 Hi everybody. Welcome back to our Facebook Live. Although today we're taping it and we're going to show it to you at 6 o'clock. We heard from so many of you that since the President moved his briefings to 430 that we should move ours so you should watch both. So that's what we're doing. Tonight we'll be back at 6pm for you. Today I'm joined by our POA, that's Police Officers Association, President Manny Ramirez. Manny, welcome. And by our Firefighters 440 Union President Michael Glenn. Michael, welcome. You're going to hear a little bit more from them in a minute, but as we always do I want to give you some of the numbers. After this weekend and some of the updates on where we are, today Tarrant County has 452 COVID cases, 13 deaths and 41 officially recovered. Fort Worth has 167 cases, 5 deaths and 12 recovered cases. Per CDC guidelines, Fort Worth and Tarrant County have hit what's called substantial community spread. That means that we're getting this from unknown sources that it's spread in the community. And reporting these numbers never gets any easier. It just astounds me at the rate that they're growing. But it does underscore how important it is that you follow the recommendations set forward. Not just by us to stay home, but by CDC to wash your hands, cover your sneezes, keep yourself at a good social distance from others. So I'm going to hand it over first to Manny. Manny, we've worked together on several issues, but I have to say this has got to be one of the strangest ones. And last week the governor authorized a special election for our CCPD, which is Citizens Crime Control Prevention. It was originally scheduled for May 2nd and we said with all the shelter in place and we don't know whether to be lifted, it wouldn't be wise to have thousands of voters out to vote. It would go against social distancing and everything. So we were fortunate that he moved it to July the 14th for us. You want to talk a little bit about why that CCPD is so important and what it means for our officers and for you all? Absolutely. First of all, I'd like to thank the governor for moving the election for us. I know you early on, you discussed how worried you were about having an election in May. And so I'm very thankful that the governor was able to do that for us. CCPD not only is it vital for the infrastructure of our police department, the funds that we use from CCPD go towards equipment, training, a lot of community programs that actually help keep our city safe. So that election is very important. It's usually up for five years. This year will be a 10-year election. And it's absolutely crucial for us to be able to provide those services the CCPD allows us to keep our city safe. Now we're committed through that effort over the next couple of weeks, over the next month, to constantly putting out information about exactly what those CCPD dollars are spent on. Because we need to make sure that every single cent goes towards the goal of public safety. Many, I get so many questions. People want to know, how are officers feeling about this and what can they do to help them? What can you think of? And first, tell us a little bit about how the officers are feeling now as they encounter potentially COVID patients and doing their job. Well, I think right now, Fort Worth police officers, they're out there protecting and serving just as they always are. Obviously, they're working tirelessly to keep the community safe. But there are those added concerns and those added pressures and pressures. We're all in this together as one global community. Our officers are out there working every single day, day in and day out. But when they go home, they're adhering to the same social distance guidelines, the same stay-at-home orders that our citizens are adhering to. And so they're trying to set good examples when they're at work and when they're at home. And what can you think of that citizens can do to help besides prayer? You know, I think our citizens can follow the guidelines as well. I think that that's first and foremost, but like you mentioned, I think prayer is important. Making sure that we're praying for our health care providers, making sure that we're praying for all of our first responders, all of our city workers, our government workers, praying for our elected officials, praying for their wisdom. I know that all of their decisions may not always be perfect, but please have faith that their decisions are being made with measured consequence and the best intentions. So that's one of the most important things our citizens can do. And I know you all are feeding your officers from local restaurants, which is very important to frequent those restaurants. Absolutely. So early on, we recognized that not only would our communities be hit hard by this, but by any type of shutdown, but our business communities would be particularly at risk. And so we decided that we were going to start a program where we order hundreds of meals every day from local at-risk businesses and we feed our officers on every single shift. And so that the goal was twofold, you know, one to make sure that our at-risk businesses are supported, because they so often step up to support us in our time of need, but also to make sure that our officers are fed. So the program has been very well received. Our officers are happy. You know, in our business community, I'll tell you something, Mayor, just a week ago I had a business owner tell me, he said the forward POAs order kept me in business for another week. Oh, that's great. And that was hard work. So as long as we can keep the program going, we're going to. Hopefully we don't have to keep it going for too much longer. I hope not. And yeah, it's a great program. Thank you for doing that. Michael, I know y'all are doing the same thing, feeding our firefighters and by local businesses all out throughout the city. Yeah, in fact, we last week, we purchased some meals as well from one of the restaurants at Manny said was really struggling for the testing facility, the testing group from the UNT Health Science Center down at their location. We're provided meals for those workers that have done the testing for our police officers, our firefighters and other first responders. And they really appreciated it sounded like. That's awesome. And you know, the firefighters are in a unique spot because you do the medical reds also, which means that our firefighters are encountering a lot of sick people. Talk a little bit about what your officers, your firefighters are doing and what their response is. And if they do come to the door dressed in hazmat, what should people think? Well, just like Manny was saying a moment ago about the police officers, the four firefighters, we're still working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We're still answering all the calls for service. You know, I hate to say it this way, but we're still open for business. I mean, we are still there to serve the citizens just like our brothers and sisters of the police department are. We never stop responding. It is important to know that what we would like for the citizens to do is if we're coming to their house, if it's possible to meet us at the front door and to maybe meet us in the front yard, it provides the need for us to use less personal protective equipment. And that personal protective equipment, while we have enough here in Fort Worth right now, there's a nationwide strain. There's going to be a strain on our system, depending on how long this goes on for. But I would like to commend our city and especially Fire Chief Jim Davis and his executive staff. They've done a great job of locating personal protective equipment, but at the same time also pivoting and trying to find new ways to decontaminate the existing equipment that we have that we never thought about trying to do it before. But we really thought outside the box. We've got other departments in other cities wanting to look at what Fort Worth is doing. We're looking at what other cities are doing and trying to learn from each other. But it's just a completely, I think you referenced a little bit earlier, it's just an unusual time. We just don't know what to expect. And there's got to be a healthy amount of fear among the firefighters as they're approaching home who they're supposed to tell you if they have somebody quarantined. But I know that doesn't always happen. Right, and one of the items or discussion the other day was what happens when we have someone who wasn't tracked through the Tarrant County Public Health System. They're treated and diagnosed in another county that they come over to stay with friends and family here in Fort Worth and they're not on our radar, so we don't know until they tell us. But you asked me a moment ago about how our firefighters are feeling and while we are still serving, we're still answering the calls, there's no doubt about it that there's a little bit of apprehension amongst some of our servants that are just wondering what they're taking home with their families, what they're exposing themselves to on duty. But again, we're doing everything we can to minimize any chance of communal spread from our agency as well. That's great. And what would you suggest that people might do to help our firefighters? Follow the guidelines. If they would follow the guidelines, that would be the first and foremost an important thing for us. Social distancing and meeting us out of the front door, that would be great. That's great. You all need to know these guys and their fellow officers and fellow firefighters really do put it all on the line every day for you. They're serviced at an unprecedented time, we should all be thankful for. You can't go up and give them a hug anymore, but you can thank them. You can send them a message and you can thank them. And we're grateful for your hard work and for representing our firefighters and many same for you for representing our police officers. So before we go, I want to remind you that tomorrow, Fort Worth has a council meeting. It'll be a virtual council meeting once again. It's at 2 p.m., but you can turn, tune in and watch us. You can call in if you do have a question and get in line to ask your questions. We will be amending our stay at home order and we'll be talking a little bit about what date that is. It will be April 30th to match the governor's orders. So before we adjourn, Michael, you have something special here in your lap from one of our firefighters and his family are fighting. I do. So while we are gathering to talk about COVID, we're talking about this pandemic and how it affects us. The Fort Worth firefighters, just in our way to try to maintain some sense of normalcy, we already had this campaign planned. And so one of our firefighters, Jason Loveland, designed this shirt. We're going to be wearing these. We already are for the entire month of April. Our firefighters paid for them on their own. They're allowed to wear them on duty. And so it's these shirts that you'll see your four firefighters in supporting autism awareness. And again, it's just our way of just trying to keep doing something that provides some sense of normalcy. It was already on our schedule. It was already on our radar. So we went ahead and went on with the plan. I think that's great. It's great. Everybody has somebody that's been impacted by autism. Yes, ma'am. And for the fire department to recognize that and support it. The police does that in so many areas. These guys really, really are doing so much more. So I'll end just like I always do. Y'all stay safe. Y'all stay healthy and y'all stay home.