that policy is public.

So, but that is something that we're you know that we want to be open to to make sure that again we're we're we're in a really good place, being the fastest growing large city in the country, that we don't have to write incentivize.

In fact, you know, we turn down probably 95% of the folks who come to us looking for a handout because we don't need to incentivize.

We don't need to incentivize a Walmart, right?

We don't need to incentivize a vape shop.

Now, but to your second question about those different commercial uses, uh, the way zoning works is it allows commercial, but we as a city can't dictate what kind of commercial, right?

As opposed, you know, so that's a private market decision.

So we don't get to say what products you sell.

It's just that your retail sales.

Right.

Now we can say whether I think it's a little bit weird, right?

There's certain kinds of retail sales of things that naughty things, right?

We can we can regulate those.

Um, but but we we don't regulate, you know, if it's retail, it's retail, and that's allowed.

Now alcohol and other certain kinds of things have different rules through the state through the um TABC, the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission.

Um, so those kinds of things we can regulate.

But if it's retail, they get to decide what kinds of retail, and that's a private market decision between that property owner and who they decide to to do a lease agreement with.

And I apologize because I'm getting off the bond program topic.

So I'll turn it back over to April Rose.

Thank you, Dana.

And thank you for the questions.

Uh, for the purpose of folks that are here for the bond and the charter, are there any additional questions related to either two?

And then yeah.

Oh, we have a question up here.

Sorry, let me know.

I'm sorry.

I think I'm having the most trouble with the affordable housing.

That's $10 million that you said last time was for neighborhood improvement programs and under you gave me a long list and I went and tried to look them up, and I tried to find actual places where that money would be spent.

And to me, it looked like it was very open to fraud.

Yeah, and waste.

Okay.

And it would it looks like it would be easy to steal the money or just spend it, or say you spent it, and there's no proof, there's no accountability listed under that proposition.

And that that bothers me a lot because I read the news about Minnesota, and I don't want to become Minnesota.

Hi, thank you for your comments.

I'm Casey Thomas, neighborhood services director.

Um, what I can assure you, so uh this is the first affordable housing proposition that we have for the city of Fort Worth.

And so within our department, we know that um this is setting the standard going forward.

And so if it were approved, we would be doing all that we can to make sure that the money is spent wisely.

Part of the reason why there's not a lot of detail is we're dealing with real estate transactions when it comes to building residential housing, multifamily housing.

When we start building this program, it was in 2023, 2024.

Um, by the time if the bond proposition passes, um we're talking about 2026-2027.

And so I bring that up to say that had we identified specific projects at the time we were developing the program in 2023.

Um, since that time, interest rates have increased, a lot has changed in the real estate market.

And so by the time we get to 2027, when funds are available, those projects that we may have thought were great housing developments at the time could be completely different projects in 2027.

Um, what we are planning to do is we have specific activities that the funds can be used for, and we will be using a competitive process to review housing development opportunities, and we will be reviewing those to make sure that they are providing the best housing opportunities for the residents of Fort Worth.

And is there a report that comes out on that?

Um the money spent.

So I will say um, and we don't have the specific details as to how we will be reporting out, but I do know that for other cities in the state of Texas that have bond propositions, um, there typically is on the website information that shows this is how the funds have been spent.

Um, I know for other cities that have a housing bond proposition, they do detail out how the funds are being spent, and so I anticipate that we would do something similar for the city of Fort Ward just to make it clear to the residents how those funds are being used.

Thank you.

Question for you.

Um you're one of the city attorneys, so you actually write the legal language for the um for like developments that residential developments in the in the inside the city limits with a developer.

I'm one of the city attorneys.

Uh I don't work on uh planning and uh development services issues, which I feel like you may be asking a question about.

Okay.

Yes, I do write legal language.

Okay.

As part of when a developer is approved to say, yes, you can build a development right here.

Are they considering as part of that development?

And the streets and mobility people might actually know this also, but um, do they also consider the damage done by their trucks coming in with all the building materials?

And I ask this because right now on my street, uh, they on one of the cross streets, they approved a housing project, and one of the big trucks came through very, very heavy and broke a 50-year-old water main in like four different places, and it's taken them almost a year, and this my street's still torn up from that.

And I don't think the developer is paying to fix that.

I'm pretty sure the city is because it's the Fort Worth Water Department trucks that are out there.

So, sort of two two questions or two issues in there is that uh do developers pay impact fees in the city of Fort Worth, yes, the impact fees are charged for developments.

Um, and there's a long process on how those are determined depending on the development.

Uh and then there's the question about individual uh uh acts of property damage.

And without knowing all of the facts, I couldn't tell you who would be responsible in those instances for the specific damage.

But if it's a claim against uh a contractor's insurance, a lot of times those take time to resolve themselves and and aren't immediately fixed, could be for a variety of reasons.

But they are pursued.

Right.

We we good to know we do pursue claims against contractors when they are liable for for damages.

Okay.

All right, and it's 655.

Any additional questions for real quick.

I I don't really have a question for you, but I want to put a positive spin on this meeting because we're such a growing city and we wouldn't be able to have these large projects moving forward that we can keep our debt service the same.

And I think you all appreciate how you explained keeping the 14 cents made a lot of sense.

And I appreciate your comments too.

Um I specifically want to encourage you to vote for the the bond propositions, and and I'm a little biased about proposition B and our park department, because I can remember when we were looking at 21 million and now it's 185 million that we're looking at.

We weren't able to mow our parks, we were closing pools, all the pools, and now we have an aquatics facility that's planned for this.

And when you look at the botanic gardens on here, you can really leverage those dollars because that's a good private partnership with the city.

And there are a lot of things across all of these propositions where you you can have private entities coming in and help you, and I appreciate that.

Appreciate your hard work on all that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um it's passed, what timeline are we looking at for the city to acquire the land and to actually start building this shelter?

Because the current one at Silcox was screwed from day one because the council drugged their feet on it.

Yeah.

I can go up or I hear.

I'll do it from here.

Um yes, it would happen within one to two years, there would still be land acquisition and development, but it would definitely start as fast as we could.

But the actually the first thing is we'd have they have to put the bonds out for sale, get that money coming in and then get it rolling.

But we're already looking at proposed sites, we already have a consultant group that we've worked at to get some of the information you're seeing here.

So the a lot of the wheels have already been turning, but no, it would not be something that we would wait any longer than we have to.

All right.

Thank you, Brian.

And Brian is the director for uh code compliance.

And so if you have any additional client questions related to the animal care and shelter facility, can really dive into that.

Um he did touch space on on a topic there, and that's regarding project readiness.

Uh, that is very important for us.

Uh Casey mentioned uh a potential website as far as where we can track uh projects.

Um, know that that is a priority for us to be able to communicate uh to residents depending on you know bonds and and and what happens to pass in that case or and so forth, uh, as far as where the projects are in time with design, um going to construction, uh, that is a high priority for the city to be able to be transparent when it comes to future projects or even existing projects.

Any additional questions?

Um, this is a follow-up on the lady's question over here on accountability and the potential for fraud, but with a new activity like this with affordable housing, what sort of compliance and auditory regulations and audits are applied to such a new operation?

Yeah, great question.

And Casey um can expand and I'm sure you run into some of these questions as well with your existing programs.

Here you go.

One of the things that I will say um when we're talking about affordable housing, we're intending for the like for instance, if we're working on a single-family um housing development or multifamily housing development, the intent is to keep it affordable for a certain period of time, um, whether it's five years or longer.

And so during that period, we would be requiring the development to maintain its affordable housing status.

Um and then during the period of construction, um, when we're working with developers, there would be certain requirements that they would have to abide to to make sure that they're spending the money on time and within the scope that we've agreed to.

Does that answer your question?

Sorry, let me do in your own auditing next afternoon.

So let me yeah, let me add on to that two things.

One is that any contract we enter into has to be authorized by the city council.

So there's a public hearing component to that, so that that's publicly transparent.

So if we enter into an agreement or with a with a construction contractor for infrastructure, or if we need to acquire land, there's a public hearing for that land acquisition, there's a public hearing for any construction, and then there's a public hearing for any land sale, uh, and then a public hearing for any uh land development agreement with someone who's actually doing the the development or a builder, for example.

So there's that contractual obligation, which is then you know subject to right enforcement through through legal mechanisms because of those agreement requirements.

Um and then secondly, uh the the there's an internal auditor who reports separately, not not through the city manager, right?

Who we report to, but there's a separate internal auditor who reports to the city council, uh just like the city attorney and the city secretary.

So the internal auditor also um audits city activities, right?

And then separately there's an external auditor uh that audits city activities and the city books, right?

And the and does a um annual uh financial report on financial activities.

And then in addition, uh there's a housing finance corporation.

The city council serves as the board of that housing finance corporation, and there's some of the housing activities that may um fall under the the work of the housing finance corporation depending on how we choose to partner.

So there's a few different mechanisms where first of all it'll be public, it'll be transparent, and then there's also that ability for internal audit.

Again, not not Casey, right, auditing her own her own fo work, but separately internal audit and then separately again the external audit, which will be doing the annual financial audits of that of that work.

Yeah, there's a very recent ongoing thing going on about data centers in the city of Fort Worth.

I'm against these enticing abatements, particularly that was recently discussed about given an $18 million incentive to come to Fort Worth to the edge data center proposed project over there by 20 and 2871.

Now they say that's gonna pay out in real taxes at 40 million dollars over 10 years.

But why be given away these?

You said something about enticing businesses to come here.

First of all, that's a problem because of where they're putting some of these data centers with the public that's got to live next to it.

But they're gonna come anyway.

So why are we giving away tax abatements to entice them to come here?

They're gonna want to come.

I understand it's a need that everywhere needs, but Fort Worth's got to be very careful of where and how we do this.

Yeah, and that's why at a recent meeting I proposed, seeing I was involved in gas drilling when that came back in the day, that we also need to have regulations as this industry comes into our city.

Yeah, um okay, sorry.

You're good.

Yeah, agreed.

And and be so first of all, be assured none of these dollars benefit data centers, um, just to make that clear.

And then secondly, we agree that we don't we need to revisit that issue of incentivizing data centers.

Um, and we can also visit separately about that specific data center if you'd like.

So appreciate it.

Well, they uh they haven't seen future meetings on that.

Yes, yes, we'll be ready that's right.

That's right, tell me.

That's right.

There's only certain places where they can go.

That affects where people live.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dana.

Um, are there any questions regarding the bond 26 bond or charter elections?

Yes.

Yes.

I have a question over proposition N.

And I think it's more of a clarification.

Um the timeline understanding that I got was we would be if there's a vacancy after the November election, that vacancy would remain until what is that May?

And that's like six months of like not having a representative.

Um statewide, that looks like someone not advocating for you to be able to get a passport statewide that looks like not having someone to advocate for you for like SNAP benefits.

I mean, these people have jobs and their jobs are like to represent us and to listen to their community members.

It's not just when they're in ledge.

So I think it's very important to have someone like sitting in between that, or I don't know.

What's like the conflict with the state law?

Right.

So you you bring up bring up uh sort of the crux of proposition N is that if there is a vacancy created after the last date in which an election can be ordered for that November of an even year election, then legally the next election that the city could hold, according to state law, would be the May 2027 election, which is the general election.

So that would leave that seat open in the interim if, for example, there was not a holdover.

So uh right now, uh council member Blaylock is in holdover, he resigned when he announced his candidacy for uh state rep.

So he's still serving in the position, which is what the constitution and state law requires him to continue serving in the position.

But if in the instance of, let's say, for example, you know, uh if a council member died for you know, uh, for example, and there is no person to serve in the holdover position, that seat would be vacant under state law and charter.

Uh unless um we could hold the election on November date.

Uh or if the governor approved an emergency election.

Um currently how the charter is written, I believe it's 30 days, but under the the elections code, that's impossible.

So uh really it's 78 days before the November of an even yeared election uh for the election date.

So it's like mid-August.

So if a vacancy happens after that, the next date's May.

And that's by state law.

Um and the charter can't can't override state law.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you, Gavin.

Okay, it is 7.06.

Are there any additional questions?

And if not, we do have the opportunity for individuals to walk around the room, um, go and ask additional questions, open up your bond booklet, share it with folks, ask about what you're seeing here with the project scope, um, and so forth.

Uh, please feel free again to take this particular photo of any of this information.

And thank you all so much for attending today's bond and election education meetings.