City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. And tonight's City Council meeting for the City of Covington, June 2nd, 2026, is hereby called to order. I need a roll call.

Councilman Callahan?

Here.

Councilman Bushnell?

Here.

Councilman Roberts? Here. Councilman Inman? Here. Councilman Burrell? Here. Councilman Botsford?

Here.

Here, if you could all rise for a brief moment of silence, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And would Councilman Callahan please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Well, as we handle the people's business tonight, I'm very pleased that we have some appearers that are very special to our community, and we are going to do our best to recognize them this evening. We are going to begin with a presentation, a council presentation, of a proclamation. And I will say that the mayor of the city of Covington had already designated this individual and her organization for all of its good deeds. And the city council wants to also recognize an issue of proclamation. If you can bear with me, I'd like to read it. In 2019, Marie Rudd Gregory founded the Brook It Forward Foundation in memory of her daughter, Brooke Posey, whose joyful spirit inspired a mission of love, celebration, and hope. The foundation's purpose is simple yet profound, to share the love and hope of Christ with children who are experiencing abuse, neglect, foster care, food insecurity, or homelessness, ensuring that every child feels valued, celebrated, and deeply loved. Through this selfless commitment, Marie has grown the Brookhead Forward Foundation into a meaningful force for good, one that brings light and celebration to children facing adversity. The foundation has delivered more than 3,000 of their signature birthday boxes across 19 Louisiana parishes, one Alabama county, and four Florida counties, and is projected to distribute a lot more. Due to her passionate efforts to celebrate every child, especially those experiencing challenging circumstances, Mayor Mark Johnson, in partnership with the American Legion Post 16, and now the City of Covington Council, recognizes Covington's 2025-26 Citizen of the Year. Please join me in thanking her. Maria, I'd like you to come up and say a few words, and then I want to give you this proclamation. And I don't usually get choked up on things, but the more I found out about your organization and what it does, it touches the heart. And to incorporate Christ in it is extremely meaningful. So I don't apologize for my emotions.

Well, I'm not going to apologize for mine either, because I am truly honored and humbled to have the city recognize me and our organization in this way. People often ask me back in, you know, would you think in 2019 when you started this? I tell them I didn't think anything. I thought I was doing something to make some children happy. And along the way, God showed me that what we thought was something to just make them happy is actually a part of their healing journey. And that has become deeply humbling to think that we can be a part of the lives of children who've been severely abused and neglected and are suffering from homelessness or food insecurity. in our little organization actually becomes part of their healing. Jessica Valadares, my executive director, is with me today. Because sometimes when you say birthday box, people don't know what that means. So we brought a little display so that you guys can get a feel for what goes in each and every box that the children we serve receive and um we are just so proud of the way that covington has wrapped their arms around us and we're excited to continue to grow in this community and put our roots here as we serve children wherever god takes us and i just wanted to take this time to to thank you all not only just for having us but for

recognizing Brookhead Forward this evening. And it is servant leaders like you all that help us do what we do. And your support of our nonprofit community just means so much. And we are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place that we have that support and we really look out for our neighbors. And so I really wanted to thank you all as leaders in supporting our nonprofit. I'd also like to invite you all to our office. We are in downtown Covington. We share the building with Obear Insurance. We have the big cupcake that's facing Boston Street. And our goal is to celebrate 1,200 birthdays this year. And so if you want to stop by, come build some birthday boxes, we would love to have you all. And also, we are celebrating our seven-year birthday and having our birthdays and all that jazz event. It's going to be on June 12th at the Covington Country Club from 11 to 2. We have a very small amount of tickets left, so if any of you all are interested and available, we would love to have you. Thank you all so much.

Thank you very much. Council comments?

The only thing I have to say is that some people want to make a difference. Y'all do make a difference, and that's profound, and it's greatly appreciated. Thank y'all.

you know our children are our most valuable asset in this world and it's like when y'all can present them with that box and just make a little glimmer of hope for them it means the world and it's that you're going to carry that into their adulthood and hopefully pass it on to others so thank you for what you're doing thank you that is our hope and prayer with every box come up and give the proclamation and the mayor as well you guys come up here and we'll get a picture

Bridget doesn't need a chair. One, two, three, one more.

Thank you very much.

Thank you again, and I always like to say it's another example of what makes Covington Covington. So thank you very, very much. Our next appear will be the Blood Center. The CEO of the Blood Center is here with us, I think. There he is. Billy, come on up and give us your full name and your address and tell us about what's going on.

Thank you for having me here this evening. My name is Billy Wheels. I'm the president and CEO of the Blood Center. We are actually trying to celebrate this year the independence of our country, our 250th anniversary. We are encouraging donors, people to get out and donate blood because this is a really difficult time of year. We have hurricane season. And again, schools are out. That's a major portion of our blood collections on an annualized basis. Represents about 25% of our blood collections annually. right now things are getting very tight for us on a national level having the council support us today is phenomenal we are very proud to be a part of this area i'm a citizen of covington i live actually in my our address our corporate address is 2609 canal street I'd much rather be in Covington. Let me just state that, okay? I do live over here myself, but we have an office here in Mandeville, and we're always looking at the North Shore to expand ourselves. So this is the area where we want to be. We appreciate your support. I want to give Mayor Mark a shout-out because he does blood draws with us routinely, and I know he's a regular blood donor because I've looked him up a few times. so he's a he's a regular donor with us we need the support of the council we need your support to get the citizens to to get out and donate this summer this is a huge event this is the 250th anniversary of our independence from england we need to celebrate it we're actually giving a special polo shirt that has the american flag on it says 19 1776 to 2026 with our name and logo I would really appreciate any support you guys can give us to get the word out, and we appreciate being here today.

Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for being here. We do have a resolution that the council will entertain, and it says to encourage blood donations among the Covington residents. It helps strengthen our local health care system, supports hospitals across the region, and naturally contributes to the safety and resilience of our communities. I would very much appreciate it if someone on the council would make a motion to accept this. So moved. And I need a second. Second. And I'm going to take it out of order with the council's approval, and we are going to vote on a specific resolution of the Covington City Council asking the residents to participate in this worthwhile endeavor. And so I need a roll call.

Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Barrett?

Yes. It passed unanimously. It will be on our website in a matter of days. I'd encourage you to take the resolution and do as much as you can, and we'll certainly spread the word on our end.

We will. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you for your time.

One thing real quick. Tomorrow night is our CBA meeting, Covington Business Association at Playmakers Theater. You should go to that because you can get the word out to all the businesses. I will definitely do so. Yes, do so. Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Starts at 6.

I'll be there.

All right, moving on. And we have a sponsor of the St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement. We have with us a Mr. Kevin Caillouet. And he is going to, Councilman Bodsford will introduce.

Speaking of blood, you know, with the mosquitoes and stuff. I don't want to steal your thunder and everything, but I know that... You just did. I know you have the... You've done a lot of work with Tulane and other places and stuff, and you're an adjunct professor, like I said, but I'll let you take it from here.

Yes, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Dr. Kevin Caillouet, work address 62436 Airport Road in Slidell. I brought with me a couple thousand of my best friends. They're not blood donors, but they're bloodsuckers. That was the thunder you stalled there, John. Anyhow, I'm here to tell you about the services we provide, some of which you might not be aware of, as well as our upcoming millage renewal. Our 10-year millage renewal is up in June 27th of this month, so right around the corner. everybody knows what we do you know these mosquitoes we just received about 12 inches of rain some places of this parish did in the last two weeks right and so the mosquitoes are out we have a woodland mosquito outbreak is what we call them and our aircraft both our helicopter our airplane and our trucks are all going Weather permitting, and that's been our problem, is every time it rains, we can't get out to treat these mosquitoes. So we're going full tilt trying to get these mosquitoes that are currently out there under control. But everybody knows that plane. You hear it flying low at night. You hear the trucks. It's pretty obvious what we do. I'm here to tell you about the things you don't see that we do that go largely unseen. In our laboratory, we have a lot of science that really underpins our entire approach. And that goes, first, all of these mosquitoes that we've caught here are all collected in traps. We set traps at about 130 locations across this parish every week. And we're using that data to understand when and where has a mosquito problem. I call this the giant game of whack-a-mole, right? We have to watch when they pop up so we can treat them, know where they are. What you may not be aware of is we have over 60 different species of mosquito in South Louisiana. We need to know which ones are creating the problem because it will tell us where they're coming from in your yard. It might be a flooded woodland pool. It might be a pool that's connected to the Trefonte River, the Bogofalaya River. Or it might be a septic system that is unmaintained that's releasing undertreated sewage into our roadside ditches, of which we have more here in St. Tammany than any other parish in the state. And that produces the West Nile virus vector. Our primary mosquito is sewage associated. We have over 600 linear miles of roadside ditch that's polluted with sewage. And this we treat every week, every 600 miles of that. So that data, when it comes into our traps, we take those mosquitoes, we identify them to those species, and then we test them. We put them into little vials just like this. So this will hold about 100 mosquitoes at a time. And we're looking for the genetic material for the West Nile virus, for eastern equine encephalitis, as well as St. Louis encephalitis. So we're both using the abundance of mosquitoes in those traps as well as are there infected mosquitoes in the environment to help make our spray decisions for when you're going to see that truck or when you see that airplane. That's made on a daily basis based on all of that incoming data. So it's not just that that truck is treating on any kind of schedule. And we do that because if they were treating on a schedule, we would be wasting large amounts of resource of your tax dollars treating areas that didn't need to be treated. Also, that's not good for the environment to put that insecticide out in those areas that don't need it. So we use it really as a tool to be very targeted in our approach to treating our mosquitoes only when and where it's really needed. To do this, we have one millage, one source of revenue, and that's on your property tax. And so if you own the median value of a house in St. Tammany Parish, right around $300,000, about $60 of your tax bill comes to us to pay for this service. When we last renewed in 2016, we were renewing at 4.2 mills. which was bringing in about $8.4 million. This renewal, we know we've heard a lot about taxes recently, right? And so we're committed to being part of that solution to lower everyone's tax bill. So this renewal actually will be, instead of 4.2 mils, we're asking for 2.95 mils. So that's gonna save taxpayers about $4 million annually of what we could be levying currently. So that renewal is coming up June 27th, and I also have some flyers that I know I passed to y'all in the dais, but for those in the audience, we have some flyers outside as well. On the back of this flyer are some QR codes to get more information about how to find our services. So if you're experiencing a mosquito problem, we really need to know about it because those traps can't cover everywhere. So if you're experiencing a problem, the first QR code here is to let us know you're experiencing a problem, and we'll be sending somebody out to your property to help you diagnose where and when mosquitoes, or where they're coming from, so that maybe we can treat them as larval mosquitoes before we have to treat them as biting adults. Just in our parish alone, nine people last year developed West Nile neuroinvasive disease, and this is the most serious form of the virus that can lead to death, but also can lead to paralysis and lifelong paralysis and nerve damage and whatnot. This is extremely important that if you are experiencing a problem, we want to know about it. Also, if you have an event coming up, a wedding or a party in your backyard, we can pre-treat for that area too. That's also on this QR code. And if you just like to know when we're going to be treating your area, we'll send you a text message, an email or a phone call, and we can give you that advance warning as well.

That's what I have to present if there are any questions.

Thank you, sir. Any council comment? Yeah, I got a couple comments.

I really appreciate what y'all do. And I just heard today, I guess they call them house mosquitoes or woodland mosquitoes, that Google is introducing these mosquitoes because it's only the females that bite. That's right. With the bacteria that's for males. so if they were to reproduce with a female and i know they're going to do it in florida and california that when they do reproduce their eggs are sterile that's right that has have they reached out to us in louisiana because we have a lot of mosquitoes yeah so the primary mosquito they're doing that for is the dinghy virus mosquito they also transmit zika and chikungunya viruses

That's not a mosquito that we have here. We have a little bit of it in Slidell and it's very predominant in New Orleans, but we don't have that kind of a threat here. Our threat are West Nile virus mosquitoes. It's called the southern house mosquito is the one you're mentioning. So that technology has not yet been developed for these West Nile virus vectors.

Okay, one last question I think that everybody in Covington would like to know is that when yellow spray, does that kill termites?

That's a great question. And it's not just Covington that wants to know that, I can tell you that. Because we get those questions all the time. So, yes, it will kill other insects, no doubt. Now, the droplets that we're treating with are very fine. They're actually less than half the width of a human hair. And that's because they're designed to be calibrated so that they float in the air and they're making contact with mosquitoes as they're flying through it. So they're really not able to kill larger bodied insects, larger than a mosquito, generally. And we wouldn't really want to be using it to kill termite swarms because that is representing less than about 5% of the population. So it's really not going to do, you know, population level control for termites. Most of that population is underground or in a structure. Okay, thank you. Yes, absolutely.

Yes, Dr. Caillouet, real quick, two points. First of all, I appreciate the calculated approach. Again, being very mindful of taxpayer dollars, where that money is spent, how it is spent. So that is something that is at the forefront of everyone's mind. The other thing that I do want to mention, and I don't know if there's any pushback on this, but bees. I know we're mentioning termites, but if there's someone that's going to push back, I would assume that that would be one pathway of someone pushing back.

Sure.

Can you enlighten us on this?

Absolutely. Well, we do a lot of outreach to the beekeeping community here, and so I think if you ask them, they would understand that having that scientific approach really eliminates a lot of that concern. note that there's a reason we spray at night number one that's when mosquitoes are most active but number two bees are back in their hives so the impact of mosquito insecticides is really limited to only the bees that are outside of the hives at night which does happen when it gets really warm some of that population they call that bearding they're actually outside ventilating that hive some of those bees will die but it's not the whole hive itself So the beekeepers recognize our approach because we've done significant amount of outreach for them. So it has very limited impact on bee populations. Thank you. Yes. Uh-oh.

I would like to just say on behalf of the administration that over the past several years, I've got a resident that sends me a concern about mosquitoes in their area, and I've just learned all I do is forward it to these guys. it's handled and it's handled really well professionally they'll send a biologist out to examine the area and they'll determine if there is a problem and the best way to treat that problem and one of the things i think the pellets that y'all put on the larva is under underestimated when they'll go in and just put pellets in the water and there is no spray there is nothing else and take care of it so but i wanted to i wanted to acknowledge also responsiveness to the citizens of cuppington

Yeah, and I appreciate that. And really, that's that is our whole approach. We realize we can't control every bite you're going to get. And we're sorry about that. But when there is a problem, we're going to be there lickety split. You know, we pride ourselves. If you fill out this form saying you'd like your property to be inspected, we'll be there generally within 24 hours unless it's it's already bad all across the parish and we have a big queue. So we're our whole approach is scientific and based on responsiveness.

All right. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right. And we have a special recognition this evening. Councilman Inman.

Yes. One of the things we're talking about, obviously, is mosquitoes. One of the ways that we're going to manage that situation, in addition to what Dr. Coyette is putting forth, is to not have water in standing pools for long periods of time. The best way to do that is to, well, manage our drainage right of ways. So that brings me to the person that I would like to recognize. His name is Nathaniel Sutton and he is here tonight. And he is one of our city workers with Public Works that goes out and makes sure that we have proper drainage as best as possible. and i'm going to give an example of this over on west saint mary drive y'all that that street is as flat as a pancake there is not much rise or fall so in order to move that water and not have it become stagnant the city went in very in a proactive manner and tried to get it situated to where we can have some flow So, and that's just one example. He's been back at the Lakewood North Shore Pond cleaning that area up. He's also done an area down 18th as well. So he's been very busy, and he's going to continue to be busy. And I know he's been in other districts as well because he's heading to another one on, well, tomorrow. So his services are greatly appreciated, and all of this is tied in together. So good stuff, and I just wanted to... make sure that the community knew the job that you're doing for us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Under our consent calendar this evening, our regular meeting minutes are May 5th, 2026. And we have introduction of item number 2026-06-01. It is an ordinance of the city of Covington, adding the following provisions to the Covington code of ordinances chapter 98 utilities, article one in general sec 98 dash six private water service. We also have introduction of item number 2026-06-02, an ordinance of the City of Covington amending the following provisions of the Covington Code of Ordinances, Chapter 98, Utilities Article 3, Utility Services 98-91, under definitions and basic requirements. We are also introducing this evening item number 2026-06-03, This is an ordinance of the City of Covington authorizing the mayor to sell on behalf of the City of Covington a portion of the South Monroe Street right-of-way between West 15th Avenue and West 14th Avenue here in the City of Covington. We have introduction of item number 2026-06-04. That is an ordinance of the city of Covington to amend the 2026 operating and capital budget. I need a motion to accept the consent calendar. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Councilman Bushnell?

Yes.

Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Verrett? Yes. Councilman Callahan?

Yes.

under our regular agenda unfinished business items to be voted on public hearing in action on item number twenty twenty six dash zero five dash zero one an ordinance of the city of covington levying imposing and adopting the millage rates on all property subject to taxation in the city of covington for the year twenty twenty six this is a tad bit of housekeeping I want the public to know that it has to come before us, and we are not increasing taxes with this public hearing and action on item number 2026-05-01. Again, so that the record is clear and the newspaper can, the man's right there in front of me. The city of Covington is not increasing property taxes. Is there any public comment? Seeing none, is there any council comment? And with that, I will need a motion to close the public hearing.

So moved.

I need a second. Second. I need a motion to adopt. So moved. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please.

Councilman Roberts. Yes. Councilman Inman. Yes. Councilman Burrell. Yes. Councilman Bosford. Yes. Councilman Barrett. Yes. Councilman Callahan. Yes. Councilman Bushnell.

Yes. Moving on to public hearing in action on item 2026 dash 0, 5, dash 0, 2, an ordinance of the city of Covington to amend the 2026 operating and capital budget. Councilman Robert.

Yes, sir. Always good news when you see these kind of things come through. This is for an amendment to repave West 28th to North Jefferson to Pineville Middle and then from West 8th to South Polk and South Tyler. so uh yeah money that's being invested in our community is always good money we need to make amendments we can never make these things happen on the front end of the year because you just don't know where you're going to be and we're in a good position to make these things improve our city streets so i just ask you guys to approve this because it's well deserved and well needed absolutely i'll join in those comments anything from administration hearing none is there any council comment hearing none any further council comment

Then I will need a motion to close the public hearing. Motion to close. I need a second. Second. Is there a motion to adopt? Motion to adopt. I'll make a second. A roll call, please.

Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Bosfort? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts?

Yes. Moving on public hearing in action on amended item 2026 dash 03 dash 02. I would point out that this ordinance was previously tabled at the May 31st council meeting. It is an ordinance amending chapter two, article six professional service contracts of the city of Covington code of ordinances to revise the dollar threshold for procurement of professional service contracts. Councilman Roberts.

Yeah, this this is bringing it from where we were at 75. We tabled it, brought it back down to 50, so it stays consistent. I'm going to lean on administration to explain the specifics as to what we need to do tonight. Make sure this is official.

Sure. So as Councilman Roberts pointed out, we are basically just we want some consistency in these processes and another section of the same chapter. says $50,000 for an RFP process, we want to make sure that $50,000 applies to all professional services across the board. So this is just housekeeping to make it consistent. And so since we had amended it, since it was introduced, you need to make a motion to amend the ordinance as introduced, adopt that, and then you can adopt the ordinance as amended.

Perfect. All right. Is there any public comment? Any further council comment?

Thank you, Aaron.

So first I'm going to ask for a motion to close the public hearing.

So moved.

I need a second. Second. I need a motion to amend. Motion to amend. I need a second. Second. I need a motion to adopt. Motion to adopt.

We may have a roll call on the amendment.

Oh, that's right. On the amendment? Okay. So on the motion to amend with the second, roll call, please.

Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Barrett?

Yes.

Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman?

Yes. All right. And so now we need a motion to adopt. Motion to adopt. As amended. So moved. Second. Roll call.

Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman?

Yes. All right. Under new business, items to be voted on, resolution number 2026-12. It is a resolution of the Covington City Council confirming the reappointment of Jan Butler as the District D appointment to the Covington Board of Adjustments for a term of five years. Councilman Inman.

The first thing is, thank you for all the time and energy and effort you put in, and I can't believe you did it again. thank you thank you thank you so um she's been amazing if you haven't seen or been to a board of adjustments meeting well let's just say as of late they have been interesting so but i truly appreciate all that you do we're lucky to have you in our community and i can't wait to make sure that this is put forward

Jan, you come to our meetings, you are part of our community in a big fashion, and I'm thrilled that you are going to be reappointed. It is with some hesitation, jokingly, that I ask, would you like to say a few words? You can read the tea leaves. Well, I'm a big fan, and thank you for doing it again. Any public comment or further council comment?

Thank you for what you do.

Yes, thank you very much. I need a motion to accept. So moved. I need a second. Second. Roll call, please.

Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Barrett? Yes. Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes.

We have now resolution number 2026 dash 13. It is a resolution of the Covington City Council appointing Mark R Johnson and Blake Bushnell. To the Recreation District 10 Board of Commissioners, Councilman Inman.

Thank you, Councilman Verrett, Council President Verrett. So really quickly, District 10 is getting the band back together, so to speak, and we need some representation on that board. I can't think of two better people. They've been involved with CRD for an extended period of time. They've both coached there, played there. seeing their family grow up in the community playing there, so they have a vested interest in this going forward. Look, Councilman Bush now, it's a better part of a decade you were involved with CRD as well. So when you put these two gentlemen together, this makes total sense to me, and I wouldn't hesitate to actually put this forward, for sure.

Mayor, any comments?

I appreciate the opportunity to help reconstitute that board, which is dormant. We've already had a meeting of us non-members. Therefore, we did not violate the Sunshine Law because we weren't actually appointed yet. But we are meeting and discussing. Future meetings will be publicized and the public will be welcome to join us. We're looking for their input. We are not i am not i can't speak for the rest of the board members i am not looking to construct a coquille or a pelican park we have so many of the recreational activities that those parks have they're not all in one central location you have to kind of look around for the tennis courts and the baseball fields the soccer fields the softball field the boat launches the pavilions the parks the swimming pool the splash pads they're all there and one of the things i've learned in this process is we're actually better off that they're not all in the same location because it creates terrible traffic situation when games are changing and those kind of things so i'm looking forward to uh trying to put together a package that's very concise fits the uh the the needs that our community has which are different than those other communities and uh and see if we can't put something together that helps improve the quality of life of all of our residents

Excellent. Councilman Bushnell.

I just want to say it's much needed in this district. The lack of facilities and amenities we've had to deal with for a long time, and I just appreciate your consideration, so thank you.

Well, I can't think of any two better people to spearhead the effort on behalf of not only the rec tent, and I'm going to say it this way, but on behalf of the city of Covington. And so, therefore, I am in support of this.

Is there any public comment? Rod Starr. Well, Rod, is this a simple majority? Councilman Bush now wants to know, is it a ticket, or can he get a vote separate?

Well, we're going to vote, and we're going to put it as a combination. as an appointment of both the mayor and Councilman Bushnell.

Good luck, Councilman Bushnell.

I need a motion to accept. So moved. I need a second. Second. And I need a roll call.

Councilman Barrett?

Yes.

Councilman Callahan? Yes. Councilman Bushnell?

Abstain.

Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman?

Yes.

Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Bosford?

Yes. And with that, we will now attend for those that are here are swearing in.

I state your name.

I, Mark Johnson, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of this state. And I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties and Commissioners of District of Carson, Tammany Parish Recreation District number 10. According to the best of my ability, and understanding,

It is not so coincidental that the next resolution is asking to keep the official journal so that they can somehow make it in the paper. It is resolution number 2026-14, a resolution of the Covington City Council selecting the official journal for the city of Covington for a term of one year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my position, and I want to... Thank them publicly for all that they do for our city. Is there any public comment? Any council comment? Hearing none, I need a motion to accept. So move. Is there a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Councilman Callahan?

Yes.

Councilman Bushnell? Yes. Councilman Roberts? Yes. Councilman Inman? Yes. Councilman Burrell? Yes. Councilman Botsford? Yes. Councilman Barrett?

Yes. We will now move on to Comments and reports from our council district and our councilmen at large. We will begin with Councilman Callahan, District A.

Good afternoon, everyone. District A wants to invite all the competition to Peter Atkins Park on June the 19th. We have a Juneteenth celebration. The parade started at 11. and then we would go out through Cupton and come back to Pediac and Park, and that's where the celebration would begin. They have food, fun, recreation, fun and games, and we also have some job information over there. So if anybody needs a job, come here. That's it.

Excellent. Thank you, sir. District B, Councilman Bushnell.

I just want to express my support for Mayor Mark on the board, REC 10 board. I want to thank my colleagues for trusting me to support as well. uh a couple things going to distribute ozone drainage project continues uh public works doing a great job in there cleaning out the ditches getting everything flowing great and also they just recently did a uh cleaned a ditch and did some underbrush and coming to point appreciate what to do backbone of the city make us look great uh got a few events coming up last friday block party don't forget great time out there We also have a American two 50 concert Friday, July 3rd at five 30 at the trailhead. Good concert celebrating America and also sparks in the park. Sure. Taking councilman Burrell's thing there on Saturday, July 4th at five 30 at the buck fly park, uh, drive carefully schools out. Please slow down. Happy father's day to all the fathers out there. Still blessed to have mine at the father's day to him. And also everybody has a safe and happy fourth of July.

Excellent.

Councilman Roberts, District C. Yeah, Councilman Bush now stole half my thunder there. Happy Father's Day. Three of his art fest. I know that they just put a notice out for any art that want to be. So definitely look for the applications on Facebook. Taste of Covington was an amazing event. So kudos to that. It was fun to be out there. Great to see the crowd. As far as District C goes, I do want to give kudos to Public Works with all the rain that has happened. uh we seem to get build up real fast at the drains and you see guys out there immediately clearing it out so kudos to you guys for thank you for what you do like really it happened you see the complaints and honestly let me let me put the mayor on the spot real quick somebody complained about a street not draining uh by the time he drove out there the street was already drained it just i know that the water comes up but river forest has changed so much in the last eight years that it drains that much faster so everything that you've done it is working so thank you for doing what you do

Excellent. District D, Councilman Emman.

Thank you, Council President Barrett. First of all, the library, there are a lot of things going on. Basically, they have a calendar year in one month, 52 events in June. So that's quite impressive. And over 30 of them, obviously, are geared toward children. It is the summer, so that does make sense. Public Works, I've already mentioned, but I'm going to go back to it. Work orders are being put in. They are being processed, and they are being completed. So kudos to them. They've done an excellent job. I'll be doing a ride-along with Mr. O'Berry with Public Works here this upcoming week. So I'll be adding to his list that he's been doing a great job of actually completing. CPD, Covington Police Department, working in conjunction with other agencies. I can't begin to tell you how important that is. We appreciate the safety that we have in our community and obviously the role that y'all play in that. uh locally i know it's summer but i do want to mention some academic awards these are the best in class or the valedictorians for these respective schools christ episcopal matisse anna lee o'connor covington high school best in class isabella baham holly minheim james sereny and francesca guarini gorino excuse me um hannon high school mia evelyn sheets Northlake Christian, I'm not certain who their valedictorian is, but I do know that Natalie Cortez was a National Merit semifinalist, so I do want to make note of that. St. Paul, Joseph Donahue, Augustine Galazewski, Drake Ott, Connor Russo, Ian Sheik, and Evan Vanderbrook. And at St. Scholastica, Elise Devier. Happy Father's Day to the man that I call Pop. i'm fortunate to to have him in my life and i do want to do a couple of quick shout outs councilman roberts congrats on being a grandfather that's a new aspect of father's day and i really want to make note of councilman bushnell and councilman burrell these two gentlemen for those of you all don't know they still have kids at home so they really have to balance work life public service and family life and that's a lot of plates in the air and they do an excellent job so i just wanted to make note of that thank you

Well, May was an exciting month in District E. It started off with possibly one, maybe two pythons on the loose. They were never seen again nor captured, but a lot of herpetologists online have said those aren't pythons, those are just gigantic rat snakes. I'm gonna say I don't think we have a Python problem in District T. So with that, that was an exciting beginning, an exciting end. We had a big boil water advisory, big water main blowout last Thursday. 387 homes impacted. Sorry to be the broken record, Jim, but again, thank you to Public Works for getting out there. 387 door hangers put up on Thursday. 387 door hangers taken down on Saturday, not to mention fixing the water main, which was also taking down a light pole at the same time, so they had to cut power to the area. So it was an exciting beginning, an exciting end. We're hoping for a calmer June. Maybe some mosquitoes, hopefully no pythons. If we have any boil water visories, hopefully a lot smaller. We've been pretty lucky with those. So that was it for May. Y'all mentioned Sparks in the Park for the 4th of July. That's gonna be a great one. We're celebrating the country's 250th anniversary. We increased the budget for the fireworks, so it's gonna be a heck of a show. We have the concert the night before on the 3rd as well. And a happy Father's Day to everybody, especially the fathers up here and in the audience. And I think that's it for the district report for June 2nd. All right. Councilman at large. Councilman.

All right. June 4th is man up over at the beer garden for five to seven. It's a free health screening for men. They check your carotid artery. They check you for skin cancer, everything else. Very important to go have that checked out, especially with the skin cancer that's out there today. And it's free. And usually if you complete all of them, they give you a free beer. So there's a bonus on that one. Congrats to Coach Hector Vasquez. 40 years of coaching at St. Paul's. Finally retired. I know he will be missed. Great guy there. Public Works. Charlie Arthur, an incredible asset to the community. We had the Woodwright shop. They've had problems left and right and everything. He went and did some adjustments. They put a bigger valve in it. Was that right, Jim? Yes. Put a bigger valve in it. They no longer have any more water coming up in their building. It's amazing. He's actually even gone back on multiple occasions after these heavy rains just to make sure on his own. And he just has gone 100% above and beyond. Kudos to him. We're lucky to have him. Happy Father's Day to everybody. And I want to give out the updates for the food bank for May. The average daily boxes was 104. Total boxes distributed 1,245. New households served 51 compared to 2025, which was average boxes 93. Total was 1,297. New households 54. uh summer months are very slow for food donations they also help out kids during this time too that don't get the meals in school so please if you can do a food drive the most needed items are canned carrots canned spinach cereal peanut butter and soup Also, they have a little flyer that's out here. They're having a little thing. They said they want 250 because of our 250th. They're looking for 250 pounds of food to be donated. So there's flyers here. There's some flyers in the back. If y'all can, you know, take one home with you, pass them along, bring them to churches, do whatever you can do to spread that word to get the collections in there. And they've also expanded their availability because the cost of food rises up to 200% of the federal poverty level. And the land yet box program is still going on, so that's really great that they keep on doing this. And I want to remind everybody to shop local. Our local farmer's market Wednesdays at the trailhead, Saturdays right behind us here in the open area. And like I said, happy Father's Day to everybody up here and everybody out there. Thank you.

Thank you. I would be remiss if I did not mention that this evening Joanne Rucker, our council clerk, she's feeling under the weather. And I think the meeting went pretty good with the replacement. And I want to recognize Bridget for being here and doing such a good job. So let's give her a round of applause, please. Thank you. Jim, I couldn't help but notice that everyone gave kudos to Public Works, and rightfully so. So I would like to point out that we have our police chief here, our fire chief here, our finance director here, our city attorney here, and our CAO. And I think all the department heads have been doing a great job. And I'm sure the mayor would join in that. And thank you, Jim. I want to say something else. We've talked about Sparks in the Park and we've talked about some of the events. Mark your calendars because on July 8th there's going to be a reading of the Declaration of Independence at our trailhead by Councilman Inman. And I think we should all show up and hear those words again. So thank you, Councilman Inman, for participating.

Yes, sir.

Now, I do have a couple of announcements to make.

There will be two changes to the council meeting calendar.

The August 4th meeting will be moved to August 11th. That is due to a change of the dates of the Louisiana Municipal Association Convention. Also, the November 3rd. meeting will be moved to november tenth and that is due to election day our next meeting will be uh... on tuesday july seventh and again it would be six p m here in the council chambers with that i will turn it over to administration

Thank you, Councilman Verrett. Also, I'd like to thank the entire council for the confirmation of my appointment onto Rec District 10. Hopefully, we'll be able to pull something together there. To remind the listeners at home, that's a rec district where millages have failed three times before. We've had a tremendous change in demographics since that time many years ago. We're looking to do a smaller scale project. And I think it's something that everybody will look forward to. Last week I took a, I met with our CAO and Director of Finance with Tish and Nina.

Yeah, there's a reason for that, yeah, with Nina.

And the finance meeting was remarkably unremarkable. Usually after the finance meeting, you get an e-blast from me and I list all this stuff out that's going on. We're just kind of copacetic. We're in a good place. Our sales tax revenue continues to increase month over annual year. We've budgeted well. We've got the money to do the things we're doing. And we're not overspending and we're not underspending. So sort of the kind of where we wanted to be is where I found that we were at. Also last week I did infrastructure with Cali and learned there the frustration of acquiring right away acquisition. We have a roundabout on Jefferson and Columbia. We have a roundabout at 30th and Columbia. We have a roundabout at 21st and Tyler. We have a Columbia Street bridge that we're looking to replace. And all four of these are mired in this horribly bureaucratic right-of-way acquisition process. Certified letters to property owners, appraisals, I don't want that much, that's how much we can pay, back and forth, that kind of thing. So although we don't see a lot happening there, there's a lot behind the scenes that's taking place. And finally, I would like to mention that those of you, many of you know, she has several names, but she oftentimes goes by Connie. She would be the blonde mannequin in front of Ellis' Shell on Boston Street. And you may have also noticed that we have possession of Connie, and I put her out from time to time. She has a single blue dress. It's all she's got. you know and so i'd like to thank the food bank resale store because they have taken it upon themselves that they will now be providing new outfits for the mannequin and putting her out from time to time and and the idea is uh they'll they'll take pictures and post it on facebook we'll share it it'll go viral and it'll bring attention to the food bank's resale store which really carries a lot of nice nice clothing it's not a this is not a thrift store this is uh this is nice things so uh so i just wanted to let you know those who are concerned about connie's limited wardrobe please relax she's gonna she's got some new outfits on the way thank you thank you i actually do have something to share um if you'll recall after hurricane ida i told you guys those of you that were in office that we were going to be working on our female reimbursements for a long time so that was five years ago

Earlier in May, May 5th, we had a compliance review with GOSEP for our $5 million in claims. And the compliance review, which we passed with flying colors. In fact, the reviewer told us that we were one of the best reviews that was ever conducted, that he's ever completed. And we were told that our agency demonstrated strong compliance efforts. So the compliance review reviewed several areas of our administrative processes, including control environment, expenditures, accounting, reporting and project process, equipment and inventory, force account labor and administrative costs, procurement contracts, sub-grantee monitoring, record retention, insurance, duplication of benefits, and federal registration of our tax ID information. So I would like to give a shout-out to the Department of Administration because not only were we very strong at that time, and if you'll recall, that was post-pandemic, post-computer hack. We filed some very large-scale debris claims with FEMA, and they were very impressed with what we accomplished. And it's just really nice five years later to go through this again. and realized that not only were we doing a great job then, but we've built on those processes since. And it was great for us to revisit what's expected during this process, so we were able to tweak a couple things with recommendations from GOSEP. But I just wanted to say I'm very proud of what we've accomplished, so I wanted to share that with you all. Thank you. Very good.

Rod? Hearing none.