FW News Notes

Winter weather advisories

This from the City of Fort Worth

A storm system centered across West Texas will move east during the day today. The bulk of the precipitation, much of it in the form of snowfall, will occur in the Fort Worth area today and tonight …

Will it snow, will it snow, will it snow? It’s cold and wet outside right now, so I suppose it may — personally I was planning on going shopping, so maybe I should get out the door ASAP.

Two snow storms in one week, for Fort Worth, is highly unusual, to say the least.

Fall is the best time of the year to plant in Fort Worth. Come to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden’s fall plant sale, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 10, and stock up on native and adapted plants that can take our heat and live on our annual rainfall. The sale will be in the Grove, the wooded area west of the Trial Garden and the Japanese Garden parking lot. Free parking will be available in the Linden Street parking lot, just off of Montgomery Street. The garden staff will be available to answer your plant questions. Choose from a wide assortment of trees, shrubs, grasses, groundcovers, perennials, vines and spring-flowering bulbs. The sale features many specialty plants grown at the Botanic Garden. In addition, rose, African violet, begonia, iris, daylily, cactus and succulent, and native plant societies will be selling plants. Other vendors will be selling garden-related merchandise. To learn more, contact senior horticulturist Steve Huddleston — Steve.Huddleston(at)FortWorthGov.org.

Photo credit to ktylerconk from Flickr Creative Commons.

In recognition of Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month, all adoptions at the Animal Care and Control Center through October will be half-price. Dogs can be adopted for $35 and cats for $25. Spay/neuter surgery, microchip, rabies vaccination and a city pet license are included in the price.

Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month will be recognized by proclamation during the Oct. 6 Fort Worth City Council meeting at City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton St. The Animal Care and Control Center’s mobile adoption unit will be at City Hall during the council meeting, with dogs and cats available for adoption.

Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month already is recognized nationally by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Also, as of Oct. 1, any pet adopted by a senior citizen (65 and older) is half-price every day.

Each year, more than 20,000 homeless or lost pets come through the Animal Care and Control Center. Though many find happy, loving homes, an estimated 55 percent of the adoptable animals must be euthanized due to overpopulation.

To learn more about pet adoptions or if you are interested in volunteering with the center, call 817-392-PAWS (7297), e-mail animalvolunteers@fortworthgov.org, or visit http://www.fortworthgov.org/animals/

In the past few weeks, a very exciting thing happened nearby: new playground equipment was installed at Kellis Park, near the junction of Trail Lake and Granbury, which is just down the street from Foster Park, known around here as “The Duck Pond” since, well, it has a pond with ducks in it. Here is a map:

I have noticed an increase in the number of kids playing there since the new eqiupment was installed - and we have been there quite a few times ourselves. I am very happy the city is working to improve our parks in this way (down the street at Foster Park they are planting new trees and redoing the sidewalks and bridges over the creek)

Ang trys out the new structure

New swings were part of the improvements

 

One has to wonder if they are serious about proposing this now, since they just said they are closing a number of libraries and pools because the City is supposedly broke. However, “Dallas, Austin, and El Paso are doing it,” so apparently we need to act immediately.

Of course, maybe it wouldn’t cost as much as the pools and libraries.  But couldn’t we know what the fiscal impact would be before agreeing to adopt it, City Council?

But wait, maybe the real reason they’re doing this now is PR/mop-up because of the Rainbow Room incident of Friday June 26th. Now it makes sense.

From the City’s Press Release:

The City Manager’s Diversity Task Force voted unanimously at its Aug. 27 meeting to recommend that Fort Worth begin providing domestic partners of city employees with the same benefits that it now provides to employees’ spouses.

In response to the Task Force’s recommendation, City Manager Dale Fisseler has asked the City Attorney for advice on the legal basis upon which Texas municipalities may provide domestic partner benefits. He also will refer the issue to the city’s two benefits committees that will make recommendations regarding healthcare and retirement. According to the Task Force’s research, the cities o fDallas, Austin, and El Paso currently provide such benefits.

The Diversity Task Force also voted to endorse a recent Human Relations Commission proposal to amend the city’s existing anti-discrimination ordinance to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation based on gender identity and gender expression. The proposed amendment would extend that protection to transgender citizens.

Fort Worth was one of the first cities in the state to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance and currently prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age, and sexual orientation.

The Diversity Task Force, comprised of 14 community leaders and 12 city employees, was appointed by the City Manager in mid-July to provide advice on issues affecting Fort Worth’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens. It was charged with providing input on three tasks:

• providing city employees with appropriate customer service training for LGBT citizens
• increasing community awareness of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance and inclusiveness policies; and
• improving communication between the city and LGBT citizens.

The Task Force also has established three subcommittees to study the issues of human resources, community relations and economic development. The full Task Force is scheduled to meet again at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 24, at City Hall in Room 380. The City Manager has asked the Task Force to complete its work and provide a final report by the end of November.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow is the annual Sales Tax Holiday. There will be no sales tax (of 8.25%) on the following items:

• Clothing and footwear under $100
• Backpacks under $100 for elementary and secondary students
• Schools supplies including paper, binders, crayons, lunch boxes, etc.
• Includes layaway items

I was not able to put off shopping for all the kids until this weekend. I already bought (with a little help from my friend, my mother) all the school supplies, and all the clothes. All that remains is the annual Famous Footwear trip. This Famous Footwear trip alone can be almost as much as the rest of the clothes and supplies.

What do we buy? Nikes, Sketchers, Aasics, Adidas, Converses, maybe a pair of Pumas or New Balances, plus a pair or two of work shoes for the adults. How much do we hope to save? Well, it’s buy one get one for half price, resulting in an overall reduction of 20% or so (because they take the half off the cheaper pair.) Then we’ve got a 20% off coupon, now we’re at 40% Then the sales tax for another 8.25% reduction. Overall if we do it just right,  it will work out to a reduction of almost half the price of the shoes.

I’m not convinced, I must admit to you, that the shoes haven’t been marked up 2-300% to prepare for my clever bargaining. Since when did it cost $80 to put together a pair of mid-range Nikes in a third-world country where workers make just fifty cents a day? Nevertheless, we live in this society, so the annual family “shoe binge” is inevitable. My kids are Americans, they need their athletic shoes. The choices they make will tell everyone, the first day of school, who they are, even if there are five other kids in their grade with the exact same shoes.

Our local Famous Footwear store is in the mile-long strip mall with OfficeDepot, PetCo, HomeDepot and TJMax just north of the intersection of the 820 and Hulen Blvd. If you go there this afternoon you might see us. We’ll be the family with the 6 foot tall son who claims he needs a pair of $100 shoes because there are no other shoes in the store that are “right.” He is like a Gila Monster — once he gets ahold of his prey he will let go. His parents can either buy the shoes or leave him in the store forever.

For a detailed description of the sales tax holiday rules, see Window on Texas Government, 2009 Sales Tax Holiday.

My fellow Fortworthians, please do not let it be true that I am the only one incensed about the proposed closing of our pools and libraries. Pia says she will go and represent FWRenaissance tomorrow, though I will have to be at work. Hopefully, someone besides us will want to tell our City Council to become a little bit more “fiscally responsible.”

From a press release by the City:

FORT WORTH – City officials are ready to hear citizen input on the $1.2 billionbudget proposal, presented last week, which includes workforce reductions and cuts to some city services.

The City Council is set to vote on the budget Sept. 15. Before the vote, however, public feedback will be taken during five regularly scheduled City Council meetings, all held in the City Council Chamber on the second floor of City Hall (1000 Throckmorton St.) on the following dates and times:

• 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18
• 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25
• 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1
• 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8
• 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15 (public comment will be heard before final passage of the budget)

Fort Worth faces an extremely challenging budget on the heels of the national recession. According to City Manager Dale Fisseler, bridging the $59 million budget gap will not require a tax rate increase, but will most likely require cuts to some programs. Fisseler’s recommendation focuses on sustaining basic core city services with a particular emphasis on public safety.

View an overview of the FY2010 Proposed Budget on the city’s Web site.

I was quite shocked, as I opened up the Fort Worth 2010 budget, to find the City of Fort Worth is considering closing a number of pools and libraries next year. This is the type of action a responsible city undertakes at times of severe budget crisis. I do not see the upcoming year, with a projected reduction in revenues of about $10,000,000, or about 1%, to be a state of emergency.

The police, as far as I can understand, are getting an increase of 5%. Maybe I don’t understand — undoubtably I don’t understand — but I didn’t think we needed any more police. I saw three today, radaring on the 820 and 35 freeways, and although I escaped without a ticket, probably by virtue of obeying the speed limit I wondered why they were working the radar so hard.

According to an idea of Fort Worth Vision, which I found in the same 2010 budget which proposed closing our public services, the City Council is planning that “By 2020, Fort Worth will be recognized as the most livable city in Texas.” How can that happen with closed  public pools and libraries? Just imagine, the real estate agent is taking a prospective new resident around to look at houses. “Oh, is that a library?”

Yes, but it’s closed.

“Why is that?”

The city council didn’t want to fund it.

“Is the City that broke?”

No, not really, we just don’t think libraries are our highest priority.

My next question, were I that real estate buyer, would be “Can we look at houses in Keller or Arlington?”

What an impression to make.

The new budget actually states that the real cause of the cuts proposed is not a decline in revenue. It’s in order to increase funding for retiree health care and pensions. This is not mandatory crisis spending. Have you noticed that all over people are out of work? Is this really the time to increase retirement spending?

I pay taxes to this City whether I’m rich or poor, whether I have a job or not, and I would appreciate if the few things I count on from the City, the libraries and pools, including Kellis Park Pool, which is in your district, were taken a little more seriously. I certainly don’t mean to sound disrespectful or dismissive of the City’s efforts up to this time. Fort Worth is a first-class city.

But let’s try a little harder to keep it that way than is suggested in the proposed 2010 budget.

You can bet my city councilman will get a letter about this one from me, and if you care about quality of life in the city, you might want to look over this list of cuts and consider chiming in too. I understand funds are limited, but our libraries and pools are critical to quality of life here.

The city council could keep the libraries and pools open for a wopping $1.50 per person per year. I don’t understand why they can’t find the money. Maybe they don’t need a public pool, because they have one at home and/or belong to a country club, and they don’t read books?

Go figure.

From a press release by the city:

The City Manager’s recommendation focuses on sustaining basic core city services with a particular emphasis on public safety with no increase to the property tax rate.

Reduce Services/Workforce

Program/Operational Reductions: $16M

• Suspend third allocation to Housing Trust Fund: $2M
• Reduce Medstar subsidy back to FY08 level: $2M
• Reduce maintenance of medians and eliminate maintenance of right-of-ways: $405,000
• Close Wedgwood Branch and Meadowbrook Branch libraries: $813,194
• Reduce funding to social services and arts nonprofits by 24 percent. Subsidies for grant funding provided to three agencies (The United Way ofTarrant County, the Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County and the Fort Worth Convention and Visitor’s Bureau), which would allocate funding to various nonprofit organizations: $779,000
• Reduce street and traffic operations and maintenance: $763,628
• Eliminate Parks and Community Services late night programs: $577,041
• Reduce Code Compliance districts from seven to six: $466,320
• Close all city pools except Forest Park for summer 2010: $444,961
• Reduce Illegal Dumping Program: $351,000*
• Close and evaluate future of Day Labor Center operations: $271,462
• Reduce after school programs at all Community Centers: $188,522
• Reduce Graffiti Abatement Program: $134,451
• Close Animal Care and Control Center two days per week: $103,000
• Eliminate summer youth track program and reduce adult sports programs: $47,645

Employee Furlough: $3.9M (represents a 3 percent cut in pay for general employees)**

• Columbus Day, 10/12/09
• Day before Thanksgiving Day, 11/25/09
• Christmas Eve, 12/24/09
• President’s Day, 2/15/10
• Good Friday, 4/2/10
• Friday before Memorial Day, 5/28/10
• Friday before Independence Day, 7/2/10
• Friday before Labor Day, 9/3/10

Workforce Reductions: Roughly $10M***

• Need to reduce workforce by 230
  • 114 filled and 74 vacant:
  • 42 voluntary retirements (city to offer $10,000 incentive for eligible retirees)

Employee Benefits:

• Earmark an increased annual contribution to Employees’ Retirement Fund of 2 percent ($5.4M), but refrain from disbursing the additional funds until a committee can submit proposal to change retirement benefits for new hires (possibly summer of 2010).
• Contribute an additional $5M to the long term liability of Retiree Healthcare Plan and eliminate city-paid benefits to those eligible to retire after FY2020.
• Establish Employee Health Clinic and Fitness Facility on a pilot basis: $1M
• Eliminate tuition reimbursement: $258,000
• Increase employee group health insurance premiums by 12 percent, or an average of 1 percent of employee pay, and eliminate Select Plan from Health Benefits Plan.

Reorganize/Outsource Programs

Outsourcing/Privatization: Cost saving unknown at this time

• Equipment Services Division: Evaluation/Request for Proposals during FY10 with target to outsource some services by October 2010.
• Information Technology Services: Evaluation/Request for Proposals during FY10 with target to outsource some city-wide services by October 2010.
• The Herd: Request for proposal to transfer to the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
• Other possibilities: portions of Aviation, Reprographics, City Cable

Organizational Transfers: $3.1M

• Public Events Department > Culture and Tourism Fund: $2.6M
• Capital Projects > Capital Projects Service Fund: $576,000
• Reprographics and City Cable > Community Relations Department
• Emergency Management Office > Fire Department
• Sunset Review > Organizational Analysis Unit
• Directions Home Program > Housing and Economic Development Department
• Aviation Department > Infrastructure Services

Increase Revenues

General Fund Fee Increases: $13M

• Lift the $3.2M cap on mineral ad valorem tax revenue: $6.7M (a portion of which will be used to maintain funding for the Directions Home 10 year homelessness plan)
• Assess payment in lieu of taxes for water and sewer properties: $4.2M
• Municipal Court contract for collection of over-due fines: $1.5M
• Increase various fees related to Parks, Code Compliance, Library, Planning and Development, and other services: $1M

Non-General Fund Fee Increases: $9M

• Water Bill changes beginning January 1, 2010 (for typical residential user): up $2.85 per month.
  • Water fee up 50 cents
  • Wastewater fee up 60 cents
  • Sanitation fee up 75 cents*
  • Stormwater fee up $1
  • Water bill late fee: An additional fee totaling 5 percent of the bill will be added to those delinquent payments (23 days or more after issuance of bill).
• Non-residential stormwater fees will increase an average 27 percent.

Other Cost Savings

• Reduce vehicle purchases by half: $1.5M
• Reduce uniform spending for non-civil service employees: $430,000
• Reduce number of city-paid cell phones/blackberries: $50,000
• Reduce car allowance for executives: $40,000

Are you wondering what’s going on after the Heritage Park Workshop back in April? I was, and my curiosity finally drove me to call up the City’s PR contact for the project, Veronica Villegas. She reported that the City was planning a press release as soon as they had firm plans to report, at least in terms of doing a feasibility study on the project that the workshops showed the people want.

Here’s the thing: the workshop turned up a strong desire to see an upgrade and repair on the entire Heritage Park site, all 112 acres, not just the Heritage Plaza, the part designed by Lawrence Halperin. Even doing a study on how to accomplish the updating will cost millions.

Villegas explained that the entire Heritage Park site extends from the Main Street bridge down to where the new TCC Downtown campus has been built, encompassing the bluff where the original Fort Worth settlement (a fort, of course) stood as well as the site of the meeting between the West and Clear forks of the Trinity River. Naturally, a park this large cannot be developed on a shoestring.

The City, then, is working on a plan to restore the plaza and transform the park into an important Fort Worth destination. The problem that may prevent this, not surprisingly, is money. However, currently a number of partner agencies have been working to move the project forward. These include the Amon Carter foundation, Downtown Fort Worth Initiative, Historic Fort Worth, Fort Worth Public Art, Streams and Valleys, Tarrant Regional Water District, Tarrant County College and even Tarrant County itself.

Olin Studios, who conducted the workshop, has provided the City with a proposal. The city has not yet signed off on the project, however, as they need some idea of how to pay for it.

“It will be years” before the project can be completed, Villegas said. The project may be phased, with the most critical elements coming first. One would think this would mean Heritage Plaza, but there are no safe assumptions in city government or municipal planning.

In conclusion, Villegas said, “The project will need a lot of community support and very likely some private funding.” Will the plans the citizens asked for at the workshop come to fruition? It’s impossible to tell, but if you care about this project, you might agitate through your City Council member.