City Council - workshop

Welcome to everyone who is here this afternoon, personally or online. Could I please have an application for approval of the protocol of our last strategic planning meeting of the State Council?

Please stand. Second approval, so that the protocol remains published. We have some points on our agenda today. First of all, we have Dr. Auf hier, who will give us an update on the household analysis that he had started before and will also talk to us about how we cut off in comparison to other cities. Let's go through this analysis briefly. We also have City Councilor Börs with us, who asked for a few minutes to discuss a proposed regulation on empty real estate. We also have time for City Councilor Hill and City Councilor Harvey, so that they can present an idea for an arrangement for vape shops that they have worked on. So, without further ado, we hand over the floor to Dr. Auf. I thought we'd take about half an hour, Dr. Auf, if that's okay.

If that's okay.

I can fill in as much or as little time as you want. Have you done everything? Don't force me, to my luck. Okay. When I was here last time, it was more about the budget side of things. However, I don't know if I can put the presentation here on the screen. Is that possible? Much of it referred to the results on financial health, budget forecasts and similar things. As soon as I get it on the screen, I'll give you an overview of what I wanted to discuss. But some of the questions that came up last time in the budget session were related to long-term forecasts. And what does that mean? I am on the HDMI. What does that mean in particular with regard to basic taxes? As you know, there was discussion during the legislature period in the spring about the limitation of basic tax revenue for municipal administrations. This draft was ultimately not approved, but that would of course be a big obstacle to the ability of all municipal authorities to receive local income. But as I said, that didn't work out. So to a certain extent it is already reasonable, but it is certainly a possibility that is still in the room. I think, if you all remember, a few months ago, when I was presenting at the board meeting, and you know from the household discussions this year, that a large part of your budget comes from basic tax income. So that is obviously an enormously important component.

Or you have it, yes. I have a little time left until we have brought this to a close.

Anyway, but the question came up last time.

I remember that Council Member Henderson raised questions about some of the long-term deficits in relation to the basic tax revenues.

So that's one of the things that I recorded in the update that I created. You know, the challenge with many of these things is again that they are based on the trends of recent years.

This does not mean that this, as we say, is deterministic for the future. And so they obviously have to terminate an equivalent household every year. And that's what they did.

And in the end, an unchanged budget was terminated in the business years. So they do not exceed the expenses compared to the income. But I think the most important insight from this is to consider the potential for gradual increase in basic tax income from year to year and not necessarily only every four years. Obviously, everyone has different priorities in their districts, but also similar priorities in the city. And that's why I think there are things that you should keep in mind when you weigh them against each other from year to year. Anyway, I'm happy to come back to that if you want, but I know the most important thing was to dive into the analysis of the comparison. That was what we ended up with last time I was here. Once again, for exam purposes, the ten cities that were identified after business year 25, or were these over the years, the internal accounting office has used different cities. Some of them were similar, I think we will always compare with Knoxville and similar cities, but some have changed over the years.

I think if we can, you know, I look forward to concluding this with you all later or in ongoing sessions, but I think that's basically the big topic here, to see if you compare yourself with other cities or compare us with other cities.

Obviously, the Office for Internal Revision mainly focuses on financial figures, with which we, you know, have begun in a certain way. I think, however, that in the future, the council wants to deal with other indicators and results that relate to what other cities are doing and what we can learn from them along the way. Therefore, I think it's a good idea to extend this to other indicators. Many cities use benchmarks and we can talk about it in the future. But that's exactly where I started with the basis that we use for comparison cities. And those of you who were there at the last meeting when I was here, I won't read everything, but I'll give you an overview from the bird's eye view. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has developed a so-called Peer Cities Identification Tool. It has divided all these factors into four different areas. You can see here justice, resilience, view and housing. There is a lot of census data and other public federal data that basically form a kind of combined index for what makes up comparison cities. You have already experienced this. I then made the whole thing a little more complicated in an academic way. Basically, I took all the measures that you took on these four topics and, based on our discussions with you, limited them even further to certain factors. I know, Council Member Hill mentioned aspects such as the limit for changes. So we limited it to cities that have not expanded significantly in the last ten years. We have also limited it to cities that do not have government assemblies. You know, there are some on the list of internal revisions. Columbus, Muscovy County and I think there are more that have consolidated district administrations that are structurally fundamentally different from Chattanooga. We offer other services and have other types of income, expenses and the like. I also added government finance data and data on public employment, also from the Census Bureau. So we try to find a consensus on how much we spend in general, how much we invest, how much we take in, as well as the share of the workforce, especially with fire, police, full-time equivalents and things like that. So I tried as hard as I could to determine these, I think there are 43 different variables of the cities that are next to us based on all these factors. So that's pretty much the result and that was part of the discussion last time. I would like to note that some of the suggestions from the last time, I think Council Member Henderson mentioned it, such as that I took out the proportion of the population with bachelor's degree and added the one with associate degree. I have added a few other things. There was a discussion about unemployment compared to unemployment. There is no good measure for unemployment on city level. So I didn't do that. But all these other factors, unemployment rates, employment rates and things like that are already included. So I think that covers a large part of it. Anyway, I'll show you what I found out now. I'm going to list the top 15 here and then show you the chic dashboard, which I think you all have already received a copy of earlier. These are essentially the top 15 based on these criteria.

These are comparatively not desirable.

These are comparatively not desirable, right? Yes, thank you. So these are essentially, according to the largest similarity to Chattanooga, based on these 40-something factors. So Little Rock, Akron, Tulsa, Amarillo, Cincinnati and so on.

I think Cincinnati was the last time we did this, but first of all I would like to say a few things. You can see the list.

And again, it's not like you have to take this list or the top 5 or top 10. I'll show you the dashboard in a moment. I've provided you with the top 25 in electronic form. You can see them yourself. But as I said, I'm following the will of the council, but there seems to be an interest in identifying some comparison sites, maybe both on a legislative and administrative level, to see with whom we can compare ourselves, with whom we can compare ourselves. What do you spend your money on? How do you spend it? What are your potential most important topics? How much do they give their employees? All these factors that interest you every year, especially when it comes to household planning. So these are the top 15. I can show you the dashboard that I have developed and give you a short overview. So you have received the link to it. And because I am a huge data nerd, I made an interactive diagram out of it. Yeah, the map doesn't load because I don't think I'm connected to the internet. But let's assume the map of the United States would be here. But there is a map of all cities. Here on the side there is a small bar diagram where you can use a drop-down menu. You can compare where Chattanooga is compared to others.

So it's a group rally project. Oh, you have 25 there and we have 15 here. Exactly.

So if you want to see how Chattanooga, for example, cuts off at the middle household income, you can click on this. Chattanooga's comparison. I can pull this out to make it bigger. Chattanooga appears in about the middle range. You know, Chattanooga is in all of these. But you can click through these indicators and see where we are. I didn't do anything great here. These are basically just bar diagrams. But here, for example, Santa Rosa has the highest middle household income. If you are interested, you can click through and I would like to go into some points while we continue, but these are all after-variables from the evaluations of the Chicago Fed. For example, you can look at vacancy rates in apartments. As I said, we're back in the middle of the field. The vacancy rate is 8.1% compared to some others. And last but not least, and I'm happy to go back to all discussions or questions. Let's get to the data itself. Azmi Geethill asked the last time. So I added a tool with which you can download or scroll through it. But I think that's all 43 variables. You can sort them out, see how they are set up, check the ranking lists and so on. So everything is ready for you so you can go to Berlin as you want. Another novelty that came up last time is the additional tab for financial data. I have looked through these 25 cities and the test reports are drawn up for the business year 24 or 25, depending on how their business year is structured. Some were not yet available for 25. I have the actual income per capita, the percentage of interstate income, the expenses per capita and the expenses for the fire department, police, public works and similar things. The data in the City Data tab, which comes from the Census Bureau, are again only their estimates. This is actually about the tested figures per capita from business year 24. So if you are more interested in the household side, you will find the corresponding data there. Here, too, there is a small bar diagram where you can see how we compare. I'm taking a break here if you want. Are you asking me everything or are you letting me talk for so long?

Thank you. First of all, Council Member Henderson, thank you for taking the initiative to bring this report on its way. Er ist wirklich nützlich und wird mit jedem Entwurf noch hilfreicher. Chris, ich schätze alles, was du dazu beigetragen hast. Wir wünschen, dass wir vielleicht nicht heute, aber wenn ich an unsere Vergleichsstätte denke, zu einem gemeinsamen Verständnis darüber gelangen, was unsere Gesundheitsindikatoren sind. If we look at these data, such as population density or the ten-year poverty rate, we have to know what we are striving for and what a healthy value looks like for us within a certain relationship. And then, and then also ... dass wir ein gegenseitiges Verständnis mit der Verwaltung haben, damit wir uns gemeinsam auf unsere Vergleichsstätte einigen können. Wenn wir dann über die Bezahlung von Ersthelfern oder 911 Notrufmitarbeitern sprechen, können wir sagen, das sind unsere Vergleichsstädte. Das ziehen wir bei Gehaltsstudien heran, damit es zu einer sehr konsistenten Messgröße wird. I would also like to say that this entire household analysis report that Chris has provided us with contains some really interesting approaches to how we could measure the actual financial health of the city. And you know, one thing about your proposal regarding the committees, much to President Elliott, I particularly like it, I see a possibility in it, like a committee, could tackle a more complex topic. I consider our characteristics of financial health as something that a household committee could work more thoroughly on. What things do we want to pursue all the time, which may also pursue other cities? And are there other points that are important to us as a city council that we want to know in 40 years that they have made a positive change? That is, in my opinion, a big task, but a very useful one for our Household Committee. And no matter whether we get ahead with this committee or not, I know that you have the Household Chair. And I just want you to know that I would like to work with you on it.

Thank you. Hey Chris, explain that. There are a few things in the table that I need help understanding. First, the revenue per head in the state financial report. What does this value for Chet and Hugo of 2.6 mean? What does that tell me?

On the bar you're looking at right now... On the...

The comparison city, table 27. I assume... Yes. I said no. Sorry, I just blurted that out. I don't know how to classify that. You already know how to make that an outstanding number.

Like with the per capita income or expenses.

Well, there's sales per capita. For Chattanooga it's 2.6. What?

What does that mean? $260 for the general household?

So, yes.

For your general household, I basically divided the general household by the number of inhabitants. So you simply look at how many of the comparison cities do when they investigate these numbers for financial health. The general total income and expenses per head. How much do we spend and how much do we spend and how much do we take per inhabitant? If that makes sense. So you could, I guess, look at it in many different ways. So you could imagine it as, you know, the combination of services that Chattanooga offers its citizens. How much do we spend on that per person from the general household, if that makes sense? Per year. Per year, right? You know, compared to some of the other comparable cities. So maybe if we have a comparable city that offers exactly the same services, but does less for 20 cents per head, what do they do then? which is more efficient. So that's how I would use it. So if we find a comparable city, which offers the same level of fire, police, public buildings, parks and everything else. If you offer the same mix of service and quality of life and all these things, but make it much cheaper, what can we basically learn from these cities? I think that's why these are important.

So if we wanted to see that you make it cheaper, we would look at someone who does it for less than 21 dollars.

Is that what you're saying? At the same time, I would advise you to be careful, because you know, I didn't go into detail. Some of these cities may not offer the same services. I think there is a deeper insight into many of these points. So if you have first decided on a series of comparable cities or at least have an approximate estimate of what they should be, Then I would say, take another look at the combination of services, your tax base and all these other things and ask yourself, okay, is this really what we want to get out of it?

So explain the difference. In the same government financing table 27 compared to table 28, you have the share of the police in 27 and the share of the police in 28. And these numbers are different.

Table 27 is the financial data of the government of Germany. So this is the percentage of the budget that applies to the police and the fire department.

Table 27 is the percentage of the budget.

Table 28 is the percentage of the employees.

Percentage of what?

Employees. So your entire FTEs, your entire full-time equivalent of employees. That's the percentage, you know. Because basically in most cities, especially in the size of Chattanooga Police, Fire Department and Public Buildings, in general, their three largest departments, that's basically most of their staff. And these are the three that I have identified, so to speak, across all cities, to compare them in terms of salary and the like.

Okay, that was all I had to say.

Vice President Elliot, I'll cut you short. Dr. Akko, that's great.

I think that not only gives us a great roadmap for our work as political decision-makers, but also gives us a clear picture of where we stand with the numbers. I'm scrolling through here and see that even our unemployment rate is around 6.1 percent. And that's frightening.

That's supposed to be it. I should mention that it is also delayed. That is, so you don't necessarily know the current status. I mean, that was for, um, that was basically with the start of the business year 25.

I can't imagine that it will get better. But there was something else that stood out. Compared to some of our comparable cities, we are very much focused on the processing industry. So these are things that, when we really go deep, help us to ventilate the veil and show a better picture of our city that we might otherwise not have understood.

So I am very grateful for that. Mr. Rathsmitte. Henderson, thank you very much for pushing this forward and I am looking forward to what will come out of it next.

Council Member Henderson, do you have another question? Yes, and I want to make sure that I am clear about something. Is there a possibility to determine the basic tax from what you have given us? How many percent? And I assume the income per head could be the basic tax, sales tax, the whole thing.

So I should say I wanted to start with a preview. So the one thing that came up last time was the discussion about income taxes. I think Council Member Thel has raised this question. So the other thing is, and I don't know if China is necessarily unique in this respect, but I think especially in the larger cities in Tennessee we are somewhat unique and I leave it to the financial experts. But we classify, for example, income tax revenues in the exam as interstate revenues because they technically go back to the state, are distributed to the district, USW, other cities don't do that. Just because of the way we classify it, what I would consider as revenues from our own source, i.e. the revenues we generate here. I calculated the interstate revenues from the census data.

I think what I want to get at is the level of taxes that are demanded in a household in Chattanooga compared to a household in Little Rock, Arkansas. How can I compare them? Because, as you already say, there may be different sources of income. A city may raise a higher or lower sales tax. In other words, I don't think we can just compare the basic taxes, because that doesn't draw a complete picture. What I want to find out is the height of the taxes that we deduct from a household and that flow directly into the general household, the municipal administration. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Can I do this based on these numbers or is this something you have to look at more closely?

Let me check that again. I'll do it for you.

Thanks. And I assume we have to do this for all these years and for all the cities you have listed.

So basically a total tax burden?

Yes, the total tax burden. Correct? Yes, please. Because that's the only way to get a fair picture. If everyone raises the taxes a little differently, you can't just say how high their basic taxes are compared to ours. That's not a really fair picture.

Well, I think when looking for a really comparable city, we should look at cities that have a similar tax structure. Or, I assume, similar taxes as we do. But on the other hand, I can't imagine that there are a lot of cities outside of Tennessee that are similar to us.

I'm not sure either.

A city had 4% sales tax. Oh, we got into the discussion, but I wanted to go beyond that. Maybe you can compare it elsewhere. I just want to...

Within this 15 or 25, Chris, it would be possible. somehow to identify those whose tax structure is most similar to ours. I mean, then we could start deciding whether we want to limit it from 15 to 10. Oh, we do.

You already know what we want to do with it.

Yes, so I could certainly look at the income of the general household again and just check how much the percentage of the individual categories is. That's what I tried with the census data, but that's just a rough overview and no look at the tested data. But again, in the list of financial data and the numbers I gave you, it's just about the total income and expenses. So I didn't look to calculate income taxes from other federal states or to isolate certain other things. Well, yes, but I could. If the boss wants to make a decision.

I would like to talk to the chief of staff if he has nothing against it. Because I think it is both for the administration as well as important for the council to have a solid pool of comparable cities. What do you pay attention to or what would you wish for when creating a list of comparable cities?

on the comment by council member Hill on the language used, is that we all understand what we mean by PR city in comparison to a city of desire. Because there are cities that we want to resemble. And then there are cities that we actually resemble. And I think especially when we talk about grants. Questions about income and expenses. It is important that we look at cities that we like today and when we talk about what we want to achieve and who we want to be, we compare ourselves with cities that we could develop.

Does that make sense? Well, that makes sense. I think we decide ourselves who we want to be, regardless of who we look at. I'm more concerned with who we compare ourselves with, because we do that very often. I mean, over the years, I've seen how things have been presented to us, in which it was said, our comparison cities do this and that. And that's exactly what I'm looking for. What exactly does the administration take into account when it comes to the comparison cities that we are most similar to? What is it that you want to see in these cities?

So I'm sending ahead, whatever I say now is not complete, because I know that I will forget things. I would support our personnel department, which has invested a lot of work in what is considered to be the best practice in the industry. But a few things that come to mind and from which I know that we are interested are the industry structure, right? So what does our employee base look like and what do our wages look like compared to some of these cities that we want to compare ourselves with? The number of inhabitants, you already know, house prices, general living costs. I think there are a whole range of economic indicators that we just want to be sure of. Another important point that is not an economic indicator is the government structure and how the city we are looking at is financed and whether it is comparable. Because in many cases it is not right.

Well, I think if we compare ourselves with some of these other cities, I would ask, do you know how many employees they have in your administration compared to how many employees we have in our city?

Our employees per person are very large. I think another point that would be interesting in this context would be ... ... delivered services in relation to total sales, right? Because one thing I think is an interesting comparison is which services the residents of Chattanooga receive for what they pay in basic taxes. As someone who has lived in other places like New Orleans or Washington DC, I can tell you that we pay a lot more there and get a lot less. And that's why I think it would be helpful and informative to have a good overview of it.

May I add something briefly? In the very right column, these are the data from the test reports 24-25, the employees are per 1,000 inhabitants. In most cases, these are full-time equivalents. Some cities only have capital numbers, not full-time equivalents. Therefore, some of them are a bit confusing. But, for example, I can call this up here in the bar diagram if I wanted to. And we actually have Much more in this case. Now again, this is just an overview from the bird's eye view. It does not contain, as Kevin mentioned, the mixture of services and all the departments and all these things. So again, prepared for that. But overall, I have to learn how to use this.

That's a different seat.

Yes, that's something for the committee.

Yes, that would be great. Thank you.

City Councilor Clark has a seat. I have a few more questions. Not to you, but you have the feeling. Thank you very much for that. That's a great driving plan. To connect what Council Member Hill mentioned, we use this as an analysis of financial health to see where we are developing, right? Because that is exactly the purpose of the comparison with our comparison sites. But I think, as a political decision-maker, we compare ourselves and make sure that we are one step ahead of some of these places. I thought to myself, man, I've been to this place, these can't just be comparison cities. But maybe they're in certain categories. And I guess my question to you, Dr. Ackhoff, is how do we create the formula or the evaluation scheme for what we strive for? As a political decision-maker, I'm interested in saying, with your point, the next level. I don't know which one that was before, on which you used the different categories. Could you go back and... If you'll excuse me, I think you're currently returning to the narrative.

So for the comparison cities? So those were the four categories created by the Chicago Fed? Uh, if you want to jump on. So we talked about it a little bit last week. I hear we didn't test it.

And if you say last week, do you mean with it?

Sorry, four months ago. Yes. It doesn't matter. Uh, last time not like, uh ... So I did that last time. I used the same data and basically looked at similar cities structurally. But ... places that maximize good things or minimize bad things. So places like Chattanooga, which had lower unemployment rates, lower poverty rates and a lower income inequality according to the Gini Index. Places with higher median income, higher education levels, higher employment rates and the like. So this is based on the same measurement sizes as with the comparison cities, only using this data, MIR. But the question I ended with last time and which was on one of the following slides here was, there are also these immaterial values. This is not supposed to be a statistics lesson, but these are all quantitative data. These are all numbers, right? I'll give you a list of cities based on all these numbers. Financial data, employment data, unemployment rates, education level, whatever, whatever. There are also the qualitative aspects, right? You drive in a city, drive through it and it looks great. Why does it look great? Well, you have great parks or great roads or great highways. A good investment. Whatever, right? You know, it's beautiful. There's not much wrong with that. You know, all these immaterial things are not measured here. So I think if we think about it, as you said earlier, who we want to be, we should consider this as a kind of starting point. You don't have to take it for real. Take it as a kind of basis and we can certainly adapt it. But also think of those among you who have already been in these cities or if you want to look at them from other perspectives, then you can think of the quality of life. You can think of other results, not just unemployment rates and education, but also how we handle social welfare in itself.

I think one thing should be mentioned, regardless of which city we choose for a comparison. I think it is important that we do not forget the people we are surrounded by. The other municipalities such as Red Bank, Soddy Daisy, Signal Mountain, Eastridge, Hamilton County, Bradley County. This is important, but we must not forget them, even if they may not have the same population or structure. We are definitely competing with you. You know, Brian, who drives a truck for the public building office, he's not going to Raleigh, North Carolina. He might be going to Bradley County. He might be going to Cleveland. But he's not going to Raleigh, North Carolina. So just something to keep in mind during this discussion is not to forget the immediate environment.

Can I? I know. We have to come to the end. I have another question that just came in. Mr. Stern brings out a questionnaire every year with different points. How, for example, how safe do you feel? Citizenship survey. Yes, citizenship survey. I would be interested in whether one of these cities carries out a citizen survey and whether there is a possibility to measure the general feeling of the population. You know, does our city feel safe? Do we think we have great roads? Do we have appropriate parks? Do you know that these immaterial things that you have referred to, which could be translated into data, if you use these citizen surveys in this way...

I mean, you already know, crime rate or whatever, you can look at all sorts of things.

Yes, that's all we have.

Is there anything else about this topic? Thank you, Dr. Heben.

We make the best decisions when we have the most comprehensive and accurate data, and you have undoubtedly delivered them to us.

Of course, city councilor Brügge, you have the word.

I also have additional European, if anyone wants. All right. I'm not going to dwell on it for long, but I have ideas for a kind of program for empty commercial real estate or a change in our regulations that regulates the handling of empty real estate.

And I know that this has been discussed in the fire corridor in districts 5, 6 and 9 several times. And I know that every district outside of the Brainerd Corridor has its own areas outside of which it could be useful. So this is the concept that I pursue. It's basically about supporting the existing regulations that we have for long-term empty commercial real estate. And the original investigation that we did The people who originally worked on it, and that came from the Brainerd Corridor Committee, which was what other cities did. And the next city we could find was Jackson, Tennessee, and they had a regulation that required a registration at the city from empty areas, empty real estate and commercial corridors. You have to prove that you are either actively looking for a tenant, actively renovating your premises, or actively trying to sell your property after a certain time. And I'm not going to go into the different levels, but it basically requires you to register and pay a fee. And the longer you leave the real estate empty without a valid reason, the higher the fee. So that was essentially the core of this regulation. But when we looked at this regulation, we noticed that our own regulation already covers some of these points. So I suggest I will continue to check how we I know that several properties along Brainerd Road have been empty for years, and our regulations state that they are only allowed to be empty for a year before something happens. can happen. And there is a special case that is currently being negotiated before the court, in which I think that the final decision of the Wendy's on the Brainerd Road concerns, if that's a term for someone, iOptical. This iOptical is another example. But what can we do to move owners of empty real estate to start something with their property? And maybe there are opportunities for economic promotion to support them in this? So there are still many open questions. As next steps, and I invite everyone who wants to participate, I meet with the Office for Land Development to better understand the urban regulations and the existing implementation instruments and to get their input on what could help them with their work. I can't even tell you how many conversations I've had with Ed Graham about the Wendy's in the last year and he's been working on this object for three years. So that's long overdue. I would also like to carry out a cost-benefit analysis to see what costs arise for the city. If a homeless camp is built on such a property, the Office for Homeless Help must become active and take care of the property. And if they leave all their garbage, the public construction site must come and clean up the area. If the police are called because people do not leave the property, then there are three departments that have to deal with this one property over and over again. So what does it cost for the city to continue to deal with these properties? In addition, I would like to speak to some of the owners of empty real estate. And I will probably turn to some of you in your districts so that you can help me. Because we should ask you where the problems lie. Maybe there is, I know at iOptical on Brainerd Road there was a problem with the storage area. Otherwise, you could have developed the property many, many years ago. I have already discussed with the RPA whether we can adapt things like storage zones in such a way that they enable the construction, while the integrity or the intention of the zone divisions remains preserved. We have already started researching other cities. Jackson in Tennessee is an example, but its regulations go beyond what we need, as we already have some good regulations. And then we will evaluate the results, identify options and then provide you with some recommendations on how we can proceed with it. That's it from my side, Mr. Chairman, unless someone has immediate questions.

Yes, Council Member Burst, thank you for bringing this to light here. I'm very happy that you did that. I recently drove past an empty property. I thought to myself, what can we do? So thank you. That's great. I'm really looking forward to working with you. So first of all, thank you. That's really, I'm looking forward to it. So you mentioned that we currently have something in the form that says that it is a year, that ...

I think it is, is it a year? I will turn to someone who is here ... And then it falls. I think it is in our form if it is more than one year empty.

How does the implementation look like?

There is only very little in the form.

That's why I want to meet with the construction company. to ask how they follow it. Yes.

Because that's not really clear in the document, but I know that you have steps that you follow.

Yes. And I thought about exactly the same thing. Is there anything we can do in the area of economic promotion to move people to develop these real estate? So great. That's fantastic.

Thank you. So, Council Member Buhr, I am also enthusiastic about it. I mean, the influence that long-term empty spaces have on a community is indisputable. And we have them in every community. I would be very happy to help you with that. And something that comes to mind when I think about development, real estate and city finances, is the organization Strong Towns. Are you familiar with it? Well, you have some. Jeff and I are sharing a voter who is a very strong supporter of Strong Towns. He was in district 2 and is now in district 3 because of the new election district.

He has many books.

He would like to share them. But you have a lot of very practical thoughts about it. And that would be the first thing I would do voluntarily, namely to research what you suggest, because you also look at many cities. And I can put together what I can bring about it and share it with you.

That would be fantastic. Yes, the city attorney worked out a bill that really suited Jackson, Tennessee. And I still think it's a good guide. We already have some good things that we do. Or things that have already been done. That's why I don't think we need such an extensive regulation. I think we can work out some things that support the existing regulation. The other thing is that it will not necessarily be a city-wide regulation. It can go to the border. For example, you could just say Brain Up Road from this point to that point. It will not be something that is necessary everywhere. Maybe you say, in a certain part of your district we have a problem.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. City Councilor, thank you for bringing this up.

This is actually something that I wanted to address after I brought this current legislation to the court.

And wherever I can help and jump in, please count on me. This is a huge problem in my district, I know, also in many other places. So, whatever we can do to clean our city, but also to help the people who may come too short. I would like to hear from you how we can do that. Thank you.

I know that you love the city, right? Yes, council member Berg, that's great.

I know that we have had some really thorough conversations. about emptiness and how we approach it along the Brainerd Corridors. And thank you for your work. One of the things I want to talk about while we talk about comparable cities and while we evaluate what others are doing, is that we remember the word innovation, which means we can take Jackson as a template. But you know, sometimes I wish, and this is not a reproach to you or your approach, but we could become the gold standard by being innovative and saying, you know what, we've never done that before. You know what, we've never done that before. Like a parade example with the subvention store. We've never done that before. We did it here to maybe set up a food store in an empty building like Walmart, as you know. That leads me to my next question. Is there a punishment? And I mean that completely seriously. I think there should be a punishment reaction for people who sit on real estate with the intention of waiting for the market because it is a source of money for them or to maybe turn off a competitor. And I don't know the current regulation. I have to do some research, but I want to... and I think the legal question is, can we raise an additional basic tax for people who, for whatever reason, always refuse? I don't know if this applies to Wendy's or iOptical, but I think... You're costing our people money by devaluing my community and not allowing a single trade, because you're waiting for the big purchase. That's happening on the ML King Boulevard. That's happening in Childhood. That's happening in Briney. Um, if we were to research that, I'd be curious to find out what our legal protocol is and maybe raise an additional fee. I don't know who you are, I want to be careful with fees and taxes. But I think that should have a punishing character to encourage you to do something with your building or sell it to the city. Because the other option I want to remind us of, which we have in our toolbox, is the expropriation that I will research for my empty buildings and my district area. And part of the expropriation is that when buildings are empty, we can assess the value of this building and ask the courts to allow us to buy this value so that it becomes city property. And we can use that as a punishment I think. I think we have to exert a little pressure here, because I think some of the problems with empty buildings are not because something is wrong with our communities. It is a market-based thing. It is a capitalist thing. And so, as always, thank you again for bringing it in. We have discussed this back and forth and I am so glad that someone took the first steps to say, you know what, I will bring this to the city council. For a legislation, even if it contains the strengthening of the current legislation. Because I think that is so, so, so necessary. Especially in the inner-city parts of our districts, where growth stagnates. So, as always, thank you.

Thank you very much for your support. And I will definitely keep you up to date and report to you after today's meeting. To get to your point, I think it could contain a kind of fee structure, in which the fee increases with increasing indebtedness if no activity is recognizable.

Whether you are renovating, actively trying to rent or it is actively for sale, I am very happy that everyone is interested in being part of it. We achieve a lot as a team.

With these fees, I think that we are all excited about what River City is doing with its Scenic Storefront program in its area. But as the representative chairman, Elliot, said, a large part of the city needs the same attention outside of this area. So we could possibly devote this money or use it if there was this fee structure to renovate some of the warehouses. Good idea. Outside the city center. So yes, it's exciting.

To distinguish whether it is an emergency or whether someone is just waiting because he hopes for a certain price. Well, thanks to everyone that I was at least allowed to introduce it today. And we will continue the conversation. All right.

And last but not least, we have council member Javi and council members who will talk to us about...

Yes, thank you. So yes, I received a lot of complaints, especially in my district, about the number and the amount of vape and CBD shops that shoot mushrooms out of the ground, tobacco shops, whatever you want to call them. You know, we had this conversation over the last few months and council member Hill also announced her interest in it. So I asked her to help with the research and to support this together with me. Do you know what I said? I received a lot of complaints. Do you know, the last thing we want is that vape and tobacco stores will be like these check-in stores or spirits shops that just take over. So we are actively looking at how this could look like. I was told by the legal department that they still have to work on some formulations before we present it to the council. We are currently working on the wording to ensure that it is also feasible. There are some formulations that still have to be adapted so that they are feasible. Yes, I think that's something we should look at to limit it. City Councilor Hill, may I ask you if you have any further comments on this?

I don't think there is a quarter in our city that has not experienced an expansion of vape shops. And so far no citizen has contacted me and said these flashing lights are the best in Chattanooga. On the contrary, most of the time it is exactly the opposite of the case. When pursuing this legislation, which we have talked about more often in the council, we focus on the same distance regulations that apply to spirituous businesses. So you are not allowed in the district of Tausendfuß von Tadligen. I noted them down because there are so many. Religious institutions, schools, universities, campuses, children's day places, libraries, public buildings, fitness centers, public parks or residential areas. And this is the part that is connected to another vape shop by a quarter of a mile from the credit halls or the distance. So that when we work with council members on empty real estate, we prevent them from being filled with such lives. Another thing that is not yet in our design, but Cody Phil asked for it, is how we can prevent vape shops from becoming spiritual shops. Because we started to observe that. I know that there is one in my district who is doing that right now. We just had one in district 8 at the Amnicola, I think. He just got an alcohol license. And remember, the definition of vape shop also includes CBD, hemp, kratom, delta 8 and all the different things. So if you have feedback on this, please send us an email. If you have any real concerns about this, please let us know.

Sorry, I put a copy in every folder. I hope you got it. I work a lot in Dalton, Georgia, and the city of Dalton recently approved my vape regulation, which included many good approaches. So we took a look at it to take some of the formulations and content from it as a role model. Well, take a look at it. It's in your documents. And if there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Is this the order from Dalton or is this... No, this is an order for us.

Uh, we're not done yet. Some things still need to be supplemented and adjusted, but this is just a first draft.

At the moment, however, we have nothing to regulate from Waves. This is all new. One of the points that often came up with the approval of spirituous businesses is that our regulation allows us to limit the number. Does this word also correspond to that for the vape shops? It does. We recorded that. Because I know that we have a point that we have discussed, because we are concerned about the number of spirituous businesses, because we hardly have regulatory restrictions, except that we have to sign the paper. But apparently we can do one thing, is it a limitation per square mile? Or? Well, there are a few things. It's per ...

I think it was a quarter of a mile. That's the distance regulation.

But there is also ...

But there is also the population number.

Oh my God, look at this. I can't remember the number. But anyway, it says it. And that is something I would encourage us to check again for our spiritual businesses. This is a license per 3,000 inhabitants. Das spiegelt die Spirituosen? Das spiegelt exakt den gleichen Wortlaut der Spirituosenlizenz wider.

Similar to all our regulations, everything that already exists, even if it is an existing non-conforming business, could maintain its status as a vape shop. You would need a license to be one. But if a location had a vape shop and it set up the business, it would have to withdraw a new one within a limited time, otherwise the license would be lost.

This is a crazy question, and if one of you has already mentioned it, please excuse me. Can we license such businesses that people need certain permissions to operate?

We have the authority to regulate certain things.

I guess. How? I think it's a bit different than what you see here. That the TABC has control and the TABC also demands that the decision is made in the right direction. That's the reason why you need a liquor license. You have to sign a form. Up to one, maybe two.

The location restrictions are therefore present in this regard.

But we also have to consider that this is already under the control of the state. We are dealing with this topic and by the way, next Monday I will go to the meeting of the Law Association for Municipalities in Tennen. And Karen called me a number of communities here in Tennessee that are actually selling regulations concerning these types of cannabinoid products. I hope that we can have a discussion on this topic. I'm not sure this is a hot topic, but we'll just come again after it's settled as fast on the live broadcast. And that's why I'm not here anymore.

And we, I don't think we should present it to the council for future consultation until we have something that we keep legally acceptable.

If not, we can go to court.

Let's look at our fighters.

Council, are there any further questions or comments on this point?

Since there are none, the session will be held until 5.30 a.m.

Finish.