OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Fort Worth City Council Work Session - August 25, 2026

City Council — Tuesday, August 25, 2026
BodyFort Worth, Texas
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, August 25, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:15:46

Transcript — Verbatim
3:14

Good morning.

3:14

I'll get us started.

3:19

Welcome to your city council work session.

3:21

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

3:25

Good morning, Mayor and Council, and everyone in the audience.

3:28

Welcome to our work session today.

3:31

Under upcoming and recent events, I'd like to let everybody know that we will not be having a CCPD board meeting after this meeting since the uh board adopted its budget on Friday.

3:44

And under organizational updates, uh, I'd like to um confirm that James Horton, I will be appointing James Horton as the new interim fire chief.

3:56

And uh on the council's work session or um agenda later today, a resolution to confirm his appointment as fire chief.

4:04

Uh we'll be there for your um consideration.

4:08

Next, I'm gonna call on Kristen Smith to introduce uh a couple of new assistant directors in her department.

4:24

Very excited to announce uh two of our AD vacancies are currently filled.

4:29

So um one face is very familiar to you, uh, Christy Lemon, who has been with the city over twenty years and has lived many lives and uh had many roles most recently as the assistant director of finance.

4:43

Uh, she joins our HR team effective yesterday as our AD of shared services.

4:49

So um HRS, um, talent, organizational development, uh, and many special projects are going to be coming Christie's way.

4:58

Anything to add?

5:01

All right.

5:02

And then also Sandra Medley is our assistant director of employee relations and business partnerships.

5:09

This is a new portfolio on our team, making sure that we are directly connected to our highest risk areas, including employee relations, labor relations, compliance, regulatory leave.

5:25

She's also a veteran and will be helping us with compliance programs in that area.

5:29

So super excited for both of you.

5:32

All right.

5:33

Congratulations.

5:39

Okay.

5:40

Moving on to informal reports.

5:43

First report we have is development activity report for October.

5:51

DJ Harrell, actually, he's not here today.

5:53

Jellin.

5:54

Oh, he is here.

5:55

He chains it up on me.

5:58

DJ Harell from Development Services here to answer any questions?

6:04

Okay.

6:04

Next report is proposed contractor accountability process.

6:08

Again, DJ's here to answer any questions.

6:10

Councilor Rebecca.

6:11

I have a couple of questions, DJ.

6:14

While you're um making your way to the podium, thank you so much for for putting this program together in response to some bad actors we had.

6:24

So thank you for the work that you've done.

6:25

I think it's pretty well fleshed out.

6:27

I have one question.

6:28

So we um the process we have now is that if they have or we will have as a result of this, if a contractor has three violations in a 12-month period, and so the only thing I'm concerned about, or a question I have is is that 12-month period long enough?

6:49

Like realistically speaking, right, houses or building projects take a long time.

6:54

So should that be 24 months, right?

6:57

Like how realistically, how often are people committing that?

7:02

Um good morning, mayor and counsel DJ Horel Development Services.

7:06

Uh thank you for that question.

7:07

I I think we looked at 12 months because we thought, you know, as a contractor, being not being able to do construction in the city of Fort Worth for a 12-month cycle, it's a pretty big deal to oh no, I'm okay with that.

7:21

I'm okay with the punishment period.

7:22

I'm talking about the look back period that we have.

7:25

So right now it says that they commit three violations in a 12-month period.

7:28

And so it does is that long enough to capture our habitual violators.

7:33

I guess so.

7:34

My question is if I pull a permit for project one and I'm a habitual violator on that, you know, that one say I have one or two, and then my next project, because construction takes a while, is 13 months, and then I I do the same thing.

7:49

We've we've time limited ourselves out of what we know is a habitual violator.

7:55

They just don't pull permits as maybe as regularly as other people.

8:00

Yes, ma'am.

8:00

We can certainly look at 24 months.

8:02

Um, in general, our development community in the city of the city of Fort Worth is pretty familiar.

8:08

Okay.

8:08

Um, generally the folks that do work without a permit or cover up work without getting inspections are folks that are kind of fly by night, generally don't see them as frequent flyers.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Works██████████████████████22%
Budget Equity Analysis████████████████16%
Economic Development███████████11%
Personnel Matters██████6%
Public Transportation██████6%
Technology and Innovation█████5%
Procedural████4%
Zoning████4%
Parks and Recreation████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Fort Worth City Council Work Session - August 25, 2026

The Fort Worth City Council held a work session on August 25, 2026, to receive presentations and discuss several key items including the DFW Airport FY27 budget, a proposed economic development agreement with Carrier Corporation, updates on the 2026 bond program, and the contractor accountability process. Council members also raised future agenda items for staff follow-up.

Discussion Items

  • DFW Airport FY27 Budget Presentation: Brian Butler, CFO, presented the $1.63 billion budget (operating $820.6M, debt service $801.8M, contingency $10M). Passenger forecast of 87.7 million (2.6% increase). Landing fee set at $4.40 per 1,000 lbs, terminal rental rate $460/sq ft. Tax sharing to Fort Worth was $13 million in FY25. Council asked several questions; a joke about renaming to "Fort Worth Dallas International Airport" was made.
  • Public Facilities Improvement Corporation (PFIC) Projects: Two projects requested designation as PFIC eligible: (1) Purchase of three international cargo buildings from Prologis for ~$100M (internal rate of return 15.7%) plus lease extensions; (2) Acquisition of Hyatt Regency DFW for ~$193.65M. Both were approved by PFIC and airport boards and require city council approval. Councilmember Flores noted no material impact on city funds.
  • DFW Airport Code Change: Request to reduce speed limit on International Parkway from 55 mph to 45 mph due to congestion from construction. Speeding tickets go to Grapevine Municipal Court.
  • Economic Development Agreement with Carrier Corporation: Presented by Brianna Brown. Carrier proposes a $433.8 million advanced manufacturing facility in Alliance (Council District 10), creating 495 jobs with average wages of $55,000. The city would offer a 7-year, 60% tax abatement valued at $10.9M (net present value $8.7M). City would be cash positive year one, with net new taxes of $7.3M over the term. Staff recommended bringing the agreement and Texas Enterprise Zone nomination to council on September 15.
  • 2026 Bond Project Schedule: April Rose Escamilla presented the $845M voter-authorized bond program. An extendable commercial paper (ECP) program of up to $845M will allow early funding. A baseline schedule shows 156 projects; a new dashboard provides interactive, district-level tracking by quarter. A public bond website is expected in early 2027. Council praised the dashboard.
  • Contractor Accountability Process Update: DJ Harrell presented the proposed process for repeat violators (three violations in 12-month period lead to suspension). Councilor Rebecca questioned whether the 12-month lookback period is sufficient, suggesting 24 months. Interim Building Official Rachel Parrish noted 850 complaints/year for work without permits (70% from citizens). Staff agreed to examine the 24-month option. Councilor Hall requested a report on prevalence of violators. Councilor Flores asked for a similar process for zoning accountability. Staff will consider adding notification to council about properties with violations.
  • Panther Island Form-Based Code Update: Francisco Vega presented an update on the Vision 2.0 plan, reducing the number of subdistricts from 9 to 2 (Panther Island Core and Panther Island Edge). The new code removes the non-permitted use table and adds a permitted use table for clarity. A regulating plan identifies street types and waterfront design rules. Councilor Flores emphasized the importance of this update.
  • Budget Responses and Future Agenda Items: Christian Simmons took follow-up questions. Councilor Rebecca asked about funding for the door-to-door vendor registration program (staff said it is budgeted at $30,000 revenue neutral). Budget discussion included a possible $324,000 addition for alleyway mowing (Councilor Larson noted may consider sister cities funding). Councilor Hill requested an overview of sales tax collections over past 5 years. Future agenda items included: update on smoke shops operating under general commercial COs (Councilor Larson), reducing residential speed limits to 25 mph (Councilor Larson, with staff to revisit prior study), feasibility of a street maintenance fee similar to Dallas/DART (Councilor Larson), history of Trinity Metro sales tax sharing (Councilor Mjolrsdorf), exterior inspection process for COs (Councilor Craig), risk fund payouts and outside counsel costs (Councilor Craig), property acquisition under the good natured program (Councilor Craig), and summer programming metrics at community centers (Councilor McCall).

Key Outcomes

  • Council will consider resolutions at a future meeting (likely September 15) to approve the DFW Airport FY27 budget, designate PFIC projects and approve lease extensions, and amend the airport speed limit code.
  • The economic development agreement with Carrier will be brought to council on September 15 for approval.
  • Staff will report back on extending the contractor violation lookback period to 24 months and on prevalence data.
  • The bond program dashboard will be updated quarterly; a public website is in development.
  • Staff will prepare responses to the future agenda items requested by council members.
  • No formal votes were taken during the work session; all discussions were preparatory.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning. I'll get us started. Welcome to your city council work session. I'll call a meeting to order and turn it over to Jay Choppa. Good morning, Mayor and Council, and everyone in the audience. Welcome to our work session today. Under upcoming and recent events, I'd like to let everybody know that we will not be having a CCPD board meeting after this meeting since the uh board adopted its budget on Friday. And under organizational updates, uh, I'd like to um confirm that James Horton, I will be appointing James Horton as the new interim fire chief. And uh on the council's work session or um agenda later today, a resolution to confirm his appointment as fire chief. Uh we'll be there for your um consideration. Next, I'm gonna call on Kristen Smith to introduce uh a couple of new assistant directors in her department. Very excited to announce uh two of our AD vacancies are currently filled. So um one face is very familiar to you, uh, Christy Lemon, who has been with the city over twenty years and has lived many lives and uh had many roles most recently as the assistant director of finance. Uh, she joins our HR team effective yesterday as our AD of shared services. So um HRS, um, talent, organizational development, uh, and many special projects are going to be coming Christie's way. Anything to add? All right. And then also Sandra Medley is our assistant director of employee relations and business partnerships. This is a new portfolio on our team, making sure that we are directly connected to our highest risk areas, including employee relations, labor relations, compliance, regulatory leave. She's also a veteran and will be helping us with compliance programs in that area. So super excited for both of you. All right. Congratulations. Okay. Moving on to informal reports. First report we have is development activity report for October. DJ Harrell, actually, he's not here today. Jellin. Oh, he is here. He chains it up on me. DJ Harell from Development Services here to answer any questions? Okay. Next report is proposed contractor accountability process. Again, DJ's here to answer any questions. Councilor Rebecca. I have a couple of questions, DJ. While you're um making your way to the podium, thank you so much for for putting this program together in response to some bad actors we had. So thank you for the work that you've done. I think it's pretty well fleshed out. I have one question. So we um the process we have now is that if they have or we will have as a result of this, if a contractor has three violations in a 12-month period, and so the only thing I'm concerned about, or a question I have is is that 12-month period long enough? Like realistically speaking, right, houses or building projects take a long time. So should that be 24 months, right? Like how realistically, how often are people committing that? Um good morning, mayor and counsel DJ Horel Development Services. Uh thank you for that question. I I think we looked at 12 months because we thought, you know, as a contractor, being not being able to do construction in the city of Fort Worth for a 12-month cycle, it's a pretty big deal to oh no, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the punishment period. I'm talking about the look back period that we have. So right now it says that they commit three violations in a 12-month period.

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