It Happened Last Meeting
by Molly Kulpa

President Vera McKissic called the meeting to order. Dan Blumberg led us in a Hebrew prayer, with our collective special intention being the DC helicopter-plane crash. The club sang God Bless America and Jason Kazarian, greeter, invited all visiting Rotarians, members with guests, and visitors to stand for introduction.

At today’s meeting, we welcomed visitors including Dana Moore of Downtown Arlington Management, Air Force veteran Tameka Rushing, Alexis Holguin of The Fundamental HR Pros, Col. Steven LeMaire and Gretchen Greco, a real estate agent.

Vera invited those with announcements to the podium. The announcements included:

• A huge congratulations to Chad Bates, Joy Bates and Liz Bates for their outstanding work on the club’s second annual “Dancing With the Arlington Stars!” (DWTAS) charitable fundraising event, held Monday night at Texas Live!. The event raised over $200,000 (and counting) for ten + Arlington charities.

• Rotary recognizes February as Peace & Conflict Prevention/Resolution month. Paul Kessler will close out the month as our program speaker. Rotary Peace Fellowship applications will open in February, and we’re seeking outstanding students with 3-5 years of experience in their fields.

• Maggie Campbell of Downtown Arlington thanked us for sponsoring the sculpture in Arlington’s Rotary Dream Park. They are hosting a photography contest this week. All are invited to “First Thursday” next week for ice carving, hot chocolate, a 30-piece drum circle and to view the winning photos from the Dream Park photo contest.

• Susie McAlister reported on the success of the club’s Angel Tree program and thanked all who participated. Together we adopted 75 registered angels (plus a few other local children and seniors) for a total of $10,724 in holiday donations.

• Chad Bates recognized Bowie Hogg, Melody Fowler, Molly Kulpa and Barry Bondurant for participating as fundraisers/dancers and last year’s winner, Derrick Kinney, for serving as an emcee along with Bryan Weatherford. Chad offered special thanks to Joy and Liz for all their hard work and to all those who volunteered at the event.

• Barry Bondurant thanked all who supported the DWTAS fundraiser and shared that the event is still accepting donations as the word continues to spread in the community and people are indicating that they would like to support the charities and individuals involved.

• Shirley Cox, who serves on the board of Arlington Charities, announced its upcoming Help & Hope gala. The event will featuring various area chefs preparing food on February 27 at Texas Live. In the last year, Arlington Charities distributed more than 2.5 million pounds of food to those in need.

In honor of the recent January 25 birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns, Walter Virden led the club in singing Auld Lang Syne, which Burns wrote.

Sally Hopper congratulated and presented Dr. Ajay Sobti with his earned Paul Harris Fellow +8 in recognition of his outstanding support as a donor of the Rotary Foundation.

We sang Happy Birthday for Cindy Salter (Jan 31) and Mia Russo (Feb 1), and recognized membership anniversaries, including: Laurie Bianco (2 years), Samantha Reich (2 years), Norman Douglas (42 years) and Hal Thurow (42 years).

Eunice Currie and Jean Hood presented a Minority Business Award to Tameka Rushing of Glass Half Full Solutions. Beyond professional development, the organization supports city events and initiatives, empowers leaders, unites teams and plays a vital role in Arlington’s growth as a dynamic and inclusive community. Tameka’s business focuses on new emerging leaders and business owners with personalized development plans.

Randy introduced the program for today’s meeting – a panel with the safety chiefs representing both the Arlington Police Department and the Arlington Fire Department. Impresario Derrick Kinney served as moderator for the program.

Chief Alexander Jones, appointed in 2020, leads the Arlington Police Department, the 46^th largest police department in the U.S. with nearly 900 staff and a $109 million annual operating budget.

Chief Bret Stidham, appointed in 2023, leads the Arlington Fire Department, bringing nearly thirty years of service and experience with Dallas Fire & Rescue. In addition to graduating as a rescue specialist from Texas A&M University, Chief Stidham holds an Associate of Applied Science in fire administration from Weatherford College, a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences in fire administration from Texas A&M University-San Antonio, and a Master of Public Affairs from The University of Texas at Dallas.

Safety Chiefs Panel – all quotes are paraphrased.

• Derrick: What is the biggest challenge that you face right now?

• Chief Jones: When managing 900 employees, there will be inevitable personnel issues. Being able to connect with and motivate the employees is a crucial challenge. I need to make sure that the message I’m sending is appropriate for the city and that I am modeling the example I want my team to follow.

• Chief Stidham: Similar to Chief Jones, it can be challenging to communicate across a department with hundreds of staff. Communicating effectively with everyone and being on the same page, while trying to best support the team and their needs. We acknowledge the great toll on mental health/wellness taken on our officers.

• Derrick: Looking to the future… what would you say is your vision for public safety in Arlington over the next five years?

• Chief Jones: We are currently three years into our seven-year plan. APD has four pillars to focus on. Relational policing--every interaction between the public and law enforcement should be relationship-building, positive interactions and connecting with the community. The second focus area is technology. In the last few years, we have introduced new technology. Our Real Time Crime Center is a success. We are able to solve crimes more quickly as we stay in communication with patrol officers and can provide intelligence in real-time for safer, more favorable outcomes. The third area is partnerships with businesses. Domestic violence is a significant public concern. We need community partners to help serve and support those affected by domestic violence. And we want to focus on officer wellness, diversity and inclusion, giving the team the resources they need, as well as succession planning for the future.

• Chief Stidham: Our department’s biggest concern is to get to “Four Person Staffing”. To do that, we need to hire extra personnel in order to staff our large vehicles, our fire engines and ladder trucks, with four people. It’s a challenge to retain employees. We are fighting turnover, continually recruiting, training and mentoring. We are getting close to halfway to four person staffing. We operate twenty-two pieces of heavy equipment in the city. Four Person Staffing would mean better and faster service to Arlington and could save more lives and decrease damage to property. There’s a “two in, two out” rule – when two firefighters go into a burning building, two firefighters need to stay out. Finally, the large events in the city are challenging – like Dallas Cowboys games. Next year, we will have the World Cup and the INDYCAR Grand Prix. They will need to be adequately staffed.

• Derrick: If you could tell every Arlington citizen to stop doing one thing, what would it be?

• Chief Jones: Road safety…Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of accidents and crashes in the last few years. Please slow down and arrive at your destination safely. In the past few years an average of forty to fifty people have died on our roadways annually. Traffic stops are also up compared to last year.

• Chief Stidham: Surprisingly… smoking in bed. And going along the lines of road safety--slow down; don’t run red lights or stop signs. Keep off your phone. The Fire Department is focused on visiting second grade classrooms to educate kids on fire safety in 2025.

• Q&A with the room

• Q: Red light cameras went away – are more people running red lights now?

• Chief Jones: Not necessarily. Since Covid, bad driving habits and behavior have declined. There is less road rage, less speeding and less running through stops.

• Q: There’s talk in the news of tornadoes resulting from fires, dust storms… are we prepared to deal with that?

• Chief Stidham: In regards to the California wildfires, yes, hot embers can be carried for miles. That can happen here, too. With house fires, sparks can travel if carried on the wind. But we can send engines to chase the sparks. We’re part of the Texas Intrastate Mutual Fire Aid System, and this network can support us with resources.