City Council - Special Meeting

Any comments related to the matter on the agenda?

Good evening, my name is Charles Bradford, 13 Grant Street, Washington Street, company and to the county mayor. I'd just like to speak about number five, what is going to involve what you may need, what you can establish, so kind of . If I remember right, all the solar panel electric dishes still being cooked. And the other one was saying, You don't want to discuss the solar kind of thing. The solar kind of thing would have to be a foot issue. For the county to take action on a monetary or anything of the sort, the foot would have to be violating that thing with the foot order. The foot order did say that the owners of those properties that already have solar panels here need to maintain them. And if you go back, you can see they're not being maintained. Well, let me get some of them. Why would we want to have a solar panel monitor or anything by solar panel when we already stated, I'm not understanding, we don't want them in the city limit period. Nothing against the people that already have any kind of person, any matter. Solar panel inside our city limit would be within range of our children and grandchildren and the future of this community. I feel if we put solar panels I think we've got both independent, anything, the judge said y'all have some come back before the court. You know, the judge leave it open for any, any one party to come back. I think any action or anything taking on a solo family, and this is needed, especially one we already had, should, should be brought before the court. And we should, if we don't, if someone else knew it was trying to come in under another name, we don't even want it. sitting on we did something we didn't work with when i was previously on the council you know why they're talking about the ones that's here already and not filing for the order not seeing them they look a mess I can go in the bedroom and look out the window and all I see is a soda pound bag and they complaining about snakes. I mean, maybe we need to make them follow the code order to go get a peanut like they supposed to do. That's all they had to do it by attempting to do. We should be opening a door for them to come back and apply. Mr. Jones, attorney, he seems to be connected with the soda pound. Okay. We do not want that on community. And I feel that the attorney, the people get back to me without, you know, we'll give them authorization to do so. We're just attorneys. And the council and all the local council, but this thing gets over really quickly. What we're doing, what people are trying to get us to do, still do, I hope that the court will send them a violation, send it to the judge to clean up. They haven't cleaned up since the last judge. You drive by, you live in the community, I can pass the data, and I see this. Someone is still trying to put solar panels inside the city. Put them on the outside. I don't have a problem with solar panels. It's the location. It's inside our community, our businesses, our economic growth, and everything. It's inside our city. They don't look good at it. They're not reputation. Well, that's trying to be silly and right. Sitting there in the community, 100 degrees, they're going in, I'm going to put five degrees right now. I'm not getting any numbers. Go there, take it, come over there. The temperature is high, we're going to go to Augusta. I appreciate this council taking no action or taming it or just saying, look, this is something we've got to consider by our citizens. It's not a big job. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

resolution page.

I'd like to make a motion to vote to extend the agenda on the agenda.

for no trickery and all of that, I'm gonna make a statement before we even get started. I already know where you're going, Attorney Jones. I've been at this role before. So at the last meeting, Ricky Smith, policy director, he stated that anytime a councilman wants something on the agenda, has to be on it so ain't nothing on this agenda but what the administration wants he sent a list up here and asked for it to be put on the agenda so this shouldn't even be an expansion to the expanding the agenda now am i right uh attorneys Can you answer my question? How do you know if it's Jermaine or not?

This is a question to what we got. You can't just be making statements. Do you know what Jermaine means?

Hold it. Point of information. You're the attorney. We're going to abide by the rules. Attorney Jones, you haven't spoken when spoken to. because you're not the parliamentarian.

so that our record reflects it, so we don't have any business transactions, it's not a problem. It's in Section 4.

Councilman Doty? Mr. Jones, can you read what, tell us what Section of the Charter you're speaking about? Can you also, can you get that printed out so we can have a look at it right now? Because again, if we're talking about legal issues, it's okay to speak about it. but I'd like to have it in front of us so we can read along what you read, because there could be some contradictory evidence that states something different. So again, if you can, can you get that printed out

I'm not arguing that point. I know the chart. I know what it says. It's not this thing I said I knew when you was gone about Unitedness voting. But what I'm saying is, that's not my point. My point is, you just can't put what you want on the agenda. The council members, this is what I mean also. If a council member requests something to be on the agenda, it shouldn't have to be expanded. It should be on the agenda. Now, I'm going to ask for information both attorneys, Ricky Smith, policy director, Ricky Smith, because he stated that last month, and I said, you sure? He said, yes. So, yes, sir. I want information to you.

Yes, that is correct. I'm not sure if Mr. Doty, you did submit some documents, an and I believe it was forwarded to Attorney Jones. I'm not sure if you and Mrs. Jones have a dialogue, but Mrs. Green asked your question, I guess, because this is your meeting. And I think y'all had adopted a specific rule that says whether or not any other council member can add something to the agenda once it's called by a specific council member. But again, any item on an agenda that's either a special or a regular meeting, each member has a right to act on the agenda. It's just, y'all have to determine whether or not the special call, whether or not each of your individual have the right to add something that hadn't been confirmed or, you know, solely who have caused the meeting. So that's, I'm not gonna ask you the question, that's easy.

This was a meeting that we had kind of agreed to on the 20th. That's why we came up with this date. We talked about two different issues.

Mr. Doty called the meeting. So essentially to go along with what you were talking about last meeting about special call meetings. If y'all follow that practice and protocol amongst yourselves, Mr. Doty called the meeting. So any item that any other member would want to put on the agenda, you know, they need to be discussed with Mr. Doe that will call the meeting to be added or not bring it to the meeting. It has to be added. So that's the distinction that is only applies to you all if you apply it to yourself. But again, I agree. I mean, and I say I agree. Mr. James Green did make up a point to where if the members want to follow that protocol for a specialty, you all can. or any regular meeting, you can add whatever item, whether it's an action item or a discussion item on the agenda. You just probably need to make that request in writing and probably send it to the administration and make sure that Mr. Jones gets it.

I have a question. Councilman DeGrom? Yeah, I guess my question might be just for clarity. I'm not sure who to export information to. But I want to know, I guess who's responsible for putting items on the agenda? The reason I ask is because I know we asked somebody to come once or twice to speak about not being added to the agenda. So, to whom that person is supporting information to, how they have someone to add to the agenda?

Well, when individuals come, we have a form that in turn they meet the deadline for that they'll be added to the agenda anything else from a council member i mean my recommendation is to probably reach out to the mayor and make that request directly to the mayor make sure that it gets because mr jones primarily drafts the but there hasn't been an established protocol, but like anything else, it's not an established protocol. My advice is just deal directly with the administration on contact demand, especially when the council requests. But again, that special meeting, that's just something y'all would have to, you know, have a gentleman's or general lady's agreement to follow because we can't force that upon you. So if you call a meeting, talk to me. If you want to add something to the meeting, I call. And then that protocol should be, you know, contact the mayor and say, I want to call a meeting, and this is what I want to do.

So typically, I guess, I don't know if my question is answered.

Typically, it goes to, well, Mr. Jones will pay us primarily, but any... person from the community, they have a form they fill out that speaks to gender. And I think, Mr. Doty, you may have done that, which you don't have to do, but that's the form that the community will fill out. It's the deadline attached to that as well. Appreciate it.

Mr. Doty? Thank you for those comments, Mr. Smith. The reason why I put I wanted to make sure that those items got on the agenda by way of already putting it on the agenda, or if not put on the agenda, then I would have already on the speaker's agenda. So I should have been doubly covered. So here in section two, there is something different. I did not see section two of the chart. Talking about special call meetings. No business except that specified in the call shall be transacted meeting except by unanimous consent of the governing body. There are two distinctions. You have governing body and you have governing authority. This section two says governing body. Who would be the governing body?

That's a question for the attorney by interpretation and governing authority, governing body. I think it's synonymous with one or the other. It's either one of them refers to the council and the mayor, and one of them probably refers to just either the council or the administration separately. I don't know. I haven't done enough research in here. But again, the call is what Mr. James was talking about. So if you make the call, And again, that speaker's agenda is not for you, Mr. Doney. Your discussion items are items of the agenda. That speaker's agenda is for the public to address things outside of the public.

Let me interrupt you real quick, Mr. Smith. Listen, again, the reason why is because there was a short turnaround for when we were at the meeting and then when we voted to have the special call meeting Again, you have to allow time for items to be placed on the agenda. I knew it was going to be a quick turnaround. So again, with the mayor out of town and with Mr. Jones being in committee, again, I'll wait till he come back to make that comment. But again, the bottom line is section two of the charter is talking about governing violence. You also have a section where you always talk about the governing authority. Who runs the city? Who takes care of the day-to-day operations of the city? That's the administration. That's the administration. So that pretty much would be the governing authority. So we're talking about now the governing body. So I don't think that could be a little bit different.

It's a difference. I just, Mr. Jones wanted to articulate that a little bit. But I don't want you to not understand And that's what I think Mr. Green, Jay Green was talking about in the other meeting. Whenever you call a special meeting, you should probably set the practice, have every item that you anticipate talking about to be in your call when you make the call for the meeting. Because that way you won't get anything lost in translation.

on. Because I know if you got to add to the agenda, you know, pretty much especially, you know, go through the roll call. But it shouldn't even have to be like that. Because first of all, we haven't been meeting because the administration go back a little bit, they said about the department is in America, we are out of town. So we came up with a date, but some kind of way, we ended up meeting a regular meeting before this meeting. But this meeting was already supposed to happen because Attorney Devin Jones said that there was too busy to put the appointments and stuff on the other meeting. It would be on the August meeting. That's why the mayor was going out of town. That's why he sent his meeting. That's what I was under the impression that we was going to have a meeting on the 20th about this. And I'm not all sure what Councilman Doty put on the agenda. I'm just saying everybody always thought he was right regardless of who it is, was the mayor of the council. It's not right for a person to come up and request something to be on the agenda, and because you don't like it, you don't put it on here. But you put everything that you want on here. That's not the way to go. Put it on the agenda, and then it's got to come up for a vote. It don't matter. You can't run and hide. You can't duck and dodge. Mr. Dodell, let me finish because I think they did not use the right to put it on the agenda, but what I'm saying, it should never come to a vote because it don't fall under that category. If you didn't put it on here, the mayor requested it to be on here. Y'all just failed to put it on the agenda. It's not like there's a new item that comes up. This should have been on the agenda. I see that we didn't forget to put these resolutions on the agenda. But that's what the administration wanted. But a councilman wanted, I don't even know what he wanted. But Umpah was right and was fair. A person requests something to be on the thing, let be, put it on him. I'm in awe as to what's going on because these are fights that don't even have to happen. This is self-inflicted war. Make us just look like we always up here bickering, and can't come together. This is wrong. I don't know who advised the narratives, but this is wrong. And he know I always been by him and in his corner, but I'm gonna tell you, right is right and wrong is wrong. I don't know why these appointments are not on here because Attorney Jones has been an attorney for four, five, three or four years and every year we've had the appointments. First of all, last June, this is the second year, I don't know what come about by some, you don't have to do this, you don't have to do that. Well, why didn't we do it the first year? Kind of frustrated because, hey, we agreed when we first ran, everybody got together, everybody's gonna work together and do what's in the best interest of the city of Bastrop. And now it's a big divide for no reason. This is unacceptable. And it's just, it's mind-boggling. And I'm upset because this does not have to be like this in the city of Bastrop. i don't know where it's coming from but and i don't know nothing about what councilman doughty requested but i'm just saying in all fairness if i request something any council member go up and take the time out to write something up whether you agree with it or not it should be on their agenda but right now you come up with a with a slick curveball with knowing that everybody got a vote on it so if you don't ever put that document on there and I got to come up and expand the agenda, but the administration don't want it, then if the mayor reject it, it'll never get on the agenda. Does that make any sense? So if you don't ever like something, just don't put it on the agenda, but it can make us expand the agenda and have the mayor to veto it. That's the problem. That's not a radical one, we didn't know that. But we're elected officials. Now, I didn't know what I just said. If the administration, if I go request something, and they don't put it on the agenda, and then when I get here, I try to expand the agenda, and they veto it, and they never get on the agenda. That's the thinking.

Mr. Johnson, go ahead. Mr. Johns, can you tell me where you're reading the following thing? That's from . Okay, well I'm also reading my chart. And I'm reading in section two. Section two. Section two, bottom map. Two dash 22, two dash 21, two dash 22. at the meeting except by unanimous consent of the governing body. I'm not sure where the divide is or if there's two different orders.

So let me go there.

And why are you looking at that message, John? Real quick. In that, it didn't actually say the same thing. It didn't say your governing body. It said governing body. Your governing body includes .

Yes, who is the mayor? The mayor's just the chair

So are you saying that the governing authority and the governing body is the same? And again, we're making these distinctions so that we can be clear going forward. There needs to be no ambiguity of what we're designed to do and what the mayor is designed to do. Again, there should be no fight. And there is no fight. but we're just trying to get some things straight and get it settled, because I don't want to have to come back meeting after meeting, you know, sometime in the future, and have to have this discussion.

So in the hierarchy of the Black Constitution, the Constitution spells out its general rights. Your Constitution in this place spells out its general rights, and the thing that you can have is your charter. Your charter acts constitutionally. So your charter says that the specific provisions it says that in order for there to be an additional item added to a column, a special column, in Section 14, you have to have unanimous consent of the federal court. That's where it's spelled out. Your ordinance, if in conflict, is hierarchical laws. If you're in law, completely constitutional act, you lose. If you can't law, The reason is they haven't been updated since 2023. Those civic ones, we actually amended a lot of those in the adoption of the electronic meetings and the active days of voting speakers. We adopted all of them very recently. I had to check to see if they were in because they have not been.

Minico has not been updated since. Oh, so we did it back.

Okay, so let me finish here. So with all that being said, now it comes to the point, who made the decision to deny the request? Because again, if you're saying that somebody gets to know whether or not they are denied or accepted for a request to speak is about coming to the meeting, then that presents a problem, a whole nother problem. Listen, I am a senior serving council member. I would think that if I made a request and it was not going to be honored, then I specifically should have been notified since I was the one as a council member making the request. That didn't happen. So again, You're just the legal advisor, right? So who made the decision to deny the request coming to the agenda?

Yeah, and just to piggyback off of that.

No, that's an answer.

I want to speak on that. I'm just a legal advisor. I need an answer from the mayor. That's it. Everything gets sent to Mr. Jones to get it put on. Or we can't talk about something, we can't talk about it.

Councilman Deegard. It still kind of bothers me a little bit. I'm just, you know, speaking for him. I see that if Mr. Stoler did his two bills, it's not on the agenda. It's not on the agenda. Here we are with items on the agenda. So what do we do? Do we ignore Mr. Dole's attention to this? I don't think it's fair. So we sit up here all the time and talk about working together. This right here, it's like a conflict. I can't speak for everybody, I speak for me, but I talk for everybody. And it's fair, it's fair. So if anybody don't consider this being fair, this is...

I have something. I just, whatever we do, and I hear people say we're not working together. But we have to be on one call. And at no point in time do we need to ignore the request.

I can say the camera's on. The camera's on. There's a whole lot of politics. We come here to do city business. That's the hell city business. And move forward. My goal is to open those policies. You have a number. You come to my house. All of this that we talk about do not have to come in a city council meeting when we talk about a lot, when we see each other a lot. And the doors are open in my office all the time. Everything I say is working with the council. And it hasn't been going the way it's supposed to go. We need to start planning, work together for the community. That's what we've got to do. I just said it will never happen again. If it comes before, I will set it up. If it comes to me, I'll put it on. We apologize. I just apologize to everyone. Ain't no fits of dragging and keeping the meeting long. We just did that. I apologize. And I will get you the information you need. We are all grown people here. Grown, got elected official by the community of this city, of this body. We are the government body. We need to act. We need to be leaders for people that watch. We got to be leaders. If we ain't leaders, why do you think they want to fight and shoot in the community? It ain't our fault, but we can make ourselves better together. But I really explained myself today in just time. Point of information. I got a point of information. We talked about working together, right?

There's no problem. Now, I'm gonna be real tickle my words and real careful. Now, when I said, I mentioned the reason, because you got 1099 employees. Now, you say we gonna work together and all this, and nobody's done anything. It's a problem. Accountability creates hostility, and it's not right. I got a problem. with when you got 1099 employees, that contract ends and the attorney said that we was gonna put it on this meeting and we moved this meeting to this date because you and I talked about the 20th. And attorney Jones said that they was gonna do the appointment on today. Go back and look at the date. So nobody is upset you say you do what we ask you to do. I don't think I'll ask you why. What about the appointments? I mean, is there a reason? Yeah, let me fix it. Well, okay. You can't arbitrarily decide that you don't want to put appointments up. So you've got 1099 employees, which are contracts. You know what 1099 is? They're contractors. So you've got people that we're paying that are contractors, and they don't have a contract. Because I'm not sure how that works. And last time we did the contract, we never really seen. So that's what I'm saying is we've been appointing them. And I want to know formally who advised the mayor that he didn't have to do it because the mayor just got an office. He just did it. And I've worked hand in hand with him. I've never heard of this by not appointing people, attorney general. You remember when you first got appointed to one of the administration? You remember that? When Mr. Bradford told you to leave and go take a seat over there because they had not appointed you yet? You remember that? So my thing is, what changed between now and then? And so if we don't have to have people do contracts, so you can just, So it's just arbitrary to just say, hey, 1099 employees, we don't have to worry about the contracts. I'm not talking about regular employees. You can read between the lines and find, well, we said we weren't gonna do this. Remember when we first got together, we weren't gonna have this problem. But now you say that out your mouth, you know, because you decided not to put them up for nomination. So my thing to Mr. Jones, What are we going to do about the contracts as the legislative body? What do we do about contracts? I guess you're going to say open in also.

You know, Dr. Stewart and I could be both on, I have to review them, but as I understand, they have ongoing provisions in there that provide for them not a set date to expire.

Oh, so hold on, Mr. Jones. You mean you can sign a contract without an expiration date? 100%. Okay, so we'd be in the council. and that you're paying. So your contract, what's the city of debt? I don't have a contract with the city. I don't have that contract with the city. Your 1099 for you? 1099 doesn't require a contract. So you're independent. You're a contractor, right? No.

It's an actual test for it. But you can pay, as anybody, you can pay them underneath what's called 1099 provisions. The scope and duties, which I was confirmed, are spelled out in there. The provisions for pay are just as anybody else, they're with the executive person as long as it's budget.

So you're saying that when we nominated you, and when the mayor nominated you, so you can work As long as you want to get the city master, but you say that we, we can't redo your country.

No, because you nominated an attorney and there is no provisions. The city attorney, the charter spells out the duties of the city attorney. And in order to, as the legislative body to cut that down, you would have to, you'd have to amend the charter to delineate out what the You could call it a prosecutor-attorney, but at the end of the day, they're all city attorneys. It's just the administration has the ability as the chief operating officer, the chief executive officer, to delegate duties. If there's multiple city attorneys, you could delegate duties between those. That's what that attorney general's opinion says for 2020.

You're getting off track. I understand that dual role. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the appointment process. Because you went through it like four times, three times. And let me finish. Mind you, since you want to take the gloves off, mind you, I was a stench ally. Right? And I never dreamed that you would get up here and say some of the things. I'm kind of appalled. Because you never, ever, gave me one inclination that you would say that you would advise this mayor that he would not have to reappoint people. I'm just disappointed. Did I say that I advised him he had to?

Can you correct the record, please? Say what you see.

I said, did I ever say that I advised him not to?

Can we move on with the meeting, please? No, sir. I understand.

I don't care what nobody says. I got to ask questions, and I'm going to ask questions, just like I did with very awful lot of people up here. Right, right, wrong is wrong. So I looked at one contract, it ended on the 30th. So how does that work?

I can't reference. All right. Well, if it ended on the 30th. You said it ended on the 30th, and I guess it ended on the 30th. That's what you're saying, but I can't speak to that because it's a contract. I'm just going off what you're saying.

So, I got my answer. You said it was the mayor. And you said you didn't buy the environment for it. So, just count it. If I can understand what the regular department is, I was talking about the contracts.

Contracts are just really going to dictate down to, if a contract expires, it expires. No, no. If a contract expires, it expires. And you've got to expire a contract, the contract's done what you said. If there's a provision in there that says that, hey, it's due to expire and it's set for a year, you can have terms. We've seen that before where it's terms like, hey, but if you don't cancel by this, it'll continue on. It is. expiration on it says a very specific date with no language that says this continue on unless notified that this is canceled it will continue on then that can happen I'm just I'm trying to confine my interstate on yes based on the specific thing you told me if it directly says yes it cancels on this date yeah it just cancels 100% That's it. I mean, I'm not trying to dance around with you, play with you, do anything. I don't know which contract you're referencing. If we're doing it, if we're doing it.

Hey, Mr. Jones, let's cut this chase. I know what's going on. I mean, remember, I was with you when we were with that last administration, so. I see what direction it's taking now. And I'm glad that people have exposed their hand.

There's nothing we do at the city of Baton Rouge is personal. And I'm gonna speak for myself. There's nothing I come up here and do out in the community as Councilman Dovey is personal. I don't have to come up here and yell, scream, act out of character, none of that. But because we have disagreements, I'm not gonna label that as not working together because that's what a group of people that work together, that happens. I don't care what kind of organization you're talking about. There are always agreements and disagreements and things to be worked on in any organization. So let's get more specific. Again, with the contract situation you're talking about, and I'm going to be very brief on that, there are contracts that do have an ending. So what happens is if the contract contracting employee continues to work outside of that contract, then what you do is you inadvertently, or it could be intentional, I'm gonna say inadvertently, you bind the city to that contract. And basically what you're saying is you take the power out of the council's hand. There are always mechanisms in the law that will support the mayor's, priorities and objectives, and there are also mechanisms in the law that will support the council. So that's why, again, we're supposed to come up here and work together. Again, the council can create something that says in writing, we can do resolutions or we can change the ordinance. The council has that priority, again, to add to what's already existed on the books when it comes down to. comes to ordinance or when it comes down to the charter. So let there be no mistake, just because something is in the law today does not mean it can't be changed tomorrow. And this is not so we can benefit either the council or the mayor, but it is what it is. Whatever laws are on the books, that's what I'm going to abide by, whether that puts me in a good position or not. But let me be clear once again, I do not come up here for any shape, form or fashion. I don't work against anybody. I work within the bounds of my job. Again, this contract states that the end date is June the 30th of 2025. Just hold on for one second. It also says that termination, either party may terminate this agreement for any reason within 30 calendar days of written notice. In the event of termination, contracts shall be compensated for services performed through the date of termination. It also says this agreement shall remain in effect until June 30th, unless extended or terminated earlier. Earlier, that would be, I would suppose that would mean before June the 30th, unless extended or terminated earlier in writing by either party. So again, when a contract goes beyond the specified date on that What position does that put us in? And that is a question to you, Mr. John.

So, based on what you told me, They continue in that spot.

When you say officials, officials are like department heads, city attorneys. We're not going there. We're just talking about the appointed, the department heads do not fit into the category that you, Mr., Mr., Mr., Mr., Ricky, and some of the other appointees fall into.

So a city attorney is an official. A city attorney is an official. There are certain lists of officials. Do you work by contract?

Do I work by contract? I do not have a contract. So what is the memorandum of understanding? Is that the same as a contract?

Similar to the contract in regards, it's not, it's an understanding of what you will perform and what they will compensate you for.

Okay, so again, with a memorandum of agreement, you're saying now that it's different from a contract. Well, it's

It acts as a contract. You have to go through the same thing. It's a memorandum of understanding between two parties on what the compensation would be. It acts as a contract for all of its purposes.

There are some little things down the way. Well, I need a much more clear answer if you can. Listen, a memorandum of understanding. I'm looking at the contract. Again, this is by no means reflect on the job performance of anybody we're talking But since we are here, since we are here and we're talking about it, the contract for Mr. No, no, no, no, no. The contract, the contract, it's here in the contract with, you have an employer contract, independent contract that has, he does not have, the same duties that a regular city, not duty, but he does not have the same entitlement that a regular city employee would have. Is that a true statement? Depends on if he's performing city official duties.

This is, and that's what I'm trying to take to you. You're talking about the title of who they were confirming next. It's a city official, okay? Ultimately. Which is certain things, clerk, tax, those are all what we call officials. Those officials, whether they have a contract for the ultimate compensation that they do, those officials, unless they resign or they're suspended, continue in their office for Louisiana law until their subsequent appointment. It's called is if that is related to the compensation of the official, then what you have is you have a lapse compensation agreement in scope of duties, and they're still in the

Now I want to know, how do you come up with the figures you come up with when you pay every month in our country? Because then it's not ours, because then it won't be on the claim.

So how it comes up with this is the administration determines the amount of compensation. How is it determined?

That was the term that you put in the administration.

See, it gets to the point that you put it on the administration. And again, then I hate to have to turn to the right America because I don't want America to feel like it's a shot at America. But then also you see here and you say that you're not a country, but you're being paid as if you own a country. Being paid as an independent worker. That's the actual tax term. So you pay as an independent worker to do it. How are you being paid to do duties? But how? I pay. So when you build a city, how are you building the city? I build a city based on what are you building the city on?

I build the city for the flat rate, for the simple, and I build the city by the hour for anything that's outside of that.

But any other employees, just maybe for example, if the city attorney is on payroll, how are they building the city?

How are they building the city? They're building the city by the amount of

What did we vote on?

Y'all voted to confirm me as city attorney. This is you voted to confirm Mr. Smith and Mr. Pierre. So is you getting paid like Mr. Pierre? I'm not getting paid like Mr. Pierre. But what I can tell you is this. I sent an invoice. There's no agreement. America wants an invoice to say, hey, I don't think that's good. So it's like any moment we need to say, hey, we don't want to leave. Now, you would have to go through the process to, you'd have to go through the process that's spelled out in the charter to get rid of a fish. You'd have to go

how though but you're not it's not you know you're not tired so you're not you're not contracting nor are you on payroll it's not why are you tired you can see the size of the boat i can explain to you again i'm a city official you confirm me as a city i get that boy i'm paid as an independent worker so the end of the year wouldn't seem to be I was wondering why it was different this year than the previous administration. No, the previous administration has always been like that.

Never had a contract. I've never had a contract for compensation. It's always been up to if there's budgets.

Okay.

They're the business we have to transact. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's two hours, sometimes it's four hours. We try to do the best we can when we come up with it. But I can tell you for sure that Councilman Doty is not in a race with traffic. Councilman Doty is not in a race with traffic. So that should be a part, really a part of this discussion is because when business has to be had, So again, what I will do, because I want to move on from this. This is not like this can't, some of this can't wait. I will withdraw my request, but what I will let you know is that this will be coming back to the next agenda. Because again, I don't want to sit here, I don't want to make it look like we're having some type of fight, because we're not. We're having a disagreement about an issue that affects the city of Bastion. And that's what we're supposed to do. Where sometimes issues, they have to be talked at. I don't get the part about the fighting. I'm not up here fighting anybody. I'm up here fighting for issues. That's when I'm up here fighting for issues. So again, I will withdraw my request. But again, I withdraw my motion. I will withdraw the motion to end these items.

I just want to say each elected official has a responsibility to the people. We may not agree on everything, but we still have a responsibility because we are spending taxpayer dollars. We all want transparency. That's what we work for. That's what we work toward. But we have to have a check and balance system or else we have a dictatorship.

Let's move to resolution number four, resolution 26-2142.

Good afternoon, my pro-chair members. This is a resolution. I should have a copy of it on the desk. This is a resolution to approve to advertise the bids. At the airport, there's a drainage and utility relocation project and a five year capital improvement plan. I've been in communication with the engineer. This is one of the things that needs to get started on that. Also, if you notice in the resolution, the capital improvement plan for the Morehouse Memorial Airport This project over the next five years is going to see an investment of over $6 million to the airport. Just wanted to be known that this project is fully reimbursable through the FAA and DOTD. So this project and this investment in the airport So I ask for your passes and resolutions so that the project will go out of bid and be underway.

I think that was actually very well said. I think. Does anybody else have any questions?

Keith? Yes, sir. I'm sorry, I apologize. I missed some of what Mr. Smith said at the very end. Can you repeat that or you can have him?

This project, the capital improvement plan for the airport is a five-year plan that is going to see an estimated investment size cost to the tune of a little more than $1.6 million. This project is fully reimbursable through the Federal Aviation Administration and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. So this project would not cost the city of Baxter any tax dollars of funding. So this investment improvement in this airport to the tune of $1.6 million is fully funded by the FAA and the DOT.

I have a question.

Yes.

Can I really? Mrs. Smith said it is fully reimbursable. So, have we already started the paperwork to get reimbursement?

So, where this is going to work is, like I alluded to in several meetings when we were talking about one time money, is that moving forward, to the FAA and the DOTD, get the money and then pay. We're not going to prepay. We're not going to allocate $1.6 million towards this project and hold that money in the banks. It can't be used in other areas. So it's going to be a pay as you go. So they submit an invoice for $75,000. We're going to submit it to the FAA. They pay a portion. DOTD pays a portion. And we just act as the FULLY FUNDED BY STATE AND FEDERAL DOLLARS. THERE'S NO MATCHING OR ANYTHING.

AND I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT THIS RESOLUTION ACTUALLY IS KIND OF TWO DIFFERENT ITEMS WITHIN IT. ONE IS WE WANT TO ADVERTISE THE CURRENT DRAINAGE AND UTILITY RELOCATION PROGRAM. AND THAT PARTICULAR PROJECT I THINK IS RIGHT AROUND 322,000. WE'LL BE USING INFRASTRUCTURE MONEY infrastructure deal money. And then we also have the capital improvement plan, which lays out a five-year plan that the FAA has approved with us that we see as potential projects. They're not guaranteed that we will do them. And based on whether or not the FAA decides they can fund it. So if they can fund it, then we'll go ahead and proceed with it. Basically, we're just approving this plan, sending it to the FAA, just so they can have them There's no key thing in the plan that says we have to do those projects. The only one that we're kind of in right now is just the drainage and utility. And that's also been funded. So the FAA has the money. Once we apply for it and send them invoices, they reimburse us. Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name.

My name is Brent Elton. Yeah, yeah. I say the name a lot. Okay, listen. The $1.693 million. Yes. Is that money to be spent over the five-year period? Correct.

That's planned over the five-year period. None of that money is set to stop. Right. As I said, those projects are optional. We can choose not to do that. But that's where the FAA wants us to put it.

So again, that number, I understand that number is not a binding number, right? So it could be anywhere from zero to that number? It could be more than that. Or more.

Yes.

Okay.

All right. Well, it's going to be the initial 300 points of $2,000. For the drainage and utility.

They're going to vary utility line.

of food and drainage.

When we do get a good rain, we just have a swamp sitting in between the terminal building and the airport.

If you will, I was hearing a few voices, so I want to make sure that I understand what you were saying correctly. Whatever those last couple of statements, can you?

You said zero to 64 million. I was like, it's going to be not zero, but at least 320. Yeah, start there.

And Katie, can you switch and say after that? I want to make sure I understand what you're saying. But again, there were a couple of people kind of talking. I want to make sure I hear.

No, but what I'm saying, I was correct in that point. It's not going to be zero. So 320, let's say 320,000. Up to could be more than 1.6, depending on if, uh, we engage. Because again, it's just saying, you know, capital improvement plan, right? And the engineer said as much, but, um, he requested to see improve the plan. Uh, because again, this, you know, if we do the projects, it's 100% funded by the FAA. Right. So. probably prevent us from doing this if they don't give us the money. Yeah.

Okay. And lastly, you were talking about burying some lines.

Yes. That was a beautiful talk.

So we have a utility line running from the community ender to the electrical block. And the area where we're doing the drainage is right where those electrical lines run above ground. In the future, one of our projects that we have on that five-year CRP is to actually connect the taxi lane all the way up to the ramp. And so to do that, we would need to put those utilities on the ground. So this is going to facilitate another step towards another project that we have on the farm. And so that will actually improve our chances of getting that farm by burying the utilities now. And we're also going to build in If I suggest we should put in additional conduits, just in the event that we can't have any expansion infrastructure in the future, those conduits are there, they can be utilized to get utilities across that.

Well, Ms. . And if members have another question, I'll just ask for adoption resolution. May I ask for a vote? Is there a motion?

I'll make a motion. Second. Second. Can we get a roll call, please?

Sandra Tappen, District A. Yes. Mr. Kendra Dolan, District B. Yes. Mr. James Green, District C. Yes. Mr. Darryl Green, District D. Yes. And Mr. Howard Locke, District E. I did it.

Mayor and Council, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. I move to file introduction of ordinance 26-4298.

This is the ordinance that continues your solar farm moratorium indefinitely. It is legal to continue that indefinitely when the state of all reflects that. So does this act of moratorium not afford this? This puts it back in place and continues an indefinite period.

Yeah, I have funny head of the chamber looking at the first moratorium.

It tracks the same thing. That's good.

Joe, you know, I asked you the last time. So I just want to know, could we do it? I didn't know you were going quick, but you actually were going to go out and rewrite one. But what I was saying is, I just want to know, could we do it? We can. But based on, I just want to know, Joe, can you say you're going to get back with me? We got to talk in the last meeting. We got it. to get back with him, I guess we put it back on here. But I think that we still like on the court order, but I just, I want you to check on the public seat just in case we.

We have both of them out here now. We tabled the other one indefinitely, and now we have this one out there. So there's every decision which way it wants to go, the wild cards that we have to go.

I think since Mr. Locke ain't here, he talked about this. We can wait until the regular, I think we should table it until the regular meeting.

But whatever the council's budget is, it shows up on the registrar.

But it is just a function.

I make a motion that we take it. Second.

Motion seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? So moved. This is an ordinance, so including the fact that this is an ordinance, this is a law change

If you look to the last pages, and this is just for introduction, this page spells out the changes that came through the 26th regular session. It's Act 866. I've talked with the marshal's office before. These are all the duties the marshal's office had by law. To give you some history on our marshal's office, the city court and the marshal's office was created by the same statute, which is the If you actually go through a court of ordinances, there's no ordinances related to the city marshal. That's because her duties came by operation of state law, which gave all the duties for a city marshal. In 2026, this last session, Act 866 said in municipalities and places with populations less than 40,000, going outside to serve paperwork, make arrests, do all those other things that we had the marshals doing, the local, the governing authority would have to expressly allow them to do those things. So this is here to formally bring to our ordinances, the express authority for the marshals to continue to do what she's always done.

So on behalf of Dillsbury City Court, right?

So this isn't dealing with city court, dealing with all of them. Correct. This is a continuation of the duties they did before.

Yes. Now, Mr. Jones, you said that this was enacted by law, right? Correct. Okay. So why do we need to do this?

that's currently in place that gives her those powers, in January of 2027, January 1st, 2027, the law says unless she has an ordinance on the books of the municipality, that those powers, so it would reduce down, significantly reduce down the current powers of the marshal, unless there was an ordinance that allowed them to continue to do those powers at the same time.

Is this, now, is this new law giving her all these extra powers? This new law, it discontinues the same powers that they had. So this is nothing that she has not been doing?

It's discontinued.

I just want to get in front of it before we got to January and we have buttons.

And if I may add, it will be, and I'm not sure if I'm doing projections, but it should have a fiscal note on it. I may put some numbers together, just look at the history of the court when it's all sued, the administration on that, but it will be the fiscal note.

So it's fun in there. Potentially future. Mr. Jones,

Listen, this order is right. Now, the Marshal's office is under the city court, right?

They sit next to each other. Take a look at the Marshal's office. It's a subdivision of the city. They sit like brother and sister next to each other. They work together, but not as parent or child. It's more brother and sister together. Okay, but most of its functions... The majority of the functions that are provided in state law, which is where the marshal's duties come from, not from the city, they come from state law, encompass dealings with the court and in court process and carrying out the orders of the court and all of those things. That's the majority of it. The continuation of those duties is one of the things that

state law currently gives them power to do that and let's express the granted power they can't go out and even carry out some of those functions of court they're basically just relocated to security so again you're saying nothing nothing that the marshall's office is doing right now is uh going to be changed but again once this ordinance is then there should be something that will change, should it not?

Well, it gives them all the authority that they currently have right now. It's just state law lapsing no longer giving it to them. They're allowing the local governments to decide how much of it to give to them. And there's a physical note that's going to be attached to that.

I don't know. I want to reiterate that.

Again, it is a question. Can we ask that if Marsha, can she come up and speak about it? Because what I'm trying to understand is what is their option?

I'll make a motion. Did we just table this until regularly? I think that's coming up.

Okay, let me finish my question. And again, the reason why I ask the question is, if there is things going on in the office, then again, the person that's holding that office, if they can give their representation of what this team is for. Correct.

This was built in consideration with the loss This is what this board would have to bring, this board would have to pass, and hence why it came through me to do that. This is the same exact, not passing this would substantially alter the current status of what the marshal's office is. This defeats the status quo of the marshal's office. Dooms.

And again, I know that the council is going to But this is just for introduction. If you allow just the introduction, that's the first step. If the council decides to take that up, I want to emphasize that there's things that are attached to this that could potentially have budget ramifications.

And a good government authority always is your, it is always your, it means the entirety of your city. It means your legislative and your executive body. They're not each other's kids, that's why it's always organized things like that.

That puts it forward. Okay, but the mayor don't get a vote until he can veto it. It would take a pretty long time to override the mayor's veto. I've got to see what it means or not. I've got to go back and look at the chart. move back to that key phrase that you, that you use.

So the governance, the governance authority underneath that one, that ordinance, that 2-22, that, that is a watering down of what the charter requirement is. So it's in conflict. I'm not referring to that.

I'm just going back to.

Yeah. It depends on how it works. Through ordinances, their exercise is vetoed. Through resolution power, it's their agreement and vote in the resolution. That's what I was trying to get you. It depends on the vehicle it comes. But yes, you're correct. Whatever vehicle the instrument gets your by is how it plays out differently.

I just request that the council allow for introduction because there's no action that needs to be taken just so that initial step can be had and then all the questions again like you haven't studied can be taken up

Mr. Smith will probably discuss the rest of the challenge.

Right. And we'll talk about how appropriate it is, but there is a physical note attached to it. I just can't reiterate that more. I just can't. So that's my request on behalf of the administration.

I just had one more, just a point of information. Because I know you said it was doing new services, but I see that Section 21.3 says probation supervision, establishment of probation supervision. So that's the new service, right?

Well, I think I left the term in there. The Marshal's office throughout history has in various times provided those services for supervision. I don't know. You're asking historically what have they done? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Before we adjourn, can I ask you all about the statement below number six where it says item numbers are simple categories. Can you explain what that means, please? Right under adjourn number six.

Yeah, so this comes from the regular meeting So this comes from the regular meeting agenda. Whenever we have regular items on there, like planning, zoning, business, but there's none underneath it, there was always a, we had questions from the public for, hey, are we doing anything to meet that? Because we don't have anything listed. So that just tells you, there's nothing listed. We're not translating business. Unless there's a sub-award, we're not doing any business. throughout history. This number is always that often.

Yeah, I've done it the first time. I've only been on there about a year, but they haven't noticed it.

Can I get a motion to make a second? All in favor? Aye. Opposed?