City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. It is 530 on Thursday, August 27th, 2026. And this meeting of the Huntsville City Council is called to order. Welcome to everyone who has joined us in the chambers or who is joining us remotely. All members of the council are present. We will begin, as is our practice, with an invocation offered by one of our Huntsville, Alabama public safety chaplains. Tonight we have Rachel Harper with us, and that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance offered by Councilmember John Meredith. All those who wish to and are able to do so, please stand for the invocation and the pledge.

Father, we come to you tonight as a grateful people for all the many blessings that you have afforded us and for the opportunity that we have each and every day to live in such a great nation. Father, I'm thankful for our leaders and for their hearts to serve, Lord. And I ask, Father, that we never, ever take lightly the responsibilities that we have as servant leaders. I pray for continued blessings over our city and for wisdom, Lord, over our city council in decisions made tonight. Lord, we pray for safety for all the men and women who give their lives on the line every day for your service and the protection of us. Lord, we just ask all these things in your precious name. Amen. States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Chaplain Harper. Thank you, Mr. Meredith. Council Members, you have the agenda. Before you, please note that item 8A will require executive session. Are there any changes or additions to be made to the agenda? Hearing none, the agenda will be approved. You also have the minutes of the regular meeting of the City Council held on August 13, 2026. Are there any additions or changes to be made to those minutes? Seeing none, the minutes will stand approved. We have two recognitions tonight. 6A is a presentation recognizing the 65-year legacy of Big Ed's Pizza. And Mr. Little, I believe you will be making that presentation?

Are our friends from Big Ed's here? Pizza?

It doesn't.

Right there. Come on down, sir.

I'm sorry I didn't bring you guys any food. Yeah.

If he didn't hear, he said he didn't bring us any pizza. So we're going to go ahead and vote this out. We'll swing by. Thank you.

I'd like to change my vote to a nay.

If he didn't bring us food, then I'm changing my vote to nay.

Well, Mayor Battle didn't bring me Britlins either. So just saying. So yes.

Well, that's holding on to a grudge if you're bringing back Britlins.

That's when we used

Yeah, oh yeah. Well, I'm sure everybody that's lived in Huntsville for any amount of time has heard of Big Ed's Pizza, celebrating 65 years of business in Huntsville, which is quite a testament to good pizza. I did a little research, and I can only find about five or six businesses that are still around as long as Big Ed's, so that's really great. And this is a certificate recognizing that great outstanding food and tradition and community service, and it's signed by everybody on the council and the mayor, too. Yes, congratulations.

Thank you guys so much. Yeah.

Congratulations. 6B is a presentation recognizing the dedicated volunteers of the Chaffee community, and it is my honor to make that presentation representing the Chaffee community tonight. We have Mr. Lyle Boyles and Mr. Bill Gould. Mr. Boyles, Mr. Gould, will you come up, please?

That feels right.

If you didn't know, the Chaffee community has one of the oldest and largest civic associations in the community. They are a neighborhood that is well-connected. They are a neighborhood that really cares about their community. And tonight we are honoring them, particularly for the unique service that they provide to caring for Logan Park in collaboration with Parks and Recreation. So, Mr. Gould, would you share with us what it is you do?

Sure. So starting in 2011, the c n c a the chaffee neighborhood civic association reached an agreement with the city to take responsibility for opening and closing and basically tending to the park keeping an eye on things letting them know or problems and issues calling in when somebody was in there when they shouldn't be and activities going on lyle here was one of that first group he was the actual founding member of it and he's still in the rotation today every once in a while if he gets his key we've got to get it for him but But a group of six teams, every week, every six weeks, you get a rotation. You take that week with a partner. And somebody opens it in the morning, opens the restrooms, checks the facilities to make sure that it's good. And then somebody else or that same team, Lyle does it by himself. He can't find a good partner, I guess. We close it up every night. When we see something, we reach out. So the partnership with the Parks Department is amazing. We are truly partners. If we need something, we just reach out. David Delliser is my favorite pen pal. I send him a note saying, there's a toilet that's running, or there's a trash can that somebody took home as a souvenir. And the next day, it's done. It's fixed. When we have issues, we can reach out to the police. We had somebody who was keeping their car living in the park while they were visiting their girlfriend down the street. the police department came over and helped us to clean that up. We've been doing that now for 15 years. We plan on doing it for a bit longer. And we greatly appreciate the partnership and the support that allows us to keep our precious little park safe and clean and a great place for the families to spend time. So thank you.

And I have 10 certificates here that I hope you will share with all the folks who are involved.

Yeah, if I could. Those people are, most of them, still getting out of work when we're starting this. So it's not a bunch of retirees that just hang around and that's nothing to do but open and close the park. They fit it in amongst everything else. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, we make sure that it's taken care of.

And Lyle, we were talking before the meeting started about why this is so important. And so do you want to comment on that? You don't just take care of the park just to make it look nice.

Well, it's significant in the fact that the park was really secluded off of the South Memorial Parkway. It was dark. There was a lot of nonsense going on in the park, vandalism, things of that nature. And as a result of doing this now for these years, that significantly reduced all of that. And again, we're so grateful to the city for the support we get from several of the departments, not just Parks and Recreations, but General Services and others are in there. And we do appreciate that and thank the city for that.

And we're sharing this tonight not just because we want to recognize the volunteers. And again, here are the certificates. We hope you'll share that. But this is a model we hope other communities can use. So thank you both for your service. Thank you to all the Chaffee volunteers and for the work that they do.

Thank you.

All right, moving on. 8 matters with outside legal representation. 8 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a legal services agreement with Riley and Jackson PC and affiliated co-counsel for the investigation and prosecution of claims relating to the fire apparatus manufacturer antitrust litigation. Council members, we have been informed that there is need for executive session on this item before we vote. So, Mr. Riley, could you share with us that rationale?

Certainly. Thank you, Council President. Council, the Item number 8A tonight is a matter with outside legal representative which will require executive session and which we will request. Executive session is something that is covered by the Alabama Open Meetings Act found at section 3625A7 of the Code of Alabama. which provides that executive sessions may be held by the council, but only for the purposes enunciated therein. There are some ones listed. The pertinent provision for our consideration tonight, for my opinion, is found at subdivision A3, which is to discuss with the council's attorney the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or for controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated or imminently likely to be litigated if the government body pursues a particular or proposed course of action. Before you go into executive session, the law requires that the governmental body shall receive either a written or oral declaration that will be reflected in the minutes from an attorney licensed to practice law in Alabama. that this exception is applicable to that plan discussion. And I, for the purposes of that requirement, am a lawyer practiced for a long, long time in the state of Alabama. So I've been licensed for sure. And I confirm this item does fall within the exception that we just discussed, allowing executive sessions, and that I'm qualified to make that determination. So if you would ask for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Riley.

The chair moves that the city council go into executive session to discuss with our attorney the legal ramifications of and legal options for possible litigation. Second for Mr. Meredith. Is there any discussion? Question? Yes, Mr. Kling.

I think just for the record, Mr. Riley, there's a Riley at the law firm, but that is not related to you, correct?

If it is, it's so far back, neither of us know. So to my knowledge, there's no representation whatsoever, no relation whatsoever.

Thank you for clarifying that. Any other discussion? All in favor, please indicate. Aye.

Madam President, I believe we need a roll call vote for this.

A roll call vote has been requested. Mr. Meredith, how do you vote?

Aye.

Mr. Kling, how do you vote? Aye. Mr. Little, how do you vote? Aye. Ms. Watkins? Aye. And the chair votes aye. We have unanimous consent to go into executive session. We will reconvene the public meeting when we return.

Do you have an estimate of the time?

We do not.

We will reconvene at the conclusion of our executive session.

We have closed our executive session. Let the record show there was no action taken. Is there a motion to reconvene the public meeting?

Move to reconvene. Second.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from Mr. Kling. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? The public meeting is reconvened. Is there a motion to approve item 8A? So moved. Motion from Mr. Meredith, second from Mr. Little. Is there any discussion? Mr. Klink.

Question, Mr. Riley, or Mr. Trey Riley, city attorney. This is your recommendation for the council to pursue, correct? Yes, it is. Okay, thank you.

Is there any other discussion? Ms. Watkins. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you all. We move on to public hearings to be held. 9A is a public hearing in order to hear, consider, and act upon all objections or protests, if any, for removal of a public nuisance. At 4704 Cabot Drive NW, Huntsville, Alabama, in consideration of resolution ordering abatement of a nuisance located at the same property. Mr. Irwin.

Oh yes, Mayor Battle, Council Members, Scott Urban, Community Development Department. This public hearing is regarding the property located at 4704 Cavett Drive, NW. The property was in violation of the State Public Nuisance Act regarding junk. Community Development issued notice to the property owner and interested parties and the property remains in violation. Community Development is seeking your authorization to abate this junk public nuisance. The condition of the property is before you on the video screen, including photos from when the property was initially determined to be a nuisance. The owners and interested parties were notified to attend this city council meeting in the council chambers where any objections could be heard regarding the abatement of this nuisance.

Thank you, Mr. Irwin. The public hearing on item 9A is now open. Is there anyone here who wishes to address the council regarding this item? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? Motion to approve. Motion from Ms. Watkins, second from Mr. Little. Are there any questions for Mr. Irwin or any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 9B is a public hearing on authorizing the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 4204 Berry Street NW, Huntsville, Alabama, and consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same. Mr. Irwin.

Yes, this resolution authorizes the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 4204 Berry Street, NW. The owners and the interested parties were notified of this hearing by certified and first class mail and interested parties may be present tonight to voice any objections. We have photographs of the property for your review on the screen. An independent contractor inspected this property and determined it is not structurally feasible to repair. It had a 89% loss. The independent assessment noted fire damage and had extensive interior damage. The property has been declared unsafe. No permits have been issued for repair or demolition. An official notice was sent by certified and first class mail on July 2nd requesting demolition and removal of the structure. The owners of the entry parties were notified that tonight would be the time and place where objections could be heard. Again, no action has been taken, so we're seeking your authorization to abate this nuisance.

The public hearing on item 9B is now open. Is there anyone here wishing to comment on this item? Please come to the microphone. If you'll please give us your name and address for the record.

My name is Joyce Macklin, 4204 Barry Street. And I talked to a buyer, and I got a buyer that's going to buy it in September, the property.

OK. Thank you, ma'am. Any other comments?

No, ma'am.

Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you. Are there any other comments? Public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from the chair. Is there a discussion? Mr. Irwin, there is apparently a buyer for this property for September. Does that change your recommendation?

No, Madam President, it does not. This has been a project we've been working on since December of last year. We are aware of the potential of a sale, so this public nuisance will be abated regardless of the sale. New owners would be held to the same standard. So by the time we mobilize, it will be at least 30 days before we're ready for the demolition. So we'll work with the existing or new owners to get demolished by voluntary compliance.

Any other questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Madam.

Madam President. Yes, Ms. Watkins. I don't think everyone heard all the council members. Can we do a roll call vote? Mr. Meredith, how do you vote?

Mr. Kling, how do you vote? Aye. Mr. Aye. Ms. Watkins? Aye. And chair votes aye. The vote is unanimous. Thank you. We will move to 9C. 9C is a public hearing on authorizing the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance located at 3042 Boswell Drive, Northwest, Huntsville, Alabama, and consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Yes, so this resolution again authorized the demolition of an unsafe building constituting a public nuisance at 3042 Boswell Drive, NW. The owners and interested parties were notified of this hearing by certified and first class mail and they may be present to voice any objections. We have photographs of the property for review on the screen. An independent contractor inspected this property and determined it was not structurally feasible to repair at a 90% loss. The walls had come off the foundation, the roof system has failed, so it was beyond an economical viability for repair or renovation. The property has been declared unsafe. No permits have been issued for repair or demolition. An official notice was sent by certified and first-class fellow on July 2nd requesting demolition and removal of the structure. The owners and mystery parties were notified to attend this City Council meeting where the objections could be heard. No action has been taken, so we're now requesting the Council's authorization to abate this nuisance.

Thank you, Mr. Irwin. The public hearing on item 9C is now open. Is there anyone here wishing to address the council regarding item 9C? Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Is there a motion to approve this item?

Move to approve. Second.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from Ms. Watkins. Is there any discussion? Questions from Mr. Irwin? I do have one question. I noticed on the photos this was May 19th. That's a little while ago. I'm assuming that nothing has gotten better in the interim. You've had someone check it.

Yeah, it was checked most recently this afternoon. So there have been no changes since the original photos. Okay.

All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 9D is a public hearing on authorizing community development to assess the cost for the cleanup of public nuisances located at certain properties in Huntsville, Alabama, in consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

Yes, Madam President, this is a public hearing on a resolution authorizing community development to assess the cost for the cleanup of junk public nuisances located at 3607 Princess Street and 4906 Clardy Road NW. The resolution before you authorizes an assessment, two assessments in the total amount of $6,000 $752.94. All procedural requirements related to the declaration and cleanup of public nuisances have been fulfilled in accordance with the State of Alabama Public Nuisance Act. Property owners were notified that an assessment may be authorized and placed upon their property at this City Council meeting in which they will have the opportunity to appear and present any objections to the assessed cost.

Thank you. Is there anyone here wishing to comment? The public hearing is now open for item 9D. Is there anyone here wishing to comment on this item? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there a motion to approve this resolution? Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. Does anyone have questions or comments? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries.

Thank you, Council Members.

Thank you, Mr. Irwin. 9E is a public hearing on authorizing the Finance Director to issue a taxi license to Shasha Pottsco Jennings, doing business as Jennings Local Transport, for the operation of three taxis and consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same. Ms. Bryant.

Good evening. Keisha Bryant, Director of Parking and Public Transit. This item is a public hearing to authorize our finance director to issue a taxi license to Mr. Jennings, doing business as Jennings Local Transport. He plans to operate three taxis under this business license. He has completed his application and passed his background check and also paid the fee for the license, and so he is due to proceed.

Thank you, Ms. Bryant. The public hearing on item 9E is now open. Is there anyone here who wishes to comment? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? Motion from Mr. Lillis, second from Mr. Kling. Any comments? Mr. Meredith.

Ms. Bryant, this is specifically for three taxis. If he wanted to add additional taxis, does that have to come before the council, or is that just added?

No, so a taxi company requires three at the minimum, so anything above the three he would not have to come to council, but he would have to bring the vehicle to our office for inspection, metering, and tagging.

Thank you very much. Any other questions?

All in favor please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. 9F is a public hearing on the zoning of 24.67 acres of land lying on the north side of University Drive east of Providence Main Street to Highway Business C4 District and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same. Mr. Nunez.

Good evening, council members, Madam President, Thomas Nunez, manager of planning and zoning services. This item is located north side of University Drive and east of Providence Main Street. This property was recently annexed into city of Huntsville. Petitioners are seeking to zone the property highway business C4 for commercial, retail, and hospitality development.

Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Public hearing is now open for item 9F. Is there anyone who wishes to comment on this item? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Motion from Mr. Meredith. Second from Mr. Little. Any discussion? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed?

Motion carries.

9G is a public hearing on the zoning of 1.98 acres of land lying on the north side of Capshaw Road west of Wall Triana Highway to neighborhood business C1 district and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same. Mr. Nunez.

Council Member, this item is located north side of Capshaw Road and west of Wall Triana Highway. Petitioners are seeking to zone the property neighborhood of business C1 district for a property that was recently annexed into the city of Huntsville. The proposal here is for a commercial retail and office development.

Thank you. The public hearing on 9G is now open. Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on item 9G? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there a motion to approve? Motion from Mr. Meredith, second from Mr. Little. Any discussion? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed?

The motion carries.

9H is a public hearing on the rezoning of 12.5 acres of land lying on the east side of Lehman Ferry Road and north of Phil Dots Drive from Commercial Recreation C5 District to Highway Business C4 District and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same. Mr. Nunez.

Council members, this is a city-imposed rezoning request for the east side of Lehman Ferry Road and north of Phillip Dots Drive from Commercial Recreation C5 District to Highway Business C4 District. The property in question is actually of Joe Davis Stadium and the Wicks family field. However, this will rezone the area in question to Highway Business C4, which will bring it up to the primary and proper boundaries of John Hunt Park Yeah, for the official John Hubbard portion.

The public hearing on item 9H is now open. Is there anyone who wishes to comment? Seeing none, the public hearing is closed. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Motion from Mr. Little, second from Mr. Meredith. Are there any questions or comments? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries.

Thank you, Council Members.

Thank you, Mr. Nunez. We have no public hearings to be set. We have no agenda-related public comments. So this brings us then to Mayor Battle, Mayor's comments.

Thank you, Madam President and Councilmembers. First off, we would like to congratulate Columbia High School. They won their football game Saturday night. Quite a few of us were there and it was a it was a great It was a great matchup. They went down 14 to nothing in the first first two times that Greensboro got the ball They went down 14 nothing then they fought back and they ended up winning 41 14 So it was a great game and and it broke a hundred and one game losing streak so Congratulations to Columbia, and I think you'll see some other activities happening over the next couple weeks for that high school. This weekend, Samford is going to play UNA Saturday at Joe Davis Stadium, Wicks Field. Should be a great game, a lot of fun, and please come out and join it. We'll be there. watching football at its best as we see Samford play in UNA. And also Saturday, the 10th anniversary of Rock Steady Boxing. This is a program that was put in place at John Hunt Park for folks with Parkinson's. It's a rehabilitation process for those with Parkinson's. And they'll be having their 10th anniversary, I believe it's about 10 o'clock on Saturday there. And also this week I had the opportunity to go out on the Arsenal to the ribbon cutting for the Defense Intelligence Agency's material exploitation facility, which is a huge facility. The people out there are to be congratulated for the work that they've done year after year. They keep our country safe. And finally, on a sad note, we memorialized the signage out on Highway 72 East. for Billy Clardy III. He was one of our police officers, one of our finest, who was killed in the line of action. And this sign will stay in memorial fashion for Billy Clardy, for people to remember his sacrifice and what he did for our city many, many, many years ago. So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Battle. We will move on to Item 13, Councilmember Comments, and we will hear first from Councilmember Michelle Watkins. No comments. We will move on to Councilmember Bill Kling.

Well, thank you, Madam President. First of all, let me just say on a personal note, thank you to everyone within the district who came out to vote. And especially thank you to all those folks who voted to reelect me. I felt like it was a long, hot summer. There were some ups, there were some downs. But I enjoyed the process of getting out into the neighborhoods, perhaps even more than I normally do. do. It's a learning process for me and I've heard some issues, some concerns that people expressed. I think there are things we can do talking about how we up here can do our job a little bit better. So I'm going to be looking at things that I can suggest we could work on to the council as a body to interact better with the public. Again, we have a great community. We're all on the same team and we just went through a great process that I think a lot of people in a lot of countries would like to have the option. I am going to, as I said, continue my monthly town meetings, of course, and give me a few days to kind of get my legs back, probably Monday or Tuesday of next week. I'll be back doing my little street patrols that I do, and I think I got one mayor and four council members love it because it gets me away from City Hall. And, again, I'm working out in the neighborhoods. We've got great department heads, and we work to – get whatever needed city maintenance we can take care of. So that action will be continued and certainly I'll be a very strong booster for the upcoming I-565 at Memorial Parkway Interchange and also as we chase and continue the acceleration of the ring road around the city, right out road coming into Alabama Highway 255, now we're up to the Northern Bypass, and from there, eventually Hampton Cove, and then coming around just east of the Arsenal. That ring road, again, I think will take a lot off of the stress of the central portion of the city, and I think that's a great thing for our future as far as quality of life. Again, stepping back, we have a great city. We've seen that by the way we've been recognized by around the country. We have challenges, of course, but, again, we do have many good things, and we can be appreciative of that. So, again, I'm looking forward to the next four years, and I think there are many great things that are going to be taking place. And on one sad note, this week we need to recognize the passing of Libby Jones, who had been the wife of Ray Jones, who I think people throughout the community knew. Very wonderful, very smiling, beautiful woman who was brought a cheer to everyone that she came in contact with. And she will be greatly missed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kling. We'll now hear from Council Member David Little.

Thank you, Madam President. I just want to give quick shout outs to our transit team, police, engineering, public works, planning, and homes for utilities for being responsive to citizen needs over the last few weeks. As always, I'm grateful as are citizens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Little. We'll now hear from Councilmember John Merida.

I want to start by Wishing a very happy anniversary to the best wife anybody could possibly imagine having. She knows who she is. The mayor stole my thunder, but how about those Columbia High School football players? Wonderful group, and just for the record, they are currently undefeated. want to also mention that i plan on having that form on slot cameras here in council chambers on uh... september sixteenth it'll be at four o'clock and of course as always the public is invited to come talk to the uh... issue area experts which is HPD, NAMAC and other law enforcement folks and again the public is cordially invited to be here, hear what they have to say but also have the opportunity to question them. I want to thank Columbia High School and the folks at the central office of HCS for inviting me on a sneak peek of the Junior ROTC building there at Columbia. It is a fantastic state-of-the-art building that I know they are looking forward to getting into and also making available to all of the ROTC programs within HCS schools. Looking forward to the groundbreaking at Westmore Landing, which will be on Monday, August 23rd at 1 p.m. Been looking forward to this project for quite a while. It is going to bring that Providence-style living to Limestone County. And then finally, I want to thank the Chamber of Commerce and the Research Park Board for inviting me, along with my District 5 representative counterpart for the Huntsville City Schools, Carlos Matthews, to present medals at the UCI Paracycling World Championships on Saturday, September 5th. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Meredith. And I will extend my congratulations to Mr. Kling and Mr. Little for their reelection to council, to Holly McCarty for reelection to the school board, and Peyton Redfern, who is newly elected to the school board as well. And thank all of those who offered themselves for public service in this municipal election. We'll go on to item 14, the Finance Committee Report. 14A is a resolution authorizing expenditures for payment. Is there a motion to approve?

I move for authorization and approval of expenditures in the amount of $53,617,414.27. Second. Mr. Little will take the second. Any discussion on this? I do have one question. The number is unusually large.

Ms. Smith, would you like to offer a quick explanation to the public?

Certainly, I'll be happy to. Penny Smith, Director of Finance. Within these numbers are two actually very large payments. One is for our school system. So as you are well aware, the school is moving through their capital plan. And so they present to us some payments for that out of the debt that we have issued. And so for the school system. And so those payments came to $14,400,000 and change. And then we had another payment that a couple of months ago, the city council passed Resolution 2640. purchasing the food and beverages assets that were owned by the Huntsville Venue Group. And so it took a while to get all the inventory counted and make sure that all those numbers were correct. So that payment actually went through on this particular item as well. And so between those two payments, if you back those out, we're back down to about $27.7 million.

Any other questions or comments? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 15, this is board appointments to be voted on. We have several. 15A is a resolution to reappoint Thornton Stanley Jr. to the Board of Examinations and Appeals for Construction Industries, Place 8, his current seat, for a three-year term to expire September 21, 2029. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Motion from Mr. Kling, second from Mr. Little. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 15B is a resolution to reappoint Dennis Dean to the Board of Examinations and Appeals for Construction Industries, placed to his current seat for a three-year term to expire September 21, 2029. Motion from Mr. Little. Sorry. Second. Second from Mr. Kling. All in favor, please. Yes, sir.

You might want to specify, you didn't on the last one, but it requires four-fifths for passage.

Right. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 15C is a resolution to reappoint Heather Bender to the Animal Services Advisory Committee, placed to her current seat for a three-year term to expire September 8, 2029. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Motion from Mr. Mayor. Second. Second from Mr. Little. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 15C. D is a resolution to reappoint Colin Keller to the Animal Services Advisory Committee, Place 5, his current seat for a three-year term to expire September 8, 2029. Is there a motion? Move to approve. Motion from Mr. Little. Second. From Mr. Kling. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 15E is a resolution to reappoint Christopher Jason Smith to the Board of Examinations and Appeals for Construction Industries, place 16, his current seat for a three-year term to expire September 21, 2029. Is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

Many opposed. The motion carries. 15F is a resolution to appoint Joshua Pennington to the Huntsville Police Citizens Advisory Council, Place 13, due to the resignation of Brian Webb for the remainder of a vacant four-year term to expire August 21, 2027. Motion to approve. Motion from Mr. Meredith. Second. Second from Mr. Little. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 15G is a resolution to appoint Larry Durham to the Board of Examinations and Appeals for Construction Industries, Place 7, to the seat previously held by Russ Grimes for a three-year term to expire September 21, 2029. Chair makes the motion. Second. Second from Mr. Little. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. And I think Mr. Durham is here. Thank you for your service. We have no board appointment nominations on the agenda. Are there any nominations from the floor? Then we'll go on. Item 17, Huntsville Utilities Items. Mr. Gerdes, do you have a report for us?

Thank you, Council President Joe Gerdes. I will almost call myself Joseph. I never do that. Joe Gerdes, Huntsville Utilities, and as promised, we're just here to answer any questions you may have. Nothing to report tonight. We will appear at your next meeting with our FY27 budget.

Thank you, sir. We appreciate you being here. 18 legal department item transactions. 18A is an ordinance authorizing the vacation of two portions of a utility and drainage easement track 1, Richland Park, second edition, containing 0.07 and 0.11 acres. Is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. Any questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 18B is a resolution authorizing acceptance of a 0.528 acre tract of land from North Valley Land LLC for a sanitary sewer easement off of Highway 53 at Blake Bottom Road. Is there a motion to approve? Moved. Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. This brings us to unfinished business items for action. 19A is an ordinance to declare certain real property located at the intersection of Moores Mill Road and Vintage Drive as surplus and authorize the mayor to enter into a purchase and sale agreement between the City of Huntsville and Opidan Incorporated. Is there a motion for Mr. Lill's second from the chair? Mr. Davis is here with us to make a presentation.

Thank you, Madam President. Good evening. Council Member Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development. So council members, from time to time, probably six or seven times a year, we bring you real estate contracts before this council in various forms. Sometimes they're industrial development. Sometimes they're retail development. Sometimes they're property that may be a counteragency that we're helping, and tonight is one of those ordinances. And when we do that, there's a two-step process. That's why it's an ordinance. So we must declare it surplus, no longer needed for public use, and then enter a purchase and sell agreement. So that's what you're going to vote on here momentarily. So I want to give a little bit of history about this property and how the city came to acquisition of it. So it's located in Chase Industrial Park. The property is located fronting Mooresville Road and was the former campus of QualiTest Pharmaceutical. I think locally a lot of people refer to it as Probst Pharmaceutical. The city acquired the undeveloped portion of this back in about 2010 after the acquisition of QualiTest Pharmaceuticals by Endo Pharmaceutical. The Probst family donated this land to the sea, the undeveloped portion, in the direction that it had three purposes for which us to dispose of it. One, a public use or commercial or industrial development. They wanted to see good happen out of it for the betterment of the community. So on this screen, what I wanted to point out is the pharmaceutical campus that you see kind of central to it with the Ring Road, those buildings are still active. Actually, Trial Rx Pharmaceuticals is in the southernmost building, still in operation. The building to the east is Leidos, one of our defense contractors in our city with multiple locations. And the building to the north is more warehouse logistics storage. I do want to point out that the dash yellow area was part of that original acquisition by the city. And a couple years ago, we, in partnership with some property that allowed us to expand in John Hunt Park, this council approved a development agreement and real estate agreement with Alabama National Guard for this to become one of their latest training centers. If you've been by there, that project is getting very near completion. It looks very nice. Very nice. I do want to point out to the north and to the east of the Leidos building, that area has been reserved for the future northern bypass to connect to US Highway 72. So that is the corridor being reserved for that as it would cross Winchester Road, Morseville Road and come back to US 231. So that leaves the southernmost portion and that's what we're presenting to you tonight. So what's before you is a 15-acre site, as you see hatched out here, the southernmost portion of the city property. Purchase price is $1.2 million. $126 million. That is $75,000 an acre if you're doing the math. That is in conducive of the market rate for this area of Chase Industrial Park and this Highway 72 area. As we do with any real estate contract, we want to make sure that the reason that you would vote to sell, that that project gets delivered to the community. Should it not, there's a repurchase option. So that is pretty standard in our contracts. You always see those. So there's an 18-month repurchase obligation. Should the project not move forward, the city has the right to regain the property at the same purchase price. So there's no escalation that we'd pay more to receive that property back. So the proposed land use. So this property, due to the utilities, both public and private utilities in this area, we felt that this is good for the overall community. The proposed use is a regional fiber network switch facility. So that's a big word, right? What I wanted to describe to you and the public what that really means is to get more efficient in delivering high-speed, long-distance, reliable transmission and routing of existing fiber, internet service, and our data that we send every day, whether that's email storing, social media, or just conducting business. I like to that to what the AT&T building just outside this building we set tonight across the street here is to our phone network. That building is a hub to distribute incoming and outgoing landline phone service. That building stretches and provides service all the way in southern Tennessee. So think of this and very similar to that but for our existing fiber infrastructure through our city. There's additional benefits to the city. So the southernmost portion you see in red, we are retaining. And John Hamilton and the fire department in looking at long range plans has identified this with the rapid growing area of East Huntsville is a perfect location for a future fire station. So in working with the purchaser in the layout of how they would build their facility and connect to the fiber network and provide this better efficiency and more high-speed service throughout the region, they've agreed in their layout to build a new road for which our fire station would gain access to there. So that would be at no cost to the city. And the proceeds from this, should you approve this tonight, the administration would like to take those proceeds, put them in the 1990 plan to help fund this project. Councilmembers, it's not a lot. It's not very complicated. I'm open to any questions you may have.

Councilmembers, any questions for Mr. Davis? Mr. Meredith?

My question is just how many acres are going to be utilized for the fire station?

So if you look, once they get in design, there's much more property here than is needed for the initial, but we wanted to carve enough out as the city grows. If the fire department needed a new ladder truck bay like we're doing out in Greenbrier, that there's room to expand so the typical initial is two to three maybe five acres at most if you look here there's a just under 10 acres of additional property for the city to use thank you sir you're welcome any other questions for mr davis all in favor please indicate aye any opposed the motion carries thank you mr davis thank you council members

This brings us to 20 new items, business items for consideration or action. Are there any items? These items will be approved in one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. The reading of each item will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise. Are there any items anyone wishes to hold separately? Mr. Meredith.

M. Item M. That's all.

Okay. Ms. Watkins. A, B, C, I, P, Q, S. S or X? S as in Sam.

Okay. Item A, B, C. I, M, P, Q, and S, as in Sam. And the chair moves for consolidation and approval of items 20D to H, 20J, 20J, K, and L, 20N and O, 20R, 20T, and 20U.

Second.

Second from Mr. Little. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? Those items are approved. We will now move on to 20A. 20A is a resolution authorizing travel expenses. Is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. Is there a discussion? Council members, any questions?

Yes. Ms. Smith, did you get a chance to send me the update of this for this prior to the approval?

Not for this. It's in. No, I did not realize that you wanted them for every session.

Okay. Every session, if you don't mind.

Every session going forward. Okay. I will send those to you. Thank you.

Any other questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 20B is an ordinance amending budget ordinance number 25-744 by changing appropriate funding for various departments and funds. Is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. Questions or comments for discussion?

Ms. Watkins, you held this? I did. I want her to explain for the listening public.

So this item has been donated. So we have a fire pole that should... So this is for a budgeted item. Sorry, not a donation. Budgeted item that increases a transfer to our 1990 capital projects fund from our fire and rescue department. So that... contract and everything will be executed within the capital projects funds along with the remainder of things around it. And so this is literally just moving money from the general fund where we initially established that to the capital projects fund so that the money can be properly expended according to the contract.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 20C is a resolution authorizing the Mayor to take a portion of the proceeds of certain future borrowings to reimburse the 2014 Capital Improvement Fund of the City for expenditures incurred prior to borrowing issuance. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Motion from Mr. Little, second from the Chair. Ms. Smith, can you help us understand what we're doing here?

Good evening. Penny Smith, Director of Finance. You've seen these types of resolutions come before you. It is a tool that we use in order to right-size any borrowing that we do as we go forward. So there has been a TIF that has been set in place along with a 1% lodging tax that has been set in place to fund the Von Braun Civic Center expansion. And so there will be borrowings up to $260 million. Obviously, that is a max amount. That is not the actual borrowings themselves. There will be multiple series of borrowings as we move through this three-year project. And so setting that in place, there are a number of things that are starting to occur and happen. And as we move across that, we want to be able to capture that into the borrowings. Right now, the first borrowing is set maybe for spring, February, March timeframe. We're not sure of the size or scope of that borrowing as of yet.

Any discussion? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. 20I is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter an agreement between the City of Huntsville and Three Notch Group Inc. for engineering design services for Alabama Highway 53 and Douglas Road intersection improvements project number 71-26-SP56. Is there a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr. Little. Second by the chair. Ms. Martin.

Yes, good evening. Kathy Martin, Director of City Engineering. So this is a design contract with Three Notch Group. It's for intersection improvements at Alabama Highway 53 and Douglas Road. And what we're doing is adding a right turn lane at Douglas Road to minimize congestion in the area. So this is a lump sum design contract amount of $45,090.

Thank you. Questions or comments? Do you know when this construction is going to start on this road?

We would hope by spring of next year. We've got to go through ALDOT permitting process.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms. Morn. Any other questions or comments? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? The motion carries. 20M is a resolution authorizing the city attorney to settle a personal injury claim of Alicia Smith. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Motion from Mr. Little, second from the chair. Mr. Riley, would it be appropriate for us to discuss this, or should we go into another executive session?

If we want to discuss it, we need to go into executive session.

Council members, is there a motion for executive session?

Motion to go into executive session.

Second. Second. Mr. Meredith, how do you vote to go into executive session? Aye. Mr. Kling, how do you vote?

Bill. Mr. Kling. I know. I'm thinking. Come back to me, would you? I'll go ahead and vote aye. Mr. Little?

Aye. Ms. Watkins? Aye. Chair votes aye. We will be going into executive. We will now convene for executive session. Madam President? Yes, sir.

I guess a personal comment I would have on this. It seems like something like this, an individual council member can consult with the city attorney before the meeting, but I'll went along with it as a courtesy.

We will now suspend the public meeting, and we will go into executive session. We hope to return. I would think this should not take longer than 10 minutes or so. ...convene the public meeting. Motion from Mr. Klings. Second. Second from Mr. Little. All in favor please indicate. Aye. The meeting is now convened. We have a motion on the floor to approve item 20M. All in favor please indicate.

Aye.

Opposed? The motion carries. 20P is a resolution authorizing the mayor to submit a grant application to the Federal Transit Authority Administration, FTA, for the FY27 formula grant. Is there a motion to approve? Motion from Mr. Kling, second from Mr. Little. Any discussion, conversation, questions?

Yeah. Is there going to be public input on how all this money gets used when you get further down the line? Ms. Bryant.

Yes. Keisha Bryant, Director of Parking and Public Transit. So these are our annual dollars that are appropriated from FTA, and so we will use them for our operations costs, which are covered by these federal dollars at a 50% rate. And then we'll also use them for capital costs at a rate of 80% for the federal dollars. And so we will not have any public hearings. We are just continuing our operations. There's nothing new that's going on with these dollars. It's just so that we can access and allocate the dollars that the federal government has allocated to us.

Any other questions? Ms. Watkins. Well, no. Mr. Kling jumped in before I could ask a question, even though I held the item. But thank you, Ms. Rich. You read your mind. Thank you.

Mr. Meredith. No, I've got something else. Let's finish this off and then I'll...

Okay. All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

If I can interrupt.

Yes.

Just for the record, Mr. Riley, could you, for... compliance with the Open Meeting Act give the reason for the last need for executive session?

Yes, and I apologize for failing to do that. I kind of got called off surprise there, but yes, once again, I am an attorney in the licensed practice in Alabama and in my judgment this falls within the open litigation and discussing with your attorney those litigation matters that need to be done in confidence. So it does apply to one of the exceptions in the Open Meeting Act that allows for executive session.

For the record, could you give the citation?

Citation of the code? Yes.

Just for the record.

It's 3625A-7A3.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Mr. Meredith. 20Q is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a facility use agreement between the City of Huntsville and Foxtrot Company, LLC. Is there a motion? Move to approve. Motion from Mr. Little, second from the chair.

Councilmember John Hamilton, City Administrator. So, Councilmembers, the item before you is our standard facility use agreement that you see each year for the fair carnival event that occurs down at John Hunt Park. This event is scheduled from September 24th to the 27th.

Any questions for Mr. Hamilton?

Thank you, Ms. Hamilton. That's what I wanted to know. What was the Rockets City Fair? Thank you. Any other questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Motion carries.

And finally, 20S. 20S is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a memorandum of understanding between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Huntsville City Board of Education, and the City of Huntsville Police Department to formally establish the Tennessee Valley Threat Assessment and Threat Management Team. Is there a motion to approve? Motion from Mr. Little, second from the chair. Chief Giles, can you share with us the action being requested here?

Yes, ma'am. This is MOU with the FBI in response to basically just violent acts. Initially, when law enforcement traditionally are dealing with this, we deal with this after the fact. In other words, once the incident had already occurred. What they discovered back in 2015 through a symposium was the best way to tackle this on a multidisciplinary team was to do threat assessment and then threat management. So what this will do, they were asking us to be a host agency, the FBI is. And we are going to collaborate with the school, city schools, because that's where we're obviously the concern here throughout the neighborhood, but especially with the schools. At this point in time, we can help identify threats ahead of time, but once we get through that, we'll be able to partner with other local resources such as mental health to provide resources for the individual. This can go outside the schools as well. In other words, it can go in a normal business world as well.

Any questions for Chief Giles? Chief Giles, will this assessment take place in one of the schools?

Not necessarily. It's going to depend on the circumstances. When we set up a multidisciplinary team, it'll bring us all together within that group. And we'll discuss it, not knowing which cases we'll be dealing with at the time. It's hard to say, but we will be pulling the schools in.

So like an exercise?

Yes, they'll be involved. If it involves a student, they will definitely be involved.

Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions? All in favor, please indicate. Aye. Opposed? The motion carries. We have no new business. That concludes our business before us this evening. We have no new business items for introduction. The next item on our agenda is second roster public comments. We have several signed up, so I would suggest that we take a 10-minute break and we will reconvene at 7-8. we will call the meeting back to order so we are now at second roster public comments this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on matters relating to city business whether or not such items are on the meeting agenda those wishing to comment have signed up in advance when called approach the microphone state your name home address and city residence and i will also call the person following so that you can be ready to come up and move this process along. Each speaker may address the council for three minutes. Speakers shall refrain from entering into a dialogue with council members or city staff and from making comments regarding the good name and character of any individual. The first person signed up to speak is Christopher Boulware who will be followed by Maggie Minsk. Mr. Boulware, you'll just come right here and you will each have three minutes.

Good evening, City Council. I am an Alabama native who graduated high school and college here.

Name and address for the record, please.

Christopher Boulware, 119 Rebecca Pines Drive, Madison, Alabama.

Thank you.

I've lived in five states across this country. I've seen enough to know that Huntsville is a special place and one worth preserving. That's why I'm here to address what I consider a travesty against American freedoms, AI-powered automated license plate readers with flock safety as the infamous market leader. Marketed to eliminate crime, this technology is dragnet surveillance, paving the road to a surveillance state. Alabama now ranks sixth nationally in these cameras per capita. Flock claims that it makes communities safer, but a leaked internal tool called OS Investigate showed these systems can correlate plate scans with data broker information. Social security numbers, phone numbers, relatives, performing what Flock itself calls a one-command background check. Another tool, convoy analysis, flags vehicles traveling together, letting police monitor who regularly gathers, whether a criminal ring or simply neighbors, coworkers, or protesters. With 20 billion scans per month, you'd assume that Flock protects the data, and it's wrong. Researchers gained route access to a camera in under 30 seconds with the latter. credentials transmit in clear text, and the cameras violate eight of 10 industry internet security standards. Flock doesn't even require multi-factor authentication. And Flock logins have been found for sale on Russian cyber crime forums. And the public is responding. At least 54 cities have canceled their Flock contracts in 26 alone, including the LAPD after an audit showed a one in three chance of pulling over an innocent person. The opposition is bipartisan. Governor DeSantis recently said that the cameras are out of control. Congressman Burchett from Tennessee introduced H.R. 9800 to cut federal funding. And make no mistake, protecting Americans from AI overreach and mass surveillance has become one of the biggest issues voters use as their North Star at the ballot box. For Huntsville, this is a national security issue. We are one of the largest defense hubs in the nation, and foreign adversaries can buy stolen login credentials for a few hundred dollars, map the vehicles of our defense contractors, trace them home, and profile cleared personnel for blackmail in minutes with no warrant. Our founders warned us, James Madison said, there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. And Benjamin Franklin said, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. I ask this council to cancel Flock's contract and pass a local ordinance requiring warrants for any mass surveillance data. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next person to speak is Maggie Minsk. Following Ms. Minsk, we will hear from Jerry Burnett.

Hi, my name's Maggie Minsk, and I live in Madison, but I'm also a business owner in Huntsville's District 5. I am a single mother and business owner, and I am also concerned about flock safety, which I believe is rather Orwellian in speech and might be more aptly named flock surveillance. I am truly concerned. The cameras take videos, essentially a warrantless search of everyone in Huntsville, Madison, Decatur, et cetera, all have contracts with Flock. Huntsville did it first. Madison got theirs not too long ago for $86,000. The North Alabama Multi-Agency Crime Center uses license plate readers, cameras, gunshot detection, which is microphones, and also intelligence, AI. However, statistically, it seems like a study of flat cameras showed that ALPRs are wrong 71% of the time, leaving us to pay for a lawyer, take off work, and prove in court that it wasn't us. So there's a concern about innocent until proven guilty. And once the data exists about all Huntsville citizens, it becomes a cybersecurity target. In January, Flock confirmed a security incident involving its Condor cameras that exposed live camera feeds and archival footage and allowed video to be deleted. Researchers have also demonstrated vulnerabilities in ALPR technology that exposed these surveillance systems to unauthorized access. Anything connected to a network is potentially vulnerable. Two days ago, August 25th, Pflugerville, Texas unanimously voted to end its contract after it was revealed that 1.6 million searches had been conducted by 459 outside organizations within a six-month period. This week, a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee opened a formal investigation into FLOC's data collection access and sharing practices. FLOC's own materials acknowledge that its LPR system is connected across 49 states, while the ACLU has raised concerns about the creation of a nationwide surveillance infrastructure. As a mental health professional, I'm concerned about the privacy and safety of clients or any vulnerable marginalized residents. How do we protect those seeking refuge from domestic violence, stalking, and other dangerous situations? Anyone can gain access and reconstruct where a client lives, or a police officer, judge, city council member, track the movements of someone with national top secret clearance. And what happens when Huntsville's military intelligence, aerospace, and defense activity becomes part of a searchable, hackable surveillance database? The overall infrastructure also has an environmental cost yet to be ascertained. Finally, taxpayers... Thank you very much.

Ms. Minsk, your time is up. Thank you for joining us tonight. We'll now hear from Jerry Burnett. Mr. Burnett will be followed by Austin Jones.

Jerry Burnett, 2405 Greenhill Drive, to the mayor, the president, and the rest of the council. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm here because I have an issue with my next-door neighbor who doesn't seem to care to keep their property up. And I've had to call my councilwoman several times about it. trash and debris that they leave around the house. They don't care to bring the trash can in. They drop trash on the ground. They'll just walk right over it. They don't mind drinking a soda. Throw the can out the door. And from time to time, I've had to pick trash up that's coming over into my yard after it laid out for several days, and the wind blow it into the yard. And I told my wife, I said, well, maybe we can put up with it until we can find a relocate But then they got a cat, the cat that continues to use my property for its bathroom. So I spent a lot of money to make my backyard cat-proof. Well, then the cats start going in the front to use it. And it's creating flies and other insects. And I've called the animal control. And they come by a couple of times. Once I come out to talk to them because I wanted to make sure you get them to clean their cat litter out my yard. And of course he told me, he said, why don't you go back in the house, sir? I got this. But in the meantime, cats started doing this thing. So I don't like picking up cat litter, but that's why I don't have a cat. And I think if the owner should be responsible for their own cats. And as it turned out, the animal control said that if you get a picture of it and go to the city magistrate, then maybe you can get some satisfaction from that. So we'll give that a try. I put video up and I captured a cat. out on my property and then we go to the city magistrate and she looks at it and she says, well, the animal control said the cat is yellow. This is a gray cat. I said, well, I don't know where yellow cat come from. Then she said, well, you got to do it all over again. So it looked like I'm getting the run around. And in the meantime, I got a cat problem. That's my issue. I wonder what, is there any solution to that?

Thank you, sir. We can certainly get someone to meet. Ms. Watkins will meet with you afterwards to discuss it. Thank you very much. We'll next hear from Austin Jones, who will be followed by Caden Helbling.

Hi there. I'm Austin Jones. address on the sheet, and I'm out in Owens Crossroads. I'm a 21-year Army vet and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and I'm running for Madison County School Board District 3. I'm here to talk about safety. The top three causes of death for children, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study published May 13, 2026, are firearms, motor vehicles, and poison, followed closely by cancer, which is on the rise among children. But there is something more insidious not captured by this study, poverty. And poverty has lifelong effects on our children, our future. The poverty rate for children in Madison County is 42.5%. That means just about every other child you meet around is living in poverty in the richest country in the history of the world. This doesn't count the number of kids that are borderline impoverished, which I would bet puts that number well over 50%. What are we doing? What's going on? I constantly hear from the Republicans how important and how much they care for kids. Do you really think the Epstein class sitting in office care? My dad always said, the proof is in the pudding. Well, the children ain't even got no pudding to eat. And what they do eat, 60% of it is processed. Why are we living in a real-life Hunger Games? That book is a warning, not a goal, on how society is supposed to run. The parents of these children are working their tails off, overtime, two and three jobs, with what to show for it. On top of the Epstein class not paying people, they steal $50 billion a year in wages. So what are we doing? What's going on? Freedom starts with education, but it sure is hard to study when you're hungry and your parents can't cook because they are at work. Freedom starts with education. All the power to all the people. Free Palestine. Solidarity forever.

Thank you, Mr. Jones. We'll hear now from Caden Helbling. Mr. Helbling will be followed by Gerald Vines.

Caden Helbling from Huntsville. My address is on the sheet. I wanted to follow up with the City Council and make others in Huntsville aware of the status of my records request surrounding the flock audit logs with the city. I spent eight months requesting those audit logs that the city is legally required to have for oversight that they are capable of providing electronically and have been provided by Blount County in Alabama unredacted for the public to review. But for whatever reason, the city has determined that they are not legally compelled to provide them. After my last update at City Council, during the last City Council meeting, I stayed after to speak with Council President Robinson about why Blount County, under the same rules and regulations as Huntsville, was able to provide the same documents I was asking for. And she told me that it is because Huntsville is bigger and has more lawyers. That is something that I think those living in District 3 should keep in mind during the runoff election on September 22nd. Additionally, City Attorney Trey Riley told me that I will have to go to court if I want these audits, and should I be successful, that I will be putting children in danger. One more thing that I would like to highlight, because there is news of FLOC implementing some new safety guidelines, the City's official stance is as follows. The City rejects the premise that FLOC Safety's guidance documents establish the City's legal obligations under Alabama law. FLOC Safety is a private software vendor. Its publications, user manuals, customer guidance documents, and recommended practices are not statutes, judicial decisions, or opinions of the Alabama Attorney General. They possess no presidential value and cannot define, expand, or restrict the city's legal obligations under Alabama's Public Records Act or any Alabama case law that has endeavored to interpret the same, nor can they be substituted for the statutory analysis required under Alabama law. Effectively, the city can do whatever it chooses, regardless of what Flock recommends or suggests that the users do. So if you hear anything about Flock implementing new safety tools, take it with a massive heap of salt. The city does not have to follow it. These systems have never been up for public vote, have no means of public oversight, and it appears that rather than listening to those living in Huntsville and change those things, the city is looking at other vendors with all the same problems. Let's do better. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now hear from Gerald Vines, who will be followed by Molly Cluck.

Good evening. Gerald Vines, 165 Mead Park Drive, Meridianville, Alabama. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Madam President, and council members. Thank you for allowing me to share this vision for the Omega Psi Phi fraternity's 50th state meeting, hosted here in the Rockets City October 2nd through the 4th. I am the state marshal for this meeting. We're excited to be in Huntsville for this meeting, and it represents more than just a gathering of men. It is an opportunity to provide economic impact, serve the Huntsville community, and invest in the next generation through youth enrichment activities. The economic impact. We're expecting approximately 1,000 members from across the state of Alabama and beyond. Our attendees will have an opportunity to experience the city's restaurants, entertainment, and other destinations and support the local economy. We encourage them to stay in our hotels and patronize the local businesses. The community impact. However, Our presence in the city of Huntsville is not just economic. Service, too, is the heart of Omega Psi Phi. We are planning a community service project with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Huntsville on the Pulaski Pike to set up their computer labs for them to for the education opportunities, community programming, and at the center. As you know, access to technology is increasingly important for students pursuing education, career opportunities, and digital skills. We have a talent competition that will be held Friday night, October the 2nd, at the Marriott. And this competition will be hosted by our fraternity, and we have students from all over the state competing at this competition. Then we have a STEM competition that will be held on Saturday Space Camp Operations Center. Now we have members, young kids from all over the state at the STEM companies as well. Our goal is to ensure that when the members of Omega Sapphire leave Huntsville, we leave behind something tangible that continues to benefit the community. We welcome the city of Huntsville to partner with us in making this a memorable and impactful weekend for our members, our young people, and the entire Huntsville community. As a part of this weekend's activities, our public meeting will be held on Friday, October 7th at 7 p.m. at the Huntsville Marriott. We will be honored to have representatives from the cities of Huntsville to join us, bring in greetings and welcome our visitors to our great city. Your presence and help would help demonstrate the strong partnership between the city of Huntsville and the Alabama Statewide Organization of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity as we come together around economic opportunity, service, and the arts and development of our youth. We look forward to welcoming you and the city to our Alabama Statewide Organization meeting, Omega Psi Phi, on October 2nd through the 4th. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vines. We'll now hear from Molly Cluck, who will be followed by Luis Balderrama.

My name is Molly Cluck. My address is correct on the form and I'm a resident of Huntsville. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm here tonight to demand rejection of the expansion of automatic license plate reader surveillance. This is often presented as a simple public safety tool, but that description leaves out the most important question. What happens to the relationship between citizens and government when the government is allowed to collect information on everyone all the time without suspicion of wrongdoing? ALPRs collect license plates, locations, and timestamps from everyone who happens to drive past a camera. That means the government can build a searchable record of where ordinary people have been, even when those people are not suspected of committing any crime. That is an inversion of a basic principle of a free society. We are being asked to accept a system where everyone is treated as a potential future suspect. The government collects first and justifies the search later. Instead of public power being limited and accountable, ordinary people are made permanently available for inspection. Citizens should not have to live under constant surveillance so that someday the government might decide their past movements are worth investigating. And surveillance does not fall equally on everyone. People who work irregular hours, rely on older vehicles, travel across jurisdictions, organize with neighbors, attend protests, visit clinics, or move through heavily monitored areas are more likely to be recorded and scrutinized. A system that collects everyone's movements becomes a system that disciplines the people with the least power to challenge it. And once that infrastructure exists, the question is no longer simply whether we trust today's police department. It is whether we trust every future administration, every future employee with access, every agency this data may be shared with, and every future expansion of this technology. Power that can be abused finds someone willing to abuse it. We also need to ask whether the evidence justifies the cost. A quasi-randomized study found an increase in vehicle recoveries, but no increase in arrests and little clear evidence of general crime prevention benefits. Early experimental research into Northern Virginia jurisdictions found no statistically significant reduction in general crime, auto-related crime, auto theft, or theft from autos associated with ALPR patrols. Public resources should be directed towards measures that strengthen people's security directly. Reliable emergency response, housing stability, mental health services, safe transportation, and the conditions that allow people to live with dignity. A technology that expands the state's power to watch everyone should not take priority over investments that improve people's lives. A safe society does not require turning the entire public into a database just in case someone might be useful to an investigation later. The people of this community are not raw material for an ever-growing surveillance system. Safety and freedom are not opposites. No one here should accept a false choice between protecting our community and protecting our civil liberties. I urge this council to reject the expansion of ALPR surveillance and to refuse to build a system of mass suspicionless monitoring in our community. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now hear from Luis Valderrama, who will be followed by Joyce Macklin. Is Mr. Valderrama here?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. I accidentally... Name and address, please. So, Luis Valderrama, 1580 John Wesley Way.

Thank you.

So I thought that was a sign-in sheet, so I accidentally signed up to speak. So while I'm here, I'd like to introduce myself again. Louis Balderrama. I am the chair for the City of Huntsville's Community Development Citizen Advisory Council. And while I am here, I would like to thank Community Development for everything it does. And I would like to cordially invite everyone on council. We've already had Mayor Battle come speak to us to join us in any one of our meetings. So that's a standing invitation for whenever we get a chance. One thing we have been talking about a lot during the CAC is housing affordability here in the city of Huntsville. As an North Alabama native, I've gotten to see the process of housing skyrocket in my short life that I have been alive. A lot of our residents who grew up here are starting to feel the impact of that. So down payments are starting to become incredibly high, and we who grew up here and have lived here our whole lives are struggling to be able to afford some of those. So we ask that if Council could seek some solutions to help address some of these issues, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for being with us and for serving on the Advisory Council. We'll now hear from Joyce Macklin, who will be followed by Edward Poniatowski, Jr. Ms. Macklin? Is she not here? We will then go on to Mr. Poniatowski, and who will be followed by Christopher Boulware.

Edward Poniatowski, 821 Miravista Drive.

Welcome.

I'm just here to just, as a general citizen, provide my discrepancy with the flaw camera industry as of right now. I don't think that's a good direction for the City of Huntsville to move forward, and I just wanted to provide my general comment on that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. We'll now hear from Christopher Boulware, who will be followed by Shailen Moody. Very good. Thank you. Shailen Moody and then Dr. Angela Somerset.

Hi. Thank you, Mayor and Council Members, for hearing me out on an opportunity to raise the level of safety awareness.

Name and address, please, for the record.

Yes. My name is Shailen Moody. Address is correct on the sheet.

And your city of residence?

Huntsville, Alabama.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, ma'am. So thank you for hearing me out on something of an opportunity to raise the safety awareness level across the city. I have been a resident of Huntsville since 2018. Yes, I am another engineer in town. I'm also a Civic Engagement Academy alum and related to safety. I'm also a former Boy Scout, former volunteer firefighter, and also went through the training classes for the Community Emergency Response Team through Madison County CERT. In a growing city like ours, we have an opportunity to address concerns of many new residents who may not know what to expect when they call 911 or how best to interact with first responders. Additionally, some just lack confidence or competence to assess someone in medical distress, which may cause the situation to worsen. Metrics of growing cities often show safety and harm prevention efforts may fall short unless you have a critical mass of trained professionals or bystanders just generally spread across the city. What I propose, then, is a pilot project for a Citizen Safety and Preparedness Academy, which could slot right in next to the Citizens Police Academy and the Civic Engagement Academy. The end goal would be to increase survivability rates of victims reported on 911 calls related to emergency medical distress through raising the overall safety consciousness of our residents. The situations I have in mind are often time critical, such as heart attack, stroke, blunt trauma, mental illness episodes, seizures, heat stroke, excessive bleeding, and similar. Having someone who practices clear communication and risk assessment in dynamic situations are some of the best people to have in an emergency. Their confidence and calmness is a safety multiplier. A pilot program of about 30 participants seems to be a sizable enough cohort which can train in how to speak and interact with the emergency call center personnel and first responders, train in CPR and AED, and recognizing signs of various medical conditions. Additionally, fire extinguisher use and fire escape planning would be helpful. After sessions conclude, we can check in quarterly with the participants and the newly safely aware to see what kind of effect they have had in the community and continue the program pending the results. Raising the average level of safety consciousness across the city may show up in different ways than increasing the survival rates. Dispatchers and first responders having an easier time to get through an incident. Participants may take up careers in emergency services, and we may see an uptick of residents getting formal CPR and first aid training. It might even cause some old boys to formally designate a 911 caller for a pickup game of football.

Thank you, sir. We appreciate you being here. We'll now hear from Dr. Angela Somerset, who will be followed by Tyler Gautney.

Good evening, Council. My name is Dr. Angela Somerset and I reside at 9 Chalkstone Street. Thank you, sir, or ma'am. This evening, I would like to talk about a double standard. I would also like to talk about the importance of financial responsibility. The same way that our city requires us to be responsible financially, I would like to also see that our utility company is responsible. Right now, young people are facing a huge responsibility as well as a pressure in regards to affording homes, medical care, But our city sits uniquely under an umbrella for the city of Huntsville. Huntsville Utilities sits under that umbrella as well as Huntsville Hospital under the health care authority. Many of you may not know that if you face problems in paying your utility bill and now you are unable to pay your medical bill, that the hospital can place a lien against you. You could lose everything. And that's why we are seeing such a rise in homelessness. But one of the most important things that I am still concerned about is that $4 million deficit. And we keep brushing past it. And I will bring it up every time, whether it be here or on social media. Because I think as we all have seen now, social media is a very powerful force. The one concern I'm also going to bring up is we have a city administrator. I'd like to see that in your budgets. Ms. Penny Smith, I'd like an answer. Councilpersons, I'd like an answer. And this is why our city is changing. Young people are looking for answers. We're looking for responsiveness. This past week, one of my neighbors, ironically an attorney, asked me to look at another citizen's bill of $1,601. It took me three days to get my mind around that before I made a few calls to Huntsville Utilities and they corrected that person's bill by $591 and change. It's very rare that you see the doctor help the attorney, but this was the case. There is too much in regards to misreads from a utility company that is still not representing accountability and transparency as well as getting those books. And just like this young man was saying with the flock cameras, etc., We have open record laws. And what you don't realize is that these young people, if they're not getting the answers here, they will take this to social media and the world will see it. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Somerset. We'll now hear from Tyler Gartney, who will be followed by Dana Holiday Holyfield.

Hey, I am Tyler Gottney, Huntsville District 5. My address is on the sheet. Thank you. I'm here to speak out up against Flock. I know the little worm that's worming its way through your head. Flock, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public, and it's collecting public data. But my argument hinges on a recent Supreme Court ruling in June of this year, Chattree v. United States. The Supreme Court pontificated the stance that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their movements, and FLOC is fundamentally tracking those movements. It further reasons against surveillance technology offering newfound tracking capacity, technology that runs against everyone, not just those under investigation, and technology that can travel back in time. The court's reasoning provided that location history is protected under the Fourth Amendment as follows. Location history provides an even more fine-tuned picture of a person's movement. Location history allows police to reconstruct retrospectively and with no real effort people's comings and goings in any area, enabling tireless and absolute surveillance of any number of people in any number of places. Location history implicates personal privacy interests because location history is the individual's own. In that way, location history resembles other private materials. that even if stored on a private company's servers, a user reasonably expects to be shielded from the inquisitive eyes of the government. The court also referenced prior landmark rulings on privacy, such as Carpenter v. United States, where it ruled that acquisitions of a phone CSLI data constitutes a protected Fourth Amendment search. In United States v. Jones, it ruled that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle's movements constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. In United States v. Dewey, They read, Fourth Amendment is designed to place obstacles in the way of two permeating police surveillance. How then can you argue in good faith that a mass surveillance network such as ALPR technology, where the movements of people are easily discoverable and a tireless and absolute surveillance network allows parallel reconstruction for anything that they want to charge a person, is not Fourth Amendment private protected domain? The other argument commonly is that you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide. But it indicates that the speaker fundamentally demands we justify our desire for governmental boundaries. It is un-American, and I shouldn't have to explain to my thick-headed politicians why I'm glad I don't live in a surveillance state like China or Russia. The nothing-to-hide argument uses sound circular reasoning to present a false dichotomy to people. And another common argument is that the national movement...

Thank you, sir. That's the end of your time. Well, now our last speaker will be Dana Holiday Holyfield.

Thank you. My name is Dana Holliday-Hollifield. I live at 10010 Strong Drive, Southeast Huntsville. And my mother-in-law, I'm here to represent her as well, she lives at 4301 Holmes Avenue, Northwest. Thank you. So I know that Tara Bailey has spoken to several of y'all about removing the sales tax on hearing aids. The state did that back in 2024, and Madison City followed suit, and I don't think a lot of people realize that that is taxed. And it's a significant amount. It's 4.5%. And I went with my mother-in-law to get her hearing aids. And that was hundreds of dollars, extra dollars, that she is on a budget. We're talking about an 83-year-old woman who every dollar counts. And that 4.5% on those expensive hearing aids For some people, it may be the matter of groceries or getting my medication. So when they don't have their hearing aids, as a nurse, I see what that means. We're talking about social isolation, people feeling like they're left out of the conversation, that they can't interact. It can lead to depression. We're talking about people just feeling like they're old and going through all these things, and then now they can't even participate in conversations. So I feel like we need to follow suit and provide a resolution to remove that sales tax. It's not that much. I don't think it's going to impact the budget that much to remove that, but it could really mean a lot to some of our senior citizens. making a difference in their lives so i would really like for y'all to consider bringing a resolution forth so that we can remove that cell tech and follow suit with what the state has done what madison city's done we need to go ahead and get this done i know several of you have spoken with tara bailey and myself please let's consider getting that done i appreciate y'all's time and i always appreciate your service thank you thank you miss hollyfield

That's our final speaker and concludes all the items on our agenda. Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Motion from Mr. Little. And we are adjourned. It is 7.54 p.m.