City Council - Regular Meeting

order regular meeting september the 10th 6 p.m 6 15. can i get a roll call to determine the form please here mr henry noted district b here mr james here mr derrick green district b present Please stand for the invocation and pledge, please.

Let us bow our heads. Father God, in the name of Jesus, here we come, first to say thank you. Thank you for willing hearts and willing minds to work together to make the city of Bastrop progress forward. We hope that we can come into agreement just to make sure our city progresses. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen.

Salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Agenda modifications.

I have any.

I do.

My first one is to add revocation of occupational license of the Lowry properties. Number two, I'm requesting an executive session to discuss item 11B, subset one. And the third item is to discuss Ms. Goldman's role.

You want to do that in executive session?

Yeah, oh, they got to be in executive. You say Lowry Properties Occupational, I mean?

Yes, revocation of the occupational license for Lowry Properties.

And the second one was what?

Executive session to discuss item 11B, subset one.

She's not a worker. She's not an employee. Okay. No. No. I just told her she's not a worker.

But we could still discuss her role, even if it's a volunteer role. Oh, 11D. No, 11B. Oh, B. Okay.

Oh, a number one. Okay.

Let's see what we're going to put it in.

Do we have to go on and vote on these?

Ms. Jones, what do we need to stick those to?

I mean, I had three. Ms. Goldman's role, regardless if she's volunteer, I know she's not an employee, but discuss her volunteer role.

He's trying to get the order. Huh? He's trying to get the order. He's writing them down. Okay.

I'm trying to see if I need to stick that to one that was two or three. One. One B.

One B, I'm saying. I'm trying to go in order. She went in order. Which one she had first?

Let's see. You got Larry property, occupation.

Okay. Okay. I got you now.

I'm trying to see where to stick it. We can make that 14A for Larry. Occupation?

14A. Yeah. So 14A. 14B. Okay.

We'll make a second decision. No, we'll do Sandra Goldman.

We'll do both of those on B as a decision. Okay.

all right all right so what numbers is executive that's a 14 we're going to do um 14 a and 14 b both of them executive session do we have to do a motion on that to put that in

to the agenda, whether those items should be expanded and added to the agenda. And then once that's over, you would take a vote and a unanimous vote to go forward with it. Not unanimous of the mayor, but unanimous because this one is the regular rule.

Okay, I want to make a motion to add revocation of the occupational license of the Lauer properties and also an executive session to discuss item 11b, subset 1, Amos Goldman's role.

I second the motion.

All right. Can we get any public comments on it? We're going to move it.

Yes. Yes.

I have also have another motion to suspend Roberts rules of order and move Any opposed?

Okay. Appreciate that, Council Lady Tapper. Any public comments? Yes, the ones we just called.

I was trying to get some clarity on what was taking place, if I could follow along here. Charles Bradford, 1320 South Washington Street here in Bastrop, Louisiana. On those new additional added to the agenda, those motions When you say the Lowry property license permit, any particular location?

Occupational license on all Lowry properties.

All the property? Yes. Okay. And then I have one question about the accession session. Mrs. Goldman, she's not employed. Why would you have to go and access the session for her? She's a volunteer from my understanding. We should be able to discuss her in an open public hearing here. And the other one was Mr.

11 B, first subset, the attorney's resolution that deals with all the attorneys.

Okay, that may be. I guess I'll come back on that on my time. I just wanted to make sure I understand basically what's going on. On 11 B, that's to discuss the attorney's. Okay. Well, I'll come back with my other, my man.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Also, I have one more. I thought we agreed to move the speaker agenda up to the top of the, um, agenda.

I thought we talked about that last time. No, I never.

Okay. Well, I'm going to make a request to suspend Robert rules of order and allow Ms. Rose Thompson to move further up the agenda. Okay.

I think y'all suspended Robert's Rules of Order at this point. We are. Okay. So you can move it up. Okay.

I'll make that motion.

I second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

So she will be which? 9? Yeah. 9F. Okay. 9F.

We can move all the way up to public comments.

Okay. All right.

So that would be 5B?

Yeah, 5B.

Yeah, you just go ahead. You don't have to keep saying it. Whatever you want to do, just move it.

Yeah.

All right. Is that it? You can just go down there to it and move up if you want to. Put your comments on that one.

You can go to 16 if you want.

Yeah. Who? You can go down there to it now if you want to. Ms. Rose? Yeah. Okay. You come up, Ms. Rose.

No, actually, it's just her speaker.

Okay.

She's the only one? Yes, I just want to.

Any announcement of recognition?

I have one.

Anybody have an announcement of recognition? Okay, I have one.

We want to keep the Robinson-Lawley family in our prayers as well as any other bereaved families. And one more thing on the medical note, we have heat advisories out, so we want everybody to stay well hydrated, especially the elderly and children. Drink plenty of fluids and don't get dehydrated.

I think we need to do that with the public comments to the agenda before we go to the speaker. Anybody else?

We'll go back to her.

Yeah, I think. I think Devin got too far. Don't say that. Hold on.

You can go ahead and see. Any public comments as it relates to the items on the agenda? You can go ahead. We'll get Ms. Rose out of the way. Any public comments, Mr. Bradford? You want to say something? You can come on back in.

Come on, take a seat.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Again and again, Charles Bradford, 1320 South Washington Street in Bastrop. Let me start here with 11B. Are those 11B, city attorney appointment, Ricky Smith, Devin Jones, and Rodney Pierre, resolution? Should they be separate? Because we're looking at this from a separate perspective. I mean, you can't put all these same attorneys under the same resolution. Just at our last meeting, they spoke of they had some was on contract, some was off contract, some didn't know what track they were on. I think these resolutions should be done on each individual professional attorney that's listed here for appointment instead of jamming them all together. I mean, in other words, you can't pass one without the other. I mean, because I hope there'll be some change, but that's just my hope. In our legal perspective, this city government, the city of Bastrop, I hope there'll be some changes. I mean, you know, some revocations, some amendments, I don't know. But this way, look here, we can't go with Rick if we don't take Devin. We can't take Devin if we don't take, yeah, everybody on the same resolution. Can somebody tell me why he did that? What is that all about? Y'all all on the same payroll? Can somebody answer that? That don't make good business sense to me. I mean, we want to get on the right track. We want to get it done right. Let's stop the undercover our community. We need to grow together. I think it's time that we all at that point where we want to grow together. But when you got stuff like this put before the public, one can't come without the other. I don't know how to sound too professional to me, you know, because I hope some don't come. Peter don't come without Paul in this situation to move our community. I'm not calling out any names. because we got a whole lot of undermining stuff in our legal department is keeping holding this city back, holding us back from growth. There's no city in the United States the attorney is making the agenda. There's no city in the United States where the attorney is in daily, daily operation, but bastard. And that's why we can't move forward in our bright economic, Let the council run. We elected Mayor Mark Moore. We elected Mrs. Tappan, Mrs. Doty, Mr. D.D. Green, and J. Green, Mr. Locke. Those should be decision makers. That's who is responsible to this community. I would hope that you take that into consideration, separating those two, those three, from one another.

And I'm going to move on.

So that's the official journey that that's something. I'm a part of. We know that by now you should know that. I'll leave a representative. Mr. Jones is to turn it for a citizen that that's a conflict of interest. Now he's been for years now if you didn't know now you know. And that's why we're having a conflict about why not. We're doing a thing with our local journal because it's being held up by Mr. Jones. He gave us the hell last time about that. I'm going to just say it like that and I'm going to move on.

Let's see.

I just, that again, I think that talk about the appointment, go back to mayor or more. I hope you consider the deepening your heart with your counselor working with you that we can keep us. But no one coming here and separate this community. We would not be separated no longer by nobody. May I hope you consider that when you do your appointment, all due respect to you. We need to stick together in our community. We're not going to go to West Monroe and run nothing. Have a good day.

Thank you, Mr. Bradford. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Anybody else got a comment?

Yes.

You can go ahead, Ms. Rose.

Rose Thompson, 120 Parkhurst, here in Baxter, Louisiana. Been here all my life, all 70 years of my life. I have seen good and I've been seeing bad. I take offense to a lot of things that have transpired when it comes to my local government. I've said on my... On my life, I wish that the council and the mayor could work together. And that's the only way we're going to move forward. I care deeply about Baxter. Believe it or not, I care very, very deeply about Baxter. I have given Mr. Jones hell on my life because I look at it like, My perspective, like he is running things, but I had a conversation yesterday or day before yesterday, one of them. And I was shown some things that wasn't what I was thinking. And I decided I was a big enough person to back off until I get ready. But I have some problems with him. Some things that I felt like came from the past administration over to this administration. I don't just pick on him because I'm not just person. Mr. Doty. Mr. Doty, I'm sitting here today to ask you one question. Why is it, in my opinion, that you've been given the office hell about karen and karen is not the only one that works for the city karen is doing what he's supposed to be doing and once i i got wind i called you back that day and you didn't call me back i wish i could have discussed with you probably but you you keep going after him like you've got a vengeance against him. He's a young man that is brought up very well. I didn't bring him up. His mama did. She did a great job. Very manable, smart. Graduated from Grimm. He is a person that he's going to do what he's told to do. Mel or Jamie going to tell him to do. I want you to tell me, as his grandmother, because, see, I fight for that boy whether you know it or not. I want you to tell me what is it that you got against him? And he worked for the city. He's on the city payroll. What is it, Mr. Doty, that you have against my baby? You can answer that.

Listen, this is what I will say at this juncture. To be called out about taking care of city business, that's one thing. But when there is something that's going on that refers to one employee or another employee, then What happens in that instance is I don't have a vengeance against anybody, not a soul, because it ain't in here. We're talking about vengeance, right? I don't have that in here.

But for this...

Because I don't answer my phone, you're talking about bringing it up in a council meeting because I didn't answer my phone?

Well, you're a city council person. You're supposed to talk to people. I'm talking to you. I know that's city business. What Kyron do every day is city business.

I'm not going to sit here and argue with you, Ms. Rose. You asked me for an answer, then you cut me off.

Well, finish.

Are you sure you want me to finish?

I said finish.

Listen, I'm going to be done with this when I say this, but you can just best believe that anything I do up here is all about the city of Bastrop. I don't know where you got your information from. Listen, I talk about positions. I talk about money. I talk about issues. I don't talk about people, but you've got to realize...

really don't want to call out a person but it worked within the city and and and i have a right to know as a taxpayer citizen i have a right to ask you and if i'm over my five minutes can i get another five for just one one more it's not it indeed it hasn't been yet mr housekeeper the thing that i have it's not going i just want the city to run right I just want the city to run right.

Yes, ma'am.

And I want you to respect every person that works in the city. I might not agree with all of them. I'm going to voice my opinion because I can. But I do call the mayor or my city council later. I call her and talk to her about a lot of things.

I call you to talk to you.

Mr. Jones came up to me and he was asking me, he said, you ain't rough with me this week. See, he can be, he understand. I'll put it to you like that. He understand. But I have a problem with him, not just him. I have a problem with three or four more because I asked for their, what you call it, that signing of contract contract i couldn't think then i wanted to know how much we was paying these contractors that we was there one of them was miss hawkins i asked for that part of it i did not receive well i received some of it but not all of it and i do remember when she tore down that first building i asked you about it you said we approved that 65 000 for her to turn that building down it was already in the budget ain't that's what you told me ain't that what you told me so now 65 how come she went back and there's nobody else in this city that can tear down building the houses why is she the only one i had a gentleman to contact me and i called the man and i told him about how come she is the only one that they call to tear down houses and stuff like that i want to know if there's special treatment i'm not just just talking to you i'm talking to everybody now so is there special treatment that she's getting or what ma'am

That's a bid. We had different bids come in. I picked the one I thought was best for the job.

Is it going to be her every time? Is it going to be her every time?

Oh, no. I don't know who it's going to be. It's a procedure you go by.

How come $65,000 we paid her for that building?

I would like to point of order, please. I'd like to ask a legal question at this point. Whoever can answer it. We got three attorneys here. Um, as far as what the mayor said, he said, um, he said it was a bid, right? You said a bid? Yes, a bid. Quotes, quotes, quotes. Quotes, I mean, not bid, quotes. Okay. Yeah, those were quotes. Okay, so what's the actual procedure for that? I know at one time we were getting sealed bids. We advertised for a while, and then our city clerk and one other person would open the bids up. Then the bids would come back to us. Quotes, yeah. So, okay, what made the situation a quote instead of a bid with this job?

I want to know about the $65,000. I'm sorry, Ms. Smith. The $65,000 that when I asked Mr. Dodage, he said that was already put in the budget. That's what you told me. And I found out that she didn't get no $65,000. So how come she got it and it's not reported? That's what I want to know.

Uh, Ms. Thompson, this is your time. I don't want to interrupt your time. Um, the only question I can, I can answer is what was in the budget. We have money in the budget for demolition, um, last fiscal year and this fiscal year.

And Ms. Rose, you, you can, you can speak long as you want. They don't have to answer the questions.

Uh-oh. Well, why are they sitting here? We paying them. If they can't answer our question, how come we can't get an answer? But they can sit there like, and tell us not that they can't answer something when we pay their salaries. I don't understand that, ma'am. How come they can't answer our question that we asked them? It's always, I can't answer that question. Because of what? Why he cannot answer that question?

It's always been like that.

Yeah, but people hadn't come to challenge it either. I'm challenging that. Why is it that we paying all these people this and then when we get up here to say something, we can't get a straight and honest answer because they're saying, I can't answer that because, because what?

A point of information, point of order council green. I think, I think we don't got off track, but since you asked the question, um, being a finance chairman, we, it was bids. I want to correct the Mary. Well, I mean, that was quotes, not bid bids or seal quotes are open to get quotes. So, and the quote that came out was this public record. It was 55,000. That was a quote. If that answers your question. And it was more than one quote. Mr. Mayor.

It was more than one person?

No, no, no. I said it was more than one quote.

It was more than one quote? Yeah, quote. I want to ask the question, was there another person besides Ms. Hawkins that was involved in that?

I'm going to leave that up to the administration, but it was three quotes. Councilman Doney? Yes.

Listen, just to make a clarification, when you and I had a before conversation about that, there was actually $85,000 in the budget, and that's what that number was. It was never $65,000, it was $85,000. But after we talked, that budget was subsequently amended. It was amended after they started that project. And again, you got to remember, that that was during the last fiscal year. Now we're in another fiscal year. So she didn't, all she got to my understanding and knowledge was $5,000.

For that building?

No, from last fiscal year.

Point of information, sir. Go ahead. I'm going to reiterate. Councilman J. Green. The bid, three quotes came in. Okay. three quotes came in one person didn't have insurance. Right. And so it was three quotes. It wasn't like, I don't think the mayor just actually just pick somebody that's ringing. I'm trying to clear this up. It was three, three quotes and it came in at, 50, 55,000. So councilman Doty is kind of got like two things going on. He's saying like last fiscal year versus this fiscal year, but we kind of discussed that in our finance meet, it's the same contract. It just carried over into another fiscal year, which would be not going to get the five plus that you're only going to get what the contract said in, in the contract of the bid of the quote was 55,000. So that kind of answered a little bit of your question because now the process, I got some reservations, I got some questions about the process, but you asked about the amount. The amount was 55 and it was three quotes because I'm trying to clear up some. He just didn't arbitrarily just pick someone. Right. Because you can't just pick somebody. to do something because that's, that's against the law. So you have to go about the process. So he, he, he, it was three, it was three B and was three, three quotes. And, and then the administration, they looked in to it and they, They came up with the person with this quote. Now, anything else going to have to come from the mayor? May I try to clear it up as best I can? It's back in your hands now.

Well, the mayor and I had talked about it.

She was the only one that could get it. Two of them quotes we got.

i can't talk about her i don't care about her getting that but i was just saying is there anybody else in the city that can do the job because people are looking at like how come she's always getting the if they got the if they got the insurance and they all everything right yeah they can get it when they come open they can get it well i'm i'm just i'm gonna be concerned whether Agree or disagree or whether you agree or disagree. I'm gonna be concerned about the dollar amount that we're putting out to these people That is and I'm looking at my community that's looking like hell and getting it cleaned up We need to get somebody over there to clean up all that trash all them dilapidated houses all of this And nobody seems to be taking us seriously about how we feel in our community, how we got to ride and look at this and people stand next door to all these raggedy houses that got all kind of animals running in and out. Like, take for instance where I live. I don't talk to this tapping about that house many times. when the sheriff was talking to me, he told me that the city owned that house. I had him to look into it. He said it was adjudicated to the city. Didn't I say that?

Yes.

And I've been trying to see, and Lowry got three or four houses down from me that is bad shape. So, Mayor and the council people, I just want to Talk where other people can't talk in my community. That is going to stand up to say what they really need. A lot of them, it's talking, but nobody's paying attention to it. And I wonder, when can we get somebody? I talked to Mr. Lee the other day, and he was saying that what Mr. Jones, waiting on Mr. Jones to do something with the process i put it like that we love clean things too don't think cause we live in a poor area that you don't like it we do we really do and i just want to say please start getting us the lowest income involved in a lot of stuff that y'all got going on listen to us sometimes don't listen to those that live in right and got a nice place to live in talk to us so we can tell you what we need over there that's all i want be fair we pay taxes too be fair that's all i want can that happen mr green did i have can that help sure dd yeah mr doden Miss Tappan.

That's what we want.

In the mail.

As always.

All right, then. If we can come to that conclusion, I'm fine. Don't leave my son alone before I hurt you.

All right, Miss Rose.

Oh, he's laughing, is he? Okay. I'm being honest with you.

Thank you, Miss Rose.

Appreciate it. Oh, yeah.

Anybody else? Well, we on number six approved.

I ain't worried about that contract now. Excuse me, ma'am. I'll deal with that later.

Approve previous minutes. Okay, it's approved.

Six approval previous minutes Yes, and they approve automatic right Do we have any minutes in the packages? Yeah, that'd be approval those minutes You say one of them that'd be approvals look at my motion second I Get a motion

Thank you.

We'll move to 7, consideration of any action on reports of committee appointed of the government body. A finance committee report. Do we have a finance committee report?

No? Yes, I make a recommendation that we not approve this month's finance report.

I got a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We'll go to B.

President, we was putting something in place to be able to answer some of the complaints that we've been receiving. We have it now. Well, Mr. Jones just told me that we have it now. So next meeting, we should have something in place going forward to anybody that you know, family members, friends that have a complaint with preference service. We'll have a procedure to put in place for it. So next Tuesday, we'll confirm that at the meeting.

Okay. All right. Can we go to the historic district board? I'll have it here. We'll move to eight reports. So department has a bachelor city police department, chief Reed. Do you have anything? All right.

Just a question about, um, the operation hours and days.

Just how many days are we actually operating in the hours operating every single day of the week and we're operating the rating three nights out of the week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And we also have a detective that's on call now. Okay.

All right. So is that our only new employee?

No, I actually hired someone else today too. And um, we also have a person that's attending the academy at this time.

So how many officers are we short right now?

We counting those that the one that I hired today and the one that's in the academy are going to be about four officers short. But like I say, On patrol, there's seven. So on patrol, if you need 12, it's going to be about four to five officers. But the detective that I hired also helps out on patrol as well.

Any other possibilities?

We have one that we're going to start the hiring process on in October.

Okay.

Appreciate it, Chief. Mm-hmm.

B, fire department. Chief, you got anything? Okay. Coding for us from Mr. Lee. You got anything? I have a question.

Speak up.

You got a question for me? Come forward, Mr. Lee.

Good evening. Mr. Thornton and Mr. Jones, if you will, I'm trying to get some clarity on the occupational licenses and granting of occupational licenses. There were some changes that were done a few months ago. end of last year or maybe the beginning of this year but anyway there was some changes incorporated uh what i'm trying to understand first thing i want to understand is uh that in the changes uh to the occupational licenses did we are we still saying that the administrator has by right approval if everything meets uh meets specs point point that to david yeah mr jones okay

I'm unaware that the administrators ever approved an occupational license. Occupational licenses or business licenses.

Okay, so are we talking about the zoning permit?

Administrator and administrators.

What is the administrator approved by right?

That would be, they'd be planning zoning, they'd be zoning permits. zoning permits okay okay and so the occupational license you can't get without the other permits right so that's talking about the administrative memo that was issued that they have the administrative rule that has to be signed off by and you'd have to probably ask mr smith about that as he authored that one

Referring to the memo and then to the changes on the occupational licenses, what is inside of that memo that precipitates the memo to be made to begin with?

Well, number one.

According to the memo, to get the occupational license, you had to have the zoning permit and the building permit to get the occupational license. If I'm reading what the memo says correctly.

that was an executive order drafted codifying the practice that the city had before um just put it so there will be no issues in regards to the steps um that's all the executive order that was drafted codified it's just uh before issuing of an occupational license you need to make sure that you got the proper permits and everything like that so it was just a practice of the city which made good policy because we don't want to get in the business of issuing occupational license to people that can't use them so that's all the executive order did it didn't make any changes it just codified the practice as a city employed and made it uh set in stone of of of what needs to happen before occupational licenses issue

Okay, so again, let me ask this question again. You may not, I may not need you after all, but that's what I wanted was clarification on the memo as it was written opposed to the ordinance, what it says in the ordinance. if if if you all have a planning and zoning uh zoning uh meeting and then there are some licenses that uh that are approved after that uh when would we when would we get would we have to wait until the next meeting to get to get that information yes point of war i'm at point of information yeah um if it's not proved outright

when they go to the zoning, they don't make no decisions. They just make recommendations come to us. If he's not going to approve it outright, I see what you're saying, but no one else can make the decision. But either the administration, if it falls within the specs, if it's outside the scope, then it comes to the zoning board and they make a recommendation to the council. So it's not going to be, if he don't, see fit to approve it, it's automatically going to eventually end up with us, with the council.

And we're talking about a zoning permit, right?

Yes.

But according, if I may, according to the ordinance and the memo that you can't have, you can't get the zoning permit and the building permit without an occupational license, right? I mean, you can't get occupations license without the other two.

I think that's what the memo, that's what it was trying to clear up. I think that's what Mr. Smith was trying to make sure that you just didn't go get an occupational license. He was going to make sure that you meet the criterias before because last time they just, somebody just went and got an occupational license because you just go get an occupational license and then you find out that What you're trying to put there is not zoned. It don't make sense. So he put the steps in place where you go to, like it always been, you go to zoning, you find out, you go to the fire chief and you find everything. And once you clear it there, then you go to get your occupation license because there's no sense in wasting money when you can't operate a business. even though you have occupation license, which has never made any sense to me. We all should go back to common sense practice. And I think that's what Mr. Smith was trying to do, make it clear as to what, yeah. Okay, yes.

I just wanted a good clarification on that.

Appreciate it, Mr. Lee. All right, D and E. looking mayor this one who can answer the questions regarding public works and mayor O'Meara gonna come up next when a report for city officials okay and myself also okay all right D we don't have Karen mr. Murray had emergency we all put Ms. Holmes in there. We'll put Ms. Holmes in the seat next time she's out.

I'm glad to back up to the clerk. I'll call him out so I can see.

Okay, city clerk.

Point of information.

Go ahead, Councilman Jay Green.

I want to make kind of observation about our clerk. Let's not say the person. I'm talking about the position. Let's get some clarification. I think that being custodian of records it's vital that we have a person like when a former clerk was here we always had a person to fill in right because actually they're the custodians of records when we sign off on these ordinances and and different things when you see when we sign them you see at the bottom it says clerk and they have to sign off on it so if you if you don't have a clerk my thing would be who's signing off and the clerk is not here then you signing off on something that you actually didn't verify so it's vital no no you know like i told you a few minutes ago when i i just called it like it is like when you misspoke i came to your defense i'm just telling you i would say the same thing if i was in your seat i'm not trying to tell you something i wouldn't do i think it's vital that the person who's We elected selected is here to take notes because that is part of the clerk's job to keep records and this whatever we do is official. and it have to be logged as such so therefore i'm saying i've got a reservation inclined to vote no on everything on this agenda because there's no clerk and i'm just saying i i know you say they'll be here next time but i just want to go back to what we had a we had a meeting last night which was a which was a crucial meeting and need to be passed so you know i didn't want to just get bogged down in the specifics. So I think we just did the right thing and passed everything for the city. But going forward, I think the clerk needs to be at these meetings because they're the custodian of records. And that's my take on it. Now you can go to the next one, sir.

I appreciate it, Councilman Green. Number nine, reports of city officials. Hey, city attorney. Mr. Jones. You have anything?

I think other than what we've got before us tonight, we've worked forward. The only other thing we're working on is working out the details about how to issue the citations for criminal violations of the ordinances. And I think we've got a procedure worked out now that we have obtained one of the detectives back who's been able to help us do that.

Mr. Smith, budget and policy.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, uh, mountain pro team and members just real quick. Uh, we apply for, uh, critical infrastructure funding through, uh, Delta regional authority. Um, this past, uh, August, I believe the deadline was August the 24th. Uh, we submitted that, uh, funding request was a little over half a million dollars for that cooper lake saturn area drainage so we got everything in for that uh there's some other things that we need to do in preparation and if we're able uh we awarded that grant also in your packets there were uh the report that the engineer prepared in regards to the because these funding windows, when they come open, we need to be prepared. So members, I want y'all to look at their report. The ratings, Mr. Doty, I got information from the engineer. If it's a one rating, that means it's bad. Five is good. So go through your list and identify those. And when we go through, I guess, the regular order through finance, we can identify some things and try to get some things identified. At that point, it's going to be the pleasure of the council. Y'all received the budget for the street tax, district number one. You can go to the balance sheet.

structure this fiscal year.

The sewer budget is coming for the closeout. It wasn't ready at the time the general fund and the sales tax was prepared but it has been closed out and I've done a preliminary draft of it uh we will put that in the paper uh this coming uh thursday so that'd be on the agenda to review and approve uh q1 budget as uh scheduled for the october meeting as well Um, I'm hoping I can push to make sure that all the inputs are in place so I can run that, uh, in time for the council meeting. If not probably have to call a special meet maybe the week after that. Um, The 25-26 audit period is beginning. Again, last night was one of the critical steps that we needed. So I've been in conversation with the auditors and Jeff. We have access to the portal. We're going to start actually uploading documents maybe as early as tomorrow, but definitely by Monday. So they can get started on that so we can meet that December 31st deadline. The auditors assured us that if we get information to them within the time frame that we set up, that we should be able to meet that deadline so we don't have to worry about being out of compliance. um the dawson park ac units have been replaced grant funding on thank representing fisher for that i'm not sure who's been in there i know mr green is in there so everything has looked good over there it's great over there so um and then the bathrooms have been upgraded that's that uh money that was uh grant money that we also got that was earmarked for park and rec so there's a couple other things that we're going to do in dyson park that we have funding for um but that's all i have right now and also and also miss janet floyd and senator katrina jackson andrews

Also, too, just to piggyback on Dawson, they have purchased, I'm sorry. You go ahead. They have purchased, I think, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 40 balls. It's a lot of different equipment for kids to get better in basketball. Of course, they have the shooting machine. I know they have...

It's like stand-up cones.

So there's a lot of things over there that they have at this moment.

Yeah, Councilman Locke spent some of his money to upgrade Dyson with the equipment. I've been over there, and it's nice. I walk in there, it looks like you're walking into somewhere else, not Dyson Park. So it's real nice. The bathrooms are amazing.

So I just encourage not only members from the council to go, um, look in that facility, but members of the community, but there are some additional upgrades that are coming.

Thank you. Mr. Smith, uh, C special via the mail mail. Um, let's see, let's see.

Good evening, Mayor, Madam Pro-Chairman, and also council members. I wanted to, I know Councilwoman Tappan, I know you have questions about public works. I want to mention a couple things before you get to your question. I may ask that before, but I want to mention that the mayor has tasked me to, part of a task force, to deal with something that we all are very concerned about, and that is blight throughout the city. And I want to mention a couple of gentlemen that I've been meeting with, and two of them are here, Mr. Charles Bradford, and also Mr. Jim Raymond. We've been meeting for, what, a couple months, I guess, and talking about how we move forward. And I know you guys have talked considerably about that. Also, Mr. Dean Blackett, who is a local businessman. Now, that's just a small ad hoc meeting because it's going to really grow quite a bit. And we've been talking about that, and we put together a comprehensive plan that I've been talking to Mayor Moore about. And, of course, he looked at it, and we were wanting to get it on this agenda today, but there are also some things that need to be done. I know that the mayor has talked to Mr. Jones about it and so forth, and he's still looking at it. So that's why it's not on the agenda tonight. But I do want to commend them because they've been working extremely hard concerning that. to get it done, and it is a comprehensive plan to turn blight to bright in the city of Bastrop. But I will, I just yield to the questions right now. There's a couple other things, but I yield to the questions.

Okay. The mayor mentioned that you're serving as the public works director. Is that?

As acting.

Acting.

As acting, which there's acting, as you know, there's interim, and then there's So I'm not the interim. I'm acting. So I act like that. So whatever duties he asks me to do, I do. In fact, all of you have called me about something. I act on it. And then also the staff... I meet with them, I talk with them about different things, so yes.

Is that part of your contract?

Yes. It is. The last part of my contract is any other duties that's assigned to me by the mayor, and that consists of a lot of different things in addition to what's on the contract.

Okay. Another question, since you are acting public works director, what is the grass-cutting schedule? Because there's a lot of areas that have not been touched in a long time.

Very good question. There is a schedule that they have each week, and they go by that schedule. But once we get a call, and we get a lot of calls, I get calls, the mayor gets called about requests that U.S. council members have. And so what I normally do when I get those calls, I submit it to Mr. Kyron Thompson, Also, Mr. Deval, Jesse Deval, and also Mr. Mike Winfield. I send those to them. Sometimes I get a chance to go out to take a look at those. And of course, I've had several conversations with the mayor concerning that. And I know he wants to visit with you all about that. But they do have a schedule. And what they've said to me a lot is when they have to change from that, it put some back off schedule. That's what they tell me. But obviously the mayor usually, you know, after we have conversations about it, you know, usually make a decision how, how normally it's, you know, that they proceed.

Um, my concern is the graveyards. Because I've gone out to the graveyard, H.V. Adams, I have loved ones out there, and I've noticed a lot of times the grass is tall. It doesn't seem like it's been really cut.

I received pictures of a graveyard once before, and I actually submitted that to, in fact, the pictures that I got came from actually out of town, from a person who lived here. And his relative, his mother, actually is buried out there. So he sent me the picture, and I sent that to them to say to them there's a complaint about it, and they were supposedly going to go out and go back over it. Now, I don't know how often that has happened, but I have pictures where...

The grass used to be cut every week, so I don't know what's the schedule now. And like I said, the grass and the ditches,

Now, one of one of the challenges I know and an American address is maybe more. But, you know, we had some of the inmates, you know, that came from the sheriff's department. That was then there was a time when they said that they were withdrawing some of those inmates. Now, I'm not sure if they brought them back or not, but they haven't. No, they haven't. OK, so I know that's been a been a challenge now. I had. talked to share with Amira about possibly other options that we can look at, not only with that but with some of the other services too that we provide that could possibly help.

What we proposed last administration was possibly if we have in trouble with, uh, employees not having enough, it's possibly contracting some of this out because are we. I know some of the equipment. What about the tractors? Are they working? We bought new tractors about two, three years ago.

That's one of the suggestions I made to the mayor contract. Yeah. To look at that, to look at the maintenance costs, because one of the tractors, one of the big tractors in Raven. I've been over there a couple of times to meet with them. In fact, I think it may be still over there in which when I was over there, they were giving me and they were giving me a list of some of the services that they provided on these tractors. And I was quite frankly very concerned and I expressed that to the mayor because um, the equipment is old,

But what about the, we bought new tractors with the, what you call the arm?

Well, that one is new, I believe. But I'm just saying, overall, some of the equipment is old. Some of the vehicles are old. So, actually, I've suggested not only that, but vehicles too. And just compare to how much money that we're spending on maintenance compared to how much it would be if we contracted out. So we're just at the early stage of talking about that.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, sure.

You know, questions on, you know, yeah, I'm piggyback on the grass on the graveyard. Our guys work extremely hard. They doing a normal schedule. It's just taking them a while to get back around. We have addressed a lot of stuff, Council Lady Tappan, that we've been getting a lot of complaints also. But we have different, we have a lot of graveyards around. They do them, they weed eat them, they... I told them to start blowing, but the grass was growing so fast. Not only us, I have a lot of friends that only own grass companies. They said the same thing. Grass just grew fast this year. Yeah, so we've been working hard. They've been out there working hard.

Oh, not to ever say that they don't work hard. That was never my intention. Point of information. Councilman J. Green.

You stepped to the plate. You said you're acting director. Yes, sir. Well, get ready to. for some questions. Talk about grass rotation, cutting the grass rotation. With all due respect, I understand that you've got a rotation, but you've got to also understand that people in the community watch and see. Everybody lives in the community, so they know when the grass has been cut. So when you say a rotation, a rotation means a rotation. You've got to have a Everybody worked on a job. You know what a rotation is. So a rotation is you come here. If you're going to do it this Tuesday, you're probably going to do it two Tuesdays from now. Rotation don't mean this Tuesday and then three months. you do it again so when you say rotation we need to make sure that we've got you you book stop with you next to the mayor because you you the public works director can't speak to nobody but you right now so there's complaints i've been getting and i actually see it sometime myself the main corridors look great but some of these other roads we gotta we gotta be more strategic in attacking the problem because when a person see it at the beginning of this month and they see it a month later than a month and a half later, people living in that area know whether the grass has been cut or not. Better schedule and maintenance. And when something is down, therefore you won't get so far behind. And you say you coming up with a strategy and a good plan, which sounds good, but. When I'm looking, when I got hindsight and I'm looking to see what, what my constituents was talking about at different areas, right? It's like, I ain't gonna say neglect, but what I use the word, you know, it haven't been done in a timely fashion. And my thing about it is you shouldn't have to call. to say the grass hadn't been mowed. If you got supervisors that's roaming the streets and they see that the grass haven't been cut and you say it yourself, you're on the road.

about grass here, grass there. I shouldn't have to call because that's what we got supervisors for. different things, so he's out there.

He's out there.

You better come watch me. But if y'all got, and again, to kick back off, if y'all know any spot that need more embed, you know, because we can't get over the whole city, but if you know any spot, call Ms. Africa and tell her, or again, text me, and one of y'all counselors, y'all can text me, and I promise you I'll send them over there.

You know, Mr. Green, to your point, again, Councilman, one of the last calls that I received from a Councilman, Councilman Locke called me about the rotation. And there was an area in his district that needed to be mowed. And I sent that in. And then about the rotation again. I said, well, we just left from over there. Of course, it's more than just that location. but it happened to be just city property, too. And so, again, going into the rotation, well, when will you get back around? Because you're dealing with three components, at least three components, personnel, equipment, and also training, too, because they have to be adequately trained, you know, whomever's out there doing that, because we certainly need them.

Yes, Mr. D. I'm not sure this question I can ask you or the mayor, but I always want to know, back when Mayor Kyle was the mayor, what I was doing on Saturdays was I understand that there's other districts, so I was pertaining to my district only. What I was doing was I was on Saturdays. I was going Just when the city wasn't able to could to pick up paper in my district. I was doing it myself so I but I was later stopped because They told me I needed to do it during the weekend, not the weekend, but the people that was volunteering, it was best for them to do it on the weekend. So I was wondering though, because at the time I needed, I think Sheriff Tubbs gave me, allowed me to have four or five inmates and I needed a city worker because he told me it's not safe to,

carry the inmates in my vehicle maybe a city vehicle so i want to know i'm interested in doing that again would that be something that who i talked to what i talked you all talked to the mayor come see me okay that's her appreciate the two councilman d green uh somebody on facebook was thanking me but i thank you because you did it on elm street it was a house grass just grew up tallest and he got out there on a riding hood we it molded and weeded and everything but they were trying to thank me, but I couldn't take that credit. I think you're all Facebook. And, um, I had to tell him that also, I want to, um, in a minute, it is congratulate councilman D green on becoming the new director of the council on agents. I kept forgetting. I got you now.

Let me, let me mention too, real quickly. And I get to the quick point. Uh, Madam Pro Tem, I was in your district yesterday, and I know Ms. Thompson brought up the fact that there's houses next door to residents, and the mayor's been over there. He and I have been over there together, been separate. Mr. Thornton has been over there a couple times and trying to move on that and many others. And we're talking about what do we do because now what's happening is that property, not just that property but others as well, is encroaching upon a resident property such as Ms. Thompson that's trying to keep her property up. And it's encroaching. It's very concerned about it. And I was taking pictures and I said to the mayor, look, we've got to do something on this. And I know we're trying to get the whole process taken care of such that we can move on it, you know, because it's just not right for a person who owns a house who is an absentee landowner that's not there anymore and They were renting it, but nobody's there other than rodents and so forth. It's actually like four down that road. This was on Highland, but yeah, we've been over there too. But also Mr. Uh, councilman DD green want to mention too, he's he'd asked to be on this blight moving blight to bright. And I know you weren't able to meet. So we meet at nine o'clock. Should we move the time so you can meet?

I appreciate that. If you can, it won't be a trouble. If y'all can just fill me in, just keep me informed.

The last thing I want to mention is that I'm proud to be able to stand here about FEMA. We've been talking about FEMA for some time with the ice storm that occurred early in the year. We've been meeting with FEMA since it happened. Back in, what was that, January, February, we've been on conference call with FEMA. We do have a person that was helping us with that, and there were a number of things that they were requiring. And I've stood here a couple of times and commended some of the folks that's been involved, particularly Mr. Kyron Thompson, because he's been on the last several calls. Because Mr. Thompson, also Mr. Winfield, And also Mr Deval, they all have been part of helping to move some of the debris out to the landfill. And so the only thing that was left, I don't know if we've been able to burn yet because of the, the, the, the burn issue that we have. Yeah. That we, we have haven't been able to, but I think FEMA estimated what it would be. So we're talking about, And I was trying to get the exact amount. We were right at what, $27,000? $29,000. $29,000 is what they owe us to reimburse the city ambassador.

That's all.

It wasn't much. I mean, that's good for what we had to do. Councilman Doty have a question or something for you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the work you do. Thank you for reaching out. Uh, I've been hearing a lot of, uh, Valley who, and who, uh, hoopla up here tonight about the being in other districts. I ain't heard district B missing yet. Uh, do we have anything going on in district B that you're aware of any, any, any projects concerning, concerning public works?

Well, the, the number of pictures concerns, you know, as you know, you and I have been together before. Couple hours and then there's been and I want to commend you and thank you for you always on it. You know you send you send pictures. You also send the information and I appreciate that and I forwarded on some we've gotten to others. We perhaps have not gotten to and so those in particular because just riding around your district with you. There are a lot of challenges, well, challenges throughout the city, but particularly in some of the areas that need attention. So I can't say enough about your commitment to service and the things that you do, in addition to all of you, but the information that you provide. And I know it's tough to try to get to all of it right then, but I try to keep you up on it when I can. Because I say to the staff, let me know. If you can do it, if you've done it, or if you're having some challenges so I can communicate back to not just yourself, but also to other council members when they make the request.

And let me, let me say this too. Now that was just a slight joke. Just to start with, that was like joke. Cause I do communicate, uh, communicate with you guys on a regular basis. And, um, this, my district, this should be, it is a big district and, you know, according to where it's situated, uh, of like maybe back off in the corner somewhere uh we catch a lot of uh uh we catch a lot of the uh trash being thrown out of the window uh and i as i go down up and down the streets now i'm seeing a lot of whole big black trash bags being thrown in the street and um there's got to be some kind of i don't think maybe we can come up with something that that'll stop that But that is one of the biggest concerns I know in my district. I think the grass is kind of being kind of met on a timely basis. But again, a lot of the areas that we're cleaning up, for some reason, it seems like those same areas are being targeted for another cleaning. And I'm talking about shortly after you guys are cleaning. And, uh, so I've just, when I, when I talk to people and they, they come in and asking me and I just listen, all I can tell, if you see something, say something that's, that's number one, cuz the, cuz camera's not gonna be able to catch it. I don't care how many cameras you put up. Uh, you can actually see somebody driving by picking, uh, throwing some trash out of the window. Well, does that mean there, there's an arrest gonna come behind it because the person's got to be identified and all that type of stuff. So, but anyway, uh, I just wanted to acknowledge that District B is a big district, and I have no issues with you guys, working with you guys, getting information, and sending information. So have you applied for the job, or are you going to apply for the job? No, no. Okay.

I have plenty of work.

Somebody asked you that, and I told her I asked you.

I have a question. But if you just got to know, I said to the mayor, I said, look, you don't have a public works director. I know you're looking for one and you don't have to pay me in addition funds. I'll do that my own expense. And so that's what we've been doing for the past year.

make sure that because it's all about the city he didn't put some miles on that brand new truck yeah i just kind of want to piggyback uh mr dota said about uh the trash with the trash and trash bags being in there you know it's pretty much in all our districts uh know prior to this administration i think i had spoke about uh people not paying for trash trash being which will allow them or force them to push put the trash somewhere else my point of this conversation is saying that way back before we had to pay for the trash pickup, the trash was getting picked up for free, because if I'm not mistaken, that's part of the taxes that people pay. So it's almost like people are paying twice. So what would be the procedures to get back to that point, if it's possible?

I talked with President Matthews, and I think it's a 1.5% tax sale. He was saying that it still is being put towards the trash that's being picked up. Now that's why you don't have to pay that much.

But also, too, that number is based off only the payers. So if you give us a number based off... The city, I'm pretty sure the amount would be cheaper because now when they went to waste management, if I'm not mistaken, because I think Mr. Cotton and I did a little research at the time, they based the number based off the whole parish. So we get the number based off the parish going to waste management and get the number. So we was, I guess, separate ourselves and go see how much the number would be to pick up inside the parish. I wonder would it be cheaper.

We can do that. We can try that.

place on one of the streets over there, and I had driven by there, and you'd have thought that that was a landfill over there, what they had. Oh, it was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. And it's all because somebody's living there, too. It's all because, I guess, they're not paying any...

And I thought about adding it with a sewer bill, making them get it. If they got a sewer bill, they need a trash bin.

I can't remember how we can go about it. But somebody came up with a great idea for us.

We can meet on that. We can meet on that.

Right.

And also, Councilman Jay Green, he was on the riding mow in his neighborhood mowing a property that somebody left.

So I want to tell you.

Uh, written a lawnmower. No, I haven't, but I do pay people to cut people's grass.

We appreciate that. It's going to take all. Yeah. It's going to take all those working together.

And the mayor mentioned it is going to take everybody working together on the. creating blight to bright. It's going to take the whole, not just the city, but the parish. And I want to commend also the Keep Morehouse Beautiful board because I have to take the phone from one ear and put it to the next ear because she calls, or they call on so many different things, even with the main court.

Yeah. All right.

Appreciate you.

Appreciate you all. Thank you. We don't need business.

No, we don't have special. No, we got the special. We got the executive session. It's moved to nine. The executive session.

Okay, I'll make a motion that we go into recess for executive session.

I'll second that motion. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye.

All right. All right.

We're going into the decision.

Okay, hold up, hold up drink.

Yeah, Devin's warning.

Okay.

Need a motion to re-enter meeting.

I make the motion. Second. Who the first motion by? This time? Okay. Second. Second by Council Doty. All right. Mr. Jones, you can take it over.

It's a vote.

All in favor?

Aye.

And opposed? All right.

Okay. At this time, I want to make a motion. to amend the agenda to add executive session to discuss investigative proceeding regarding allegations of misconduct as detailed in the most recent audit. Can I get a motion?

That was the motion. Second. All in favor?

We need public comments.

Okay.

I made a motion to amend the agenda to add executive session to discuss investigative proceedings regarding allegations of misconduct as detailed in the most recent audit. He wrote it out for me. He wrote it out for me.

Well, you ain't going to be able to talk about it.

Well, if you talk about the audience, you're going to talk about the person there. He wrote it out for me. If you talk about the audience, you're going to talk about the person there.

What were the comments? I know Mr. Bradford got something.

There you go, okay.

I'm trying to keep up with you guys. You guys going from one room to another. Charles Bradford, 1320 South Washington, Ambassador. On this motion to discuss the investigation concerning the inspection of the last recent article I kind of read that on the stream or something about some misconduct or something like that. I'd like to ask, could that be reserved? I don't think it mentioned only one individual, but I think I'd like for it to be reserved for the public view if it's something to do with misconduct in the audit report. I know you can go and close this section, but I think the public should be informed of what was the misconduct. Being a public citizen, I would like to know, But that's all I'm going to say, because I didn't know you were even bringing up the research. Thank you, Mayor. All right.

Council Member. Mr. Mayor.

Council Member.

Mr. Mayor. All right.

Can I get a vote? All in favor? All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Motion carries.

Do we have to vote on it again?

At this time, I would like to go back to executive session, please.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. I'll make that motion.

I got a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We need to... We need to do C-211C in new business. Hold on. Let's see. We need to do the resolution 26... yeah it's just right now so you can just go work yeah let's uh do the uh new business 11 new business a resolution 26 21 53. can i get some clarification on that yes ma'am we we have a tractor that's been in the shop a while and we we got to go get it and do something with it but the airport need moving so we can keep that um So we're going to get fined, I guess I can say so. It hasn't been mowed in about two, you know, a while. They need to be mowed real bad. So I talked to President Matthews about it, and he told us to get one together. He don't mind us using their equipment. And also, we got a back hole. We got a bulldozer that's caught fire, and it's down, and we got to do that FEMA, move that FEMA wood around. So he was telling me to get a CEA. We work together, anything we need.

And this is the part, Mr. Chairman, my pro tem members, that we initially set out during the administration to collaborate with police jury and uh maximizes the resources between the city and the parish and this is one of the things that's going to effectuate that so that's why this needs to be done to start this collaborative effort uh moving forward um so there are things that the parish has that we can uh take advantage of and there's probably some things that we have that they can use So this CEA starts that partnership that we talked about early on. This is one of maybe probably another CEA we have to do down the road. This is the beginning to start cultivating that relationship.

I have one question.

Yes, ma'am. And it's just a question.

Are the drivers of these tractors, have they been thoroughly trained? Because we don't want to use somebody's equipment.

Yeah, actually the one that's going to be driving it, he worked with, excuse me too, Council Lady, he worked with the parish for a while and he was the one driving the tractor when he was there. So he's the only one going to be on that tractor. Okay.

Is he a new employee?

No, he's been here with us for a minute now.

I got a point of information. What? You talk about the dozer at the landfill.

yeah the old dozer and it burned the wires burned we got the last time it worked uh the one that you and i seen out there before i was born yeah that one yes sir yes sir so it uh it didn't burn up but the wires burnt on it and they've been trying to get it back together at the shop we definitely need to partner with them because the one we got out there if you fix it it probably ain't gonna

That thing need to be decommissioned. Yeah, it do.

Need to be buried in the landfill. And FEMA gave us a, we got an extension on it because we in a burn ban, and we really need to use that also.

I'll make a motion.

I second.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Thank you all for that.

We skipped over this golden man.

Okay. Can you take it? I need to go. Okay. Let me get, we're going to go back to it. We're going to get them. Let me go to resolution, let's go to C. Resolution 26-21-54, resolution to approve Amherst construction for drainage improvement bid. Okay.

Again, Mr. Chairman, members, this is the first leg of a five-year capital investment of the airport that we can see somewhere any amount of $1.6 million of capital improvements to the airport. Of the capital investment, this is, again, it's going to move a power line that's going to improve the drainage. And this was the lowest responsive bidder, which came in under the amount that was originally contemplated in this first part of this $1.6 million capital investment.

I got a point of information about this resolution that we're doing. Have you paid close attention to this resolution?

I haven't read it.

I'm going to show it to you.

This is the clerk certification. What does it say?

It says I, the undersigned clerk of the city of Ballester, hereby attest and certify that the following resolution was passed by the city council in the lawful convened meeting after due consideration and lawful favor vote was given by the council.

You the clerk?

I am not.

Who did?

Who did?

law requirement that your resolutions have to be in writing but it's recommended because again Every action that you take that needs to be a record of it not only within the minutes and actual recording but actually these physical documents, so I don't recommend not having written resolutions, but they do form a vital part for you know the records of the city and Mr. Green that attestation is You know is one of the things that are required for the record of It doesn't validate or invalidate your actions because you have a duly, lawfully convened meeting, you have a quorum, a motion in a second if it were to be had, and then a vote of at least the majority of the members present will carry the action. engineer needs that record uh and whether or not this the clerk can uh certify without being contemporaneously here uh i don't have any information regards to the validity of that whether or not she can certify this by listening to the recording or reference it in the minutes so i don't know but i know that if the council's will to to moving past that, that your action can be invalidated by the mere absence of the clerk. So that's all I have. Um, again, this, these, these monies are coming, uh, from the FAA and the department of trust Louisiana department of transportation. So this $1.6 million capital improvement over the next five years is, is monies that are going to be invested in the city of bathroom that, uh, won't come directly out of the city's coffers. So I just ask for your favorable passage.

I don't have nothing to say. We got one, well, we got two more, but one more resolution, and then we can go to the one Council Lady Tappan was talking about.

So that's going to fail for no motion and second?

I think so. We motion and second.

No, no, not for this one. That was the previous one.

That was the CEA. That was the CEA. Yeah, now we're going to the construction. Can I get a motion for that resolution 26-2154? I'll make that motion.

Can I get a second?

I'll second. Can I get a vote? I'll vote.

And what is this again?

This is the drainage. Yes.

Yes.

All right. Thank you all for that.

And, uh, Mr. Chairman, uh, matter of pro tem members, I do apologize, but I am, uh, I need to be excused, uh, for the night. Um, I have, uh, I anticipate us being in here this long. I have a court tomorrow, I have a hearing, so.

What about Resolution 26-21-49, the resolution? All right, Rick. For? For an agreement between Vector and the city of Batchelor for use of the airport. That's the kind. Mr. Jones. We appreciate it, Mr. Smith.

Mr. Rick, before you leave, I'm going to need you to come by here and take a look at this. Okay.

I'm familiar with that attestation from Mr. Green showing it to me.

I just used my packet.

All right, we're going to move to G, resolution 26-2149. Okay. There's a resolution to approve and at least renew agreement between Vector and the city of Bastrop for use of the airport. Can I get a motion? I just want to make sure. I got one question.

uh they will begin we will receive monthly money from the right but i think 2500 dollars you got the resolution that's right share it again Can I get a motion?

I'll make that motion.

I second it.

Can I get a roll call on it? Yes.

Yes.

Of course, yes. I love getting that money. Appreciate y'all on that. We'll go to Ms. Goldman. Ms. Angela Tapper?

Yes. My question is, what is her role here? I mean, whatever, volunteering for the city of Astro, what is her role? Responsibilities, however you want to put it.

She don't have no responsibilities.

And she's here all day?

Not all day, but she come in time and leave. She just helping out here and there. Nothing personal.

So she has access to records and bank accounts?

well i i'm just trying to get us just a grasp at what she does she's trying helping train on different stuff that we need help on um we can tell you until she get there but there's nothing personal no personal information well i can't remember um

what was told, but I do remember like a last administration I asked for, I think it was some dealing with the parks. We asked for volunteers, but, um, I don't know, Devin can, Mr. John, I think they have to have something which, which for insurance purpose, or it was either they couldn't do it because of the insurance purpose. But I remember

I told Mr. Jones and his administration, if it's possible, if anybody want to help the city out or do anything to help it out, if it's nothing personal, I'm allowing it. It's not legal? Yeah, it's legal. Okay. If they want to go out and fix our church, want to fix the park like they asked for, if I was here, they would have been fixing it. Point of information. Yeah. Okay.

i got point of information uh mayor yes sir mr jay green and this attorney jones point of information real estate uh because i don't want to come off of being hypocritical because during the last administration we you know so won't show favoritism or bias based on who's sitting in the mayor's seat my position is the same as my position was when the last mayor was here i know her Her services might be needed, and she might be a valuable component of that staffing down there. But my position haven't changed. She's not an employee. You shouldn't have access to people's personal records, financial statements, or any of that. So I'm saying this on record because I know people probably say, well, Mr. Green, you said something when the last administration, but you haven't said anything yet. I voiced my opposition to the mayor, but this is administration. I just want the public to know. My views haven't changed. I do not believe a person that is not employed by the city of Bastrop have any business working behind them windows. But is the mayor's administration, I guess he talked to a legal counsel and you got into problems, you contact the mayor and I guess he would contact. our legal representative, but as for me personally, I promise you, I don't change with whoever get in the seat. I'm consistent and I'm fair and I'm honest. So I stated my opposition with the last mayor and I'm gonna state my opposition with this mayor because she's not an employee of the city of Bastrop. She may be a great asset. She may be a great worker, but she's not an employee. So therefore, I am stating my opposition. I'm just one council member, one person, but I just want to come off, let people know that I'm consistent in my belief. I don't change up with who's ever in the mayor's seat, friends, no friends or whatever. I'm trying to be consistent and that's my take on it. And I'm still sticking to what I said during the last administration.

Well, I actually, I understand that. I didn't know, but I understand that she know a lot.

She's definitely an asset, but I'm saying I can't change up my position. I can't say one thing and then do another. You lose respect in the community. You're going to be consistent regardless of who's in the seat. I stayed in my position, but I tell you what, the last mayor said she'd take the lesser of We have her and go in disarray or I just kind of do what I have to do to make sure the city move forward. And I take this mayor may, may be taking the same approach, but, and I got the same views, but she worked all last time during the last administration and nothing happened. So I don't think nothing's going to happen with this administration, but that don't mean I don't oppose it.

Anything else? Mr. Jones. We're going to table. It's everything. So we're going to table the rest of the agenda and do a special meeting. Let's set a date. What date y'all want to meet again for a special meeting for this or y'all want to do the... I can't hear you. You can talk. No. This starts coming up. Oh, it's homecoming next week, too, so y'all want to do a Tuesday or something or Monday? Y'all want to do a week after that? You want to do the week after that?

Yeah.

Homecoming all week. Yeah, the homecoming all week. It's a good chance.

It's a good chance I might not be there. I might not be there.

No, I'm just kidding. Probably. I'll give you a good chance later today.

Can we do it the week after?

Yeah, what's that date on there? The week after. What date y'all want to do the week after? Just the date to be determined. Let's do it like that. No, you better say it when you know we can do it later. I'll pick one.

And I'll say it.

That Tuesday. What time? It's just going to be for these agenda. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all want to go 530? 530?

Yeah.

That's good with you? You good?

All right.

22nd. That Tuesday.

What about Wednesday? Wednesday? You got church.

Wednesday. Wednesday. Wednesday the 23rd. Okay. We'll do Wednesday. We'll set it September the 23rd, 530. Okay.

And I'm going to make that motion.

Can I get a motion?

Make that motion to have a special call meeting on September 23rd.