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April 2021

Farmers Market Stakeholders Association Meeting Minutes

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Meeting Information

Date

April 13, 2021

Location

Virtual Meeting

Time

6:00 PM

In Attendance

  • Lawrence Sweeney; Ivy Sweeney; Shawn Hejke; Rico Roberts; Willard’s ipad; Nick Colletti; Karen Piere; Martin Kramer; Amy (MD); Alex “Justin” Henry; Brenda Snitzer; Mark Ruibal; Jesse Moreno; Jody Rivera; Christopher Arnold; Jesse Holmes; Albert Sanchez; Travis Bonick; Adrian Pittman; Amy Aamond

Minutes

  1. Guests – Lawrence Sweeney introduced Jesse Moreno and Justin Henry
  2. Jesse Moreno –
    1. Third generation Dallasite, business owner and father, with 20 years in public service
    2. Has family business in Shed 2 at the DFM
    3. Has Adam Medrano’ s endorsement
    4. # 1 importance – public safety; he has a 3 year old, lives adjacent to Deep Ellum, was on the parks board, and implemented the Park Ranger Program
    5. #2 importance – public infrastructure – streets/sidewalks/cross-walks/crossing lights
    6. #3 importance – economy – he wants to bring more businesses to Dallas to stabilize taxes
    7. Schools and public parks = 2 things people look for in a neighborhood
    8. He hopes for a deck park joining the DFM and Cedars districts
    9. West End Square Park opening and Harwood Park coming soon
    10. Chief Development Officer for the Bridge, Nick Colletti, inquired about the $20 million Dallas City Council was to put into the homeless housing – Jesse will check into it and let us know
    11. The Good Neighbor Agreement has been successful
    12. Re public safety/police officers in the news, Jesse says they need to be given resources
    13. Re city campers/tents/homeless taking people’s items, Jesse says they need to be treated with compassion, but if they’re breaking the law, they’re breaking the law
    14. Jesse will be doing a meet and greet next week 4/22 at the Green Door Public House
  3. Justin Henry-
    1. DISD Trustee for District 9 (City Lab & Booker T Washington schools in his district)
    2. Is a parent of2 kids in DISD, and works for McKesson (pharmaceutical company)
    3. Is passionate about public education, racial equity, community engagement, elevating the teaching profession, expanding early learning
    4. He has an engineering degree, taught middle school math, went to law school and got into policy
    5. He’s working on increasing the size & expanding the grade levels from pre-k through the 8th grade at the new Montessori school in the UNT building downtown
    6. He’s working on balancing socio-economics for downtown employees & residents
  4. Officer Shawn Hejke (Sr. Corporal / CBD Neighborhood Police Officer)
    1. Went over the crime stats, offenses are up 23% (residence property thefts, stolen cars, graffiti vandalism, thefts from motor vehicles)
    2. Protest is going on at DPD headquarters at 7 pm by Next Generation Action Network (first one under new policy chief), with more going on for the next week around downtown; police will be in the background letting them protest peacefully
    3. The graffiti taskforce (ran by his lieutenant) has pinpointed the tagging groups and are working on catching them, no warrants issued yet
    4. Speed racing hasn’t slowed down; new chief Herrera seeking ideas on solutions, trying to figure out how to stop it; we are encouraged to report incidents to 911; the police surveillance towers are solar powered, but not always working depending on the charge status; there are only 4 or 5 for the whole city, moving around from place to place; people are removing their plates before stunts; DPD can impound/seize their cars; officers are trying to get on the racers’ social media, but it’s a slow process
  5. Code Compliance – Johnny Garcia –
    1. Ninfi Lopez is leaving this week; our new code officer will be Juan Contreras, phone number 469-704-2683
    2. Key focus area is the graffiti vandalism in the CBD and DFM areas; the property owner has to remove it immediately; a notice of violation will be issued with a consent form for abatement; covers will be put over the graffiti is abatement is denied; 7-10 days are allowed for abatement; they use dcad.org to figure out who the property owners are; they can extend the time to fix it by SLA (Service Level Agreement), communication is key; contact Johnny Garcia or our area inspector
    3. Albert Sanchez (VP of public safety field operations with DDI) coordinated with Lieutenant Connolly & arrested a tagger today, close to obtaining another one; they recommend taking photos of the graffiti before abatement so they can add up damages amounts
    4. Code Compliance works closely with DPD, DDI and the Office of Homeless Solutions
  6. The Stewpot – Brenda Snitzer –
    1. People are living on the street at Canton/Park, trying to address the best way to manage that group; these people have mental health challenges and a lot are services resistant
    2. There are 15 pairs of shoes hanging over the power lines by the Stewpot, which means drugs are sold there; Johnny Garcia is to contact the appropriate authorities (Oncor possibly?) to remove them
    3. May 12 they are doing the annual feeding the emergency responders; the Bridge meal services team does the cookout; we are encouraged to come greet the emergency responders