City Council - Regular Meeting

For February 9th, 2026, please stand for the pledge.

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

I'm just asking for a moment of silence today.

Yeah, I think so. Okay. Clerk Golick, roll call vote, please. Alexander. Spitelli. Kalwinski. Yes. Salinas.

Here.

I need to see him. He needs to see you, Al. There we go.

Thank you, Governor. Sorry about that, I'm here. Thank you. Tyler. Here. Emerson. Yes. Warple.

Here.

Rakos. Here. Vanes.

Here. Eight in chambers, one virtual.

Mayor's address, please. Thanks councilwoman I got a summary of my schedule. I know we have Riverfront district I'm gonna wait until that comes up before I do my presentation on that and I do want to update the council after my summary about The Clark high school and gave a high school situation some ordeals I've been going through and I just this has been a topic as of late I'll just go ahead and hit it right now if you don't mind We've been getting a lot of questions for the last couple years, quite frankly, but it seems like it's been picking up steam lately about what's going on with Clark High School and Gabbitt High School. We checked our records in the city, made sure that there's no water hooked up to either of these buildings. It appears that these buildings are falling into disrepair. We've been trying to set up meetings with the school city for quite some time now and have been unsuccessful. This issue came up at the... at the state of the city in front of 450 people, came up at the mayor's night out, just watching them slowly deteriorate isn't the answer. We've been trying to make appointments with the school city Hammond to no avail. At first it was insisted all the members of the school board have to be present if we're going to have this meeting, and that's hard to do, to line up five schedules, and we did. And then it got canceled. And then they said, okay, the acting superintendent is going to meet with you with the attorney, Joel Harris, and said, okay. And then that meeting was supposed to be tomorrow and it got canceled. They said, the school board wants to meet with you on this issue now. And each time these meetings get canceled, it costs us a couple months to line up all the calendars again. And it's just in the meantime, These schools are just wasting away. And they don't have power hooked up to them. They don't have water hooked up to them. They're not being used at all. And it's time to stop. having this be acceptable. It's not acceptable. That's what failing cities do. They have schools sit around and waste away. I'm not going to be a mayor of that city. So I'm calling on the school city publicly right now to return our phone calls and to set up a meeting so that we can start talking about this issue, what we're going to do with Gavit High School and what we're going to do with Clark High School. And once we knock off these two, I want to move forward. It's time to move forward with both of these schools. They're huge pieces of property. They're marketable pieces of property. Purdue Northwest has interest in the Gavit High School property. So it's time to stop accepting what's going on and start moving forward. And I'm calling on the school city, Hammond, to start returning some phone calls and getting to work with the administration. So I don't know if you all have any questions on this. But Councilman Warple, I know Gavit's right.

I hear that question nonstop. What's that? I hear the question about Gavit School nonstop. you know, from my residents. And just like you said, they're afraid that before you know it, you're going to see broken windows and grass sky high. And it's like it's been closed for a while now. What's going to happen, you know? Okay.

So anyway, Councilman Kowalski, I know you get a lot of questions on this issue as well. Once I find out, I'll obviously be in contact with you. But I think the best way for me to be able to make contact with the school board and or the school city is to bring it up here. I don't want the residents to think we're blowing them off. I get issues from the residents. We march forward and try to take care of them. And when you hit brick walls, you've got to let people know what's going on. school cities a brick wall right now they don't want to talk about this issue and in the meantime we watch these schools waste away so it's unacceptable alright summary of the schedule over the last couple weeks I appreciate Scott for covering me on the last meeting he did hit a lot of the things that were going on but we missed a couple and I wanted to make sure we highlighted them for you all I wanted to say thank you to everybody that worked so hard on the annual Martin Luther King candlelight march As usual, at 6.30 a.m. March is the coldest day of the year. This year, with the added pleasure of snow and wind also. So it was freezing cold, snowy wind. We still had a great March. We still had a lot of people out there. I want to thank the Ministerial Alliance, everybody at Special Events that worked so hard to set that up, and, of course, all the residents and all the kids that showed up. It was a really great event. Attended Governor Mike Braun stated the state address at his invitation, which is unusual. Governor Braun mentioned Hammond. Well, he mentioned me during the speech. During a portion of the speech, he mentioned my name. He also said we were going to get the job done. He was talking about the Chicago Bears in that section. Obviously, there's a lot going on with that right now. I'll answer what I can, but it's a moving target at all times. I met with the Dana Center Ownership Group to receive an update on the current situation. I'm talking about an evolving situation. I met with Wes Lukosius and the Hammond Hall of Fame Committee regarding future Hall of Fame programming. Attended Purdue Northwest Baseball's very own Chad Patrick's jersey retirement ceremony. Chad was a baseball player for PNW a few years back. Dominated the GLIAC. It's Division II baseball. He dominated it. from Hebron, went to Purdue Northwest, lived in Hammond during this run. His first year was pretty awesome. His second and third and fourth years were remarkable. Gets drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, goes all the way through, makes his major league debut last year. He was a starting pitcher for the Brewers. During the playoffs, he pitched in the playoffs. This is a kid that played for Purdue Northwest. It's our first pro baseball player. They retired his jersey. I wanted to say congratulations to Chad Patrick, to Coach Dave Griffin, and to Purdue Northwest Athletics Department. Rick Costello and the Chancellor and everybody. It was really cool to see that. Held Mayor's Night Out in Hammond's 1st District, Councilman Mark's District. We were at the M.O. Green Lost Marsh Clubhouse. A lot of talk about... the potential economic development project that's looking in that part of our city. It was a big turnout. It was a great meeting. Held the State of the City the next day. 450 tickets sold. We did this one at the Sportsplex, and it was nice. We had a good sound system in there, and it was a big space. It was the new space. So I want to thank the council people that attended. I think it was a really good day. And I know for the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce, it was a good fundraiser for them. That's nice, because we need a good, strong Chamber of Commerce, in my opinion. attended the funeral for a friend. I'm not sure how well you all knew her, but she went to Clark High School. She was a superstar at Clark High School. She is a Hammond Sports Hall of Famer. She's the wife of the former chairman of the Democratic Party, Jackie Weiser. Jackie died way too young after a courageous battle with cancer. It was very traumatic and very sad to see her pass away. She's a Hammond native and a Hall of Famer in our city. Met with Councilman Salinas and the leadership of the Hammond Sanitary District to discuss more technological ways we can attempt to reduce the smell coming from the overflow basin and the plant. Met with the leaders of Hammond Tri-Capacific Sorority for our annual picture and proclamation celebrating their organization. But with developers who are interested in the old Franciscan site for their project, they're going to be putting in on the RFP that's coming out shortly. But with captains, chiefs, assistant chiefs of the Hama Police Department for a regular monthly meeting, attended the South Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau annual legislative dinner in Indianapolis hosted by Phil Talon. The Speaker of the House attended that. There was dozens of other legislators in attendance as well. The topic the speaker talked to that group about was the bearish coming to Northwest Indiana. He didn't say the words Hammond, but he said Northwest Indiana. I thought that was really a positive thing. The legislators are all excited about this. And I think a lot of people think this is going to be the location if the bears come to Indiana that the bears are going to choose. So that was a pretty cool day in Indianapolis to hear the Speaker of the House talking about your region and your city and spending billions of dollars. Attended multiple meetings to talk about something cool. I don't know how many people got this memo, but this was sort of on the hush. Attended meetings in the Hammonds Losh Marsh Clubhouse with Speaker Todd Houston and Representative Craig Snow in regards to the possibility of the bears coming to Northwest Indiana. Speaker Houston, I've never seen a speaker leave the State House, came to Hammond, pulled up there and had meetings with multiple county officials, called in county official after county official, talking to them about were they on board if the Bears chose Northwest Indiana? This is gonna require a lot of work and cooperation between units of government. He wanted to make sure everybody was on board. It was completely impressive. And then I know for a fact after that day, it was Thursday, he drove out to Porter County, stayed in the region, drove out to Porter County and did the same thing to the Porter County officials the very next day. Speaker of the House. In government, that's the most powerful person in Indiana government is the Speaker of the House. And he was in our city talking about a multi-billion dollar project. So that was pretty awesome. Representative Craig Snow is one of his top lieutenants. He was also here. Yeah, it's getting real. And I've never seen that before. I've been mayor a long time. That's pretty cool. He was in Hammond. So I wanted to thank the Hammond Police Department who provided security that day. We just wanted everything to be perfect. Obviously, the Speaker of the House was in our city. Attended Purdue Northwest men's hockey game in celebration of PNW's main event at the Cube last Thursday. There had to be at least 500 people in there. It was really cool. Excited students, alumni, elected leaders, and the PNW Chancellor were there. How cool is theCUBE? Really cool place. If you get a chance to go watch a hockey game at theCUBE, it is awesome. So really cool to see that happening. Last but not least, attended the Utility and Affordability Town Hall in Munster that was put on by Representative Mike Andrade. There was a couple hundred people in attendance that day, most of whom agreed that the recent spike in NIPSCO prices are unbearable and something needs to be done to rectify it. I know I've had a lot to say. I apologize for the lengthy report. Anybody have any questions? Hi, Councilman.

The development possibility on St. Margaret's land, was it the entire footprint?

Well, keep in mind the Roberts Impact Lab for Purdue Northwest is on the northeast corner, and then on the southwest corner is the parking garage. We kept that on purpose. The rest of it, yes, Councilman. It would be, they would.

The rest of it.

We're going to RFP the rest of it. This group that we're talking to, and it doesn't mean they're going to be the winner, but this group we're talking to, they could fill the rest of it easily with this project.

Would that include the property behind St. Joe's that-

I'm not sure it does, but keep in mind the entity that controls that, I believe, is HAST. We have a pretty good relationship with HAST if we needed that property. But I think technically HAST controls that, Councilman.

Man and president I am okay.

Let's just make it sure I looked at the experts I thought that was maybe in the past to be along to st. Joe's because their school and parking was back there and they made money by releasing that parking space And then change one half it did when this whole deal went down They offered that to haste has accepted it But past in the city haven't having symbiotic relationship so has technically owns it, but that's how it happened and Gotcha. Yes, sir.

Mayor.

Yes, sir.

I saw on social media the other day that Hobart closed on a $100 million deal or something like that for a data center.

Yes, sir. That's true.

And I know we gave.

Could I correct you real quick, Councilman Day? Go ahead. Mayor Josh Huddleston and Hobart closed a deal with a data center for Amazon. Massive. It's the biggest private deal in the state's history. Multi-billions. And he got a check. I just talked to him the other day. City of Hobart got a check for $45 million the other day. And that's because they approved it. The day they pull the billing permits, which is probably within the next year or two, they get another $45 million. And then the day they cut a ribbon, they get multi-millions of dollars also. Hobart's the wealthiest community probably in the entire state now and just sitting on wealth. So I think Mayor Josh did a great job, and I'm using that deal as inspiration. I hope you guys appreciate that because we're in the middle of a data center deal right now.

Didn't we give the developers an extension or something like that just recently? And where are we at with that?

Thanks, Geltzman. Yeah, we extended them from the end of the year. Currently, the extension goes till the end of February. At the end of February, if we don't hear any positive news, we have the option to walk away from that deal and proceed and find another developer. So we do have an option at the end of the month. But I don't want to start from scratch because these deals take years. So I'd rather close our deal. We have a good deal, and it's a good data center group. We've done business with them before. So I hope we get some answers by the end of the month. And if we need another extension, I'm going to have to talk to you guys about that. But right now, we've technically given them until the end of the month, Councilman Warple.

We talk about all this development and $40 million would be a great deal too.

Yes, sir. I'm using it as an inspiration.

Madam President.

Councilman Tyler.

Hey, Mayor. Hi, Councilman. I wanted to congratulate your administration again for another wonderful black history program last week. Thank you.

Yeah, it was a great program. I apologize, I wasn't there, Councilman. You're a busy man. I was in Indianapolis where I've been sort of living lately.

Scott did a fairly decent job filling in for you. Thank you.

That's good.

But I just wanted to congratulate all of the nonprofits who were awarded award recipients for that day, too. But then also over the weekend, my twin boy started ninja classes at the YMCA. Nice. And then I was also at the sports place for a basketball tournament on Sunday. And I mean, that place is rocking and rolling. It was the first time that they hosted a tournament on the new Courts at the sportsplex building was packed with people, everybody having a good time. So just love to see that type of development within our city and see the excitement of kids playing and parents having a good time. The bar, the union lounge was filled. So it was just a great weekend over there.

Thank you. Yeah, I know the day you're talking about, Councilman. I have a habit on driving through the parking lots at the sports parks. I know Councilman Whirlpool's frequent. And that day you're talking about, Barry, every parking lot on 167th was full all the way to the very back one. That's the first time. And with the parking over by the Y, it was pretty full that day also. So it was pretty cool to see. I love seeing that also. Those are tourists in our city. And they come every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah.

I think I told you at the time I should have gerrymandered that into my district.

Well, we've got the decade coming. By the way, Councilman Borpo, we've been talking with the leadership at Sportsbox about the neighborhoods, too. We're watching that closely. And illegal parking. People are parking like jerks over there sometimes. We're pretty strict on that, Councilman. Yeah.

Are there any updates about any of the developments around Sportsplex?

I know I talked to a group that's interested in developing the Petros, and it's a really cool development idea. I'm trying to think.

Petros for Sale?

I think there's a, I'm not sure if it's like for sale with the sign out in front of it, but I think he's sort of like always open, and this group and him have been communicating, and it's a really cool concept that they're talking about, and they're successful. They've done things like that in Crown Point, so it would be really cool. I think you'd like it a lot, but, and then when I talk about things publicly, they fall apart, so I'm not going to talk about it, but we're always fielding calls, and the area around the sportsplex is very attractive, so.

If I can, I'll schedule some time with you so we can talk about... I'd love to learn more, because I know you said at one point there was some interest in the old Walmart, too.

Yeah, that's always a moving target, too, but... You know what's interesting about this whole Bears talk? I think a lot of people are sort of like, wait a second. I don't want to make any mistakes and sell anything real quickly. It's interesting how that's sort of until. And the good news is with the Bears development, this will be done probably within a month, month and a half, this whole dilemma that we're in. Because I imagine Indiana is going to put a good offer on the table. And I know that Illinois has gotten the memo that this is a contest. And they're going to put a good offer on the table. let's be realistic the bears bought land in arlington but that doesn't mean it's definitely going to go there the cool thing is indiana's going to put a really good offer on the table and it's going to be tough to beat indiana's offer because not only is a good offer on paper if they actually located here it'd be a great offer because we're such a great business state you know i mean they can't beat the deal so it's going to be an interesting month but i don't think we're going to be dealing with this much longer than a month month and a half councilman and then once that happens all these other developments just If they're coming, all the prices go up. If they're not, prices stay where they are and they start moving. Sorry about all the talk.

Any other questions?

Thank you, Mayor. The Riverfront District's coming up. I'm going to stay for that so we can talk about that. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All righty, moving on to approval of minutes.

Madam President. Councilman Rakos. I make a motion we approve minutes for January 26, 2026.

Second. Motion by Councilman Rakos, second by Councilman Emerson to approve the minutes of January 26th. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Minutes pass. Approval of claims. Madam President. Councilman Whirlpool.

Make a motion that we approve claims dated January 26th through February 4th, 2026. Claim number 789, I'll find it here, through. Thought I knew it. 1242, inclusive. In the amount of $10,848,707.10, I so move. Second.

Motion by Councilman Marple, who is the second? By Councilman Tyler to approve the claims. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk will recall vote, please.

Alexander.

Yes.

Spitali. Yes. Galwinski. Yes. Salinas. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Emerson. Yes. Warple. Yes. Rakos. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Claims passed, nine in favor, zero against. Public hearings, there are none. Communications. Does anyone have any communications? Any communications? Any communications? Communications is now closed. Committee reports.

Madam President. Councilman Rakos. We bring out council as a whole 26-03. Okay.

And- Madam President.

Yes, Councilman Marple.

The Capital Improvements Board did not meet since the last meeting.

Thank you. And as I usually do, I'll read off the list of upcoming Community and Crime Watch meetings. Edison Community Watch will meet Wednesday, March 4th, 6.30 p.m. at Edison School. Harrison Park Crime Watch will meet Tuesday, March 3rd, 6 p.m. at the VFW on Homan Avenue across from Harrison Park. Jefferson Crime Watch will meet Wednesday, February 11th, 6 p.m. at Jefferson School. Hessville Crime Watch will meet Thursday, February 19th, 6 p.m. at the HC3 Community Center. Irving Community Watch will meet Tuesday, February 10th, 9.30 AM at Irving School. Whiting Robertsdale Crime Watch will meet Thursday, February 12th, 6.30 PM at Calumet College. And as usual, I encourage everyone to attend a community or crime watch meeting. Find out what's going on in your neighborhood, because community is not just about me, it's about us. Committee reports is now closed. Ordinance, third and final passage.

Ordinance 26-03 sponsored by Councilman Salinas. An ordinance of the city of Hammond authorizing and establishing a municipal riverfront district project area pursuant to Indiana code.

Madam President. Councilman Rakos. Make the motion to pass 2603.

Is there a second? Second. Okay, motion by Councilman Rako, second by Councilman Emerson to pass 2603 and third and final. Any discussion? Any discussion?

Madam President.

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for taking this up to the council and to Councilman Salinas for carrying this bill. When the city issued a request for proposals for a liquor license that held recently, the demand was significantly higher than we anticipated. Indiana operates under a quota system for liquor licenses. Hammond's reached its maximum number under that system, meaning that no additional liquor licenses are available from the state of Indiana. As a result, new restaurants that want to serve alcohol must purchase licenses on the open market, often for tens of thousands of dollars. My understanding is the last two licenses sold privately for at least $40,000 each. This creates a barrier to entry, especially for new or locally owned restaurants. Because of this, I asked my team to develop a solution. Particularly for our downtown, we are seeing increased residential growth and expanding commercial activity. The proposed riverfront district ordinance takes advantage of a state statute that allows Indiana cities and towns to create designated districts and manage liquor licenses within those districts for restaurants only, not for bars. Under this ordinance, the Redevelopment Commission would be able to establish a formal application process, review applications to ensure compliance with conditions, and control the number of restaurant liquor licenses available. These licenses would be limited strictly to the riverfront district. We already know of three establishments that are waiting for this ordinance to pass so that they can apply, and this is not new or untested. Cities across Indiana, including Crown Point, Madison, and Fort Wayne, and Kokomo have successfully established similar districts and used them to support restaurant growth and responsible economic development.

Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. Madam President. Councilman Kawinski. Thanks. So I think I heard it, but. It can't be just a bar getting a liquor license in that district. It has to be connected to a restaurant.

Yes, sir. Exactly.

Like a sit-down restaurant with chairs and tables.

Right. Like the Tiki Bar serves food, and then they would be able to take advantage. I know they're one of them. Ramundo's Eat Restaurant would be able to take advantage in. It's interesting, and I'm not suggesting anything for Ramundo downtown Hammond, El Taco Real. He also owns Eat downtown. Eat has its own liquor license. So presumably if Ramundo wanted to get a riverfront license, it would be cheaper for him, and then he would be able to market that open liquor license if he wanted to. It would create opportunities like that that we don't anticipate. Thanks. Yes, sir.

Any other discussion or questions? Any other discussion?

Do you want to hear the boundaries, Councilwoman? I beg your pardon? Do you want me to say the boundaries real quick? Of course. Sure. These licenses would be limited strictly to the Riverfront District, which is bounded to the north by Willow Court, to the south by Douglas Ogden. state line to the west and oakley avenue to the east that's our riverfront district so in that district the city would control these licenses they would not be able to go to bars they'd only be able to go to restaurants that wanted to open there and currently if they wanted to open a restaurant downtown they'd have to find an open license and they're going for 40 000 plus right now so this will help us develop downtown which i know is why councilman salinas wanted to carry it and He is traveling right now and he asked me to stand up on his behalf and help push this through. So I know Councilman Salinas, I don't know if he could talk right now, but.

Yes, Madam President.

Yes, Councilman.

I want to thank everyone for considering this, and I want to give a special thanks to the mayor and his staff for putting this together for our businesses in downtown Hammond. It is needed. We do have businesses currently interested and waiting for this type of opportunity, so I ask you all to please consider it. Please pass it tonight, and I apologize for not being there in person. Thank you.

Thanks, Councilman Salinas.

Does the city or redevelopment get the... The cost of the liquor license? Yes, sir. It goes to the group.

Is it going to be redeveloped? There's an application fee that comes.

And isn't there an annual fee, too? Each year they have to reapply.

Right.

It's an each year piece.

So we're getting a fee, but if they have to pay, say, $40,000 for the liquor license, the cost goes to the state.

Yes, sir. For the state liquor license, yeah, the state gets the money. So this would create, it's a limited revenue source, but yeah, technically a revenue source. But I wouldn't suggest it would be more than $10,000, $20,000 a year or something like that.

Any other questions or discussion?

This is important, Madam Councilwoman, so I appreciate you all bringing this forward. We ran into a problem, a log jam with this. When we had that one license, we RFP'd it, and we had a number of good proposals come forward, and only one got the license. We picked ICSA, which was in the first district. They're doing great things with it, but the other proposals were great. So this is going to help us with that log jam. So I appreciate you all bringing it up.

I think it's a great opportunity for the area with the trains. The development downtown, it's just, it makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Clerk, roll call vote, please.

Alexander. Yes. Spitelli. Yes. Kowalski. Yes. Salinas. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Emerson. Yes. Warple. Yes. Rakos. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Hold on, I just dropped it. 2603 passes, 8 in favor, 1 virtual in favor. Passes 9-0. Thank you. Thank you, council. Nice to see you all. Thank you.

President Danez, that concludes the ordinances for final passage.

All righty. Moving on to introduction of ordinances.

Item A. Ordinance 26-05 sponsored by Councilman Warple. An ordinance creating a new fund, fund number 3399, for municipal food and beverage tax funds.

Madam President.

Councilman Warple.

I move for passage on first and second reading. We create these funds for accounts all the time, so I don't see the need for a committee hearing unless somebody wants one. Okay.

Second. Go ahead. I'm fine, I'm fine. Okay. He seconded it. Who said second? I'll second it.

Okay. He's being nice tonight. Okay. I'm trying.

Motion by Councilman Warple, second by Councilman Rakos for passage of 2605. No, first and second reading, correct? Correct. Yes, okay, and no committee meeting. Okay. Okay, any discussion?

Madam President.

Yes.

I want to thank my distinguished colleague for seconding in my motion.

Okay, any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? 2605 passes on first and second reading.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Okay, roll call vote please. It doesn't. I didn't think so. Okay, so it passes on first.

No, we need all those in favor.

Okay, you want to tell me what I'm supposed to do? voice vote just all those in favor signify by saying aye and okay we can put this behind us okay wonderful all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye opposed motion passes thank you for your assistance councilman warple Okay.

I'm a man of- As that concludes the introduction of ordinances.

Okay, there are no resolutions. New and unfinished business? Anybody have any new and unfinished business?

Madam President. Councilman Tyler. I'd like to nominate Maxine Simmons to serve on the Hammond Community Corporations Board.

Second.

Did she serve before Councilman?

If she did, it was before my time.

Okay. Okay, is there a second?

Second.

Motion by Councilman Tyler, second by Councilman Warple. Any discussion on the appointment of Maxine Simmons to Hammond Community Corporation? Any discussion? Any discussion? Clerk Golic, roll call vote, please.

Alexander. Yes. Spitelli. Yes. Kalwinski. Yes. Salinas. Yes. Taylor. Yes. Emerson.

Yes.

Warple.

Yes.

Rickles. Yes. Vanes.

Yes. Motion passes, nine in favor, zero against. uh... number thirteen special zoning action adopted under indiana code thirty six dash seven is are not public expression you will have three minutes mary show hi mary shones

I hope you're all doing well today. About a year ago, I got a email that was talking about this vote that was going to happen in Hammond City Council. And I admit that I didn't know anything about it. This was the first I'd heard of it. And this had been going on for quite some time. And that's on me. But I thought that... I thought maybe this was new news to you all too. How on earth would anyone want to spend millions of dollars to put a pedestrian bridge where it's not needed and to spend another $17 million to wipe out Hessville's natural flood barrier? I thought, surely if people in the city council knew about this, that they would say no, absolutely. So I went down, and so we couldn't get in. This was the day after the Super Bowl. And all of a sudden, we couldn't get in because there are city workers absolutely filling this area. And to be clear, I'm not putting this on our city workers. They work very hard for us. I think that when the city or when the mayor signs your pay or when the city signs your paycheck, you probably feel a special compulsion to be here on the day after the Super Bowl after you've worked a long, hard day. So we couldn't get in. But just to let everyone know that was here that didn't see what was happening downstairs, there was an overflow area of people waiting to speak. And the overflow area was overflowed. We were lining up down the hallway because we had something to say. But we couldn't say it because the room was, oh, darn, what a shame. I'm so sorry you can't come in here. But there's just no room for you here. But you can speak after everyone's taken the vote. So you all took the vote, and then we all came up here to public expression. And some of you are probably wondering, what on earth? Because some of this may have been news to you. But the mayor tries to curate experiences here to make it look like something is more popular than it is. And when the city wants to misuse millions of taxpayer dollars to put in a pedestrian bridge where it's not needed, then the argument can't be about safety. And if we want to wipe out Hessville's natural flood barrier and spend millions of dollars to do that, then that's just corruption, plain and simple. And we shouldn't sign off on it. And we should be a check. And the city council is a check on those worst impulses. And you are the nine people in this. I mean, I don't have to tell you that. I mean, but I think that the mayor has forgotten that. But I don't want you to forget it, that you have the power here. And that if you do vote, or if you, God forbid, if this awful thing happens, the mayor won't be able to curate any more experiences for you. And you'll have to answer to the voters about this project. And I think that there are better uses of our taxpayer money than what the mayor is proposing here. And we should leave Briar Eastwoods alone. Thank you.

Public expression is now closed unless there's someone from the audience who would like to speak. Public expression is closed. Motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn.

Motion by Councilwoman Alexander. Second by Councilman Spitali. Everyone have a good evening.