City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. I'll call to order the Tuesday, September 1st meeting of the Chattanooga City Council and recognize Councilwoman Knoll to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

If everyone would bow your heads. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the responsibility to serve our community. Grant us wisdom to make sound decisions. Because Lord, you know, we have not here lately made those sound decisions. Let everyone keep in the forefront of their minds that we should progress instead of regress, that our ancestors lost their lives for us to have the right to vote. May we remember that every vote we cast has an impact on families, neighborhoods, businesses, and the future of the city. Bless our city, our residents, our first responders, Mayor Kelly, and administration, and all those who work each day to make our community stronger. These words we ask in your name. Amen.

Thank you. Welcome again, everyone, to our council meeting today. At the beginning of the meeting, we like to give an overview of how our meeting operates. You'll know what to expect. We operate in two parts. The first part of our meeting is what's called our agenda session. where council will consider the minutes from our last meeting first and foremost and then we will look at the agenda for items to be voted on tonight and then items on our well normally we would look at our items for next week's agenda we're not meeting next week due to the Labor Day holiday and so then we will look at items that will be on our agenda three weeks or more into the future And that will all be a discussion amongst council to answer any questions or comments that any council members might have about particular items. We will then have a report from our library, which we're looking forward to from Will, our library director. And then we'll have a meeting of our planning and zoning and housing committee led by Councilwoman Burrs. After that, we typically take a recess in which we will have an attorney-client meeting, and we do need to meet with our attorney during that recess this evening. So when the time comes for that, I'll announce the time that we'll be coming back after the recess, and so that when we reconvene after the recess is when we vote on all of the items on our agenda for this evening. And at the end of all that, there is a time for members of the public who are here who would like to address counsel on any topic. And at that time, we would welcome anyone who's here for that purpose down to the podium down front, and our attorney will read some rules at that time that govern our public comment period. So with that, counsel, could I get a motion on the minutes from our last meeting? Second. All right. We do have a motion properly seconded, and the minutes from Our previous meeting will stand as published. Council, if you would look with me at the agenda for tonight's meeting, starting with, well, we just have one ordinance. Are there any questions on that ordinance on final reading on tonight's agenda?

Okay.

I don't see any lights for that. We do not have any ordinance on first reading tonight, but we do have several resolutions. And I do see some lights for questions on resolutions. We'll start with Councilman Clark.

Thank you, Chairman Davis. My question is for a resolution on the economic development from the Appalachian Region Commission. The 50% match, which is half a million dollars, does that amount come from the Westside Evolve? Like what cost center, where is that money coming from?

Hi, Richard Beeland, Economic Development. The matching funds are coming out of the earmark that was designated for the James A. Henry building that came from the Congressman Fleshman. Gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

Was that all, counsel?

So that's the earmark from Congressman Fleischman's office that was given towards the general fund to the city and that were used?

No, it was given to the city. It wasn't to the general fund. It was specifically for that building.

Gotcha. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. And thank you, Richard. It's not coming out.

Let's see. Vice Chair Elliott, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for Item 9C under Human Resources. How are you doing? Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Question. I see we're extending this for...

months are we considering a change in how we handle this or is what's the logic behind this one so before I got here Mandy green was working really hard to try to kind of get our all our contracts aligned where they start and end to pretty much on a fiscal not a fiscal year but on a calendar year basis so this contract if you notice it started and it ended with its one year and September, I think it was 28. And so what we're doing is extending that contract for the rest of the year to let it align with the new contract that we have agreed to and signed that will start on 1-1-2027. And it will go on, I think it's for four years with the option to renew up to five years. And that's going to fall in line with all the rest of the contracts that we have on the HR side. Okay, that's perfect. All right. Thank you.

Amanda Green, Chief Operating Officer. So we've already done the RFP for the other temp agencies. We have four temp agencies that were selected, and those will begin in January.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chief Green.

Is that all?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir. And Councilman Clark, you're ready.

Chief Green, to answer my question, just for clarity purposes, there is an RFP going out. Is that what you're saying? Sorry. Okay.

It's already been done. It's already been done. And we're just waiting for the city attorney's office to finish up the contract, and they will go into effect January 1.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council, are there any other questions on any resolutions on tonight's agenda?

Okay.

I don't see any lights here on the board, and so we will If we're not meeting next week, we will look at the purchasing items on tonight's agenda. And hit your lights if you have questions on those. Vice Chair Elliott, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have a question about our security contract under Parks and Outdoors. I don't know how many I'm going to take this one. Yes, sir. Okay. Hey, Russell. This may require some institutional knowledge, but, you know, I don't, A, let me say this, I appreciate the fact that you guys split this contract. I think we were trying to find a one size fits all that was not serving our needed space as well. The concern I have is of SEI. If I'm not mistaken, we used them in the past

and we decided to move on from them because they were not providing adequate services for us what makes us think that now is going to be different so this particular contract the only portion going to sei is with the library and that has to do with uh i believe that someone a staff person that is there through sei that has an ongoing relationship with the library knows I'm not. Miss Jackie. Miss Jackie.

Thank you. Legend of the game is Jackie.

So a long time security person there at the library that is a part of SEI. So they've decided to go with SEI. Everybody else in the city is going to use Walmart.

Okay, I didn't know that. And so that opens up some other questions. And while, and I'm not trying to be rude when I say this, while I appreciate that she has probably become a foundation of that library, I don't think I or anybody else can make procurement decisions based on relationships. And so I'm curious if we're only using, is it just a downtown library for her?

Yeah.

Is SCI doing all libraries?

Willow Hearn, Executive Director of the Chattanooga Public Library. We do have two security locations that we have employee security. We both have the downtown library and our Eastgate facility. Is SCI doing both? Yes.

Okay. And you're saying the reason you chose SEI for the library is because of the relationship we have with Ms. Jackie?

Yes, we've never had any issues with SEI on our behalf. That's not something we've ever had any issues with in the past.

And that's what came from, was this an RFP or a bid? RFP. So we scored an RFP because we have a relationship with somebody, is what you're saying?

I have not scored the RFP myself, sir.

So, no, the RFP was scored as a normal RFP. SEI did score fairly high in the RFP process. And so that is how they were an option. They were number two, I believe, on our scores. And so that was an option when we went back to the players that were hiring the security as to who it was. And so SEI was one of the options. No one else chose them except for the library.

So now we've got to have Walden do everything else, correct?

Yes.

Now, what reassurances do we have that we're not about to fall into the same issue? Because what we had before is we had one company trying to do all of our parks, do all of our community centers, do all of our other government facilities, and we were not getting adequate security. And here's where my concern is. I'll tell you, I have been in community centers where people have pulled out guns on folks. Thank God. And I'll use Avondale, for example. There have been incidents where young people have pulled out weapons on that campus because for whatever reason. And thank God we had law enforcement officers who were there. We actually had an off-duty law enforcement parent picking up a child that was able to step in and ensure that that situation did not get worse. I'm using Avondale as another example. I was there one other time, and we had students getting off the bus, and you had the Haven Community Patrol program who intercepted a young person trying to come in the center with a weapon. Thank God we had Officer Mayweather there to help intervene. So security, and this is just one center, security has been an ongoing issue for a lot of our areas. What makes us think this is going to be any different?

Well, I would say that we wrote our scope for the security contract to make sure that we would have the right services provided. We also met with the individual companies before we made our award to make sure that they were going to be able to cover the needs that we had. I think one of the things that we recognized with our previous company without throwing any shade on anybody is that, you know, you get what you pay for. And so Waldron, I think it's more expensive. than the last company was. And they do have armed and non-armed guards. And so the departments get to choose individually what they're going to choose as far as who they're going to secure. And so those departments were individually involved in making a decision about what their needs were for their individual departments. And that's really the best we can do. I mean, if a company is not going to provide us the services, we have a contract in place that we can end that contract or we can look for something else. But we have done everything we can on the front end to try to get specific expectations for those companies. We've gone over those with those companies. They've assured us they can provide it. I believe Walden has a very good reputation here in town. So that's where we're at.

What facilities are getting armed security and what's not?

Oh, I don't have that list in front of me. I think I want to say landfill is armed. I know Mox and Bencho's unarmed. They may change their mind. We've talked about that. They can change. And I want to say, I don't know. I'll have to get back to you on that.

I'm going to say this. I'm going to look to defer this item, and I don't know if I'm going to get any support, but I can't support something until I know exactly what type of securities we have at our different facilities. Okay.

Okay?

Okay. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. That's all, Mr. Chair. Okay. I've got a question about that.

Councilman Clark, you're recognized. Were you indicating that some of those armed security people are going to public works?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

There will be armed security at the DRC.

You're good. Say that. We can hear you.

Go ahead. DRC and at the landfill.

Gotcha. But not at wastewater, the Mockinson Bend plant.

That's not.

Oh, that's right. I forgot. I'm sorry. Sorry, Amanda. Get your steps in there.

Wastewater administrator Mark Heinzer has decided at this point not to put armed, but he may change his mind. We've been talking about it, about what they're going to have out there. So at this point, he said unarmed, they may change.

Okay. But you're saying when it's armed, it goes to Walden, but the library will use SEI?

So armed or unarmed, go to Walden. So they can provide either service. Just we decided to do a multi-part award. And so we were able to pick multiple vendors. The library chose to stay with the second person that ranked second, which was SEI. So they went with SEI. Everybody else wanted to go with Walden. And so they may pick armed or unarmed, but I'll get that information to you all as to what we, who's going where I think that was kept with procurement. So I will get that information to you all. So you know how many are armed and how many are unarmed.

Thank you. Um, Chief Grant, I guess my question would be to Vice Chairman Elliott. With the purpose of deferring it for however amount of time, what would the purpose be for us to reevaluate the secondary contract of SEI? I don't know why I want to say SEI here. It's not the unit. It's not it. It's not it. And I'm just asking. I definitely support deferring it. I just want to be on the record. WITH A DIRECTIVE TO THE STAFF? LIKE WHAT ULTIMATELY WHAT WOULD BE OUR PURPOSE? LIKE WOULD WE SEND IT BACK? I DIDN'T GET THAT. CAN YOU TRY AGAIN? SORRY. MY PHONE DIDN'T CHIP HENDERSON. THAT'S CRAZY. VICE CHAIRMAN ELLIOTT.

Your question is what's the purpose of deferring?

So the purpose to defer would be to reevaluate, to ask the administration to reconsider their contract with SEI.

Well, I can't tell the administration how to move on selecting contracts. All I can do is vote up and down on one. But I have concerns that we may be falling in the same pitfalls as before with security contracts, and this is just too important not to get right.

I totally agree with you.

And I want to start off with figuring out what facilities are getting armed security and what's not, because that has been a problem in the past. We have had some of our more sensitive areas who just have not had adequate security, and things have gone awry. And we owe it to the public and our employees to make sure we're showing up for them and providing those safeguards. So until I get some of those answers, I cannot support moving this item forward.

Okay. Can I ask Chairman Davis a logistical question first? As as in how we vote right now, this is I don't I'm not sure if this is listed as a blanket, but is there a way tonight? That we can separate the 2.

Yes, just need to be a motion made to withdraw that particular purchasing item. From the group.

Okay, so it's not like a blanket where the vendor one and two are like a blanket contract. They're two separate contracts.

You're talking about... I'm just generally speaking. Okay, let's see what you're asking.

SEI and Walden Security.

Looks like it's one contract.

Can someone clarify, Darren and Mandy, if that is one contract? They're deliberated. But for the city attorney, is that something that we could do in separating them tonight if we were to defer SEI?

It would take a motion and an amendment to that RFP on here and then the action to approve one and not to approve the other.

So, yes, there are two separate contracts, SEI and Walden, but I do have the information in front of me. So, library is unarmed, Moxon Bend is unarmed, parks are unarmed, the community development is armed, DRC is armed, landfill is armed, and City Hall is armed, and Well Advantage is armed.

What did you say? I'm sorry? Family Justice Center. Dr. Burrs. I did.

It's armed. Family Justice Center is armed.

Okay. May I? Sure. Okay. My recommendation tonight in support of Councilman Elliott's concerns, just to do a deferral for further deliberation, would be to separate the two tonight. Okay. and to defer the new agreement with SEIU into further evaluation of that contract as far as to address his concerns, Mr. Vice Chair.

No? Okay. I'm sorry.

We're doing a back and forth.

I'm so sorry.

I'll come back to you, Councilwoman.

Okay. To clarify, Councilman, I want the whole thing deferred. That's what I'm motioning for. Now, if somebody makes a different motion or whatnot, that's fine, but I want all of it pushed off personally.

Since I just gave you this information, you want me just to send it to you?

I have questions, and I think it may be best that we sit down and talk through some of those questions just so we can get some clarity so we don't have to let it linger on the dice.

Mr. Chair, I wish to recognize. Yes, Councilman Clark. Mandy, one second, please. For educational purposes, if we, so this contract goes into effect when? If approved tonight?

You're approving it tonight, and then we will have it in effect as soon as we can.

So who's currently securing these places?

So I believe we're open market right now because we don't have a contract in place. So we are just securing security through open market.

What does that mean? So there's several sites you all have mentioned tonight. So are there multiple vendors that are just randomly securing our facilities right now?

cannot it's okay i don't know so my point is i believe that's how we were doing um like community development had a company everybody had a separate company as we were waiting in between okay so this is time sensitive it is time sensitive all right thank you mandy um i'm done all right thank you councilwoman burge did you wish to be recognized

my question on the timing, that's what I was concerned about is when does this need to go into effect? Because what are we leaving uncovered right now? So everybody's covered at this point. They're just doing their own thing. Yes. So the main thing is to get one contract or contracts in place to move forward. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. And Vice Chair Elliott, you're recognized.

Before we wrap up, I will say this. I've been asking about this contract for several weeks now. And this is the first time we've had an opportunity to talk about it. So I understand timing is important, but also making sure that people's concerns are important as well. And so I haven't brought this request to the dais, but this is something that I've brought up a couple times up until this point. So I just need to get my head wrapped around it before I can feel comfortable voting on it. But if we decide to go one way or another, that's the prerogative of the council. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Council, are there any other questions on purchasing items? I do not see any lights, so we'll look at future considerations. If you would, turn to that document with me and hit your light if you have any questions about any items on our future considerations list. ALL RIGHT. I DON'T SEE ANY LIGHTS. SO WE WILL MOVE ON THEN TO OUR DEPARTMENT REPORT FROM THE LIBRARY. WE'RE HAPPY TO WELCOME WILL BACK TO THE PODIUM.

GOOD AFTERNOON, CITY COUNCIL. MY NAME IS WILL I'M THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY AND I'M PLEASED TO GIVE YOU THE DEPARTMENT UPDATE FROM THE LIBRARY. Before we get into things, I do want to honor a legend of literacy. I know we honored her last week, and I think she's so great we need to honor her again. She's done so much for literacy in our community and through the nation. So if you could please join me with the Imagination Library and all the other things she's done. So if you could join me in just a moment of silence for Dolly Parton. Thank you. Well, we have a lot to talk today about and not a lot of time to get into it. But I first want to thank all of you for all your support and guidance in helping us. I usually give you an update on what we've done since I've last spoken with you. Today I have so much to talk about our past, present, and future that I simply don't have time to cover all those things. That said, I'd love to sit down with you, talk with you 15, 30, more than an hour. I can talk about the library for a long time, as you can see. So I'd love to sit down and talk with you. If you don't get a chance to do that, I've also included a link to our strategic plan, which we unveiled last time I spoke with you. We have updated with our FY26 progress, so you can see the goals we were able to accomplish back last fiscal year and going forward our goals for next fiscal year. So I'd love to sit down and talk with you. But for now, what I'd like to talk is about our downtown library celebrating its 50-year anniversary. So downtown turns 50 years old on October 17th. We're really excited about that. And this anniversary is about honoring what Chattanooga built and invested in 50 years ago. We're also using it as a catalyst to reinvest in ourselves. We all know how vibrant inside the library is, and we want to make sure the outside of the library is just as vibrant as the inside. So I'll talk about that a little bit later on. And while every single Chattanooga Public Library location is equally important, the downtown really acts as an engine for the rest of the libraries, being the hub where everyone is able to, that's where we store most of our books, That's where we kind of have all our central administration. And we have like our fourth floor and all the other items that we get out to the location. So it's a critically important part. So I want to all personally invite you on October 17th. It's literally the 50th anniversary to the day of the downtown library's 50th birthday. So we'll have so much going on. So this is my personal invite to every single one of you. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Come on down. We'd love to see you. Specifically at 2 p.m. I'll tell you a little why at 2 p.m. I'd love to have you come on down. but we're going to have food, we're going to have activities, we're going to have community partners celebrating the library's impact of all the impact we've had for years and years. We'll have local authors, Maker Day, so much, a little bit, something for everybody. So we'd love to have you come down there and experience it and not just hear about me, about our 50th year anniversary. And as I mentioned, we want to use this as a catalyst to reinvest in ourself, again, making the outside just as vibrant as the inside. You'll see a little bit of a theme. Chattanooga has a wonderful outdoor environment. It's one of our strategic advantages, and we want to capitalize on that in our urban environment that we are. So we know we've been preparing this for a long time. About a year and a half ago, with a grant from Lindhurst and the help of Matt Whitaker, the patron saint of our native garden here, We've actually been able to install a native garden, and it's bloomed, and it's done even better than we could possibly imagine. So we're really excited about that. It even has a little walkway so you can go through it. Excuse me, I am fighting a little bit of redweed allergy, so thanks for your patience there. Second off... We worked with Public Art to have a mural. It's through a grant through City Stages, which is particularly relevant because we're going to be having some of our music performances and other bits out on the plaza there. So that's exactly what it's intended for. If you take a look, the fish and the plants on there are actually representations of native species as well to this area. So again, kind of going with that natural theme we have. This one kind of breaks away from that. If you didn't know, Rock City is where mini golf, goofy golf, or goonie golf, whatever you want to call it, was invented, the current iteration of that. So we want to really honor and celebrate the cultural heritage that we've been able to give the whole nation. And so, yes, we do have a mini golf course in collaboration with Rock City there, and you can check out a club and play it. It's a little difficult, so if you get a hole-in-one, I'd be really impressed. and maybe not believe you uh the other part i do want to highlight is and save the best for last we are installing a pocket park in collaboration with our parks downtown uh parks as well at their downtown library in our front yard there we'll be installing a some swings a horizontal climbing wall going with that native theme some playable flowers and the dragonfly seesaw and again this is a national park city seed we're really playing up that idea of national park city We all know about a city and a park. We want to make sure we have a park at our library as well, too. So, again, really celebrating our outdoors and activating the downtown as a downtown library is a critical component of activating the whole downtown. Moving on from that, speaking of our past and present right now, I do want to talk a little bit about a renovation that we'll be doing here soon. The third floor of the library, which is local history and genealogy, we're actually renovating that whole floor and we're really excited about it. We were able to have a private donation fund all of this so we can continue to be good stewards of the Chattanooga's funding for all y'all. So, again, Chattanooga Public Library has one of the oldest and most robust collections in the state. It's a wonderful collection. This is a remarkable historical collection. This really ends up being Chattanooga's collective memory. That's really important to us to be able to preserve and hold on to that. The collection, again, is exceptional. The space has a little bit to be desired, and we're going to be fixing that here, and I'll highlight some of those things and what we're going to be doing to fix that. Anyway, we really do hold Chattanooga's memory. So, looking at that, if you've been in there about a month ago, because we're actively working on this space, it doesn't quite look like this right now, but this is what this space looked like about a month ago. As you can see, the reference test is tucked back, so it's not readily accessible. These stacks are just kind of out in the open, and in those little gray cubes in the back there, in the top part of it, those are our archival area. It's about 98% full. So flash forward to what we're currently looking at. There are three goals, and I'll go through each one of them with you quickly. The archive storage, again, 98% full. So we wanted to make sure we could continue to collect items because we'd have to make a difficult choice if it gets full. Either we have to start deaccessioning items, meaning getting rid of some of the history that people have decided to keep for years and years, or we would have to stop collecting altogether. We all know Chattanooga continues to make history, as all of you do, and so we want to continue to collect that history as well, too. And we're also adding a new updated HVAC unit to help with temperature and humidity, which are two of the arch nemesis of archives. Two, whether you go to the library to check out a book, attend a program, go to the fourth floor to make something, or research here local history and genealogy, what the library really offers people is exceptional customer service and an exceptional service experience. That reference desk from being tucked back is now front and center, so you can see someone willing to help you from the very get-go. People often looking for the quiet traditional space of the library. I mentioned how vibrant the library is. Those quiet spaces are harder to come by. This third floor acts as our quiet traditional space for people to come to. So we've added more seating and more comfortable seating. Additionally, our exhibit space is now lockable. And what's exciting about that is it allows us to have more traveling exhibits come through. That's one of the requirements to have some of the exhibits come through. And so now we can, it opens us up to more opportunities there. And last but certainly not least, the very left of that green circle, we have the history gateway. What our local history and genealogy department is excellent at doing is making history come to life. This is going to be a place where people can interact with our collection first hand. We are the public library all together and this is the public's collection. We want them to experience it first hand. Be able to touch it, be able to see it with their own eyes. And last but not least, we want to make sure we do a good job with preservation and security. That zigzag green line in the middle right there is actually going to be a glass wall. This separates the rest of the collection from the area. As you can see, that reference desk is friendly, but it also allows us to have better viewpoints and great view lines of what comes in and out of the library there. We just want to make sure to hold on these invaluable items that are literally irreplaceable for future generations to enjoy them. And that's not the only work we need to do downtown. The first floor of the library is changing as well. We got a very generous donation from UTC, some of their old furniture. As you can see, it looks great. We've also added some study rooms off popular demand. It's something that people have been requesting a long time, so we want to be responsive to that. That's what the library likes to do, is be responsive to its community. And so we've added that among some other things as well, too. So you see an innovative approach there. We also critically need to look at our second floor, which is our youth services floor. This is a victim of its own success. On the weekends, we will have more than 100 people attend one of our storytime programs. We'll see people come in, look, and go, nope, and turn away. And we really want to be able to meet that capacity and demand there. So we're really looking at reinventing that whole second floor of the library. And it's not just downtown. We need to look across our system. The Eastgate Library, we were supposed to be in that building five years. There's a very interesting story there from local history speaking of that. If you want to talk to me about that, I'd be happy to. We are now celebrating, we're supposed to be five years. We're now celebrating our 48th year there. So this is a rented facility. I will say it has not been as maintained as best as it should be. It is not in order. It is well past its end of life. And we are dedicated to Brainerd, and we want to make sure we stay in Brainerd to serve that community. The community deserves better and our staff deserves better tools to serve that community. So we're actively looking for a new space there. Two, the Northgate Library. This is a city-owned building. It actually turns 50 years old next spring. It's in better condition. It's near the end of its life, but it's not quite there yet. What the real issue here is capacity. It is the second highest cardholdership in all of the city, is the first highest circulating zip code, and is the highest circulating location, even higher than downtown. What's really stopping us from offering more materials, more programs, more services is space. We need to meet that community's demand. We need double that space. And last but certainly not least, East Brader, 37421. We've been hearing for years and years that we do need a space there. Every consultant for the last 20 years has told us we need a space there. It is one of the most densely populated places. It is one of the furthest away from a library location. We desperately need a space out there. The community has grown, and we need to grow alongside with it. The community has asked for it time and time again anecdotally. They say, where's my library? RPA surveys have said we need a library out there. The demand is there. We really need to fill that space and offer those services to that part of our community. And so I want to, again, thank you for all the impact and all the support you have, all the guidance, feedback, and support from all of you. We've been able to do even more with your support and help. And 50 years ago, Chattanooga made a great decision to invest in its public library, and I think that ROI has been really, really impactful for all of us. Look at what that investment's become. We have another opportunity now to make those investments that people will still be talking about 50 years from today. CHAD NUGENT CONTINUES TO MAKE HISTORY. SO DOES ITS LIBRARY. THANK YOU FOR HELPING US WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER. THAT'S MY PRESENTATION.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, WILL. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FOR WILL COUNCIL? COUNCILMAN HARVEY, YOU'RE RECOGNIZED.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Will, thank you for what you do at the library. I am a proud library cardholder, as is my wife and now my one-year-old daughter. So I just wanted to say that, brag a little bit, that I am a library cardholder. I also want to plug the third floor archives. The older I get, the more old people activities that I want to do. And I've gotten really into genealogy and spent two hours up there just going through archives as an eighth-generation Tennessean. It was really cool to see a lot of my family history that is preserved there. I actually found a picture of my second great-grandfather with his 26 children that he had. So it was there. So it was really cool to see my family history come to life. So definitely... I highly recommend going and checking out the third floor. It's really cool. So, yeah, excited to see the renovation. Thank you very much.

And speaking of preservation, I'm very thankful that somebody preserved that picture of me during the Northgate story time.

We appreciate that.

Yeah, and I would encourage my fellow council members to go out to the library near you and participate in a story time. It will keep you young at heart, serving some of our youngest constituents. Any other questions or comments, council, for Will? No. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Okay.

With that, I will yield the chair to Councilwoman Burrs, who will lead us in our Planning, Zoning, and Housing Committee meeting.

Okay, I wish to open this month's Planning and Zoning Committee meeting. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from our last meeting? Second. Second, thank you. With proper motion and second, our minutes shall stand as published. So we have three things to cover tonight and then anything else you all would like to talk about. The first thing we have is our upcoming cases, which will be heard on September 15th, and we just have a few of those. only to have been flagged by our PA staff. But of course, as always, we'll talk about anything you all want to talk about. And then we also have one matter to go over an amendment a zoning amendment regarding drive throughs, which is Karen or Karen will go over with us. And then we're going to have a short presentation from Brian Schultz, just an education session on subdivision plans versus zoning plans. So moving forward, council members, I have two items that were highlighted by RPA, which is 20260100, which is in District 1, and then 20260098, which is in District 5. Other than that, are there any other matters that you all wish to hear about tonight? I see no lights. So, Karen, if you want to – oh, I apologize. Councilman Henderson.

Well, you said here about – I do have a question, I guess, for Karen about 0095, just to confirm the applicant does want to withdraw that application, which, I mean, we'll have to take action on, but.

Right. I do believe we got official withdrawal notice. We sent an email yesterday, and we're thinking we got it today, that I was sent a call, but we'll confirm that.

Okay. And then I did get an email confirming that 0100, the applicant's attorney, did request withdrawal of that application as well. Okay.

So we don't need to hear about that one tonight? No. Okay. Wonderful. We're down to one. All right. I see no other lights. Then, Karen, let's proceed with 0098. So 0098, is it 5251 and 5313 Champion Road?

This is just off Highway 58. The applicant is requesting to lift conditions from CC commercial zoning from a prior rezoning ordinance from 2021. They propose to build and operate a commercial and industrial supply business on the property, and we'll refine that use kind of as we go along. And so the property was rezoned in 2021. There were six conditions placed on it at the time. The two, condition one and two, which is no storage of vehicles within 50 feet of the right-of-way of Champion Road and lighting to be directed away from all residential areas or properties is intended to remain. This was originally proposed. Booker T. Washington is just down the street from this. This was originally proposed. during the rezoning process in 21 to be boat and RV storage, kind of geared towards that use. And so some of these conditions, you can kind of understand it through that lens. One access point onto Champion Road, a seven foot tall fence to be installed around the storage facility areas. outdoor storage facility use only, even though it was only limited to that, it also limited out these other, the other uses at the time. And so I do, as I mentioned, Champion Road is just off Highway 58. You can see it on the map to the intersection there with Highway 58. And just to the north is the southernmost boundary of Booker T. Washington Park. It's just off the map there. The site's currently vacant, directly adjacent to state-owned property to the east, a church to the south, and residential properties to the west and northwest. And so the applicant provided a site plan, and during the review, we noticed that although two properties have been requested to have lifting the conditions, only one property seemed to have the uses associated with that warehousing kind of commercial use and so that's where in the review staff started to split into the two properties and you'll see the final recommendation splits those two properties. You have one that has that warehouse and delivery area and then the other property doesn't show any structures on it at this point. Plan Chattanooga does recommend suburban corridor with the idea of keeping the corridor as more of that commercial use not going as far into this area this isn't a zoning case and that's just provided more for information this is lifting that condition from the commercial rezoning in 2021. so there are a series of four conditions being lifted i'm going to really focus on one of them which is the use but conditions three and four so one interior remaining Conditions three and four, one is regarding traffic and the other is regarding a fence. Because this isn't intended to be kind of that back and forth with trailers and RVs coming back and forth, staff has recommended supporting the removal of the only one access point onto Champion Road and that the fence would be replaced by the required buffer condition. So it's not that there would not be Any buffering, it would be default to the current landscape regulations. So staff supported removing those. I think the main probably meat of this is the condition to outdoor storage facility use only. So this property could be developed under the prior zoning ordinance definition of outdoor storage facility. We did work to confirm this, and this is the pattern with conditions referencing older language. The definition of that use allowed the outdoor storage on the site of any goods, materials, merchandise, recreational vehicles, motor vehicles, passenger vehicles, and commercial vehicles. The commercial vehicles could include earth-moving equipment vehicles such as but not limited to dump trucks. and earth moving equipment and I know that was a lot but we did put that in here to be clear although at the time of rezoning it was proposed to be kind of RV boat storage maybe related to the lake uses or river uses that's not in there so really earth moving equipment storage of earth moving equipment could be developed on that site so The proposed use is now changing to a proposed single-story building with office space and some warehouse space for commercial industrial supply operation, and the application didn't indicate any outdoor storage on the site. Site's 950 feet from Highway 58. Staff supported amending the condition for use to offset possible nuisances that, one, the outdoor storage of materials and commercial vehicles could have related to visual appearance of this corridor heading to Booker T. Washington State Park, and two, heavy-duty construction trucks and equipment on this two-lane road. And so staff recommended lifting that condition with a, however, that it be replaced with a condition heavy retail, rental, and service with no outdoor storage permitted. And so one and two is staying. Staff recommended lifting some of the other conditions instead of lifting the condition and allowing all the uses in that commercial zone to is recommending the use which is worked with LDO to confirm that we agree that this is a heavy retail rental and service use with no outdoor storage. And so that is only for the one property at 5313 Champion Road. Again, we split the recommendation. So recommend denying the applicant's request, revising it where this is shown, and the applicant and planning commission noted that they found that acceptable. And then the second property that was part of this lifting condition case stays the same. So all the conditions placed on it in 2021 would stay in place. There's no proposal at this time, so if something needed to be done at that time, the applicant would need to come through and lift or amend those conditions. So there was one person present at Planning Commission just mentioned that due to timing and storms were not able to felt that neighborhood members were not able to attend the public meeting and just was encouraging another neighborhood meeting. The Planning Commission found basically recommended approval of the staff recommendation. So that is to deny the applicant's request, have the amended three conditions shown there on 5313, and then leave the other property with existing conditions. And I'm happy to answer any questions. I know that was a lot, but it's kind of a complicated case, trying to figure out what is best there. And we did want to be really clear and help the community understand with the one condition of what could be developed there to help them understand kind of going through the process, what's allowed by right and what a lifting of conditions could mean for them.

Thank you, Karen. Councilman Clark, this is in your district. Do you have any comments or questions?

I want to make a comment regarding the public meeting that we had. It was very well attended with several neighbors, actually. Prior to us having the meeting, there was like a monsoon that happened like 30 minutes before. And we still had several members present and have had the opportunity to talk to neighboring individuals. There's not a lot of residential area in a commercial zone, so there's not a lot of houses right there. other than near Rotary Drive and some of the neighboring subdivisions like River Rock Cove. It's not close enough for this to impact them. One thing I want to note, when the conditions were placed on this in 2001,

If it's 2021.

2021 is that it was those conditions were specific to a certain type of business. That business never happened. There's a new business, a warehouse business that wants to purchase this. So it was only natural that we lift the conditions that no longer was applicable. to that site because that business no longer exists. Karen, one question I do have, so I just want to put that on the record. I do plan to support the denial of some of the conditions, but you have added some.

That's correct. We added that use condition because the zone allows a wide variety of uses. This still has a lot of residential neighborhoods and it's off the commercial corridor. Right.

And part of you could go back to that screen where you put the amended language regarding the heavy duty trucks.

Yes, that's the go back to be there.

This is so when you say amending, are you adding that to condition that language to condition five?

No, we noted what could be done there, which is the heavy duty trucks. The language in blue is just saying we recommend lifting the condition or changing the condition for outdoor storage facility only because you could have heavy duty trucks on that street. And we felt that amending that condition would actually improve that situation. Gotcha. Thank you so much for that clarity. That's all.

Thank you. I see no other lights. So we'll move on to the next item, which is the amendment. regarding the drive-thrus.

Yes. And so we had a robust discussion at Planning Commission about drive-thrus. And so there were several elements of that discussion. What was mostly discussed at Planning Commission has not moved forward to council. And so there was a lot of discussion about what might happen on some of the more urban corridors with drive-thrus. That is not in front of you today. So just to let you know, this was the part that had very little or less discussion. So we have had multiple discussions with people about drive-throughs, particularly in the zone we're not talking about today, but the CC zone, which is the one we're discussing. And so the CC zone is the old, it's the former C2 zone. Most of those properties were equivalent. That zone allowed drive-throughs by right with no standards. The new zoning ordinance put in standards, which we'll touch on here in a moment, And now we have two types of drive-thrus that are fine. We have standalone, which would just be like a coffee shop drive-thru, and then one where it's an accessory to another use. And so we are making that distinction because there's more just drive-thrus where you don't go in and sit or any other activity occurs. So the new zoning ordinance did two things. It added these standards. And so standards address items such as screening making sure you're not preventing disruption on streets, stacking, no drive-through components within 50 feet of a residential use. There is no change to that. This was one item that went in the new zoning ordinance. The second item was defining where these go. And so instead of by right, In the C2, now CC zone, instead of by right, they went in as a special exception. So especially based on the minutes at the meeting. We spoke with Public Works Transportation. They didn't have any documented concerns, nor did we have any recent documented concerns or comments regarding drive-throughs since those new zoning ordinance standards had gone into place. But because the zoning ordinance drive-through standards do not make a distinction on what type of road you're on, so it would treat Highway 153 the same as it would treat Main Street. Drive-throughs are not that context sensitive. We are recommending a change only for outside the urban overlay. We do think of our urban areas more walkable, bikeable. There's more transit. There's more pedestrian bike activity. So we are not recommending a change within the urban overlay. And because they're not context, the drive-through language is not context sensitive, we're only talking about outside the urban overlay. So this would be Hickson Pike, East Brainerd Road, Lee Highway, Gunbarrel Road, more of our full, those commercial corridors. So there's four recommended changes. I numbered them to kind of so it's not hopefully too confusing. We're recommending and planning commission move forward that if you're in the CC zone, instead of a special exception permit by Boza, you go to a permitted by right use outside the urban overlay zone. So that had been in place prior to the new zoning, which required the special exceptions permit. All of those had either been withdrawn or approved at that point. We have the new standards in place. And so this is a recommended change. And conjunction with the next item, which should be item three and four, which I might have turned off though. Rick, do you mind moving to the next slide? I apologize. So during the review of drive-throughs, we have two other recommendations. One is that no drive-through ingress or egress shall cross the Riverwalk or City Greenway Trail or Connector unless that's the only vehicular access. And so we have presented to council thinking about pedestrian safety. This gave us a chance to rethink that. The next item is to help try to prevent stacking over sidewalks and in the street. But this item is just to acknowledge that the users of the Riverwalk Connector trails greenways have different types of users on them that might not be as kind of road savvy and that in and out that a drive-through provides that only if you That's only vehicle access to the property should be looking for another access that doesn't there's not a lot of places where the a commercial property and this would be you have to be zoned for a drive-through would elect that to happen but it's just something that we wanted to recommend putting in place and then the fourth item that's part of this change is that stacking spaces begin at the first point of service instead of the last point. It allows more stacking with the idea if I'm driving and cars are backing up behind me, we're not backing up onto the sidewalk or the street. And so it's kind of the idea of changing to permitted by right use and commercial, those CC commercial corridors outside the urban overlay, but these would apply anywhere. And just to make sure that we're trying to... get car, you know, get, we're not having that drive-through activity as much on those sidewalks. And that's the recommended items for this change.

Karen, I just, I see no lights. Anyone have any questions or questions? Oh, I don't know why I keep missing you. Yeah. Councilman Henderson.

Karen, let me make sure I understand this. Yes. Under this old C2. Yes. We allowed The drive-thru standalone or as accessory? That's right. We didn't make that distinction.

Drive-thrus were just a permitted use as a part of those activities.

And all we're doing, if I understand you correctly, is now going back to the way we used to do business under the C2.

Outside the urban overlay. That's correct. Yes. And pairing that with additional standards here, just we hadn't kind of done a thorough review of drive-thrus since that went in the ordinance in 24. Okay.

Explain to me the significance of number four, the stacking beginning at the first point of service.

So we met with Public Works Transportation, a representative that we coordinate with quite a bit. And we were just reviewing to confirm before we said we haven't had any complaints. Is that true? What is going on? How is the Board of Zoning Appeals working? And we did talk about drive-throughs that back up onto streets. And thinking about drive-through, when there's queuing in drive-throughs, that this would stacking has to be pushed back a little bit so there's more room to stack and so we don't have um the scene would seem to prevent cars from backing up into the street or you know backing up onto the sidewalk is there regulations as to how many stacking spaces There is language and I believe it's number two there. So one and two is currently in the ordinance. You provide a minimum of four stacking spaces per lane or bay and then it talks about provided must be A and B there. So this is amending B instead of beginning at the final point of service moving to the first point of service.

Okay. And that looks like that would create less stacking to me.

It is. It should be, I think the intention is to be moving stacking up.

Yeah.

And so, I'm sorry, instead of the final, it's going to the first. Yes. It's the actually reverse.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Yes. It's intended to give more room for stacking so all the cars are moving up and stacking before you hit that sidewalk. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

I have one question.

Yes, Mr. Attorney.

I always get concerned whenever I see something that says, unless that is the only vehicular access to the property. Why would we ever allow someone to have a, I guess, drive-through where there is a river walk or a city trail greenway that is fronting that? It looks like that is a pedestrian issue that would need to be dealt with. I just don't like the unless.

So we did use language from the Parks and Outdoor Plan. So we borrowed that to say, so there was a question of, is this a River Walker City Greenway trailer connector? We tried to borrow that from the Parks and Outdoor Plan. We did, during the public process, someone noted Highway 58, where we have kind of the Greenway Trail. And so we had originally had pretty much full stop. And then with a greenway trail connector on Highway 58, which functions differently than perhaps a regular sidewalk, we did change that language in response to some public comment.

I'm just concerned for the safety aspect of the day.

Yes, sir. This seemed to be kind of a use variance situation with could someone get a variance for this, but we intention was not to prevent someone to have use of their property, but we did want to be aware that we might particularly Highway 58, due to its linear corridor nature, does not have a lot of streets to access from, side streets, so we put that in with this in mind.

Anything else? No, ma'am. Okay. I see no other lights. Karen, thank you. Just with regards to CMU-1, we'll be discussing that at the September planning commission meeting. I know that the commission asked for some more information relative to drive-thrus in the urban overlay.

I don't believe we're discussing it September. We might provide some information, but we do not have an amendment and I don't believe we'll have a full discussion about it that time.

So not yet.

We got some direction that we can still handle it on a case-by-case basis and we do have some zoning cases. Okay, wonderful.

Thank you. Any other questions for Karen before she switches out with Brian? Thank you, Karen, as always.

I'm here to talk about subdivision plats at the request of Chairman Davis to hopefully clear up some confusion. This comes up time to time from the public and some of the city council. Why don't plats or subdivision plats come from this body for action? So hopefully we'll, after the day, it's got four slides, we'll go through this pretty quickly and hopefully clear up some confusion on why they don't come for this body. Everything we do as a planning agency or planners across the state follows state law, Tennessee code annotated. That's where we look look towards in terms of zoning and subdivision planning. So I'll talk about state law quite a bit. State law gives local governments the necessary authority to adopt and enforce subdivision regulations. This law also defines what is a subdivision, how plats are submitted to the Planning Commission, and provides procedures for the adoption and submission of subdivision plats. If you want to know more about this, at the bottom of the screen, I think you have it in the slide there, that's the state law references, Title 13, Chapters 3, 4, and 7. Chapters 3 refer to how you set up a regional planning commission. It talks about subdivisions and how you do planning. the reviews. Chapter 4 is regarding Municipal Planning Commission and Chapter 7 specifically related to zoning procedures. So what is the subdivision or state law? That's defined by 13.3.401. It's basically a two-part test. And I won't read this whole definition, but it's two parts. The first part means the division of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots, sites, or other division, and this is the key, requiring a new street or utility construction. So that's the first part. You're dividing into two or more lots and you're building a new street or utilities. That's a subdivision plat requiring submittal to staff and planning commission. The second part is any division less than five acres. So any division of property into lots that are less than five acres, regardless if you're building a road or utilities, that's a plat under state law, and you have to submit a plat for review and adoption by the Planning Commission. By utility construction, that doesn't mean individual service lines. These are your main public lines, main public water line, new streets. So that's the definition of what a subdivision is under state law. So we all get asked this question a lot, too. What are the stages of the subdivision plat review process? It has really four steps, really. The first part is a preliminary plat. And that's probably a misnomer on the name. I would like to change that at some point. I call it a concept plan. Sometimes people get confused on what that means. It's really just a conceptual rendering of what the development will look like. It gives us, the staff and the planning commission, an opportunity to review that conceptual plan Does it meet the subdivision regulations? Does it meet zoning? Does it appear to meet all other building codes, stormwater codes, whatever codes the city has adopted? Does it primarily meet that? So that's the conceptual plan or preliminary plat. It doesn't mean you can go out and start grading and clearing the site. There's another step. So if Planning Commission approves a preliminary plat, The next step is the developer engineer submits civil plans or construction plans to the Land Development Office for review. That gets into stormwater, how you're building the roads, how you're building utilities, All that information is very detailed civil plans. If that is approved by the Land Development Office, you then get your grading permit and you can start grading and putting in infrastructure. That's when people see something happening on the ground. It's when the land's being cleared. So again, that's the construction engineering plan stage, which is stage three. Once that's completed and all that's installed and ready to be accepted by the city as meeting all the requirements, you then submit a final plat. That final plat's a formality that goes in front of the planning commission. That's a final recording document that gets recorded at the register of deeds office that describes your legal boundaries. It doesn't transfer ownership until you do the deed, but it helps describe those deeds for those lots. Once that gets recorded, you can start pulling building permits to actually construct the homes. So how can I find out if a subdivision plat is being developed near me? Well, the easiest way is our website. You can check that website each month at www.chcrpa.org for monthly case information in terms of zoning and subdivision plats. If you want to look at previous approved plats, you can also look at our dashboard. It has all the plats that have been recorded in the city. So people can look at that site. Sometimes we get asked a lot of questions. Why is a plat being rushed? Why is it being put on the agenda pretty quickly? Well, the reason is state law. State law ties our hands. Per TCA 13-3-404, when a plat has been submitted to the staff, we have 30 days to place that plat on the Planning Commission agenda or it's deemed approved. So we have no luxury of deferring that plat forever. So once we get it, it's considered complete, we have to put it on the Planning Commission agenda. Then the second part is who adopts subdivision regulations? Unlike zoning amendments that you see, you know, they go to the Planning Commission for recommendation, then they ultimately come to this body for final review and action. Subdivision regulations are different. That authority stops with the Planning Commission, and that's per TCA. 13.3.403 states the Regional Planning Commission is exercising its powers of planning powers, shall adopt regulations governing the subdivision of land in this jurisdiction. So that section says that Any amendments to the sub regs rest to the Planning Commission. We often get this question. I think I met with Chairman Davis last week. What's the role of city council in subdivision platting? You know, I send you each month a rundown of other zoning cases in subdivision plats. But really... The council has no authority over subdivision flats. That rests with the Planning Commission. That's coming out of state law 13.3.402. No plot of a subdivision of land shall be filed or recorded until it has been approved by such regional planning commission or the staff of the regional planning commission. So it doesn't mention anywhere city council or legislative bodies. The sole responsibility of approving subdivision flats rests with the Planning Commission. And so what we do, again, is notify council of any platts you have in your district. So really, we talk about subdivision platts. It is different than zoning cases. If it meets the requirements, it meets the requirements. They have no authority but to approve. So with that, that's my presentation. If you've got any questions, I'll be glad to answer on platting. It's short and sweet.

I don't see any immediate. Oh, I do see a light now. Just as I was getting ready to say something. Councilwoman Hill, thank you.

Thank you. So this plot process has been an interesting conversation in District 2 recently, because we have a very large piece of property that's being cleared. And in fact, it's so large that the land disturbance is a very small portion of the property, even though it's a huge amount of land being disturbed. And what I've been advised is that this falls under that Second element of when a subdivision plat is not approved is not required with the potential that all all Tracts of land are greater than five acres and no street or utility is being constructed so my question is When do those Plats get recorded is it when a property is then sold and

And then a title attorney hands them? They would do a title attorney, do a new deed, creating five-acre tracts.

So there eventually becomes a record of them. Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's all, Madam Chair. I see no other lights. Just a quick question, just comparison. Well, there's two parts to the question. There are limits to what the Regional Planning Commission can deny a subdivision plat. We have to follow certain laws, correct? Can you do a quick comparison? You kind of alluded to it, the difference between the approval of a subdivision plat and the approval of a rezoning of a property? Sure.

We just had a training last month at Planning Commission with a county attorney to present some stuff on subdivision platting when you can deny. The Planning Commission can deny a plat, but there has to be documented proof of some, you're violating the sub regs, you're not in compliance with some standard in the sub reg. If you're violating that and not correcting that issue, you can deny it. You can deny it for safety reasons, but because 50 people show up and say, the roads are unsafe, there has to be some documentation, just not hearsay. So if you can do a study, do a traffic study, that these individual driveway curb cuts may cause a safety concern, you can deny the plat at that point. But if that plat meets all the requirements, you may not like it, but if it meets the requirements, you have no choice but to approve it. Or you change your requirements.

And so the Planning Commission... Their hands are kind of tied. Their hands are tied.

And state law changes that. And actually, when a plat gets on the planning commission agenda, they have to act within 60 days. If they don't act, either to deny it or approve it, it's deemed approved. And that's all under state law. And actually taking effect in January is another state law amendment that once we as staff get a subdivision plat, we have 30 days to send staff comments to the developer They respond back within so many days, and if we don't do that, it's deemed approved. So state law, it's heavy on private property rights.

So one other question, and I think unless I see any other lights, we'll move on. If I buy a piece of property that's not zoned for what I have in mind for use, which comes first, the rezone or the platting?

Use the rezoning.

Okay. So lots of times when the subdivision plots, more often than not, when the subdivision plots come before the planning commission, the property's already been rezoned for that particular use. So it's just a matter of, as you said, what is the conceptual plan now that it's been, say, rezoned for that particular use?

And Trina, obviously, she's the subdivision coordinator. Right. through the rezoning risk conditions on it, we take the conditions and make sure that platting it meets the conditions. So zoning and subdivision regulations go hand in hand, but the sub regs are a little different. It's really about how you plat that property. We get questions all the time. Why don't we send notification letters out to abutting property owners like we do a zoning case? That's primarily why, if it meets the requirements, it's a formality. Public notices during a zoning case. I don't, Councilman, Chairman Davis is experiencing that now with a plant on his property near his, in his district that's causing some grief.

Okay.

Thank you, Brian. I see no other lights. Chairman Davis, have your, did that satisfy the information you wanted to communicate? Okay. Okay. And what time would you like to recess until?

Until 5.15, and we'll have a brief attorney-client meeting.

Okay. Thank you all. We will recess until 5.15, and we do have an attorney-client meeting.

Did you hear that, Bill?

We are back in session. Madam Clerk, if you would please read item 7A.

The resolution authorizing economic development to apply for and if awarded except an appellation. I'm sorry about that.

I'm reading the wrong one.

7A. An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 31, Section 31362, General Duties of the Stormwater Regulations Board.

Second. Second. We have a motion properly seconded. Council, are there any questions or comments on this item before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on final reading. Item 9A, please.

A resolution authorizing economic development to apply for and if awarded, accept an Appalachian Regional Commission grant for the build-out of the health clinic at the west side with a 50% match of $500,000 for a total amount not to exceed $1 million. Second.

We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9B, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator of community development to apply for and if awarded, accept a non-recurring allocation grant from the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging to be used to support current and future senior programs from FY27 through FY28 as well as replace gym equipment at the Glenwood Center for the Seniors in the amount of $50,000. Motion approved.

Second. I have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Are there any questions or comments, council, before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9C, please.

A resolution authorizing the Chief Human Resources Officer to extend the 22nd Century Technologies Inc. contract agreement for an additional four months with the extension terms beginning September 9, 2026 and ending on December 31, 2026. Motion approved.

We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote, Council? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The resolution is adopted. Item 9D, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to award contract number E2401A201, Rape Crisis Center, to point general contractors LLC in the amount of $998,573.46 with a contingency in the amount of $100,000 for a total amount not to exceed $1,198,573.46.

Second. Motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The resolution is adopted. Item 9E please.

A resolution authorizing the administrative board of the Department of Public Works to roll contract number L25001201 Chattanooga Public Library third floor archives upgrades to Robert Roberts LLC in the amount of $369,313 with a contingency in the amount of $37,000 for a total amount not to exceed $406,313. Second. Second.

We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. And finally, item 9F, please.

A resolution authorizing the appointments of Donna Castile, Allison Tate, David Kowalski, Joshua Chandler, Demetrius Hull, and Jason Chauncey as special police officers on arm for the City of Chattanooga Department of Public Works Land Development Office expressly limited to the performance of duties and their position as code enforcement officer in the Land Development Office.

Motion approved. Second. We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. That takes us to purchases.

Good evening, Council. We have eight purchases recommended for approval this evening. Item number one is with Public Works. This is a new agreement for litter abatement and structure boarding services. This will be a four-year agreement with an annual amount limit of $575,000. The award will go to TRG Lawn Care and River City Remodeling as the best bid. Item number two is with DTS. This is a one-time purchase for an end-to-end decision support system for integrated smart electric grid and transportation system management. This sole source purchase that partners with UTC utilizing the ATC MTD grant in the amount of $502,792. Item number three is with wastewater. This is a new agreement for air compressor annual maintenance and repair services. This will be a four-year agreement with an annual amount limit of $55,000. The award will go to National Compressor as the best bid. Item number four is with Public Works. This is a one-time purchase for three self-leveling suspension systems for Fire Department F-550 brush trucks. This sole source purchase from Liquid Spring LLC is in the amount of $56,452.50. Item number five is with wastewater. This is a one-time purchase to cover past due invoices for sewer line chemical route control services. This purchase from Duke's route control will be in the amount of $139,106.69. Item number six is with public works. This is a one-time purchase for the easement acquisition with stream assessment and stormwater division. For the amount limit of $226,000, the award will go to R, K, and K as the best proposal. Item number seven is with Public Works. This is a one-time purchase for a Peterbilt split-body garbage truck to be used by Solid Waste. This purchase from Environmental Products Group will be in the amount of $458,810.80, utilizing the source well contract. Finally, item number eight with Parks and Outdoors is a new agreement for security services at multiple locations across the city. This will be a four-year agreement with an amount limit not to exceed $2 million annually. The award will go to Walden Security and SEI Inc. as the best bids.

Mr. Chair, Elliot, you're recognized.

Yes, Mr. Chair. I would like to make a motion to defer the Parks and Outdoors security contract, entire contract, until September 22nd. 20 seconds.

All right. Council, we have a motion properly seconded to defer that last purchasing item until our September 22nd agenda. Are there any questions or comments before we vote on the motion?

All right.

All right. Seeing...

I do see, sorry, my little machine. Looks like you've got some numbers in queue. Okay.

So I have Councilman Harvey, you're recognized.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask Councilman Elliott if you'd consider the 15th?

I may not be here. It depends on my flight weeks and how long the meeting lasts.

Should you get your answers between now and then? Can we both be affirmative?

It depends on how long our meeting lasts. Like if we have a long meeting,

Even if you're not here.

Say it again.

Even if you're not here, do you feel like you could get your answers pointed out then?

I hope so. We can see.

Just a question.

What gives me a peace of mind is that they did describe a stopgap they have in place until this contract is finalized. So we're not leaving our facilities unsecured.

Yeah, that was my concern. Okay.

Councilman Clark, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was going to be my question because I'm a little sketchy about the 22nd being too long. Also, I want to note, just for the record, that our issues are with SEI and not with Walden. I don't know the nature of your questions, and I'm sure between now and the 15th, I'm assuming you all have worked out a time to meet.

Is that If you would like, I can send you my questions if you want clarification on all the things I'm inquiring about. But my questions go beyond just SEI.

Got you. I guess my question would be if we were to, so do you do have subsequent questions with Walden Security? Like I just said, yes. Okay.

Is that all, Councilman Clark?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Council, are there any other questions or comments before we vote on the motion to defer? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the motion carries. And so that particular item, which is number eight on our list for tonight, will be deferred until September 22nd. So then, Council, I'll need a motion on the remaining seven. So moved. We have our motion properly seconded to approve the remaining seven purchases on our list for this evening. Are there any questions or comments on any of those items before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the purchases are approved. Thank you, Wesley. We'll go around the dais now for committee reports. We'll start with Councilman Henderson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We will have our

Thank you. Councilwoman Hill. Let me back up just a minute. Sure. Councilman Elliott, would you get me the list of questions that you have for the committee hearing that you requested so that I know kind of who to line up and what to line up?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay.

Is that all, Councilman? That's all. Okay. Thank you. Councilwoman Hill. Number four.

Councilman Harvey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No committee report, but I want to announce and invite the public to the grand opening for the Harvesting Inclusive Playground that will be opening officially, finally, this Saturday at Heritage Park at 10 a.m. So please come join us. This is one of our brave firefighters, Schuyler Phillips' vision. Thank you, Council, for helping fund this project. But we're very excited to see this come through, and I want to thank former Councilman Darren Ledford for his help as well when he was on council to get this done. We've been talking about this project a long time, since 2018, and now we finally get to see it come to fruition, so we're very excited. For a new playground that is not only open to children and It's all children, including those with disabilities who will be able to access this. That's the name of the inclusive playground. So we're excited to see that in District 4. So come out and see us on Saturday, September 12th at 10 a.m. at Jack Benson Heritage Park.

That's all right. Councilman Clark. No report. Councilwoman Nolan.

No report.

Councilwoman Dottley.

No report.

Councilwoman Burrs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We had a Planning, Zoning, and Housing Committee meeting today, and I want to thank Karen and Brian for their presentation.

It's always good to get a little education session in every once in a while. And then one thing that I failed to mention during our committee report is the next Planning Commission meeting will be September 14th, again at the new location at the Development Resource Center at 1 o'clock. That's all, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. And Vice Chair Elliott.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two things. Reminding everybody of the District 9 Town Hall on September 14th. And secondly, I would like to take a minute to pause and recognize the loss of a true giant of Chattanooga, a good friend of mine, a brother and a mentor. We unfortunately lost Shane Morrow, co-founder and executive director of Riot Chattanooga, unexpectedly last week. And to know Shane is to understand his deep impact and love for people in this community. So if you could join me in a brief moment of silence.

Thank you, Vice Chair. And I would just note again, for counsel and everybody, we will not be meeting next Tuesday due to the Labor Day holiday, and so our next meeting will be September 15th. And with that, we're now to the portion of our meeting where we're happy to hear from members of the public who are here to address counsel. And so if you're here for that purpose, if you would, just line up at the podium down front and listen while our attorney reads the rules, and we just ask that everyone abides by the rules.

Yes, sir. And at the end of each council business meeting, the chair will recognize members of the public who wish to address the council. And here's your rules. Each speaker wishing to address the council can only be recognized at the microphone up front for that purpose. You can't have more than three minutes to speak and you can address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi-judicial authority and not on matters which are not under their authority or regulated by other governmental bodies or agencies. Do not engage in any vulgar or obscene language or use the floor to personally attack or personally denigrate others. address your comments to the council as a whole and not make comments directed towards individual council members and lastly do not engage in disorderly conduct or disrupting a public meeting which is prohibited by Tennessee law and someone commits that offense if a person substantially obstructs obstructs the meeting or goes to a discussion here that is prohibited by Tennessee law. So go right ahead, ma'am, right up front. If you'll give us your name and your district, it would help. Yes, ma'am.

Can you hear me okay? Okay. Hi, my name is Karen Anglin. I'm with District 3. And I want to express, first of all, my appreciation for receiving some notification last week about the town hall meeting for Plan Chattanooga coming up. And my comments today are in relationship to my neighborhood, Big Ridge, and how it fits into the bigger picture of Plan Chattanooga. So the main point I'd like to address today is the issue that public participation during the development of our neighborhoods should be treated as a necessity, not something that's optional. Residents who live in a neighborhood know things about it that won't show up on a map or on a planning document. Most of us don't understand city speak. We're busy working, raising families, and trying to make ends meet, so we often rely on a neighborhood leader of some kind to help us understand what's happening. Until about three weeks ago, our neighborhood didn't have anyone filling that role. Recently, we learned about a major subdivision planned for our neighborhood in kind of an odd way actually. On a Sunday evening, my neighbor texted me a snapshot of the plans for the development and said, have you seen this? I hadn't seen it. I didn't have a clue about it. None of my neighbors knew about it, not even those of us who had been actively monitoring that property. We also learned that night that those plans were scheduled for preliminary approval the very next day. Since then, we've been catapulted into a process we don't understand, sometimes with only a day or two to prepare. Big Ridge is not like the flatter parks of Hickson. We live on a mountaintop with steep roads, hairpin turns, and blind hills. We have one entrance, one thoroughfare that sits at the top of one route that goes down into Hickson proper. These proposed 51 homes would be built right on the thoroughfare at our neighborhood's single entrance. Our concerns about traffic, drainage, road safety, emergency access, and wildlife corridors aren't abstract. They come from living there. I live at Moss Lake Drive on a blind hilltop. Before turning onto Big Ridge Road, I stop and I count for several seconds because approaching vehicles can be completely hidden from my view and I don't want to get hit. That's just a part of everyday life up there. We know that change is inevitable, and we're not opposed to it. What we're asking is to be informed early enough to understand it, to meaningfully participate, and most importantly, to help get it right before decisions are made so that taxpayers aren't left footing the bill afterward for problems that we could have avoided. And that's all she wrote. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is John Schmeckle. My most recent residence was in District 5. Today, I'm going to talk about drugs in Chattanooga's homeless shelter, the rescue mission. Close to a year ago, I told the chaplain there, that I had said to the police, I suspect that drugs are moving through the rescue mission. The police said to me, we know drugs are moving through the rescue mission. I said, the drugs are moving from black hands into white hands. The police asked for names and I gave two names. Then, after saying all this to the chaplain at the rescue mission, I told him that I could have given the police the name of the assistant director of the rescue mission, but I didn't. Two weeks later, the chaplain kicked me out permanently from the rescue mission because a man who was high on drugs inside the rescue mission blew up at me. This past May, I was back in the rescue mission, and I didn't notice any drug-related activity. It just wasn't. Nobody puking in the middle of the night because you can't handle what he did. No funny people walking around the hallways at 2 o'clock. I always, my back is bad, so I get up in the middle of the night to take a shower, and the mattresses are really bad, and so I relax myself and so I actually noticed what's going on. I see more than most people do. Anyway, or did. Anyway, I didn't notice any drug-related activity or suspicious until this past July when the same two people whom I had named last year behaved suspiciously. Shortly afterward, I was banned once again from the rescue mission. I hope that as the city of Chattanooga combats drugs in the streets, the proper authorities will take a look at the management of the rescue mission. Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you.

My name is Brad Harwell and I'm in District 1. I came here tonight to ask about installing trash cans at the Riverwalk Trailhead to Virginia Avenue. There are no trash cans present in that area. And there tends to be an excessive amount of litter in those areas. And then the next thing I wanted to inquire about was access to that feeder stream right there by the riverfront trailhead that runs into the river. They're sent there appears to be large amounts of litter there. And I know there's a litter boom that you can view from the bridge, but it doesn't appear that it gets cleaned. And so that litter is going to sit there until it disintegrates enough to sink. And that's still harming the watershed. If we could get some points in between where the utility pipes or sewer pipes cross that, I'm happy to go down and clean it myself. But it is something that I'm passionate about and would be willing to help install the access points. But just wanted to bring it up to y'all's attention in case you weren't aware. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Hello, good evening. My name is Kayla Crawley. I am the president of the National Federation of the Blind Scenic City Chapter. I'm actually here today to bring a concern from not just the blind community, but the disability community to our city and that concern that we have currently is transportation. We cannot rely upon city transportation to get persons with disabilities to and from work, to and from school events, or even to and from the grocery stores. And We find that living in the city or even outside the city is getting harder and harder here in Hamilton County and Chattanooga as a community of people with disabilities. And so I wanted to bring it to the awareness of the city that we are trying to work alongside to help find solutions for these transportation issues As we cannot get gainful transportation anywhere, I work downtown Chattanooga, and I live in the East Brainerd area. And if I need to take an Uber to work, it costs me almost a quarter of my paycheck weekly just to go to work via Uber. CARTA Caravan right now, which is paratransit services for the city of Chattanooga for people who cannot readily access the fixed bus routes due to having a disability. They are very limited in their services and they are at capacity. And that means that people that live in Zones 2 and 3 for CARTA services are no longer receiving rides. I have members in my chapter that cannot get back and forth to work any longer. Or if they do get back and forth to work, they're either late or they're picked up late. And so I just wanted to bring this issue to our city council to make you guys aware that transportation is a major barrier for people in the city of Chattanooga as residents.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Nels Thompson, and I'd like to speak to you about the homeless crisis that we have. I'm so concerned that we have hundreds of people that do not have a house to live in, do not have a bedroom to go to tonight, are going to sleep outside on the ground or wherever they can. And I know there's a proposal to build a barrier-free shelter that would have 500 beds. And I just urge you to get on that program and do it. I'm a retired prison psychologist. I have experience in people reconstituting their life that have had hard times. And I believe... that there are hundreds of now homeless people that if we gave them a start, like these beds, they would quickly find themselves using electrical devices, finding work, finding transportation, getting GEDs. I'm certain of it. We have a very dedicated group of volunteer, of organizations that want to help these people, but we can hardly find them and we can't keep track and we can't have consistent programming because they're all over the place and every place they are is illegal for them to be there and illegal for us to go there and help them. So we need a center where we can meaningfully help these people. So I urge you to find the funds and the will to make that a reality. Thank you. Thank you.

Can I have their extra time? They didn't use. Good evening. I'm Laura Reeve. I'm here as a concerned citizen and I live in District 9. I recently read the August 2026 audit report pertaining to the fleet garage parts contract. And there were some very alarming findings in this report that indicate possible criminal violations. Since I only have three minutes, let me just quickly go over just a highlight area of what my concerns are. And let's start with the contract first. The bidders on this contract were not informed that this would be awarded as a split contract. They didn't know. The contract did not go to the lowest bidder. And after the bids were received, Fleet decided to split the award. The procurement was split arbitrarily with different total dollar amounts for each vendor. And this contract award was inconsistent with the city's best value vendor policy. So I asked yourself, why was this done in this manner? The second, fleet eliminated the established internal controls, failed to follow already established policy and procedures for the purchasing when they used the purchase cards. Fleet utilized all purchases via the purchase card, which bypassed the entire control mechanism which was in place for the contract. It was prohibited to use purchase cards for purchasing repetitive items and prohibits buying items and services from a contract. Fleet also violated internal controls by using the purchase card. I think it's called the Oracle system, which is a procurement method for the contract, has internal controls built in. And if used through this contract, would have caught these issues before they ever occurred. The system, Oracle system, was designed as a three-way match between purchase orders, invoices, and receipts. Also, Fleet failed to pay established contract prices for the auto parts, failed to enforce contract requirements that the vendors supply original source documents to verify, failed to periodically spot check vendor source documentation, failed to pay agreed upon rates, by allowing freight markups, which caused increase in cost overcharges, also failed to properly verify the parts. Again, I've got to ask you, so why was this done? Is that my three minutes? Yes, ma'am. Here's one extra. Can I have that one real fast?

No, ma'am. Sorry. We have our rules.

All I'm asking is if you consider sending this audit report to a criminal investigative unit.

That's all. Yeah. Thank you.

Okay.

Hi. My name is Jan Purdy. I'm a District 3 resident. And, um, I've been a little bit complacent over the years. I've loved living here, and you all have done such a good job of keeping the citizens informed of things that I made some rather lazy assumptions, and I felt protected by the process. What I would really like to alert you to is the fact that there are some things I've noticed since I'm bringing this up late. But I looked through Plan Chattanooga, And my concern has to do with something that grew out of my surprise that a development was coming right beside our neighborhood. We are on Bay Bridge. There are cliffs, slopes that are very dramatic. And I'm not asking you to consider it because it's going to the RPA and that will be their decision. But I think if Plan Chattanooga puts templates as appear in Plan Chattanooga and the language says that you will rely on the maps, Big Ridge is not given any kind of customized treatment options for dealing with a development that has risks related to the terrain and the cliffs. Ironically, it's mentioned in the plan Chattanooga in several places that terrain is an issue, but it's an issue more like, can you actually build on it? And that's on page 22 of the citywide plan. The idea that somebody could customize, I don't know whether they're talking, they're saying some neighborhoods could be customized. That's page 32. There are barriers, however, to the citizens participating because this plat was already And the gentleman from RPA was just super helpful in helping us know what legislation is involved. But think about this. With the people who, since our purpose is to do development in a way that causes no harm, it seems to me that letting residents be moved back into that process of identifying risks to the neighborhood needs to be included. The plan, I'm sorry, I don't do this. The grids that you put over the plan are going to dictate a lot. So I've asked for you to delay and consider making some adjustments. And I think the adjustments that would be helpful would be those that would allow for notice, even if a plat. And this may involve some kind of change to some legislation. And transparency in the process and just transparency safety which ironically is missing in page six where you list the concerns for the city safety is not one of them thank you thank you hi i'm blake wright i am in district 9 and i'm just here to and i'm sure

we have talked um but i want to invite each of you out to farm park um i'm gonna be on it because the land that we are working to expand to is on the market right now so i will be bothering everyone until we ensure that this land is protected obviously as we've heard from Other public comments, you know, the land that's on steep slopes, that contains trees that are 100 plus years old, that is on aquifer springs is really valuable, especially that it's in the city. So it's really important to us to look at the food security. I'm sure each of you have heard about all the recalls that are happening and, you know, looking at resiliency for Chattanooga. And that's what we're working on addressing now on the two acres we already own. And that's what we're working on addressing in a bigger way with the 17-acre expansion. So, again, just inviting each of you to come out to Farm Park. Some of you have. some of you live next door and i know that we have a huge supporter and ron who is you know inviting everyone out to see it but i just wanted to personally invite you um you know via this presentation to come out and check it out i can talk forever about it um but it's just one of those things that you have to see in person to see how special it is so again thank you so much for your time

Council, it appears we've completed the business in front of us this evening. All in favor?

Aye. We're adjourned.