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I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. to order an ass Mr. Alex Buskin our city secretary to please call the roll. Thank you mayor Alex Buskin city secretary I'll now call the roll mayor Williams. President. Councilmember Moes. President. Councilmember K. Part. President. President councilmember Moise Councilmember k part Councilmember Sutton Councilmember peel President councilmember nunez Rosenth mayor pro tem shepherd President deputy mayor pro tem for our Myers President councilmember odom wesley President Okay, thank you mr. buskin before we begin i'm gonna ask Alex to explain the format We are using and to lay out some housekeeping rules Thank you mayor 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 a 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 web page at www.arlingtontx.gov and clicking on agendas. This information along with the agenda packet containing materials to be discussed during the meeting is posted on the city's website. This meeting can be watched on AT&T Uverse, Channel 99, Inspectorum, Channel 16 and 15.1. It can also be watched by going to the city's website at www.arlingtontx.gov and clicking on the I Want To button at the top right and selecting Watch City Council meetings. Here are some pieces of basic information that 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 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 are requested to identify yourself at the time that you leave the meeting as well as 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 are recognized by the mayor before you begin to speak. Do the the members of the council have any questions for me? Okay thank you Mr. Buskin. We will now begin the meeting. For each item that's 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'll call on each of you as I see your card. Does anyone have any questions? And of course, if you do, hold up your card. Okay, seeing none now, the city council will now to go into closed session at 111 PM on April 28th, 2020, in accordance with the following sections of VTCA Government Code, Chapter 551.071, consultation with attorney. 0.072 deliberation regarding real property. And 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 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 I'd like to call our afternoon work session back to order and privilege to recognize Darwin Wade, our grant supervisor, CDBG to talk to us about housing needs assessment and analysis of impediments to fair housing. And Darwin, I just wanna thank you for your service there's so many different events and so forth you're involved in and appreciate your commitment here to the city of Arlington. Thank you Mayor. Good afternoon Mayor and Council Darwin, with office of strategic initiatives, ranch management division. Today's presentation is going to be Council, Darwin, Wade with Office of Strategic Initiatives, Ranch Management Division. Today's presentation is going to be on the 2020 through 2024 HUD consolidated plan. I'm going to focus on two required components of the plan, which are the housing needs assessment and the analysis of impediments to fair housing next slide. So as a HUD entitlement city, we are required to develop a five-year consolidated plan. The CON plan is a long-range planning document that sets the framework on how federal resources and dollars are allocated based upon for already needs and programs over the next five years in Arlington. The CON plan must include a comprehensive assessment of housing needs for all income ranges and special needs populations. The assessment provides direction to council and decision makers for future housing development in Arlington, next slide. So as you can see, the consolidated planning process involves many, many moving parts. The most critical piece is the public participation part of that because we have to obtain the citizens input feedback on all the things that we do with our federal grant dollars. Next slide. Back in June of 2019, we contracted with the Jake Wat planning group, Mr. James Gullin. He is the consultant that is pretty much the project overseer for the housing and assessment and the analysis of impediments to fair housing. He had a prior engagement. He cannot be with us today, so I am standing in for him on today. Next slide. So let's go over the housing needs approach, the assessment and the process. Basically, the project was divided up into two different phases. Phase one has been completed. And phase two is almost near completion. We are in the process two different phases. Phase one has been completed. And phase two is almost near completion. We are in the process of finalizing the final report of both the analysis of impediments and the housing needs assessments with recommendation and implementation plan to counsel. Next slide. The housing needs assessment was broken up into two different components. The first component is the qualitative data analysis. As you can see, we provided online surveys to over 1000 residents responded to the surveys. We've held several focus groups with residents, housing authority, clients, stakeholders, industry professionals as well as a photo for housing developers over the past several months. This process has been going on for at least a year now. We've also convened a SWOT analysis with our city departments and our community housing development organizations to assess the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and threats for the City of Arlington. Next slide. So we wanted to provide just a high level overview of the resident survey that was sent out to all of our residents. And so we just kind of want to give you just some high level highlights of that. So basically we asked the community what does your community need most? And we took the top four responses and as you can see, the top four responses were improved roads and sidewalks, better and more affordable housing, increased public safety, more and better jobs. Next slide. more and better jobs. Next slide. We also asked the community what changes are needed to improve your neighborhood. Top responses were increased safety features, increased transportation options, more walkable communities, resources to help neighbors secure their property, more neighborhood communication as well as more code compliance. Next slide. We also convened a focus group that included the Arbor border realtors, industry stakeholders, such as housing developers, lenders, and we convened them in a focus group to ask them their thoughts about housing and things like that in Arlington. So the question that we posted in was what is Arlington's greatest asset? And they told us that recreational opportunity, sense of community, education and affordable housing were there top four things that they listed for greatest assets. Next slide. listed for greatest assets. Next slide. Which topics require the greatest focus in Arlington based on the industry experts? They told us housing, economic development, educational and cultural resources, transportation and land use and zoning. Next slide. The next analysis performed by a consultant was the quantitative analysis whereby they looked at several different data sources such as Census data, Market Trend data, Housing Activity data, Economic Indicators to come up with secondary sources to just support the plan. So we're going to go over just highlight some of that census data that came out of the housing and the assessment. Next slide. So Arlington, it's the American Dream City and it's growing as you can tell by this chart. We are no longer one of the smaller suburban towns in the middle of the Metroplex current population based on the 2018 ACS data is about 392,000. Arson has experienced positive trends in population of the past several years, and we are projected to grow to approximately 441,000 by 2025. The number of households are expected to grow to about 153,000 in 2025. The population and household projections are based off of the balance housing model, which is a model that is used by our consultant. Next slide. The 2018 ACS data estimated a total of 146,000 or so housing units in Arlington, both a renter and homeowner combined This numbers comprise of 132,000 occupied units and approximately 11,978 vacant units in 2018 Next slide When we looked at housing units by structure and bedroom Arlington has about 60% of housing units are single family, 38% of multi-family and 2% of other. Housing units by bedroom size, 43% are three bedroom units, 21% are two bedroom and 18% are four bedrooms. Next slide. Households by age and tenure. 51% of all owner-occupied households is comprised of those ages 55 and up. While 71% of renter-occupied households are occupied by those under the age of 55 almost the exact reverse. Next slide. When we look at rental units in Arlington the bulk of rental units on multi-family followed by single families you can see from the data there. On the right side of the screen when you look at rental households we see that approximately 21,000 are one person of rental households with the next to highest being a four person and two person of rental households. Next slide. We also looked at owner units. So single family units make up the majority of all owner occupant housing units in Arlington. When we look at the unit by household size, the two and four person households make up the majority of owner households. Next slide. We also looked at average rent by bedroom size. So according to the ALN apartment data, since 2017 there has been a 2% increase in the average rent. Right now, average rent is sitting at about 1046. We also broke out the different bedroom sizes and the average rents per bedroom size. Next slide. We looked at also fair market rent. So fair market rent as established by HUD is used as a basis for paying federal housing assistance such as the housing short voucher program, which is currently administered by the housing authority. This information displays the fair market rent per bit room size and the annual income are hourly income needed to afford the fair market rent in Arlington. So for example, a person that would like to rent a two-bit room unit FMR, read 1165, would need an income of $46,600, or would have to make a approximately $22.40 an hour to afford the two-bit room for market rent. Next slide. So let's look at affordable rent. Previously we stated the average market rent in Arlington was about a thousand forty-six. When compared to the wages listed here it's going to be very difficult, almost impossible for a minimum wage worker working forty hours per week, 52 weeks a year, using the hood rule of paying no more than 30 percent of one's monthly income towards housing. of paying no more than 30% of ones monthly income towards housing. So even a household at the 30% of area meeting income was struggle meeting average rent in Arlington. Also a worker earning the average rent per wage of $18.32 an hour could not afford the average rent. It would take almost a job making $22 an hour to afford the average rent in Arlington. Next slide. We did some training analysis on the average home sales price. This data came from the Arlington border. Realtor just kind of give you where sales prices are going. So it continues to trend upward in Arlington. As of 2019 we're sitting at about 239,000 in average home sales price. Next slide. We look at the home sales price distribution as you can see the majority of homes sold in Arlington during this time period here within the range 200 K to 299 K approximate 54% of homes were sold in that price range followed by 30% of homes that were sold in the 100 K to 199 K range. Next slide. Next slide. We also looked at median growth rate, which shows an increase over the year versus a slight increase in income for the monthly median risk or income. Next slide. Housing cost burden. So Arlington has approximately 74,577 total owner units based on the ACS data of which 14% of those are cost burden. So when we say cost burden we're saying that 14% of owners are paying more than 30% of their monthly income towards housing costs. And 7% of owners are severely cost burden, which means they are paying 50% of more to our housing costs. Another way to say that would be 21% of owners are cost burden in Arlington. When we juxtapose the total owner units with total renter units, we find that 20% or 26% of renters are cost burden and 23% of renters are severely cost burden, total and approximately 49% of renters in Arlington are cost burden. Next slide. We also wanted to look at cost burden as it relates to seniors in Arlington. So more seniors are rent burden in 2018 than they were in 2010 while the remaining population has remained somewhat steady in Arlington. Next slide. So now we want to jump to the balanced housing model. The balanced housing model is an industry standard housing model that is used to project future housing needs. This is what our consultant, Jake White, planning group has used to project housing needs for our to know the next five years. This model was developed by the Freak-Priganese Associates to analyze community-existing housing supply through the housing needs by age, income, and tenure. And it's also used to create policy and strategic housing recommendations for a balanced and sustainable housing supply. Next slide. So total housing projection summary. So let's talk about what this means on this slide. So, the ballot, balanced housing model assumes future housing needs will be heavily influenced by population growth and consumption by income ranges which may fluctuate based on preferences regardless of income range. The model also predicts housing units needed based on analytical data. So, projections may increase, they may decrease depending on actual population, households, and economic trends and changes. More importantly, the model identifies factors that should be addressed by the city and private market in response to the most pressing housing needs and provides a basis for strategies to assist in meeting the projected needs in Arlington. So the model projects a need of 21,404 total renter and owner housing units in Arlington over the next five years. That is not saying that the city, we have to go out and build 21,400 units. That's just saying there is a projected need over the next five years based on the assumptions that are placed into the model. You may not need that many, you may need lesser. We do know that we do have certain units in the pipeline, so that will affect this number as well. The second bullet states that renter households earning between zero to thirty five thousand dollars annually are projected to need the most units of any income category as this group has a 2018 housing shortage of approximately 11,000 units. The model also shows by 2025 owner households earning between 15,000 to 35,000 annually project a surplus of 4,000, 4,000 to 27 units. These units may be absorbed by households and other income ranges. These units may be absorbed by households and other income ranges. Next slide. When we look at senior housing projections, by 2025, seniors will grow from 17% of all households in 2018 to 23% of all households the largest growth of any age group. The senior renter income category needing the most housing units is between the 15,000 to 35,000 annual category which has a shortage of about almost 1200 units. So by 2025 projected needs for senior it's going to be approximately 11,917 units which represents 56% of the total housing need for our arvents, and which is that 21,000 number that we looked at earlier. And so these are based off of the balanced housing model. Next slide. So now I want to turn your attention to the second component, require component for the consolidated plan. And that is the analysis of impediments to fair housing. So you may ask yourself, so what is that? So basically what the analysis is, it's a review of Arlington's policies and procedures that promote housing choice and enforce the federal fair housing law. So during this analysis, our consultant is going to, or they have basically assessed all of our laws, all of our policy and practices that impact the location, the availability, and the accessibility of housing. They are also looking at conditions that affect for housing choice, as well as the protected classes and the availability and accessibility of housing in Arlington. Next slide. So in 1995, HUD required all entitlement cities to conduct an analysis of petements or existing barriers to fair housing and housing choice and certify that they are affirmatively furthering fair housing. This rule applies to all cities and counties receiving CBG, home and ESG grants, as well as public housing authorities receiving housing choice vouchers. Next slide. The Federal Fair Housing Act enacted in 1968 and later amended in 1974 and 1988 prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of any development or any other housing related transaction based on the federally protected classes which are race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin. Next slide. So with the analysis of impediments, the city of origin must do three things. Firstly, we must conduct the analysis, and that's what we're doing now. We must take appropriate actions to overcome any effects of any impediments identified, and our consultant has done that. He has listed impediments for us to take action on. And we must maintain records that reflect those actions that are being taken over the next five years. So we'll see that in slides on in the presentation. Next slide. So here you have the analysis of impediment you have the approach and the method methodology that was taken by the consultant. He's looking at demographic analysis to community profile data, home mortgage data, fur housing laws, racial and ethnic concentrated areas of poverty in Arlington, as well as identifying any impediments that relates to fair housing choice. And we will also provide recommendations for remedial actions as well as best practices for implementation. Next slide. Then the demographic analysis or the community profiles is going to compare Arlington's demographic characteristics based on protected class members race and ethnicity. So we're going to look at population, we'll look at poverty and income, employment, all those types of factors just to assess if there is any disparate impact on protected classes in Arlington. Next slide. So here you see population by race and ethnicity. Going back from 2010 up to 2018. As you can see the overall population for Arlington has increased since 2010. That's a 9.2% increase. Large number of increases, as you can see, are in minority population since 2010. So you can see a lot of increases in the minority population on this graph in chart. Next slide. This chart pretty much depicts households by race and ethnicity. As you can see for white households by type, 42,000 white family households compared to 19,000 black family households after American family households compared to 23,000 Hispanic family households. We also want to bring your attention to married couple households in Arlington. For whites, you have approximately 33,000 married couple white households in Arlington versus only 9,000 black married couples, household couples in Arlington, compared that to 15,000 married couples in Arlington. Next slide. We also looked at household income by race and ethnicity. You will find that 30% of white households earn less income needed to afford the average market rent. We talked about earlier, 1,046. When you compare that to 40% of Blacks earn less to afford the average rent in Arlington versus 47% of Hispanics earn less and been able to afford the average market rent of Arlington versus 47% of Hispanics earn less and been able to afford the average market in Arlington of 1046. So that's a very telling situation. So that's something that we definitely have to assess in the analysis of impediments. Next slide. Here we look at poverty by race and ethnicity. The percentage of White House levels in poverty shows 9.5% versus 19.4% poverty for African American and 21.1% poverty for Hispanic. percent poverty for Hispanic. It is also important to note that the poverty rate in Arlington is 15.7%, which is higher than the MSA rate of 12.6%. Next slide. When we look at the employment by race and ethnicity, we see that unemployment for Whites in Arlington is about 4.2%. The unemployment for African Americans in Arlington is approximately 7% and 5% for Hispanics. Next slide, please. We also want to bring your attention to it and talk about the cost burden as it relates to the comprehensive housing affordability strategy. As we stated earlier, cost burden is defined by HUD as households that are paying more than 30% of their monthly income towards housing costs. So when you look at this chart, the first column gives you the breakdown of household income ranges. For example, individuals or household that make less than 30% of household area meeting family income, those individuals that make 30 to 50% and so on. So that's the first column. The second column illustrates those households paying 30% of their income to awards housing. The third column shows households paying more than 50% of their income to awards housing costs. So the key takeaway here in this chart is that renters at the lower income levels. Those income levels are less than 30% or 30 to 50% are more cost burden and the same holds true for owners at the bottom chart as well. Next slide. And also the consultant looked at racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty in our internet. And we do have about five sister strikes in our internet meet this criteria. So basically what that is, it's sensor strikes with extreme poverty that have a high concentration of racial ethnic minorities and are deemed what we call RE cap areas. So there's a minority concentration of 50% of more or poverty rate over 40% or 3.8, or 37.8%, which is three times the average rate track for the MSA, which is 12.6%. So we have about five census tracks in Armington that meet the REECAP criterion. Next slide. So as you can see here on this slide, you can kind of see the five errors there in red. At the top, you have census tract 1222. You have census tract 1223, 1224, and 121905, and 1219-05, and 1219-03. So these errors are classified as racially or ethnic concentrated errors of poverty in Arlington. And those have been identified by our consultant. And those will be part of the impediments for our intent to address over the next five years. Next slide. So when we talk about fair housing impediments, what does that mean? So there are several different categories of impediments. So you have the five listed here that there are real state, banking, financial regulatory, insurance, and other industry related, socioeconomic, neighborhood conditions, and public policy. Next slide. So the list of impediments are, so for the real estate category, the impediments that were listed in the analysis, number one states that there are limited housing affordable to very low income groups and protected classes, and two is basically rising cost of development and the need for additional development subsidies. So the column to the right shows you recommendations that were put forward by the consultant for us to include in our toolbox of strategies to combat these. So you'll see recommendations such as to support increased production, create more public partnerships with the developers, facilitate mixed income housing developments, maintain a list of lenders, continue collaboration with city and banks and lenders and seek other grant funding sources to increase funding for housing development as well as mortgage assistance. So those are recommendations for us to include in order to combat these impediments as a relates to real estate. Next slide. For the Banking Finance category, two impediments there, low number of loan applications and loan origination rates for minorities as well as predatory lending practices. Recommendations include pretty much identified increased funding for home bi-education, financial literacy to increase the knowledge of minority applicants and also increase the number of minority applicants for also increase the number of minority applicants for our home loans and also to encourage banks to extend services to low income census restraints as well as provide outreach to these minority households. Next slide. In the socio-economic category we have a approximately three impediments there. The first one states to special needs populations with disproportionate rate of lower income, they face barriers to fair housing choice and access to transportation. Number six talks about concentrated poverty with the higher incidence of minorities in lower income areas such as those RE cap areas that we talked about and those minority space limited housing choice. Number seven talks about limited access to healthy food choices for minorities, leading to nutritional related diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. So recommendations will include just some incentivized zoning to enhance development in some of these recap areas, concentrated poverty areas to explore additional options for transportation assistance programs, using our CDBG federal grant money, and also to continue to look at new market tax credit developments, explore opportunity zones and other initiatives to expand opportunities and recruitment of corporations and incentives, as well as evaluate applying for some USDA food desert grant dollars to assist with addressing those health disparities among minorities. Next slide. Neighborhood conditions, that's the next category. So we, number eight says that we have a limited number of available affordable housing units and resources to help low-income homeowners maintain their homes and enhance neighborhoods to build the the consultant recommends we should explore applications for all the grants to improve housing and one or more of those RE cap areas as well as encourage our developers to produce more mixed income developments, as well as increase self-help initiatives, consider partnering with school districts for a build and repair program, and organize community tool sheds and other neighborhood cleanup campaigns. Next slide. The last category is the public policy. The impediment listed is limited outreach, public awareness and enforcement of fair housing rights. So the recommendations are I'm going to start from the bottom. The bottom slide there. The item says provide outreach to private landlords to encourage them to attend for housing training. The other one is maintaining an update, be affirmative for housing market and plan to support for housing and open access to affordable housing. And the let in the first bullet talks about evaluate an academic, an academic of an expanded local for housing legislation and explore fair housing funding for enforcement, education and outreach. So I would like to just kind of elaborate on the first bullet there. There is an opportunity to expand the local current fair housing ordinance in Arlington, which would bring local enforcement requirement into the ordinance that could be covered by additional federal funding dollars, the government is not a guarantee. This is something that we have discussed in committee. Staff is seeking council direction on how to move forward on this particular item as it relates to expanding the ordinance. So we would like some confirmation or direction from council on how they would like us to proceed as it relates to the fair housing ordinance. Next slide. So the next step for us, we're almost complete with the process with consolidated plan as well as the housing and the assessment and the AI. So on the May 5th councilor, and there are going to be several items listed there. You will see we're seeking council action on the consolidated plan for CDBG, ESG, and home grants. You will also see action for a 2020 through 2021 action plan as well as adoption of the Howling Assessment and the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing and the Substantial Minimum to the prior year's CUN plan and the 2019-2020 action plan due to the COVID-19 response. So we are our plans are to submit all of the plans once we receive a council action to HUD by May 15. And all of those agencies that will receive funding from us should start their program years on July 1. I'll be happy to entertain any questions at this time. Next slide. Okay, any questions from Mr. Wade? Okay, Dr. Farrah Mars. Thank you, Dr. Farah Mars. Thank you, Mayor. And Darn, thank you so much to you and everyone at the end of our consultants. You did a great job. I know I've heard this for the other times being at the committee. I would like to go to the slide where you ask me for council input regarding the update or ordinance. So can you go back to that slide? Yes, Mike. Can you go back to slide 49? Go go go up two more slides. Go go. Yeah right there that's it. Okay I just wanted to for the sake of the council this morning we had this conversation and in committee and I just wanted to bring out the question that I asked this morning because I think it might be a little bit more helpful because I know this is my fifth or sixth time seeing it and it was a little still a little overwhelming to understand. Currently right now, as you said, federal dollars could be obtained to assist us with local enforcement, but right now the way our ordinance is crafted, we are able to utilize HUD to do that enforcement. There is a regional opportunity to go as well. In the committee, we discussed the fact that in this juncture, there's a concern about adding cost burden to the city. And so by not making any changes, we are still in compliance. And in fact, what we will, we still do is refer anyone who has a concern to HUD. Are those correct statements? You are correct, Council. Okay. I just wanted to bring that out because I think your question to the Council of giving us guidance and whether we update. The other question I asked this morning was if we were to update, per this potential recommendation, my question was what do we get if we update it versus what we don't? What we get is if we do update our ordinance, we are actually adding potentially a cost burden to the city to do their own local enforcement. We could go the regional route to share cost and potentially could get federal financing to assist us with that. We are still absolutely in compliance with HUD if we do not add local enforcement and continue to allow HUD to do that enforcement for us. Is that correct, sir? You are correct. So that is the choice before the council. I thought it would be easier if I took you through that since it took us about six meetings to get to that part. Thank you Mr. Wade appreciate it. Okay other questions. Okay, Ms. Mollies. Okay, Ms. Mollies. This is not really a question. I just want to really important. As far as I'm concerned, we will still look at this. But I think the timing is wrong. I think you made one statement that the fair housing. It could be covered. And I think it I think right now we need to document whether we have a problem, whether we have, I mean, I know that there's disparity, but we don't know that it is in the type of, the type of disparity that means we have apartment owners that are discriminating. And I'd rather explore a lot of avenues before we think about expanding this particular section. So I do understand your frustration and I'd like to reach out to the Tarant County Apartment Association and the Arlington Board of Realtors in particular and see if there's some sort of way they can help us evaluate how we're handling this currently and whether HUD is in fact providing all of the housing oversight for enforcement that we need or if we need to be doing more. So I think it's a matter that I would say we need to sometime after we get all of this put in place that we need to bring up as an initiative by the city to take a look at this. Thank you. Thank you again, Darwin, great work. Thank you. Mr. Sutton. Mr. Sutton. Mr. Sutton. Thank you, Mayor. And, Lauren, Darwin, I'd like to come in you on the presentation. So, my question is the complaints that are found that are enforced by HUD. Do we keep track of those complaints? Our procedure is basically if a resident calls we will take the call, we will log the call and we will determine if it's a landlord or tenant issue. If it's a landlord or tenant issue that there's a route that they can take for that. If it's a definite discrimination or a housing issue, we typically will refer them to the Fort Worth Hood headquarters and Fort Worth, or we can refer them to the North Texas Fire Housing Center, which is that regional organization that we talked about earlier in the presentation. So there's a couple of routes that a person can take when there's a complaint. So there's a couple of routes that a person can take when there's a complaint. Okay, now do we track the outcome after it's been looked into? We do not keep track of the outcome. We only keep track of the the law, the actual, the date of the call, the issue that was reported. And if we refer to them or are like in our just basically just kind of giving an assessment of what we did to get them to be helped because we don't have the local enforcement so we're basically more of a referral type agency in that regard. Thank you. Other questions, comments? other questions comments. So, Dr. Farah Myers, it looks like your committee there is wanting to hold off on this is that what we understand. Ms. Moise is chair. Oh, Ms. Moise. Yes, Ms. Moise. It sounds like your committee would like to hold off on the recommendations. I think there's more work on it. Okay. All right. I don't think that was something that was meant to be addressed today. Right. In a list of recommendations. Okay. Any other questions or anything here before we move on? Yes, Dr. Odom Wesley Okay, I'm having a battle with my buttons I have to say well first of all, thank you darn for this very comprehensive look at I have to say, well, first of all, thank you, Darn, for this very comprehensive look at housing in Arlington. And I have to say that I'm not surprised. I knew that we had an issue of disparity and an issue of inadequate supply of affordable housing. And I've been trying to address that as I've been on Council and voted on projects. So I guess my question now is to the committee. Do we, will you come back with a list of recommendations to mitigate the findings that we have here in this report? Or are you just looking at fair housing ordinance or what's the committee gonna do? I guess it's my question. Ms. Mollies. I think the important thing to remember here is that none of this is going to happen quickly. What we're talking about approving right now is a five-year plan that's filled with recommendations and tools for monitoring progress. But the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, And this plan also can be adjusted over time. I know that a couple of years I've been on this committee. Each year we've adjusted based on current market conditions and like right now COVID is going to really impact everything. So I don't think this is meant to give you an absolute answer as much as it is to reach out and say that these things are things that over the next five years we're going to be looking at including local fair housing legislation. Dr. Nunez. Is that help? Okay. Thank you, Ms. Mollies. Dr. Nunez. Thank you, Ms. Mollies. Dr. Nenez. I just wanted echo much of what Barbara has presented. And the thing that is so striking to me is how much of our population is significantly cost burden and having a difficult ability to afford keeping the roof over their head. And so my number one takeaway from this five-year plan is that we need to continue to do what we can for affordable housing for seniors, affordable housing for our workforce. And I agree with what Helen is saying. This list of recommendations, we're going to look at this saying, I think every time this committee meets, and we're going to, as time goes by, as our pocketbook allows us to, we're going to recommend and bring to the council different items for their consideration and approval going forward. So for their consideration and approval going forward. So I hope Barbara that answers part of your concern. Any other questions, comment? Yes, Dr. Farmer's. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to follow up on that last comment. Just a reminder, I think one of the things the committee has struggled with and discussed a lot, which is there has to be a balance between providing the housing that's necessary and also the jobs and the wages that are necessary to support that housing. So I think as we go forward, we need to be sensitive to, I think all of us, when we looked at the budget, we looked at the inversion curve between our industry and versus commercial, excuse me, and our residential. We all agree that we want to see more commercial coming in. So I think we also want to be sensitive as we move forward. Yes, we do need these housing, but how do we achieve the close the disparities? And part of that is closing that wage gap and bringing in more commercial opportunity. So I just wanted to raise that. That was something that was very important to the committee to make sure that we talked in a balanced way about this. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Ms. Moise. You're muted, Ms. Moise. Sorry. The census is going on right now. One thing that we continue to stress is the importance of everyone completing the census document because that's where so much of our funding for programs that help people with housing costs comes with our census numbers. And so I especially want to commend Dr. Farrah Myers for all of her efforts on increasing census awareness. And that is so we can't stress the importance of the new census state that's coming out and the funds that could be made available to us because of the census. Okay, I don't see any other questions here. I do want to put in well Dr. Odomesley would like to say something else. Okay. Thank you. I think I'm unmuted. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. unmuted can you hear me? Yes we can hear you. Yes I think we're all aware that this is a multifaceted complex issue and even after five years it's probably not going to be completely solved so to speak. I think we all even got an email from a high school student this week and I think she identified three things that we need to help with disparities. And she talked about jobs, housing, and childcare. And I would add education and job training. So there's a lot to be worked on. I think we recognize the complexity of it. And I would just like to see us keep plotting forward and make progress and start to make a difference, especially in these identified at-risk census tracts, but also for the entirety of the city of Arlington. And I just thank you for the effort and I know that the effort is ongoing and offer my services to the committee if I can be of any assistance in helping you and I'm wondering if we can get assistance from UTA and their research team and just move forward and try to make a difference and improve the quality of life for our residents here in Arlington. Thank you. and I appreciate the presentation. It's got a lot of data that I've got to bruminate over. And one of the things that I run into as I go through Arlington and talk with people, especially some older residents in Arlington, at least in my district, is there's a lot of misconceptions regarding what affordable housing is. And, you know, just this week, Mindy and Jim are the ones that are in the city of New York. at least in my district is there's a lot of misconceptions regarding what affordable housing is. And, you know, just this week, Mindy and Jim provided me updated information on section 8 housing in Arlington, and it's really far less than this kind of fictional myth out there that people are run into think. And I think also that whenever people hear the words affordable housing, a lot of people just default to Chicago's Cam Breene green and think that's what it is and it's not. So one of the things I ask from my council colleagues and staff as we continue down this path is to educate me so I can go out to people and kind of work through and overcome some of these myths that are out there regarding affordable housing. And that means talking about how Arlington is not making mistakes that have been made in the past elsewhere, talking about the quality of what affordable housing is these days. Talk about how these projects have developers who keep it clean and keep it updated and have a maintenance plan, that sort of thing. And you saw that a lot of people in my district always ask me about this. And I've learned so much, but I still need more education in this area so I can continue that effort so that this city has a whole works together towards this goal of affordable housing and not because of a few people with some misconductions, you know, stick a stick in the wheel of the spokes of the wheel. So that's just something I would like to ask. It's always talk about how this is quality, how this is different from what people perceive in the past and not just assume people know that already. Because I know I didn't until I started getting a good education from staff and my fellow council members. I want to echo Mr. Pills' comments. We have a job here to actually share throughout our community because affordable housing needs to be throughout our entire community, not just in one area. And that is so important as we move forward. But in addition to that, there is tremendous opportunity there throughout our city and in particular in East Arlington and so much and we've got a ton of affordable housing in East Arlington but it's falling down and that isn't what we want here in our city and there has been an all-out effort and Darwin I want to thank you and the entire housing authority and our grants department and so forth for working because we have been working with HUD very closely. We resulted in getting the Envision Center and some other grants, but yet we still have an opportunity to do more there as we move forward. And yes, this is an important topic and then in our city we need all kinds of housing. Also, they're especially out of reverence for Mr. Shepherd and Miss Cape Art and many that have served for years. We're not just starting on this. This has been going on for a long time. We talked about five more years, but frankly, right now, we have created more jobs than in all levels, not just the lowest income, not just the highest income, but all levels of jobs that we have created over the last three years, we are the leader in the Metroplex. Is it enough? No, we need to do more, but we're not just starting on the affordable housing. This is a journey and we need to do more, but we're not just starting on the affordable housing. This is a journey and we have to really work at it because it requires so much money and effort and ability. So it's one of those that we need to keep on the forefront, but I'm afraid we're not just starting at it. It's been a hard road. It's been worked on for a number of years. And then Darwin, thank you. As I mentioned before, really appreciate your commitment here to making a difference in Arlington in so many ways. And if you can pass that on here to your fellow workers to really, really appreciate it. Thank you for a great presentation. Thank you, Mayor Council. Okay, next we'll move to furlough considerations and reduction on on enforce policy and budget and business plan follow-up and I'll call upon Mr. Trey Yilbert and our city manager. Thanks Mayor members of the council. This is a follow-up to our prior conversation that we had at the last meeting that I wanted to provide some additional information on and then take a couple of the questions that you had asked and go a little further. You all know at the last meeting we went through a fairly detailed presentation regarding five strategies that we've put out there to address some of our fiscal concerns between now and September, I say five, it's really, to me, it's kind of at least six because the vertical bar there to the left on the federal and state grants were very active in that area trying to advocate on behalf of receiving some support into the city to help address some of the concerns that we have. So while we work on that, our strategy, we have implemented phases one, two, and three. We're in that process right now. Four is kind of always there in the sense that there are resources should we need them. We can go, but five is the area that we've spent a little more time on and getting prepared, depending on what the future may hold, as it relates to furloughs and or reduction of force policy. So first, just a little bit of background. When we talk about furlough, what exactly does that mean? And what we're talking about here is a either an employer, group of employees that are temporarily not on duty and not paid because the city's operational needs are economic conditions and budgetary restrictions that have been put upon us. So in areas that have had reduced workload or workload eliminated, those would be areas that would be ripe for considering furlough opportunities in an isolated way. So we can do it in what we would call a continuous furlough, which is what I was just referring to. If you took a specific business unit because the activity level was no longer supportive of that team, you would take a look at furloughing that person or group of persons. Until such time as the workload would then substantiate that investment. Alternatively, or even additionally, perhaps. We would also be willing to consider, depending on the financial needs, what we refer to as an intermittent furlough. And that may be more broadly applied to, frankly, a lot of the segments, if not all the segments of the workforce, where we could take a look at as an example of having someone on non-duty non-pay status for say one day during a pay period or one day during multiple pay periods so that it effectively puts a one day off to save the budgetary concern that we're trying to target between now and September. Both those are options. Both those we have flexibility to execute on based on operational needs, which will closely be watching the data, particularly the May sales tax that will show up second week of May and the June sales tax that will show up in the second week of June. Those are going to be key dates for us to pay attention to what the results have been relative to what our refined assumptions have been. So how does that differ from a reduction in force? And in this case, what we would be talking about here is an elimination of positions, either occupied or unoccupied, where we would essentially be making a budget modification by the deletion of positions, because we no longer anticipate or need that particular position or team of individuals. And unfortunately for us over the years, we've been through some of this back after 9-11, back after the Great Recession. So we have a little bit of practice in this area. It's not a pleasant situation, but this is where it's not a temporary situation. But it's a permanent situation, a permanent reduction in force, and we modify our budget, or we modify our going for budget, say an FY21, where we reduce our head count. Our current policy, as it sits today, is that it needs to be able to continue to work on our headcount. Our current policy as it sits today is that it needs to be a matter of business necessity, which we're clearly analyzing and talking about in the examples I just gave would be applicable. We would be bringing that forward to the council because we need your concurrence. We have to delete the or as part of our budgetary process, we'd be reducing headcount. So a RIF, reaction requires council involvement of the positions that are being identified for RIF compared to the furloughs, which are really more of a managerial scaling, if you will, of what our needs are. Of course, that doesn't specifically apply to chapter 143 civil service. Those laws are a little different and we would apply those per the statute. So just a little bit of side-by-side comparison of what furlough and reduction and force look like on the furlough situation. You are retained as an employee, but on temporary leave without pay. Until such time as we would bring the team or the person's back, we would continue to provide benefits for the individual, just not their salary. We expect them to come back and they may be eligible for unemployment benefits. Conversely on the reduction in force, there is no retention plan. There are no benefits paid beyond what I'm going to talk about here in a moment. We don't expect them to return to work in that current job because the positions are permanently eliminated and unemployment benefits are available to those individuals. So how will we managing this is not too dissimilar from our budgetary approach of kind of looking at the various phases. In the furlough area, those are going to be more adaptive, more depending on what the data shows. We will be looking at that. I call out phase one and two. These are a little more interchangeable than my first strategy is relates to the budget. So we might do these sequential. We might do them on top of each other. It just depends on what the data is going to indicate to us. And then the reduction in force, I would point to mid-June when we receive the data regarding sales tax. That would be a bell weather kind of moment for us to assess. And if we're consistent with our refined projections, I would not expect this to be needed this fiscal year, but it would be something that we would look at going forward in fiscal 21 However, if our If our assessments are inaccurate then we'll need to recalibrate and talk at that point of course in the meantime We're still actively working the federal resources and help to help mitigate all of the things that I'm talking to you about as contingencies So if we go into an actual reduction in four, so we come to the council and talk about certain positions during the budget or before that we need to eliminate based on business necessity, this has been our past practice and we would expect to be our future practice assuming the council's comfortable with this approach. But individuals that are in occupied positions, we would pay sick and vacation leave accruals in accordance with city policy. If you've accrued that time, then if you were to separate voluntarily as opposed to involuntarily, we would compensate those individuals per our current policy. We would provide what we call pro-rated stability pay each year in and we're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. We're going to be able to get a new one. partial credit for that. We would also receive or provide service credit for people who are taking vacation leave and such so that if they separate in the prior 12 months they are able to continue that service. To get those service credits towards the Texas Municipal Retirement System and we kind of protect that time for them as it relates to their future retirement situation. We would continue to provide health employment benefits per the typical cost share that the city would provide for 30 days after separation. Thereafter following the Cobra standards the employee can continue to stay on our health insurance program but at their cost. We would also provide the unemployment claim won't be contested because we're the need to move that in that situation based on the pandemic. We would also require or provide that anyone who was participating in a continuing education program educational assistance for degrees as they continue to work and improve their situation for higher wage opportunities in the future that there not be a repayment. Our current policy has a certain period of time you need to stay here so that if you left on a voluntary basis you would repay the city a certain pro-rata amount and so here if you were separating involuntarily would make sure that that is not a liability for you as you exit. And then the last area that we address is that we provide priority consideration for anyone who's in a rift list, that anyone who could come back 12 months thereafter for another vacant position that we are able to fill as long as they meet minimum qualifications. So instead of trying to bring in a new person into our organization, if we have an existing qualified person who unfortunately was subject to, or if we would move that person into another area, and let them come back to the city. So that's a little bit about the contingency planning that we are putting in place for item five of our budgetary strategy. The furlough piece will continue to manage, and I'll keep you advised if we get to the point where we need to implement any of those. And then of course if we actually implement a rift strategy we'd be coming back with an action item on your agenda. So let me pause there and answer any questions about that. And then I'd like to talk about a few budgetary follow-ups from the questions you all had at the last meeting. She over tonight. I'd love for you to repeat again. This is the last phase of our budget reduction strategy, right? Yes, sir. This we've gone through essentially five or six phases. Three have been activated. The other three are essentially getting in preparation. The advocacy at the federal level, the reserve dollars that have been identified, and putting our policies and procedures in place to be open and transparent with the community, and our employees about the kinds of things that we're thinking about, how it would affect, and then we'll have to identify down the road if we needed to what business units we would end up touching based on business necessity and priority of the council. Well, thank our employees can see what value we place on them and then that was the last part of that. Yes sir that's a great message to send. Yes Mr. Shepherd. Thank you Mayor. Tray you may have answered this in your last presentation. And if so, I apologize for asking again, but how many vacant positions do we currently have? I think I'm going to get to that another part of this presentation, but I think it's around 150. And how much money does that represent? I'm 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 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 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 to be going to be So hopefully we can get to that answer. And if I don't get to it on these next couple slides, Mr. Finley will help me out with giving you a better more articulate answer to that question. All right, thank you. Mr. Peale. Trey, sometimes I get off the cuff comments from people that alleged that perhaps Arlington's personal levels are inefficient or are overburdened some. Can you kind of clarify by drawing upon the statistics regarding Arlington being a pretty lean city when it comes to personnel per citizen and being pretty efficient and its employee, the number of employees that it has because I can't remember that and I think it's important for people hearing this presentation also understand that Decisions have been made in that regard regarding staffing levels in the past. Yes, so I guess given both of your questions Maybe it would be helpful if I went ahead and get got into the next piece because I think I'm addressing both of those So maybe let me do that part and we'll come back and have maybe a better conversation. We're particularly proud of how we've run the city over the years. We are lean and mean. We're award-winning and very efficient. And I do have some information I want to share with you about that here in just a moment. The next piece I want to hit though, before I get to that is Mr. Sutton asked a question regarding privatization which is another alternative service delivery model that can be more affordable and less taxpayer cost and so I want to hit some of our efforts that we've done in this particular area. This has been an area that we have been very active in, not just now, not just two years now, 10 years now. This is a cultural norm in our organization to privatize and do as much as what we can through the private sector as opposed to the public sector. So for many years, as we sit here today, we have 78 such contracts across all of our funds that are private. That represents almost $31 million in various outsourced services, avoiding about 470 individual head counts that would be required if these were done internally. So that's one very specific example of how we minimize our head count by relying on the private sector to provide a different service delivery for us. Here's a couple of pages of examples. I mentioned a couple of these when we talked last week, but to add a little more beef to that, here we go. Small to large. In accounts payable a few years ago, we outsourced, I think it was four accounts payable clerks. It's now consolidated down an organization in college station named Cognizant. They do a lot of this for various cities. So a small outsourcing of four financial analysts in that area. AMR is our ambulance provider. This represents much more robust investment and actually we're probably one of the few cities around that you will find that either one is not operating its own ambulance service at a higher cost or two, subsidizing the private sector ambulance service. This operates fully on its own through fee collection and the services that they receive in that situation. There is no taxpayer subsidy for ambulance provision through the AMR and also no head count for people running ambulances. Our city election services are done through interlocal with Tarrant County as well as the tax office through Tarrant County. We have a third party workers compensation claim analyst and administration so we don't have to have those individuals on board janitorial services throughout the city in the various facilities I would add to that here in a moment. Numerous other things such as solid waste services both collection and disposal so there are many cities that run their own garbage collection we have not I mean for my whole career we've not run our garbage service, and it's one of the most affordable and best in the region. At our convention center, a lot of the services there are outsourced, the AV, the concessions, crowd management, landscaping, all private contracts, our parks, ground maintenance, our mowing along the thoroughfares that you see along Green Oaks, and Abrams Street and other places are all done by private contractors as opposed to city forces street sweeping is privatized watershed engineering studies disease control vector control which is the mosquito spraying effort so those are a lot of different examples and I think Mr. Finley's got an actual table that will email out to you guys that show the list of the various 78 or so different contracts. But that is one way that we are, quote, lean and mean as it relates to the situation. So in follow up to Mr. Shepard's question that he just asked a few moments ago, as of April 5th, we have identified 116 vacancies that are currently there. That includes civilians as well as some that we project to become vacant. To highlight that in a couple of ways, we have the police department. These are sworn positions. There's only 15 vacancies there, and only 13 currently vacant in the police or the fire department. And dispatch has about 17 or 16 that are currently vacant. Dispatch is on a constant staffing model. And so we will make sure that we are rotating new hires through there or paying overtime to keep the seats all full. Similarly in the fire department, while we show vacancies to the vacancies fall below a certain level, we will hire overtime to backfill that area. But here's a list of those other positions in specific. So as of 455, you can kind of see and have prioritized these by department and based by the volume of vacancies that are present. So this kind of goes to Dr. Farah Mirz, this question that she asked me last time about concerns I might have about carrying vacancies in which business units might be impacted and such. Number one, I want to make clear that all these positions are important because I do believe we run a clean, mean operation very thin across all lines of business. Every one of our folks do a really great job and will tell you they need more help so they could do a better job. But we do the best we can to make it all work. So they're all important. But we do think that we can manage the impact that we need to between now and September 30th. And we also retain the flexibility to higher individuals where if we start to have too much of a challenge and we need to go ahead and fill a position, then we're gonna do that. But from our prioritization perspective, you can take a look at the general fund, and then at the bottom I have some other funds. And the areas that I would mention here, again, with the caveat that they're all important. The two areas that I would probably point to that would give me a little more concern than in others. And one is in asset management at the top, those four positions. These are the folks that are taking care of our air conditioning, our plumbing, our roofs, our electrical issues and if people cannot work because the air condition is not working or because a backflow of a pipe occurred, that's not going to be good for us. And so we need to try to do as much as we can to carry the weight that we have there. Two of those four positions were added this last budget year. So I feel not quite as concerned as I might if they were just four straight-up vacancies that we'd kind of have become accustomed to. So we're holding the two vacant and then we're holding two additional. The other area that I would pay attention to and it's something we pay attention to a lot is in the planning and development services area. As we sit here now, we have six vacancies in that group, which is 9.8% of the team. We're closely monitoring on a day-to-day basis the workload in that particular area. And so it's our expectation that workload will probably float down a little bit. That's still a little bit to be determined because in the month of March, it was relatively flat. It was not particularly soft. But we're going to watch April and May. And if we find that the volume there is steady to picking up, then we'll revisit the opportunity to fill some of that operational need in plan review and inspection services so that we can keep our economy going the way that we need to. So I would make mention to those couple of areas. And in that context, maybe look to Mr. Finley if he's got an idea on that question. Mr. Shepard asked about. Okay, so Mr. Fenley has indicated that for the year on an annualized basis, our vacancies provide $7 million worth of savings. And then the last piece of what I wanted to highlight, there were several of you that were asking questions as it related to our capital program and debt ratios and how we do to benchmark against others. And we are in that process, in fact, on your agenda tonight are several items relative to our capital budget. But as we sit here currently, October of 2019, our outstanding balance of property tax supported debt is 428 million. That is backed up by a tax rate that's relative to 17.73 cents on the tax rate or about 28% of the total tax rate. We do have very conservative debt ratios and practices that I was talking about at the last time in the sense that we have level principle. So it lets us pay down our debt obligations faster. So to be specific over 10 years, when you have a 20 year bond, doing a level principle payment means you can retire 70% of your debt obligation in 10 years instead of having to pay out for the whole 20 years. And we do as like I think is on your agenda tonight when we can refund a obligation which is really tantamount to refinancing our mortgage if you will when people go save interest cities can do the same thing on their bonds if I can lower an interest from three and a half to 3%, we should do that and roll the savings to the benefit of the tax payer. To the question that Mr. Peale was asking, and then I think a couple of y'all were asking last time, there's a few things I want to just remind you of. These are slides that actually came out of our last budget presentation. So I didn't do anything special for this presentation. This is what you heard back in August and September. But take a look at our per capita assessed valuation and how we are kind of in the lower tier of that amount at $67 per capita. This is a number where we don't want to be low. Technically, we want to be higher in this category because the higher the per capita is, the lower the, the, or the, the smaller the spread of the tax base to everyone is. This is a reflection of that question of either one commercial tax base that I was talking about. With South Lake being the clear outlier there, where home values are, you know, 800, 900,000 on average. So they clearly cover way more than their cost for service and more than make up for the commercial tax base challenges that we see compared to what you would compare us to Austin, Plano, or Richardson, where there's a broader commercial tax base. Specifically to Mr. Peale's question on the right hand side as far as being lean and mean. This is a list we you know I'm proud that we are towards the bottom of on a per capita of all the cities in the region 68.7 per 10,000 populations and other than Carrollton clearly at the bottom of this list so from an efficiency perspective we get there through having a low head count internally. other than Carrollton clearly at the bottom of this list. So from an efficiency perspective, we get there through having a low head count internally. A lot of that is done by some of the privatization efforts that I talked about a few moments ago. And a lot of that's done simply by what we do have internally. It being not exorbitant and it being just what we need, just what we need to kind of keep the machine running. Couple of other charts along these lines indicate our general fund per capita. Again, at the bottom of this list is not really, well, expenditures per capita, this is a good one. This we want to be on the lower end, but with broader tax base, we'd have more resources. I'm not talking about a higher tax rate, I'm talking a bigger tax base, economic development. But on the levy per capita, also at the lower end, and you can see the higher commercially based areas, Richardson, Dallas, Plano, with a better amount, also affects housing prices there that also are of benefit. So then the last slide is just kind of where we're at on tax rate kind of the middle of the pack and you can see how the rate split was back in 2019. So as I said, this is from the last summer. So we've actually lowered, if you recall, our tax rate by a little over a penny. We dropped it by a penny, 08. So as we sit here today our rates actually 62.4 But at the time that we presented this this is what that chart looked like so kind of middle of the pack And you can see the difference between that and general fund expenditures and you can also see that all the neighbors who Are around us that we're tracking Dallas Fort Worth and Mansfield all have a higher rate than we do Also interestingly that's part of our makeup and it's on the right-hand side of this chart is the value that we've been giving our residents for many, many, many years, not only an effective cost-effective service delivery, but also in having a lower cost allocation back to them because we're granting the state maximum amount for the homestead exemption. And as you can tell, not everybody does that, including not everybody who's even adjacent to our city, including Grand Prairie Mansfield. You don't have to get out of market to compare that that 20% discount that we have, for as long as I can remember, provided to our residents, it is not a norm and it is not our plan to change that norm, but it is part of what people need to know about in the context of how we do things affordably. So, a couple other pieces. When you take a look at the commercial and residential values, just a little bit of benchmarking. And you can see this here, between some of the cities that are bigger in the region, Irving Dallas Plano Fort Worth, You can take a look at the commercial tax base versus the residential. And that was, I think, a little bit of some of the conversation that was going on here a moment ago about the housing strategy. And you can see of these cities, we're the only one over 50% as far as a residential Prioritization or a residential waiting of our of our tax base the healthier organizations are not going to be 4060 Going towards residential. It's going to be 60 40 going towards commercial and as you can see as we talk about the things that we're dealing with now commercial tax base lowers the burden of residential tax payers, brings jobs into the community and helps us address some of the concerns that we're dealing with right now. And then lastly, the ratios that we're following with those same cities, we have very conservative ratios there. You all have had this adopted for some time. This was built with guidance from S&P F, and Moody's, our debt to AV, our debt service expenditures, those ratios. We're all in alignment on and you can see how we compare to some of those other cities. They look favorably relative to kind of being up against that cap, all the blow it. And the reason why again is commercial tax base. This is another way to demonstrate how commercial the bill. We're going to be able to allow it. The reason why again is commercial tax base. This is another way to demonstrate how commercial tax base lowers the burdens on you and you see that in these other cities. Hopefully that's also a little bit of context to answer some of the questions that you all asked last week and you were all the slides I had prepared but I'm happy to talk about anything that you'd like to talk about. Mr. Sutton. Thank you, Mayor. And, Tray, thank you for that presentation. As an Aircraft Controller, I was furloughed and understand you have to make tough decisions. But I remember back maybe about 10 or 15 years ago when American Airlines went through a tough financial period, they negotiated pay cuts to keep the employees on, but the save the company money. Is there a possible way of navigating a pay cut so you still keep the employees on? You would still save money. But my fear is you're going to lose some valuable, talented people in organization if we have to go to the extreme of a riff or furlough. I would argue that a furlough is pretty comparable to pay reduction, especially if we do something that is an intermittent type of fashion, where we take a payday or a day during a pay period, or if we took a week between now and say the end of September, it's a certain amount of unpaid leave, which is effectively a pay reduction. So that kind of intermittent furlough achieves that same objective without really having to go through the process of, you know, kind of in a, in a kind of a moral kind of way of kind of the morale, if you will, of employees by actually reducing a paid cut, because those kinds of things affect other things that are part of consideration when an employee exits the organization. So if I can avoid doing the paid cut, it's going to be better for our employees long term, but I can save my short term capital the way that you are talking about through an intermittent or a furlough type nature. It doesn't have to be an individual, but it could be everyone kind of sharing in some of that across the organization if we determine itants needed. So, Trey, how would a, I understand the difference, but if you had a pay cut with service, they pretty much the same versus a furlough, or you would lose consistent services? I think that we could probably speculate on this. And if we had to do a pay cut to make things work that's certainly an item that we can do. I would venture to say that if we went in that direction that we would lose people not through furlough but through people choosing to exit the organization, especially people who are more senior and who are towards the tail end of their career because it would be more advantageous for them to leave now and to preserve some of the benefits after the words, and they would if they were to take a five or 10% pay calculation and then have that impact, what would happen to their pension as they left. So I think we would see a negative impact from people choosing to leave the organization. I'm not sure what that would actually become as far as the numbers, but it would be something that I would be concerned about. And I think one of the things is different about what you're proposing. These are very short furloughs that you're talking about, that because of the many employees we have, you're not talking about three month furlough or anything you're talking about days or weeks or something. Mostly, I mean, going back to the intermittent versus kind of the surgical, there might be a team that has no business. And so I need them to be furloughed because I don't have work for them to do. But there also may be a lot of everybody who's here still doing work. And I can take a day here a week, you know, between now and September, and effectively get to the same amount. And it is a short term and I think the morale of employees aren't as impacted as a five or 10% pay cut as it would be to get time off. And the other thing that they get with that with pay cut, you take less but you're still working. Whether furlough, you're getting less but you're not working. So at least you get a benefit for that as well. Thank you. Mr. Shepard. benefit for that as well. Thank you. Mr. Shepard. Yeah, thank you Mayor. And, uh, Trey, I would mention too that I don't know if it was four years ago. We did the salary disparity comparison. We tried to rank ourselves with our peers. We've spent the last three or four years catching up for the previous five or six years that we had foregone. We paid employees of one time, two percent at the end of the year, rather than giving them a two% pay raise. And the cumulative effect of that put us woefully behind the market on a number of key skill areas. And so over the last three years, we've invested in what trade would call human capital rather than pursuing a bunch of other project to be able to do that. And I think that's a good example. Rather than then. Then pursuing a bunch of other. Project based kind of expenditures. And I would hate. For us to get back behind the curve on that. But clearly as a last resort, Mr. Setton, I think that that. It would be on the table. But I would hope that we could find our way through it in the short run without having to give back, so to speak, some of what we had to claw our way into to get our salaries competitive with the market. And I think that's kind of what the five layered strategy tried to do was blend in multiple ways to get to the bottom line and then I would also say to your point out and I want it to not be forgotten because I do know employees remember it and I got a little bit of conversation based on this but in the phase one strategy that we've already deployed one of the initial In the phase one strategy that we've already deployed, one of the initial areas that we did was we suspended the 2% pay raise that was scheduled to take effect this month. So in a way, I would argue that employees have already taken a 2% pay cut because we've not fulfilled that even though it was planned. And like I said, I got some feedback from our employees. You were concerned about that. But also, I think very tolerant of that in the sense of when you look at it holistically of all the things that we're trying to do to make it to September and to get healthily prepared for fiscal 21 I think most understand it very much so. Okay Mr. Sutton. Yes thank you Trey it is I'm not sure if the bill is going to be the most understand it very much so. Okay, Mr. Sudden. Yes, thank you, Trey. It is going to be short term. I can see no reason for a pay cut. But looking long term at the riff. What you do lose your position. And you're gone. If a pay cut would say that. That I can accept. I understand short-term is totally different, but to prevent loss of job and opportunities, a pay cut would keep them active would maintain some level of service for the city. So, with what you're saying about the furlough, I can agree and I can accept that. My concern was seeing long-term riff, because I was riffed in the air for, so I understand what that does. Yes, sir. I think that's fair to look at it in a longer-term basis and I think that's part of what we'll look at over the summer is as we look at if there needs to be reductions or if we need to try to find some ways to find churn if you will in our in our workforce to where we could find ways for people who want to go ahead and exit the organization voluntarily. And then when you backfill the position, you typically backfill at a lower basis because it's a newer person, right? They haven't worked through the pay system to the top of their career. So that's something we'll take a look at as well as we prepare the budget for FY21. Dr. Odom Wesley. Thank you. Dr. Odom Wesley. Okay. Thank you. These are five layers assume that we don't get any additional funding through another cares package or something from the federal government. Yes, ma'am. That's what the vertical piece is. If I can, if we can solidify that, then a lot of the things that we're talking about fundamentally change. And so depending on what happens there, we'll be prepared to come back and talk to you all about what that would mean based on whatever occurs and how we'll modify our strategy. Right now, our strategy assumes we're on our own and we have to finish the year and the black by September 30th and we're taking the actions that are necessary to deliver that. And all the indications we've received so far are I think optimistic here of late but until it's actually in hand I want to make sure that we're prepared and not too late to implementing strategies that are going to be required. And it also assumes that we are not going to consider raising property tax, correct? This is a budget challenge between now and September. Your property tax question is something we'll take care of over the summertime as we prepare the 21 budget. I do think that'll be a common theme though, as we talk about the budget, about how we minimize the impact on individuals and how we provide maximum benefit. And that was one of the reasons why I showed that homestead chart, because I want you all to be just refreshed on these are things that we currently do and those are things we expect to continue to do. And I'm not sure if we're concerned about the rest of the things that we currently do and those are things we expect to continue to do. But I do expect that as we come forward in this this year's budget, not only will we be trying to be conservative just to meet our new new challenge, they'll also be trying to be conservative so that we're not needing to try to pass through costs to taxpayers who are very challenged out there right now. Okay, thank you. Any other questions discussion here? If y'all come up with any questions or hear something from a constituent, please, you know where to find me so I can give you some perspective, but I want you to, you don't know what our planning is looking like and when we have more information right now I would expect the next thing that we would need to come forward with would be depending on if we received some kind of aid in a federal package we would I think it'd be worthy of a discussion or until if that doesn't happen it probably isn't until mid-June when we get that second sales tax check for the month of April would I have more meaningful information to really convey any new information to you all about? So that's kind of my schedule as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Yalverton, for you and the staff's work here. And just for our TV audience here in our citizens that may be watching, we're going through the same exercise that our businesses are going through and our families are going through here and tightening our belt and preparing here for what may happen here in the financial crisis that is resulted from COVID. But then also we just like our businesses and our individuals, we also are working with our federal government there to try to get assistance. And this is something that every city in America is going through at varying degrees. This is not a, and then I want to emphasize, this is not a Democrat, Republican, or anything. This is a red, white, and blue issue all across America here because of the revenue loss that cities are experiencing here because of the revenue loss that cities are experiencing here because of the shutdown of business and there. And so we're preparing here at some of our worst case scenarios, but yet to know it is an all-out effort being made to try to receive federal aid so that we can have our economy bounce back here as soon as possible with this. So with that we'll move on to the next item and that is 2020 City Council priority put technology to work and I'll call upon Jennifer Whitman our assistant city manager. Thank you so much Mayor. I'm really pleased to be able to present to you the and the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development of the development to this meeting that we're having right now and all the great work that you all are doing connecting from home to say that to show how Arlington is really putting technology to work. But we have other exciting things to share as well. So if you look at the displayed newsletter there, that first article is on a really interesting interactive map that our parks department has created. This is a tree finder. They went in and did a sampling of, identified some trees and a sample of our parks and extrapolated that to all of our, to create an inventory of our parks. And if you go to that map, which is easily findable if you go to our website and just search for tree finder, tree finder map, it's very easy to find. And it will show you interesting trees in all four seasons. It also has an inventory of trees. It tells you what our most popular trees are and it will mention that with the conversation we've had recently about post-docs in Arlington that is our second most common tree in our city parks and we have over 60,000 of them, which is I think some interesting and exciting news for everyone who's interested in that cross-timber's eco-region. Looking at the next page of our Put Technology to Work newsletter, we've got a couple of neat things that are going on. First, we talk about some virtual court sessions that we're holding. This is something we began back on April 8th and it allows any defendant with a citation to visit with a judge virtually. So this involves a Zoom platform and also YouTube because it has to be broadcast per the state regulations. But we've actually seen, excuse me, it's 153 defendants since in the last 20 calendar days, which we're doing just Monday to Friday. And this has been so popular that we've actually added an additional docket. So anyone who's interested in participating in that can email virtual court at ArlingtonTX.gov and find a virtual way to connect to a judge and perhaps take care of some tickets. It's been very successful and we're very proud of Arlington's leading or Arlington musical courts leading work in that area. The other article on that second page deals with some telephone town halls that our mayor is having, hopefully many of the folks who are listening to this or watching our afternoon council meeting have had a chance to participate in those. He's held two. We've had 12,000 people participate in the first one, another 9,000 in the second one. There'll be a third telephone town hall coming up on May 7th and anyone will be calling out to a number of people, but also if anyone's interested in just calling in that number is 1-888-409-538-0. Again, that's on May 7th at 6 p.m. And the number is going to be 888-409-538-0. And we'll be putting out information on that on our various websites and social media accounts. So that third page there that we have, there's a great notice about a UT Arlington design program, visual communications design program that was ranked among the top 50 nationally in their area, which we're very proud of. A UTA is always helping us lead in this put technology to work area. And then we held an event with animal services back in February. And we did some microchipping of pets, which anyone who has a pet knows that that's a much easier way to find an animal if it gets lost if you have that animal microchipped. And that was a very successful event. We shipped, we were able to put chips in 30 pets. So hopefully those pets, if they do get away, we'll get back with families much sooner than they would have otherwise. And then finally, on the back page, I wanted to highlight some of the things that our libraries are doing. They really have a lot. They're focusing on so many of our families who are at home, either with or without children or looking for things to do during this time. So they have a lot of educational resources there, fun activities, also assistance and research that can be done. So Arlington, anyone who has an Arlington library card can use that library card number to log in, but also AISD students can use their lunch room, or their lunch number, and the password 1, 2, 3, 4, if they also want to gain access. So again, for AISD students, that's their lunch number and the password 1, 2, 3, 4, if they also want to gain access. So again, for AISD students, that's their lunch number, plus 1, 2, 3, 4, and they can have access to anything that library card holder would be able to have access to. And then it winds up with a data tile about some of the interesting information we found out about trees, but I'm super proud of the work the organizations done in this area and would be happy to take any questions at the mayor council may have. It's my address. This is Robert Shepherd. Understand the mayor has left podium and I can't see everybody, but if Mr. Yevrton, if you'd help me out, does anyone have any questions for Ms. Whitman? I'm not an indicator. All right. Doesn't appear as though there are Ms. Whitman. Thank you very much for that. Thank you very much. Informative briefing. We're going to skip a little bit. I understand Chief Krausen is available for a very short period of time. And so I'd like to skip ahead if we can to item 4.8, COVID-19 update and recognize Chief Krausen and let him let us know where we are. Thank you, Councilman Persheppard. I'm Don Krausen, Fire Chief. And today's another day for COVID-19 update. I will move right into it. So I start every PowerPoint presentation here with a timeline of our continuum. Nothing has really changed other than we've got another week forward. The one thing you will notice is that on April the 24th we started our testing site and I'll be reporting that to you here in a few moments. So from a statistical perspective we're gonna get right down to it from the Tarrant County perspective. There are 175 COVID confirmed patients in Tarrant County as of yesterday. Still relatively low number as compared to the number of beds available in Terrent County, which is around 5,700 beds, for about 52% bed occupancy or capacity at this time. A very good number and we are a very stable position from a hospital perspective. Now, sadly, the number of deaths in Arlington have increased. I've got the most recent number here. We are up to six. We've had two more deaths in Arlington. Both elderly individuals have succumbed to the virus. And overall, our positive cases in Arlington are nearly 400. From a perspective of who this virus attacks, it's about 50-50 male, female. However, when it comes to fatality from the disease, it's 2-1 male. Also it's still is attacking the elderly. And disproportionately it's affecting African Americans in some degree Hispanic population. Speak to that in a moment. The government himself had a presentation about the number of fatalities from the disease in the state of Texas and you can see it's the numbers even higher across the state at 76% fatality for those of the age of 65 and older, predominantly possibly due to nursing homes and rural areas where there's less response of ability in those communities. So the virus impacted Arlington, I have an updated this slide here, but the thing we measure on a daily basis is number of patients that we have in COVID patients. We have an Arlington hospitals right now. It's 59. 11 of those individuals are in ventilators and our number has now moved up from four to six deaths in the city of Arlington. Interesting enough it appears that three of the six now are Hispanic three of the six now are Hispanic citizens and all of these individuals were of the age of 65 except for one individual that was in his mid-40s. From a tracking perspective, you can see that we've remained relatively flat. We were up this week in the middle 50s, but still not a number that I would consider a concerning based on our experience and the capacity of the hospitals, all still in very good position. Across the region in fact, all the hospitals appear to be in very good position and the patient numbers appear to be stable. However, there has been some increase of late. This is the Arlington modeling here, the orange representing the actual confirmed COVID patients while the blue are the presumed COVID patients. We treat them the same. They take up beds, they take up ventilators, and that's how we watch the hospitals. Now, we're still very busy out in the field. Our fighters are responding in ambulance personnel responding, great regularity to COVID calls. Our strategy is to get into position for a more robust testing process, and we're in that process now. Our strategy will be to, the testing will help us identify where the hotspots are in the community, help us identify potential clusters, allow us to take steps to contain those clusters, and to isolate the individuals who are involved, and to stop the spread of the virus. We have a strike team in place, and I can be happy to report that all the nursing homes at this time are stable. And in fact, we had a couple of visits just recently that confirmed that some of the steps we have taken are being adhered to and we feel very effective in the nursing home environment. So we're testing now I told you last week we'd be starting a testing center it's at the parks mall in a parking garage. Reason it's there, because it would survive a health storm like this morning. And we're pleased that the operation has been going very well. Our ops communications team here at the city's done a great job publicizing the site. We've had a lot of attention. I think the thing that individuals need to realize is that it's a lot of work. It's just not setting up a bunch of cones and testing people. It's creating a whole administrative infrastructure front-end and a back-end where we made a deal with a quest labs who provides us with the test kits and they have the reagent available to do the testing and we have a process where we have great skilled firefighters doing the testing of citizens, but we also have fire prevention officers, police officers, administrative staff from the fire department running the front-end of the operations, which is loading information into the website, taking phone calls, advising citizens on how to get through the process. It's a thing of beauty to see that didn't exist a week ago and it's amazing what the city can do in a crisis. I'm just proud to be a part of it. So the testing center has been running very well. Friday was our first day. We were shooting for 100 we did 133 yesterday we did 207 today we did 239-ish I think we're around 575 citizens tested so far what is surprising us now is that we're starting to run out of names to test so tomorrow we're going to have 150 names or so and we're going to start accepting names listed by Tarrant County Public Health will start feeding our center and I've made a couple of phone calls I talked to Dr. Kovasa with the school district asked him to do a call out to all the parents notifying them of the test center. If there's any citizens that they touch, you may feel like they need to be tested. They should reach out to us and we'll make sure they get tested because we are learning some things as we go through the process. And one of it is certainly outreach. Again, this didn't exist a week ago. We now have an intake process where the citizens can go to our website. They can register on site. There's a series of questions and intake elements. They can review to see whether or not they qualify as someone who will be tested. They can enter their information. And then they'll get a phone call from us and we'll try to schedule with them an appointment at the site so we can do it as efficiently as possible to as high numbers as possible. We provide information for them to be aware of what the process entails, what they're going to experience, while they're waiting for the test results, what they should be doing at home. And then all we're asking for is an ID and proof that you're a Tarant County citizen. Doesn't have to be a driver's license, just an ID and proof that you're a Tarant County citizen and we'll get you tested. And just from a point of reference, we had one individual who was alive during the Spanish flu in 1918. So we tested 105-year-old individual today. And so he's lived through two major serious pandemics. And he shared his story with us quite interesting. But what we're finding out now is the metrics are telling us, or the results are telling us, is that we've got some areas to tell and we're concerned about. And here's the one part of town we're concerned about. Certainly in the 7601.0 zip code I grew up in is an area of concern. So is 014, 018. All these areas are, areas we're looking at regarding outreach. We're a week away from Cinco de Mayo. all these areas are, areas we're looking at regarding outreach. We're a week away from Cinco de Mayo. We're gonna be out, we're gonna have fire trucks sending literature to these zip code areas in particular, advising people about social distancing, how important it is, how to stay safe. Also trying to outreach to anyone out there who may feel like they need to be tested tested that we're here and we're available. You can see that I'm going to back up real quickly. That dot there is the parks mall in our testing location. And what our metrics are showing us is that these are the areas we should be looking at. Also, there are some secondary areas in town that we're paying attention to. Our first batch of results were of the positives that we saw. We're predominantly Hispanic citizens and followed by African Americans. And so we're paying attention to the groups that the disease seems to be impacting. And we're trying to focus our efforts in these areas. So moving forward, I know world is changing, we're doing our best to adapt to it, is that we're gonna continue to protect the vulnerable. And I think you heard the governor say yesterday that protecting the vulnerable populations is a key aspect for any community to move forward, and we're doing that here. We have a process in place. We now have a robust ability to test. We're continuing monitoring the hospitals and we're watching for outbreaks if they occur and we're coordinating with Tarrant County Public Health and other health authorities. I feel very good about the work we're doing. In fact, the Arlington site is doing more tests in Tarrant County than any other site right now. And it's a credit to our firefighters and our staff and the police officers and the communications team and every individual in the city government's part of this operation has helped us manifest this operation in a short period of time. And it's just a really great thing to see happen. Highly effective and we're doing a lot of people, our capacity is significant, but it's just a really great thing to see happen. Highly effective and we're doing a lot of people, our capacity is significant, but it's starting to look like the demand may not be as large as our capacity is. So we're moving forward and we understand now that the governor is issued a few orders. Just wanna cover a few of those directives from the governor. One, we have to maintain hospital capacity to move forward. We do have that. Our hospitals are following the COVID-19 rules. Additionally, the governor stated that at least 15% of the hospital capacity has to be available for treatment for COVID. We're way beyond 15% we're in very good position on that issue. From a quarantine perspective the governor has added a few more states to the cities to the list from those who travel by air and then getting back to opening Texas this is our new reality that the fire department will also play a role in. In-store retail services can still provide pickup delivery and you know the things I've been doing that can continue to do but starting this Friday in-store retail services will be available for up 25% of the occupancy load. We're working on strategies to achieve this now from a communication perspective. Same with restaurants, about 25%. Occupancy will be allowed unless your cells are 51% or more based on alcohol. That's a no. Movie theaters can operate at 25% capacity. Shopping malls can operate at 25% capacity, but the food court cannot. And we're just not there yet. And then museums and libraries is really a local government decision at this time. And that's really based on the local situation, what local leaders want to do. So for counties in Texas that have less than five COVID-19 patients, they're not subject to the 25% rule they could go up to 50% we're not one of those counties. We've got plenty of cases here. Golf courses can operate, providing, and you can ride on a golf cart, but if you're a family member too, if your family members are on the golf cart, they could both be on the golf cart together, but if you're with a friend or something, you've got to be in separate golf carts. Lots of standards in there that we're still trying to get interpretation on. But overall, many of these things, we're moving fast right now to adapt to that because Friday, many of these things will go into a fax, so we're working on a communication strategy that will be coming out with by Friday, Thursday, hopefully. But as we move forward, we know this, we think businesses should have signs showing that they're following the standards, the COVID-19 standards. Their sick employees should stay home, sick customers should also stay home. Businesses should take steps to protect employees and customers. So when you're there, when your customers there, they want to feel safe, they should be saying protective measures that not only protect their interests but the employees' interest. There should be a regular cleaning process at these facilities and the place should be compliant and safe with the standards set by the governor and the local jurisdiction. Social distancing has not gone away. It is still here. And we wanna make sure that the community understands that. Big celebrations coming next week and we want that standard to be adhered to. And then if there's issues of concern in the community, we certainly need to hear about them so we can work through the issues with the business or the citizen who has an issue with what they're seeing. We want above all, we want the community be safe, we want the customers to be safe, we want the businesses to be safe, and we want to do it together as we've done so far in a very you know capable and satisfying way for this city. So with that, that's my update, and I'll open the floor up to any questions or the screen to any questions, and I can answer. Thank you, Chief. I do see Mr. Sutton has a question. Thank you, Mayor Portiam, and thank you, Chief Krausen for that presentation. My question, you listed three zip codes. They fall into my district part in the Dr. Nunez district 7601076014 and 76076018. What is the significance in those district? Is it the case of positive tests? Yes sir, Positive cases. Yes, sir. Would you be able to tell me the number in each zip code? No, I can't. Not this time. But you can look at that county website and see the per capita ratio being heavier there than in other locations. Yes, I think that's why the three zip codes are currently identified. I don't have the exact numbers at this time, but we do know that those areas are the ones that we're paying attention to from a positive case perspective. Two more quick questions, Chief. Where are we when you do have a positive test? Who actually does the contact tracing on those that's at the county or as of the city. That'll be the county. We'll make the contact with the citizen to the doctor will to notify the citizen that they're positive, but then we'll pass that information on to Terrent County Public Health. And my final question at what point with our criteria for testing change where you will be able to test other than the ones that are in the category. So if I'm asymptomatic, I don't get tested. Is that correct? That's correct. I had a discussion with Taren County Public Health today about going to a next level of evaluation of who could be tested. And they're looking at that issue right now. So it's really a matter of what the demand looks like if the demand drops off and it's being restricted by the standards we're requiring at the time we may look at loosening the standards slightly. But that'll be a doctor decision, a Tarrant County Public Health decision and we'll work in concert with the team from Tarrant County Public Health. Thank you so much. I noticed you have the electronic billboards times that talk about social discreet. Do you have those in those particular zip codes to make being awareness to the issue? We've no sir right now we've moved all the dynamic message boards into the parks mall area for the for the testing site but that'll certainly be a strategy for next week as we try to do some outreach. We're gonna travel some neighborhoods and leave some flyers and We'll be posting the message boards and those those general zip codes as as we can do it. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it again. Thank you, sir. Mr. Peale. Yes, there have been any update on people being able to get anti-body tests. I mean, so many people are asking me, I think I had it. I want to know if I had it. Is there any countywide plan to provide those tests? Are any place to go and get them that I can tell people to go to? No, sir, not at this time. It's still predominantly a discussion. I think the, again, the science is a little incomplete on the testing because of the potential of cross contamination with other viruses. I think the best way to go right now is to ask your doctor, your personal doctor, to see if that's available from their office. But right now it's widespread antibiotic testing here in North Texas. It's not not a possibility at this time. Go ahead. There should be. Oh, there was one more. You know, a lot of people who have said, you know, I don't want to go out even though they're opening businesses up and watching the governor's press conference the other day. It looks like any kind of reference this that there is a strategy in place to identify in flare ups are, you know, this thing seems to when it gets bad, kill a lot of people really fast, are infected a lot of people really fast because it spreads so quickly. Can you kind of explain what the governor was referring to and he was talking about how to identify a flare-up of COVID and what the city would do to address one of those, I guess, brush fires that would pop up so that people might feel reassured that we're prepared to deal with that. We've lost the chief, audio on the chief. Hang on. I'm going to take a break for technical issues. Sure, we go through a lot of batteries. I see Dr. Bogger on Odom Wesley has a question next. I'll put you in the queue as soon as Mr. Peale is through. I'm done with this, when I get this question answered. Okay. And I see Dr. Nunez looks like he's trying to speak as well. So I'll do him after O Dr. Odom Westley. Test. Chief. Yes. Okay. So, Councilman Pille, the reality is we have a strike team in place that if we find a cluster in the city, nursing home or potentially even a home, we'll swoop down on it and we'll do some testing and quickly work with the individuals who are involved to isolate them from others. And if necessary, the doctor could issue control orders for the facility or the location involved to help isolate the positive cases from the rest of the community until they clear the 14-day isolation period or they would want to make sure they get the sufficient treatment they need to take care of themselves. But we do have a process in place. It's worked three or four or five times so far and we feel like we're in good position on that issue this time. Thank you, sir. Dr. Odom Westley. Thank you and thank you, Chief, for all your work on this effort. I had a couple of questions. Have you been contacted about transportation problems getting to the testing site? I had some some questions about that. Yes ma'am. I'm sorry. I was just wondering you you know, if that becomes an issue for residents to get to the testing site, can we get via the help us out there? Yes, ma'am. We can do that or the handy train. I've told the team to be paying attention to that issue. If there's an individual who expresses a concern about getting to the testing site, that our team will figure out a way to get them there. And if I'm not good, I guess can we put that on we'll add it to the website. And I'll just let you know that what we're working to do in this area is is interlink the technology and the communication between via and handy trend. And if it comes in through via or through handy tram, what will likely be the case as a handy tram vehicle will be used to transport the individual to the testing site. So we can provide that. Hany Tran gives a citywide coverage as opposed to via only doing half the city. And we're able to use a similar vehicle so that we're not having to cross contaminate various pieces of equipment. We're able to use the same one and then wipe it down and get back on the road. Okay, good, thank you. That came up at one of the Ty townhouses that I was on. Questions about transportation. The other question I know that there's two private privately owned testing sites in allington as well. Do we get any data from them? Do we know how many tests, how many positives, or is there a coordinate effort there at all? I believe that data is going to turn County Public Health. So that information we tried to make sure that Turnc County is the repository of all the information from a public health perspective for the entire county. So yes, ma'am, I believe they report to Turnc County. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Dr. Nunez. Chief Croson. I have my own physician reasons for being concerned about opening back up, but I'm gonna leave those to the side. What statistic should we be looking at? That's going to tell us that we are having a significant resurgence to where we're going to have to shut down. And I think I know the answer. It's an increase in hospitalizations with patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19. So if we see a significant rise in patients at our orange and hospitals, and we're going to know that failed in our social business. Is that a fair statement, Chief Croson? I think that's fair, sir. Yes, sir. My next question is the testing started on Friday. So we're here now Tuesday. It's been one, two, three, four days. Any results back yet? Yes, sir. We've had some results back from the first day. Can you share with us what percentage of those tests came back positive? About 10%. Some are 10 to 12% looks like. So we have a 10% background of or number of patients. Well, how many tests did you do? Well, when you said 10%, that's 10% from the first day. First day. From the first day. And the results are still coming in. So but the averages have been about 10%. Wow. So we're paying attention to that. But these are people who came in with the qualification that they had one of the above symptoms. And they got tested in 10% or positive. Yes, sir. It's a small sample. You can't extrapolate that to the rest of the city. If you did, then the assumption is that one and every 10 patient, one and every 10 citizens in Arlington is walking around with the virus because what the test you have been doing is testing for the active infection. So that would be scary percentage. That would be one in 10 for every symptomatic patient in Arlington. Okay. Agreed. Yes, sir. We don't know yet what the background percentage is. I will I will tell you I will tell you this or I think this is a good thing that we can see we are hitting the folks who apparently don't have health care and that's good that we're available for them. And so we're creating a pathway to get them help and I think that's that's a good thing. So. All right. Thank you chief. I don't see any other folks flashing. Dr. FM has a question. Okay. Dr. FM. Thank you, Mayor Prattam. Chief, I just had a less of a question and more suggestion. I know dealing with the homeless population and getting out information regarding census and other things. We've actually been providing information through the food banks. Arlington charities, for example, Mission Arlington. So I didn't know if you were thinking of that route to share information regarding the testing sites, but it's a great opportunity to reach out to especially those in those those zip codes. I know 010-014-018 are heavily. There's a big overlap for our feeding sites with those as well as their shelter sites. So I just offered that for whatever it's worth. I know our own charities are reached out to us. We're doing some census stuff, but that might be another opportunity for you to reach those who might need, as you pointed out, populations that may not have health care or other opportunities to read it on social media or other ways. Just thought it offered that, sir. That makes sense. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions for the chief? Councilmember Shepherd would like to ask a little bit on the testing. What's the turnaround time on the test results of what we're doing? Is it 24 48 hours? What are we looking at? Well, we were we're hoping for 36 hours but you know we're competing with other entities who are putting their resources into the lab but we believe the lab has the capacity to turn it in 36 hours however our first day was over a weekend so we're we're still waiting to see we we've promised the citizen four citizens four to five days but we would expect it to be 36 hours to 48 hours at the max. I do think that's part of our overall strategy too as the reopening occurs it's testing and it's the speed of the test results and the quickness in which you can isolate individuals to to minimize that and so that speed and that volume is part of the strategy. Yes, sir, absolutely. I think one other thing I'd like to mention is the rest of this week we'll be helping Tarrant County from their inject process. We'll be taking on individuals that they have registering with them. But as we work through this, and it looks like the demand may drop, we'll still maintain a smaller type of resource and we're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're not So. All right, very good. Any further questions? All right. Thank you, Chief. We appreciate all you're doing. Please tell everybody out in the field. We appreciate all the effort that they put in. We'll do that. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Community and Neighborhood Development 2020-2024 HUD Consolidated Plan. Ms. Mowice, did you have something to add to the presentation? Just real briefly the committee met this morning and all members were present. We continued the discussion of the five year HUD plan, the 2020 action plan. Mr. James Gillian with J. Quad planning group who was our contractor for the study, met with us with the follow-up information about the city's options to expand the current fair housing ordinance. We spent quite a bit of time on that during earlier discussions. We provided an overview of community consultation with Arlington residents, stakeholder groups. We were also briefed on substantial amendment of the current consolidated plan and action plan to meet urgent needs related to COVID-19. And I would report that we have resources that are gonna be available here in 2019 to help particularly with rents. And on May 5th, Council Action will be requested on a new five year consolidated plan, action plan, and housing needs assessment. So that will be coming up at our next council session for vote. Thank you. All right thank you Miss Moise. Any questions from Miss Moise? All right none are indicated. Next we'll move to economic development and I will recognize myself. The Economic Development Committee met today. All members were present. All matters were discussed in executive session. Next up, Miss Capehart, Environmental Task Force update. Thank you Mayor Potem. Environmental Task Force meeting was held today with all members present. Our topic of discussion today was the assignment we received from City Council about making recommendations and updating our tree ordinance. We have had several questions and have asked staff to bring us back as best they can to determine the remainder of the cross-timber's forest and where it exists within the city, with looking forward to making some recommendations to trying to take efforts to preserve our native oaks within that cross-timber's region's remaining. And then we had some other questions with regard to how we mitigate the post-oaks and the Black Jack Oaks that don't necessarily fall within the cross-timbers forest. And then also with regard to what a development plan project might be with regard to the footprint and any of the oaks that would be within that footprint and if we want those mitigated differently. So we have more work to do. The committee members are very, very helpful, very active and I appreciate being able to work with them and with staff. And I think we'll have a significant deliverable to the council. I hope by the end of May on the tree ordinance that we still have other work we're doing is regard to the work of the task force. That is my report, Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Miss K part. Any questions from Miss K part. They're don't appear to be any. So we'll move to the next item, Mr. Buskin, appointments to boards and commissions. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, we have no appointments to boards and commissions this evening. Very good. Next up is the evening agenda items. Anyone have any question on the evening agenda? Mr. Shepherd, this is Terry Solos. If I may, I did provide the council this morning and draft ordinance on item 12.2, which is the final item on your agenda. That relates to our emergency ordinance that is in place and relative to that item, all that ordinance is doing is incorporating the governor's executive orders that he issued yesterday. And currently that ordinance aligns with the same date as the governor's ordinance which it put you through May 15. All right. Very good. Any questions from the solace. All right. None are indicated. Issues relative to city and text not projects. Any update necessary there, Mr. Yolverson. No sir, not that I'm aware of. Okay, very good. Future agenda items. Any future agenda items. All right. None appear to be indicated. So if that is all for the afternoon session, we will adjourn and reconvene this evening at 630. 630. Good. All right. Anything else we need, Mr. Yoverton? No, sir. Okay. Very good. All right. We will adjourn the meeting. Thank you all. See you later. 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