City Council - Regular Meeting

Yes, ma'am. This is yours? Okay. can't complain man I got to read this in touch with the ordinance You saw the pictures?

I don't know which item, but... Oh, nice, okay. Feels good?

Yeah, all right.

All right. we're gonna call this agenda meeting to order mr. fundale leaders in prayer Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for life, health, and strength. We pray your blessings be on this city and may they be in this meeting. In the name of Christ, we pray.

Amen. Amen. Please face the flag.

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

Mr. Rene?

Public notice. Notice is hereby given in compliance with Louisiana Revised Statute 42-19.1 that the City Council of the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana will meet in open and public session on the 15th day of July 2026 at 5.30 p.m. at the regular meeting place of said City Council, City Hall, 326 Pujo Street, Lake Charles, Louisiana, to consider calling an election to be held in the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on December 12, 2026, for renewal of three ad valorem taxes for, one, maintenance of public buildings, streets, and bridges in the city, two, maintenance of playgrounds and recreation centers and equipment thereof, and three, maintaining pay increases and starting salaries for employees of the police, fire, public works, and other departments of the city, and for maintenance of the police department three platoon system. Appointed chairman to review bids to purchase one new sewer inspection system camera and crawler for use by the public works department wastewater division. Appointed chairman to review bids for project number CP3400, 18th Street Construction, Lake Street to Creole Street, Phase 1. appointed chairman to review bids to purchase annual supply of public safety uniforms for use by the lake charles fire department for a 12-month period public hearings and ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of lake charles turned into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1517 martha street don eric muhammad owner another demolition at 1621 second avenue judith lynn pishon estate and amber henry owners Another demolition at 711 Fall Street, Rose Young Fontenot and Frank Fontenot owners. Ordinances for final action. An ordinance authorizing the City Council of the City of Lake Charles to amend Section 21-92 of the Code of Ordinances to allow car washes with state of Louisiana discharge approval to use irrigation meters for vehicle washing purposes. An ordinance amending section 20-78 of chapter 20 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Lake Charles to prohibit parking on the west side of the 2000 block of 4th Avenue to Rose Street. A resolution promulgating the results of a special election held in the City of Lake Charles, Louisiana on May 16, 2026. A resolution authorizing the City of Lake Charles to proceed with one developing of a financing for acquisition and establishment of additions to and improvements of the city sewer system. Two, barring not to exceed $50 million principal amount from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to be evidenced by the sewer revenue note and loan agreement of the city. And three, approving the notice of intention and authorizing publication of a public notice in connection with the project and authorizing application to the Louisiana State Bond Commission in connection therewith. A resolution authorized in the City of Lake Charles to advertise to receive sale bids for project number CP3435-2022 drainage infrastructure improvements. Package number three with the companion ordinance. A resolution accepting CP3323 West Preon Lake Road Sewer Herd Road to Burton Lane as substantially complete in authorizing the advertising of the 45-day lien period. A resolution approving publication costs and authorizing the clerk of the Council Director of Finance or appropriate staff to publish in the official journal notices required prior to any vote by the City Council to establish a local health care provider program an annual hospital assessment rate as well as authorizing notice to be provided to the Louisiana Department of Health pursuant to Louisiana revised statute colon 40 colon 1248.1 to 1248.10. A resolution setting date for public hearing and consideration of the Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission's decision to deny a request for variance in order to establish a short-term rental unit within 1,000 feet of existing licensed short-term rental within a mixed-use zoning district at 3121 to 3123 June Street. a resolution setting date for public hearing and consideration of the Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission's decision to deny requests for variance in order to construct a new 1,925 square foot accessory structure, thereby exceeding the maximum allowable 40% a floor area of principal structure within a residential zoning district at 612 West Claude Street. Ordinances for final action is an ordinance amending exhibit A of ordinance number 15062 regarding the membership and procedures policy of the City of Lake Charles Downtown Development-Lakefront Development Sub-District Authority. The next item on the agenda is a companion ordinance. And that's all that I have.

Okay. Mr. Bilbo.

I know we, I always say I call it the Kroger parking lot, but it's called the Park Plaza. On 14th? On Gershner. I got several complaints about 18 wheelers being parked out there, and now they got more food trucks back. I think now we need to start getting back in discussion with the people who run in Park Plaza and have them monitor their own. I don't think we have, and it's not serious enough to keep bothering our police to take care of their parking lot. You know what I'm saying? We got on an email, we got on a Zoom call with them, and they say they will start maintaining that we're not the keeper of their property. We need to hold them accountable. And maybe they might start doing something if we start making them have to pay for security. Right. So that, and of course, as usual, I get the complaints about Miami Tire. And I want to say that. We're wearing our people down, having to keep going to the same businesses time and time and time again just to cite them. I think now we need to start putting something in place that after so many citations that we're going to really put the pain on you because the citations ain't stopping them. They're getting worse and worse, and we need to do something to that. It's enforceable that they understand that you're going to keep up with your property like we require every other – person who owns a home or anything that you're gonna be respectable in our city because it's hurting the city how they allowing it to keep up now they haven't I thought they were just a tire shop the other day our parents they had broke down cars in the front I don't know we had to make a Little Dom across the street, he blocked his in. He did right. He covered up where people can't see it when they go into the terrace. But Miami Tire just constantly, every time we cite them, they just come back with something else to do. They don't care what we say. Fifth Avenue, the apartment complex is getting worse. They're not saying that the grass is taller than me. That's not saying a lot, but it's getting worse and worse, and we need to enforce something on them. I don't like when people just leave property in our areas and don't even care. I know it's hard to catch up with them, but we need to do something so we can put a little pain on them. You know, that's in me and Mr. Mark's shared district, but it doesn't look good that it's just being left like that.

And it's on your side, too.

Yeah, so I'm sorry I was late again. I stopped to help a young man. I got hot. But besides that, let's focus on these things for a little while. Something that we can do. I don't know if it's a... We got to change. I don't believe a street in the middle between the street and an old park should matter that much that they get to do whatever they want. You know, we got to change the ordinance. So be it. Let's make them have to answer for it. That'd be all. Mr. Fondale.

I don't have anything, Mr. Marks.

Mr. Young.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Just a couple of things. I wanted to take the opportunity to remind residents, we've got the community meeting for the Salyer Street construction coming up on June 25th at 530 at Majestic Hall in Walnut Grove. That'll be a good opportunity for residents. Residents to get more information on the order phasing of construction and how it will affect access to their homes. I do have to ask for help with this one intersection that has become increasingly more dangerous. Shell Beach and Barb. Folks, I think it's workers maybe going to the Port of Lake Charles are just speeding through at 45, 50, 55 miles an hour through that intersection. And the homes, they are very close to the road with kids playing in the front yard. So I'm asking for help. flashing stop sign or extra patrol, whatever we can do to help really slow down traffic at that intersection. And lastly, I'm asking for my colleagues' support in adding a new ordinance to the agenda tonight. If we need to wait two weeks to do that, we can. But this is related to light pollution. A lot of our new businesses, gas stations, hotels, things like that are really putting up businesses and projecting light out into the street, the roadways, you know, drivers are kind of blinded by this light coming at them. And so looking with the planning department, what I'm proposing to do is an ordinance amending Section 24 of the Code of Ordinances, adding Section 24-5-203.1 regarding outdoor lighting. And it's going to be very simple, probably three points. Lighting has to be facing inward toward the property. Lighting has to be facing downward so that it's not just projecting it up into the sky. But we're looking at the city of Baton Rouge and Lafayette's similar ordinances right now to try to pattern ours after that. So if the council is agreeable to adding that ordinance to the agenda for final review on July 1st, I'll submit this to Ms. Renee afterwards.

Before you go any further, I can come back after you get through.

That's it. Mr. Young, it says to be provided additional criteria. Are you going to provide that in advance of next Wednesday's meeting? Prior to next Wednesday. Because we'd have to have it for next Wednesday. Then it would have to lay over.

Aiming for Monday of next week.

I'll have the actual draft ordinance ready to go before she reads it in on Thursday morning.

I'd like to look at it just to make sure we don't run out of any. If we enact it, I want it to be. Absolutely. Have some tea.

And is that going to be on certain areas, like certain businesses or neighborhoods as well?

I mean, my intent was to use it for commercial properties. Commercial properties. But, I mean, I guess it could apply to residences. Talk it out. Yes, sir.

And, Mr. Young, just to clarify for this speed sign for Shell Beach and Barcourt, what direction and which side do you think would be most productive?

I think heading west on Shell Beach as you pass through that Barb Street intersection would be very helpful. Gotcha. Thank you.

Yes, sir. I don't have an audience in front of me, but Lear Della Falls had something emailed out. You got it? Okay. All right. Go ahead.

Mr. Villanueva.

Yes.

Oh, you too, Mr. Villanueva?

Yes. Thank you.

Yes. I want to also, and I'm excited about this, and I appreciate the administration's paying attention to this, introduction of an ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative and endeavor agreement with the Couch Repair School Board to cost share in the McNeese Barb Drainage Project. That big erosion I had been talking about, that the road and the parking lots are eroding. We've met with the school board and they're going to facilitate pretty much half of the cost to do it. So.

OK, I see.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Yes, sir.

Go ahead. I wanted to bring up Mr. Young brought up traffic. I've been seeing a lot more accidents on 12th and 1st Avenue is there anything we can do with that area I mean we had I think we had a fatality there once but I've been seeing a lot more accidents there just to

Councilman Fondale, I'll have to look into it. I'm not, I don't have the statistics on whether that's a higher rate of, if we've seen a spike in crashes at that particular location, but I'll be happy to look into it. Okay.

That's where the gas station is, huh? Yeah. It's awkward.

I see a lot of people trying to, it's the open boulevard, they're turning on the wrong way.

It's a weird intersection.

It's a tragic accident that's happened there. It's a weird intersection. Quite awkward.

We've done a traffic study on it, but the problem is, like the mayor said, the people need to wait in line when they try to go around. That's why they redrew the lines. If you see, it's a fresh set of lines there to keep you from going around. But people still go around, and that caused the accidents.

And maybe we can put a no entrance on the opposite side. Like a wrong way? Like a wrong way sign. Let them know they got to go this direction. Yeah.

everyone it wasn't a red light so so close to it would be nice to put just a four-way stop that's where everybody can appreciate with what the flow is you know.

I'm a take him is to Harvey right quick. That was a report on properties and is Bruce art issue here. You want to speak on this. he told me property standards and he himself went out there and I'm looking at the the long history with this property yes so we got a complaint about the 1600 block of North Prater and Horlice right on the southeast corner

There are one, two, three, four structures on the lot. And we actually brought this person to administrative hearing between 2024 and 2025 to clean up the property. And he actually did a very good job in cleaning it up. I had an inspector go out and take a look at the current condition of the property and of course he took pictures. The only thing that we saw was some overgrowth. He has a privacy fence along most of the property. So of course he's going to get a letter for the overgrowth on the property. My building safety inspector Because of the privacy fence, we may have to get a warrant to go in the fence. But we're currently trying to get in touch with the property owner to have access to the inside of the property to inspect. And he's pretty okay with that. I mean, that's what we did the last time. So he's pretty okay with us going inside. But at this point, he's going to get a notice for the overgrowth and the grass. The grass isn't really – it's right – under 12 inches, but we're going to go ahead and include it. It does look like he regularly maintains the grass. So the street curb is well kept. It looks like he sprayed his fence line. So that's where we're at right now. I do have pictures of the way it looked in 2024 versus the 2026 aerials of what it looks like now.

okay so this is similar to what we were discussing earlier we shouldn't have to go control them to take care of their yard and when they take care of it this whole process starts again and and we back to the complaint this is a habitual offender when you start doing this constantly and the same we're sending the same people out all the time yeah they took care of it but he right back in well just for clarity well as paula said this time it's a different yes if you just said he just said I went from this complaint I'm going to change it to I'm going to do something else and now we give him months and months and to probably stand that people got to go out there three four times but it's still the same residence it's still you see what I'm saying yeah but once you don't violate no more but at one time at one point over there we say it's enough you know it's enough that you keep breaking the rule you know it's just like if I rob The first time I rob, they might give me a misdemeanor. The next time I rob is this. And the next time I rob, I'm going through time. We just keep letting you do it. And we in here every week discussing the same people. I get the same calls on the same people all the time. And Ms. Paula sends people out. And by the time they come out, they cut the yard or they move the broke car. And then I got to call the cop. And the cop make them, they move it two inches to the left. And they say they moved it. We got to get stricter.

So, Mr. Stutes, we can look at that about increasing. We spoke about it before.

Yeah. The problem we run into, and I really understand Mr. Bilbo's concerns because it's – I remember before I've had issues with the city before I was city attorney, and it's a very – it's a somewhat cumbersome process. The problem is you run into the intersection of our ordinances in the 14th amendment, the constitution and all these notice things. And so, um, we can, we have the nuisance article, but that's a little bit like an a bomb. Um, and then we have to go through the, the normal due process channels, uh, I'm not sure that there's a whole lot more that we can do, but I'm happy to take a look at it and see. If nothing else, we can increase the fines, can't we? That we can do. That we can do.

I think progressive fines. Progressive fines is what I was talking about. If they're tying up all our resources regularly, then they need to start paying the taxpayers for that.

This property in particular, I consider it one of our success stories, considering the way it did look like in 2024 versus the way it looks now. And we haven't visited this property since, you know, had to visit. Of course, once a problem property, we always go by and look at it because we don't want it to go back to the way it was. And this one in particular, we received a complaint, so we went by and took another visit, of course, took pictures. We consider the property standards violations now very minor, considering the way it did look.

So that one's not 12 inches yet, so it's really technically not a violation.

It's just the overgrowth. that we're going to send them a letter on. And, of course, our building safety guy is going to go out and look at the buildings. As of right now, the pictures that we have now, they don't meet condemnation. They may meet minor housing code issues, but right now they're not meeting condemnation. I saw one shed. that may need to be torn down but we need better pictures from our building safety inspector that's what you want to go inside of y'all yes yes so that's where we are right now whenever i have an update i'll be glad to give to y'all and mr harvey okay so uh he got another one well thank you for giving the owner credit he's a success story he is a success story we have many uh where they start out looking terrible like a hoarder And in our experience, we go to hearing with them to make them clean the property. Because if we go in there and do a clean sweep and clean it, it'll happen over and over again. So we make them clean the property through our hearing process. And it's very successful that way.

I have another one. 2104 Hagen Street is the house to the east of this lot. There's a lot that been there, and I remember this complaint from this elderly lady lives at 2104. She keeps a nice house, but the property next to it, it got all kind of overgrowth, and it's growing over into her yard. She can't even see to get out of the driveway. So we need to find that corner. It'll be the east, the west side of 2104, right next door.

Okay, we'll check it out.

Okay, I think we had a again a Mister Bilbo violation repeated offender on that one. The smart code. Can you give us some feedback when you want to start working on that form in the committee.

We received the request from Mister Hopp Mister Harvey and I think there was scheduling that's willing to get to get to see exactly for the whole thing a point to what we need to do who.

Who were you thinking about? Did you have some thoughts about how to assemble the committee?

Well, I think it should be some of the council people as well as some of the owners, some people who are more versed in building codes and different things like that, as well as from the administration, some ideas about, I know the mayor said at one time, we want the smart code to be a guide, not necessarily the rule. and we need to factor all of that into consideration, as well as letting the public know, I mean, we can't do nothing about what has happened in the past, but going forward, we want to make it more pleasing, walkable, and accessible, you know, for small businesses to locate downtown.

And I've received a request from some private citizens to be a part of that committee. Some of those that are vested there, I know like Mr. Matt Red said, he'd like to be included in all of that.

Please think about that, because I think that committee could be pretty important. You definitely want some council presence, some administration presence, somebody from property standards, and then that's probably some people from the community. We'll get it to you. Probably someone from legal.

Right.

The other thing is, again, Mayor, you mentioned to us about an LNG event. And I thought that we could form a committee, if you thought that was best, to make it a success. You talked about the one that was, I think, at the Henry Heights.

Oh, you're talking about the job fair for Bechtel. yeah yeah uh the back to that we did that as a pilot project see i would work but they coordinated most of the things we just provided the facility so we'll follow up i think it's claire marcel we'll talk to her because they it was the plan to do it bigger yeah they want to do it at the event center and make it because they i mean they've got a lot of jobs that's available they had told us that a lot of their workforce is coming in from texas so we told them we had a problem with that so they said look just find us workers so we did that as a pilot program, like I said, about 350 people came, 178 of them walked out of there with jobs. So that's pretty strong.

Well, that's pretty good. I'd like us to put some focus on that. The other thing is, I know this is going to be tricky because the back of the Civic Center, one side is considered a park and it has a closing time. The west side is considered city. I would like for us to get with legal or I would get with legal to try and do an ordinance to increase penalties for fighting or any violation that's committed back there in that area. We have to do something.

In the Millennium Park area? No, no.

That whole backside that you drive around, that's technically the city. We can't close that. The park side, which is the Civic Center, we can close that. But like Mr. Bilbo said, the people have gotten smarter than us, and now they go on the other side of the street and fight and do all that kind of stuff.

There's two things that I sent the video. I saw a video of some of the fighting, sent that to the chief. So we're going to get together and crack down on that because that's our front porch. We can't have that. Also, I received complaints like Mr. Ryan Navar. He said like it. At 3 in the morning, he's hearing the commotion out there, and people are doing donuts out there, and then they're flying down Shelby's Drive. So we're about to get very aggressive about that. We've got cameras out there, and that fits into the real-time crimes unit with the sheriff's office. So we're going to put together a pretty comprehensive package to deal with that. And the key is going to be how do you do it, because you run them away from that, that that kind of activity migrates everywhere. I've seen where they've gone to businesses like McDonald's and Waffle House. We're going to have to figure out first how to stop it in these areas, but also What the heck's going on with these young ladies, man? They're just showing up and fighting.

That's just demeaning. In my opinion, Mayor, I don't think we were ever going to stop it. I mean, they're going to go where they want to go. But I think the areas that we use for family-friendly events or just for the beautification of the city, we need to do something to protect those areas so that people will still want to go out there and do the picnics and different things like that.

you know so i want to send a message to those people that that's that's creating mayhem that's a public disturbance no matter where they are they're going to crack down on it especially in this city maybe i agree man and i know it's difficult but maybe we can form a committee to to talk with the the citizens about what they think we can do to to change this this crime you know this get some input from the public.

I wish we could go in the House. I mean, a mother bringing her daughter out to fight, that's just pathetic. I don't understand the mindset. I don't understand. That kind of mayhem is intentional, and it doesn't respect the citizens of our city, and that needs to be dealt with in a different way than just...

I was just thinking maybe somebody out there understand that mindset that that does that you know I don't understand it but it may not well I understand this is generated by social media the attention that it gets from social media

We're going to deal with it because that was disturbing, the video that I saw. I mean, this wasn't like minor scuffles. This was just total mayhem. And the ladies basically demeaning themselves, just fighting like cats and dogs. It's just pathetic. I understand it's happening in other places, but we can't have that happening here.

Mr. Stewart, in closing, I just want to see if we can give it to the legal department and see what fines we can increase and possibly put signage so there'd be no excuses that you didn't know.

But can you actually cite them from off the video? Yeah. Can we actually be like, no, it's evidence. Maybe we need to start doing some of that.

That's what the mayor was talking about.

Yeah, we start citing them and we can go, because they post all the time.

Yeah, the cameras.

If you get in trouble for it, you're going to stop wanting to post for the excitement of the like. Because we're going to come. you know, cite you for a crime, and then it won't be so exciting to do it. I think they're doing it just for the excitement. They're just not waking up and wanting to go fight. They go plan these fights. Well, we're going to meet you here because everybody got their phones out. They got different angles. They all know each other. So if we start punishing them for this video, they may want to stop posting it.

won't be to draw the excitement from the you to do it right the uh to to be clear just make sure i have the input of what you're looking for are you looking to actually stop and terminate any loitering there or just to increase the severity of fines associated with fighting and fines associated with Whatever takes place in that area. But not just loitering? Not just loitering, no. You're talking about fights?

Fighting, vandalism, the people doing the wheelies in the parking lot and having to do the same thing over again.

I'll look into that.

The other thing is we have an ordinance already in place for parking campers and cars in your yard. The ground has to be proper, and there's certain things that you can't put in your yard. I want to take a look at that to include camper trailers. to be put in the yard. I think if we get them to start putting it past the front edge of their house, maybe on the side, in the back, but not in your front yard, especially if it's not on proper ground. In my neighborhood, I saw there was one trailer bigger than the house.

the front yard I think that's already yes what I was looking at Doug for her you are allowed as long as you're not living in it you are allowed an RV to be parked in the front of the the home across the length of the home it can be across the whole length of the home if you're allowed one one RV camper trailer boat to be parked in a yard that's not on a hard surface only one But if it's on a hard surface, you can have as many recreational vehicle items as you want.

Does it have to have a license plate?

Yes, it has to be licensed. It has to be a legal, operable vehicle or trailer.

So can we change that to say it must be on a slab?

Well, it says the ground has to be proper. No, you're allowed one.

You're allowed one.

On grass.

On grass. That's correct. Can we change it to where it can't be on grass, where it got to be on a slab and it got to be can't cover the front of your yard, maybe the side. We can change those.

We can look at it. I don't want to change it completely, but I want to be for excess is what I'm talking about. Because some people don't have enough room and if they can put it in, keep it right, then that's fine.

You can't get access to the side of your house.

There's no place to put it. And that happens a lot. You know, we've talked about this a couple of months ago, and I had some inspectors go out and just do a real quick look in just one area of the city, and you've got 30 or 40 RV campers on the driveway in the front of the house. So we need to be careful how we approach this because if we say no, then it's going to be a huge issue. Let's talk about it a little more.

We'll talk about it a little more. The other thing, along with what Mr. Bilbo was talking about earlier, I'd like for us to draft a letter, a legal compliance letter, and send it out to all businesses on how we, I'm sure we got rules on how a business is supposed to look. You know, because I think in the last maybe about two years ago on Ryan Street, we sent out a letter. Mr. Cordon, I don't know if you remember when we changed all the signage and everybody complied with that. You know, everybody knew what type of sign you had to have. How big it is. The same thing goes for we have some ordinances in place, but they don't specifically address property standards, so to speak, like cutting your grass, the cars. I have a tire place by my house that started out as a tire place and it's a junkyard now. They're putting stolen cars there on the regular. So if we could draft some sort of compliance letter to send out and give those businesses notice so they have time to clean up. We don't want to go find them right now, but if we give them a month or so to know, hey, we're coming around, you're going to be fine if you're not in the compliance, then that'll be good. The other thing is, a couple of weeks ago, me and an assistant city administrator went out to Prejean Drive. and there was an apartment complex out there, not as bad as we seen, right before you go into Johnson Hall. So I reached out to the owners and I talked to them today and they said that they're in the process of refurbishing that. They want to bring it back online. It wasn't as bad before, but due to homelessness and people went in and stole appliances and different things like that, it put them a little setback. They did ask that if the city have any programs and I told, I referred them to the housing authority as well to try and do something with that. But their goal is to bring it back online. But the catch 22 is they out of St. Louis, Missouri. So that's another issue we have with people coming in and opening up these complexes and just leaving them. So we're gonna have to do something about that. Other than that, that's all I have. Anything, Mr. Weatherford? No, sir. Okay. We're going to move on this point to the citizens. Mr. Fitzgerald Dalbone.

This is Gerald Darbo on 2523 Hagen Street. Mr. Bilbo, I'm glad you guys were speaking about that, about how all the tires and stuff look in Peepajoy. My man, could you, how about number, we're going to go to, we're going to start off with Ms. Paula. See where you have Ms. Paula right there? Come on a little bit down to number nine. Yes.

Right there. Let's put it out there.

Okay. Okay. It has to be out.

So it doesn't matter if it's in the front or back. It has to be out.

The visual part. All right, so how about clicking on the next one? So I totally agree with that, and that's what I'm fighting against. So this first one here, it's a picture. These trucks here. These trucks here have been there for six years. Six years on this parking lot, on this lot. Go to the next one. Again, they've been abandoned for six years. And we talked about the visual part. Am I correct? So these here needs to be, this needs to be torn away. I mean, they have to do something with it. It's in the front of, I have extra time from Mr. Maybank. Stephen Maybank? Yep. All right. And the next one. So this falls in part with what you guys were discussing today. So can I have, unfortunately, it's my city councilman that owns this piece of property, and he's not here today, again, to accept his responsibility on this stuff here. Next thing. Well, man, let's go to number one. I'll be a little quick about you. This is Hagen Street. All right. All right. So this is the next street this is Hagen Street also, but just across the street from Graham and Anyway, that's 24 feet wide. And so we've been fighting. Can you pause that video, my man? We've been fighting this for a long time, long, 25 years. My father fought this for a long time. And this is why. Press that video. This is what we go through all the time in this part. They have a huge sign that says no trucks, but we constantly get this. This went on for 9 o'clock in the morning to 10 o'clock one day. This big dump truck constantly going up and down the road. Next one. So this is my little kitty cat that I left that morning. Next one. Sorry to show you all that, but this was him that evening behind his big truck. This is a constantly happening. Next one. This is a liability on the city. This is what this street is going to be. Next one. Post office. Next one. Next one. That might be the last one. Yeah. So this is why this street crumbles. And at one time it was on the list, on the A list, and then it got knocked down to C, B, D. I'm asking the city to look at this deeply because it's going to be a liability for the city with this street. That's all I have. Questions? No.

How you doing?

Good evening to everybody. This is my first time here, and I want to state your name and address for the record.

My name is Rita Fontenot, and my address is 1614 North Prater Street, Lake Charles, Louisiana, 70601. I am here to talk about 1618. that I am the one who made the complaint about that. And we have I have been going through this for three to five years.

Stop. Let me stop you on 1618.

Is the property that you talked about earlier is I'm able to say the person name or not. I mean, this is up to you. Okay. Well, that person that owns that property is vice president of American African American Chambers of Commerce. That's a big deal to me. Because if you're serving on the board, your property should be up to standards. You agree? That's right. My complaint is that I am next door to this property. I have been there for over 35 years, and it is a health and safety hazard for my property. I have grandkids, I have a dog, and it has been bringing over rodents, roaches, snakes, everything that you can name to raccoons. And those pests, they carry diseases. And I understand what Miss, I think her name is Sheila, I don't know what her, Miss Paula, I understand what she said, that you give the praise to Mr. Blaine Celestine. It's no praise to him. Because this property has been like this for years. And it's going to continue like this for years. You only see, the inspector only sees the front of his property. i don't know what he have on the board but it's only the front i have pictures and those pictures that this lady gave you today and said everything was cleaned up everything is not cleaned up clean i will pass all up and on the back of these pictures it has exhibit 8 16 18 is the main property that is his side of his house This is the side of his house that has trees growing from it. This is the back of his yard that no one would be able to see. And I called and I asked if someone has seen this, and the lady said, we are not allowed to go on that property. I understand that. You know what I said? And she can tell you this. I said, you have my permission to go on my property to see this or stand in the middle of the streets. He will be there Sunday. To cut his grass, and you know what he cut his grass with?

Bush hog.

And all the grass is on my property.

Time is expired.

Okay, you want the... No, we can give her some more minutes.

Please do, because this has been ongoing. This is my first time, and I can't sit back anymore with this, because it is ridiculous that a property owner, and he is vice president of that organization. He is a leader in this community. And it is ridiculous that this man is getting away with this. Yes, he has a fine or whatever you have, 15 days to a month to clean your yard. You know what he do? He go and clean that yard on a Sunday with a weed eater in the front and leave the streets messed up and my side, my side, Drainage, you can't even get it drained because of all his trash. I asked politely and my husband asked politely to remove all of that off of the fence. All of that that you see in the backyard, that's my fence. He don't have no fence.

Additional minute is expired.

Okay. He don't have no fence. That's all my fence. And if this community do not take care of it, I am going higher than what I need to go. Because I think I feel like I'm going up and below. Oh, he giving me extra minutes? Oh, okay. Can I keep going? Okay. Okay, and I think I have been very nice to this person and I am not going to stop until it's cleaned up or be torn down. Because during the hurricane when we all came back, You start condemning a lot of houses with red tags. I don't understand why his property was not condemned. Because he have a fourth, you see it on the pictures, number four house, you can't even see it because the trees is over it. Of course your inspector's not gonna see that. He's not gonna see that. And then I have a camera. He has a camera on his house. That's the only house that has electricity. You gotta have electricity. He has a 18-wheeler box trailer that are 18-wheeler pools. They call it a van. It is made by Great Dane. And you can't see it too good because it's hid behind the trees, overgrown. And that is ridiculous. And you know what's going to happen in that box? It has rodents in that box. Rodents. I pay taxes. And I have to live like this all these years. So baby, let me tell you, I don't give Mr. Celestine no praise because Mr. Celestine hasn't done anything to his property until someone goes to him and say, when he received that letter, that's when Mr. Celestine start cleaning up. And it's going to happen again. And I'm letting everybody know if nothing is done, I'm going further than this. Because this has been over three to five years and going on too long. I can't even have family over. Because you know why? Because they're too afraid that something's going to come back out of that yard. You know what I call that yard when the wind is blowing? Jurassic Park. The only thing different is you don't have dinosaurs, but you have critters. You have critters. But he is a vice president of African American. To me, that's just, it just hurts my heart that you are representing, you are representing an organization and your property is not up to code. No, his property never been up to code. Never been up to code at all. Since I lived there and since he moved there, that property never been up to code. Because if you go out there and cut a yard with a bush hog, it's something wrong with you. And a weed eater. It's something wrong with you.

The seven minutes has expired.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. So I hope everybody, you can keep the pictures or you can give them back. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Thank you for your time.

You're welcome.

Ms. Norvell Joseph Coley. Either side, ma'am. State your name and address for the record, Ms. Coley.

I sure will. One moment.

Sorry about that, ma'am.

Okay, I am Narvel Joseph Coley. I live at 2901 Governor PBS Pitchback Drive, Lake Charles, Louisiana 70615. Good evening members of the council and Mayor Simeon. I stand here today with grave concerns about my neighborhood. I have lived in the terrace since 1966. Just a side note, my late husband and I were the first African American family to move in this neighborhood. In the 60 years that I have lived in the Terrace, I have never, and I mean never, seen the neighborhood look so poorly as it does now. The property standards issues and issues with property maintenance is running rampant in our neighborhood. Drive down my street. And I mean any other street in my neighborhood. And you will see homes with tall grass, multiple junk cars parked on the grass, excessive trash and debris in the neighborhood, yards, neighbors illegally operating mechanical shops. I saw an A-frame with a motor hanging on where he's repairing a motor. The issues are not hidden. In fact, they are in plain view. I brought pictures to show some of this. Renee, you gonna show that?

He'll show it to the IT department.

This is one on General Patton. And that's his storage shed. Again, that's General Patton. General Patton. General Patton. General Patton. No, that's General Patton. The last one was General Doolittle. That's Doolittle right there. And there's a whole lot of junk in the corner back there that I didn't catch. Okay, I have others there. But anyway, I have reported several of these issues to my councilman, right, several times. And there has not been any resolution to these problems. In fact, it does not appear that any of them have ever been addressed. The only feedback I have gotten from my councilman is, I turned it in. Well, at this point, I turn it in, it's just not enough. If everyone in this chamber is willing to sit here today and tell me that the issues in my neighborhood do not violate the audiences of the city of Lake Charles, then I say to you, clearly, you're not familiar with the city's rules and audiences, or maybe you just do not care. I have copied several excerpts from our city council's audiences that clearly demonstrate that what I am seeing in my neighborhood is illegal.

Time has expired.

Ms. Coley, we'll give you a couple more minutes. Thank you, I'll soon be finished. I am prepared to read the audiences right now if anyone attempts to dispute my observations. I am done with excuses. I need to see real action and consistent reinforcement in my neighborhood. We don't even have a police presence there. People show up at your house during election time and post all kind of videos making promises. But when I look around my neighborhood and I see that things are unfulfilled, then I just wait because elections will come again. And I have some neighbors with me if they'll stand. We feel this way. Okay, thank you all.

Thank you. Is Mr. Terrence Prudhomme in here? You doing that in your time? Mr. Robert Johnson, I think it is?

Yes, sir.

All right. Miles Brown. He has nine minutes.

Nine.

Miles Brown, 1020 4th Avenue. I think this would be a good opportunity for the city of Lake Charles and y'all's upcoming meetings or in the future that y'all have installed a time clock that's visible for everyone to see, not just the audience, but also for like the speakers here. I think this would be good because it would make the meetings more efficient and also it would show there's fairness and equality amongst all individuals that are speaking. as well as it would help them pace what they're trying to say. That way they don't have to run out of time or they know what they want to do in that particular amount of time. And most importantly, I think it would be good because it would show that the city of Lake Charles is trying to promote transparency and accountability. So I don't know if that's something that needs to be put on the agenda, but I would just like to just add that I think it would be good for the city of Lake Charles to do to make the – meetings a little bit more efficient so that's the first thing i have uh second thing is uh council president i don't know if you remember on april 7th i had asked you in a meeting like this um if we wanted to file complaints where would we go and you stated for sure that you go to the legal department now um i followed your advice and i actually went to the legal department a few weeks ago and they told me if you want to file complaints you go to the human resources department Now, I'm not upset with you for what you said. I know that you probably just didn't know, but I just wanted to make sure that you do know now because when I asked that question, no one in the audience from the council nor the administration could give an answer as to where to go. And I find it amazing because if you guys remember on July 8th of last year's meeting, I came up here and I'd let you guys know that when a constituent asks you a question and you don't know the answer to that question, you don't always tell them to go to the legal department. The answer to the question that you don't know, you're supposed to refer them to the mayor's action line. So now that you guys know for a second time in the future, just know that if you don't know the answer, let them know to go to the mayor's action line. And this was not just stated by me. This was stated by Ms. Kim Della Foss in another meeting in March of 2025. So hopefully now, second, now third time, you guys can know. That way there's no confusion as to where to go and things of that nature. So a month and a half ago, I finally did file a complaint. And my question is, I sent it to the legal department, like y'all stated, and also sent it to the mayor's office because the complaint form says here it's supposed to be directed to the mayor's office. So my question to you is, is there anyone that I can speak to or who to go to as far as where's the status of my complaint? And I also went to the human resources department too, and they can't give me an answer.

We're going to answer your question when you get through with your nine minutes.

I'm just, I have a question.

When you get through with your nine minutes, because we had a discrepancy, Mr. Miles, if you remember. Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown. Say it correctly. In previous meetings, you had a problem with being interrupted. So I'm going to take the liberty as the president, we're not going to interrupt you until you are through talking.

Okay. Well, I just had a question as to what is the status of my complaint, so hopefully someone has the efficiency to know what the status of it is. And the only reason I'm saying that is because really, for the most part, there should be some kind of documentation showing me the status of a complaint, not just a verbal saying they got it, just like anything you – order something from online, they give you a tracking number or some type of status. So hopefully someone here can give me an answer. That's all I'm really asking for. And I'm just trying to think what else I had to ask. If you don't mind, I don't know how much time I have. Can someone tell me how much?

You have five minutes left. OK, that's good. Let me see what else I had to have.

For clarity, I think I just want to say this. When it comes to public records requests and things of that nature, I think it's important that the city of Lake Charles abide by state laws and not just make up certain policies. So I just would like to add that hopefully in the future people understand that civilians have the right to make requests in a variety of different ways and that even though cities Lake Charles may have a policy policies don't trump state laws so hopefully just in the future people don't violate people's first amendment rights so that's pretty much everything I have to say is that anything I can anyone can give me an answer to my question are you done yeah

I am. So we're not going to have a rebuttal. I want to be finished. When we get through talking, your time is up.

Okay. Well, I sound like I have four minutes. Well, I just want to say this, too, and this is just me coming from a spectator. I think a lot of times, Council President, you tend to be a little bit domineering and try to raise your voice at people and it kind of comes off the wrong way and so I'm just gonna ask that you know you kind of take that in consideration going forward because it's not just me I've noticed I've even seen where it was a council member that tried to let you know that you violate open meetings laws and you were kind of rude with him as well So I think it just kind of rubs people the wrong way. So I'm just going to ask you just hopefully in the future that you consider that. But that will be all, and y'all have a good day.

I want you to stay when you finish.

Okay.

I want to give you the answer to your question so you don't ever have to come back again and say we tell you wrong.

Yes, sir.

What did you have a complaint about when you went? There's different places you can complain about. If you got a complaint about an employee or a worker at the city, you can go to HR. If you got a complaint about the police department, you can go to police department. Now, a while back, we had problems with people going to the police department, said they felt intimidated. So we made a modification and we allowed them to go to the legal department, which everybody but you had a problem with that. I don't know what's going on with that part of it. The other part was in regards to policy. The city has the right to form policy as long as it aligns with state law, which is what we do. Anything else?

No, no rebuttal. No, I know. I'm saying, you say anything else, I'm going to say I have to disagree with you on the fact that.

I'm sorry, but you had your time.

Wait, nine minutes has already went up?

Mr. Brown, you said you were finished. I'm going to explain this to you so you can get it in a nice way and listen to my voice. Okay. When I started. I said, we're not gonna respond to you till you get through with your time. I gave you the courtesy of asking you, are you through with your time? You said, yes. I said, after we rebuttal, that's gonna be the end of your time.

So, no, I haven't got an answer.

I just gave you three answers.

No, I'm asking you what's the status of my complaint. Where do I go to find out?

I don't know what your complaint is. I just told you where the three places to go and file it. Now, what happens with your complaint? I don't know. I don't have that information right now. But you're welcome to go to any of those three places.

And I did that. And that's what I'm trying to tell you. I can't tell you. Where do I go?

I can't tell you. Where do you go for what?

to know where the status of my complaint is. It was sent to the legal department. It was sent to the mayor's office, and they've got it. It's been over a month and a half, and I haven't got anything. So that's why I'm asking you where to go.

You have to go back to that area to find out what's the holdup with your complaint.

After they told me they said they don't know where it is.

We don't have that in the city council. You have to go back to one of those areas where you filed it and ask them what is the status of your complaint.

So this is how the city's run now? Okay. That's what I need to know. Thank you for your professionalism.

Mac Della Falls. Before Mac get up, I want to address my beautiful ladies in the terrace and in the village. I'm sure Ms. Paula can let y'all know that every complaint I get, I turn in. where I get them at church, where I get them at the grocery store. On Monday mornings and Friday mornings, I have a book list that everybody complain, I call and tell them. Now, how it's chose to handle, I can't address it. I can't say who goes out there. But every complaint, even those same pitches, I've took those same pitches. and turn those pictures in, especially in that cul-de-sac area. I done had police go out there. I done had property standards. I don't decide what property standards choose to do. But I guarantee you, every complaint y'all ever had and y'all call me, I do turn it in. And I don't make the decisions for them, but every decision that y'all call me on, I do turn in because I don't believe y'all should live like that. I don't. It bothers me when I get the phone calls. I go and I tell you I'm coming. I say, look for an orange car. I'm coming out there and I'm taking the same pictures y'all take. I don't know what the answer is. Before I even knew y'all was here today, I was addressing those issues that's happening in District C. I wish I could give you an answer. I wish I could say, you know what? This didn't happen with Mr. Guillen. This didn't happen then. But these people are deciding not to take care of their yards. We need to look at who is not taking care of the yards. We're deciding to leave broke-down cars and trucks and campers and not cutting our grass until the city makes them. It shouldn't be a city issue. We should have some pride amongst us in our neighborhoods. But I do feel sorry for you because you've called me, and I tell you I'm going to turn it in, and I see nothing is happening. And I think we shorthand it and we woe out, and that's why I always say maybe we need to get stricter on it. Maybe we need to punish them more to make them have to take care of it. She just gave you a prime example of, yes, they're going to take care of the front yard of what they can see. But the people behind them, I got another lady, Ms. Rideau, can call me her neighbor, the whole tree fell in the backyard. We can't go in the backyard to see it. You know what I'm saying? Her neighbor told her, you deal with it. So I just don't know the answer. I wish I could say I got the answer for you. I just don't know. I try and get the ordinance changed that we can punish them harder. But every answer we get is we can't go on property. We can't see it from the street. But what you have is what I ask you to do all the time. Send me a picture. So I hope by these pictures that somebody can see that it's a real problem in District C on how with the rentals coming in, how they're handling it. where we live. And I wish we can give them stricter punishments. You know, I'd kick them out. I want to hold landlords accountable if you got one or two or more properties that you got to report that so we can punish you if it's your property that's keep getting called in. But I'm only one person. But I do and I will acknowledge it again in the morning. I'm gonna take those same pictures and bring it and see if we can get an answer on those rules. But I think the ordinance got to change. not the rules, because the ordinances don't fit for every person that's just breaking the law on it, the ordinance on it. But I am sorry that I didn't take care, or I couldn't get your issues taken care of. But I do appreciate you coming, because it's going to show that people actually care, just not me complaining.

And Mr. Bilbo, and to the people, to the ladies, we'll look into that and see what happens with that. Nothing just comes in and sits there, so we'll find out a status and report that.

Mr. Delafalce, did you name that?

Mac Delafalce, 1917 19th Street, Lake Charles. I was originally going to speak on the property standards portion, but every meeting I come to, every meeting that I watch, I think you would agree that probably 90%, 80%, 90% of your agenda deals with property standards stuff. So I'm curious as if you have 80%, 90% of your problems in property standards, is property standards staffed properly? Do they need more people? Not only that, is the ordinance that we're looking at, does it fit right? We talked about Mr. Bilbo wanting to put something else in. Well, we can't do it. Or we can't do that. Well, it's time that we put some things in place. And if we've got to go to court about it, we do it. Because we got a lot of residents that don't give a damn about their property. They don't give a damn about this city. And it's ugly. It's no more where the hurricane caused it. That's done and gone. So as residents, we're sick and tired, honestly, of having to come up here. We get 50 days, 30 days, or 15, 30, 15, 90. It's always something to kick the can down the road. And these guys, we call them and we tell them. What happens? They go out, they look at it. Well, we can't get in the backyard. Well, the grass is almost at the top of the fence. So I don't know what your regulations or your laws is or why somebody can't go look in the backyard. They say, well, I can't go on this property because I can't see this way. Well, I can't do this. Well, what can you do? We're fed up. The community is fed up. The residents are fed up. I guarantee if you polled the residents, they'd tell you that your ordinance is wrong. Are the enforcements wrong? You don't have enough people. So I don't know, maybe Ms. Pollard can tell us, how many people do you have? Are you short? If you're short, then we got money to give all these other things to. Put some more staff. I'm telling you, if you have a prettier city, it makes the residents feel a lot better. Because right now, if you're talking about, Mr. Marks, there's a big old RV parked right across the yard. Why can't there be an audience to say, like Mr. Bilbo said, we don't want to see these in our front yard. If you can't put it where it's supposed to be, then you don't need to have it. Stop punishing people and stop being so nice about it. The community is fed up with it, really. So if staffing is an issue, get some more.

He's still got a minute left.

So, you know, if 90% of your problems is coming from property standards, then get some more people. Put some more people on the road. I know my sister works in that division. She carries a lot of area, and it's a lot of work. So, you know, whether Ms. Paula says she don't need it or not, I think you guys know every time you come here, there's some complaining. Put some more people in there. You want a resilient house and all this other stuff, put some people on the streets. Because if 90% of your complaints come from that, that's what needs to happen. You know, we talk about tire shops. They seem like they want to open it up every day. And I don't know if there's, we talked about a moratorium on convenience stores and gas stations. Well, now it looks like tire shops need to be thrown in there. These guys are putting a whole bunch of tires in the backyard. They put a fence up and it's all in the back, full of water, mosquitoes, but we can't get in the backyard.

Time has expired.

So whatever those ordinances is where the backyard, I don't know what the legalities are. But we need to look at that. The city needs to look at that and say, okay, we got to get permission from the homeowner. If not, I got to go get a warrant. Well, what does that look like? How do the residents know? We don't know. And if we're being told something, then maybe we need to push it a little more. You know, the city enters in litigation all the time. Maybe we push these things and see what we get out of it. And then let the courts determine that you can't do that anymore. The only other thing I have here is the agenda. So if you remember last time I was up here, I talked about your meeting agenda. This here form that you guys, nobody gets but the people involved. What I'm going to ask, and whether you can, Miss Renee, can give it to me, the last two months of your agenda meetings, if you can email it to me. My email is on the card. I'd like to have those, and then I'll let you guys know where I go from there.

The genders are posted online.

Oh, they're now on it?

Because last they... They're archived. Would you look under the archives?

We have a new website.

Okay, so I can get those online. Now these, am I correct, these don't come out 24 hours before because you said it's not required. Is that correct?

They do come out 24 hours before.

So these are... not talking about this the gender meeting not to regulate on some of the gender means not okay doesn't last for the gender mean for this meeting here these are a lot no those are not online because this is not we're setting the agenda tonight i'm not sure if you understand the difference no i know the difference clearly But one thing, and that's when I get the district attorney or attorney general's opinion, we'll see. But this should be 24 hours published before you meet. And that's debatable. So all I'm asking is that.

Can you speak to the council instead of to me?

Yes, ma'am. It's to the council. I'm sorry. So I'm asking that I get the last two months of these.

They're online.

No, they're not. She said they're not. She said they are. The agendas are online. They're archived. This is what I'm asking.

He's asking for the carryover item.

This, this today, what we're looking at, that's given to y'all, this is not online.

Okay, but we're setting it now. It's no law to require us to do that. We're setting it. Once it becomes an agenda, it's posted.

Okay, can I get these here, if you don't mind, for the last two months?

They're online. She just said they're not online. She did not. She said they are.

These are not.

The agendas are posted online. The carryover items that you all get for this meeting are not online. We change it. So I don't have a copy of it to give him.

You can come up to the fourth floor and get them. Can you email them?

I don't have a copy of it.

you don't have so you destroy these this is this is just a draft right well this is this is public if i would do a public record you should have these if you if you're disseminating this to your council then you're supposed to retain these okay well i didn't know that so thank you for letting me know so you don't have these so i'll have to wait the next few meetings to get these but that's that's mad i understand you want me to answer or you want to talk go ahead

Those are carry-over items. She draft those things in order to let us know what's carrying over from the previous meeting. I understand. Those items are on the previous agenda.

This thing says meeting agenda. Now, if you guys want to change it to mean something else, but if it says meeting agenda, and that's why I say I'm not going to bug you guys with it. I'm going to get an opinion, and then whatever that opinion says, you guys have to go by it. And I could be wrong. But you do agree there's an agenda to every meeting? Yes.

Okay.

But if you have a public meeting and it's agenda, it's supposed to be published, at least my understanding, it's supposed to be published 24 hours before you have the meeting. That's the state law. But because this is not, and that's why I'm saying that's fine.

But hold on. If you want answers, let us give you answers.

Go ahead. Okay. The set agenda for the city council is not set at the agenda meeting. That's putting items on for the agenda meeting. That's why. The public gets to comment. The council gets to comment. Then all of that is brought together and put together for an agenda for the following meeting. That is the official public meeting that requires publication.

I'll get an opinion just to saw. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'll gladly accept that.

If you get an opinion that says we're wrong, we're happy to accept that.

Right, and that's why I said I could be totally wrong.

The mayor correctly stated the law. So we're required to post agendas for the meeting that will happen next week. It has to be posted 24 hours in advance.

I understand that completely. I agree with that 100%.

Many of the public bodies in the state of Louisiana do not even have agenda meetings. What we're doing is giving the public an opportunity to assist in the agenda. So there is no law that requires us to post the agenda that we're going to try and set at an agenda meeting.

And just for clarity on your questions, you can go on the fourth floor to the city council's office and we'll give you what we have.

Well, she said they don't have, she don't keep them.

She don't keep them, but it's carryover. So it was already on an agenda already. That's what I'm saying.

So I'll just like to say, I'll wait and I'll get these as we go for the meetings and we'll go from there.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Renee. It wasn't anything personal. It's just that. No, before we go further, I want to make sure that when I say something that Ms. Paula and Property Standards does a wonderful job when I contact her. I think we got old ordinances. I think we really need to look at the ordinances we have in place and adjust them for today. They probably been kind of old and outdated, and it's kind of like reading the Bible. It's up for interpretation of what you think. I think we need to get it more down so we can actually affect the issues that's going on that we have people complaining.

ahead man we we've got and i think you're right we've got two things that have that have changed pretty significantly with the city uh the storms that we went through and that there's a lot of properties that used to be home owned are now becoming rental properties and you're starting to see some destabilization of those communities so that's that we probably need to look at the ordinances but we also uh on the same side need to also see about stabilizing those communities and getting responsible landlords in there because You have some people that they're not even, and I think it's a nationwide problem they're dealing with now where you're getting corporate people buying up properties in communities, whether they're Airbnbs, rental properties. Some people are putting these things in their 401 plans and they're not the best of landlords. And the way that you regulate that is we need to adapt our ordinances to take, when it's profitable to not follow the law, nobody's going to follow the law. So once you start addressing fines, addressing standards, and taking the, when it becomes non-profitable, then you'll start seeing that type of action. So those are things that we're going to have to look at.

And I want to add on to what the mayor say. I think I'm one of the people up here that reads these ordinances. The ordinances are not old. 12 inches of grass has been 12 inches of grass since the beginning of time what has changed is the community's willingness to follow the ordinances that's why we're in a position now as a council trying to find harsher penalties because if I can afford $50 to not go cut my grass I'll let it go and then hey, I'm going to pay the $50 the next time. So people are adjusting to our ordinances. That's why we're starting to come up with harsher penalties to do. It comes down to our community. The same thing they expect of us, we expect of them. We expect them to keep their properties the way they do. We don't want to come up here and fine people because that's not the city's job. We're not trying to make money off of residents. But one neighbor should respect another neighbor when it comes down to it. We are shorthanded, Mr. Della Falls. We've been shorthanded. That's another issue. We can't make people take jobs. All we can do is post the jobs and hope that people come out now. We're doing job fairs. We're reaching out. We're going on social media asking people to come. We gave pay raises to get people to come. It's a societal thing. It's not a city. Well, city council, we're the governing body. So we took on these responsibilities to try and remedy some of these problems. And like Mr. Bilbo said, it's getting tiresome to tell people, we're fining you, send your letters. We have people come to meetings that they're finna get fined on. And they come, take the fine, go back, do the same thing again. And the law protects them just as much as it protects us. So all we can do is operate within the law, and we only have so many parameters that we can find. That's not an excuse. That's the reality.

Mr. President, the bigger problem that we're seeing is that the city operates in the public realm. I mean, our right-of-ways, our properties, our streets, we have full control of. When you start going into private property, now you're starting to become more into the realm of what a homeowners association does. We've got to be very careful because if all our resources start going toward that, then it's going to come at the expense of the services that we provide to the public.

and Mister Delphi just as an indication we got all close to if I'm not mistaken there, Mister cut on correct me we got almost 900 adjudicated properties, you know how to become adjudicated people just don't pay for them so now the city has to take them we got to cut them got to use taxpayers dollars so I'm just point not we're not trying to make excuses.

It's a never-ending cycle, I understand.

And some things is beyond our control. All we can do is find them. If they don't cut their grass, what we do not.

Mr. President, would you do a couple things for me? One, can you tell me how many inspectors you have for the City of Lakeshore? Ms. Paul is here. So how many inspectors you have? Second question is, is there any advertisements for those positions? Well, I mean, she would know how many people she has employed. Oh, I'm sorry.

The time has expired.

So the second question is, I need to know, what is the legality from accessing people's backyard? You can probably clear that up for me.

Two things. One, I might ask you to do a Freedom of Information Act on the fourth floor where Mr. Miles goes to file his things. But I don't have that information right now.

But what I'm asking is that you have people that can answer that question that's here today. So why send a citizen to go do an information request when it can be answered? Just let me finish, if you will. when that can be answered in a matter of a minute. Because you have the people here that can answer that.

You're absolutely right. If you let me tell you the directions of what you do when you don't get your answers, and you can move, and Ms. Paula can come and answer your question.

All right, say that. So I think that staffing and is there advertising for more staff since? Okay. Thank you. Ms. Paula?

Okay. Well. Yes, she was going to come if you don't have the information right now, though.

Mr. President, why don't you just ask Mr. Delafosse if he would just put his questions what he's looking for. We'll try to get property standards and Mr. Berg here who's over property standards to address the questions.

Okay.

In the end, you can all of those answers will be answered. Any other comments?

I do have a question. Yes. I've had this question before. I think if a neighbor gives permission for them, someone to come on there and especially come on their property to look at the backyard, I assume that they can do that because it's really all about health and safety, a lot of it, and whether the grass is tall in the front yard or the backyard, wherever vermin is in the grass, it doesn't know whether it's in the back or front yard.

Excuse me, Ms. Fontenot. Just Mr. Weatherford may have come in late, but I think she said she would give them permission to come in her backyard.

Oh, no, no, I know that, but... But did that happen? Is that allowed? Well, that's the question.

Mr. Wood, that's a true statement. If they give you permission, we can go on the back. So, I mean, if there's some specific areas y'all want us to look at, give us those locations, and we'll get out there and take a look at them.

Okay. Just for future, Mr. Begaris, or Ms. Paula for planning and zoning, Ms. Fontenot is giving permission. If property standards need to go in her yard and look at the other.

We have it on record. Appreciate you, Miss. All right. Any others?