you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you I will now call to order the City Council meeting and ask Mr. Alex Buskin or city secretary to please call the roll. Thank you mayor Williams Alex Buskin city secretary. I'll now call the roll mayor Williams present council member Moeys Council member K part Council member Sutton Present council member peel President council member Nunez. Mayor Protem Shepard. Present. Deputy Mayor Protem for our mayors. Present. Council Member Odom Wesley. Present. Thank you, Alex. Before we begin, I'm going to ask Alex to explain the format we're using and to lay out some housekeeping rules. Thank you, Mayor Williams. Alex Buskin, City Secretary. I will be assisting with some of the technical aspects of this meeting. I'd like to mention a few items before we begin. This meeting is being held by video conference so that we can advance the public health goal of minimizing face-to-face meetings, also known as social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. Governor Abbott has suspended some of the requirements of the Texas Open Meetings Act, which is allowing us to meet in this manner. The link to the online location where video of this meeting is available can be found by going to the city's webpage at www.arlingtontxtcgov and clicking on the I Want to button at the top right and selecting watch city council meetings. This meeting can also be watched on AT&T Uverse channel 99 and Spectrum channel 16 and 15.1. The agenda packet containing materials to be discussed during the meeting can be found by going to the city's webpage at www.arlingtontx.gov and clicking on agendas. Here's some pieces of basic information we want you to know about this meeting. This meeting is being recorded and this recording will be posted on the City of Arlington's webpage. The City Council will not be voting during this meeting. For members of the Council, please ensure that you are in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed during this call. Background noise can be very challenging in a meeting like this, so if you can have your own device on mute when you are not talking. That would be helpful. If any member of the council has to leave the meeting, you're requested to identify yourself at the time that you leave the meeting as well as at the time that you return. When a member of the council wants to make a comment, please hold up your card and wait until you're recognized by the mayor before you begin to speak. Do the members of the council have any questions for me? Thank you, Mr. Buskin. We'll now begin the meeting and for each item that is presented, I will call on the presenter for that item. Once the presentation is completed, I will ask if each council member has comments by asking you to hold up the red card that was provided to you. I will call on each of you as I see your card. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. With that, we'll now move into executive session. The City Council will now go into closed session at 1.54 p.m. on October 13, 2020, and accordance with the following sections of VTCA Government Code chapter 551.071 consultation with attorney 0.072 deliberation regarding real property 0.087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Well now call the Auditing and City Council back to order for our work session here in the afternoon. Our first item is 3.1 MWBE Program overview and I'll call upon our City Manager, Mr. Trey Yeverton. Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council. The purpose of this afternoon's session on our MWBE Program overview is to follow up the report that you all received at your last meeting regarding the availability and disparity report. So I've asked Reginald Cleveland and Mike Finley to come back and based on some of the questions that you all asked during that discussion, provide a little bit of a quick history of kind of where we've been in recent years, what we've done, where we are, as well as the recommendations that we heard last last time and to try to facilitate some discussion around what our next steps are and to get some feedback from you all regarding how we would move forward and some of our future contracting opportunities. So I will let Reginald come up and talk a little bit about kind of that history and then then Mike will we'll back clean up as it relates to trying to take us on next steps wherever you all see fit. Thank you. Good afternoon mayor city council. Reginald Cleveland, M.B. coordinator and as Trey mentioned kind of give you an overview of the city's M.W. policy from a historical standpoint and kind of give you some ideas of where we based upon the A&D study where we look to go or move forward to. And so... Here we go. As you can see in June 2013, the city hired their MWB coordinator by December the City Council approved resolution 1330 which adopted the city's first MWP policy and established a good faith evergoal of 20%. One year later the City Council received their first MW Spin report, part of the Corley Informal Staff Report, and as such, the city achieved a 9% MW Spin. And at this point, that's when we made certain that we started tracking those companies who were certified through the various different agencies that we recognize to date. As of May 2016, the resolution was made by City Council to increase the goal from 20% to 25%. And this was part of an initiative to include the business community and various stakeholders in looking at the policy and what it can do to provide more teeth to it. policy and what it can do to provide more teeth to it. And excuse me, August of 2017, Mr. Wilvalasco was hired as our new procurement manager. We pre that position was previously held by Miss DeBroek Rejo. And in December 2017, IONWave was implemented. And in order to help our suppliers be able to not only obtain bidding opportunities but in the anticipation of it doing electronic bidding. As of October 1st 2018, a budget was approved to fund our AMD study. By February 2019, a contract was approved and executed with Colette Holt and Associates. And within the timeframe between August, 2019 through February of 2020, CH advisors received contract data from the city from all various formal contracts, so it includes purchasing both construction design as well as professional services. And as of January 20, procurement began to more centralize the informal quote process. And again, started the electronic responses for just only quotes. They also made it possible for companies to also for them to receive bids, but electronically was placed more as a option versus as a requirement. And as for March through May of 2020, CHA viruses perform, they're based upon the data that they receive, then they started looking at the utilization, availability, disparity as well as the economic wide analysis of that information to come up with the report that they provided. And back in April of 2020, procurement then allowed electronic responses for all their formal solicitations. So I want to be specific, it's for procurementally. They wanted to make certain that they have any bugs that they were able to have those flushed out prior to seeking to roll it out citywide. And as of June 2020, the city finally met at 25% MWBE Span Gold, which we'll do to the efforts of not only the various city departments, but many of our MWBE business community who saw the opportunity to do business with the city and were able to be able to be awarded prime contracts. And then as of last month in September, the final AMD study report was presented. And just a little bit about the policy itself. Of course, the city has a 25% participation. Good faith, ever go. And of course, with having a policy, we do encourage participation, but it is not used in our contract award. So as you know, we do not establish goals on our projects. So we, and as such, we look to our primes to make every efforts to utilize some use, use those MWBEs and also counter opportunities. But it also, we do encourage those same MW firms to be it as primes. And as of 2012, the city has seen the participation grow from 5% to 25% and that is as of their core 2020. And as you can see here, based on the line graph, this is how the city has done in the past eight years. And so you can see a significant increase, a little dip there in 2018. But as of such, 2020, we got to be able to get to that 25% that was approved some years ago. Now, based upon the AMD study and the recommendations made by CH advisors, these are some of the things that we felt that we should also recommend to you, our City Council members. And one is overall goal but not be industry specific goals. And what we mean by that is a number of our other cities or municipalities have goals based upon industry, construction, design, professional services and procurement. We feel that by having one particular goal, that makes it very much easier for us to be able to track and be looked at our spin. We do anticipate that we'll be able to look at those things individually, but as a whole, it makes it that much easier for our MWB Business Community to know what to expect and look for. And of course, we would be looking to utilize utilize project specific goals. So in that instance, we would reviewing subcontracting opportunities, but also along with that we would be looking at ensuring that those solicitations that we minimize any barriers that those firms may feel would limit them having the opportunity to be able to be as primes, but also for any of our prime contractors to be able to successfully come with commitments that we feel would meet the city's requirements. And of course, the MWGO would be a contractual requirement throughout the contract, but throughout the project. And so it will make certain that whatever commitments they make in the front end that they will be insured that they would meet or preference would be to exceed those goals at the end of the contract. In terms of the short term, and this is from three to six months, we will be looking at implementing a diversity contract management system that would not only look in terms of compliance but most importantly look at payments. Many of our firms have historically had the issue of late payments or having to have those payments spread out over a longer period of time which has a detrimental effect on them being able to stay and be sustainable. So we want to make certain that if in our case where we are required to pay our So we want to make certain that if in our case where we are required to pay our Primes within 30 days we'll be looking for all those same firms to be paid in a shorter period of time To again with that monitoring system and make certain that these firms are getting reimbursed for the services Good services that they provide it And in order to have an MW program you are going to have to have staff But in terms of the short term we will see, this thing will be looking at adding two or three additional staff members, both looking on from the front end and possibly even the back end of terms of compliance. We would look to increase our vending communications and outreach from what we're currently doing right now and making it more targeted and specific. One of the things that we just recently did last week was we hosted an informational session with regards to our annual RFQ, which was an opportunity for companies to not only be familiarized with that particular process, but kind of gave some recommended dues and don'ts to hopefully ensure that many of the companies provide competitive proposals and make it, in any case, it's that difficult for us to really be able to make a choice. Everything is more closely apples to apples. And of course, we would be important to have as post COVID-19 having pre-bid and pre-proposal conferences. We find that that is an essential part in terms of networking, allowing those MWBE firms and small firms to be familiar with the general contractors or that out there. And really, you hear, and it is true, people tend to do this with people they know. So the more opportunities that they able to know who are those typical firms that be a project, and even the ones that are new that can start the process in terms of being able to look at which each other's capabilities, whether they're assets, whether they're what they can and cannot do in terms of being able to come back and be able to help the city to be able to grow our numbers. The other part in our terms of our short term within four to six months is they've mentioned about reducing barriers to our prime contracts. And that involves that department going in on the front end very early on prior to those solicitations going out, looking at the specifications. Trying to see whether or not our insurance and insurance is it really necessary, especially for example if we're buying widgets. Do we really need $2 million for that particular vendor? Is that something that in the interest of the city that that's something that we can waive? In terms of our bonding, would it be such to wear for some of our smaller projects. As such could the prime contractor themselves take over the ownership of the bonding and not place those requirements upon the subcontractors. Another area that we are recommending and looking at is definitely prequalification. And that was something that was definitely mentioned in the study. We would like to suggest that for those projects under a million dollars that there is no pre-qualification requirements. So again, encouraging those all firms, both small and M2B firms that have done business elsewhere in a dollars-four area that they can look at the city. And in the case when we do use prequalifications, that it is for projects that exceeds that $1 million threshold, and that we try to limit it to those major areas. And of course, if we, since we are doing prequalification, it also helps for those companies to know, and I'm saying what necessarily do they need to do to make certain that they are able to get prequalified and improved, so we're definitely offering to have that training that's made available. Whether it be, in this case, of course, it would be through videos, through virtual meetings. But of course, once we get past COVID-19, we can also make it available to where it can be a little bit more in person. And of course, sanitizing our contracting language requirements and procurement processes just to really make it that much easier for the vendor community to kind of be familiar with and know, okay, if whatever contract whether it be procurement, whether it be from design, whether it be any type of formal solicitations that you're looking at some of the similar language. Now of course, we understand in many cases, some of those solicitations by the nature are going to be different. Construction is not going to be same in procurement. But in terms of the contractual language it all should remain the same terms of the times that bids are due when it goes out there should be some commonality that goes with it. And of course, from a long-term standpoint, definitely should we have a division? Then of course, we would like to have that increase to four staffs and so that you can kind of see what that would make up would be, would be an end-to-e-manager business analyst as well as contract compliance analyst. And that would be important for a stamp of ensuring that those firms that are participating in the project as subcontractors that obviously they're being paid but also that there's any changes that all parties are fully aware of it that there is no surprises and that at the very least that there is a good working relationship throughout the project. We will look to enhance our performance measures. Currently, right now, the things that we look at is, of course, the quantity and the number of our BITS proposals that are being submitted by our MWE vendor community, as well as our quotes. But we're going to be looking a little bit further as well as in terms of, now, at that point, how are we able to base upon having a program are we seeing more bids and awards to MW firms are we seeing more of our contracts increasing the number and dollars of MWBE subcontractors and of course we will be reviewing those bids and proposals to make certain that they are going to be prior to award meeting the city's MWBE goals. And of course, finally, we'll be looking at the program in terms of reauthorization. So within the year, has it done what we have said it to do? Has it, are we getting the firms that we're looking for? Are we getting the first group of firms? Not just the ones who have been successful thus far in getting contracts, but we've seen new firms coming in. And so that would be something that we'd be looking at on annual basis, but also we would need to, it was recommended by a consultant that we look at a sunset date. So this would be something in terms of over, over, in this case, we look at seven years and seeing where we are based on those performance measures that we have established and seeing whether or not has we have we met the goal in terms of not only the numbers but in terms of the activities of the firms that are participating here at the city. recommended by the city council to reauthorize and continue the program. Then, of course, we would initiate another study to make certain that are we doing the things that we're supposed to be doing? Are there areas of shrimp? If there are areas of weaknesses that we can look for improvements. So you would be in essence a SWOT analysis. And so with that, are there any questions before I turn it over to Mike? So with that, are there any questions before I turn it over to Mike? Mr. Sutton. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Ratswell. I certainly appreciate the update and the recommendations. On the, so from 2012, the 2020, we went from 5%, to 25% is that correct? That is correct. Hard to 2012. What was the climate like for contracts within WBEs? I would not know that with becoming on board in June 2013. It was requested by one of our city council members to really kind of look back at what our participation was. And based on the information that we had available, 2012 was pretty much that was the limit of the participation or terms of contracts. I was able to go back and look and see those firms that actually have done work with the city either at the prime level or possibly at a indirect level. Thank you and so with them WBE we have the MWBE and we have the non MWBE ZEC correct and is it a 25 75 percentage ratio in terms of payments. Yes and I appreciate your outreach effort and trying to increase participation but within WBEs my concern is the equity part of it. We have the African-Americans, we have the Hispanics, and we have the white females and the others in there. Within that 25% frame, are you able to dive deep in there and give me a percentage as a deposit to those ethnicities? In terms of, yes, as far as for FY 2013, in terms of solicitation responses, we did, unfortunately did not get, we see Vinnie in MWBE. In the aging community, we had 8% responses. African-Americans was one. His spenic was nine. White females were eight. We have the nominority the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We have the number of people in the county. We as of FY 23rd quarter. Okay. As far as contract awards, contract awards, that was also 1%. So we're looking at 1% 23 22.5% of the population and 1%, but 25% is the goal for them to be overall correct. Right. So do you think the outreach have helped doing this process part of the disparity study? Not to the degree that we would feel comfortable. Yes, we have been seeing more activities, especially in the areas of the quotes. We had roughly about, whereas in terms of the quote responses from first quarter leading up to the third quarter, we had roughly about 17% African Americans that responded to those quotes. And so there are pockets where we are seeing more African Americans participating. It's unfortunate we're not necessarily the numbers does not are the same when it comes to some of our other larger, especially our construction and design contracts. There are a few firms that have responded, but not to the level that we feel satisfied and comfortable. And I thank you and I certainly appreciate your effort and trying to build that equity. Can you just one more quick question, Mayor? And I'll be done. Can you explain how Dallas and Fort Worth MWBE program difference as force participation with the African Americans and why the percentage are a little bit higher than our city? I'll based on one of the conversations I had with our consultant and one of the things that Ms. Holt indicated was, and she found this to be true on all of their studies, is that when you have a municipality that has an MWB goal, firms feel more comfortable, they feel that there's an opportunity or chance to be successful, to successfully be able to respond. And so by us not having that program, I think that does kind of give us a question of whether or not should a company spend the time on the effort to respond. Thank you, I appreciate it. Welcome. I think it'd be important right here. There was a major presentation just made. I don't want to negate the fact that this was, we're looking at adding two to three staff members to do exactly that of getting out here in the Metroplex and searching there to network and to find companies of all ethnicity. But yes, very importantly, we need to find more African-American companies. They're needless to say, we're going to do that. And so this is a new program in which we are beefing up our efforts, one, to find them. But also, I thought there was another key point in there that I want to emphasize. And that is helping them through the process. So they feel comfortable here with Arlington's process and then also even to help with providing network events through pre-proposal. That is a very important part because the vendors are actually looking for companies to partner with when they come to these. And it is in it can establish relationships that go on. But also that is a key time to teach also in what all is going to be needed. There in it and Reginald's been doing a whole lot. He has some help, but yet this is going to be very valuable help. They're in us moving ahead and and something that is really needed and a direct result of a recommendation there that came out of the disparity. So I just want to express a extreme support therefore adding adding those people there to help move us ahead. And then it's very significant there, yes, that we've moved from 8 to 25 percent. But however, the problem that we do have a deficiency in African-American vendors, suppliers, contractors. And so it is a problem throughout the Metroplex. And Dallas and Fort Worth have this problem, make no mistake. And I would like for us with our department to reach out much further than Dallas and Fort Worth. I would like for us to reach out to cities across America that are having success and see anything that they may be doing because I'll just quote Bob Rae Sanders with a greater Fort Worth black chamber who said that Arlington is setting new standards here or we where we need to be but he said that you know you're doing more than most of cities here. Well that's not good enough. We want to do more, but I don't want to set our standard to be whatever Dallas is doing or whatever North is doing. We're all you know working at this together but want to stretch out and find successful cities that are that are doing it and to find that out. Well, now we have some more manpower to or will have some more manpower to to be able to do that to actually make it happen. And then the other part here is that I hope through this networking that occurs that we will see expanded services that happen among our MWBE contractors and specifically our African American contractors to where they are providing more of the services that we need here in the city. Because we can't change the services that we need. They are what they are. But however, if companies will change their offerings and then also there are bright people within some of these companies that I hope will start their MWBE firm realizing that there are a lot of services that are crying out for the need for an MWBE contractor and especially an African American contractor along the way. So with that Mr. Peale then Dr. Odom Wesley. Okay are you Mayor you you at you discuss the things I was going to bring up we're good. Okay Dr. Odom Wesley. Thank you very much thank you Reginald for this this report and thank you Mayor for your comments and I'm real pleased to see that we are taking immediate steps to implement the recommendations from the disparity study. I have one question. One of the recommendations was to increase communication and outreach to MWBEs. And I heard you talk about pre-bid conferences and that kind of thing. Another thing that I read in the report was that we should develop some webinars and I guess videos that the MWBE potential firms that we would use could access whether or not we're able to meet in Perk. Can y'all see me? Just been blank. Are you out there? We still see you. We can see you. We can see you. Oh, okay. I can't see anybody. You're still alive. You're still alive. My screen went blank. Okay. What was I saying? Oh, the webinars. Yeah. There was a recommendation in the study that if you can't do face-to-face, you know, your pre-conferences, your post-conferences, that we should develop a series of webinars or videos that these contractors could access. And one that they named in the recommendations was how to do business with the city. We could do that, that kind of video and then project specific ones. So let's not let the inability to meet face to face keep us from meeting that recommendation. I don't know, did y'all talk about development webinars and videos, Reginald? I'm glad you mentioned that. We actually, when COVID hit for a time, we didn't host it. But for the last couple, several months, we have since started having those monthly supply means on Microsoft team. And so we've actually had an increase in a number of companies who have attended it based upon not no longer having to go out be there in person having to drive. So we anticipate that we'll continue to do so. I think the, what I find will probably be the balance will be once we post COVID-19, how to be able to allow for that in person, but also make ourselves available for those companies who are not able to be there in person. So that's a good problem for us to work through. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other quite Mr. Peale. I do have one last thing. I mentioned this before. Have any of the applicants or whenever you reach out to potential bidders? Have any of them mentioned the lack of access to professional services such as legal services or accounting services is something that dislikes them from bidding because the, you know, some of these city contracts forms are pretty intimidating and bid packages are pretty intimidating. And do you even ask them that question when somebody reaches out and then subsequently does not submit a bid? Usually I don't get it in that regards but I do make the make information available to them on a various different business assistant agencies and organizations like the Terrence Small Business Development Center or SCORE, the different chambers that they provide those type of assistance and based upon the last council meeting afterwards I actually had that in mind and so not to step out there that is something that I'll be trying to look at as far as making available resources for companies to assist on both legal and accounting services. Because sometimes just that, you know, going back to what Barbara said about webinars, you know, a kind of a video that walks people through the bid form and through the bid process on the timeline for bid so that somebody, a young man or young woman who is, you know, wanting to start his own business isn't as intimidated about participating in the process. I agree with Barbara that webinars are a very powerful tool during this time because what I found among many businesses color is that they want to learn. They want to understand and they're hungry and they will fight to understand and figure it out if that opportunity is presented to them. And sometimes you have to kind of have something basic on hand to walk people through. That's what I do is a lawyer for new contractors. I walk them through the bid process and it's a it's a very long and involved process like I said before it can be intimidating but it would be great for us to have tools that people can demystify the process and get educated. Well just to give you a heads up we are looking to do a collaboration with the Terrence Small Business Development Center and they're going to be sometime within the next month. We'll be hosting a webinar on bidding 101. And so we feel that that would be an opportunity for a lot of companies. We'll definitely share that information with you so you can share with your constituents or other businesses on just be understanding not only the different types of procurement processes and that's tools that are available but really just kind of the basic, basics when it comes to just meeting a bit. And you know I've been dealing with procurement and city and government entities for almost 20 years and sometimes it still intimidates me so I can only imagine what it's like for the young person starting their business. Absolutely. Dr. Odom Wesley. It's just still on mute. Yeah, you're still on mute. Tell you why don't we move forward to Mr. Finley and then maybe you can figure it out there between that. Mr. Finley still has a little little bit to present here to us. Thank you Mayor, members of the Council, Mike Finley, Chief Financial Officer. Sort of the to help us move forward. We're looking for some council feedback on four, four items. So as you know, our current MWBE is, has aspirational goals. Reginald had mentioned several things that we could do if we actually adopted an MWBE program. So the first piece of feedback that we're looking for from you all is, are you, would you like us to bring back forward a resolution for your consideration adopting an MWBE program, a formal MWBE program with the items that Mr. Cleveland had in his presentation? I think it's paramount that we have staff move forward on a program and then Council can review it there I think that's kind of seem to have any objection to staff moving forward on an MWBE program. Then coming back, yes, Mr. Sutton. Thank you, Mayor. I can fully support that program itself. I like to see annual goal of at least 30% even if we follow short we'll get above the 25% so all the items that are being presented I can fully support. And where that 30% came from is the 29.2% in the disparity study that said that that's what we in the disparity study that said that that's what we could potentially achieve. So that's where that 30% came from. Okay, anyone else with moving the MWBE program forward with staff? Yes, Dr. Odom was? Okay, she just saying she's in concurrence with that. Okay, any other comments on moving the program, Father? Okay, so with that, staff will move forward on bringing us an MWBE program and then moving to establishing the annual goal of 25 or 30%. There what is the pleasure of the council there on yet. Mr. Sutton has expressed the 30%. Okay. All right. Well, you want to have the staff move forward on looking at what a 30% would look like as part of that. And I would love to see, you know, the potential for being able to achieve that. There, I think there were some numbers that were going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going looking at what a 30% would look like as part of that. And I would love to see, you know, the potential for being able to achieve that. There I think there were some numbers and so forth that we had there in the report, there with it. And then the other is the overall goal that we separate MBE from WBE? You may recall our expert did come forward and say, please do not separate. There are and breakdown are MBE. And she said if you wanted to, you potentially could separate MBE from your WBE, which is our minority versus women, their business enterprise goal. Looks like everybody's kind of differential. Yes, Dr. Odom, it was like. Thank you, Samarron. And I think I'm fixed. I've logged off and came back in, so hopefully everything's working okay. But I do agree with the recommendation to separate it out. It just gives us a better view of what's going on with women old and as you recall, we had an issue about MWBE fraud, because there are some companies that are white male owned and in order to qualify as MWBE fraud because there are some companies that are white male owned and in order to qualify as MWBE, they put the firm in their white wife's name and now they get MWBE funding and MWBE preferences. So when we break it out then I think that helps us look at the fraud. Can I go ahead and ask the other question I had before? Yes, yes please. Okay, another recommendation that I read in the study was that in order to help MWBE firms participate that we give them more feedback once they do submit a bid if they're not successful that they have the opportunity to sit down with staff and walk through with them their bid and show them how the bid could have been improved and how they can win bids going forward. I didn't see that in the recommendations that regional gave. So I just wanted to make sure we included that in the program. Absolutely. Yes ma'am. Okay thank you. Mr. Yelverton. And just to be clear on the goal if we adopt a 30% goal and we split out WBE if my recollection from the numbers I think it was 11% WBE if I'm not mistaken. I think it was 11% WBE if I'm not mistaken. 8, 8, okay. So then it would be 22% MBE 8% WBE was what that would look like if we go that direction. Just want to make sure everybody's clear about that. And then I also want to be clear, Ms. Odomesley, Dr. Odomesley, about the point you make about fraud. We would be very deferential to certification agencies relative to that. We accept the due diligence that those organizations do to tick and tie the corporate structures and the ownership and those kinds of things. We would not be duplicating that effort. So with NTRCA says this is a MBE or a WBE, we accept that at face value. So we're not going to dig deeper on any of those hub certifications other than what they bring to us. So I want to make sure we're clear on that also. And then you know it's indirectly what we're talking about is that when we set a 30% goal, it's overall, it's a potential that the MBEs could end up with more of that 30% than 22% there with it. And of course, it can work the other way too. So it's, you know, you are putting somewhat a limit if you do break it down between MBE versus WBE, they're with it. We're generating those numbers. We have the numbers. It's not, we know what that is. So that's the con there too. And that's what Mr. Yeoverton was pointing out, the con part of it. We've got to Miss Moeese and then Mr. Sutton and then Miss Kaye Parton. So I just want to be certain that I understand the breakup of the goals because if minority and women business enterprises is what we're trying to establish a goal for. We have to assume that women business enterprises may include minority women business enterprises. Are we assuming those are only white women business enterprises? That's a little bit unclear to me because you know I think it's what I'm saying I guess is I'm not really certain why we would break it out. We could break out subcategories in the reporting, but I think having just an overall goal might be less confusing. I'm understanding something correctly. It's final. If I could just, maybe I can clarify a point when we talk about WBE, that means white women. When we talk about the minority, that's men and women owned. That clears it up then. That's a big thank you. I just wanted to be sure I understood that. Okay. Was it Mr. Peale next? Thank you. I just wanted to be sure I understood that. Okay. Was it Mr. Peele next? That wasn't, it wasn't. Mr. Sutton. Mr. Sutton. Yes. Mr. Sutton. Mayor, I can support the split of the MBE and the WBE. I think it helps us target our FCC, which group is underperforming so to speak. So in the case we have now, African-Americans are performing at 1% of the contracts awarded. So with the recommendation, I think that helps us improve those numbers. And I think with that, it helps us direct resources whether and Councilman Pills said that maybe we need to better walk them through the step of what's the requirement or for the bed package or we need to spend more time educating them on the process. So if we split it out we can see what resources need to be directed to underperforming groups. So I can support the split of the MWB and the WBE. Okay, thank you, Ms. K. Bart. Thank you, Mayor. It was interesting for me to listen to all the various comments. But I guess I get hung up on, it's an MWBE program. And I don't understand why we have to segregate them. I don't understand why they can't stay combined, and you can still track them. Don't know what, advantage there is a segregation. So I was supporting leaving them together and not segregating them. And to establish an aspirational goal of 30%, I can agree with, particularly if we seem to be with some regularity exceeding the 25%. And now we're going to have a more defined program, which should lift our numbers even further. I kind of think we're at cross purposes if we establish a higher goal and then separate out MWVEs from white women to minority. I don't know. I just, to me, that segregation that I'm not comfortable with. Okay. Dr. Faur Mars. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not comfortable with. Okay. That's for our Mars. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Reginald, for going through this. And Mike, I agree. I definitely want to adopt an MWP program. I do agree at the higher percentage, 30%. I did ask that question regarding the breakout at the last meeting. And I don't see if we're gonna go for a higher goal, I think having an MWBE, it would be much more clear. I heard Veginal and I reading the report, it said is the more clarity we can bring to our policy and the more simplistic and understanding our policy is. I mean, certainly I would be in favor of us continuing to track the separation internally, absolutely. But I think for the outward facing, I'd like to see the higher percentage and the MWBE goal as higher and together. I do have a question though, Mayor, on the next one, which is created business equity division. I certainly am in favor obviously of providing staff for this but I did have one clarification just for my own notification to make sure I'm understanding completely what the new hires would be because obviously whenever we add FTEs we add long-term cost here so I just want to make sure I'm clear. I'm clear. When we're talking about adding the folks to the division, now let me just be clear on something from the past. A carry who worked with us on the large build project, essentially a carry provided certain services to us and they did a phenomenal job. And so I just wanted to be clear if adding staff inside or outsourcing would make a difference or if there's any kind of sense of part of staff about that. Yeah, so I can go ahead and take that one. Let me just do a brief rundown of what we didn't anticipate the staff would do. There was an MWBE manager. Reginald is the coordinator. So he's a frontline staff. And we're looking at adding a manager. Everyone involved with the MWBE program would be doing outreach. But there's several other components that we would have a higher profile on. There is the pre-participation making sure that the specifications or the bids are written in such a way to include our project goals. There's the contract monitoring after the fact. Then there's also participation on scoring the actual RFPs, any sort of best value bids, that sort of thing. So it's expanding the role. And as you can tell from some of the description, granted some of the outreach and some of the tracking, we could look at whether or not adding staff is the best, but scoring and things like that I think would be more appropriately done in-house. But we can examine that. Thank you, Mr. Finnelly. That does help. I just want to make sure that we, I absolutely am in support of having an equity division. I just want to make sure that we, I absolutely am in support of getting having an equity division. I just want to make sure that we, when we think of budgetary cost long term, are we getting the best value for our investment either in a person in-house or if we can use, as we've done in other areas, effectively external entities that can help us even better with and maybe make a farther reach than we might have. So again, thank you very much, Mr. Finley. Thank you, Mayor. Any other quick, Dr. Olam Wesley? Yes, thank you. I wanted to ask a question about on the last bullet creating the equity division within finance. I read in the disparity report that the I'm going to say that I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able to do that and I'm going to be able It's just kind of a broader, broader context discussion as the Unity Council recommendations come forward. I think we're gonna see additional efforts as far as some other lines of business as it relates to equity questions in the city. And I'm trying to create this in a way that while now it's embedded, if you will, in the finance department, which is where all this activity occurs and clearly will and red and mic all know they have direct access to my office when they need so. I think as we add other components to our outreach and equity efforts, there's gonna be a move eventually to put this area with that. So, we've talked before in the past about a chief equity officer or some type of diversity equity inclusion. I think this moves eventually into that area, which then would be a direct report to the city manager. And I'm just trying to make it happen in an orderly way instead of a little more all over the place. That's kind of my thought. It's a phasing strategy, I guess, to put it more bluntly. And for me, I thought it really does elevate the importance of it. I think you see with City Manager wanting to be involved how important this is to our community there with having that direct line directly to him. OK, let's do this. We're in agreement on 1, two, and four. They're on that. It sounds like. And then so the only thing is whether or not to break our goal down, they're with it. And maybe y'all can look at what other cities are doing and give us a little more information on that. That'll give us a little time to study the number three there. But with us in line on one, two, and four. Dr. Nunez has comment here. Just one short comment. We're all aware of the analysis that we've been looking at over the last eight to ten months and how our MWBE program has failed to include the African-American community to significantly low numbers but I'm in favor of keeping it all under one umbrella and not breaking it out because we're not going to lose side of the goal. I think it just makes it administratively a little bit easier for our staff to work forward because even if we keep it under one umbrella, the statistics are going to get broken out. We're going to see African Americans, we're going to see Latinos, we're going to see women, we're going to see white women and black women, we're going to see it all. I just think it's important to keep it together. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Dr. Nunez. Okay. Any other last comments here, Mr. Yeoverton? Mayor, I might offer some suggestions and maybe some seeds to think about too. As we've looked at our numbers in the last year so really increase, I think it's been largely dependent upon some of our vertical construction that we've seen here with the downtown library and with the two rec centers. We've been very fortunate to have notable vertical build contracts that have helped those numbers work. In the future, the emphasis point that we're starting to put out to the community is there's a lot of horizontal emphasis that needs to be placed in the MWBE world. Because while I know that the city is going to invest horizontally in an ongoing way consistently and notably all the time. The vertical projects happen once every so often, right? And so we've been fortunate they've been clustered here of late. So it's a significant effort on our part to work with MWB firms that are in the piping, the dirt work, the concrete asphalt work, because that's where our sustainable continued investment will be over time. So to whatever degree you all can help me set that expectation, outreach to companies that can evolve into that field or bring people who are in that field now to our opportunities would appreciate y'all's help in that way. And then saying that, I have one kind of exception to that rule, and I would maybe just suggest if y'all are okay, we might use this as a first pilot project if you will for the MWB policy. I'm not sure exactly how the timing all that's gonna align, But we do have a significant vertical project. Well, it's a little bit of both. It's horizontal and vertical that is geared up and we'll be ready to go in the first part of next year, which is the renewal of our water treatment plants out on 287. Together, there's between 90 and $100 million worth of investment, which for us is a very significant investment in a public works type project in the renewal of the Kabala plant and then with the administrative facility at the Pierce Birch plant. And so it really represents a good, in my mind, pilot project, if you will, to take that sizable work and to figure out how to apply our our MWBE efforts to that as it relates to the packages as it relates to the alignment of the the NAIC codes of what you all saw last time of who can do what trade and try to embed in our contract those kind of commitments based on the business line and such so it's hopefully it's one of those kind of win-win scenarios where we do have a big project that's timing-timed well to come based on the business line and such. So it's hopefully it's one of those kind of win-win scenarios where we do have a big project that's timing-timed well to come forward. And if we do it right kind of from the beginning, we can set the table correctly to have a positive outcome on the backside, not only for our ratepayers in the water utility, but also then to help further advance this public policy objective of improving our MWB number. So if you all are okay, I'd love to work with the team to get that project ready kind of as our first demonstration or pilot to see how we can set it up. And we'll learn some lessons, no doubt. I'm sure it won't be perfect. But we want to try to calibrate things a little bit and use that hopefully as a as a boilerplate to refine as we move forward on some of our more traditional horizontal projects if you're okay with that. Everybody all right I see everybody shaking their head there. Okay that is a great pilot project and then for our citizens to make it a little bit clear on building projects there are a lot more MWBE contractors out there to be able to do those. Whenever we start laying utilities and road projects, which is really the bread and butter of what a city does in the way of construction, there aren't as many there, and that's what the city managers talk about the differential between vertical and horizontal. So consequently we're going to have to work harder now to find more MWBEs to participate on the things that we do each and every month there in our services there with it. And of course staff will help, we'll be doing a lot of research and training there along the way. And then hopefully we will see that to come to fruition as we do that. Mr. Peel. Just real quick, you know, one of the challenges with, you know, throwing the net wider is that when you find qualified NWBE contractors, because they are rare, a lot of times they don't come from your community. You'll end up hiring NWBE contractors from El Paso or San Antonio or you know somewhere Lubbock somewhere far away because they're very precious entities to find and meet these goals. And one of the things I hope we discuss if the economic development sales tax passes is, you know, a strategy to grow these vendors and invest in these vendors in Arlington. So that may be a young UTA grad gets a contract and it bases his business in Arlington. But we all have to be realistic that we're going to end up to meet these goals having to reach out to communities far away in Arlington. But we all have to be realistic that we're gonna end up to meet these goals having to reach out to communities far away from Arlington. But in the back burner, we need to look at what we're doing here to help grow these entities that might be able to fulfill these goals in our own backyard. Mr. Pille, you're very wise there and what you said. And in fact, our economic recovery task force now our next steps are to mount a campaign for buying Arlington, shop Arlington, stay Arlington and Arlington eats there because we do need to support our businesses that are here. So we've got to, again, it's never, it's a challenging time. It always is, and we need to be keeping all of this in mind as we move forward there with all of our different contracts there with it. But as we work to recover from this pandemic there, of course, it has gutted the economy but however we have an opportunity here to move forward and it's great to see Arlington doing business successfully even in the midst of this virus and of course we see our numbers starting to creep and I think Dr. Nunez there in foreshadowing that it may be a while before we have the vaccines we are going to have to work very hard to keep support our businesses here so they can continue on as we move forward. But I don't need to go too far field from what we've got here. So with that, anything else? Okay, so with that, we've got a great direction. I'm excited about what we just discussed. I think this was some great work and I think it really laid a firm foundation there here for where we're going from here and looking forward to seeing staff report coming forward. So thank y'all very much for this good work. Okay, next we'll move to our informal staff reports and here on these, there, you know, each one of you have received the written reports on each of these items 4-1-4-4 listed below and so for sake of time, staff will be here to address specific questions you have and anyway if you have none we'll move on but if you do we have the staff member here for each one of these four that is available to answer your questions. Does anybody have any questions on any of these informal staff reports from 4-1-2-4-4? Okay so seeing none then we'll move to our committee meetings and get our committee reports. Oh we did have one. Dr. Odom Wesley. Yes thank you. I had one question on 4.3 the advertising guidelines for the via on-demand right share service. So from from looking at it, from looking at at the report, are we going to do all three types of advertising on top, inside and in the app? Is that right? Yes, good afternoon, Alicia Winkle, Black with the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Yes, the idea is that we would do a combination of the three different types of advertising. The $360,000 estimate that VIA has given us that we're hoping to be able to reach through advertising revenue would involve us doing advertising in the app inside the vehicle and on top of the vehicle. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Dr. Nunez. Thank you, Mayor. On item 4.4 speed limit revisions on farm road 137 of South Cooper. Just wanted one staff to know, I've received a significant number of emails in particular residents of the Heart of Orange Neighborhood Association. They're very concerned about raising the speed limit from 30 to 35. So that when this revision comes forward, if staff would be very, would be good enough to provide statistics on accidents, pedestrian accidents, as much data as we can get to either so that we can be sure that our decision is gonna be a good one. So that's my comment. Mr. Yeverton, Dr. Nunez, this doesn't come forward until you all say it comes forward. So we really need to get an indication from you all that you want that to come forward or what level of detail you would like before you could make the decision for it to come forward. So this informal discussion is to help us determine whether or not we set an ordinance for your agenda to change the speed limit. I ask, would you remind us where did this come from? Where, who initiated going from 30 to 35? So let me take that in two steps actually. So about two or three years ago, the university requested that we actually reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 through that area and it followed a pedestrian accident that occurred just south of Abram and Cooper. There was a student who tried to cross mid block at Cooper there and unfortunately was hit by a car and passed away. It followed that discussion. I'll tell you that it followed after a lot of discussion that it was meaningful with the university. There was a lot of concern, I guess, at the TechSdot area because this is a state highway coming through the middle of our community, not necessarily a residential street, right? And safer is not always slower, is not always safer. I guess I'd say it's a little bit counterintuitive, but when you have a big road that's built for higher speeds, smaller, slower cars create more risk too. So there's a lot of discussion on the analysis that the highway department did before they gave us permission because they have to sign off. It's a state highway. So they gave us permission to lower that speed if we wanted to. And I would tell you that was after significant concern that they heard from the university about that as a state partner. On the opposite side of that, since that happened, I can tell you that we've received a lot of feedback to the contrary that was very concerned about the congestion, the kind of speed traps or such that people perceive that were in that area. And that's been going on for probably the last year or two since all that's occurred. And so we've had pushback in the opposite way. And I don't know, two or three months ago, Ms. K-PART asked for us to have an item to rediscus this topic. And so we've in that meantime, we have checked with the highway department again. And they could go either away here. They've given us permission to consider 35, which is what it was and has been forever, except for the last two years. Or if we want to stay at the slower speed, then I'm sure they're comfortable with that as well. We can easily get the safety analysis and stuff. That area of Cooper, I know just instinctively the area that's more dangerous in that area is gonna be in the area that's more dangerous in that area is going to be in the area that's south of Park Road down to Pioneer, kind of out near those shadow brick apartments. It's an area in that area where we put this new de Fox, I think is the cross section there. We put a signal in many years ago because there had been several pedestrian accidents in that section of the roadway. But at the university area kind of cutting through the canyon, I don't think you're going to find much at all as far as it relates to accidents. That said, I know I do know of at least two that have happened one recently and one many, many years ago back in the kind of the late 80s or 90s that happened from a pedestrian accident perspective. But we can certainly pull more historical analysis, but that's where this request has come from, is Cape Hart's follow up, and then we can provide whatever information you'd like to help you inform your decision the way you'd like to. I would like to see the member of accidents that have occurred. You know, since we saw some of the traffic numbers on an earlier presentation today, I just don't want to make the mistake of elevating the speed limit. I'm not sure how much of the complaints come from a lot of traffic that's been rooted from Collins over to 157 because of the construction that's gone over there. I also am aware that traffic volume has certainly been down a lot because of the construction that's gone over there. I also am aware that traffic volume has certainly been down a lot because of COVID and the UTA traffic hasn't been anything near what it's been. The public schools have been closed for or semi-closed from extended period of time. I'm not sure how that if if none of that had happened. If we still have the large volume of cars going up and down that road, if COVID had never have occurred. I will tell council that Hannah is opposed to this. Hannah wants it to stay the way it is. So I don't want to, I don't want to make a decision just because we're being asked to do it. I want to see the data on why we should be doing it. So thank you. Thank you. Dr. Farah Mars. So thank you. Thank you. Dr. Farr Mars. Thank you, Mayor. And I thank the Dr. Nguyen. I'd like to give you more data on this. However, I just want to share with council. I had a personal incident myself. I was driving my son home. I was doing 30 miles an hour in the canyon and I actually had a road rage incident. There was a gentleman who was following me, who didn't like the fact I was going 30 miles an hour. And I ended up calling 911 and reporting this person. So, and there's been several road rage incidences that have occurred in that canyon part where people were used to going the higher rates. So, well, I do understand Hannah's concern. I would like to see more data on that, but I also like to see how many more instances there are like the one I experienced. So, I think this is worthy of us considering and having conversation about. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Ms. K. Part. Thank you, Mayor. And I think more of a discussion is warranted. And I will also say that to some of the comments that are made, sometimes slower is not really safer. And for many years, we headed at 35 and we reduced it to 30. When you have a roadway that's set big, usually a speed limit is set based on the average speed. And the average speed usually happens based on the size of the roadway. So we artificially set it lower than what that average speed generally is. And we did it quite frankly because we had a request from Carp Hari to do it. Now there were other people that were concerned, but it was the push from Carp Hari that really got us there. So what we did, we did lower it to try to see what the impact would be. It was both good and bad. But the other thing that we did is we worked with the university, we put in more lighting, and we did some other things so when When you have students of that age and they are gonna cross mid block they're gonna cross mid block of its 50 or 5 and so I get back to Cooper Street 157 is supposed to be one of our best North South roadways to carry traffic. And if you start slowing them down on Cooper Street of all places, then you're going to have more sense like Victoria is talking about. So it warrants more discussion and I'm glad we're having it. But I know Hannah has concern, but I don't want to create undue expectations. Hannah has some other things they hope happens in accordance with that that I don't think are realistic. And because we're going to have the Cooper Street quarter study, you know, if we take it back to 35 and we have a study, there may be other things that come in the play. If we leave it at 30 and we have a study, there may be other things that come in the play. If we leave it at 30 and we have a study, there may be other things that come into play. But obviously nothing is sacrosanct. You move it the ball in one way or the other and it can change again. But the number of people who drive that roadway far exceed the number of people from Hannah who drive that roadway. And we have to talk about moving vehicles through the city, and that's a major thoroughfare. Thank you. Okay, so we'll come. We'll be honest. If we will, we'll pull back some more data. We'll look at not only the pedestrian or vehicle accidents, any kind of data we've got on road rage. We'll look at travel times too, because that's one of the big things that we measure as it relates to people's frustration with congestion in town. We'll take a look at some of that and bring you back more information along those lines at a future council meeting. The other thing I'd really encourage you to take a look at is one of the attachments to the staff report, I think is a helpful thing to take a look at because it looks at the road system as a whole. And all the roads that aren't really factored in there other than the freeways are all your residential streets which are going to be 30 mile an hour streets. But when you look at all the arterials, major minor and the collectors, you can see how the system works and how you're supposed to pull cars through and where it's a little slower, where it slows things down. I just I think looking at the overall system of how vehicles move through the grid is something to really pay attention to too, because there's these cascading consequences throughout the system when you make changes. So we'll bring bring that back as well as the other information you all are interested in. Miss Moe's. Again, this will take just a second, but Tray is here looking at that look back at the history of this, as I recall, when we first started talking about this, we were responding to UT Arlington's request to slow it down through the corridor there that's got the walkways over it. And there was discussion and we made a decision. I believe to extend it all the way down past Arlington High because the Arlington High School traffic. So I think what we might want to talk about is as one of the options is just giving the university what it wanted in the first place was 30 minute, 30 mile an hour speed limit through that portion that's the kind of cave there going through campus. But anyway, I just wanted you to look at that kind of remember that. Yeah, that's your memory is correct and that's hot, occurred, but we will look at it and see if you want to segment in another way. Mr. Shepherd? Yeah, Mayor and Dr. Nunez, what I would suggest, this is Robert on traffic engineering. To me, traffic is like water. It will go the path of least resistance. And so what I would suggest to you may be happening and will probably happen. Those of us that have lived in Arlington for any time of all, avoid Cooper Street at all cost, basically from California laying north. And so those that have lived in Arlington for a while use alternates like Davis, like Center. And all of those streets are directly inside of the Hannah neighborhoods, whereas Cooper Street is a major thoroughfare through the city of Arlington. And so what I would say is be careful what you ask for because you might get it as traffic begins to reappear because I take center street every day from its full width basically, from Barton all the way to downtown. And it has very little traffic on it now because UTA and Arlington higher closed. But I can tell you from personal experience, when those two are open, center street is much more congested than it is right now. Because as I said, I believe people start taking center street as an alternate route to avoid all the congestion from the schools. So I just be mindful that sometimes it's trace that slower isn't always better. Thank you. All right, with that, we'll move to committee meetings and our first one is community and neighborhood development and I'll turn to Ms. Moise. Thank you, Mayor Williams. So the community and neighborhood development committee met this morning with all members present and we met with the sole purpose of five mile section of the South Cooper Street corridor from UTA Boulevard in the north all the way to Barden Street and South. The study began early 2020 and as you were calling put it on hold from March to August due to COVID-19. The study team includes a number of city staff and consultants from ACOM, which is a very large company who does these kind of studies. And they've completed the existing conditions analysis and the team provided an update on this analysis to the committee today. And we have copies of that report for anyone who wants to review it. Existing conditions analysis highlights included the existing conditions covered a market analysis, including land use and zoning, mobility and safety and quality of life conditions for the entire corridor. The market analysis studied data on demographics, employment and real estate trends, showing that the corridor has high prevalence of retail and food service markets as well as strong industrial markets. Preliminary impacts from COVID-19 on the retail and industrial sectors were also assessed. And we are in the transition period on COVID. So they gave us some kind of ranges for what could happen on retail in that corridor. But land use and zoning, the corridor is oriented toward commercial industrial uses with the residential uses being secondary. And those are set back from Cooper Street, mobility and safety. The corridor carries high traffic volumes and we were just talking about some of that. And there are some challenging intersections in the center and southern portions of the corridor. Flooding and stormwater issues are also present in portions of the corridor and those are more in the northern area of the corridor. Quality of life. That part of the study showed us that much of that corridor has actually got strong accessibility to employment, schools and parks. The advisory committee has convened with 23 stakeholders. They represent business owners, residents, institutional uses, and property managers, which I like to see in their sense that was my career. The Advisory Committee held its first meeting in early September and discussed issues including traffic, economic development, housing, and the aesthetics on the corridor. The advisory committee also met its meeting again tomorrow to discuss the vision and goals for the corridor, which will be informed by input from the general public here from here on out, gathered through an online survey and public meeting held last week. So the next step, of course, what we talked about is the team plans to update the CND committee again in December reviewing vision and goals for the corridor as well as preliminary recommendations for achieving the vision. I talked about this morning is this will not be a five year, 10 year plan, a project this size will probably take. And I'm throwing out a number, probably 20 or 30 years if we're lucky. So it's important to the future of the city. And I would appreciate any comments from committee members or other council members. Mr. Peale. This is a serious issue. You know, curbside appeal on that stretch of Cooper is low. It's cited to me a lot by my constituents as a sign of decline and people say they don't want that part of Cooper Street to become another division street. the city's budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the budget for the didn't support that much to our chagrin. But then it's full of retail and warehouses that provide tax revenue that cushion the impact of COVID. I would like to ask, I've been approached by some people who want to build multi-family complexes on Cooper in this area. In places I never would have thought it would ever be considered. And we have some sensitivities regarding, changing commercial zoning to a zoning that supports multifamily. And we have concerns about traffic in this area. But the question I have for the committee is would is that something we have to look at in order to re-activate the commercial and retail properties that are vacant in the area. What will attract private income? Where are the trends going? And I think that that's something I just want to have the committee, you know, hit straight head on and give me some good feedback on because what this committee decides is going to influence how I vote on a project that will come in that stretch. And I just wanna make sure they get that, that we look at what we can shape, but we also understand market forces, even if the market forces call for economic development that may be counterintuitive to what we traditionally talk about wanting. And this is just very, very important to me, because someone who's living our own good his entire life, I think all of this, I've driven up and out stretch and concerned about the decline in the look, and wondering how private capital can come back in and make it look better. Well, and this is Helen again. Council Member Peale, you're right on the money, because one of the things that was pointed out this morning is there's a strong risk that we're only used during COVID, another 1.3 million feet of retail occupancy in that corridor. We've seen that we have one affordable housing project approved for that corridor already. So we'll get to see how it impacts that corridor to have some new residential in there, but it is critical several things that I've dealt with critical and I think you're hitting it on the head is how do you make the whole card or look better and coming from a history and development. If we want to look new, we have to do something about utilities. That means move them to the back of the lots are underground to really get a look that has a future of 50 to 100 years to it. So that is one of the things they're going to be looking at is what's the highest and best use of the land, given that we all know we don't need a 1.3 million p to retail there that we're going to lose. So yes that's part of the study. Any other comments? I think we're good. Thank you Mayor. Thank you Miss Moise. Okay next we'll move to economic development Mr. Shepherd. Thank you Mayor. Economic Development Committee met today all members were present we took up two items an open session. The first item was a marketing proposal that ED staff have received regarding the you may recall the city engaged a broker a couple of years ago to not a national broker a couple of years ago to go sort of envisioned that property is being an office product given its proximity across the street from retail that's already in existence. And that Lamar Collins intersection there being very close, the hope at the time and still is that that product would that an office product would be suitable for that location. The broker was not successful in its efforts. I think they had a two-year agreement with the city. It was kind of an exclusive marketing deal. Didn't cost us any money to engage in that. And we were told that they marketed that for office far and wide and had no suitors at that time. This particular marketing group is interested in kind of a fee structure for, quote, marketing the property. And their interest is to market the property for a little wider use than specifically office. And so as that doesn't really coincide with our current vision for that property, the ED Committee unanimously agreed to ask staff to go back to this group and thank them for their interest, but at the moment we think we're happy with what we are. Any questions about that? I think that is very commendable and exclusive on that right now is just not a good idea. I don't think at all. And then of course, when we talk about our vision there, we're looking for a class A office, not class B, class C. We're looking for a class A office. So thank you for the work there of the ED committee. Sure. And one other thing, we had a briefing on the city's tax abatement policy. State law requires that the city update or reauthorize their tax abatement policy every two years. tax abatement policy every two years. And ours is coming up for renewal, staff reviewed our current abatement policy and did not recommend any change. Council member Peel correctly pointed out that that may not be the case. If the ED sales tax that's on the ballot in November passes, it may require the council at that point to kind of reexamine our 380 strategy and how it interplays with with a potential economic development corporation, but at any rate for the moment, staff doesn't recommend any changes to the policy and we need to adopt that and it is on this evening's agenda for approval. So if there's any questions about that policy, that would be a good time to ask. Oh, and the committee supported it unanimously, by the way. I'm going to go to the next meeting. Right. None are indicated. No questions are indicated mayor. That concludes my report. We had one other item, but that item was taken up an executive session. So that concludes my. Thank you, Mr. Shepherd. Next we'll move to the Arlington housing finance corporation update. Dr. Nunez. Well, you may ask if time to go back to you. Mayor may ask if you'll come back to me. When I had this meeting, I was on the phone, driving a car on my way to vacation. So, Jennifer, if you'll get with me offline, I'll give you a short update on the report in just a few minutes. Okay. That'll be great. Okay. We'll move to appointments to boards and commissions, Mr. Baskin. Thank you, Mayor Williams. We have no appointments to boards and commissions. Okay, next we'll move to evening agenda items, Ms. K Part. Thank you, Mayor. Tonight we have on the public hearing a zoning case that's in district two. And if probably most you've been in a public hearing, a zoning case that's in District 2. And if probably most of you've been by the property, some probably not gonna describe it to you that you don't already know enough about it. But a little bit of the history there, that property was originally bought by that church that's on the opposite corner, that's on the north of Eden. And so this was surplus property that they had purchased to put a football stadium there for their school, because they have a private school there as well. That didn't come to fruition. Then they saw a little small track of that property for a gasful site. It's immediately adjacent to it on the West. And I've had conversations with the gas flow operators and I'll go into that in the public hearing tonight. So I have a little bit of information for you for there. But here's my personal dilemma on this. It's commercial property. And it's on the 287 quarter. It's very visible and around it is an Alzheimer's unit, a hospital and an office on the same tract of land to the south of it. So, it's that horns of a dilemma that Tray talks to us about repeatedly, about taking commercial property and making it residential. I'm not saying that's what we shouldn't or shouldn't do. I'm just telling you as we sit here today, I'm still very much undecided how to go. But anyway, I wanted to give you each of you a little bit of history about the property and where it is now. And we've got Eden on the other side of 287 being improved as we speak. That was in a bond package, I think, from 2012. As significant roadway improvements were like three roundabouts and it's gonna be beautiful. But the Eden where this is takes you back to the Martin Luther King sports complex and T.R. Verde. That's unimproved Eden and it's and has not been on a bond package. So you're still going to have county type roads out there for this development wanting to occur. That's my history, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. K. Bart. Dr. Nunez. Thank you, Mayor. I'll go ahead and give my report for the Orange and Hounds and Finance Corporation update. The board met on October the second and all members were present. The board approved an inducement resolution to issue bonds The second and all members were present. The board approved an inducement resolution to issue bonds and a memo of understanding which forms the basis of a formal partnership agreement for two housing development. It will be 340 units of senior housing located at the South East corner of Collins and Debbie Lane. The development will be owned in partnership with the Housing Finance Corporation, but 2.7 acres of the site will be retained by the developers for restricted uses compatible with senior housing. The developer is Javelin development LLC, which will need to seek a zoning change to move forward with this development. This Cochran confirmed that approval of the resolution about the housing finance corporation board in no way guarantees a zoning change will be approved. The second is the reserve at Mayfield will be 236 units of senior housing located at the southeast corner of Mayfield and New York Avenue. This development will also be owned in partnership with the Housing Finance Corporation. This site is already zoned multi-family. Both developments anticipate occupancy by the summer of 2023. The housing finance corporation will share in the developer fee and cash flows from both developments and both will also pay an annual payment in lieu of taxes. This revenue from these partnerships allows housing finance corporation to offer additional programs and services related to affordable housing in the future. These are what some people would call 4% tax credit properties. Please let me know if you need any additional information. And I'm very excited for these things to come forward. The Arlington Housing Finance Corporation is continuing to expand and to bring in more development into Arlington and It's gonna it's gonna help the city quite a bit in my opinion. So thank you. That's my report mayor. Okay any questions for Dr. Nunez Okay, then we'll go back to the evening agenda items and I've got Dr. Odom Wesley Okay, then we'll go back to the evening agenda items and I've got Dr. Odom Wesley. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I had a question on 8.8, where we're purchasing 15 Chevy Tahoe vehicles. My question is, did we consider hybrid or electric vehicles? Do we have an effort to move our fleet to vehicles that are more environmentally friendly? Thank you for your question here. These vehicles are for a police department and have a particular performance use that we consult with the department and make sure that what we're purchasing meets their needs. We are, yes, making an overall effort to move more towards an electric fleet and such as purchasing and installing charging stations and other things and trying in a test case, sort of a pilot use with certain areas of the business to see how those electric vehicles can work within our system. So did we consider purchasing electric instead of the 15 Tahos? I don't know if we talked with the police department when we were looking at purchasing these. The Tahoe is a specific vehicle that suits their operational needs right now, but we can certainly speak with them if an electric vehicle would work. However, the specs of that vehicle really do work for the safety of our officers and also for their use in the community. Mr. Yeoverton, you wanna add to that? Yeah, Dr. Oman said like to'd like to add the answer to this question right now is unequivocally no. There are not police-packaged vehicles that are electric hybrid style. As soon as they are, they're the biggest user of our fleet. And we would get the most bang for the buck as it relates to fuel savings and green impact. But for the policing situation, the vehicles are very specific and very well specced out for operational use by the department. The Tahoe is the package that they need. We'll be pushing people like Jennifer was talking about towards that. But it's likely that we're going to start on the electric side with more of a traditional fleet vehicle with like a code Officer or a building inspector or something like that. That's where you'll see us go electric first The other issue with policing is they're going to want to test and try and verify that the vehicles will meet their operational objectives. There's going to be a lot of their operational objectives. There's going to be a lot of effort in validating that for police use. So they won't be, they'll be our last adopter, probably not our first, but we'll be definitely pushing them in that direction. Thank you so much. I'm glad to hear that we are moving in that direction and I know everyone's really excited about the vehicle that we're going to get, which are hybrid. And so that brought me to the question about the police. So I guess we'll get there someday. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Odom Wistling. Okay. Any other questions, sir, or comments on evening agenda items? Okay. Next we'll move to issues relative to city and text.projects. Okay, seeing none, we'll move to our COVID-19 update and Chief Krausen there. Our fire department chief is online and I think with a very comprehensive report here for us. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Don Krausen, Fire Chief Director of Emergency Management. And yes, this report is a little more comprehensive because a lot of things are happening. So I'm going to share my presentation. Here we go. Hopefully it can be seen. Yes, we see it well there. Okay, thank you. So the last 30 days our cases have been relatively stable. No major peaks sort of up and down and experience we were expecting. From a hospital perspective, we are seeing a trend up, not quite despite we saw during the summer, but we are trending up. And the other noticeable issue is that ventilator use is also up. So these are issues of concern and we're watching very closely. From a hospitalization perspective across North Texas, hospitalization COVID hospitalizations are up, particularly in Tarrant County. I've been reporting these statistics for the last five or six council meetings and you can see that in Tarrant County, we're certainly trending up the 419 COVID patients. Arlington represents about 92 of those. Dallas County also slightly up. They were trending down, but now they're trending up slightly. And these are factors that we're paying attention to as we move forward. This is a seven day rolling average, just that sort of better visualizes how we're moving. Notice the sharp spike in the mid-summer. sort of better visualizes how we're moving. Notice the sharp spike in the mid-summer. And now this period of time we're sort of, we're trending upward at less steep incline, but we are still trending upwards. From a testing perspective, we've done a lot of testing. Our drive through testing facility at Park Plays and other sites have done over 20,000 tests now. Test over 2,000 people in nursing homes, our night shelter, our life shelter has been tested. And internally within the public safety group, within the city of Arlington and UTA public safety, we've done about 300 antigen tests, rapid testing We have a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a test and a month and a half ago we were around 300, 400 now last week we did 738 tests. So you can see as the positive cases are increasing our testing is going up and we're watching all these factors very carefully as we move forward. Last seven days we measure in several different ways so I'm going to carry you through a number of the exercises here. 308 positive cases in Arlington the last seven days by zip code you can still see the 76010 is the highest zip code for positives but across the city it's fairly well distributed as we've indicated in the past. From an age perspective what's notably different is now that the younger population is starting to show up at the school's opening, college opening. These are all things we expect. Not necessarily are all these showing up in our hospitalization numbers, but all these factors of things that we have to factor in as we make decisions for the community. From an overall fatality perspective, we've remained about 18% of Tarrant County death cases. You can see that, you know, overall count nearly 10,000, but 8,500 individuals have recovered. 125 deaths though in Arlington. Of that, we are very similar to the rest of the county with 94% of the deaths in Arlington coming from individuals with underlying medical conditions. Some interesting facts though, I think, from an age perspective is that 11% of our cases are under the age of 50, 65% of our cases are over the age of 65. So knowing these factors help us adjust our strategies and helping us prepare and adjust the things we do to keep our environment stable and we have been relatively stable. From a school district perspective, we're watching the schools very closely and we are seeing an uptick since they've opened but not to the degree quite frankly I was expecting. And I don't know if that's a good sign or not, but these are cases for concern and we're watching these on a daily basis and tracking them with all the school districts in the city and the private schools. UTA also seeing a slide up tick and but for a large institution like this their numbers are relatively low. We have worked with their PD department on some testing issues and things at UTA remain relatively stable. Now there's a cause and effect to all the things we do and we try to track those things from holidays to special events to Governor's orders and the Governor has just recently issued a new order allowing bars to operate at 50% if the local county judge authorizes that. That has occurred here and I'll speak to that in a moment. As far as the active cases in Arlington, active case locations, we are now up to 726 active case locations. That doesn't mean that's a single individual at that location, quite frankly. Often there are numerous or multiple individuals at these locations because we believe our active individual count is probably around 12 or 1300. Things are moving. The pod is in renovation right now. In fact, both the architect and the construction companies are MWBEs. We expect the facility to be completed in December, quite frankly maybe operational in my early December. Our testing site, we have a continued agreement with the state to operate through the end of October. We are now negotiating to operate that site through the end of November. As you're aware, businesses are now operating most of them at 75% schools are open. We've had special events come back to life. The cowboy game and the baseball games are all doing very well. In fact, we've had very relatively low number of concerns. Our complaints about COVID related issues at the events. In fact, the first cowboy game, I made it through the stadium, through the seats, through the suites, and check the operation very carefully. The cowboy organization, very serious about safety, and the resulting concerns are very limited. If you've noticed the game last night at the Global Eye Field, very well managed, very careful and I think you know we've proven that you can have these special events but you have to take significant precautions to keep folks safe and we're doing as the best we can to do that. As our as our the team and the operators of these venues, I think the most interesting thing that'slington to operate a 50 percent. I'll be sending out a notice to the owners and operators tomorrow reminding them of the governor standards and the fact that we'll be coming by to visit those establishments to ensure that they are complying with the governor standards and working with them on that to ensure that everyone's in the right place. with them on that to ensure that everyone's in the right place. Now, things are moving on the vaccination front and the fire department is now a registered entity authorized to provide vaccinations when they get here. We're operating on some fundamental assumptions that the vaccines will be here quite frankly by November, it looks like or at least the information I've received. There will be some requirements if you're going to be an entity that will do vaccinations you have to have cold storage capability and our refrigeration units will be here within two weeks. They are sub-zero units and we're partnering with Tarrant County and the local hospitals to share resources as necessary. We believe the vaccine will come in two doses per individual with a separation of shots between 21 or 28 days. These are still planning assumptions, nothing that's in concrete as of yet. We will be targeting critical populations first as the vaccines when they come out will be rather limited. So critical infrastructure and essential workers such as health care, EMS, pharmacy, public safety, agriculture, those types of groups will be addressed first, followed by people living in group settings, those that are incarcerated, multi-generational households, state-supported living centers, state hospitals, people experiencing homelessness, college and universities, followed by people at high risk for severe illness, nursing home residents, those over the age of 65, high risk medical conditions, and then those with limited access to vaccination services, certainly the groups will be targeting as a department, and those will be the uninsured, the underserved, and those with disabilities. To do all these things, you have to be registered and we are. You have to follow the requirements. You have to have the ability to maintain the integrity of the vaccines through cold chain requirements and we're in position for that. You have to report the usage to the state within 24 hours and basically track everything that you do and we're certainly prepared for that. We have significant additional PPE to support vaccination effort, but we would also expect that additional PPE will be provided as we step into the serena. And lastly, the generalized timeline is we see it right now. This is simply a planning perspective because nothing is materialized as of yet, absolutely. October from now, October through January, we expect some limited vaccines to be here for target administration. We believe that January through July will be able to do broad administration of the vaccine that there's an assumption that 660 million doses will be available for the country and then through July through October of next year it'll be the vaccine will be readily available with open vaccinations for basically anyone and then October of next year will be in a routine cycle where hopefully the vaccination effort will become standard like any other flu vaccine. A lot of things are changing. We're adjusting to changing winds. Our assumptions are relatively stable, but could certainly change. But we're doing the best we can to be ready for the next step. And with that, I'll go ahead and turn it back to you, Mayor and Council, for any questions. I'll stop the... Any questions for Chief Krauson? Yes, Mr. Peale? Yes, Chief. You know, I've been reading that there are multiple different vaccine variations in final development and stage three trials that are coming out. And there's now discussion that, you know, you may have three different companies with three different vaccines out there competing against each other. And that might be problematic. In your discussions with people on the timeline and the administration, I mean, I've all discussed, are we going to get doses of vaccine A or vaccine B or vaccine C or do you have any idea how that that is going to be determined for us because different ones may have different efficacy and different administration requirements. I wish I had good information for you, Mr. Peale right now, but the feds and the state have not given us any information to that. They've given us five or six potential vendors, but they haven't confirmed who they will be. So we don't have that information yet. Okay, Mr. Sutton and Dr. Nunez. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Chief. Chief, today started early voting. This morning started at eight o'clock? I asked the question in the last council meeting about a voter who tested positive. What's in place to allow that voter to vote? And the response I got was, if you tested positive, you're still allowed to vote in person. This morning I spent about four and a half hours in a line waiting to vote. And so there are three options for someone that tests positive. You can vote in person. You can do curfewsive voting, or you can have a doctor sign off that you have a physical illness or disability which will allow you to vote by mail. So with that being said, and because these chronic groups in the long waiting make create a super-spirited event, is there a way to publicize or make a recommendation to our Arlington voters? If they're tested positive recommendation to vote by mail, so we can mitigate the spread of COVID, or is that something that we want to stay away from because of the election cycle itself. Mr. Said not certainly think your suggestions are not unreasonable. We can work with J. Warren to see what is the art of the possible on communicating COVID concerns and helping keep the voting process safe. I'll get the team on that immediately to see what we can do to help out. Mr. Sutton, you're muted there. Thank you. And also convey to the first responders our appreciation for their efforts in keeping us safe, but also working with the firefighters in California. Yes, sir. We'll do. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Nunez, then Dr. Odom Wesley. So let me put on my white coat for a little bit and give you some medical information that I think would be important for not only for Council but for our audience to know. Let me give you an example. There was a vaccine that came out for shingles about four years ago. It was pretty effective, we thought, and it was very safe. In fact, it's effectiveness was somewhere in the 20 to 25% range. What does that mean? That means that 25% of the people that receive that vaccination are going to be protected from developing shingles. Let's keep going forward. That means 75% of those people will not have any protection at all. So if I have 100 people to get that vaccine four years ago, 75 of them, it's not going to work very well. So fast forward four or five years. Now we have a new shingles vaccine called shingricks. It's 95% effective, which means that if I give it to 100 people, 95 of them are not going to get shingles and five, It's not going to work very well. So the question that everybody's asking about all these four or five different vaccines that are going to come out, and that's just here in the United States, that's not counting what's going on in Russia, China, God knows where else. When these things start to be administered to our population, the one thing that I know is going to be true is it's going to be safe, and it is going to be effective to some degree. What will happen as time goes by during the course of 2021 is we're going to finally figure out with larger numbers of patients receiving various vaccinations, and you will get probably no, probably more than one vaccine out there eventually. numbers of patients receiving various vaccinations and you will get probably, no, probably more than one vaccine out there eventually. We're going to determine just like the shingles vaccine. Oh, this population really only got four or five months of protection from vaccine A vaccine, B gave eight months of protection. Well, which one's better? The obviously the one that gives you longer protection. We're not going to know that for a while. So they're all going to be safe. They're all going to be effective. But eventually over a period of one or two or three or four years, we're going to end up settling down on one or two vaccines that are equally effective. And that's really where we're headed. So we're not going to get that answer until probably the end of 2021 or early 2022. But whatever you got for the public, it's going to be safe. It's going to be effective. It's just we don't know exactly how effective you have. So I'll stop there. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Dr. Nenez and Dr. Adam Wesley. Thank you. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Dr. Nenez and Dr. Odom Wesley. Thank you and thank you Chief Krausen. I noticed in your slides one of the requirements to administer the vaccine was that you report any adverse effects. So my question is how are we going to follow up with all these patients who come through and get vaccinated and say they don't have an adverse effect for 30 days or however long, how are we going to track that? We'll have their contact information and we'll certainly be accessible to them. So if they get a shot and they have symptoms or problems, they'll know to contact us and then we'll share that information to the state. So we feel very good about that. Our relationship with the community is pretty good and folks are happy to work with us and I think people aren't afraid to tell us what they think and if they're having a bad experience with the vaccine, we'll certainly hear about it. We'll share it for them. Okay, so we're relying on adverse effects being self-reported. Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Other questions, comments? One other thing that, I know that some of our council members are hearing from the National League of Cities, and certainly we are from our organizations. It's going to be very important whenever we do have vaccines available for the general public that we take a leadership role there. Dr. Nunez, they're very much appreciate the fact that it's gonna be safe, and yet there is gonna be apprehension. And we've got to set the example or this virus there will continue to spread, and we need to be ready to set that example and move out and get the vaccination there as it moves forward. And we'll hear much more about it. In fact, I think it will dominate the news after the election. There and certainly hopefully will. Any other questions here? Chief Krauson, again, please pass on to the Fire Department Emergency Services in our Medical Department. We're crossing, again, police pass on to the Fire Department emergency services in our medical department, our appreciation for you and your departments and so much appreciate all you've done and it has been a marathon here that you've been on. It's a long road. Here it is and we very much appreciate all of the extra effort being put forth to help keep us safe here in the mix of this and you're doing an incredible job and please pass that on to the departments. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks for your support. Thank you. She offered to anything else on that. Okay, so next we'll move to future agenda items. Okay. Seeing none, there I think that we have no other business for now and we'll stand adjourned until 630 tonight and we'll come back together for our night meeting. Thank you very much. you you You can second of game.