 Good evening. I'm Councilmember Carlos Flores and thank you for joining us today for our first District 2 virtual town hall I know this has been a really difficult time for our community And I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on some important topics to start This town hall is virtual so that we can practice social distancing and keep each other safe Although we have multiple staff with us this evening. We are bringing each guest out one at a time So we can maintain six feet of distance We're also wearing masks when we aren't talking and I'll remove mine now These are important steps that we are taking here in the studio and that each of you should be practicing as well If we all do our part, we can reduce the number of infections and keep our communities as safe as possible Our translators, unfortunately, are in isolation because of possible exposure to COVID-19 However, we will be adding Spanish subtitles to tonight's video and posting that online However, Spanish speakers can call in with questions and I will be happy to translate During tonight's meeting. We won't be talking about COVID-19 extensively However, if you have questions or concerns about COVID-19, I encourage you to visit the city's website We have information that is updated daily and we also have a hotline at 817-392-8478 Staff can answer your questions about restrictions, closings, testing and the impact on city services If you have any other questions during tonight's meeting, you can call 817-392-6014 Some residents submitted questions before tonight's event We will answer as many questions as we have time this evening If you don't get to your question, we will post the answer on the city and my facebook pages Tonight, our first guest is deputy city manager Jay Choppett Jay has been with the city for more than 20 years and has worked in the economic development department, the finance department And the housing and economic development department He was also an assistant director in the water department Jay currently oversees economic development, financial management services, human resources, police and public events So welcome Jay. Thank you for joining us And one of the topics that I wanted you to address tonight is the city's budget and how the current COVID-19 restrictions have impacted our current and future budgets here in the city Well, thank you councilman for inviting me here today and having me on Yeah, the COVID situation and the impact that's had on our economy Businesses closing is definitely having a negative impact on the city's overall budget for this year And as we project forward to future years We're having to put some planning into place to be able to deal with that The city has been taking some measures because of a shortfall in primarily sales tax And also operations related to our public events department, which is our hotel tax and The running of the venues of convention center will rogers those places All that business dried up With the closing of the state and not being able to have large gatherings. So We did put some measures into place like a hiring freeze So currently the city has over 350 Vacancies that that we are not filling in order to save money there We also put a slowdown on some of the Pay-as-you-go cash funded capital projects so that we could Wait to see what revenues are going to look like as we go forward to try to save some dollars And then looking forward to the next year's budget We're projecting a Significant impact on the sales tax side of about Somewhere between 20 and 25 million dollar shortfall So as we look forward as working on our budget to move forward for next year We're having to you know Look at different departments determine where we can have some savings and potentially continue the hiring freeze going forward into next year on the longer term basis you know at some point hopefully we'll have a An answer as far as a vaccine for for the covid situation Sales will come back retail sales will come back some of that business will return But we do probably see a couple years down the road having an impact on a negative impact on our property values Several businesses are closing Some won't come back We think that that's going to lead to a commercial decline in commercial value All over the state not just in forward So we we're dealing with it like everybody else is and we're having to put some measures into place to ensure that We can continue to deliver the services to to our citizens as well as maintain a good fiscal Platform as we go forward Thank you. Jake. Yes, it's very important to denote that we are going to have impact So you oversee the city's economic development and public events department Tell us a little bit about how could be 19 shutdowns have impacted these two departments? Sure So on the economic development side, you know, really the the department has really had to step up And react to the impacts that the smaller businesses are having in Fort Worth The federal government as most people know Did pass the cares act several versions of that and one of those was Provided the city some significant dollars to help deal with the impacts of the covid situation and one of the things that the city council and and You helped pass as provide dollars to To the the city and the department to provide a small business Grant program to assist small businesses To hopefully allow them to get through the situation where they're not they don't have any business coming on Maybe keep some employees on pay some bills And try to fend off the potential for them closing for good The the program was started with about 10 million dollars. We currently Have about 1800 applications that are being reviewed by the department. We feel that there's going to be at least About seven million dollars dispersed through that first round of that program More than likely we'll be coming back to the city council to To recommend a second round of that program these dollars have to be If we're going to use them have to be used by the end of the year And it's really pretty easy for the Small fort worth business is impacted. They can get a grant as long as they can provide their financials starting from january 1st through may 30th Show that the covid situation closed them down or had a negative impact on their business And it is very straightforward. It is a grant. There's not it's not big dollars It's depending on the size of the business. It's somewhere between 5,000 and 25,000 dollars But it goes a long way for cash flow for some of these businesses Additionally, it has slowed down a little bit Of our economic development efforts related to trying to To draw a larger business and and bring new jobs to fort worth in that There's not a lot of travel going on. So the ability to bring, you know, we always say Fort worth to a certain extent is kind of a hidden gem in in the whole Metroplex if you can get somebody to fort worth that's never been here They always They always, you know, look at downtown. They see what they have here and they're like wow This was not what I expected of fort worth But getting them here is the key piece of that So when we get in the game of trying to draw a new business to fort worth And they look at the area as a whole getting them to fort worth is important to us But with the restrictions on travel a lot of folks don't want to you know companies aren't traveling We're going online. We're having to do a lot of the Meetings on zoom and webex and those kind of things to to talk to the site selection groups that are that we're trying to work with But businesses to continue those discussions continue There what we're seeing is that it's a little bit of a slowdown on decision making on the on the business side As far as the public events department, I mentioned that department Being hit pretty heavily on the on the revenue side because of the hotel tax situation. That's the tourism tax funds That the primarily funds that department as well as our visit fort worth our convention and visitors bureau group With the situation that we're in hotels are Dropped from a fort worth average of about 65 occupancy across the city It's been down to about 10 and so that's a significant drop in revenues Not only the occupancy went down, but hotels are now charging less to try to get people to come in So it's a combination of both the rates and the The occupancy So we've had to in that department actually furlough employees We have made the decision to do that so that they could take advantage The idea is to hopefully not ultimately lay anybody off They could take advantage of some of the CARES funding associated with unemployment Be able to collect an unemployment check While the city continues to pay their benefits, so they don't lose their benefits for a period of time Ultimately, we were hoping that we can bring those folks back Onto the city's payroll as full employees Part of that is going to be how well we can come out of the covid situation and flatten that curve So that we can start having convention business again and having some meetings here The Will Rogers situation Around equestrians shows actually is coming back to life Those groups are very diligent in making sure that they Hold their performances and their equestrian events with some really strong Social distancing Wearing masks all those kind of things so that that's coming back to life The convention centers where we're having some difficulty getting back to to normal We did for a period of time utilize the convention center as a emergency shelter for homelessness The shelters in the homeless area Had to create more distance between you know between mats and cots where folks were would stay So we couldn't they couldn't Keep all the folks that were there before and so we had to create a Emergency shelter in our convention center to be able to deal with that overflow And at the peak period there were almost 500 people spending the night in the convention center We've wound that down. We have found a different location The the shelters have come back to more normal operations And we're going through the process now of having the the convention center cleaned and Equipped to be able to handle Regular meetings again And that's a lot of information jane. Thank you for sharing it one one thing that I want to Point out is that the city Did do a very good job in designating a specific team that addresses The homelessness aspect as it's impacted by covid 19 Additionally, I do want to commend yourself and also city manager david cook for taking making those efforts to spare Our employees so they can retain their jobs furlough only when necessary But not let them go not terminate their employment because right now People are in very much need for their employment now another budget item that helps pay for our public safety Is the crime control and prevention? District, okay Now this budget is very essential to providing police resources this year residents are being asked to vote on renewing the ccpd Half-cent sales tax chief krouse can provide details on what the ccpd pays for So when we get chief krouse up here, he'll talk about that and give us some insight into what ccpd does And you know what you know what it pertains to So gay, you know, uh, what can you tell us to open up about ccpd jay? So I think uh, you know, a lot of folks don't realize that ccpd has been With the city since the mid 90s Back it was created at a time when fort worth had one of the highest crime rates in the country And the opportunity came through state law to be able to create this district And it is specifically a half-cent sales tax specific to crime control and prevention It is not it cannot be used for any other type of activities and so the the when it was passed it's been actually Renewed four times The district in the past has been for five-year periods. Fort worth is the only city in the metroplex In north texas that has a crime control prevention district. That is a five-year has been a five-year district Every other city that has one of these districts either has gone to a 10-year or 20-year term The reason that's that's occurred really when you talk to those other cities Is because it allows the city to do some longer term planning You can look out into the future be able to work in new As as as the society changes and as new preventative Of crime options are there you can plan for those and bring those into Into play when you have that longer period of window for planning And so this year the recommendation was to have the city council Put up for vote for a 10-year versus a five-year and that's what's up to for election this this month A lot of questions have come on whether what happens if it doesn't pass Well, if it doesn't pass the half-cent sales tax actually disappears The sunset of it is september 30th. It's when the district ceases operations The collection of the half-cent ends at the end of the of the calendar year The reason that's there's a little difference there is because provides some funds so you can do some the city can Then go through a period of Adjusting to not having those funds available The the what would you know people ask well, what happens if if it doesn't pass Well, we would have to with the city council Make some significant cuts to the overall city's budget police department The programs that are funded with ccpd like the after school programs the gang prevention programs the Any other social programs that you know it provides dollars to safe haven for instance And then also the equipment that the police department uses the the program pays for Every year funds about 10 million dollars for Police cars replacement of police cars so high mileage police cars get replaced The program the ccpd program pays for those we'd have to find a different way to pay for those Which means you have to go into the general fund You know police officer is going to need a vehicle to drive around in It's not something you can just do away for way with so there'd have to be some significant Review of the budgets we started doing that just in case it happens And so as we go forward We're going to have to see what happens after july 14th The the if it does not pass ultimately the sales tax paid in the city of Fort Worth would drop from 8.25 percent to 7.75 percent And then plus we also have to consider that impacts due to cobit 19 As you know said before do have an impact our city budget and would affect this You know on a on a larger scale and the the sales tax related to this uh the fund the ccpd fund It has had an impact. We are estimating about a 10 million dollar decrease in this year's fiscal year And next year we're looking at uh probably being about six million dollars less Yes, it's significant Well, thank you jay and just a reminder for everyone that the ccpd voting takes place on july 14th Early voting ends july 10th. So you still have an opportunity to do that Thanks again jay. Thank you Now our next guest is fort worth police chief ed crouse Chief crouse has been a member of the fort worth police department for over 29 years, I believe And during the past year he was promoted to chief and has been doing an outstanding job Thank you for joining us chief jay and I were just talking about the ccpd program Can you tell us about some of the things that the half cent sales tax pays for in the special district? Yeah, so uh last year the ccpd paid for or generated approximately 78 million dollars And that fund is categorized into five different areas. First is equipment technology and infrastructure And that's the bulk of or the biggest percentage about 38 percent of the funding goes into that category and It it encompasses things like jay was talking about our high mileage vehicles Um replacement program, you know when I came on before that we had ccpd It wasn't uncommon to get into your police car at the beginning of the shift and it had 150 thousand miles on it And that is a police car that is driven All three shifts so I was getting into the the car at midnight's the guy an evening shift had had already driven it before me and the The female it took over for me on day shift was going to drive to the next eight hours So those cars had a lot of miles a lot of wear and tear on it It also included in the that equipment technology and infrastructure category is equipment that that police officers use such as the The in-car camera system. We didn't have in-car cameras before the uh ccpd And once we installed them we installed them in every front line vehicle also the The radios that every officer uses both in the cars and and the ones that we have on our person Most people don't understand that the of all the equipment the officers carry around their body armor their firearm their tasers This is by far the most expensive thing that we carry and probably the most valuable tool that we have because interesting when you're Alone on a scene at your lifeline If you need assistance it's a good point So the next category is Enhanced enforcement and that's where we Put programs such as our school resource unit Ever since Columbine occurred back in the 90s. We've had a series of school shootings in this country and Putting those officers in school was Fort Worth's way of ensuring that we have a security presence at Are those vulnerable locations? So we partnered with Several school districts Fort Worth ISD, of course the biggest but also Eagle Mountain Saginaw Keller Lakeworth Crowley everman To put a police officer in every middle school and high school within the city limits of Fort Worth That partnership has worked out really good the ISD's pay half the salary and the equipment needed including the vehicle those officers drive So it's a savings for us to be able to put the officers in there and it also Since we're paying for half of it through ccpd. It allows the school districts to be able to afford to do that as well I initially that that presence in the school was to provide that security presence You have a marked car out front Somebody coming up with ill intent or evil intent to a school may think twice if they see that police car out front And then knowing that they're going to have to encounter a a uniformed well-trained officer inside the school Is also a deterrent But that role has kind of molded where they spend officers in the school spend most of their time doing mentorship and counseling Kind of activities with the kids A lot of people don't realize it the SRU the school resource unit is probably our most diverse unit in the police department It has a attraction for officers of all sorts of tenure and race and sex And it it really seems to speak to a lot of officers because you have that opportunity to directly impact the lives of youth Also in that that enhanced enforcement categories are special response teams So we have the group of officers that are out there answering patrol cars every or patrol calls every day And the commanders sometimes need extra officers to address specific crime initiatives going on in their areas And so they can call on their special response teams to address that 24-7 anytime of day or night no matter what that crime issue is We also have included a SWAT component in there where we were able to add eight more officers to the SWAT unit To ensure that they have enough officers to conduct their operations safely when they need to The next group is the neighborhood crime prevention category and that is where we have some of the hallmarks of community policing in Fort Worth Back in the very early 90s chief windham started a neighborhood police officer program And he started it with just two or three officers and he said I want you to go out there. You're not subject to call You go out there and you fix neighborhood problems and they Kind of worked out in the broken windows theory if we can clean up an area So if they had high weeds, they called the parks in to come mow the alleys They called the tpw to come fix the street lights They would see what kind of repairs could be made on people's houses that were dilapidated And and their job was a problem to be the problem solver for those areas once ccpd passed We started increasing npo's until we were able to have an npo on every beat in the city So we now have 89 neighborhood police officers being that community caretaker and that coordinator for that beat Out there not subject to call but working hard every day and they conduct meetings with hoas neighborhood associations citizens on patrol groups And you'll they adjust their hours to whatever the problems are on that beat Another program there is our code blue program, which is the Encompasses the umbrella that compasses all of volunteer programs The the biggest one and probably the most well known is our COP program our citizen on patrol And that's where we have citizens volunteering to patrol their neighborhoods They put a sign on their the magnetic sign on the car They're given one of these police radios where they can communicate suspicious activity directly to a dispatcher They go through training before they're they're allowed into the program and a small background check Um, but we figure who better to know when there is something not right in a neighborhood than somebody who lives there every day So that program is as fluctuated throughout the uh, the past couple decades as high as 800 and 50 at one point Right now we have about 500 volunteers Um, and and that's one of the biggest programs But we also have our clergy and police alliance which puts pastoral people in the patrol cars with the officers So if we have a stressful situation or a Like a homicide call or something like that while the officer is busy doing the work that is needed to be done We have somebody there who with counseling background and experience that can minister to the families if they would like They're a very calming influence on the scene We have ministers against crime Which was also started by chief windham in the early 90s on the east side of the city and they do much the same They'll come out to the scenes when when they are asked to and they are a great Presence for calming a community and letting officers get their work done We have other volunteer programs in there as well our our community Emergency response teams they're highly trained to to help out in emergencies So when we've had to shelter people from other areas due to hurricanes They're able to staff the shelters do the logistics for the food and get the sleeping cuts and everything all that Maintain and they do a great job as well The next category is recruitment and training and so we have a small recruiting staff But we allow other officers on the department to go on recruiting trips with them As their schedules allow and we go out and target recruit people both in fort worth area and at other locations such as You know military bases Black colleges and universities Hispanic serving institutions Trying to get more people interested in a career for police department and then that also within that category is the training budget So when we hire somebody into an academy class their Salary for the eight months that they're in the training academy is paid for out of ccpd as well as the uniforms and the equipment that they use in the police academy And then the final category is called partners with a shared mission and in that category we partner with different groups that that have a crime prevention Or address crime nexus to the the mission of their organizations and we help fund them and Ideally we're funding them for As a startup to get them going for a couple years two three years And then we will move that funding to a different organization as they're able to make it on their own and Some other programs we they've been so successful. We funded throughout many years So jay mentioned a couple of them the uh the after school program I think over the years we've put 28 million dollars into fort worth after school program and they they touch a lot of kids with that you know Teaching them and giving them a place to be after school and prior to the parents getting home some of those vulnerable hours Our police athletic league is along those same lines Where police officers serve as coaches and mentors And other community members serve as coaches and we teach kids the skills in boxing Flag football cheerleading I think we've had frisbee golf over on the east side. So Um, that's a program that we started a couple years ago that is flourishing right now Um, one safe place we have a partnership with that family justice center And we provide funding that helps them operate and provide services to victims of domestic abuse and other crimes Safe haven is another one like that where we have a Relationship with the youth and then I think jay also mentioned the game coming up program. We've been funding that for many years Um, so those are a lot of the programs that are that are located within ccpd that funding goes to Yeah, and and really when you when you listen To how many programs are funded, you know by ccpd It's uh, it's really remarkable that this tool has a you know produced so many good benefits in our community You know from the sROs the MPOs which go directly to Community policing, uh, that's something that certainly as a council member You know, I've heard a lot about from constituents who want, uh police in their neighborhoods, but as Trusted members of that neighborhood So I know that the police department has spent a lot of time and effort in ensuring public safety Uh, you know, especially, uh, you know during these times, you know of covet 19 And also with some of the protests that we've been seeing stemming from the outrage of some of these Incidents that have happened in our black community, you know with encounters with police officers So, you know, I want to commend, you know, your department first of all For being very effective in their approach to how they've maintained law and order and also Managed the situation. I think they've done it very respectfully. So that's a testament to your leadership. I believe so I commend you and the professionalism of the men and women of the Fort Worth police department for doing that I would like you to address, uh, three issues that have come up During conversations pertaining to police conduct Could you tell us what de-escalation is and what it does and you know, and basically how the department practices it Okay, so de-escalation is it's not a tactic or a technique it is It an all-encompassing mindset That officers should use Tools other than what's on their gun belt other than force When they can and use force as a last result So the the people give us the authority to police them and tell us how they want us to police them They look skeptically on use of force and especially use of deadly force as they should So we have to honor that trust whenever we can so in 2017 we brought in The perf which is the police executive research forum. They're a national think tank Um, and they had started de-escalation training So we brought them in and we trained every one of our officers on de-escalation Um de-escalation is not necessarily a new concept putting this term to it is new But basically it is teaching the officers to use time and distance and objects to give them more time to Consider options in a situation So a classic example is you encounter somebody in mental crisis that's holding a box cutter Instead of trying to run up there and take the box cutter away from that individual Forcibly which may create a conflict and may harm the officer may harm the individual or a third person If they're able to if there's nobody else in immediate danger We ask the officers to take their time create distance Put an object between them and that individual so if that individual was of a mind to attack the officer He would have to go over an obstacle gives the officer more time to react and and then also to take the time to bring in More resources as needed whether it's more officers to control an area Or somebody with mental crisis training that can better interact with that individual And that's very important to note that the police department does have Uh a a response team to deal with persons that might have some mental issues, correct? That is correct now that that team has actually Dwindled because of promotions of recently, but we are actually looking to expand that team. We started with six individuals One for each division. We recognize that's not enough Unfortunately because of the scope of of the issues we're dealing with here So we are expanding that unit They're currently an interview process now to get more people into that unit and those those individuals have all gone through A mental health peace officer certification, which is an extended course learning about crisis intervention training They get a certification after that And then those individuals team up with somebody from mhm r of tarrant county And I think we're looking to expand that to some other partner agencies as well And and they'll have somebody from that other agency Trained in counseling trained in the crisis intervention to ride with them So as they encounter individuals who may be suffering mental crisis We look for a better solution on the back end All right, another topic that I'd like to ask you about is a chokeholds You know, it's uh, it is prohibited here In the fort worth police department to use chokeholds. So you can talk about that And uh our use of force policy. Yeah, so the uh the use of chokeholds is of course a national debate now Several departments still authorize them Um many don't and haven't for a while But the george floyd incident has certainly brought that up to national discussion We have not allowed the use of a chokehold for many many years. Uh well over a decade um Maybe two But um, but some all some departments you're seeing now are moving away from that There's national calls to make that an outlawed practice in policing nationwide So we also have a another issue as we all watched that video We didn't just notice that officer on george floyd's neck We noticed the other three officers standing around doing nothing And it seemed like the crowd Recognized what was going on and we're imploring them to please Intervene and they did not So now you're hearing cries for a duty to intervene policy in policing. Um, that is something we've had for several years Um And so we require officers when they see another officer using excessive force that they have to intervene And we are now adding in a in our general order revision that not only do they have to intervene They have to report that to a supervisor To reinforce that with the last academy class that graduated in april we Created a new scenario that all the recruits have to go through and it's a duty to intervene scenario Where as they go into a situation They see another officer using excessive force on a citizen and the only way that recruit Successfully passes that scenario is to immediately intervene and stop that from occurring Yes, and and let me say that You know the the death of george floyd's more recently In addition to the other unfortunate deaths Uh from members in our black community across the nation and here locally Have have really caused I think a an introspection, you know for us to self-examine You know how we do things can we do things better? And uh as as a c council member I'm encouraged that from what I see across our city departments that we're committed to doing that to having You know these frank conversations and and these in engaging these difficult topics You know things Happen and we have to take away Lessons from this so we can learn and be better people and be better stewards, you know of public trust The last topic uh deals with community. I mean with neighborhood policing So can you tell us a little bit about the neighborhood patrol officers? And I'd like to add something that I've heard as being the council member representing The largest Hispanic, uh, you know population demographic in the city I've heard from members of the hispanic community that They don't see enough police officers, you know in in their neighborhoods. They'd like to see A visible presence but also an effective one So if if they're telling us that you know, it's not enough From your perspective, what what can you tell us about community policing and the visibility of officers? So as far as the visibility officers, I'll agree it's not enough Ideally we would have enough officers to put a beat officer on every beat on every shift But we don't and so because we don't the commanders have to make decisions on where not to put police officers Or where to put more police officers based on what crimes are occurring so, um You know, we had a staffing study back in 2018 and uh matrix consulting group, uh came in and said you need 157 more officers Right now to maintain your level of service that you provide and then this much more in the next 10 years um Of course, we started adding that we added 35 this past fiscal year and then covet hit and uh deputy city manager chopper already Explained some of the financial impacts that's going to have and it's going to preclude us from adding another 35 Which was the uh the verbal agreement that we had got from the city manager's office at 35 a year until we got up to the number We needed to be um, we're not going to be able to do that So we have to be more creative with our resources and um And with our ideas on how to staff those beats, but the neighborhood police officer is the one who covers those gaps So if you don't have a a beat officer on your beat the neighborhood police officer is out there Trying to prevent crimes from happening. So you don't have to have so many officers responding to crime on the back end And he does that through recruitment of citizens on patrol crime watch groups um meetings with the HOAs and neighborhood associations um And then trying to tamp down crime through some of those broken windows theories that we were talking about earlier Instead of being responsive to crime I see thank you I think we have two questions from a resident. Uh, I think you can probably answer those pretty well chief Uh cameras were going to be placed in various places And intersections in the north side area as part of the neighborhood improvement plan Uh, where are we with that right now? What's the status? Okay? So, um, there was a problem with the contract with the group that we issue or that we purchase cameras for So the first two neighborhood improvement zones stop six and uh, ash crescent We did install a 30 cameras for each of those areas This year we ran into a problem with the contract. Um, I've contacted purchasing today Who said we should be good to go with purchasing of more cameras now It's a budgetary issue. Can we actually afford to do that? Money for these cameras in the north side improvement area have already been designated and set aside So we will be able to but since we were having that problem What we did is we took 10 cameras that were designated for citywide camera use and we moved those into that north side area They were already four there. So we have 14 total right now And we will add the other 20 that were part of that neighborhood improvement zone once the contract is Is good to go and once we have the money to do it See, thank you The next question we have pertains to rockwood baseball field parking In that parking lot there's been, uh, recently Very frequent gatherings for large numbers of people with their vehicles to gather to, uh Uh, basically do burnouts do donuts, etc The parks department's been working with pd on trying to find a solution Parking markers barriers were to be placed on the lot to deter these types of actions So can you give us an update on where that plan is right now? So that initiative is actually being led by the parks department However, um, I can give you an update They are in the design phase of the parking and roadway structures for rockwood park I've seen a sketch of the parking lots and what it has is raised concrete islands that will be in the parking lots And that will prevent those burnouts and and the donuts unless people just want to damage their cars because there's not going to be enough Room to do that activity now I believe the uh, it goes out for bid in the fall and construction should be done by the spring And until that time if if there's those issues with the gathering, especially in time of covet Uh, contacting commander pedro criado will get a police response over there And we just need to know that the times and the days if he doesn't already Yes, and commander criado has been very responsive to that and so have his officers of northwest division Thank you chief. I wish we had, you know more time to discuss these and other topics But I want to be sure that we give, uh, our other guests some time to talk. Thanks again chief Thank you. It's always a pleasure. Likewise. Be safe out there Our next guest is kim neal kim is the city's first police monitor in this position Uh, it was created so that we could have a structured response To citizen complaints And this stemmed from the race and culture task force recommendations for civilian oversight of our police department Kim will be leading the effort to finalize the model to be used for the independent review of the fort worth police department So kim once again, welcome to fort worth. Thank you for joining us this evening So could you tell us a little bit about yourself that way we can get to know you and how you came to lead this new effort Um, okay. My name is kim neal. I uh became the city's first police monitor In march of this year. So i've been here about four months I was recruited from Cincinnati, Ohio where I was the civilian oversight director there And i'm originally a east coast girl from washington dc where I Spent much of my career in the compliance and ethics field in both federal state and actually and also local governments So i've spent pretty much a large extent of my career in the government sector Yes, in fact, uh, let me say that uh Your resume is very impressive. You certainly have very good credentials and uh, when you interviewed for this job I and the other council members are very impressed with the hands-on application of that knowledge in the, you know, previous Jobs that you had and I think that all these things can really benefit uh fort worth and the police department So I know that a lot of people want to talk about these things with you And this important topic so it's it has been difficult, you know to to talk about the police monitor in the days of COVID-19 restrictions But what are some of the ways your office has been able to reach out? Uh to the community Okay, so the community has been quite open with us in sharing with us all of their concerns I'm an accolades of what's been going on and so initially when we first started Of course, we didn't have COVID-19 or at least it hadn't hit the city yet and to the extent that it has hit now and so we were able to really reach out to community members and start meeting with them face to face um, and then COVID-19 hit and that uh caused us to kind of rethink our Community engagements with community groups and community members. And so we started virtual meetings that we've had consistently since march um, those community meetings have been quite informative in that uh Members have shared with us concerns about Policing in the city and they've also shared with us accolades about policing in the city and so What we've what I have discovered is that folks really just want to be a part of the whole policing and community problem-solving process that the police department partakes in each day and They really want to just have their voices heard and know what's going on So one of the things that we decided to do was right now. We're having these community conversations where we're asking At least one representative of each of each community group and that includes all of our neighborhood associations Every community group that's been identified to us and many times when we have these conversations more groups are identified So we could just continue to add to the list and we're asking them a couple of questions One is how they feel about community and police relations in the city We're also asking them what part they can play in improving community and police relations And then we're also asking how would they like our office to further develop As it relates to civilian oversight of the police department And so that's been quite helpful and allowed us to really create a list of ideas some of them are very common themes every group we talk to we generally talk to about 15 groups A representative from each 15 groups each of the 15 groups and we talk to them Once a week and we set up about three calls per week And so we're really I think saturating the community with these questions And we're seeing common things across the board. So we think that by doing that we can definitely come up with some Excellent suggestions as it relates to improving community community and police relations And then the other piece of that is that we're going to do surveys and so i'm in talks with Universities local universities here to do surveys of the communities and I know some some groups have said we're sick of surveys, but The surveys are key because we really want to ensure that the community has a voice In this whole civilian oversight process. And so the surveys are going to be helpful And we're also going to do a survey of police officers as well to see how they feel about community and police relations And how they think community and police can work together And so I think it's going to be very beneficial And through that process we'll come up with a bunch of table topics that we'll talk about in Community engagements, which we hope to do face-to-face, but if not then they'll be virtual and we hope to have those do those in the next two or three months It's very encouraging to hear that there is good two-way communication between your office and community members I also want to point out that as you establish the scope of work of your office You do have an assistant director there Denise Rodriguez who is helping you in that regard and she herself Is very familiar with the legal aspects and the police aspects of the police monitor job. So tell us For those that may not be thoroughly familiar with it. What does the police monitor do? So the police monitor is one of about four models of civilian oversight The model that I had and my prior job was an investigative model where we actually did parallel investigations To the police department Our model is one which I think is probably one of the most sustainable models And I think it's a great model to to have because we actually instead of doing separate Investigations we would actually work with the police department and monitor the police department's investigations And we would have input and we have had input In investigations just in case from a from a community member standpoint from a civilian standpoint some of the things that We want the police department to think about what community members would want the police department to think about as they review their investigations The model also allows for us to really take a deep dive at policies and procedures And so the chief mentioned the use of force policy revisions We work with the police department on that and made some of the suggestions that he talked about and so we've been Very collaborative everybody's been very collaborative in that process and that's really what it's all about. It's about Folks like Denise and I who are civilians non-sworn officers working with law enforcement But speak the serving as a voice for the people To make these changes to ensure that the policies that are written Are ones that can be viable and can be fair as they're implemented across the city And so we've had a great time doing that the other piece of monitoring involves looking at Data and so we want to keep track of any trends any patterns that we see So that we can then work with the police department along with Our citizen review model To do some problem solving and the problem solving is key because We we we know that the police department department does a good job about problem solving But we want the community aspect as a part of it And so the way to do that and I think it's the most viable way is to Have community members at the table which the problem most deeply affects And then those community members can talk with police officers And they know and then feel that they are equitable part of the process That then raises the cultural sensitivity of everybody involved and at the end of the day we're solving the problem We're raising our cultural sensitivities Which then creates more diversity in our police department and our in our serving police officers serving the community And that creates ultimately better relationships between the community and police department And so the monitoring model it's all about the sustainability of that Absolutely agree with that What are your goals for the police department and the community in as far as You know your wheelhouse of police monitor? So the ultimate goal of course is to improve Community and police relations to establish new community and police relations in those communities that feel like they don't have a relationship in And then to improve those Communities that feel like they have relationships and they just want improved relationships It's also to ensure that Not just the the police department is accountable to the community, but the community is also accountable to the police department The only way that a model works and can be sustainable as a civilian oversight Is is that both parties have to come together and work together It's not just about the police changing. It's also about the community changing. And so we hope to bring that to light We hope to be a good resource for that But the key is going to be sustainability What we see across the country is that a lot of cities including Minneapolis had a civilian review model But we still have issues and it's because it's all about the sustainability of the model So many times cities dump a lot of money into civilian oversight And then when everything comes down Then things change the dynamics change is not as important But it's always important because we're always going to have Concerns issues people are always going to have concerns and issues our citizens our police department And so we just always need to keep that dialogue going to ensure that you know, both parties are working effectively together Yes, absolutely agree with that and I want to thank you for taking the time to be here with us tonight And looking forward to seeing what your department You and Denise you know are able to do to continue to connect with all members of our community and help our processes improve And help the police department's processes improve as well. Thank you. Thank you for having me Now We have another guest this evening and that's Christina Brooks. Christina is our chief equity officer for the city of Fort Worth She leads our diversity inclusion department Now her job was a result again of a recommendation from the race and culture task force These recommendations they made surrounded racial equity. So Christina comes to us from Fort Bend, Indiana. Is that correct? South Bend, excuse me. And uh, she did similar work for that community. So therefore they're do welcome Christina and uh Go ahead and tell us, uh, you know Your perspectives with all that's happening around the country in this time of COVID-19 and uh, you know nationwide protests It certainly has to be challenging for you To look around and see what's happening and determine what these next steps are in terms of your You know role in in our city department. So how do you see Yourself as a city's first chief equity officer? Meeting these challenging times So first of all, thank you so much council member for is for Inviting me to speak with the residents of Fort Worth, but especially the residents of district two um The events of the past couple of uh months have been Extraordinarily challenging to say the least um, we see a lot of pain and frustration From communities that have felt like their voices have fallen on deaf ears and so, um Part of our responsibility and what I feel our role my specific role, but certainly our department Should be to do about four different things um number one, we really need to care Uh and show concern for the people that are impacted daily By racial inequity Whether that's through language or policy or actions The second thing our responsibility is is it involves counseling and counseling city leadership around Racial equity facts so that they understand Not only what our statistical data looks like here in in Fort Worth, but also The Stories and the narratives from people That are impacted by racial inequity And taking that to city leadership and making sure that they have that as they embark on important decisions when it comes to funding personnel decisions and also projects throughout the city and then Third our responsibility is to educate Um, not only our internal staff with the city of fort worth and understanding what It means to have mutual respect and diversity in the workplace but also some historical context and what May have transpired here Not just internally with the city, but also citywide and making sure that people have context And understand why there are certain populations that respond The way that they may It's it's based on things that may have happened here In this city of fort worth in the past and so bringing that forward and making sure that everybody is educated and we're all Understanding what we mean when we say diversity what we mean when we say inclusion and equity and access here in fort worth and then Fifth would be a making sure that There's a level of accountability and building that into The structure as we review policy and as we review programming and processes Here in the city that we hold individuals Departments in the city as a whole and our residents responsible And accountable for the actions and the decisions that we make So those are really kind of the key Foundations of of our department and certainly my role And let me say this I know that you know ever since joining the city of fort worth you have a really dive deep You know into you know our Our community pool if you will to try to learn More about our community and also about how our Our city government works and where we can find again areas that we need to look at and address further And I also want to point out that there have been individuals and organizations that have you know engaged the city and the city council and have said that the Race and culture task force didn't go far enough in their recommendations How would you respond to their concerns? Yeah, so there were so many people and organizations that were involved in that 18 month process in The culmination of those 22 recommendations that were presented to city council and a lot of research conversations Went into that first iteration and so I would say that this is a first step and You know as as a city Uh In the united states the fact that fort worth took the initiative to embark on that journey Um says a lot about the commitment the level of commitment of certainly of the people in this community Uh, but also a commitment from uh the city administration and officials The people that are on the ground doing the work on behalf of the residents here And so it's a first step And it is really a responsibility of everyone within the city limits and and even those that May have family here In in fort worth to come back to the table and and remain there and remain engaged So that as we start to Implement the steps And the recommendations those 22 recommendations and how as they get off the ground And really start to work in our community that we stay engaged so that we can Develop the next steps together And understanding what what we need to do Uh to further the the foundation that was laid by the race and culture task force And you know, I've said this before to our previous speakers, you know, uh, COVID-19 restrictions don't make it any easier for us to get out and meet with the community We have that desire, you know, we have to make adjustments to our plan and continue to engage the community So what are the next steps in doing that from your role's perspective? Yeah We we definitely want to make sure that our number one priority Is the safety and well-being of our residents and certainly our staff So we're very mindful to make sure that we keep that At front and center before we make any decisions about pulling together groups or organizations to have conversations so most of Our work right now is is virtual A couple of weeks ago. We had our first internal staff unity summit That really gave our staff with the city of fort worth an opportunity to share their thoughts feelings emotions about What's been happening nationwide and certainly what's happened here in fort worth But also to bring some solutions to the table And make those suggestions so that we can As I stated before move forward together We're in the process of working with the police monitors office To map out a comprehensive community outreach plan That will give people in the community an opportunity To continue conversations across those seven key areas of the race and culture task force criminal justice economic development education governance health housing and transportation Over a quarter each topic. We'll have a quarterly theme and We'll invite people in the community to sit down and talk with us But not just have a conversation. We really want to make sure that there's Some viable information and meaningful information that comes out of that So that we can incorporate that into the next iteration of recommendations For how to advance racial equity here in fort worth So how do you see Your department working with other city departments to further that mission of diversity inclusion Yeah, one of the major projects that we have Underway is the city's equity plan and establishing An equity plan for municipal service delivery So we've mapped out kind of a A cycle a three to five year cycle in which every department will undergo an equity equity review and especially for those departments that have Or deliver direct municipal services We want to do a a deeper dive into What that looks like making sure that the policies and ordinances and laws That are attached to those services are equitable making sure that the language Is equitable, but also making sure that our staff that are responsible for delivering that municipal service are also Educated and how to do that In a way that is Is expected by the people here in our community and so We're in the process of of starting that tpw or transportation and public works department Is first up there are pilot program and We'll start the review process the equity plan review process with with that department And we'll review all of the The plans that are associated with that department that deliver services That impact capital funding And so it's gonna it's it's a it is an aggressive but doable project and the Policy guidelines that we establish With transportation and public works department will be something that we can Use in other departments As we continue the review process across the other 25 plus departments in the city Well christina, thank you so much, you know for the relish at which you approach your job I see that You know on a daily basis and I think it's important that we pursue it You know with with its needed vigor because it isn't very important So thank you for being with us here tonight Thank you And then we're also very fortunate to have a recent addition I'm the speaker fire chief James davis was able to join us and Much appreciation to you chief for being here. I know that it's very difficult the fire department and yourself have been Extremely busy, you know with matters of covet 19 in addition to your regular firefighting, you know jobs so thank you for being here chief and As I said, you know your fire department has been involved in our covet 19 Response, so why don't you describe to us to our audience? A little bit about that, you know, and then also tell us and I'm sure everyone's curious since we just finished the 4th of july What what magnitude of calls the fire department received for the 4th of july? Well, I'll start out with the coveted response So thanks again for for asking the question and having me here the fire department's in a unique position because we Are kind of an all-hazards agency, you know, we do fire, but we do a lot of medical and ems So we are able to work with the community and support of med star is the transporting ambulance service here in the community We have paramedics on the fire department we have folks that are Doing everything from helping stand up and operationalize the emergency operation center where the Where the city leadership is making decisions on the day-to-day changes that are going on with the With the direction of this virus and the challenges that are associated with the responding to the needs of the community But we also are able to use some of our ems resources some of our hazardous material resources and order to Get out into the community and help Try to mitigate the spread of the disease working in conjunction with the county public health department And the folks there to identify where hot spots are in the community so we can try to Keep from further transmission of the disease throughout the community. So that's that's a lot of what's going on with the the covid-19 response And then with the fireworks in the 4th of july You know, we we knew that it was going to be a busy weekend We knew that there was a lot of folks that wanted to get out that had been You know tied up in the homes. We knew that there was some reduction in In events around the city. So we really did have an idea that it was going to be busier and normal But it was considerably considerably busier than the past couple years. We Stood up a Hotline for the folks that were concerned about noise complaints related to the fireworks and the illegal use of fireworks in the city It's important to remember that this, you know fireworks are illegal in the city The idea of the fireworks hotline was to try to prevent folks from calling 911 to report these nuisance complaints and Try to make sure that the 911 System did not become overwhelmed So folks that had an emergency regarding, you know, a police fire medical emergency were able to get through And that worked it worked very well. However, it received over 5,500 calls And over a couple day period and those calls created some frustration with folks and You know a lot of it had to do with An expectation that we were going to be able to come out order A stop order on the fireworks Confiscate the fireworks maybe give a citation and we have all those things in our arsenal But the thing about it was with over 5,000 calls We did not have the capacity to respond to each one of them. So what we had to do Between police and fire that evening is that we worked on prioritizing areas where Something happened that a firework or an illegal use of the firework created a Fire or an injury to a person we responded to every one of those We investigated those We Completed our assessment of that situation. We made sure the folks got proper medical attention But those became the priority during the course of that and then anything where You know chief crowson the folks from police could talk more about You know the actual gunfire violence and stuff like that I'm not in a position to speak about that But we we worked together collaboratively to try to make sure that we prioritized The runs or the calls that we received To make sure that we responded to the ones that we felt were a higher priority Yes, and I can only imagine how overwhelming that was I mean, I I also witnessed in my own neighborhood that there were you know, illegal use of fireworks, fortunately At least to my knowledge, there were no injuries and you're absolutely correct You have to prioritize that when it comes to public safety and injuries Um, I want to also thank you, you know and the fire department for being very involved and helping out You know our team, you know led by brandon bennett and kody wittner when it comes to Testing and and monitoring, you know the progress of covet 19 Infections in our community as you pointed out there are some hot spots, you know We're trying to deal with it But you know everyone needs to keep in mind countywide, you know, we're seeing a at least at 50 percent increase And in covet cases. Is that correct sir? Yeah, there were additional 300 cases in foreworth and And a little bit over that in tarrant county today. And so the cases are are climbing An alarming rate at this point. Yeah And again just drives the point home. We really do need to take it seriously Chief, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day for being here with us. Thank you. Thanks very much Now, I think we've reached the end of our a lot of time But I want to thank everyone all our speakers for being here this evening joining me and answering questions from from our constituents And any questions that we didn't get to go ahead and send them in We'll answer them as best we can Uh, they'll be posted on our facebook page and we will also have a link to tonight's broadcast So that you can share with anyone who couldn't join us this evening in closing I want to encourage everyone to complete their 2020 census form if you haven't done it already It doesn't take more than 10 minutes of your time and it's very valuable Keep in mind the information is confidential and it helps to determine how federal and state funds are spent And will also be used to create two new city council districts before the 2023 election And that's very important when it comes to representation here at the local level So it's important that we all be counted in our community many of the programs that we spoke about earlier today were provided By having that census data to respond to covid 19 so Let's count everyone, you know for our school's sake social services programs sake hospitals and city services sake So for me, you know I would like you to invite you that you can always contact my office at 817-392-8802 or email me At our office at district two at fort worth texas dot gov So remember fort worth Take it from this council member and all our fellow council members and the mayor Please stay safe wear your masks and thanks again for joining us tonight. Y'all have a good night