City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Well, anyway, they've been working on when I left this morning. They still working on it. I mean, they've been working on it for a week something. Yeah. I had to clarify the street. I wasn't sure which bridge we were talking about cuz there's two. There's one closer to the canal, but it's the one closest to your house. Closest to Holly Hill. I don't know how much of they got out. months. How you sir? How you doing?

No. 1908. Okay, I got you know I finally just 10 years ago I just finally gave up. My dad said we're at the end of considering church. So every time I would take a bath, it was like it was rust. So I finally just hired Lloyd got him to put one of those water purifiers and softeners outside my house. I told M

It takes a while to get used to, but it's softer than Oh, it was nice. Is it soft? Yeah, you need about like this much soap in that soft water. That was I don't know was a combined.

Yeah, that was That's why

no it's not about agenda it just I actually could speak it a point of privilege and what they are right now business. Yeah. with Matt and I mean he and I one demo

if they are okay I say I mean I already say that literally I just want to say something about that fire incident privilege at the beginning. Me too. How you doing? Good. How are you?

We're out on time tonight. 34.

We're calling the city council meeting to order uh today, March the 4th. Will you please stand for the prayer led by Councilman Fund and the pledge led by Councilman Bizar. Lord God, we come in thy presence thanking you for life, health, and strength and thanking you for this day. Lord, we pray your wisdom be with us as we conduct the business of this city and let your blessings be upon this assembly in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. We face the flag. Pledge 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.

Thank you, Councilman Fondell and Councilman Vizard. Um, Mr. Renee, we have two points of privilege, but let's first start off with the roll call. Mr. Bilbo, here. Mr. Young here. Mr. Harvey here. Mr. Marks, Mr. Mr. Viso here. Mr. Fondell here. Mr. Weatherford here. We have a quorum. Thank you, Mr. Renee. We've all We have two points of privileges um that we're asking for tonight. The first one we're going to start off with is Councilman Vizup.

It's not a it's not a major ask, but uh I just want to take a moment to recognize the police department and the fire department and especially Energy. Uh, I asked Miss Caesar to come from Energy. Uh, there you are. Uh, and I just I just thought it it worthwhile to mention what y'all did the other day. I'm sure everybody saw the fire that was going on on Big Lake Road and how bad it looked and what a catastrophe it could have been. I started getting phone calls from my district, which is all that area. And I I told I said, "Look, best case scenario is probably ain't going to get power till tomorrow morning." under two hours that area was lit up. All the Greywood was lit up. Everything south of town and I understand there was some industry on the other side of the river that was lit up. So I just want to give an accolade and hats off to all three of y'all. What what a great job. So thank you sir.

Thank you. Thank you council. The next uh point of privilege we're going to grant is to Councilman Bilbo. Um we do have a card. Uh Mr. William Chadwick with bringing new businesses to LL to LC to Lake Charles.

Fortunately, if I was lucky enough that I um I got on the phone with JRE Brokerage and Mr. Will Chadwick, uh I found it fascinating because in my campaign, I advocated to bring business to Gers Memorial and I got on the phone with Mr. Chadwick and he's in charge of the Hobby Lobby property, the Con's property and power center and Logan's and I asked him to come in late Charles to show all of us cuz we not we city councilman. We not we don't know how to go get business and I don't people believe that's our job to go get business. So I was lucky enough to find him and me and Mr. Matt Young took him around Lake Charles today and showed them areas that may get business. So he's very excited about it. I told him about the Salier extension enterprise extension Gers Memorial and he wants to be a direct contact if we know anything that he will give us his hand his expertise in helping us bring business to Lake Charles. So he loved to come speak him and his partner and I I was excited. I've been excited all day and so and I want to give him a chance to tell you who he are and he took his time coming from about 3 hours of traffic in Baton Rouge to come teach us a little bit or have a direct contact if we want to try and get businesses to grow in this beautiful city. So, Mr. Chad, thank you'all very much for having me. Thank you'all for showing me around today. And um it's really rare in our business uh in being real estate brokers to have a proactive municipality that reaches out and asks how they can help. Um I spoke with Councilman Bilbo on Friday about 5:00 and then I spoke with the the mayor about an hour later and that was last week and now we're here and we're having productive discussions about what's going on in the city. Uh

like the councilman mentioned, I'm working on the old Hobby Lobby property at Oak Park, the K's property in the power center, and then the the Logan's property on Gersner. And we've had a lot of activity. And my job as a broker is to go out a lot of times Atlanta, New York, Vegas to all these different places and and preach about what our cities have to offer these these retailers and what the city's doing to bring traffic and to support business. And usually the the best indication is a proactive municipality. And so that goes a long way when these businesses are looking across the country to find cities to invest in. And u it comes up pretty often when we're discussing about their prioritization of what stores they want to open. Uh so I can I'm happy I got to do this. We've had a lot of interest in those properties. I think that there will be some news in the next couple weeks about some of them transacting and what's to come there. So I'm I'm grateful to get to work in Lake Charles. I've gotten to spend a lot of time here the last several months. We've got more projects that we're working on in the city. And if there's ever anything we can do to help, if there's businesses that you'll see in other markets or places you travel that you want to come to Lake Charles, uh we always welcome that input. That goes a long way too to tell businesses they have customers built in that want them to be in the city. So, um I'll leave my my contact with the councilman if there's ever anything I can do to help. If you want to know what we're working on for projects where we've got our signage up, you're welcome to call and uh we want to be a resource for the city and the the residents of the community, too. So, thank you all for having me.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman uh Bilbo and Mr. Chadwick. We appreciate you and welcome to Lake Charles once again. Um everyone have received a copy of the minutes. Um, please vote 64.

All right. Just for the record, we will defer number five to March the 18, 2026. Again, that's deferring number five to March the 18, 2026. If there's anyone here for that particular number, please know that it will be deferred to again March 18, 2026. Number one, appoint a chairman to review bids for the purchase of one new three-wheel sweeper for the use of public works deployment streets division. Councilman Bill Bilbo, will you take that one? Yes. Number two, appoint a chairman to review bids for project number LCR 401 lock park inclusive playground and amend the budget as necessary. Councilman Young, will you take that one? Yes, sir.

Number three, appoint a chairman to review bids for project number CP 3140, Millennium Park fall surface replacement. Councilman Young, will you take that one? Yes, sir.

Number four, appoint a chairman to review bids for project number DR00002, public works new facility phase 2, and amend the budget as necessary. Councilman Marks, will you take that one? He will. Number five has been deferred. Public hearings number six, an ordinance for demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 521 Kingsley Street. Leticia Michelle Fontno board walk investors with Union Bank as secured party. Kenneth Joseph Fontno Shelley Michelle Fontno Heritage Management Services with Union Bank as secured party Malcolm J. Fontno April Nicole Fontno Thomas Kim Leatric Fontno Pool Lord and Harold J. Tibido owner subject to a tax sale to the state of Louisiana. Mr. C. Um, good evening, council. And this is a hurricane damaged structure. It's a residential structure. You can see in the pictures there are some roof damage to the structure. There's some pretty severe exterior wall damage to this structure. Um, there's some windows that are damaged or some windows that are also open. Um, all exposing the interior to severe weather damage of this structure. and we've had had some calls on it from the neighbors about this house.

Mr. President, at this time I'd like to offer into the record photographs of the subject property and proof of service through the marshall's office. This is a reharing from February 18th that we bumped so that we could get sufficient service on the owners. Gotcha. So I don't think anyone's here on behalf of the owners. You want to just defer? Um to make a decision tonight. It's up to y'all. There's no communication from the owners. It's been properly noticed. Yeah. Gotcha. I'll go ahead and recommend normal delays. Okay. Oh, please vote. 64. Thank you, Mr. W. Yes, that was mine. That was yours. You good?

You good? They had it listed as mine. I'm sorry. Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. M. Mr. Fun. Are you okay with no delay? I'm sorry. I apologize. No problem. Order this for final action. Thank you, Mr. Hester. Ordinance for final action number seven. An ordinance authorizing a settlement of claim against the city of Lake Charles in the suit styled Ronald C. Reord versus the city of Lake Charles and Michael Cartright. Docket number 2025-588 Division F on the docket of the 14th Judicial District Court Kauashu I'm sorry Parish of Kauashu State of Louisiana. Anyone have any questions? We do have a card. Um before we have a court, Mr. Sts, you have anything? I do not.

Okay. We have a card from Mr. Miles Brown. Mr. Browse, please state your name and address for the record. Also, Mr. Terren Prudam, he has forwarded his time to Mr. Brown. Mr. Prud, are you in the audience? Okay, Mr. Prudin. Uh Miles Brown, one4th Avenue. Uh I just had a question for the council. Does anyone know how much this settlement is that y'all voting on? We wouldn't discuss it. Oh, so y'all going to vote and discuss it at a later time? We wouldn't publicly discuss it.

Okay. So, is there a way that we'll be able to find out the amount after it's agreed upon? You can find that out from accounting after it's paid out. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Well, that's fine. Um Okay. So, I don't really have anything against the settlement or whatnot. Now, I do watch a lot of body camera footage, as you know, and I just want to say uh first and foremost, there's a lot of things that I see that people don't uh necessarily know about. And I want to say 90% of the time, if not higher, you see a lot of good things. So, um I I mean, I really wish I could speak on that on a whole another aspect, but they don't get enough credit for the things that they do that are great. Um but particularly with this issue, I just want to say um this was one of the more disturbing ones that I'm aware of. So I'm not here to say that I'm against the uh amount that's whatever y'all are agreeing upon behind closed doors, but I will say that um you just might want to consider that there are other excessive force cases out there that people may not know about. And I'm not saying that uh they have the political means or the financial capital to where they can have it to where y'all voting on a private settlement, but there are others that y'all may want to consider based off of the amount of footage that I've seen over the past year and a half. So, um I'm all for whatever the amount is. My question that I do have is that here it is that the IIA report there was nothing that shows that he did anything out of order. So hopefully this is a mistake that can be learned and make sure this doesn't happen again because here it is there was no reprimand but at the same time y'all agreeing to possibly spend whatever amount of money that the taxpayers are going to have to pay for. So hopefully in the future some policies are updated or changed that way these things don't happen again. So that'll be all that I have, but I just want to put that on record to let y'all know.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. We appreciate your input. Again, any councilman have any questions? Please vote 64. The following resolutions may be adopted by consent numbers 8 through 17. The hearing date will be April 15, 2026. Again, numbers 8 through 17, the hearing dates will be April 15th, 2026. Does any councilman need to pull any number? No one.

All right, moving forward. Number eight, a resolution setting a public hearing on the condemnation of a structure located at 2217 Broad Street. Frankie Jordan Dyer, owner. Number nine, a resolution setting a date for a public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 902 Chamilleia Street, garage only, Matthew A. Macintosh owner. Number 10, a resolution setting a date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1729 Broadmore Drive, Larry Jean Thomas, owner. Number 11, a resolution setting a date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 3704 Brentwood Drive, Esther Jane Arone, owner subject to a tax sale to Barios Investments LLC. Number 12, a resolution set in a day for a public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 2725 Louisiana Avenue. Holly Rider bruette and Zoe Gasward Rider owner. Number 13, a resolution setting a day for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 7041th Street, JMBB Real Estate Investment Group, LLC, owner. Number 14, a resolution setting a date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 12015th Street. Eva Christina Russell, owner, subject to a track sale to the state of Louisiana. Number 15, a resolution set in a day for public hearing on the condemnation of a structure located at 2110 Railroad Avenue. Andre N. Walker, Britney Walker, and Denver Jerome Weathers along with Javon Ramsey Yokum owners. Number 16, a resolution setting a day for public hearing condemnation of a structure located at 21107 Clarinda Street. Julius Lee Fontno senior and Jennifer V Fund Note owners number 17 a resolution setting today for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 21005 Clarinda Street Julius Lee Fontnote and Jennifer Valmont Fontnote owners number 18 a resolution setting I'm sorry a resolution of the city of Lake Charles

verifying the review of municipal water pollution prevention MWPP accounts for plant 8 NPDES permit number LA 0036340 AL4838 Plant BC NPDES permit number LA 0036366 AL4839 and plant D LA 0118770 AL117690 the following ordinance uh I'm sorry I'm sorry we got to vote I'm moving too fast please vote 64.

The following ordinance are for introduction by consent and will be read into the record the day following this meeting at 1:00 p.m. in the city chambers and city hall. This meeting is now adjourned. It's a record. You got to hit that a little harder. 17 17 minutes, man. 17 minutes.