 I want to thank everybody. Peace be upon you all. Good evening, everybody. Let us pray, please. We thank you for the joy and privilege to pray together. You are the Lord of the heavens and the earth and you are the mercy of all mercies. Grant us all your mercy and forgiveness for our shortcoming. Help us to be the instrument of your love so that our fellow citizens of our beloved city and the foretold may experience your presence through this body's functions. Lord, make this city a place of hope and peace because you are, oh Lord, the source of peace and prosperity. Lord, we ask you to bless our honorable mayor, Betty Parker and these respected council members as well as their families and everyone in this tenant. We ask you to grant them your guidance and wisdom on all their decisions. Lord, you promised to help us in our time of difficulties and need. We rest upon your word. Protect our great city, our great state, and great country, our chief of police and the law enforcement community and those who are working hard for better development of our city. Our Lord, forgive us and lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. And let us honor together to stand in the circle of your light and love and share it with others. In your name, we pray, amen. Thank you. First item of business is the consideration of the minutes from the March 1st, 2022 work session, the March 1st, 2022 public comment meeting and the March 8th, 2022 council meeting. Thank you, council. I've got a motion. Councilmember Crane. Any other discussion council? Please vote. These two, thank you. Motion carries. That concludes the business, mayor. Thank you, Jeanette. So good evening, everyone. We're so glad that you're here for our public comment period. Just a few notes as we get started as a reminder for any of you that don't attend more regularly. We do allow calls as well, so you may see some back and forth between city secretary's office for phone calls as well as in person comments. Each speaker is restricted to three minutes and that's reflected on why we do that tonight. We have probably three hours worth of speakers so it could be a long evening. I mentioned not at all to discourage you from speaking but importantly just to let you know that we do maybe go a little bit of a later evening if you have anything that maybe has been repeated. If you'll just let us know who you agree with and I'm sure I'm not redistricting any specific map that you're most advocating for. Each one of us on this dais take copious notes and really follow that commentary closely so it's really helpful to us as well. And with that, I'll just move to our first speaker. We do appreciate you being here. Susan Kinney, I think as our first speaker, who's a caller. Please go ahead. You have three minutes. Oh, thank you. Good evening, Mayor Parker and city council. I'm Susan Kinney, president of the Parkland Neighborhood Association. Parkland is part of the multi-neighborhood working group that is made up of surrounding neighborhoods in North Fort Worth. We ask that city council adopt map X, version four as amended on 221-22. This map keeps the most communities of interest together and provides for minority opportunity districts for the Hispanic and African-American population. This map also provides for some growth in part North, West and South Fort Worth. We ask that the city council adopt map X, version four as amended on 221-22. Thank you so much for your consideration. Thank you, Susan. Our next speaker is Byrick Ellison, who's followed by Lauren King, I think has a group. Byrick. Citizen for independent redistricting tonight, but as a resident of Overton Park West, I want to say that I am for version four horseshoe, but I have some changes that I'd like to suggest and it's easier for me to show them to you. Page two, advance to page two, please. Okay, all right. I'm gonna start with version four horseshoe on the left and make my way to the map on the right. Page three, first, I'm going, first I would suggest page three. There we go. Instead of linking Como to district six via the spaghetti noodle along the Chisholm Trail Parkway, I would suggest going back to the bridge, land bridge, that the Como people originally suggested, which would be a mile long and between the width of Bryant-Urban to the Parkway. The section of Clear Fork that's affected has zero residents, it's businesses, medical businesses primarily, and just 241 residents of River Hills. And this would draw more of the Chisholm Trail economic development and into the home of the Chisholm Trail Parkway, which is district six. Next page. My next suggestion is that the Como land bridge should demarc the boundary between districts three and nine in that section, so that everything to the east of the Chisholm Trail Parkway, including my neighborhood, Overton Park, as well as Overton Woods, Clear Fork River Hills, Tanglewood and Foster Park, join the common similar neighborhoods in district nine, such as University West, Colonial, Mistletoe Heights, Bonnet Hills, et cetera. This would put all of the T.C.U. campus in a single district in the center of district nine, and it would also put the Paschal Feeder Schools near me, West Cliff Elementary, Tanglewood and Overton Park, along with other Paschal Feeder Schools, Lily B. Clayton, Alice Carlson, and Daggett. Next, next page. Adding those areas to district nine would then free up more space in the Horseshoe District to pick up more Hispanic neighborhoods, including Shaw Clark and Greenbrier and the rest of Rosemont, and also pick up the United Riverside Alliance. Next page. My next suggestion is to backfill population lost to district three, is move the eastern boundary to the cultural district so that it lies along the I-30, and let me forward next to the final page. On the north side, the multi-neighborhood neighborhood gets the district where they want, and there are two over there. Thank you, Byrik. I'm so sorry to cut you off. We do have your slides, so thank you. All right, very good, thank you. Lauren King, followed by Russell Fuller. Thank you, and Lauren, I think you have a group, so I guess call a few names, Jeanette, is that correct? Yes. Okay. Is Bruce Frankel here? Charmaine Robarts? Steve Christian? McCarthy? Carol Hendricks? Amanda Kirksey? Cynthia Miller? Tom McDermott? Brad Thompson? Carol Hendricks? Christie Roach? There, Jeanette, because we've got 10. Thank you, Lauren, go ahead. Lauren King, and my city of residence is Fort Worth. So good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Lauren King, and I'm the Executive Director of Tarrant County Homeless Coalition. I'm a lifelong Fort Worth resident, and currently I live in District 3. So thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you all tonight, and make a comment about an investment in housing for people who have experienced homelessness. First, I just wanna say thank you. The city of Fort Worth has been committed to addressing homelessness for many years. You've continued to sow your support by dedicating city general funds to the solution, something that no other municipality locally has done. I cannot say enough about the impact this has had on our ability to serve people experiencing homelessness. Your leadership on the issue has enabled Fort Worth to garner national attention and become a true leader in the field. I don't say this lightly, and I say this with real honesty, we could not do our work without your partnership. Tonight, I wanna talk to you specifically about what a significant impact and additional investment in housing for people experiencing homelessness would have. As I'm sure people have said before about ARPA funding, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in permanent infrastructure for homelessness that will have a long-term impact on our community and for people's lives for many years to come. It's not something that will just impact us now, but I hope in decades to come, we can look back and say that it made a change. Fort Worth is ahead of the game once again. So early on, you all dedicated all of your home funds to develop permanent supportive housing. I truly applaud you for this. As you know, you have an RFP on the street now, available for organizations to apply to build housing, permanent supportive housing specifically. With this investment comes, we will come incredibly close to ending chronic homelessness in Fort Worth and will likely be the largest city in the U.S. who has ever done that. Additionally, we've seen so much success in Fort Worth when you all have chosen to invest in housing. Two shiny examples are Casa de Esperanza and Quail Trail. Casa was created in 2020 with CARES money. Because of Fort Worth's investment, we were able to move 119 people off the streets and out of shelter. In fact, this enabled us to move the largest group of unsheltered people off the streets at one time with around 70 people moving to Casa and now calling it home. Additionally, Quail Trail is a unique residential development nestled in a neighborhood in Northwest Fort Worth. They will also house nearly 50 people who are on the streets and in shelter. Housing makes such a difference to both our community and the person it's serving, of course. I can't talk about these projects without mentioning the dedicated nonprofits and developers who are committed to building housing and giving people a second chance at life. They often work in innovative ways and in nontraditional ways to create housing that meets people's needs and it's also ideally a value add for any neighborhood that this housing sits in. I am happy to also report some good news as well for our community because the city has invested so much money in permanent supportive housing and in homelessness over the years, the homeless coalition asked the county to make a significant investment of ARPA dollars to build additional supportive housing that's needed. We're excited to let you know that on March 1st, commissioners court allocated $32.5 million to develop supportive housing for people exiting homelessness. This will allow the homeless coalition's partners to build at least 250 units of housing. This was incredible news and we're excited to get started on projects. In addition to the 15 million that you also generously dedicated to PSH development, the homeless coalition also submitted an ask to the city for additional funding in the amount of 24 and a half million. This funding would primarily be used to build deeply affordable housing for families and others who can't make ends meet. Financially, the numbers just don't add up for them. This group often experiences homelessness because of economic reasons, primarily because their wages cannot keep up with rapidly rising rents. A hot real estate market has its pros and cons. We probably look at it as a good thing. We're a growing city, we're vibrant. But one of the downsides for us is that places to live are really hard to come by right now. To give you an idea, right now we have about 220 households who have rental assistance and are actively searching for a place to live. They cannot find a unit to rent. Building housing would significantly impact unit availability and how quickly we're able to get people out of homelessness, especially the children who experience homelessness. This is a group we wanna make sure that we can move, we can always quickly find a place to call home. We know that that makes a huge difference. Again, I wanna say thank you for your dedication and your commitments being part of the solution to homelessness. Over the years, your investment and continued support of this issue has made such a difference and has allowed our system to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, even despite a pandemic, which everyone thought it would go the other way. Please know that the homeless coalition is your partner in this and is committed to finding solutions that work for everyone in our community. The homeless coalition in our partners encouraged the city to consider any, excuse me, the homeless coalition and our partners encouraged the city to consider continued support and investment in housing. With this investment, we can ensure that Fort Worth continues to be a vibrant community and someplace where everyone has a place to call home. Thank you. Thank you, Lauren, very much. Rusty Fuller is next. Before Rusty speaks, I just want Tara Perez who hates attention to stand up. She's a big reason why we are leading on homelessness. So thank you, Tara, very much. We appreciate you. Rusty, your turn. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you a lot. I really appreciate this. You know, and thank you for the opportunities for this, for public comment. You know, I don't know of any other big city like this where we have the opportunity to do or allowed to do here twice a month now, twice a month. So anyway, my name is Rusty Fuller. You probably recognize me as one of the same old people that shows up all the time, but I'm president of the North Fort Worth Alliance. And tonight I'm also representing the multi-neighborhood working group. We are community and homeowners association leaders of approximately 141,000 people. We're here to follow up with, to follow up on our letter of 322 to advocate for a compromise on the redistricting that provides the important aspects of redistricting and a little bit for growth. We're advocating for map acts version four as amended to 2122. This map was seemingly overlooked. The redistricting task force recommends recommended and the council approved high and low priority considerations for drawing maps with which you are all familiar. Map acts version four as amended to 2122 meets all of those considerations. It would create two strong Hispanic districts, one the Southeast, one strong and one opportunity Afro-American district and one toss up district. The map also populates three of the growth districts, three, six and 10, at or below the average leaving room for growth. This map has the lowest COI of 20.8 of any of the maps that are still under discussion. In full disclosure, this and all other maps under discussion have five Anglo districts. Map acts version four as amended meets all the evaluation criteria. None of the other maps do. All of the other maps exceed the COI criteria. Map version three with horseshoe leaves the compactness criteria unmet. Maps version two and version four with horseshoe both fall outside the census block group and compactness criteria. This map was overlooked due to the timing of its submission and discussion of adding a horseshoe of version three and adding the horseshoe to version four but before it was even released. We would ask that you take a close look at the map and see if it can bring together on a map for the future of all Fort Worth. With the opportunity for minority communities to obtain at the voting booth, the advantage is reflected in the numbers and a base on which future redistricting can build. Thank you. Thank you, Rusty. Our next speaker is Toby Owen who also has a group followed by Jody. David Grebel, Harriet Harrell, Paul Harrell, Carol Hawk, Cheryl Langford, Bob Lott, Josh Lucas, I think that's 10. Thank you, Jeanette. Hi, Toby. Hi, I'm Eddie. Glad to see you. You too. I should say Mayor Parker. No, you're just fine. Thank you, go ahead. Thank you guys very much for allowing us to be here this evening and to share our opinion. And it really is a great thing that you guys have incorporated this into the process for open dialogue from the citizens. Again, my name is Toby Owen and I'm the CEO of the Presbyterian Night Shelter here in Fort Worth. And everyone's a familiar face and most of you have all been out to the shelter over the last several months. I am representing from 2400 Cyprus, which is the shelter. And again, thank you guys very much for this. And as you can imagine, I'm here to speak on the support of ARPRA funds going towards the homeless solution. And I've been doing this work for 27 years. I know I don't look that old. I know I look very young, but that's how long I've been doing this. For the last 12 years, I have been at the Presbyterian Night Shelter. And when we first started, and for many, many years, the solution in Fort Worth towards homelessness was simply to manage the problem. It was to have shelters that would open their doors at four in the afternoon. We would fill them as full as we could and then open them back up at seven in the morning for the homeless guests to exit and go back out on the streets of Fort Worth. I can say with all confidence over the last 10 years that mindset has changed. We're no longer simply managing the problem, but we truly have solutions to ending homelessness for our Fort Worth citizens that stay in the homeless area. We also often refer to that sort of as the front door and the back door. Front door meaning that the shelters are the front door with people entering. And then housing is the back door, leading people out the back door into their own homes. And that is what we have worked towards. And the numbers that you hear often also bear that out. In 2012, that was nine years ago, eight or nine years ago, we had seven, the community, not just the shelter, but as the service providers, we had 712 moveouts that we helped people assist in their moveout, 712 in 2012. It's not all that good, to be honest with you. But we began to really implement a lot of efforts towards housing first, which meant we were trying to become a leader across the, become a leader that others would look at to show that we were really improving. And over the past 10 years, our system has changed. 2020, that's the most recent numbers, we'll hear 21 tomorrow. In 2020, the community, the COC, we helped 1,921 people exit homelessness into locations that were good for those citizens. And so we have really implemented a lot of change. This does not happen overnight. It takes a lot of learning on our part, looking at other organizations across the country that have been successful. It also requires collaboration among the partners of all the nonprofits. And most importantly, in my opinion, what you must have is a strong collaboration with our city government. You must have that. It must be engaged, supportive, innovative, which will lead to a strong partnership. My 12 years at the shelter, I can honestly say that, that we have that with our city government. If it comes to our city staff, you mentioned Tara, another person that never gets credit and doesn't work, want that, but it's Fernando working behind the scenes. He's also working on redistricting, Toby. He's busy. He is someone that's made a huge difference. And all of you, you truly have made such a huge difference. Going back to Mayor Muncrief, to Mayor Price, and with you, Mayor Parker, all of you on city council have taken a part in that effort to help us end homelessness within Fort Worth. The pandemic has really brought a lot of challenges, as you know, so well, but it also has brought a lot of opportunity. And I can say, being on the ground with this effort, we are staring at a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to completely change the way that we address homelessness, to completely change it for decades to come. And that is through the continued development of supportive housing or housing in general for a homeless population. You have a lot of tough decisions that you've made, you have more to come, but I highly encourage that we continue that effort. And I can say now, we are viewed across this country as one of the leaders in helping the homeless. Not only do we continue to learn from our friends across the nation, but we have people that come to see us, our neighbors to the East, our neighbors to the South and Austin, Colorado City has been here. Lubbock, Texas was just here two weeks ago, learning from us. So we have an opportunity to continue to be a leader across this country. And so I encourage, and I hope, and I so desire for as much money be put towards the ARPA funds that can go towards that so we can continue to address this issue, not to manage it, but to solve it. And we have that opportunity that we'll never get again. So let's take it, let's run with it, and let's end homelessness for the guests that need that to happen. Thank y'all very much for all that you've done and what you will continue to do. Thank you, Toby. We appreciate it. He's here, he's here. I just lost my place. Thank you, Toby. Jodi Gonzalez, and I should have mentioned, if there's anybody here that has children with them that might want to be moved up on the agenda, because I know it's school days, we're happy to do that. If you'll just let Ron or Melissa know and we'll move you up on the agenda. Thank you. Hi, Jodi. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I feel very privileged, and I feel like I ran a long race. If I lose my breath, I'm very excited about today. Today can be a very historic day. And for a lot of people who are in this chamber, they're not aware of the history of getting to here today. Let's go back to the 60s. Back in the 60s, there was segregation. And I was one of those, yeah, I'm not old. I believe mom, I don't know what year in the 60s, but they formed a redistricting task force. We were trying to get representation for Hispanics, I predict on the south side, there was no representation on city council, nor was there any on the school board. So they formed a task force very early. They organized neighborhoods, church groups, school groups, PTAs, et cetera. Well, it took them over 20 years. In 1980, they finally had the districts redrawn for the school district. We still did not have one for city council. We still had no representation. We did at that time. And they helped us with getting the school board to expand, they added three seats. We still had no seat on the south side, only one on the north side. So for all these years, this redistricting committee has involved various neighborhood groups throughout the city. And so that happened in 1980. So here, every census, every year, we tried to come and bring an extra seat as our population kept growing and growing. The Hispanic community now has over 35% of the population. With these two new seats, that is what we're celebrating. We have two new seats. This is an opportunity to make good, to give fair representation, which is only justice. And that is what we're asking for today, to consider and support the V4 horseshoe map. And in it, that is the most equitable in bringing the full circle of fair representation at our school, I mean, at our city council. And on the map, it's changed a lot and it's been confusing for me. I was part of these committees and part of the lawsuit back in 1973. I was in high school. I'm now gonna be 68 years old this year and we still don't have a seat. And my daughter would like to run for city council or the school board. She doesn't have an opportunity because they do not have enough in our, oops. You have 30 seconds, you're okay. So I guess what I wanna say is I'm doing this for my grandkids who go to school in the south side. They're above their grade level reading. We support the schools. We support what we're doing here today and I hope we can get you to support that also. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. Our next speaker is Ricardo Avida. Ricardo Avida. There's some movement. Cantalfi's here. No, hi Ricardo, come on down when you're ready. And our next speaker after that is Drayon Jones. Drayon's at call, okay. Good evening, city council, Ms. Mayor and members of the board. We're city council rather. I'm Mr. Ricardo Avida and I'm in support of the map V4 with the horseshoe and amendments. I am requesting that the neighborhood on the south side please include north of the railroad tracks at Page Street, east of Hempill, north to Island Street and back east to the railroad, which has been left out of the James May, St. Louis neighborhood. Additionally, further southeast, we need to move District 10's boundary east from Fair Park to the creek at Carter Park to encompass all of Carter Park's neighborhood under District 10 as it's currently being split as it's drawn now. I'm requesting the amendments for the area east of beach and north of Rosedale be added to new District 10. The Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts, making it difficult for people in Poly to have a clear voice of representation on city council. All of Poly needs to stay together all of Poly needs to stay together in the new District 10 as shown on map V4 but the northern portion of Poly that includes Polytechnic Heights High School, William James Middle School and Texas Western must be included. I ask that Bonnie Bray stay in the remainder of the Riverside Alliance in District 10. I ask that all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in District 5. Map V4 also allows the Rosemont Worth Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the development changes they would like to see along Hempill and South of Barrie, including the upcoming sale of Our Lady of Victory. It joins Como with District in a person of color opportunity district while keeping the North Crowley School feeder pregnant whole. It unites historic Southside, more inside and hillside in District 8. It also ensures top six remains in District 5. It maintains District 2 as a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. Most importantly, Map V4 ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in the city for the coming decade. Thank you for your attention. Have a good day. Thank you, Ricardo. Our next speaker's a caller. Okay, we're gonna skip callers. We got a few phone issues. Damon Perez, I think it's here in person. It's Damon here. Thought I saw him. I know, but they said he couldn't get ahold of him. So I thought he was here. There's Damon. Your turn. I thought I saw you. Sorry, I didn't know that we're gonna leave. That's okay. Our next speaker after Damon is Bill Shore. Sorry about that. Now I'm out of breath. I had to run down. You're good. Thank you, Mayor Matty Parker, Council. This has been a shot for me today. All these people behind me, every one of them I know just about, didn't even know they were gonna be here. I had surgery last week. I'm still getting over it. Someone told me to come down here today. I'm sure it was, you know who. So I'm from district two. I have property in district five and I have property in district six. I've talked to a few of y'all, met a few y'all. Would love to meet everybody when the opportunity comes. I know it's hard to get together to meet, but I did give y'all some information that was passed out earlier at a brochure and business card. Those are me, me, me, me. My assistant was supposed to be here with the script, so I'm kind of making it up as we go. But what was the shocker is? Lorienting and Toby back here. Those are the people I'm gonna work with. This is, I have a nonprofit organization called North Texas Warnering Community Corp. I want to build homes for the homeless. These are starting homes. These aren't permanent homes. This is where they can come and get off the street. Be safe, be secure. Don't have to worry about those tents. Don't have to worry about their neighbors. So, and I'm here to say thank you for everything y'all do. I appreciate every single one of y'all. And that's all I have. Thank you, Damon. It was good to see you. Thank you. Bill Shore, followed by Christelle Galvan. Mayor Parker, Mayor Pro Tem Evans, members of the council. I'm Bill Shore. I live in the Crestwood neighborhood of Fort Worth. I'm here today to speak in favor of MAPV for Horseshoe. As other speakers have said, and I'm not gonna repeat this, that is the map that provides the most equitable opportunities for minorities in the city of Fort Worth and has the strongest voting percentages for minorities in all five of the districts in which they have a good opportunity to be elected. I've submitted a letter on behalf of myself and seven of my fellow task force members in support of that map. But today what I'm speaking about is there are a lot of maps floating around, enough maps to make your head spin. I know, I was curious to see how many maps have been submitted. So I requested identification of the maps and I was just astounded to see how many. And there are so many maps still left under consideration. So we started off with a webpage saying that there was gonna be public comment on V2, V3 Horseshoe and V4 Horseshoe. And of course we're having comment on all of the maps tonight. But at some point y'all are gonna have to start with one of these maps. And I urge you to start with map V4 Horseshoe. Now there are various speakers who have already suggested some revisions to map V4 Horseshoe. And I have spoken with Pablo Calderon who's been drafting up some revisions. And there are two of them that I know of that I'm capable of describing. I can't go over all of the boundaries like our speaker before me. But two adjustments among the other adjustments that have been made to post map V4 Horseshoe are to bring the Riverside Alliance back together. V4 Horseshoe as submitted does not have all the, Bonnie Bray has separated out. One revision of the post map would do that. And another revision would put all of Lake Arlington shorefront back in district five. There are other revisions to the map which Mr. Calderon who will be speaking after I speak can explain. So I've submitted a couple of slides that show two of the revisions, the Bonnie Bray in district 10 and the Lake Arlington shorefront in district 10. Those are just examples of the kinds of tweaks that have been proposed for this map. And I hope that you will start with map V4 Horseshoe when you deliberate in the work session tomorrow and make those revisions to come up with the best map for the entire city. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Shore. I think we do have Drann Jones on the phone now. Hello? Mr. Jones, go ahead. You have three minutes. Okay, yes. Hello everyone. This is I'm Drann Jones, president of the neighborhood association grow in the pilot community. Community organizer and I wanted to speak tonight. I couldn't make it in. I wish it had more than three minutes, but I want to speak on the redistricting in the Piley area. Over the years, I've more than raised in Piley. The area has always kind of been done with a split for some reason. And one of the things that I've kind of wanted to do was get some of the neighbors together and address some of the issues that we all had concerns about. And this redistricting is a huge thing that is kind of kind of kept the residents from kind of just getting on one accord because everything's been kind of kind of separated. So what I want to do is kind of get on and mention that, you know, we've kind of wanted to support the map for with the amendments of keeping Piley High School, William James and Texas Westland and the Piley community, along with keeping Barney Bray, which would become in district 10. And of course, Lake Arlington would be in the district five. This is what we kind of would like to see. We think it'd be best for us at the moment, as well as, you know, the Latin community. We want to kind of make sure that what we're doing is going to be best for the community and the residents that are representing these areas. I know in the Piley area, it just hadn't been much representation over the years. And I've been, I went to William James, Piley High School, DMA grade, THMs. And, you know, we want to kind of, you know, raise the local political IQ with a lot of our residents as far as the awareness and things that are all going on in the area. I am bilingual. So, you know, I want to kind of reach everyone, not just one particular group. I think this is important. This redistricting is this thing that's done every 10 years with the census. I've learned a lot over the last few months here recently and just kind of just knowing just what I know just through experience in the area. And, you know, we want to kind of make sure what we're doing is, you know, what the community wants. And we do have voices. We do have people that are interested. I have a lot of elders that are concerned about how things are going and things have been. We want to make sure that when we have representation, we want people that are going to understand and not just know our concerns, but truly understand our concerns and what are best for our youth and our elders and everyone in between that in the area. This is something that I think is very important, not just in Polly, but across the city of Fort Worth. There's been a lot of things that, you know, I've seen and just could be done a lot better. Mr. Jones, I'm sorry your time has expired. We really appreciate you calling in tonight. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Crystal, our next speaker, and then James Walker. Ms. Galvan, who's your buddy there? My buddy is Nikki Galvan, who wanted to say hello. Hi, Nikki. Hi. Nice to meet you. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. I appreciate this opportunity to come before you and address the issue of redistricting. I would like to say that this is my son, Nikki, and he wanted to come to be here to advocate as well. So my name is Crystal Rondes Galvan. I live in district four, and I would like to start by acknowledging each and every one of you. I recognize that this process is a taxing one. And I know that you have worked diligently to preserve the integrity of your districts and its constituents. Based upon my review of the three maps presented, I am in support of map V4 with the Horseshoe amendment. But as you continue to work to draw these lines, I will be, it will be concrete for the next 10 years. I ask that you consider the following. Our city council needs more representation based on our city's diverse population. And as you know, our Hispanic population is well over 35%. And according to our state demographer, our Hispanic population will soar in the years to come. Therefore, one Hispanic opportunity district is simply not enough. Our city needs a second city council district in which our community has a voice and fair representation. Within this process, ask yourselves what is right? What is equitable? Is the voting age percentage being considered? Is it in compliance with the Voting Rights Act? Are you truly creating a second Hispanic opportunity district where the population is at least 60% Hispanic? Furthermore, it must be noted that core Southside neighborhoods such as Rosemont, Greenbrier, South Himpill Heights, and Worth Heights must not be left out from this second opportunity district. And I would be remiss if I didn't state that Panther Island should not be disenfranchised from district two. Panther Island has always been a part of the historic Northside and it is and will continue to be an economic engine for our underserved Northside community. Taking it out of district two would simply be unjust. Therefore, I voice to you once again to adopt map V4 with the horseshoe amendment. This map is the only map that not only makes a viable Hispanic opportunity district, but also is the only map that satisfies the Voting Rights Act. A decade is a long time. And my hope is that my community, along with my children, who are here watching our city's history being made today, can look back 10 years from now and know that we didn't withstand, but instead we can say that we made progress. And the interest of four representation, a fair representation, was at the forefront. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Galvan. Our next speaker is James Walker, followed by Maria Montez. Is James here? No, we'll come back if not. Thank you. Maria Montez, followed by Rafina Mendoza. My name is Maria Montez, a resident of Fort Worth, a long time resident of district two and a former educator, realtor and vice president of the Northside Neighborhood Association. May I first say it's an honor to speak to you, mayor and all of the board members and council members for having a small taste of public service. I am simply in awe of all that you do in the countless hours of sacrifice and service to our community, so I appreciate that. I am here today in support of the V4 horseshoe map. I believe that this map allows for a second opportunity district for the Hispanic community, which is underrepresented right now at the moment, as there's only one out of 10, as she previously mentioned. It will also allow these communities to benefit from the new developments that are coming to Fort Worth. We need more of a voice in certain areas, especially those with a large minority populations and I believe the V4 horseshoe will foster this for our community. It will grant the privilege to see this resurgence of progress come to fruition, especially the Panther Island project. I requested it not be removed as well from district two and I believe that our local leaders and constituents have earned that right having stewarded this district well over the last several years. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Maria, appreciate it. Next speaker is Rufino Mendoza, followed by David Martinez. Good evening, Mayor Parker and council members. My name is Rufino Mendoza, born and raised in Fort Worth and a current resident of Southwest Fort Worth. I'm a longtime member of several Hispanic civil rights organizations in Tern County. This includes the Mexican-American Educational Advisory Committee, of which I am the chairperson and United Hispanic Council of Tern County, where I served as chairperson for many years. We want to be a partner with you in making certain that opportunity is shared equally in Fort Worth. When governmental entities refuse to be partners and have blocked civil rights for citizens, we have had no other recourse but to take legal action. In the past, the Mexican-American Educational Advisory Committee pursued two successful lawsuits against the Fort Worth Independent School District. The first was respect of quality and equal education. And the second, relative to single-member district representation on the school board. This particular lawsuit culminated in the appointment of a Hispanic female from the South Side of Fort Worth to the Board of Trustees. In each of these instances, members of the community met with school officials but to no avail. As stated previously, we were successful. The Hispanic community, as all citizens of Fort Worth, demanded a quality education for our children and a meaningful opportunity to participate with elected representation. It should not have taken lawsuits in federal court to receive what was rightfully ours. In the year 2022, lawsuits should not be pursued. It is respectfully requested that you do the right thing. Draw a second viable Hispanic Opportunity District in the South Side of Fort Worth. Some have raised the non-sequential claim that drawing a second Hispanic district may be considered racial gerrymandering. This is other nonsense. Using the United Communities on the East Side and South Side is not racial gerrymandering. United communities of similar persuasion is not racial mandering or gerrymandering. Our legal counsel has made it clear that with more than 35% of the population, the Voting Rights Act provides that the Hispanic community cannot be dealt or denied a fair opportunity to elect candidates of our choosing. Two seats have been added to the council in the charter election and we will not give the Hispanic community and you will not give the Hispanic community a second place on the disabled. Again, it is respectfully requested that you do the right thing. Now, version four horseshoe is the best under consideration. It is not split South Side neighborhoods, such as Rosemont. I urge you to adopt it one or the one alike and also do not remove from the predominantly Hispanic District two, the Pantry Item Project now that it has been finally funded. Thank you for your attention and the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Our next speaker is David Martinez, followed by Daniel Garcia Rodriguez. My name is David Martinez and I am for map for V for with the horseshoe amendment plus, including I didn't get to see the map or the street name for on the map. I requested it, didn't ever get anybody contact me back, but I would like to have, if it's not on there, I would like to have Carter Park added, Echo Lake Park and Brynmore and the Southland terrace added to that District 10 map and keep District two with the Panther Island. One of the reasons why I'm for that, taking part of District eight out is because for many years, things have gotten worse in that area and I believe with the different leadership, Hispanic leadership, things could get better in that neighborhood. More officers, a lot of the other District districts have or three other three District City Council people have requested to defund the police and we are for the police. Many family members of mine are on the forward PD and I'm here to speak for them so they can, because we need them and we need to protect them just like they protect us. I think that having changed that to District 10 and having a different representation, Hispanic representation will help improve that area and clean up the streets over there because we all know there's a lots of prostitution going on over there. Ever since they cleared them out of Rosedale, they moved them down to seminary. What do you call it? My kids and my family members, we see that all the time. There's prostitution every night out there on seminary and I-35. We see plenty of it out in the open. They don't even hide it and then for some reason, the homeless people get dropped off in that area and then they loiter and panhandle and do other things like that. I understand that some people need help and all that stuff but some of these people do that as a career and it's also like, it's not good for kids to grow up and live in an environment that's not healthy and happy and all that stuff like that. They go with so many problems as it is. We like to raise our family in a better condition and I think that with a new representative that we can achieve all that stuff that I would like to have. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir, we appreciate you. Next speaker is Daniel Garcia Rodriguez. Is Daniel here? Okay, we'll just come back when he gets here and I think we're gonna try to call Osana. You got her? Okay. Osana? Yes. Please go ahead, you have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. My name is Osana Hermosillo and I live at 9201 Chevler Trail in District 5. I want to reiterate that only one map satisfies the Voting Rights Act and that's Version 4, Horseshoe with a couple of adjustments that I'll reference shortly. There's just a critical mass of Hispanic citizens of voting age in the South Side and it is of paramount importance that these light neighborhoods be incorporated into one district. The Horseshoe with Polly, East of 35, is ultimately going to be adopted by Council. The goal of creating a second strong Hispanic Opportunity District is best accomplished by ensuring that Hispanic South Side neighborhoods such as Wars Heights, Greenbrier, Rosemont, and Hemfield Heights, to name a few, are not bifurcated. Additionally, this can and must be done without compromising the Hispanic voting age population of the historic North Side area that exists in District 2. North should that area be separated from Panther Island and the potential economic opportunity that stands to generate across the entire city but specifically for the North Side residents. Doing so risks further disenfranchising an already underserved community, a community that is predominantly Hispanic. We simply cannot continue to chip away at that district in the name of trying to create a second strong Hispanic Opportunity District elsewhere in the city. That is not what would result in the creation of truly a more equitable map. Finally, I'm aware of a couple additional adjustments that Mr. Pablo Calderon has been working on to version 4 Horseshoe that should also be incorporated. The inclusion of the Bonnie Brain neighborhood into the Riverside Alliance area and the adjustment to having the entirety of Lake Arlington wholly included in District 5. Mr. Calderon has worked tirelessly on a variety of maps for months and as one of only two Hispanic members of your 10-person redistricting task force, I would only support a map that truly strengthens the Hispanic voting representation without diluting the African-American representation across the city. Version 4 Horseshoe with these two additional adjustments is the map that I support and I strongly urge you to support this one as well. Thank you. Thank you, Asana. Our next speaker is John Barnes, I think is a call. Followed by Pete Munoz of Pete's here. John. Yes. Please go ahead, do you have three minutes? Thank you. I live in District 9, so neither of my suggestions will affect me in any way. First, I urge you to place the Como neighborhood in District 6. Second, I urge you to unite the south side with kindred communities of the east side. In the past, this was referred to as the Horseshoe map. These actions will give more minority citizens a viable voice in city governance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. Next speaker is Pete Munoz, followed by Steven Roebuck. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Pete Munoz and I'm a lifelong resident of Northside Fort Worth. I'm also the elected constable of Precinct 5. I represent the Northside, Diamond Hill and the Southside neighborhoods that have been discussed in the redistricting process. It is very clear with that, with over 35% of the population, the Hispanic community should have two opportunity districts. I urge the council to adopt map version four, Horseshoe, or a plan like it. It is entirely appropriate to place the similar communities of interest in East Fort Worth with those in Southside. I represent Rosemont, Worth Heights, South Hemphill Heights and Greenbrier. The clear way to draw the second Hispanic district is to include these neighborhoods and join them with similar neighborhoods of East Fort Worth. They share the same immigrant populations, the same political preferences and socioeconomic characteristics. I finally, as a resident of Northside, I can tell you that we have been waiting for years for the final development of Panther Island. This has always been the part of Northside and it should stay in district two. It would be unjust to move Panther Island now that, now at the point it has been fully funded by federal dollars. Mayor Parker, I hope we can count on your leadership on this issue of great concern to Northside residents. Thank you all for your attention. Thank you, constable. We appreciate you being here. Our next speaker is Steven Roebuck, followed by Sharon Ford, which is a call. Mayor and city council, thank you for allowing me to have the opportunity to speak to you tonight. I live in district six. I have a business in district nine. I'm president of Candler Ridge Homeowner Association and I am an active code blue citizen patroller. I have a vested interest in Fort Worth in district six. As a HOA representative, I've had several citizens contacting me voicing opposition to the new realignment for district six with the Como carveout added to it. We do oppose the three redistricting maps you're currently considering, mainly because the district six make up, ethnicity make up is already the most diverse in Fort Worth. If you add the Como district into our district, you're gonna increase the minority population in district six from around 54, 53, 54% to over 60%. District three minority population will decrease from around 34% to around 30%. You'll be hurting district three. It would appear to most citizens, district three would need to have an increase in minority population, not a decrease. District six demographics are presently very well, if not very even with, when comparing ethnic population groups, we have 38% white versus 62% minority. It fairly closely monitors Fort Worth's overall demographics of 39% white and 62% or 61% minority. We think this is a, it would be a mistake to upset the balance we have in district six and our fair and equitable demographics are what makes up a balanced district. Our guidelines, the guidelines we looked at on your website or for considering a district redistricting were continuous and shared, they should share common boundaries, should be based on traditional adjoining neighborhood lines and should be communities of interest with similar social economic characteristics. The maps with the carve out areas from district three proposed to be added to district six, do not meet the above guidelines. The carved out zone from district three is several miles from district six, does not meet these criteria. We can see by adding in the carved out district to any district, it would certainly ensure a favorable outcome of future elections, especially for the ones drawing the more favorable district lines. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Our next speaker is Marilyn Davis, followed by Thomas Trollen-Cosse. Okay, Thomas Trollen-Cosse, followed by George Trials. Mayor Parker, city council member, dropping some of my props. Fellow citizens and neighbors, this particular jar of beans is representative of the total number of adults that are eligible to vote in the city of Fort Worth. This particular Ziploc bag represents the number of people who showed up to vote for or against CCPD funding in the election that approved funding for 10 years. This snack Ziploc bag represents the percentage of people who voted for 10 years of CCPD funding. My point on that matter is that we do not know what the vast majority of adults in Fort Worth think about that issue or the Brady list issue or firefighter pay or land equity or environmental racism or hundreds of important issues that the city has to tackle. And my point is, is to remind the council that redistricting is about empowering, including, considering and uplifting the vast majority of the people that potentially could vote for their own interests. To do that, that means that our council needs to look as close as possible to the array of folks that live amongst us and next to us across the city. We've been talking about redistricting for a while and maps and I can tell you that none of us knows why a lot of these folks don't show up to vote on municipal issues or for city elections or for pay raises for the city council. But I suspect part of it is is because many, many of our neighbors don't see people up here who look like them. Not enough so. I want to encourage the council to be as selfless as possible and don't look at these maps as how will it best serve you to be elected again or how it will be a springboard to the next office that you might seek since you're not going to die in these seats as promised. The thing about this is that lots of hard work has gone in, lots of volunteers, lots of task force, lots of community leaders have come up and shared their opinion and their perspective and their heartfelt feelings on which map is the best one to move on. The reality is, is we need to get this done. We need to have it be a reflection of equity of our city with minority opportunity districts and we have tons of other important issues to get to. Thank you, Thomas. Our next speaker is George Chiles followed by Heather Todd. My name is George Vernon Chiles. My residence address is number 74 2901 Travis Avenue, Fort Worth. On June 11th, 2021, I started researching citizen review of police. Over time it became clear to me how large a part police unions played starting with influencing legislation and going downward into the senses of the word in crushing this facet of democracy. This in turn led me to the part of Ronald G. Ron DeLorde in this state of affairs. DeLorde was instrumental in the founding of the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas. He also negotiated whatever that might mean, the first WPLA contract in 2008, that's document one. Despite this pivotal rule in answer to a public information request for details regarding it, the city stated there were no responsive documents. DeLorde also co-authored three books on the leadership of police unions published in 1997, 2008, and 2017. The first of these was summed up in two quotes from it in a New York Times article on December 17th, 2021. The first is quote, a police association leader must throw out all of those traditional notions of right and wrong, unquote. The second is the book's approving quotation of a San Antonio Union official statement, quote, if all else fails, we'll drop the bomb and live in the ashes, unquote. Sleep well, San Antonio. This article also reproduced a slide from a presentation to Lord Giff to Union officials. That's document two. It is of a cheetah devoting its attention to the carcass of a wildebeest while another wildebeest looks on. The cheetah is captioned, quote, Union, unquote. The carcass is captioned, quote, elected official, unquote. The observing wildebeest is captioned, quote, wow, that could be me next time, unquote. The overarching caption is, quote, not lost on the rest of the wildebeest, unquote. I currently have copies still in shrink wrap and delivered to the two books. If one of the three council members who might be thought by the FWPLA to stray from the herd, wants these copies without charge, along with my indexing, personal delivery will be made to the third floor. The next day city hall is open. If either other council members both want this as well, the past experience is any guide 10 days will be sufficient for delivery. My telephone number is on speaker card. Thank you, Mr. Trials. Our next speaker is Heather Todd, followed by Fernando Peralta. Heather. Thank you, Madam Mayor and council members. My name is Heather Todd. I live in district six. I'm commenting today to urge you all to support map four, V4 horseshoe, because it keeps all of the Wedwood neighborhood together. And the handouts have just a bit of information about the Wedwood Historical Association, of which I'm the president. I've lived in Wedwood for 21 years. WHA is a nonprofit devoted to promoting and preserving the architecture and history of Wedwood. And we will be nominating Wedwood for inclusion in the national register of historic places. WHA has been working very hard during our first year to improve the sense of community in Wedwood and to build neighborhood pride. To that end, we are collaborating with other groups, people and businesses in Wedwood, like the different neighborhood associations, Wedwood Garden Club and our local vegan bakery. Therefore, we would be extremely frustrated to see Wedwood split into different districts, six and nine. As a resident of Wedwood, I believe that dividing the neighborhood in this manner may quash the resurgence we've been experiencing recently and certainly will lessen our impact on issues that affect us. Furthermore, Wedwood registered as a community of interest, number 71, by the state of deadline. And I would hope the council would bear that in mind. Thank you very much. Thank you, Heather. Our next speaker is Fernanda Peralta. Do you have Fernanda on the phone? Followed by Amanda Pittman, if Amanda's here. Fernanda? Can you hear me? Yes, please go ahead. Do you have three minutes? Okay, thank you. Mayor and council, good evening. It breaks my heart that I can't be them person, but obviously as my city council woman knows very well, you know, duty calls, and I was called down here to the border being an active duty, active Army National Guard soldier. So I'm down here, but that hasn't stopped me from advocating for our Hispanic community here in Fort Worth. Well, one thing I want to make very clear right now is I'm in support, and I hope you will be in support of map V-4 with the Horseshoe Amendment. This is the only map, one obviously as the president of Rosemont that keeps our neighborhood together. It also breaks my heart that after speaking with my city council woman, and she even says publicly that she understands the needs of our neighborhood that obviously doesn't correlate with her putting out a map that splits up Rosemont, which is a complete non-starter for our community. This map connects the, our south side with our east side, which two communities that have so much in common. One thing that I also want to make very clear after watching tonight is that the Como neighborhood needs to get, needs to be put in District 6. This is what that community is asking for, and they've worked for, and they have organized for. This is the same thing that our Hispanic community here in Fort Worth is doing right now, and we are asking for this. We're getting organized and coming to you asking for this. So I hope you listen to the needs of the community, put self-interest and eagles aside, and really put communities first, the communities that you were elected to represent. I do want to do a quick shout out to everybody for being there tonight, and for supporting our community. And thank you to all those who have organized and come together these past couple days to make this happen. With that being said, thank you so much. Thank you, Fernando. Our next speaker is Amanda Pittman, followed by Sandy Russell. Good evening. I'm sorry. Good evening, Mayor Parker and council members. My name is Amanda Joy Pittman. I am a Fort Worth resident in District 6. I'm also president of Wedgwood East Neighborhood Association in Southwest Fort Worth, and I am here advocating for map V4 with a horseshoe amendment, which currently keeps Fort Worth, I'm sorry, keeps all of Wedgwood together for unified representation to remain in the same district. We have a very inclusive neighborhood with shared interests and participate with the other neighborhood associations actively. It is important to our members and to our residents to remain as a community together. We've registered as community of interest, number 71, by the state of Deadline. Thank you all for your time. Thank you, Ms. Pittman. Our next speaker is Sandy Russell, followed by Rick Herring. Sure, just give me one second. Okay, I don't want to stand right here. That's perfect, thank you. Now I can see you. Okay, dear Mayor and city council members, I am Sandy Martinez Russell. I am the resident of District 6 right now. I am a prior resident of District 9. I am invested in the south side because those are my roots and that's who shaped me, who I am today. I stand here today a big concern, disappointed in trying to understand this transparent process of redistricting. A task force was put in place. I believe we had about 26 maps or so that were submitted and I was trained on it. I submitted one with leadership for work as well. And one of the things that we were told is, there was a community of interest groups that submitted their request to stay together. And when we did our map, that's what exactly what we did. We took the voice of the people. I came and spoke in January and supported a map that was created by a community leader. And I did wonder what is the purpose of our task force? What is the purpose of making those recommendations when ultimately at the end, you as city council have the authority to make the changes if you don't agree with it. So here we are looking again at council member maps that were created by you guys. Not sure what's wrong with that picture, but what happened to the voice of the taxpayers? What happened to the public voice? What happened to the voice of the voters that come out and elect you in your seats that you currently sit in? So regardless, we are here at the end now, here at the end with the last three maps, voting on the one that will affect the future of those constituents, like I said, that voted you into your seats that you are currently sitting at tonight. So we are in the times of diversity, equity and inclusion. And then as I look and see who sits not only on our city boards, but at our city council that doesn't represent the 35% of Latinos that make up footwork. So tomorrow when you are making your decision, you have the power to change the future. Please have the integrity to do the right thing. And remember the voices that elected you. Don't look at those maps by numbers and dollar signs or however you think those little puzzle pieces they're gonna fit. Look at them as families. Look at them as members of your community. Look at people that are concerned. Oh my gosh. So I am here to support the version four map with the Portrait Amendment, with those recommendations that everyone in front of me and after me will be recommending as well. So I thank you city council and ask that you take those voices into considerations that you're hearing tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Russell. Our next speaker is Rick Herring, followed by Gerald Banks. Good evening, mayor and council. Rick Herring, 1801 Bolton moderator for the Riverside Alliance, a coalition of seven neighborhood associations in the Riverside area. And I just want to say that I'm gratified and thankful to hear so many people here tonight advocating for the Riverside community to be kept intact by adding the Bonnie Bray Neighborhood Association, keeping Bonnie Bray Neighborhood Association in any of the maps that come to fruition. Map V4, as amended, the horseshoe map, whatever it's called, seems to meet councils as very high priority of creating another Hispanic opportunity district. And the Riverside Alliance supports that map with the very minor tweak of adding the Bonnie Bray Neighborhood Association into the Riverside community on that particular map. I also want to say, because I may not have another opportunity because you probably hope I won't be back up here again. So I don't know. But from the very beginning, Council Moon is advocated to keep our Riverside neighborhoods together in one council district. The rest of you have also supported that goal and objective and we really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Herring. Our next speaker is Gerald Banks. I also thought I saw Daniel Garcia come in. Was he here? You can go up next, Daniel, since you came in. Thank you. Gerald Banks, senior. District five, Allenton Lake is district five. But I'm not here for that. We are not here to thrill the police and ain't no telling when we might need y'all. But at the same time, there's no telling when y'all might need us. We don't need an overzealous cop like Morgan, number 4656 on the streets, reminding us of another William Martin waiting to happen. You know how that turned out. Mr. Banks, why don't you report her? I am to the council and to the public. Right here, right now. She threatened me with the shut up or your grandson is going to jail. I shouldn't and still didn't shut up. Now what? I have been patiently standing by and being active in the community where needed, when needed, but I figured to let this new council sort things out before making a grievance. And yet here I am again. Of course, you don't want me to start campaigning. Again, that would be a lasting effort as long as you sit in those seats. I talked down to Jefferson still hasn't gotten justice and that ex cop, Aaron Dean, still walks the street forward. So that's what does that tell us? Officer Morgan, 4656 threatened me. Look, let me get over here, but I'm packed for that. Officer Morgan, 4656 threatened me to shut up or my grandson is going to jail. And I said, what does that, me talking, got to do with him going to jail? And when I was doing, and what I was doing was asking what was going on and why you handle them like that. Their action wasn't called for. They were lying about him being with some other students or boys or whatever, the drum thing to drum things up. Why put the handcuffs on my grandson, 14 years old and put him in the back seat of a police car when you let another young white individual riding a go cart, go free, it's all on the video in my life. Being black is only an aspect to demoralize our race when in Trump. Mr. Banks, I'm so sorry to cut you off, but I do want to make sure that you know Catherine Huckabee who's at the top of those stairs right here. Have you met Catherine before? If you could grab her before you leave, I want y'all to meet, if you don't mind doing that. Okay, and I'll finish this up on that. Please do, thank you, sir. Our next speaker, go ahead, Daniel. Daniel Garcia is going to be followed by Sandra Garcia and then Adrian Smith. Good evening, my name is Daniel Garcia Rodriguez. I am the son of immigrants from Mexico and a community organizer with United for Worth and a believer in the dignity and power of our people. We find ourselves fighting for a map in search of fair and equitable representation at the hand of a council who holds the power to disregard everything working class communities of color have shared because of your failure of moving towards an independent redistricting process out of political self-interest. If this is not the case, prove it by moving forward. Listen to the requests of communities that have been intentionally marginalized by decision makers. Prove that this is an inclusive city by your actions. The request I'm about to make through out of a multiracial cross-city collaboration of Fort Worth neighbors who believe in a fair map to ensure all of our communities have an opportunity to be truly represented and their neighborhoods protected. We're fighting for more Latinx representation with an understanding that we share neighbors, schools and dreams with black people who have fought so hard to be listened to. We stand in solidarity with our black neighbors in Fort Worth and will not forget your fight for change and demands for justice. We would be in a completely different world without that. Power exists within and between our struggle to live in this city freely and authentically. I'm in support of Matt V for Horseshoe with three amendments. Matt V for Horseshoe creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without separating black communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture as developments extend into the areas. I'm requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest intact. I ask that the area east of each and north of Roseville to be added to the new District 10. The Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts, making it difficult for people in Poly to have a clear voice of representation on council. All of Poly needs to stay together in the new District 10 as shown on Matt V for Horseshoe, but the northern portion of Poly that includes Polytechnic Heights High School, William James Middle School and Texas Wesleyan University must be included. I ask that Bonnie Bray stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance in District 10. We also ask that Lake Arlington, Down 920 be retained in District five. Matt V Horseshoe allows the Rosemont and Worth Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the development and changes they want to see in their community, especially our Lady of Victory. It joins Koma with District six and a person of color opportunity district while keeping the Northside School feeder pattern whole. Matt V for is a real opportunity for historically disenfranchised voters to have power and voice in the city for the upcoming decade. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Sandra's coming down and then Adrian Smith. They are actually down the list. Thanks, Bob. No, you can't talk from the audience. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Hi, Sandra. Nice to see you. I'm gonna keep mine short. I'm a little under the weather today. So forth is in a position to make history. As a Latino population of the Fort Worth is at 35%, adding a second Latino opportunity district will set right in the initial intention from 2016 when the referendum was to expand from eight to 10 council districts past. While this does not guarantee someone that looks like me or someone with the last name like mine will win the election, it is a win for a community that gives back so much to the city of Fort Worth. One place at the table is no longer enough. Our community needs to be heard from the north side to the south side, from the west side to the east side. We are here to stay and to serve the opportunity for fair representation. I ask you to make that one and only decision to add a second Latino opportunity district. Please vote for map V4 with the Horseshoe Amendment and to keep Panther Island and District 2 along with Como in District 6. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra. Our next speaker is actually, sorry. We have a phone call, I just went blank. Is James Walker correct, Ron? Okay. Sorry, Mr. Smith. Mr. Walker? Yeah. Please go ahead, you have three minutes. All right, thank you. I would say thank you to mayor and the council for allowing me to speak today. I will be very brief. I am in support of map V4 with the Horseshoe with three amendments, map V4 with the Horseshoe creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without separating the black communities of interest. And it also allows neighbors to reserve their history and culture as development extends into these areas. I'm requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest intact. The first one is I ask that the area east of beach and north of Rose Hill be added to the new District 10. And I ask that the Bonnie Brake State with the remainder of the Riverside Allowns. And for my third request, I ask that all of Lake Arlington down to our 20 be retained in District 5. And again, I'm voting for map V4 with the Horseshoe. All right, thanks. Appreciate your time. Thank you, James. Our next speaker is Adrienne Smith, followed by Glinda Diaz. Adrienne Smith for Fort Worth native former council candidate for District 3. Good evening to all. I'm gonna speak briefly regarding this redistricting from everything that I've heard of being hearing or seeing and witnessing in a lot of presentations and people's inputs. It seems as if this redistricting is, hopefully this redistricting is not dividing us more than it is, more than it is bringing us together, but it's starting to fill that way. I know Fort Worth has this thought, this image that it's a great city to live in. And we do have a lot of people coming to this city, but hopefully this one matter, redistricting doesn't divide us. And I would like to encourage everyone who's engaged in the process. If redistricting is important to you, make every other issue important to you because people are putting a lot of time and effort into voicing their concerns and opinions about redistricting. But on other issues, you're silent, you know? And if the shoe fits, we're out of address on that. But the issue I stand up here before you all is regarding a last council matter that the city council had the opportunity to vote on. Now, everyone voted their conscience or their conviction, but regardless, everyone made a vote. There was a five, four, there was a three against, and there was a one abstainment. But for some reason, the three that voted against this particular item, it caused three of our council members to get a target put on their backs. Those council members being Ms. Beck, Mr. Nettles, and Mr. Williams. So I stand up here to address that matter. February POA, Manny Ramirez. Is he present? Okay, he's not. Sir, I hope you're looking and listening. Mr. Manny Ramirez, you are a coward, a bully, and someone that uses his position or perceived authority to intimidate others. Since you've been living under a rock, allow me to remind you of one reality of this life the rest of us live within. The current Fort Worth City Council and those past do not just serve or represent the interests of the Fort Worth Police Department. Your fear-mongering, divisive, and detrimental tactics are not welcome in this city. The decision of three council members to vote against an agenda item was not for purpose of disregard, disrespect, or denial to law enforcement. It was their individual right to do so. What I have to give explanation as to why. Now to address some of your BS talking points. It wasn't a slap in the face of the Fort Worth Police Department or their family's clown. It was a decision. It wasn't about politics or denial for officer safety clown. It was a decision. I'm so sorry, Mr. Smith, we ran out of time. Just as well as the Fort Worth Police Department. I hate to cut you off, but I have to. Our next speaker is Glenda Diaz. It's all about David Mendes. Mr. Smith, thank you so much. I'm so sorry. Any other decisions for the entire public? Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for coming. We appreciate you. Glenda Diaz followed by David Mendes. Okay, good evening. My name is Glenda Diaz and I live in district three. So Councilman Crane, you're my representative. So based on population growth, there needs to be a more minority opportunity districts that reflect the growing minority voting age population. Plus we need to keep communities that share similar interests, such as social economic characteristics that benefit from a unified representation. For example, my district three neighborhood, we benefit from this. I am in support of map four v four with amendments, which the amendments have already been discussed. I also asked that district two remain intact and for Panther Island to stay in district two. I also want to think about including Como neighborhood and district six. And also Councilman Beck, I remember how hard you fought for Alice Carlson when my neighborhood wanted to create it as a neighborhood school because our elementary school was bursting at the seams in a fire hazard. You emphasize that Alice Carlson was a community. You stated that the students had the right to be there and deserve to have their school building due to the history of the school and the benefits of being next to TCU. Well, I ask you today to fight for all of your community, including the Hispanic community who are begging to have a voice and to be represented by someone that can and will relate to them. Councilman Crane and all city council, map four v four with the horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have the voting power and the voice in the city for the coming decade. Thank you for listening to me and thank you for your service. Thank you. David Mendez, followed by Ariola Villa. David Mendez speaking for Northwest Fort Worth Neighborhood Alliance. And we agree with Westie's Fuller's comments. Also, it is becoming clear that Northwest and North Fort Worth areas are to remain underrepresented with a population being more than 30% of Fort Worth's total and growing. You should be thinking about that growth and how it's going to affect Fort Worth in the years to come. Dr. Chad Will of Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD reports they have 21,000 students and those numbers are projected to at least double in the next 10 years. However, the v four map with horseshoe is becoming the map that is best for all of Fort Worth and minimizing impacts to COIs. The CV, the CVAP you are currently at with v three is near 42%, 42% making it undefendable outside the range set by the Voting Rights Act. v four horseshoe fills that gap and makes it defendable. I'm also unclear how Panther Island with zero population was moved out of district two on the v three horseshoe map as this is an area with no voters. The move seems more of a power grab than it does what is best for Fort Worth. When Congresswoman Gay Granger was Mayor Granger, she talked about how the future development tells our Lady of Victory. It joins comma with district six in a person of color opportunity district while keeping the North Crowley School feeder pattern whole. The United Historic Southside Morningside and Hillside in district eight. It also ensures that stop six remains in district five. It maintains district two as a strong Latin X opportunity district which must include a future development in Panther Island. The idea that Elizabeth Beck who has a history of ignoring the community to color and her district would look out for the people of Northside, the Golden Gloves and the area that has the Poga which is already leading. I don't see her looking out for district two or looking out for that area at all which is historically part of the Northside and should stay in Northside. Map version four horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in this city for the coming decade. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tristesa Ordess. Ms. Ordess. Yes. Please go ahead, you have three minutes. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council members. It's been a few years since I've addressed the city council of Fort Worth but I'm happy to be able to be speaking to you all today. For those of you that don't know, my name is Tristesa Ordess and I am currently a national veterans organizer. And it was in the very room that you sit in where I first stood publicly with my community. We came together against hate in that room and some of the people that voted against us are now gone. Some of them are still there and some of the folks that stood with us when those people voted against us are now in a position to really fight for our community. The most marginalized in this city have had to endure years of rogue cops, corrupt city officials, races, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes and sellouts. And these maps are an opportunity to begin leveling out the playing field that's always favored whites and elites. So you sit up there with the power to vote for a map that will preserve the communities that you took an oath to represent and champion for. So I want to echo the support for the map from Daniels Commons. The version four map with the horseshoe is the map that would keep black and brown communities of interest intact and the map that I support with three amendments. And like others have mentioned, the area east of beach and north of Rosedale to be added to the new district 10, the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts making it difficult for people in Poly to have a clear voice of the representation on city council. So all of Poly needs to stay together in the same district 10 as shown on map V4 horseshoe. But the northern portion of Poly that includes Polytechnic Heights, High School, William James Middle School and the Texas West End University must be included. The second would be Bonnie Bray should stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance and District 10, the third, the all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in District five. Thank you all for your attention this evening. Thank you. Our next speaker is William Gehran. Is William here? There he is. Followed by Director Maldonado. Good evening Mayor Parker and council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. My name is William Gehran. I reside in District four and I'm invested in District two as I served as the executive director for Artes de la Rosa, the only Latino cultural center for the arts in Fort Worth. I'm here this evening to express the support for the version for horseshoe amended map. This map creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without separating black communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture as development extends into those areas. The Hispanic population in Fort Worth is over 35%. We must draw a second history opportunity district of Hispanic opportunity district of at least 60% Hispanic population to comply with the Voting Rights Act. One Hispanic opportunity district out of 10 is not enough and unacceptable, especially as the Hispanic population in Fort Worth is expected to keep growing. In addition, South side Hispanic neighborhoods like Rosemont, Greenbrier, South Hill, Hemphill Heights and Worth Heights must not be left out of this new Hispanic opportunity district. The first Hispanic elected in Fort Worth Council was Luis Zapata. On April 19th, 1977, next month will mark 45 years since he was voted in. It's taken this long to have this very important historical milestone opportunity at hand. V4 horseshoe amended map will ensure historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in the city for the coming decades. Lastly, this request is to not take Panther Island out of district two. Many years ago, North side was the industrialized zone dumping grounds of Fort Worth within a marginalized underserved community, which was also unacceptable. As rezoning took place years later, the Hispanic community has taken pride in not only living and staying in the community, but also starting using their hard earned savings to start their own businesses. The creation of Fort Worth comprehensive plan has always included Panther Island as part of the historic North side. Panther Island is and will be the economic image for underserved neighborhoods. Finally, as a great blessed city that now prides itself as an embracing diversity, equality, inclusiveness and accessibility. Please remember, as elected officials, you make decisions in your respective elective terms and you make history set milestones as important of what we are discussing and requesting tonight that will send a message to the Hispanic community. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, William. Our next speaker, next speaker is Hector Maldonado, followed by Erica Ramos. Good evening. My name is Hector Andres Maldonado. I am an organizer for JOLT, a Latino empowerment nonprofit and a returned Peace Corps Mexico volunteer. I live in district nine in the Blue Bonded Hills neighborhood. Just want to say thank you all for your hard work and the countless hours in getting us to this point. As many of the community members have expressed today, I'm here to echo and vocally support map version four with the Horseshoe amendment along with three amendments. Map version four Horseshoe creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without compromising other communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture as development extends into those areas. I'm requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest intact. One, I asked that the area east of beach and north of Rosedale be added to the new district 10. The Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts, making it difficult for people in Poly to have a clear voice of representation on city council. All of Poly needs to stay together in the new district 10 as shown on map version four Horseshoe, but the northern portion of Poly that includes Polytechnic Heights High School, William James Middle School and Texas Wesleyan University must be included. I asked that Bonnie Bray stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance in district 10. And three, I asked that all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in district five. Map version four with these amendments would be an important step for ushering hope to younger generations of diverse backgrounds that have historically been underrepresented on the city council. It would unite underrepresented socio-economic communities together and provide a pathway to fair representation on our city council. Our democracy only works when all communities have hair access to representation. Communities that are under representative live in the shadows. And that breaks my heart because it is a symptom of oppression. So I urge you to consider the power you hold in giving hope to an entire generation of working class communities here in Fort Worth. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Next speaker is Hector. Excuse me is Erica Ramos followed by Ramona Romero. Good evening. My name is Erica Ramos and I live in district seven in the West Buyers neighborhood. I am a Fort Worth native and have many family and extended relatives that live in the Worth Heights neighborhood located in district nine. I'm also a small business owner in district nine and I actually have lived in district three and in district five where I purchased my first home. So know that when I speak to you guys on council I understand some of the hesitations and struggles that you guys are going through and I thank you all for your time. Today I wanted to speak in support of map v4 with the horseshoe amendment with three amendments. Map v4 with the horseshoe creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without separating black communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture, especially as development begins to extend into those areas. I'm requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest intact. First, I asked that the area east of beach and north of Rosedale be added to the new district 10. The Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has historically been divided into multiple districts making it difficult for people in poly to have a clear voice of representation on city council. All of poly should stay together in the new district as shown on map v4 but the northern portion of poly that includes the high school William James Middle School and Texas Wesleyan University must also be included along with the homes in those neighborhoods. I asked that Bonnie Bray stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance and I also asked that Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in district five. Map v4 with the horseshoe allows the Rosemont and North Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the developmental changes that they would like to see along Hempill especially south of Barry including the upcoming cell of Our Lady of Victory. It joins Coma with district six as asked while keeping the North Crowley feeder school feeder pattern whole. It unites the historic Southside, Morningside and Hillside in district eight. It also ensures stop six remains in district five. It maintains district two as a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. This map meets the 50% plus Hispanic citizen voting age population threshold with the creation of district 10. The new district 10 not only links the Latino communities on the east and south side of Fort Worth but also joins communities with similar socioeconomic needs. Most importantly, map v4 with the horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in the city for the coming decade. I ask everyone on this council to please put your personal interest to the side and do what's best for the citizens that live in the city. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Representative Romero followed by Fernando Flores. We have more fun than you do in Austin, Ramona, promise. I'll probably have better luck here than I have in Austin. Mayor, council, thank you for the opportunity to be here with all of you today. I'm Ramon Drametal, 421 Conner Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas, 76105 Polly, which you've heard a lot about today. I am the only member of Tarrant County that's of Latino origin. And I'm very proud of that, but I will say to Carlos Flores, it is not easy being the only one. We don't get to tell folks, I can't serve you because you don't live in my district. We say we're gonna help you and we try to do it in their language. You guys know that I've spent my entire life in some way, shape, or form involved in the city of Fort Worth, involved here, whether it's the neighborhood of Polly, whether it's serving on the planning commission, serving on the zoning commission, the golf advisory committee, Parks Master Plan, words you name it, I've done it. I wanted to sit in your seat, Chris Nettles, when I ran for district eight, and I ran hard. And that's what I came here to share with you tonight, a story that I don't tell very often that's something that's impacted me tremendously. And that is that the community that I've served for so long, my entire life in Polly, when I ran for that seat in district eight, so many of them came to me and said, I'm sorry Ramon, can't vote for you because you're not black. Can't vote for you, man. Not this time. And I lost. I lost by 78 votes. And afterwards, so same community members had to come to me and it wasn't an apology, it was an explanation to make me understand it didn't have anything to do with Ramon Romero. Didn't have anything to do with the work that I had done in their community. It had everything to do with every person that had ever fought for single member districts. Every person who knew back then in the 70s that it was critically important that especially the black community get a second voice on council. And that's where district eight came from. Johnny Lewis back there from the historic South Side. Those people that were always here and so many others. Leonard Briscoe, you go down the name, Reginald Weber, this is Ragsdale, all those folks that had fought then. So right now we have a Latino community that's desperate, actually in the exact same situation. Representative Beck, people do not vote against you because they don't like you, just like Anzeda or Joel Burns in the past. They're simply voting because they have the same hope of the black community in district eight that one day they will be represented by somebody that is like them, that understands them. And I can say that my story is individual as a son of immigrants, spending my whole lifetime translating. So what I hope that you guys will do is that you draw a literal, viable district. This is not a new story. This is an old story in the Latino community. It's a hope, a dream, a prayer that can only be answered by you. Don't worry about what the district looks like. Don't tell me that it's gerrymandered. If you want to look at gerrymandered, look at district 90. District 90 is a voting rights act created district. Approved by the US Supreme Court in 2000. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Mr. Flores, followed by Kenneth Spears. Mr. Flores. Thank you. Go ahead, you have a moment. Good evening, Mayor Parker and City Council members. My name is Fernando Flores and I reside at 2740 Campillo here in Fort Worth in City Council District 9. I am here as a spokesman for the United Hispanic Council of Fair County and represent the voice of many Hispanics. And we're asking that you support MAPB4 Horseshoe and that you make sure that you don't divide the majority Hispanic South Side neighborhoods into more than one district. We ask that you put them in a new district and minor alterations possible but keep the South Side majority Hispanic districts or excuse the neighborhoods together in this new district. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Flores. Our next speaker is Kenneth Spears. Is Bishop Spears here? I haven't seen him anywhere. It's on a phone call, I hope not. Robin Kelly is our next speaker. No, you can use that right up there if you'd rather, that's fine. Thanks, Robin. Council Mayor Parker and City Council, I am a resident of United Riverside, born and bred in Cow Town, Texas, still living on that Platt of Land that I was raised in. So that community is very important to me. I can't speak to a MAP. What I can speak to is a special meeting that United Riverside had about two weeks ago. Council person, okay. And it talked about the MAP that City Council was moving toward which had District 8 moving to District 11. Okay, I ask Council person, Nettles, what is the ethnic breakdown of our current district? About 33, 34% black, 31 to 32% Hispanic, I think 10 to 12 white and other. Moving us to District 11 would make that, it would become a 64% Hispanic and 31, 32% I think black. I think I have the number right. I have gone to regional conferences and things and so I might not have the number exactly right. And what I said to him that it appeared that City Council were beginning to pit minority communities against each other to the advantage of the majority. I have a concern, it's diluting minority vote. We all know that the city of Fort Worth is becoming, it's the browning not only of America, but the city of Fort Worth. And I'm real concerned about majority City Council continuing to be white, looking at my time. And you're not representing the minority communities without pitting us against each other. So that's my concern. Please do it equably. Please be fair. Please be mindful of what John Lewis voted in the right act and all those things that come along with making sure that we create districts that are equitable for all. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kelly. Our next speaker is Arturo Martinez, followed by Rosa Linda Martinez. Good evening, Mayor Parker City Council members and staff. My name is Arturo Martinez. I am a lifelong resident of the far greater Northside neighborhood. I live at 2907 Ellis Avenue, 76106. As a civically engaged resident in district two, I've served as past chair of the Fort Worth Human Relations Commission and as a member of the race and culture task force. I'm here today in support and advocating for the map V4 Horseshoe with three amendments. Map V4 Horseshoe is equitable and creates a second strong Latino opportunity district and allows neighborhoods to preserve the rich history and culture significance as development extends into those areas. I'm requesting to follow in three amendments to keep neighborhood communities of interest intact. As stated before me, but worth repeating, I asked that the area east of Beach and north of Rose, they'll be added to the new district 10. As shown in map V4 Horseshoe, all of Polly needs to stay together in the new district 10. Therefore Polly can have a clear voice of representation on city council. I asked that Bonnie Bray stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance in district 10 and three, I also asked that all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in district five. Map V4 Horseshoe allows the Rosemont and Worth Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the development changes. It unites the historic Southside, Morningside and Hillside in district eight and it also ensures top six remains in district five. And it maintains the district two as a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. The map V4 Horseshoe map meets the 50% plus Hispanic citizens, excuse me, citizen voting act population threshold with the creation of district 10. Most importantly, map V4 Horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in the city for the coming decade. In conclusion, Panther Island has been in the Northside council district two from the beginning. Panther Island is part of Northside. It is an economic engine. My neighborhood where we lie upon. Do not leave Panther Island out of district two. I ask that you adopt map V4 Horseshoe with amendments. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Martinez. Rosalinda Martinez. And after Mrs. Martinez, it's gonna be Erin Garcia. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Parker and city council members and staff. My name is Rosalinda Martinez, a long time active community member of Fort Worth and I live in district two. I am here today to support the map version four Horseshoe with three amendments to keep Polly, Bonnie Ray and Lake Arlington together while creating a second strong Latino opportunity district. Over 50% Hispanic citizen voting age population in the new district 10. It also ensures top six remained in district five and maintains district two as a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. Panther Island needs to continue to stay in district two. It is part of a historic North side and that vision started years, 20 years ago that was championed by US representative Kate Granger. It shouldn't be ripped and taken away from our neighborhood. It's part of our history and we value it. The new district 10 not only links the Latino communities in East and South Fort Worth but also joins communities with similar social economic needs. Most importantly, map version four Horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in the city for the coming decades. Thank you. Thank you very much Rosalinda. Our next speaker is Erin Garcia followed by Oscar Enriquez. Hello Mayor Parker and distinguished council members. My name is Erin Garcia. I'm a resident of North side for all 32 years of my life. My parents and siblings also live in North side. I've been active in my community and I'm currently the president of the North side neighborhood association. I reviewed a number of maps and have a few concerns. The Panther Island project is in North side bounded by three new beautiful bridges and it is a source of pride for our community. We have participated in development and planning. Many community members were thrilled to learn that it will be funded and look forward to adding to the quality of life and economic development for North side and for all the Fort Worth. No map should seriously be considered if they move Panther Island to another council district that makes no sense and would break the bonds of trust that have been created with city and our neighborhood. Finally, also want to speak in favor of version four Horseshoe. The version four Horseshoe creates a viable second opportunity district for Latinos in the city. The expansion of the council is a great opportunity to make sure that all residents are represented with council opportunities. Please don't miss the historic opportunity to make the right choice. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Patricia Law is our next speaker. No, I'm not, I'm so sorry. Oscar Enriquez is Oscar here. He's got a call, okay. Patricia Law would be next. Oscar. Hello. Thanks guy, you have three minutes. Thank you. My name is Oscar Enriquez. Born and raised from Diamond Hill. I'm calling in support of map V for the horseshoe with three amendments. Map V for horseshoe creates a second strong Latino opportunity district without separating black communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture as development extends in those areas. I'm requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest and tax. First, I asked that the area east of beach and north of Rosdale be added to the new district 10. The Polytechnic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts making it difficult for people in Polly to have a clear voice of representation on city council. All of Polly needs to stay together in the new district 10 is shown on map V for horseshoe. But the northern portion of Polly that includes Polytechnic Heights High School, William James Middle School and Texas William University must be included. I asked that Bonnie Bray stay with the remainder of the Riverside Alliance in district 10. I asked that all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in district five. Map V for horseshoe allows the Rosemont and Worth Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the development changes they would like to see in Longhamville and South of Bury, including the upcoming sale of Our Lady of Victory. It joins Coma with district six and a person of color opportunity district while keeping the North Crowley School Feeder Pride in whole. It unites the historic Southside, Morningside and Hillside in district eight. It also ensures stop six remains in district five. It maintains district two is a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. If that meets the 50% plus Hispanic citizen voting age population, they're showed with the creation of district 10. The new district 10 not only leaks the Latino communities in Eath and South Fort Worth but also joins communities with similar socioeconomic needs. Most importantly, Map V for horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a choice and a voice in this city for the coming decade. Lastly, Chris Nettles recently was proud of Fort Worth and its council members for being one of the most transparent in the nation. But I would just like to remind every council member that that is just the floor. The true power will come from the people and we will lead ourselves. I wanna thank you all for your time, Belayne. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Patricia Law, followed by Vicki Bargas. Patricia, no? We'll come back if she's here. Vicki Bargas. Hi, Vicki. Good evening, mayor, council members. I would just like to say I'm a little disappointed that Worth Heights won't likely be in District 9. We've always felt that we could work with our elected representation and get things done for our neighborhood. And that is why I always advocated for Worth Heights to remain in District 9. I feel that our voice will be lost in these large districts. And a good example was tonight, our constable, who just spoke, said he represents Northside, Diamond Hill, and the Southside. I remember getting his political fliers, but today's the first time I've ever seen him in the flesh. And so maybe we can rectify that if he's still around. I'd just like to thank my council representative, Elizabeth Beck, who's done a Yeoman's job in supporting my neighborhood of Worth Heights in several issues that have been very important to us and getting things done for our community. So thank you very much for all your hard work. Thank you, Vicki. Our next speaker is Joe Guerrero. Okay, thank you, Joe. I hope you feel better, smart man. We hope you feel better, Joe. Our next speaker is Pamela Young, a phone call. Yeah, please go ahead. You have three minutes. Thank you. My name is Pamela. I live in District 9. I'm a former resident of District 5, District 4, and I currently work in District 5 in the Polly neighborhood. I'm calling in support of Map Version 4 Horseshoe with three amendments. Map Version 4 Horseshoe creates a second strong Latino Opportunity District separating Black communities of interest and allows neighborhoods to preserve their history and culture as the development extends into those areas. I am requesting three amendments to keep neighboring communities of interest intact. One, I ask that the area east of Beach and north of Roseville be added to the new District 10. The Polly Technic Heights neighborhood has always been divided into multiple districts, making it difficult for people in Polly to have a clear voice of representation on the council. All of Polly needs to stay together in the new District 10 as shown on Map V4 Horseshoe, but the northern portion of Polly that includes Polly Technic Heights High School, William James Middle School, and Texas West Lynn University must be included. Two, I ask that Bonnie Bray stay within the remainder of the Riverside Alliance and District 10. And three, I ask that all of Lake Arlington down to I-20 be retained in District 5. Map V4 Horseshoe allows the Rosemont and Worth Heights neighborhoods to advocate for the development changes they like to see along Hemp Hill and south of Berry, including the upcoming sale of Our Lady of Victory. It joins Como with District 6 in a person of color opportunity district while keeping the North Crowley School feeder pattern whole. It unites historic Southside, Morningside, and Hillside in District 8. It also ensures Stop 6 remains in District 5. It maintains District 2 as a strong Latino opportunity district and includes future development in Panther Island. This map meets the 50% plus Hispanic citizen voting age population threshold with the creation of District 10. The new District 10 not only links the Latino communities in East and South Fort Worth but also joins communities with similar economic needs, socioeconomic needs. Most importantly, Map V4 Horseshoe ensures historically disenfranchised voters will have voting power and a voice in this city for the coming decade. Thank you. Thank you, Pamela. Next speaker is, I think we had our duplicate because Ms. Martinez spoke already. Bruce Miller is a phone call. Jim DeLong is our next speaker. Mr. Miller. What? Please go ahead, you have three minutes. Thank you. Bruce Miller here for Citizens for Independent Registry Games. Fort Worth is about 35% Hispanic and has had at most one Hispanic council member that needs to change. Map V2 is totally out of touch with the city needs. It's an embarrassment and you should reject it. Map V3 Horseshoe suggests some recognition of a lack of Hispanic representation on the council but doesn't go far enough. It is too self-serving for specific council members. Please reject it also. Map V4 Horseshoe is the only acceptable map in the group. It creates two viable Hispanic districts that might need a few tweaks. Why hasn't the analysis from the bigger staff attorney been shared with the public as it was in the previous set of maps? Perhaps it concludes that V4 Horseshoe is the only likely map to result in a second Hispanic representative district, representative on the council. In the transparent process, citizens would have access to this important information before having to express their preferences. The need for a horseshoe reflects the bi-robe distribution of the Hispanic population on the south side. This could have been seen some time ago if the software package the city selected was designed to access the complete available census data. Although the task force listed as its final criteria, the council residences not be considered in map drawing. In fact, every map submitted implicitly assumes the council members will not be willing to move to run in one of the new districts. This was demonstrated by the council when maps drawn by the staff actually followed this infestated criteria. The council simply voted to reject an official staff contribution or vote was recommended by the task force. If this criteria were adhered to, we could have a much better map. Mr. Ellison has just proposed one to you. That would give two new districts, two new council members in the north. Once again, I strongly recommend that the council seriously consider enlisting some of the expert citizen map makers, such as Mr. Calderon and Mr. Ellison, who have been so dedicated to moving us forward. They will bring an even-handed and comprehensive approach to the process. Thank you. Thank you, Bruce. Our next speaker is Jim DeLong, followed by Florencia Arnada. Good evening. My name is Jim DeLong, Fort Worth, Texas. District seven. I sure hope that those chairs are comfortable for you up there, because you've been sitting there a long time and I really appreciate that. Tonight I wanna talk about a concept called truth and something that's been concerning to me over the years. In the 90s, there was the post-modern era started. And in that era, one of the things that came along with it was that truth is not absolute. You have your truth and I have my truth, but that's not the truth. I remember with my son, Jonathan, when he was young, I taught him colors. I could have taught him that the color red is green. I could have taught him that the color green is red and he would have believed me at that time he could have passed a lie detector test saying yes, the color red is really called green, the color green is really called red, and even though he could pass the lie detector test, that doesn't change the fact that red is red and green is green. In the task force and race and culture, many time went to so many of those meetings. They thought I think, yes, at one point, thought I was part of it. This statement came out many times. We speak our truth in ways that respect other people's truths. Views of reality may differ, but speaking one's truth does not mean interpreting, correcting, or debating what other says. That's something that's very dangerous because they're our truths. And there was a leadership meeting that the task force and race and culture put on, and this was one of the list of things and we were supposed to read the list and then talk about one of the things on the list, items on the list that impacted us. So of course, being who I am, this is the one I chose. And I said, this statement is not truth. This statement is dangerous. Let me give you an example. Las Vegas shootings, what are 50 people killed and murdered? You could talk to that guy and he would say, that's truth to me, that doesn't make it truth. And this statement was read during your oath of office ceremonies from the platform, very concerning. So as leaders and standard bearers of our city, we are looking up you to hold the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. Our next speaker is Florencio Arenda, Arenda, is that correct? There we go, thank you, sir. Of course. Hello, Mayor Parker and distinguished city councilman. I'm Dr. Florencio Urias Arenda III and serve as the state president of the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education, Dache. The professional organization that I lead is dedicated to the improvement and advancement of education and employment opportunities for Latinos, Hispanics, Chicanos in higher education and in the state of Texas. Our purpose is to provide state, regional, and local forums for the discussion of topics related to our community and to actively engage in building networks with organizations focused on securing changes in laws and policies that are detrimental to our constituencies. Dache recently hosted its 47th annual state conference here in beautiful Fort Worth, where we showcase many historical Latino areas that enrich the community experience of this city. We were thrilled to showcase these areas to over 200 Latino scholars, leaders, practitioners, and advocates from across Texas. The north side and south side, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, local vendors, the Fort Worth Opera, Valet Folclorico of Fort Worth, and your city councilmen were featured at our conference. Members of the Fort Worth community are members of the Dache family. We take pride in being innovative and being civically engaged members of this city. My hope is that today you will discuss redistricting, that you do it in a way that is equitable, inclusive, and that adequately represents the community that you serve. I urge you to vote for the mapping option that truly reflects the proportional numbers of your city. Moreover, I urge you to vote for the mapping option that will not intentionally diminish or erase the best interest of the Latino comunidad. Lastly, I urge you to vote for the mapping option that will not further add to the systemic and structural injustices members of the Latino community have had to endure in this state. My hope is that we can all come together to ensure that all contributing members of our city are heard, seen, and valued. Redistricting impacts everyone, especially our voting members. Let's ensure we give voters the opportunity to have elected officials that best represents them. It starts with redistricting appropriately. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Bob Willoughby, followed by Paolo Calderon. I think Paolo's by phone. I'm having a hard time believing that many people signed up thirst not before May, but okay, let's let the video roll. Police pay comes from taxpayers and then the police officer pays millions in POA dues. Then the POA used the money to buy corrupt candidates. We have called police chief Neil Noakes several times. We received no return call. We would like to ask the chief to ask the police officers to stop paying POA dues until the POA stopped financing candidate like they are a representative of Al Capone. It is making the police look bad. How to file corruption charges. We were informed to go online and file a report the same way you would file a theft crime. We just would like for you to know it took two weeks of going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole before we got that little bit of information. And then we encounter another problem. There is no place online to file a white collar crime. Bob Willoughby has filed corruption charges with the Fort Worth Police Department against pro temp mayor council member Gina Bivens and communications engagement Michelle Gut. Pro temp mayor council member Gina Bivens and the John T. White Neighborhood Association before the 2019 city council and mayor elections misrepresent the 60 acres of land to be zone a 21 but after the 2019 city council and mayor elections the land stays a five which is about 300 more homes and a lot more money for the builders the director of communications and public engagement. Michelle Gut is in charge of the city data bank and the city news and the city website. Michelle Gut is derelict in her duty or incompetent or corrupt. Thanks Bob. Michelle Gut cherry picks the question that she won't talk to. I'm not doing that with Michelle. Why the city manager David Cook doesn't replace her with someone who has applied. I don't like what's happening. I am, that's fine. I don't like it. You can talk about elected officials but you're not going to talk about it Michelle Gut. And you mispronounce her name. It's Michelle Gut. That's fine. I'm just not going to do it. Our next speaker is Paul Calderon by phone. Mr. Calderon. I am Paul Calderon and live in district eight. Responding to input from citizens made to Councilman Flores revisions have been made to be for horseshoe. Bonnie Bray is with the Riverside Alliance and Lake Arden Lake Front is with district five. In the last three redistricting cycles we sought to free Southside Hispanics from district nine. Unfortunately we continue the same rationale and excuses not to. And going from eight to 10 districts now is the time. 32,000 persons in the Hispanic Southside, 80% are Hispanic, V3 horseshoe has less than 40% of this Hispanic population in the new district. V4 horseshoe has 90% in the new district. I provided the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund with V3 horseshoe and V4 horseshoe S3 shape files. Maldip provided the citizen voting age percentages which are added to this district data chart. V3 horseshoe has a Hispanic citizen voting age of 42% in the new district. V4 horseshoe has a Hispanic citizen voting age of 53%. This exceeds the threshold for proving racial vote dilution under the Voting Rights Act. Please close the slide. The 1980 census documented a shift of African American population out of stop six. The conservative white East district councilman would have served the African American community well but he understood that it was in the best interest of the African American community to be in the district with the representative of their choosing. They asked me to assist in drawing a map. The solution chosen was to connect the white population westward to the I-35, I-30 mixed master and then northward. This allowed district five to be reconfigured into its shifting population. This concept gave birth to the current district four. Now is the time for this council, conservative and progressive, white, black and brown to act affirmatively in the best interest of our Hispanic community. Thank you. You pop low. We have two more speakers, Geraldine Williams followed by Johnny Lewis. Is Geraldine here? She doesn't want to speak. Okay. Johnny, maybe best for last, right? No. No, no, you don't want to live up to that. Okay. My name is Johnny Lewis. I live in district eight on the south side, historic south side. I want to thank you all for the work that you've done. I realize this is tough, but 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, I watched it work. I watched it happen. And like I said, the last time I came down here, you're cleaning up a mess that people left a long time ago. And I also want to apologize too for something. When I do wrong, I'm wrong. I made an assumption of something that came out wrong. And I know y'all doing work and I know it's hard, but I still say there are a lot of people out there who are not being touched, but I didn't mean to defame any individual person. Okay. So when I say something, I can deal with it. 28 years in the military taught me that. But okay, you're doing a lot of good work. And, but I support and historic south side. I think you heard from our finance, from our edu, from our, one of our people earlier, that we support V eight, V four. You can tell I've been up since six o'clock this morning. But we support it. And I want to say not, we support it with all the amendments you've heard. I don't need to repeat it. You've already heard everything, all the good stuff that's going on. So I want to say again, we support it on the south side. I've also gone into the neighborhood and talked with people and asked them, do you support it? And they do support it. And I explained to them, it's not the Hispanics are taking over, it's just that for a long time, I worked in Mr. Zapata's campaign. That's how long I've been kicking it around in this city. I worked in this campaign. And he was a darn, you know, and to me, he was a good man. He did a lot of good work. And in fact, I worked in the other campaigns, but I'm asking now that you consider this one with all of those amendments. Yeah, it's going to take some tweaking. The other thing we've got to do is we've got to get out and you've got to get out, come from behind the desk and get out into those neighborhoods, walk those streets and see why this is so important. It's one thing to sit here, but you've got to get out in the streets and look and talk to your constituents. I'm glad I worked in your campaign, Mr. Williams. So my microphone is on. Thank you all very much for coming, meeting adjourned. In the role of 1700. It's a very special place. It's very much like it's been for the last 100 years.