Good morning.

I will call our work session to order and turn it over to Jay Choppa.

Good morning.

For upcoming and resale and events or organizational updates, I don't have any except that to say that this is the last work session and council meeting day until August the fourth.

The city council will be going under summer break.

And so I want staff to hold down the applause if you can.

Under informal reports, the first one is uh Fort Worth population estimate and city rankings.

Eric Flatiger is here to answer any questions.

There are any questions for Eric from Council.

Nope.

The next one is illegal gunfire and fireworks.

Andre Smith from police deputy chief is here to answer any questions.

They want you up, Pondre.

Okay, we may go ahead and just give an overview and we can take questions from council.

Thank you.

Sure.

This uh this is a joint initiative with the Fort Worth Police Department and Fort Worth Fire Department to manage illegal fireworks and gunfire through core goals.

And those four core goals are protecting the safety in residents and first responders, ensuring Fort Worth PD and FD have resources to remain available to respond to high priority calls, delivering clear community messaging, reduction of both fireworks calls and gunfire and violent incidents.

To achieve these goals, the PD execute a coordinated plan using four interconnected strategies.

Community engagement, which educate the public and streamline non-emergency reporting, event management, monitor and force compliance at organized gatherings, resource deployment, data driven deployment to divisional hotspots, which optimizes personnel to maintain high high visibility and five works enforcement plan to disrupt illegal sales, monitor the social media and covert field operations.

That's the overview.

Thank you, Chief.

Councilman Foras.

Uh yes, Chief.

Um just cover for us.

I don't know in the past we've done different approaches when it comes to trying to deter and uh you know illegal gunfire, celebratory gunfire, etc.

You know, on uh you know days like 4th of July.

Uh police, you know, again they respond to 911 calls, right?

If there's fireworks going off, we uh you know we rely on fire in order to help us you know shoulder some of that load.

Uh this time around I am told uh unlike years past, there was a number, a non-emergency number that would uh you know be used to call fire to tell them, hey, at this location, they're fireworks being set off.

We're not doing that this year, is that correct?

Yes, there's a fireworks hotline number.

Yes.

I wanted to be sure that uh that is available so people will know and hopefully it won't you know overwhelm you know our 911 system.

Right.

And they also could use the my Fort Worth app, and then it was also a campaign we do, which which is uh it's a QR code, so you scan that QR code and it takes them to the online.

They can report it online as well.

Thank you, sir.

Councilmember Crane and the Council Member Peoples.

Yes, I just wanted to acknowledge Torchy Y that has the sign back there, as well as Cindy Bowling.

Who, as we know, these these initiatives work, but they only work better when the neighbors are pushing and supportive.

And I know y'all have been pushing for a long period of time, so you can wave when it comes back to you with the sign.

Appreciate it.

Councilman Peoples.

Well, I just want to thank Councilman Crane for taking the words out of my mouth, but we have two amazing champions, community champions who have been here and have led the fight, uh, Deputy Chief Smith, and I think you know that about illegal fireworks, and I'm gonna ask them not to stand but to uh but to not to waive but to stand so that people can see them and see their message.

So Torchi and Cindy, will you stand?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

I can add to what I think is worth pointing out too that these signs they use the payout out of their pocket.

These aren't city funds that they're using, so thank you all.

Mayor, I'd also like to commend um Commander Williams.

I know he's retiring at the end of the month, but yeah, you know, working really closely with the neighborhood and the leadership to try to deter fireworks activity and also Commander Stewart in Central Division for working with our Riverside Neighborhood Association.

It's Commander Williams here, I don't see him because I'm blocking.

No, he's not.

Okay, he's hiding out.

So thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate you.

Next informal report is proposed Rio Claro Capital Public Improvement District and Council District 7.

And Brady Kirk's not here to answer any questions.

Council Member Hill.

Can we just get an overview, please from Brady?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Good morning.

So I'm Brady Kirk of the Fort Worth Lab.

So we received this petition from a developer to create a capital PID in District 7.

This would be our fourth capital PID, Capital Public Improvement District.

Those differ a little bit from operating PIDs, which will focus more on day-to-day needs, things like security, um garbage pickup, a capital PID instead.

We'll charge assessments to homeowners to pay for capital improvements that they've already done in building that district.

And so we've preliminarily confirmed that this meets the thresholds for a petition, but we're gonna confirm that a little bit more officially, and assuming we do, we're gonna bring a resolution in August to call a public hearing and create that district.

Uh I think what you voted on in June of 2025 was a development agreement, which would have set the stage for this.

So no, there's no material changes from that.

This is just the next step.

That's right.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Brady.

The next is strategies to address unwanted hand bill distribution, and Brian Doherty's here to answer any questions.

Brian.

So just an overview.

Thank you, Brian.

Yeah, no problem.

Co-compliance director, Brian Doherty.

How's it going, everybody?

This is a concern that I have heard throughout my career, and I think all of you have dealt with it.

And uh it's the unwanted newspapers that end up on our our yards.

Uh you just sort of wake up and they're everywhere.

Um so we've taken different strategies before, tried to do enforcement, uh, however, a lot of it's protected by First Amendment speech, or we end up just, you know, issuing citations to a contractor that was out there doing it that it doesn't make it to the company.

So we've met with legal and different, you know, different ways we can address this, and what we came up with is uh the first thing is we weren't tracking it in any way.

So right now you can go onto the app and you can report it.

Um and the second thing we did is we made a landing page, and so that tells you, hey, here's your rights, here's what you can do, what you can't do, here's some of the more popular ones for you to unsubscribe, and you can go on there and unsubscribe.

Uh they have it per address, but we have spoke with the company in the past, and for them to stop for an entire neighborhood, it has to be 51%, which is a pretty big number, but we we gotta start somewhere.

Um in addition to that, we also have handouts uh advising residents of what they can and can't do with a link to the website as well.

And so if we get any reports or if we get uh once we've you know, say 90 days from now, we see, hey, in this one neighborhood, they're they're reporting a lot of concerns.

We'll go to that neighborhood association meeting and let them know and give the handouts as well.

And so it's really just a strategy when we hadn't really had one fine-tuned and put onto paper to try to address this because it is it is a a nuisance and annoying and uh I am one of those people that also deals with it.

So, Councilor Warsdorf.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I don't know if it's the rest of the city, but I know save.com is the worst one that does this.

And they get wet and they're it just it is disgusting.

Um and then we've had numerous residents, they've tried opting out, that doesn't work.

Um, and I I didn't even think about going after the contractors delivering them.

Certainly not their fault, they're they're just trying to get probably paid twelve bucks an hour.

So has legal said there are any options as far as like if we pick up one of those papers in ninety-five point nine percent of its all ads, at what point does it no longer fall under just regular solicitation?

It becomes littering, and we just start hitting them with one littering charge per paper that was unwanted.

Um I don't mind even going to door to door to all the neighbors, like, did you want this?

No, okay, got it, littering.

Next person.

Yes, littering.

And then just putting that work in, and that way we say, hey, we have a case of 4,000 littering reports.

Hit them with a 100 dollar fine per that's at least what, six hundred dollars, marine math is good.

So, so uh as far as thinking outside the box too, I just asked that staff and legal we'll go through like what is what can we possibly do?

Um, because this is some mom and pop shop, just try to say, hey, we want to come owe your yard, right?

This is a much bigger deal.

So no, no, that's a perfectly fair question, and we actually had met with legal and environmental services some other departments where we're all dealing with it and there are some ordinance and language that we had looked at um however it still gets tricky when it comes to okay there's a hundred businesses on there are we just going after save.com is it some of the businesses and then also with a not specific to save.com but in the past when we've looked it up they would be businesses that were out of state or out of country and so citations it didn't mean anything we would be writing them and they would just sort of go into the ether that is something that we're looking at for newer ordinances the idea was before we dive into that we haven't tracked it we haven't had any sort of plan prior to that so we're gonna kind of reevaluate after six months and kind of see is this is this hitting the target is it not hitting the target.

Hopefully we have a couple of neighborhoods that have hit that threshold I have heard of at least one neighborhood that hit 51% and they no longer go there.

So it'll be interesting hopefully we can have an impact that way just because the ordinance is very tricky and I don't really want to set expectations where you know you pass something and you're like do this and then rubber hits the road and we're like well no we've wrote 200 tickets and nothing's changed.

So we're just trying to try to get different ways but we very well could review ordinances if this doesn't have the impact we're searching for there questions from counsel thank you Brian next is the workless compensation surgical appeal statistics and Kristen Smith is here to answer the question.

Questions counselor storp yeah if we just get an update that'd be great.

So this IR is in response to a March public safety committee presentation that dove into our workers compensation processes.

One of the questions uh our comments that came from that meeting was what was believed to be a high number of denials uh specifically around surgeries and so for this IR we did research into the last five years um to provide data around uh what our surgical surgical statistics are and so the data actually supports uh that we have a very high number of approvals instead of denials um so to give you the information uh from 2001 to 2026 2021 excuse me to 2026 um there were 846 uh surgical requests uh that were received uh due to workplace injuries um only five percent of those uh surgeries were appealed uh of those that were appealed uh and it's really kind of half and half about 46% of those were upheld following medical review uh and 53% were overturned um but to dive deeper into um the appeals that were actually uh upheld or overturned um 13 were overturned through the medical review process and again there's an initial review and a peer-to-peer review with the requesting provider uh and a provider uh that is a neutral third party and then eleven were overturned following submission of additional medical documentation and so that's the primary purpose of providing this IR.

Thank you for this IR it's certainly helpful um I guess one of the things I would like to dig into deeper is whenever comes to the peer review process and just hearing some of the or not some but many of the horror stories there where it's some peer review doctor somewhere that's never even met uh the individual uh concerned um the in-network doctor saying yes they need this surgery peer review who again it sounds like a great business if I was a doctor I'd certainly do it and be paid X amount of dollars to just review this document at home then they deny it never even having talked to the individual uh discuss their background strictly what they were what they received and then them denying it having to go back and then just delaying that care so um I'd just like to get more information on that that process itself because it on the onset just doesn't make any sense why someone is determining someone doesn't need care when even the in-network doctor said yes they do and they're the one actually seeing them they know the full history um and not even just denying but just ultimately they may finally come around to their sense to say fine we're gonna approve this by then the damage has gotten worse they've they're off work longer um and so I mean this certainly not as bad news as as I think we all thought but still certainly some room for improvement not necessarily on our side but just on the process side.

Sure and just to speak at a high level to that it's peer to peer review and that means it's the requesting provider that's the initial peer with a third party physician.

So it's not a one-sided peer review of you know a doctor just evaluating without collaboration they're looking for specific guidelines and what is covered it is dialogue between the requesting provider and a neutral provider.

Are there questions for Kristen?

Thank you.

Thanks Kristen and that concludes the informal report.

Council are there any membership board changes commission changes or questions around MNCs that we want to discuss before we launch into work session.

Some questions so just have one CDC the community development committee and that's it.

Okay, straightforward thank you.

Mayor yes sir and then the MSC on the site plan is going to be continued due to the developer requests.

I'll have the MSC number for the council meeting yes we'll have that any others okay our first is an update on the net force pilot Brian Dottery is going to present.

Morning everyone it's been so long co-compliance director Brian Doherty thank you guys for having me and uh today we will be going over the uh six month update to the pilot program that uh Jay was so gracious to pick me to run um which has been a lot of fun honestly and uh no that that's not that no sarcasm there either I really did enjoy it I don't know that my standard for police or the lab enjoyed it but I had a good time.

Just to uh give a brief overview real quickly uh it's the nuisance enforcement task force and the idea here is that it's coordinated concentrated enforcement so it's not just we get a complaint here we go inspect it police happen to drive by and see this it is coordinated multi departmental we are going out and doing large joint inspections so it's not a matter of oh we got a report you're in violation it's us proactively checking it saying what is what is and is not in compliance.

From there we had three areas and then I'll give a summary real quick on kind of where we're at with each one of them and uh pretty happy with it so far.

The participating departments obviously you can see there's a lot there uh and uh not all of them should be irritated with me just a few um the joint inspection that that's uh that's really where uh the they're going out on each one of these inspections and that was code development services environmental services fire and police criteria we are searching for is everything that you guys can imagine right now so is there crime out there is there code violations out there is this the same owner that we have dealt with on three or four other properties um what kind of impact is it having on the neighbors uh are there residents that are complaining constantly about these issues and so all of those criteria where we got with selecting our target areas um the three pilot areas that we have here were Eco Motel and TL Foodmart that's 3201 East Lancaster and District 11 and then we had Southside Food Mart Rockies two those are each convenience stores uh off of hemp hill and then for the third property we had Sandy Oaks apartments so I really like this because it was a it was kind of a mix of the different properties we'd be dealing with from a motel to convenience stores to an apartment complex.

Here's the kickoff section out of Sandy Oaks.

This was really really fun to be at um you could you kind of could tell from the staff on site as well as uh all the residents would come outside and they're like what's going on and we're like no I promise you we're here to improve everything is our goal.

We identified over 800 violations and as you can see in that bottom center photo we also uh vaccinated 51 animals for residents there.

So, yes, it's not just enforcement.

We're trying to we're trying to help in in every way possible.

So the first property I'm gonna summarize here is Eco Motel.

We did about nine inspections, identified five hundred and nine violations, and that resulted in 24 citations.

But more importantly, we found a lot of structural deficiencies uh in the buildings, and we're able to take it to the building standards commission.

And on May 18th, we had an order on the property of declaring it hazardous, all six buildings, meaning that if the owner doesn't bring it into compliance, we have the authority to.

Pretty proud of that.

Pretty proud of that.

Here's the police calls that were out there.

As you can see, there's a there's more on 2025.

I will tell you though, with a lot of these properties, which we weren't expecting was the success we had at the rate we had it, meaning that about 60 days into us working eco, he stopped.

He closed and shut down operations.

And so, as you can tell, there's not as many crime violations because if you stop operating, we're not going to have that many calls for service out there.

Um so that was uh that was a pretty big win within the win of everything we dealt with on the property.

The next location is South Side Food Martin Rockies 2.

Uh, we did uh 10 inspections on one, seven on the other.

There was 53 and 39 violations respectively, with about six citations total.

Um, the Southside Food Mart agreed to enter into it.

Chapter 125.

They kind of saw the wave coming, um, which I appreciate.

Um, however, within I think it was less than 30 days of going into that agreement.

They agreed to shut down the property as well.

Um, it hasn't been in operation since, so you can drive by there and parking lot is empty.

There's no activity.

Um, Rockies 2 is still ongoing.

Um, we're still going out there doing inspections.

Uh the owner's been hit or miss on improving improving a lot of the violations we have out there, but it's we're still putting the effort forth.

At the two locations, here's the police data again from 2025 and 2026.

Uh in Southside Food Mart, there was plenty to start with, but again, whenever you stop activity, there's not going to be a lot of uh calls to go out there and run them.

Our multifamily complex, the last location we worked was Sandy Oaks Apartments.

Uh, this one was the one you saw where we did the first inspection, we identified over 800 violations.

Uh, when we went back to do the second inspection, there was about eight contracting groups that were working on uh on repairing the violations, and that is what we wanted to see because they corrected all 859 violations.

Um, and that's pretty remarkable.

Um, a lot of them were cosmetic, it wasn't anything to the level level of eco where we could take it to a building standards commission, but they did have some issues.

As you can see, the fire damage unit was uh was repaired with permits.

Planning checked all of that, and so pretty pretty excited with that outcome.

Um they still had uh quite a lot of police activity out there, and we'll continue to work it.

Um, from the code side, they don't have any active code violations.

We've been decreasing the inspections, but they did correct over 800, which again was pretty pretty awesome.

Um, here's some of the uh special PD enforcement operations that went on out there.

Uh they had seven details for vice, uh five with extra enforcement stops uh there as well as a uh San Diego's apartment.

Uh and then they also had numerous successful investigations with narcotics.

Uh they had a lot of involvement out there.

I appreciate PD's effort here and me bugging them about getting all the information.

This is how much that was spent uh during these six months.

Uh I will tell you this is a bit misleading.

Um, I only say that because if it was a six-month pilot and only costs 174,000, it is not gonna be about 350,000 for the year.

Uh, part of this was due to the fact that two of the locations we were working stopped operating.

Um, when we had initially put forth the 3.5 million dollar budget request, that was essentially every property not doing what they're supposed to, and we are living and breathing on their property.

I had referenced it earlier.

We had success really quickly, and two of the properties stopped operating.

So the labor costs are not as significant as as we impacted, but for a year program, it would still be less than what we had talked about.

Uh, this is a live dashboard uh that you're more than welcome to check out.

We tried to keep everything up for the public to look at.

That includes the latest inspection activities, how many inspections have been going out out there, the calls for service, and then a full breakdown, which I really like those charts of the crimes by location and the broken down of different criteria.

So this is live.

If the program is adopted on a year long basis, we'd need to update it.

We would be working more than three properties, it'd get a little cluttered, but if we would still have a live dashboard for residents to go look at and see exactly what's going on on each one of these properties.

Between the criteria that we checked that I had showed y'all before, as well as residents reporting, you know, we we get five emails about a property going to look at that more.

Um here's the the next potential seven that we could uh continue working or begin working if the the program's adopted fully.

That is all I have.

Yes, uh Brian, can we go back to slide 12 uh on the Sandy Oaks apartment?

Because it looks like I'm not sure that I'm ready for you all to leave that one yet.

Can you talk about the potential spike in um crime there?

Is it because we're now focused on it more?

Yes, yes.

There was a there was a concerted effort, which is why that spike was there.

And I'm sorry, they complied with everything on the co-compliance side.

PD is still out there and it is still active on on this property, so it's still being handled in the same manner.

I was just referencing the 859 code violations were all corrected by code.

So we're still doing routine inspections out there, and PD also has a lot of work.

But yes, what you're seeing is because we have dedicated resources to it and you know they they were finding violations.

So we're not ready to leave this one yet.

No, no, we're not leaving it yet.

Obviously, it depends on the future of the program and kind of where we want to go with it.

But yes, currently we are still addressing it.

And then my other question is about neighborhood impact, uh, is on one of your slides.

Uh I know that council member Martinez and I have been uh the recipients of many emails.

Uh, because once Echo Motel closed, it seems that people are taking their business elsewhere.

So, how are we monitoring that and dealing with that?

Uh it's the same way we've checked the other ones is uh that's part of it.

We're getting the same emails that y'all are getting.

Uh we also have police still checking their reports where their calls for service.

And yes, I I know exactly what you're talking about.

Some of the calls for service have shifted, I believe, a little bit more south.

Um, but yes, it's it's all part of it.

It's uh just because one property got into compliance, it doesn't mean we're just leaving the area.

It's uh it's still being reviewed holistically with everything else.

Um, and yes, it's it it that's one of the crucial points of that we're doing this program is neighborhood impact.

Is we don't the the worst thing I hear is when I've been in a lot of these meetings and they're like I can't go outside.

Like that just bums me out.

You know, we we need to do what we can so that everyone has a safe, uh great neighborhood to grow up in.

And so no, we're still checking reports on that.

We we're still meeting regularly on it and saying, okay, where are we going to shift resources?

What's next?

So, if it's adopted uh on a permanent basis, that's that's what we do, and it would be rotating based off, you know, if somebody gets brought into compliance, then it would fall off.

And so that's that's where we're working right now.

I had initially set a top 10.

Obviously, I'm not uh, you know, it ignorant to our budget concerns.

So it would be, you know, whatever it if it's adopted, whatever we are able to do, I would set expectations there and we begin working.

So I'd like to pretend that you are ignorant to our budget concerns for just a minute.

We're gonna play make believe.

Done.

Okay.

Um what remind me how much this pilot program cost for the six month pilot?

The initial estimate was three point five million dollars, and that was the worst case scenario, like I discussed, where police are living out there, we're living out there.

Uh I believe what we came to uh what we came back with when we had talked to CMO was around two million dollars.

It's significantly less.

Um but again, uh, you know, we'll have to see how everything shakes up.

So to to make this permanent, right?

To add those seven additional, we estimate that it would be about two million dollars, or would it be four?

Because we've done it for six months, so does that make it two million dollars a year or four million dollars?

No, no, no.

Two million for the year.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Not in that same line of questioning, Brian.

Is there any way for us to recoup that hundred and seventy five thousand from fines from property owners?

Not really.

We can't get punitive.

Uh now there's different levels where you could find them and theoretically it could reimburse.

Uh if they were substandard structures and went to municipal court and they levied civil penalties, that would kind of work.

We can't force them to pay, but it's it's one of the reasons we are tracking it, is I mean, we're putting in the work, but it's i it's not relative a one to one ratio on how we if we can recoup that.

Yeah, it's Councilman Nettles.

Uh on the slide where you had these seven, I got a couple of questions.

Um, uh, where did you get these seven from?

And is that our total capacity of what we can do in a year?

Uh again that that falls uh first question um is this is where we're running our own reports as well as what we hear from residents.

Um, because I could be wrong, but I think uh the council member peoples, which you had spoken about, I they may be headed to Central Motel off of each land care.

So I think is where that concern shifted.

Um so that's that's the case of what with this one was added.

Um but again it's it's a combination of where's police getting their most calls, where we haven't our most code violations.

We're still checking everything that we can so that we're it's uh we're getting the best bang for our buck.

Um and these aren't set in stone.

It'll it things could change or you know, an ownership could change and like oh it's way better and you know, we shift our priorities.

Okay.

I um I would like to see the database on I guess w or maybe the ranking of where the calls are.

Cause I I know there's a couple of in my district I don't see on this list uh that we've been working with PD a lot to resolve, and so I would like to uh I would like to see that list and then I would like to send those to you.

Can council send you some properties that oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

Okay.

That's why I'm here.

Can I ask how the interplay between these properties and our nuisance abatement um efforts, right?

Because like there's some properties that I'm like, oh why isn't that on there?

I'm like, Well, probably because we're building a nuisance abatement case.

So is this the precursor to nuisance abatement?

Would these properties stay in would you know, would they stay in the program if we elected two nuisance abate?

So real quick, uh, are you saying nuisance abatement or the new habitual nuisance ordinance that we drafted that's remote COVID?

Like going through legal Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, there's still properties if they were going through chapter 54s or chapter 125s that's still going on.

No, no, but but is this a precursor to that?

Like um, are these properties that we couldn't otherwise send through that process?

No, no, no.

In fact, those nuisance uh filings and everything would be a part of the enforcement we did on here.

In fact, uh Southside Food Mart entered into a chapter 125, and within 30 days of them entering that they just said for you know, and they just closed down uh operations.

Thank you.

This council McCrane.

Hey Brian, I just want to ask, will resources how are resources allocated as part of that and will resources be um redeployed from certain areas?

I want to commend there's really no uh issues in district three and in what troubled area of mo mostly Las Vegas Trail, because we've had we've been operating there for a long period of time and you've had a code officer there as well.

Will resources be taken away from any other areas to supplant this?

Uh well I can give two answers.

I'll give one in the real one.

Um if we if if the budget request we put forward there would be dedicated resources um when uh officers available, that's all they'd be doing.

Um if if we had to adopt it in a different way, we would inevitably have to shuffle resources to make it happen.

So thank you.

So when we came up with this uh in my office and the idea of doing this in Breath of the City Council, it actually dovetails really well with the police chiefs initiative of the police network where they're doing it down to very small areas, and so these locations kind of fall in those areas that are the highest crime areas as well.

And so uh it just happened that the program, as uh Chief Garcia mentioned to me, is that the next step of that program when you put it into place is to go to this type of solution.

We just actually by happenstance it was just something that we wanted to I wanted to address, and we put it together before that program was totally put in place.

So they kind of dovetail together.

The the big question is through the budget process, if we want this to be an ongoing an ongoing program, it's cost to add people so that you're not taking away from the current folks.

Right now we've been doing it through overtime and pulling people away to see how it worked, and so that's the big question.

Mayor have a question.

Councilman Martinez.

So um the staff that is working on this net force, they um their budgets are allocated through each department, right?

And so are they focused entirely on these nuisance properties, or is it just another task?

If we created us this net force going forward, it would be folks that were to be dedicated.

That's why you can do more properties.

So it'd be under the general budget and then those general fund and it will be in those department budgets for the the activities that they're taking.

Well, I just really want to again thank you for this idea and working with the departments, Brian.

Y'all are doing a great job.

Just these properties that are in district eleven and the the others that also are allotted if if this uh comes, you know, continues, just the uh criminal activity in these properties is so egregious.

You know, you would see people doing drugs, prostitution, um, continuous calls from first responders.

So I really commend you for all the work that you've been doing to shut down these properties.

Your everyone, Councilman Larsor.

For the businesses, because that's what really drives me crazy here is like these businesses who are obviously for-profit trying to make money, and then now we're spending taxpayer dollars to go in there and basically force them to clean up and do better, which is hopefully gonna make their business even better.

Um, but what authority do we have if if they have all these violations, all these issues, just to take away their uh certificate of occupants and like alright, you're not gonna be in business until you get back into compliance.

Uh, kind of really force their hand, um, because obviously they've been letting this go on for a long time.

We're about to spend a lot of money and not recoup any of that, take away resources from other parts of the city.

Um, so what can we like for the I guess I know for the um apartments, it's a lot harder because people live there and that's their life.

I got that.

But these hotels and um convenience stores.

Do we have that ability to just take their CO away and by you're you're done operating your business until you're in compliance?

That's one of the tools that we adopted uh, don't get madly in three months ago, I think, is the habitual nuisance ordinance.

And yes, that's that's part of that is if they reach a criteria of crime or uh code violations, we can go through the process, they're in the program.

If they default, we can revoke the CO.

However, there's other uh avenues that the property could go as well.

Um, if there's a lot of code violations that they just won't take care of, there's a chapter 54 lawsuit.

Um we spoke of it earlier with crime.

If they they don't abate that, there's a chapter 125 lawsuit.

If there's structural deficiencies with the building, we can go through the building standards commission.

Um, and that was uh the the nexus of this entire program is it's like we're we're we're laying it all out there.

We're we're gonna do every single thing we can so you get into compliance.

And I I would kind of say something real quick when it comes to we always look at uh, you know, how do we recoup the money and whatnot?

We will get a a relief in the resources that were dedicated to that property, um, which I think is substantial, and then we you know, we've heard from residents since we started this program that they do feel better and they they're happier, and I realize you can't always put a price on that, but the fact that police can now dedicate their time somewhere else, or same thing with code environmental and fire, and then the residents are happier um and s and feel safer.

I think is it's pretty awesome too.

I think it's a great program.

I just hate when businesses think they come to Fort Worth and just operate all willy-nilly and get away with whatever.

I want them to be able to come here, operate a legitimate business, not be a nuisance to the neighbors and not cost our taxpayers a lot.

And so maybe if we need to just blast some Taylor Swift from the sidewalk.

And uh, you know, for Christine.

We are unwilling to volume work not here.

Christina's probably like that, but I'm just saying.

I was gonna say that would make them gather early.

I don't know.

I I don't I don't like what you're saying there.

Any other comments or questions from staff or counsel?

Yes, councilman.

Of course.

Um I'm looking at uh Benjamin Samprack back there, he'll remember this uh years back, you know, in problem um chronic problem properties in district two.

We have uh pursued just that, you know, trying to, you know, suspend their CO or just reject it if they try to renew it.

Until we've had, you know, the nuisance abatement tool, you know, that really wasn't an option.

Now I've seen happen before, and and Benjamin, you would know this.

Uh some businesses uh play shell game.

You know, when they go to renew, you know, their uh CO, they might change the name or change the name of the business, but it's still the same people involved.

Uh, I have uh advocated for a mechanism on the permitting side to try to catch this.

Um, have we been able to make any headway in that regard?

One of the tools that is in the budget proposals to Lemmy, which would help uh consolidate and sort of put together the web of these shell companies that you're speaking of.

What I would also reference is we have all that same technology that we're investigating, meaning if we wrote 20 tickets to company ABC and then they're like, oh, we sold, and it was the DEF, we're not stopping writing the tickets.

Um, and so that's one of the things that is great with the program is continuous pressure.

So it's like, oh, it's a new owner, and it's like, well, if you did your due diligence as a new owner, you would know that we've been dealing with this property for six months and there's litigation, there's building orders, there's everything else.

So no, it's not a scenario where we stop.

Um now, if they met with us ahead of time and said, hey, we want to take ownership of the property, but here's our plan, or we're gonna post a bond or something like that, then we'll be more open to working with them.

Um, but if they just do exactly what you're talking about, which I've dealt with throughout my career, no, the enforcement's just gonna keep continuing.

No problem.

I have a question for Brian and maybe also for Jeanette and for Deborah.

In the conversations we've all had with concerned residents that are thankful for say the Echo Motel work.

I know that your team and others have paid attention to say, okay, what can we do to help prevent additional issues in other places?

But what's the feedback you're hearing from constituents in both District 5 and District 11?

Is it still pervasive and an issue, or do you feel like we're concentrated where we need to be right now?

Um in District 11, the nuisance properties is not just one.

It's like two, usually, and and then if you shut down one, it just goes to the next one.

Uh and so you have to focus on that, and then nuisance abatement takes forever, and then you have to have a willing victim to be able to um, you know, work a case if you want to go through act, which is a little quicker, but sometimes we can't get the neighborhood to come on board.

Um just grateful, but you know, there's still a lot of work to be done.

Councilman Peoples, anything to add?

And my location is right across from the Y.

So I hear a lot from uh constituents that go to that Y, and they are extremely grateful about all the work that's being done around code.

So that's really good.

I just noticed the uptick in calls, but I think that can only help if that means that there's an increased police presence there.

That means that number we should start to see it come down because we're starting to impact that.

But the overall um feedback from the residents, or they are grateful that we are cleaning up this horrible property.

Yeah.

And Deborah, I I also want to mention that uptick in calls because they also see that it's working somewhere else, and they want to say those calls too.

Yeah.

Well, this is the hard part right in a budget shortfall, but it feels like the council has major consensus.

We're supportive of the work that you're doing, want it to continue.

It may require additional work from the lab to understand what um conditions are we preventing and other resources that are no longer expended on these properties that really do make sense for us long term to try to keep this in place, especially with these other locations that you know you'd like to focus on.

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

Thank you.

Okay, next up is Dr.

Sayed is gonna present Engage for Earth Community Academy.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

We've got Samuel from our team giving you some handouts.

Um and this will be an excerpt from our workbook that we would be providing to students, if you will, uh to join our community academy.

So from community engagement within CPE, we will be housing a program called Engage Fort Worth Community Academy.

So as you have heard from different cities around the country's Citizen Academy.

And as you know, the city can be extremely complex.

We have a lot of layers, it can be very difficult to understand who does what, how the groups work together, and the academy is an effort to teach our residents about our city and how it works, to help them build the relationships with various people within the city, and hopefully leave with a deeper understanding and wanting to get involved.

So the point person within community engagement who will be leading this effort will be Madeline Mackey, and she will be taking over to give you this presentation.

We look forward to your questions and feedback.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm Madeline Mackey.

I serve as the city's volunteer services coordinator, and I've had the great pleasure of being able to lead this project.

So a few things before we launch in.

What we'll be talking about today is, as Sunna said, our engage Fort Worth Community Academy, which will be launching in September.

We'll be looking at what the academy is, why it's needed, an overview of the application and selection criteria, what the academy sessions will be covering, and then a quick peek at post-program engagement and potential for future expansion.

So this academy is a free program that will equip residents with a practical understanding of how the city works, how decisions are made, and how residents can meaningfully engage, influence, and partner with us to improve their communities.

The tagline and the focus for this is that we want to engage, educate, and empower our residents.

I think we can all agree knowledge is power, and we have a responsibility to make sure that our residents are well informed about our operations.

So a peek at why a community academy is going to be an effective outlet for us to get to the community.

Is civic knowledge and participation is really essential for a functioning democracy.

We really can't get anywhere without it.

A few facts to illustrate this.

We want to look at increasing civic knowledge and public participation.

Right now, 70% of Americans cannot pass a basic civic literacy quiz.

We also, we had a wonderful successful bond election recently, although we only had about 4.1% of registered voters turn out for that election.

And then if we look at statistics, for 2017 through 2023, only 10.7% of Americans attended public meetings.

Texas actually came in below that at about 7.9%.

And then we also need to consider increasing trust and transparency in local government.

17% of Americans do not trust the federal government to do what is right.

We're at a little more of an advantage.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans actually express trust and confidence in their local governments.

So we're extremely well positioned to make an impact in our communities because we have a lot more trust built with our citizens than the federal level does.

And then how a community academy is going to be an effective strategy to address all of this is it is low cost, nonpartisan, and it's something that we'll be tracking as we go to make sure that we're actually getting the outcomes we're looking for.

We have a couple different strategies in place to make sure that the level of knowledge is actually being increased through participation in the program, and that over a five-year period we're going to measure engagement levels to see for the people that go through the program is their level of engagement actually increasing as a result.

This community academies also address the drivers of institutional trust.

They put a face on local government, they present information in an accessible and transparent way, and they provide evidence of our commitment to excellence and dependability.

This will also have the benefit of creating a lot of informal ambassadors for the city.

The more people we have out in the community who understand how we operate, are more open doors so people understand what's going on and how they can engage with us.

And it also serves as a really convenient path to board and commission service as we're looking for people who are ready to engage with us.

This is an excellent chance to identify those rising stars in the community.

And really, the community just allows us to guard against the fact that distant government tends to be distrusted government.

This allows to really cut that off at the knee.

So taking a look at the sessions themselves at the Academy itself.

This will take place in seven sessions over nine weeks.

Five of those sessions are two and a half hour evening sessions on Thursdays, and then we have two four-hour field days that will take place on Saturday mornings.

We'll be rotating around a different city facility so we can really make sure people are getting a good feel for the different facilities that we operate in.

We will be starting and ending at city hall so people will be in their house.

The cohort size will be limited to 25 participants this first time out.

And registration actually launches tomorrow.

So some you will have seen some teaser information that went out last week.

The registration will be open tomorrow and then it will be closed July 26th.

So residents will have about a month to get their applications in.

They have to be at least 18 years old, and they have to commit to attend at least six of the seven sessions.

It's a little difficult to get the full benefit of the program if they're not able to be at the majority of the sessions.

For the selection priorities, we are focusing on geographic diversity, a mix of longtime and new residents, representation from both emerging leaders and people who have been engaged with us for a long time, excuse me, first-time civic participants as well.

And then we also want to make sure we have representation from historically underserved neighborhoods.

So we'll be working with our neighborhood services department to make sure those are identified and we have representation.

Excuse me, we will have a panel of city employees from different departments who will be charged with selecting people for this first cohort.

And then as we dive into the sessions themselves, just a thing, a few things to note, the sessions will feature several different things.

We'll have presentations, activities, tours, and interactive demonstrations.

We're also currently working with departments to refine the content for these sessions, figure out what the activities are and focus in on the specific locations.

And you'll notice as we go through that, not every city department is listed as being a part of a session.

We are very large, so it's difficult to fit all city departments into this first pilot.

So the sessions will focus on the most forward-facing departments, but you will notice that the missing departments will be featured in the workbook that everyone will receive.

So they'll still be covered, just not as in-depth in the sessions.

And then you should have in front of you a copy of just a sample from our workbook.

So this is a document that will have a section for every single department.

We'll also be covering a few different specific processes like how does budgeting work, how does Marin Council work, what is a bond program, specific things like that that people hear about, but they may or may not have a deep understanding of.

So this is just a sample of what each section of that workbook will look like for each department.

So our first session is very simple.

How does the city work?

This will give our participants a really practical understanding of what the city's structure is, about also our council manager form of government and what the basics of city budgeting are.

So this is going to give them a very bird's eye view of who are we, what do we do?

And then we'll be moving into our first field day after this, focused on public safety, and this will really be a deep look into how the city keeps our residents safe and prepares for emergencies.

And one feature that we'll be really diving into with all of this is looking at operational reality versus perception in the community, and really start to dive into those harder topics so we can really come to a good place of understanding.

The other great thing about this is that this is a really wonderful feedback loop for us.

We're going to be learning as much from our residents as they will from us during this whole academy.

The second session will be diving into an exploration of how the city improves and maintains the quality of life in our neighborhoods and how we provide assistance and resources to the people in need.

Our third session will take a look at the initiatives and frameworks in place that keep the city clean and livable, as well as the community spaces and programs that are available to our residents.

Moving into our second field day focusing on services and infrastructure.

This is really the things that people are relying on every day.

Where is our garbage going?

That's a question I am so happy as answered for me, and I don't have to figure out for myself.

This will be really the practical considerations of how do we plan and maintain systems that serve over a million people.

Moving into our fourth session focused on growth and development.

This will look at how the city promotes orderly growth and development, how we attract and assist businesses and facilitate national and international investment in the city.

And then the end of the academy wraps up with a look at transparency, accountability, and engagement.

So we're really going to underscore the city's responsibility, which is accountability to our residents, with a look at how we engage with the community and maintain transparency.

So we know there's a lot of great work happening in the lab.

We have several dashboards out there so residents can really see what's happening in real time.

This will be a look at that, and then we'll also look at how can people continue their civic engagement if they so choose.

And then throughout the entire academy, we'll be making sure that all of our cohort members are up to date on what engagement activities are happening in their districts.

Are there town halls?

When are city council meetings, when our work sessions, so they can start to pop into those and put the pieces together of what they've learned throughout the academy, and then looking at the post-program engagement, we have so many possibilities for what we can do here.

As I said, this is going to be a fantastic feedback loop for us.

And because this is a pilot program, this is a great sandbox.

It's going to allow us to really learn what works, how we can deliver information more effectively in the future, and continue to tweak this to come up with a really bulletproof model.

So a few things we'll be looking at post-program engagement, public recognition.

We will have a graduation ceremony at a council meeting in November to recognize our first cohort.

We will also be building an alumni network.

So every cohort that goes through this academy will become part of that network.

I've already mentioned our data and feedback loops that will be built into this.

We're also looking at future equity and access enhancements.

So especially considering that we have evening sessions, this could be a little difficult for working parents.

So one thing that's been considered is having concurrent educational programming for children so their parents can attend and be part of the academy, and the students, the children, also have an activity that they can be engaged in, and parents don't have to worry about them or make special arrangements.

And then we also have potential for future micro-credential or certification through this.

Looking at expansion.

So as Senna said, we are so complex, we have so many moving parts, and this isn't just when we're considering our residents, but especially for employees.

This can be a very difficult place to get up to speed on when you start and even after you've been here for a few years.

So we are looking at creating an employee version of this.

It would be a little more targeted on back of house processes, but it would give employees a chance to really dive into learning about departments that they may not interact with very often and really help onboard people and get them up and running quickly after they've started with us.

It also will really help us start to break down more of those silos that exist between our departments or sometimes even within our departments, and really start to go after the one city, one-team ethos that we're focused on.

We also would love to look at potential for including council members in this.

This is just as complex an organization for all of you, and we think having the opportunity to participate in this could be very beneficial and a great resource.

And then we're also looking at potential for a youth version of this so that students can start their civic engagement journey much earlier on than they may have otherwise.

At this point, are there any questions?

Any questions from Allen, Councilman Larsdworth?

Thank you, Mayor.

So what I think this could work, um very well.

I do see those who apply for it probably already have some sort of understanding, they just want more understanding because it's like the folks who show up to work sessions and some of the people that show up to council meetings, they understand what's going on.

One thing we're doing in district four right now is we're trying to set up a zoning ambassador program where we send residents to like a zoning 101 and 201 and so on, and that way they could be the face out there on social media when something pops up, they can say, Well, actually, here's how it works, and it's not always us looking like the bad guy saying, Well, they didn't need a um zoning change because it's already uh zoned.

So, certainly like to see zoning, which I'm sure is under development services, or we're gonna put that, so that's gonna be great.

Um, possibly even a write-along uh for the public safety standpoint for those who are willing and able to do right along so they can see police officers are going from priority one to priority one and they're not just sitting around, so they can also be that face on social media saying, Well, no, they're there's a reason they didn't show up for priority three or party four because they're so busy.

Um, and then another one if we do move forward with this is um how council can submit nominations or even appointments to it.

Uh, because I know we're gonna have city staff looking at the applications, but I think we all know at least a handful of ambassadors in our districts who are very uh well spoken that they do a great job of portraying information, they get back to the public, um, and they're just they don't just keep the information to themselves.

Um, like one of the great examples is Beverly Fear Tag, I guarantee she's watching right now.

Um, but she's very pragmatic about things, and she'll take things from work sessions and city council meetings and take the videos and facts and push push them out.

So is there a way that we're gonna be able to nominate somebody for uh participation if they want to in fact take take part?

So it will be strictly application-based, um, but we would most certainly encourage all of you to push those that you think would be a good fit to submit an application for it.

Okay, is there by well, I haven't looked at their application yet, but is there by chance a part in there for like letter of recommendation or anything that would help their there currently is it, but we could certainly consider that.

Okay, I think that'd be great.

Thank you.

Oh I am grateful for the design of this program, and I like the idea that it's not weighted that other c that citizens all over the city can apply, and I I really like that.

I think that is good because we all have people that we like and we all have people that we want to push, but I think this is aimed at getting out to people who aren't involved in city government who want to know about it.

So I like that design.

Well, thank you.

I did have a question, so it's okay, Mayor.

Um, so what is the primary goal of the program?

Like what what is the measurable outmeasurable outcome that's intended?

All right, so the two main priorities is to increase knowledge and increase engagement.

Um, so what we be looking at to measure those those two pieces uh for the knowledge piece, uh we will be doing an assessment, a brief assessment.

I don't want to make it sound like we're having people sit for the L set.

That was my next question.

Is there gonna be a pre- or post assessment?

Yeah, so there will be a pre and post-assessment so we can look at immediately has but has there been an increase in the amount of knowledge in the program?

And then we'll be also looking at the five years following for each cohort that goes through, um, looking at what their civic engagement has been.

So have they been volunteering?

Are they serving on a border commission neighborhood association board?

Um, all things like that to see are we noticing an upward trend in their engagement?

So there will be self-reporting needed in that.

Um, but our goal is to have that relationship built so that we can pull that information year to year to see is this program meeting the goals that we've laid out.

But I hear you saying there's gonna be a pre-assessment, a post assessment, and then you're gonna do some longitudinal data collection as well.

Um, with regard to the schedule for it, will the applicants already know the schedule before applying?

Yes, the schedule is out on our website right now.

And then to ensure that we do have broad um participation, if you will, or applicants, how is it being advertised?

It's being advertised through pretty much all uh city channels.

So uh it went out in city news last week, it will post again this afternoon.

Uh, it's been out in Roundup, and then um through our social media channels, and we've also taken that content and it's being provided to district directors as well as PIOs from each department so they can push it out through their channels as well.

We also have a newsletter going out to the city's 11,000 volunteers and out to all of our neighborhood associations and homeowners associations.

So I know that the goal is to is for engagement right and so those are normal media I guess our normal outlets are folks that are engaged right they they either signed up to get our newsletters they participate at um at one of our community centers or something like that.

But again I'm always going to challenge us to try to use some non-traditional methods to get the word out because engagement is the goal and some of these people rather passively are not or actively they're already engaged if they're gonna know that this opportunity exists perhaps I'm only speculating on that.

And I think I think that's probably I think you answered all of my questions.

I think it's a great idea.

I love the idea of engaging people I think what comes to mind for me and then in a selection process always and will be a rubric so I know this has been entrusted to staff to decide and there's not going to be an appointment as um councilwoman councilman laushorp has suggested but um I am curious to know what that rubric looks like and how you shape that 25 just to ensure that we're being fair equitable for such a dirty word and how we create access to these type of opportunities for our residents.

Absolutely the the rubric is currently being shaped and if that's something um that you'd like to take a look at we we're certainly happy to share once it's all tied up.

Council Flores did you have one?

Thanks mayor um so it looks like to me that you're seeking to improve public trust through participation right somewhere okay I like the idea you know of a having I think a a very focused outreach to you know to a younger demographic right to get them interested in city government or just participation in government in general because that has uh you know good lead inside um I think you know being more active civic members you know the city um I don't know if if there may be and I'll just leave this as a suggestion uh when it comes to say reaching out to you know older established demographics and all especially in certain communities uh will you have uh Spanish outreach as well?

We currently do not have a Spanish language version of the program but that's something that we'd love to look at for the future to make sure that we are hope in that yeah how to get a hold thank you mayor uh a couple questions have there been any conversations with working with our other civic and nonprofit partners like the three chambers leadership for to kind of own the program and help operate it to reach out to people that are not engaged in the city we've not talked about a co-ownership but we do have materials going out to them to encourage their distribution.

Leadership Fort Worth is a great example of people who are already very engaged who may be looking for another outlet for that.

So they're partners in the sense that they will help us get information out there that we'll be sharing with them.

But as far as an ownership it is still entirely city owned at this point.

Okay.

Because it's budget season every department better beckle up how much is this costing us?

Six thousand dollars the just a one program correct that is for this first pilot.

If we were to do it again the goal is to have this twice a year have a fall and a spring cohort that would then double the expense Councilman Martinez.

E mayor so yeah that was gonna be my question how many cohorts and of course I reiterate um councilmember Flores's request for Spanish uh program but you know I really see uh an opportunity to work with our universities that have the student council that's really engaged and wants to learn more about the city and I can see how it would be beneficial to partner with leadership forward or steer forward just because you know, they're very civically engaged, but you know, some of them might really want to learn a lot more about city versus county.

And so I I think it's a great idea and look forward to helping promote it.

Thank you.

Any other questions from council?

No, I appreciate it.

Okay, council, our next presentation is the City of Fort Worth Literacy Initiative and Action Update.

And I think Money Kill is going to kick things off with Midori Clark.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Good morning.

Well, we are really happy to uh be here today.

Um we're gonna be tag teaming, so it's Madori and I, but we also have our friends and partners from uh Sid Richardson with Literacy Roundup and Carolyn James will come up, we'll call her up.

And then we also have uh Sarah Greer and I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry I was gonna miss her last name with rainwater.

Um, and so we'll be kind of chiming in and tagging um on our presentation today.

So we're really excited to give you our um update.

We'll be back uh at some point to talk to you after the summer to kind of tell you how things went during the summer.

Um I want to also recognize Nick Dietering, he is our district superintendent, and he is actually spearheading uh this project.

So Nick, wave your hands, Dan.

So our partnerships have uh grown over the years.

This program has been going on since 2021, kicked off in the mayor's office, actually, and city manager's office.

Um, and so we have several partnerships that we're working, uh partners that we're working with.

Um, Rev partnership used to be uh Reed Fort Worth, and so they still are partners with us and started out as collaborators when we first started this program.

So the purpose of our literacy initiative is uh one during the summer, you may well know when kids get out of school, they're very excited, and what do they do?

They want to forget school, right?

And so uh typically what students do or uh kiddos do is when the during the summer they're not reading, engaging in education, and so this program that is led in partnership with the community centers with the park and recreation department as well as the uh library is to prevent Summerside.

So that basically is you are forgetting what you learned during the school year, and basically when they go back to school, they're starting over essentially.

Um additionally, uh we've had a new partnership with literacy roundup where we are uh looking to make sure that kids that may be at risk for dyslexia is identified so that they don't have those challenges when they are in school.

So those are some of our objectives.

And then also, yes, this summer, and so we don't want the kids to feel like they're back in school, right?

And so we try to sneak education and literacy in, and so we infuse um the learning of literacy by making sure that 45 minutes throughout the week that they are getting intentional literacy activities.

So our programs that fall under our literacy initiative is um the literacy roundup, which Carolina joined me here in a second and talk about.

I talk to you a little bit about our summer slide.

Uh, we also have our Wrexham, Texas, which is through using football and soccer, and so again the kids don't know that they're learning.

Um we also learn really fun games to teach them so that they're learning literacy.

It may be like a board game, it may be that they're reading or acting things out.

They don't know that they are actually doing literacy activities.

And then, of course, we have the mayor's summer reading uh challenge that is uh pushed through our library, but also is in partnership with the community centers as well.

And then our after school program, we try to make sure we're just reinforcing uh some of the things that are not as an aggressive level as the summer, but still during after school program that we're keeping some of those same things um in smaller doses to make sure that literacy is at the forefront of our programming.

So while I talk about this, I'm gonna ask Caroline to join me here at the podium because we're very excited to be entering our second year of the literacy roundup.

Um this program started in 2025, um, and it was actually a great partnership with Sid Richardson Foundation.

Um, it was one that uh they actually approached us and said, Hey, there's a problem.

And so we listen, worked with the mayor's office with that as well to make sure that we are working with students to um identify those children that may be at risk for dyslexia.

And so we're gonna let Caroline kind of talk about some of the things they've been doing, and then I'll join the podium.

Good morning.

My name's Caroline James.

I just want to say our city's commitment to literacy is more than words, it's action by upgrading curriculum, strengthening staffing, and expanding literacy roundup to 13 community centers and five libraries now this summer.

Literacy Roundup together with Camp Fort Worth is investing in brighter futures.

With partners like Rainwater Foundation and the City of Fort Worth, this work becomes not only possible but transformative for our students.

I want to especially thank Javier Rodriguez, Monique Hill, and Nick Degering for all their help connecting us with the community centers and the libraries.

This summer literacy Roundup is also actually at Freedom School with Loretta Burns at AB Christian.

So the educators at AB Christian have been trained in Devils and are testing their students as well.

And so Freedom School students at risk for dyslexia will be given advocacy and support when they go back to school as well in the fall.

And we're so glad to see Literacy Roundup grow in this way and establish even more partners in Fort Worth.

With your permission, I would like to ask Marley Kerr to give you an update on Literacy Roundup.

Good morning, Mayor Parker and Council members.

My name is Marley Kerr and I recently completed my sophomore year of college.

This summer I have had the privilege of working alongside Caroline James and the Literacy Fort Worth team on Literacy Roundup 2026.

I'm here today to share an update on this year's Literacy Roundup and to thank you for your continued commitment to literacy in Fort Worth.

Literacy Roundup is now in full swing.

Throughout the summer, our team is screening children and community centers across Fort Worth for dyslexia.

Last summer, Literacy Roundup screened more than 400 students.

This summer we are on track to almost double that.

As of today, Literacy Roundup has screened 200 students and identified 64 as at risk for dyslexia.

Just last Wednesday, I watched a second grader complete her screening.

As she slowly worked through a reading passage, she painfully struggled to sound out the word strange.

You could see how hard she was trying.

Later that afternoon, one of our literacy roundup advocates sat down with her mom.

She didn't just simply explain that her daughter was at risk for dyslexia.

She answered questions, she shared resources, and she equipped her to go back to her child's school and advocate for the support her kid needs.

And just one afternoon, the course of one little girl's story began to change.

This work is especially meaningful to me because I know firsthand what it feels like to be a kid struggling to read.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was seven years old.

Before my diagnosis, I worked incredibly hard in school, but no matter how much effort I put in, I always felt behind.

The best way I can describe it is this.

It felt like I was racing alongside my classmates, except everyone else was swimming through water, and I was swimming through honey.

I was frustrated, I was embarrassed, I was lost.

Thankfully, someone noticed, and I wasn't pulled out of the race.

I was simply given the chance to swim in the same water as everyone else.

Because someone recognized my dyslexia early, I was able to spend my childhood discovering my strengths instead of being defined by my struggles.

That support opened doors I never imagined.

From serving a student body president at RL Pascal High School to attending Oklahoma State University, where I'm now studying to become a child life specialist.

That second grader's story shouldn't be one of frustration or falling behind.

It should be one of opportunity.

When I think about her and the hundreds of children we're screening this summer, I see the future of Fort Worth.

Future teachers, doctors, artists, entrepreneurs, and community leaders.

I see children whose futures will be changed because they were connected with the right support, just like I was.

There are proven strategies that help students with dyslexia learn to read.

The challenge is making sure that these students are identified before they fall through the cracks.

Literacy Roundup is helping make that happen for families across our city.

Thank you for making literacy a priority in Fort Worth.

Your partnership is helping more children be identified early, more families find answers, and more students have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

When I was seven years old, someone changed the course of my life by simply recognizing I needed help.

Because of Literacy Roundup, hundreds more children will have that same opportunity.

Thank you, Councilwoman Martinez and Councilwoman Peoples for visiting us at Literacy Roundup.

Your support means so much.

We are also so grateful to Montague Hill and Nick D.

Monique Hill and Nick Deating for their help and coordination of our work at the Fort Worth Community Centers.

The community centers are the perfect setting to test students and review results with families.

Without the help of community center staff, we would never be able to connect with so many families and have been able to serve so many students.

And again, thank you for your investment in the future of Fort Worth, one reader at a time.

I don't know that I can follow that.

But as you can see, we're very excited, and it is really just for me a person that grew up loving to read.

So we want to make sure that we're supporting, especially in our underserved communities, we feel like we have this program just nestled into a place where they will come naturally, and it's almost unsuspecting that they're there getting the help that they need.

So as Caroline shared, last year we tested over 568 youth through the program, just to hear that we are have already in the first couple of weeks gone to 200, let you know that we're on our way to almost a thousand youth.

And that is also with us expanding our program.

So we have gone from having six facilities where testing is being done to 13.

And then also Madori is going to talk about the partnership with the library.

Thank you, Monique Madori Clark, Director of Fort Worth Public Library.

Um just want to quickly say sorry about the sunglasses this morning.

I'm not evading paparazzi or like starring in the latest Taylor Sheridan extravaganza, but I did have eye surgery, and so I'm really grateful to Monique for presenting so much of this literacy presentation this morning because I feel a little a little silly if I'm being honest.

But I'm very excited about the library, the partnership with literacy roundup as well as with Park and Recreation.

We are very pleased to announce that we increased from two locations to five locations in 2025.

And you can see just like with our partners at Park and Recreation and Literacy Roundup, being able to expand the amount of places where people can get the screenings, we think is very helpful for folks who want to receive them.

And one of the things with the library, they gotta ahead of us.

So this year during the spring, they already started testing.

So while we're focusing a lot on the summer, they started as a libraries during the spring.

So that's really great that we are expanding beyond just what you're seeing here.

So the next thing I wanted to uh talk about, and I'm gonna see her is coming up, uh, is we are very happy with our partnership with Rainwater.

So you probably heard in the MNC about a few weeks ago that we were granted over $338,000 to expand this program.

So this program is not free.

We have literacy support specialists that are uh certified teachers that actually work during the summer, so that is not free.

Um, also with the program with Caroline with Literacy Roundup, one of our efforts is to make sure that we are collaborating, right?

But the work doesn't stop when they're at our community centers.

If the parents don't come back and get results, then we cannot assist.

And so the collaboration that we have in the partnership through the literacy support specialists, we were able to, with funding, give a like a senior level.

That is the person, we have two staff that will work with all of the programs so that they can help contact parents once we receive the results, and not only that, be the mouthpiece talking.

I always say educators have a special speak that we don't always talk, so they know the lingo.

And so those persons will be able to actually coordinate with parents.

We want them to get the resources that they need.

So it's one thing to come be tested.

It's another thing for you to get the resources and know what to do afterwards.

And so Rainwater saw the need for the expansion, and also for us to enable us to expand our program to other areas.

So I'm gonna let Sarah talk about that.

Thank you, good morning, Mayor and Council.

With all due respect, it wasn't that we saw the need, we were able to sit down with partners who saw the need.

We are so proud to have been able to support this program and partner with you, but we depend on incredible staff at the city and at all of our nonprofit partners and in the community to help us see these opportunities.

So I just wanted to be here to say thank you to the staff that we work with and to all of you for making this investment in our families in Fort Worth.

I am a working mom and I have personally been supported by our summer programs, and Rainwater really recognizes the scale, the scope, and just the extent to which you're supporting our working families by offering summer camp.

What I love the most though is that you leaned in and said how do we use this opportunity of serving thousands of children every summer to also support the fact that fewer than 50% of our students are reading on level, and what is ours to do, I've heard Mayor and her staff speak eloquently about that.

And when we came to a table with your parks and rec staff and said, what's ours to do, what more can we do?

Everyone leaned in, and we're just so grateful for that for the chance to work with you and to learn.

We really think of this summer as a pilot to say by doing a little bit more, what can we learn about how that helps our kids, our incredible staff at these camps.

So thank you so much for letting us partner with you and for opening up um all of your infrastructure and your staff to being creative and learning with us.

Thank you so much.

So some of the things that uh Nick and his team have been working on, so we create different committees, and so those committees focus on literacy, and so we're really excited about also having our literacy champions.

And so our kiddos get very excited right when they're doing things, and so some of the rainwater funding that we're gonna receive will provide some incentives for those youth, and so we will coin them as our literacy champions because we want to recognize that excitement, their involvement, and they don't even really know that they'll get an incentive, we'll kind of dangle the carrot, but they will be our literacy champions, and we hope that it doesn't just stop at our community centers.

When they go back to their communities, they go back to their schools or their churches, they will talk about this program.

And so our hope is that it won't just be a stop at our sites, it'll go other places in our community.

So in speaking about that, so I mentioned that our program started in 2021.

You can see that last year we screened almost a thousand uh youth in our programs, and so our goal this year is to almost double that with us having more people.

We got a little behind on our hiring just because of processes, so we wanted to double at our larger sites, but we hope next year that we'll be able to do that with our numbers.

Um, another thing that we've done and talked very carefully uh with our partners is we want to make sure that we're in line with Fort Worth ISD.

So Fort Worth ISD started changing their software, and so of course, licenses are important because we use reading A to Z as one of our assessment tools to make sure that we are uh checking on where the children are landing.

You'll see on here they either grew, maintain, or they uh decrease.

You'll notice on our side for the city of Fort Worth and also AB Christian is one of our partners as well.

That in our sites, our kids always maintain or grow, you'll see those percentages, 98%, you can't beat that.

But with us using our money, we now are in line with iReady, which is Fort Worth ISD new software, and we've been able to do that along with our partnerships to ensure that we are in line with them.

And Madori is going to talk about some of our other partnerships.

One of my favorite topics, the Mayor's Summer Reading Challenge.

So all we know that literacy is, of course, a big concern throughout the city.

Just want to remind people that if you want to read, you have lots of opportunities to read great things.

And one of the best and most fun, in my opinion, things you can do is join a reading challenge.

And so for the summer, we always have the fantastic mayor's summer reading challenge.

And you can see, even though we are talking about kind of what's happening with literacy testing, you can see a lot of people are reading and a lot of minutes are being read throughout the summer.

So this program does not end until August 8th.

So everybody here has a chance to still sign up and log your minutes.

We would love to hear from you and encourage your friends and family to also sign up and log their minutes.

You can win fabulous prizes, but most importantly, you can just encourage those around you to show them that reading is a great thing that you can do together for a variety of reasons.

You can see we've been consistently increasing our minutes red.

Our participation has gone a little bit up and down, but we're very, very excited to see the number of folks that are completing the program.

I would be remiss also if I just didn't take this opportunity to say we saw in FY25 the biggest number of checkouts ever in recorded history for Fort Worth Public Library.

We had over 4.3 million checkouts for the year.

We are already on track in FY26 to exceed that number again.

So it might be our third highest recorded number, a third in a row, highest recorded number ever.

And I think one of the really big reasons that this is happening is we're seeing a lot more use in the digital materials.

I do think FY26 will be the first year that we see that tipping point from the majority physical item checkouts to the majority digital item checkouts, which is very interesting.

I have been waiting for this tipping point as a library director for decades.

So if if you don't know what Libby is, we we'd love to share with you.

Feel free to go to any of your libraries.

Anybody can show you how to download the Libby app and feel free to start using it.

And thank you very much.

Keep reading Fort Worth.

Well, thank you all so much.

I didn't put a thank you on here, sorry.

And if you have any questions, I'll take those.

Our resident educator is gonna go first.

Councilmember Hall, please.

Yes, uh Councilman Beck, I have a question.

Um so just last year, um, I know that we had um there was a chasm between students receiving their diagnosis and then students actually garnering their services once they got back to school.

And so, first I want to say thank you to the Rainwater Foundation for allowing this expansion, and so we now have testing at Chisholm Trail and at Vivian J.

Lincoln Library, but those students are not Fort Worth ISD students traditionally, they would be quality ISD students or maybe charter students or private school students.

Um, have we um built an infrastructure to curtail that chasm between testing and actually now receiving services because I know that there were a lot of parents expressing frustration?

I was just gonna say, Carolyn, can you speak to them?

Sorry.

Right on top.

So we're continuing to have meetings with school leadership.

In fact, yesterday we had a meeting with Dr.

Locado with Fort Worth ISD, and so I'm hoping to reach out to other superintendents and other leadership to share results with them.

Right now, it really is incumbent upon the parents, and so we do the best we can to inform the parents of all of their rights, but then we also go with them to their schools.

So we go to seven different school districts with parents and advocate for them.

Thank you.

Councilman McCrane, maybe maybe you talked about this, but slide six.

Uh you had, you know, just registrations, 58, but then 32.

Is that just how many showed up?

Like people registered, but only 32 showed up.

Sorry.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

So not everybody opted into the testing.

So right now, when you register for camp, you fill out the EPACT, and you can opt into literacy roundup testing.

Unfortunately, last year there was a lot of confusion about the application itself, and so some of the parents didn't understand what they were opting into, which is why Nick and Monique were so great to help communicate to the families.

Clara at Como Community Center did an excellent job telling her parents, no, no, you need to opt into this.

And so that's why those numbers went up this year.

We have many more parents opting into the testing.

So I'm Caroline, I'm not gonna pick on you today.

I'm going to ask, though, Loretta Burns to please stand up.

I I just had the most extraordinary experience, probably in life, and I'm here to tell everybody sitting around this horse who you are in big trouble.

I got to read to 50 of the most extraordinary students ever.

And Chris, they said things like, Well, what are you gonna be when you grow up?

I'm going to be an astronaut and work for NASA.

I'm going to be a doctor and cure cancer.

I was blown away.

The work that Loretta Burns is doing, not only at um is a missionary there centered there, but in I think four of the locations, Loretta around the city, they have 50 young scholars, and they're their level of understanding and their intellect will absolutely blow you away.

I was so fired up after that visit that I pushed my way into reading at her other locations.

But I would invite you all to visit her freedom school.

The caliber of the young people that are working there and the caliber of the students is amazing.

And mayor, I will tell you that if we continue to fund programs like that, that we Fort Worth is just gonna be on the cutting edge of literacy.

So thank you, Loretta, for letting me highlight you today, but also thank you for letting me come and barge my way into that school.

Councilwoman Peoples, I don't know if you know this, but my son is in freedom school.

So you read to George too.

He was with he was with you in the audience.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

If George is there, we're all uh answering to George.

Yes, pretty much.

Yeah.

Councilmember Larsdorf.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, so excellent program.

I can't wait to point to this to some of the uh keyboard warriors out there who say Fort Worth is not doing anything.

Uh when in fact they are.

They just want to complain.

So this is great.

Um definitely let us know in district four how we can better incorporate these programs uh more so in North Fort Worth as well.

Uh but the Corporal Don Gray's YMCA, uh, they are they're fully signed up within an hour of announcing, so we'd love to be able to get you guys up in the YMCA there.

Um, I'm I'm assuming that a lot of the the school districts, whenever they're reporting their numbers, like Keller ISD is like 9.7% uh dyslexic, and then you look at like Eagle Mount Sag and all 8%, which those are the two primary ISDs in uh district four, and then you look at others who are much lower, but then you read uh like this uh uh Sartelegram's article, I think it was yesterday, the Yell Center says 20%.

It should be closer to 20%.

So it should be between 15 and 20 percent.

Right.

So clearly they're all not testing as well as they could, and so that's where your program comes in and really helps kind of fill some of that gap.

Um is that what you're seeing?

Just some are just better at it than than others, or some are better at it than others.

Um most of our parents need our advocacy.

So, so councilwoman Hall alluded to this.

The the districts, some of them are prepared to receive these requests for testing, and some of them not so much, but with literacy roundup, the parents don't just get test results, they get an advocate.

So we go with them to the school.

There are legal requirements.

The school has 15 days to respond to a request for testing, and then 45 days to test.

We make sure the parents know about the law and are adherent and that the school is adhering to those timelines.

And so over time, what we're seeing is schools rise to the challenge.

There's a particular school that now partners directly with us and knows that we're not going to mess around.

And so they see literacy roundup on a request for testing and they're moving faster.

So we're finding the kids, and we do need the school districts to step up and be ready to serve them.

It should be between 15 and 20%.

Okay, that's kind of what I what I thought.

But um well, certainly let us know.

We're we've certainly rebuilt our relationships with Keller IC and we're doing great as far as talking a lot more with each other and helping each other out.

So let us know how we can help really get you guys really connected with them and however we can help advocate on their own.

I appreciate it.

It's unprecedented for a city to step in on an issue like this, and I can't tell you all how much I really really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mayor Escalar.

Charlie, really quick.

So you're adding parent advocates, right?

The positions?

Yes.

And I think you know this, we just uh I think it's wonderful that we're supporting this program because while I was at Victory Forest Community Center, there was a parent there that I knew personally, and her children had been tested the previous year, but she didn't follow through and go into the school to ask for additional support services for her child because she didn't have you know.

Just for whatever reason, I think it's intimidating, it's you know, lack of confidence on the parents' end to be able to relay that message to the school.

But you know, I just think it's wonderful and look forward to doing a couple more site visits.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Uh if you all don't know, Councilman Martinez is visiting every single site, so she gets a gold star from literacy roundup.

And uh Deborah, I've been going to freedom school for years now, and I love the program.

And Bella was actually um at an all girls' freedom school when St.

Andrews had the program years back.

But the if y'all haven't gone, you really do have to go.

It energizes your morning, the good morning, good morning, yes.

So if y'all haven't heard it, I love that song.

I don't know, no.

Do you want to sing it with me, Chris?

Okay, you go first.

I'm just about to do it.

Right?

Thank you.

Yes, yes.

I love it.

Looking forward to the next one.

Thank you.

Anybody else have a question?

No.

I think you also have several volunteers that are here today, Caroline Correct.

If y'all don't mind standing up, let us thank you as well.

Thank you very much.

Yes, and I know all this council members are getting around to come see you in action, come to Freedom School.

The summer's time is a great time to do that.

So we appreciate you open invitation for each of us.

Great updates for sure.

Okay, council.

Our last presentation is economic development to present on our mock industries incorporated incentive agreement.

Hey good morning, Mayor and Council, Jessica Rogers, economic development director.

And I'm gonna walk you through a proposed economic development agreement with mock industries.

I also want to recognize um Tamara Deller who's here from Mock Industries in the audience with us.

And she's been learning a lot about literacy in Fort Worth today.

So very excited.

Right.

So let me introduce you to Mock Industries.

Mock is an aerospace and defense manufacturer, currently headquartered out of Huntington Beach, California.

The project being proposed today represents a key expansion of mock's domestic manufacturing.

Specifically, the project we'll be discussing is to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle integration facility that will bring new skilled manufacturing and engineering positions to Fort Worth.

The project is proposed for Alliance Gateway 34, which is located at 5000 Westport Parkway in Council District 10.

The building is depicted there on the left, and noted on the right with that red pin.

Just to give a little more orientation again, picture of the building on the left, and then in very small uh on the right in the map, you'll see the very small orange box that's Alliance Gateway 34.

Also noted with that blue call-out box.

Okay.

Jumping into the project specifics, Mock Industries is proposing to build a manufacturing facility for unmanned aerial vehicles in Fort Worth.

The project has a proposed capital investment of $74 million with a planned $6 million coming from real property investments and $68 million in business personal property.

The project also creates significant jobs, a minimum of $1,000 full-time jobs would be required to avoid a reduction of proposed incentives, and 600 full-time jobs must be created to avoid a full forfeiture of proposed incentives.

Staff have also proposed employment milestones for the operating years one through five of the agreement to incentivize the maximum creation of positions.

The project must maintain an average salary of $67,470, and has a small business goal of 30% on all real property improvement costs.

The proposed incentive term is actually a two-part agreement.

First will be a 10-year tax abatement agreement on 45% of real and business personal property.

The second will be an EDPA job space grant of up to $1 million that's tied to the job milestones that you see indicated on the screen at 100, 350, and 600 jobs combined, there would be a cap on this incentive of 4.5 million.

So to put it in easy terms, if they received the full 1 million dollars of the job-based grant, the tax abatement would be capped at $3.5 million.

So as we do with all of our agreements, we tie in some pretty specific performance agreements to ensure we get the project proposed.

There is minimum capital investment requirements at that $72 million, minimum job commitments at both the 600 and 1,000 job thresholds, and salary requirements at $67,000.

There are also additional salary requirements on this grant, one of which is that in any year that all full-time jobs must maintain, or 50% of all full-time jobs must maintain a salary of at least $60,000.

And then as well as for any contract jobs or jobs that are created by a third party, that those jobs must also maintain 50% 50% of those jobs must also maintain that 60,000 salary, or there's no incentive type towards those jobs.

They wouldn't count towards the credit requirement.

So why this project?

So Mock Industries is an aerospace and defense manufacturer, which is a Fort Worth economic development target industry.

The project represents a large creation of skilled manufacturing and engineering positions.

This is also a growing company and a growing industry sector where we're seeing a lot of innovative technologies and advanced manufacturing being integrated.

And so we see this as having a lot of job growth potential in Fort Worth.

So before I kind of turn to the project summary, I want to highlight the competitive landscape on this project.

This was a competitive project.

Mock brought on a site selection consultant that conducted a national search, and we were in competition with sites both in Texas and outside of Texas.

When we're looking at where we might have competitive disadvantages, other sites might offer more aggressive incentive packages, they might offer a lower cost of labor.

And so in our negotiations with this company, and we have been in discussion since November on this particular project to give a timeline of how long sometimes these things take, the company has indicated that our ability to offer incentives and demonstrate local support has made Fort Worth the preferred location.

And the company does anticipate anticipate making a final decision on their location by the third quarter of 2026.

Alright, so just to recap, this project is a $74 million capital investment split between real property and business personal property.

The project represents the creation of out of a thousand full-time jobs with a minimum of 600, with average salaries above our requirement at 67,470.

At full build out, that represents 67 million dollars in new annual payroll.

And then lastly, on our public-private participation, we are well below our threshold there at 2.7% and about a $37 to 1 private to public ratio.

And I'd also point out that in terms of net tax revenue, this project rep would represent over a million dollars in new taxes over the 10-year projection window.

And so with that, I would just uh entertain any questions related to the proposed incentive.

Questions for staff?

Yes, Councilmore Flores.

I don't have a question, but I just wanted to point out again that it's rather impressive the trajectory of this company, you know, founded by Ethan Thornton at 19.

You know, formerly went to MIT.

Now it's nearly worth close to 500 million dollars.

I was not doing that at 19 years old.

Or was I.

So yeah, supportive of them.

Any other questions or comments?

Yes, please try.

Thank you, Mayor.

So this is absolutely the future.

I mean, sadly, we may lose or I may lose one of my district directors to go become an attack drone operator, which is probably the coolest job in the world, and an instructor.

So he's gonna teach others how to be an attack drone operator.

So I'm impressed by the thousand full-time jobs.

Um, because right now we do have a lot of really bad information going around, especially in the social media circles, as far as the city giving corporations money, giving businesses money, and since they have to spend that money first and they get a rebate, but then the long term city definitely wins in this one.

Um so any future communications that we do, like really pointing out.

I mean, it was kind of headline was buried.

The 67.4 million estimated in new annual payroll, that's a big deal.

I mean, that's property taxes coming in.

I mean, that's spending money here locally.

Um school districts that benefit from that as well.

Um so to me, it sounds like a great project, especially the uh the 2.7, which you said is it's pretty incredible, and that 36.8-1.

Those are all good news stories.

Um, and so I'm pretty excited about this project.

And I'm sure um Councilman Jameson is as well.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you, as usual, for your professionalism and to mock thank you for being here.

Okay, counsel, that's the last of our council presentations before we move into an executive session.

Are there any future agenda items you'd like us to address?

Yes, Councilman Larson.

We'll go again.

Um last month we received really uh great update from police or the public safety committee, received a great update on e-bikes, uh e-scooters.

Um I'd like to bring that presentation as well as the recommendations that I know Chief Garcia and his team are working on.

I'd like to bring that to this work session so we can discuss it here uh as a council and then hopefully bring it to mayor council for decision changes because I know that's affecting everyone here with how fast and dangerous, and I hate to be the fun sponge and take fun away from any kids, but it is definitely becoming an issue and hearing from some emergency room nurses who are seeing just a dramatic increase in head injuries to youth.

Uh, my wife and I just got back from DC, we were riding around scooters, they're a lot of fun.

Um, but in all of our parks, a lot of our our neighborhoods, they're becoming more of one more and more of an issue that we just haven't had before.

So I'd like to bring that to this body so we can discuss it here, uh, as well as the recommendations that Chief Garcia will be making at that time.

Anyone else?

Yeah, Councilman Crane.

Uh yeah, I've visited Fire Station 23, and they mentioned something about the locutions locution system that's supposed to be in our fire stations.

I'd love just an update on when that will be installed in all the fire stations.

I'm sure it's gonna be sent to everybody.

It can be an IR or an email, it doesn't matter.

Anyone else?

Okay, with that, the city council will now convene into executive session on the following matters.

Seek the advice of its attorneys is authorized by section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code.

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

Deliberate concerning economic development negotiations is authorized by section 551.087 of Texas Government Code, and deliberate concerning security is authorized by Section 551.076 and section 551.089 of the Texas Government Code.