City Council - Regular Meeting

That's funny. I mean, it's not funny, but it's funny.

Yeah, put tails on everything. Keep the ball, keep everything rolling.

and it was it was a fun group you went yeah you're welcome gotcha

Call this city council agenda meeting to order. Mr. Harvey, your lead is in the pledge. Our lead is in the prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today saying thank you for another day, Lord. A day that we truly don't deserve, but you grace and your mercy has saw us through. Lord, we ask that you watch down upon the families and all the people that are represented here today, Lord. That you watch down upon our city, our mayor, our city council, our administration, Lord. that you keep us mindful of your wisdom and your way. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen.

Let us please face the flag.

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

Mr. Rene, we do have a quorum, I think.

of what's going to change.

You certainly yes.

Wanted chairman to review this for project number CP 3433 2022 drainage infrastructure improvements package number one public hearing and consideration of the Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission's decision to deny a request for a variance in order to establish a short term rental unit within 1000 feet of existing licensed short term rental within a mixed use zoning district. at 3121 to 3123 June Street. Public hearing and consideration of the Lake Charles Planning and Zoning Commission's decision to deny a request for a variance in order to construct a new 1,925 square foot accessory structure, thereby exceeding the maximum allowable 40% of floor area of principal structure within a residential zoning district at 612 West Claude Street. An ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles sent into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1900 Prejean Drive, burned apartments only, Plas Vendome apartment homes, LLC owner. Another demolition at 922 Gulf Street, burned structure, Benny Patrick Moro, owner. Another demolition at 1703 Winterhalter Street, Bradley Joseph Calais, Armantine Pete, Armantine Pat, Henry Joseph Collet, Jr., Lutta Marie Collet, Mary Collet Savoy, Louis Savoy, Ruby Marie Collet, Adley Joseph Collet, Gustaine Collet, James Philip Collet, Adele Broussard, Norris Collet, Audrey May LeBlanc, and Marjorie Senegal, owners. Under the demolition at 2005 7th Avenue, Teresa, no middle name, Vital Baldwin, owner. Another demolition at 2007 Seventh Avenue, Demetrius Antoine, owner. Another demolition at 655 South Franklin Street, Norman Goodwin, owner, subject to a tax lien held by the City of Lake Charles. Another demolition at 210 Cherry Street and 212 Cherry Street. Benjamin Gann, Jr., Willie Mae Jackson, Chester Gann, Claudette Mae Gann, Franklin Gann, and Margaret Haley, owners. Another demolition at 2436 Poplar Street, John Ladd, James Lee White, Charlie Carter, Willie Rogers White, Jr., Marie Thomas, Samuel White Estate, Florence E. Esprit, and Bertha H. Davis, owners. Another demolition at 317 South Louisiana Avenue, front house only, Grace Smith, Yorick Y. Price, Charles Y. Price, Monica Manker-Russell, Marcia Manker, and Gregory Manker, owners. Another demolition at 2344 C Street, Marlene Marks, Markeisha Elise Marks, and Kendall Wayne Marks, owners. Another demolition at 1716 22nd Street, Brian Keith Guillory, owner. Another demolition at 2310 Channel Street, Lewis Green Estate, owner. Another demolition at 2110 Railroad Avenue, Andre N. Walker, Brittany Ann Walker, Denver Jerome Withers, and Javon Ramsey Yocum, owners. Another demolition at 902 North Simmons Street, John A. Parker, owners, subject to a tax sale to the state of Louisiana. Introduction and final action of an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Lake Charles amending resolution number 313-223, to authorize the City of Lake Charles to modify the location and scope of RCIP LDI City of Lake Charles LC Second Harvest 0084 and further authorizing the purchase of a vacant lot parcel number 00751405 from Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church to construct and own a primary community resilience hub in accordance with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's national objectives for the use of funds from the CDBGDR program. An ordinance amending exhibit A of ordinance number 15062 regarding the membership and procedures policy of the City of Lake Charles Downtown Development slash Lakefront Development Sub-District Authority. An ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Calcasieu Parish School Board to cost share in the McNeese Barb Drainage Project. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement to purchase one new sewer inspection system camera and crawler for use by the Public Works Department Wastewater Division. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for project number CP3400, 18th Street Reconstruction, Lake Street to Creole Street, Phase 1. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement to purchase annual supply of public safety uniforms for use by the Lake Charles Fire Department for a 12-month period. Resolutions, a resolution accepting project number CP3257, Sallie Mae Medora to Dead End Phase II as substantially complete in authorizing the advertising of the 45-day lien period. A resolution accepting project number CP3262, Southeast Water Treatment Plant, New Water Treatment Facility as substantially complete and authorizing the advertising of the 45-day lien period. Ordinances for introduction and ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles to allow more than 10% cumulative increase for a change order for project number CP3426, Wastewater Treatment Plant A Operational Reliability Improvements Collection System Hardening. An ordinance amending Section 24 of the City of Lake Charles Code of Ordinances by adding Section 24-5-203.1 relative to outdoor lighting. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles Center to an agreement for project number CP3544, Hodges Street Water Line Extension. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into agreement for project number CP2894, WWTPA McNabb and Klein Street emergency sewer system rehabilitation. An ordinance adopting and levying the annual property tax millages for the City of Lake Charles for the tax year 2026. An ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office to fund two Sheriff's Office employee positions to the real-time crime center. An ordinance amending the City of Lake Charles Code of Ordinances to enact section 13-37.5 to provide for a prohibition against loitering on Bordelac Drive, the lakefront promenade, and all other city-owned property not specifically addressed by ordinance during designated hours. And I have one more that's not on the carryover list. It's a resolution of the City Council of the City of Lake Charles authorizing the amendment of the City of Lake Charles' CDBGDR action plan with HUD to move the proposed Lake Charles Fire Department campus from the previously identified 6th Avenue site to a site on Broad Street. And that's all that I have.

Where is that at for this?

It's not on there. We came after I was sent it out.

And what is that introduction?

This is a resolution, so it would be voted on at the next meeting on July 1st.

So we've got a week.

Right, just in that week.

Anybody got anything about the agenda? I have one thing, I wanna request that number 19 be changed from an introduction and final action to an introduction because we still have to do a appraisal on this property. And I don't think we're gonna get an appraisal done in a week's time before we vote on it. So I'd like to have that change to be considered to change to an introduction until we can work out the other details with that. I don't know how we go about doing that or discussing it. We can discuss it afterwards and do it before the meeting.

Yeah, you can do an introduction. I can make it subject to the... We can discuss it after.

We can discuss it before the meeting. Any other things about the agenda? All right. Mr. Bill Boat.

Okay. Some of the questions I have been partially addressed, but I got a concern on how the parish properties being left inside the city. To my understanding that when the parish take a property, they only come out and cut it once. With how grass is growing, by the time you come cut it once a month, you up to my waist. I know my waist is not high, but... It's a little above 12 inches, and that's their guidelines. I don't believe they should set guidelines for stuff that's inside the city. Even though you took it, you're still inside the city. They need to follow the same rules that our city has to do when we take properties. You don't come and say, I'm going to cut it once a month. We have a lot of properties that our amendments, Paula has discussed, that's in the terrace and in the village areas that have been seized and taken. But they only say, we come out, cut it once a month.

You're talking about where the retention pond areas?

No, just properties that have been taken for whatever reason, people not paying their taxes or they're waiting for sheriff's sales or something. But it's leaving our area looking terrible. And it's a constant fight, whether it's parish or is it city. And now we got to a point that we even have one that I guess Mr. Mayor already know about, that they have almost like a dumping site. And we've been in contact with them for almost a month now. And they still say they're going through a procedure. Well, you should have somebody come pick up trash. It's on your property. We shouldn't have to wait a month for you to come do what you should do to take care of it with us. We'd be having to answer if I left something in my yard for that long. It shouldn't take that long. okay uh i also want to address i don't know about the rest of the council but in my area i get a lot of calls about people not taking care of their property whether it's cars whether it's grass whether whatever it is i think my area is a high traffic area i know some areas don't have it as much as i do but i know i get them you know five six seven calls a day so i would like if it's possible that The property standards and people in my area start reporting like on Fridays to tell me ahead of time what they done turned in or what they done seen. Because when I go down there, I can't believe that if this Friday, it wasn't much better Monday. And if you making rounds like when they call me, I go check. I went to go check one on General Doolittle. But by the time I got to that one, I done saw five properties that I know was already, you know, should have been called on. So I don't know what's going on, but I think it'd be fair if I got the answer for it, that they can send me a report saying what they've seen or where the steps at. So like that, I don't have to call Ms. Paula all the time. I call Ms. Paula several times a day, and she tells me what's on the record, not on it. But if they're telling me ahead of time, I'd be like, oh, no, they already reported this. Let them know that we're on top of it, that we know something that goes on. All I can say is, let me call them. You know, but when I go look, you can't just have to miss the other two calling on one.

Yeah.

One more time, just to remind the public of our community meeting. 5.30.

I don't know. I read.

I didn't want to cut you off. Mr. Harvey.

I want to bring back to the attention, Euless Place, the constituents in that area have actually went there on yesterday, and I know this is outside of Occo.

Dogs.

She's including everybody in the emails, she's keeping her documentation, but she just feels like we need a greater sense of urgency. I've actually tried to reach out to the owner just to have a cordial conversation and that wasn't successful, so definitely wanted to bring up to that. 708 Prairie Street, you guys have heard me say that a lot. Several elderly residents around that particular area Chief Caldwell and LCPD for the phenomenal job they did with the activity going on on that particular property. But now the constituents are worried about what's going to happen afterwards as far as what's remaining on the property. And that's at 708 Prater Street. I also want to thank the administration and LCPD for coming together this week to talk about the activities dealing with the Civic Center. Mayor, I truly appreciate you spearheading that conversation. It's no secret. Obviously, everything is traveling extremely fast with social media and some of the things that's happening on some of our most precious properties are despicable. So I truly appreciate the conversation with that. Again, I got a call before I came in here at 1618 Harlett Street. I know we said that we were on top of it. The resident actually called me about 10 minutes before coming in here. She's still not satisfied with it. with the upgrades that the owners say that he made to that particular property. I want to also commend Parks and Recreation, the lifeguards. If you guys get an opportunity to go to Donald Ray Stevens Park during operational time, the smiles that's on those kids' faces is priceless. The parents, everybody truly enjoyed it. just making rounds, high-fiving everybody. I just commend the entire department for that. Just on behalf of my district, I'm just going to say thank you. It's been a time, long, long, long, long, long time coming. I know when I first came onto the council, we was up here complaining about a splash pad. Now we haven't complained about anything of that sort in that particular area because you guys have truly provided life to the youth and the senior citizens. They're enjoying it too. So I truly appreciate that. I also want to say this. I truly feel that we have to find the line of equity when we're talking about where we're investigating as far as property standards. I want to say as a constituent, I think we have to use discernment when we're doing investigations because we live in a world of AI, artificial intelligence. And if we're going to quickly respond to people who are submitting things with AI images, I think we as a city administration and just people have to be able to distinguish between what's real and what's not. I just want to put that on the record. It seems like everybody is using everything from chat to AI images. And if you study this, you can differentiate between what's real and what's not. So I think we have to be able to truly do investigations and not rely off of what's submitted from an AI standpoint. Put that up there. Also, I don't know what's going on, but it seems like we're having a lot of evictions within the city. And for some reason, landlords are just putting everything to the street, thinking that maybe we're going to pick up like we once did during COVID and post-hurricane, Laura and Delta. I don't know if we can put something out or maybe just start finding the owners. But I just don't think it's fair for our Public Works Department to have to go through and sort through trash and do things like that when we've clearly communicated what the expectations was as far as what the city will pick up and what not. But it seems like landlords are just taking advantage of that. And I can say specifically in the downtown area and several areas of District A, there are some people who are just not happy with that. They're doing a phenomenal job of trying to maintain their blocks, their properties. But you have some landlords who are just evicting people, which that's a whole other side. But they're leaving the debris at the corner. That's just not getting picked up time and time again. And that's all I have.

Mr. Beesonot? A couple of things. Ms. Wendy, I spoke to you. I sent you an email. West Pranlik Road, the west end, I guess, between Country Club and the S-Curve. I noticed Pranlik Road from basically Pranlik Park all the way through the S-Curve is a double line, which to me, if I remember right, means no passings. from that S curve south to Country Club is just a single line and I get a lot of complaints about people coming out of that S curve because they're trying to get around traffic to avoid Owls Road so if you could look into that it would make a big deal yes sir it doesn't make sense to me why it's no passing all the way to there and then it's it is so

Yes, I have my team out there. They were going to assess that. And if so, we'll probably have to maybe contract that one out. But I'll reconfirm with them tomorrow and let you know.

It would help those residents feel better because it's all residential all the way to country. Okay.

Might be better to just go ahead and double stripe the whole road all the way down. Exactly. Yes.

Like it is all the way through all the residential area except right there. It doesn't seem to make sense to me. And I didn't know if there was a reason why or we could look into it.

We'll look into it. I probably agree with you. It needs to be double lined because nobody should be passing in all those curved areas.

It's about golf course and golf course and all that mess.

I agree with you. We'll look into it and I'll get back to you.

Just for clarification, is it the curve beyond where we just widened it, going toward the Country Club Golf Course?

Yes.

That's Parrish.

It's not in the city.

That's why. I'll get a map to Wendy and show her where the city stops and starts.

I'll call Dave.

I'm not afraid. And we'll make a request to the parish. Can I chime in too?

Yes. Because I've gotten a couple calls about that area as well because it's kind of on the board whose district it's in. And I do know some of that may be parish, but I agree. I think it should all be. Double line, whether it's us or the parish, and have that discussion with them to make sure it happens. Okay.

Last thing, Ms. Wendy, I promise, and you don't have to get up. I know we just had a holiday, and I don't know if we got somebody new running trash pickup, but I got a lot of phone calls. I don't know if the schedule changed. I know the holiday.

It changed, and it was posted.

Well, then it was my fault. I didn't post it, but I got a lot of phone calls.

So are you talking about garbage or trash?

As far as trash pickup cans.

Yes. What I would encourage you to do and all the councilmen to do is that on the new website that Ms. Harrington has that we have, you can actually get your constituents to sign up for alerts. We've been posting it on the website, but they will also get something on their cell phone text letting them know when we have changes in garbage pickup. Because this past week was Friday, so everything was pushed up. So Fridays was actually picked up on Thursdays, and Thursdays was picked up on Wednesday. So the same thing is going to happen next week.

On July 3rd.

Is that a change from the way it used to be?

Well, yeah. We knew it, but they posted it this week. They started weeks, a week or two ahead of time.

It's actually going back to how it used to be. It used to be. I don't know when it changed to where we pushed it back, but it used to be that if a holiday fell on trash day, you rolled... You picked it up the next day. No, you rolled it back. And then in the recent past, we rolled it forward, which made it easier for the citizens because if you put it out early, they still got picked up the next day. Now if you put it out on your regular day, you miss it because it was pushed back. And I think that was done... I guess it was... I guess I'm going to call it employee benefit, but it was a good thing for the employees because, you know, for instance, where that holiday Thanksgiving falls, you force the employees to have to work on Saturday to pick up because you push the Thursday up to Friday, and then you have a Saturday. So this way it's better for the employees, and that's how we used to do it. So I think it's probably – We just need to get used to going back to the old way that's down there.

And that's actually what we've done. I think what we'd just like, if y'all could just help us get the word out. We have been trying to get the word out. It may be my fault. It's not no one's fault. And I know even in my subdivision, I send something out to remind everybody because they were used to putting out on certain days when the holidays furlough on a certain day. And we are doing it different now for the benefit of the employees. And we think it makes sense. but it is a learning curve, so if y'all help us.

But it used to be like that. We changed that.

A long time ago. It hasn't been that long. It has been a long time.

It's been a long time. You've been here a long time. Yeah. Just so everybody know, I think Ms. Windingham started putting it out, I want to say, almost a week and a half, two weeks prior to. Yes. That's the new system.

We'll catch up. If we can, I'd like to encourage people to go on. The website's been redesigned, and they can actually sign up for whatever they want. You can get alerts on garbage pickup. If you like the arts, it'll give you texts and different events. So it's really very state-of-the-art what we have right now. So instead of we can get the word out, but for people that really need to know it, it'd go right to the phone cinema text.

I know older people don't really. I guess I'm getting older, too, but I'm on the Internet. But a lot of people just don't get on the Internet. I don't know if we could put. Everybody be right the next holiday.

It's not just Internet. We have text alerts, too. So even if they just have a cell phone, we can send it to the phones.

I try to explain.

What I'll do tomorrow, I have some graphics that I've created that have QR codes on it that make it really easy for people to scan the code and sign up. So I'll get those to you guys tomorrow to share with your constituents.

But maybe if we could put an insert in the water bill, just kind of detailing, you know, here's the trash pickup schedule on holidays. You know, people may or may not read it, but that would be a way to reach people who aren't really.

We could look at that maybe like a quarterly thing, if we know that the holidays are coming up in that quarter, and we could list them and do the trash changes that way.

Yeah. Ms. Paula, could you come? and explain to the new councilman the procedure for cutting adjudicated grass with all the weather going I'm getting calls too but I'd like it to be explained to us

Okay, for properties that are over three years adjudicated, we have a bid pack that's around 354 properties that was awarded to a contractor to cut every 30 days. Now with that many properties, we have six different properties, it's more cost effective for us to have one contractor have those properties. He's a veteran contractor, he's been Cutting them, he knows where they are. So it's beneficial for us to have him do it. He won the bid pack. He cuts them every 30 days. Whenever it rains, like it's been doing, it sets it back. He cannot enter a property if it's too wet to cut. So that means a month's time grass is going to grow taller. But he will get to it. It's in the bid pack. It's contracted. We cannot go in there and cut it because it's contracted. That's the bid pack. We have a lot of properties that are adjudicated now. We're going to be getting a new list. because at the end of June they have a lot of properties that are going to go to adjudication that people aren't taking care of. Those go through our regular process. We don't have to publish them. We don't have to send notices. We just produce a letter and automatically job that out. Those cost anywhere from, you know, $250 on up. On up. Okay. Yes. So that's our process. It goes through the same process. We only get to cut those every 30 days, so the grass is going to grow tall.

But by law, we can only cut it once every 30 days.

Correct. State law. Only every 30 days.

So regardless of how it rains or not, we can't go back and cut it multiple times and charge them.

No. The adjudicated properties, I'm not sure how finance – we don't send invoices for those. We produce an invoice, but we send it to finance, and what they do with it, I think they write it off, write those off. It doesn't get leaned on the property. But we do have a lot of adjudicated properties out there that we have to cut.

You say it doesn't get leaned on the property?

I'm not sure. Finance would have to answer that. But – All of our properties, if the property owner does not pay the invoice, it goes on the taxes. A lien goes on the properties. The adjudicated properties, that does not happen.

So how do we get reimbursed?

We don't get reimbursed with adjudicated, but that's why it's costly for the city to take care of these.

I always thought that we put a lien against the property.

Not for adjudicated properties. And finance might have to talk to y'all about that and go through that, but it's my understanding that those get written off. They do not go on the property taxes, and liens do not get put on the property for adjudicated properties. I am trying to come up with a list of properties that are under three years adjudicated. That way we can bid those out also, and it's not going to cost as much for us to cut them.

That might need to be a new ordinance.

But I give you the bigger picture. The legislature has a blighted property task force that's been working on this because they're not just a late Charles problem is everywhere. And we've submitted them a few proposals working with them on how to get these adjudicated properties back into commerce. A lot of people think it's a. clearing the tile issue is really not it's a tile insurance issue and so I sent a proposal and we've been talking with them about it they did some things in this current session but I think they're going to put it to the Louisiana Law Institute to test all these things out because some of these properties are in very good areas that need to be redeveloped but we already have infrastructure so if we can get them back into commerce that's going to take the not only take them off our rolls, but now you have properties that actually be producing something for the city. Mr. Cardone?

I was just going to say, I'll get Ms. McDaniel to get in touch with you, the council members, about the filing of the liens. The cost of the liens went up considerably. And on properties that we know that we're not going to recoup the money, we're just throwing additional money away. So on certain properties where we know this is going to get paid back, we're going to file the lien. So that's kind of what we've been trying to manage it because of the cost of filing liens on all these properties. But I'll get her to give you an update on it.

Okay. The other thing I have is... I've been asking for some information in regards to some things that I'm doing. I'll just go back. I asked for some information when we had the issue with the bid process. This had to be over two or three months ago, and I still hadn't got it. So I sent another submission, and I just want to read it into the record so that it can be on the record that I'm requesting this for a second time. Actually, this is the third time. I'm asking for engineering consultant fees, what we pay consultants for water and wastewater projects, as well as the fees that the city paid to consultants for design and management of city water and wastewater projects over the past seven years. I would like to have this list listed by consultant, project and project amount, and the year, if I could. The other thing is, Ordinances. I've been looking over some ordinances with all the situations that we have. Mr. Stoots, I wrote down a few ordinances that I think we need to look at in order to possibly add something on top of what the mayor is doing with the laundering and the other things. Chapter 12.5, the nuisance abatement. If we can look at section A, number 6 and 11. Section A. Section A, number 6 and 11. That's the right to enjoin certain nuisances together so that we could put some fines with it. Section 12.5-2, Section A, B, and C. Okay. And that's dealing with the jail time. We could give them jail time, and as they increase, everything else would increase.

Okay.

Section 12.5-6... there's a law that everybody's not a gang, but they have a law in place, a city ordinance in place for criminal gangs and how they behave. And part of having groups of people in certain places fall under that. Section 12.5-8, that's the penalties. Section 15-28, That's the movement which I think would help the police officers where they could immediately remove somebody from a certain facility or a certain park or something like that when the situation arises. We got 15.9, which is the seizure of property. And 15-31, that's also helping the police, giving them the authority to close an area at a certain time. If it got out of hand, they could come in and they can close it immediately. So if we could look at that, it might be a bit much.

You're looking at maybe just putting some more teeth on them?

Yes. They're already in place for us. Okay. I'm with Mr. Bilbo. In our area, we have a lot of property standards issues. And I know it's hard to catch up, but we need to do a, I think, a priority list. If we got a house that's falling down, that should take priority over, you know, just regular cutting grass. You know, I got the Madrid apartments, which is right across the street from my house. I got a black Escalade. Been sitting in that parking lot for over two years with no parking lot. I mean, with no license plate. And I know if I see it, somebody got to see it. So I'm just asking that we go back and check as well as the landlords. I think that we put ourselves in a bad position when everybody want to help everybody. I know that's that's our job to help people. But if we got landlords that feel like if I just dump all this stuff on the street. the city going to come pick it up. And then we send our workers out there, and they have to separate furniture from what they can and cannot pick up, housing stuff, that's torn down the houses. I don't think that's fair to our workers. I think we need to treat those as we would a commercial establishment. They're making money and evicting people, and they should have to pay for those services. Exactly right. And I think once we start doing that, hopefully, These people that are getting rent and evicting people, I'm not saying don't evict them. I'm saying when you evict them, you're still responsible for all that stuff. You can't just throw it on the street and be done with it.

They could easily put it on a trailer, and the parish has free dumping. They may have some restrictions, but us having to go out there and use equipment and personnel. to pick up something that they took out and could have easily brought that somewhere else. That needs to be up. They need to pay that. The taxpayers shouldn't have to foot that. Exactly.

The last thing I have is I just want to send a message out to the public. Change hurts sometimes. You know, I'm getting a lot of complaints about Highway 14 and the repairs and all this. Although it's not city, if we want better streets, it's going to be some uncomfortableness. You know, you're going to have to ride over some bumps for them to fix it. You know... It's the same thing like we're talking about with the trash pickup. We got a new system. It's going to be some pains. You know, just like we got to the point where we were doing it 10 years ago, we're going to get to that same point. If everybody just be patient and let's work through these processes so that we can get everything the way it's supposed to be.

Ms. Lawrence, I've been in touch with DOTD about that entire corridor from Fruge Street to past the power center. They're about to do a massive overlay. So once they do that, they already have the humps, the place where they hump the power The asphalt that they're using is the same asphalt as the interstate. It's very poor, so the water will go through and hit those drains and get off the road quicker. But that's going to be pretty smooth and striped. It's going to look really nice when you finish. And we need it.

It's going to take a little time. Mr. Marks, I'm just going back to the item about the water and wastewater you request. And I apologize. I was looking at some emails. I saw where Ms. McDaniel had said something and said it was a lot of information. She would have the information by the 23rd.

Okay.

I didn't see that.

I'm sorry. And I'm just letting you know. And she sent it, but it was late today. Okay. So you just probably hadn't seen it yet. All right.

The, uh, any, anybody got anything else? I'm sorry.

No, go ahead. You go. I'm sorry. I missed two things. Uh, last week I come, I attended a community meeting for the Nautilus Charles economic development, uh, the group that we put together, there were several questions that I could not answer just because I'm not sure where we are as far as with the agreement. If I could just get an update on, like, not, I mean, if you could just send it to me, where we are with that. I know that group kind of expressed a few frustrations. They just feel like it's kind of dragging a little bit. So if I could just get the information, I could maybe have that. I'm actually going to host a community meeting within the next week or two, and I could just pass that information along or make it a part of the agenda during my meeting. Also, if I can get an updated list, I know it was several residents along the pathway for the enterprise extension that we have been unsuccessful as far as getting them documents or has been returned and things like that. I know some of them we've gotten to, some of them we haven't. If I could just get an updated list with that, I can maybe call out those addresses during the community meeting and see if I can just help the administration or the legal team track those people down. That's it. That's all right.

Mr. Bilbo. Yeah, and just like Mr. Marks brought up earlier, we brought this up about a couple of months ago. Just like we putting rules on the Airbnbs and the restrictions, I've stated before that we need to regulate landlords. That's an occupation. Our people at property standards need to know if that's a rental property or that's a homeowner. So when you come out there and they dump, you can pull up on this list. Well, this is for Mr. Marshall Simmons to own this property. Well, he owned one on 12th Street, Lord Street, 13th Street. Well, Mr. Marshall Simmons, you ain't taking care of none of your properties. So if you become a repeat offender, we've got to start punishing you, not just wearing out our people, because we don't know the difference between a rental property or somebody that owns. And I know in District C, we're becoming more rental area than homeowners. But those people need to be liable. If you're getting occupied, that's a job. You're getting rent, you're collecting money, you need to be paying taxes, and we need to be able to hold you accountable. And that's the easiest way to find out if they got the report that that's a rental property. If you got a report that there's an Airbnb, there's nothing different between an Airbnb and you renting that out. If you're making money, you need to be on a list that we can contact you and know that's your property. When you dump or you got something going on, we can contact you directly and get that solved. If not, we're going to be constantly circling. We're not going to know if it's a runner that dumped it or a homeowner who just cleaned out their kid's college room. You know what I'm saying? We're not going to know the difference. But if they got the register... They're units. We're going to have to understand, and we can enforce the rules by that. Because that's a job. It's a business. It's a business. It's a business.

It's a for-profit business.

I think whether it's rental property or owner-occupied, the owner of the property is responsible for the upkeep of that property. And you can leave it. If you leave the grass cutting to your tenant, if your tenant doesn't cut it, we're going to go cut it, and the bill is going to get sent.

to the property owner, not the tenant.

So I think that's kind of already in place. Now, it would be good if you've got, yeah, whether Tom used Marshall. I didn't know he was making eye contact. It could be Stuart Weatherford's property owner. If there's three, we are a bill. We can know if someone quotes a repeat offender because we should know who the property owners are. We probably just aren't tracking it just because it can be onerous to do that. Yeah, we're already, or yeah, shorthand, we're already struggling to do all that we did. Yeah, it may just be adding an additional level of record keeping that may slow things down.

I think we've had an unusual amount of rain this year, so now you're really starting to see how much the properties need to be checked.

Maybe how much grass has grown in the last 10 days.

I have a question. Mr. Fundale? So a renter is like a homeowner. Once that renter puts something out on the road, even though he don't own the home, he's treated like a regular homeowner, right? Yes. I mean, because if the renter actually is going to putting the material out there, we should be picking it up, right?

At home we are, yeah.

We're talking about the places where it's a vacant house and they took all the stuff out and just piled it on the street.

No, but I've had some renters call me and they said that they wouldn't pick it up because it was on the landlord. And I told them as long as they're putting the trash out. Yep. We should pick it up. Is that right?

We don't distinguish who's putting the trash out. We do distinguish that the property owner is going to be ultimately responsible for the bill.

Now, if it's more than four units or something, if you have multiple units, it's treated a little differently, right? I mean, we're not picking up it. We certainly aren't going to pick up trash at apartment complexes.

Yeah, I think what happens is if somebody puts one item out there, typically we pick it up. The problem we're facing is you've got these landlords that are posting an eviction notice. The tenant moves out, and they push all that stuff to the roadway, and we should not be picking that out without charging somebody.

Right, right.

And then for the people that live in those areas, once that pile of trash is there, everything else starts making its way to that same area.

Right. Any other comments? If people start dumping just because they see it, they see a pile, they're just on the side of the road where they just throw out another couch. That's what I'm saying. We've got to better control who actually is a landlord compared to a homeowner because he's making profit to do it. Right. Any others?

Okay, at this portion of the meeting, this is for the community to come and speak. We have Mr. Wesley Stewart. Please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record.

The name is Wesley Stewart. I have a property at 1515 10th Street. Actually, currently, I don't live in Lake Charles currently. I'm currently in... Los Angeles. Anyway, so I've had a problem on my property for, I think, since somewhere between 2015 and 2017. I'd have to check my records in order to distinguish exactly when. But there's been water, there's been, and I have, and I know I think I was supposed to submit something to the city or something. I don't know who that is. But there's this my property is on a lot of a big lot that has, I think, 14 houses altogether on it. And over time, for the last 10, 11 years or so, for each house that's been built on it and they were they raised the elevation. Now, this was before. uh the hurricane laura which my house was affected by and and i think the city forced uh whatever the ordinance is that there had to be a certain raised elevation before that i think it was uh optional whatever the case is but that was so my house was built flat um like many other houses in a in the area and then they started building houses elevation and and that water started draining onto my property and it was one you know it started with one home and then There was two homes and three homes, and since that time I had been talking with Doug Bergeris about it, and he had been promising between talking with him and the contractor that was building the homes, and they were building them one at a time, so it's not like they all went up at once. So there was time every year to actually address it, and I would have those conversations with Doug, And a couple of other people, some of the engineers looked at it. I think one of them, Cindy Rishaw, she's passed since then, I found out. But she was someone who looked at it with another engineer. And there's been a lot of people involved in it. I think Robert Hanson. Hester, I think is his name, Tim Meador, a few different people. That being said, oh, I've got time. That being said, nothing has been addressed. I've sent emails, never had emails returned for years. I have a long track record of this history, and so I'm just trying to figure out and get some sort of resolution. I think the oddness was that the properties were supposed to drain to the street or something like that, and that didn't happen. That was supposed to have been... They were going to enforce that for the contract to do that to the other properties, but none of that has happened over the years. And now I'm having to put a roof on my house because I still have roof damage from Laura, but it's hard to make that call to invest more on the roof without knowing what I'm going to be looking at because the backyard is like a river. Whenever it rains. And then that makes it hard for me to have the property cut because if grass is too high, nobody can get back there. Because even once it dries in other places, it's still... You need some more time? Just 30 seconds. Yeah, I was just going to simply say that... Even when the property is dry in other places, because it's all saturated and all of those homes are landing right in my backyard, it's still too soft to put, to even walk in. So, yeah, so that's my issue.

So, I don't know if Mr. Begares, Mr. Begares, can we set up a meeting between you and Mr. Stewart? Can he come by your office? Or how do you want to handle it? Probably...

Yeah, my office include public works to look at any solutions for getting the stormwater out to the public street.

How soon can we do that? Because Mr. Stewart said he lives in California.

Oh. Yeah. OK. Well, we can meet tomorrow morning if you want. OK. OK. Great.

Well, if you don't mind, Wesley, talk to Mr. Begiris after the meeting. He'll give you his card and all his information.

OK. OK.

I'll do that. Appreciate you. OK. Thank you. Fitzgerald Darbone. You got three minutes yielded from Mr. Miles Brown.

Fitzgerald Darbone, 2523 Hagen Street. My question has to do with number 19. I think that was on your agenda. It has to do with the Immaculate Heart of Mary property.

Excuse me. Are you coming to talk about that particular issue? Because we don't address that until the actual meeting.

Well, okay, but whether or not I'm going to show a video of why I feel that that location is going to be the best location, whether or not you'll kick the can down the road or not. So whether or not you want me to proceed or not? That's up to you. Okay, great. So the reason why I'm talking, so my question, ask yourself, where were you the day after Hurricane Laura? I'm going to tell you where I was in my organization. If you can play that. The storm, yeah. I'm gonna show you, this is why this location is beneficial.

Muhammad was a part of the dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic when Hurricane Laura swept through her beginning. Ms. Muhammad is the CEO of Eskimo Health in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Her community is mostly black, mostly poor and elderly, and therefore very vulnerable in every disaster.

After the storm, Ms. Muhammad established her damage clinic in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I recognize that our people will not feel until they address the condition that impacts all of you. If we prioritize the health care of poor people and poor communities in the way that we prioritize COVID, we make that a national agenda that we must make people well, then we will be doing fine. Poverty is a public health crisis. I know, you guys have so much stuff back there. What do you need most right now to be donated?

We need volunteers.

We need people to help us with the line. I'm just going to flip my screen so you can see outside. We need people to help us keep this line going. The line is around the corner all day. The heat is great. You can see there's an AT&T truck here. We have a line going with volunteers. We're feeding people hot meals. We send people hot meals every day. We're pumping potable water into the clinic because the water isn't drinkable. We don't put porta potties outside so that our people in the community can use the bathroom. We'll have medical set up in the mobile tent here. So this is the command center for resources in the Northlake community and the community. has stepped up to come out and make sure that people have all of the things that they need to get right now.

But you'll see cars are just driving by.

We have the brand of life out here today. They donated some new products today. We have agencies every day come out and work with us in partnership to make sure people get what they need. And I'm sure, thank you so much for everything that you guys are doing right now to help victims of hurricane.

So I don't know if you guys got a chance to come and visit us, but we, I know, Mayor, you did at one time come visit where we did. We fed 3,500 people a day for three months at this location. And the key about this location is because, I mean, right now we don't have a resilience hub in our city. And it is hurricane season right now. And we don't have really anything built to absorb what we're going to be looking out once we get another hurricane, because it's coming down the line one way or the other. We feel that this location, because of the location of the interstate, we're going to have a new medical center right next door to it. This property is the prime location for this FEMA community resilience hub to be built. And that's why I'm... I'm just appalled on why this can keep kicking down the road. And why are we not starting on that or why are we not letting the city purchase this property? I know you said, Mr. Marks, this is going to be on the agenda. I've just seen that. I didn't know that was going to be on the agenda. I would have waited. But, no, we need to know why. I mean, the community wants to know why this can keep kicking down the road. Can you answer why I keep getting it?

Next week, be at the meeting, and I'll give you all your answers.

Next week. Next week. Okay. And to go back to, through you, Mr. President, to Mr. Harvey, you brought up the fact that people use AI to address situations. But the situation still is what it is. You have vehicles on that property, which is, you have three one-ton vehicles. That is a distraction and really a disgrace to our community for you to have that and you to vote on other people removing their vehicles. So I'm asking you, remove those trucks that are dismantled on your property. Thank you.

Mr. Delbon, I got a question for you right quick. Those vehicles you talked about, are they legal?

I have no idea. They don't have any license plates on them. They're all trashed up. All the windows are broke. Thank you. Is that what you're meaning? You just made an example of there's no license plate on a Cadillac, whatever. Well, it's been six years that these vehicles have been there.

Okay.

That's enough.

Okay.

Don't you think?

You can speak.

Hey, Mr. Dolph, why don't you come back? Why, speak, please. I truly appreciate you're a fine individual.

And so your question?

That's it. There was no question.

Oh, that was a statement. That wasn't a question. OK. Thank you very much. I appreciate that coming from you. And I'm glad you showed up for our meeting today.

Mr. Romero.

Gentlemen, I'm Tom Quirk, 5418 Chandler Avenue.

And I'm on the... Mr. Romero.

Well, he asked me to come up first.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Go ahead. And we're both members of the HOA for Beaublon subdivision, which is off of South Park Drive. And we wanted to present to you a problem that we have with erosion that's really, really getting bad. And Mr. Romero has done some research on it, and he has a very short visual that he'd like to show you all. Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, I think you can show it. Go ahead, Renee. Yeah, I see it. This is about a minute and a half, so we're just going to watch it a little bit here. That is just a train wreck right there. Water is not using the escape hatch, I guess you'd call it the... the concrete things on either side, just completely avoid it. Right there, you can see there's only about 30 inches of ground there. They can't even get the lawnmowers through there right now. And it's just, well, you see this part coming up here. It's just total destruction. right here We're probably gonna lose part of our fence and then we're you and I gonna talk again if that happens and It's just It's just a mess. I do apologize that we've let this go so So long and not brought it to the City Council again We're hopeful this administration does something better than the last time we we had we had an issue with yellow water a couple years ago and the mayor at the time came out and one of the things that I talked to him about was who's that what anyway I talked to him about the yellow water I also talked to him about the erosion that we were having and Public Works came out, threw some rip-rap down on the west side of the ditch. Didn't do anything for the east side of the ditch. And as a matter of fact, we've lost, in some cases, six, eight feet of property that belonged to us that is in a ditch somewhere. And we would like total restoration of this property. And let me just tell you this about Beaublon Subdivision. This is a subdivision the city of Lake Charles should be very proud of. We are the best of all worlds. We're not the biggest subdivision in town. We're not the most expensive subdivision in town. But by God, I think we're the best.

The time has expired.

And we've got... A little bit about demographics. We've got 45% Democrat, 42% Republican, about 12%, 13% Independent. Listen to this. In our city, in our community of 256 homes, we have residents from Australia, Great Britain, Chile, China, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kentucky. Malawi. That's my wife. I'm sorry. Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the United States in 256 homes. What a subdivision to be proud of. What a subdivision to be proud of.

Mr. Romero, if I'm not mistaken, that's happening across the road as well?

No.

At that corner by the credit union is not that bad?

Piddling. You know, I mean, ours, we've – Mr. Marks, we have lost, in some cases, eight feet of property. And it's not – You know, no amount of rip-rap will work. I approached and talked to the Federal Highway Administration about it. And whenever they saw the video, he says, Mike, it's not our jurisdiction. He said, well, I just wanted to get your thinking on this. He said, good grief. He said, you got a mess here. I talked to the parish. I wanted to get their input on it. And... He said, Mr. Wimberly, and he says, holy smoke. He said, there's nothing we can do. He said, I'm very familiar with that. He said, you've got a major problem there, and I don't think anybody in the – there's nothing like this anywhere in the city of Lake Charles. It just isn't. It's just the biggest mess in the world. Unfortunately, I was sick most of last year, and I should have done something on this last year, but I just didn't have the get-up-and-go. I had RSV, and I had a bunch of stuff, and so I was a little under the weather, I guess you'd say, for most of the year. So anyway, we've got... I mean, there's not enough room for a lawnmower to get through there. They're coming through there with a weed eater to mow the grass, for crying out loud. It's just a mess. We've got telephone poles in the middle of a ditch. What kind of optics are those? Telephone post, dead in the middle of the ditch. If you go back and look at the video, they're there in the middle of the ditch. It shows you how far the recession has been, the erosion has been. And this is going to take a commitment from the city. We understand that this will be something for 2027. I've done some investigating. I know how to go out for a bit. I know how to look at things. And on my own... I've come up with a solution maybe Public Works hadn't come up with, and it's to come up with irrigation pipe, a whole lot of dirt, and we'll do what we can on our end to put some grass in there for you. We understand it's public property, but we'll try to donate a little bit to the cause because it's going to take a major commitment from the city of Lake Charles, a major commitment. That's about all I have. Any other questions?

Mr. Marrero, first, you said everything but that you was in the finest district of Lake Charles. You're in District C. You know, you gave everything praise, but, you know, the good District C. But, no, but anyway, I spoke with Ms. Wendy.

Mm-hmm.

she helped us and um i'm sure she can we spoke on this we went out there we uh what's the area uh north of it i wanted to explain to him why we can't start uh on the south side of oblong and we have to start the north side that's further down by the church so he lets you know that we we own it and miss sharon ain't you working on that project too yeah Yeah, I need y'all to help me up here. Yeah, she put a grant in.

I hadn't heard that one now.

I wanted you to come so you could hear it. I wanted you to come because I know these beautiful ladies have been working on it.

May I ask how large of a grant? That's close enough. We're through here.

We're done here.

That's all I need to know.

Mr. Romero, if at all possible, when it's convenient, We'd like to set up a meeting with you and the administration, you and some of the residents in the administration, so we can talk about this in detail.

We have a

No, just right here so you can bring it back. Whenever you want to come meet with Mr. Cardone.

Okay, what do you need, Mr. Marks, again? We want you to set up a meeting. We can get you information. And Mr. Cardone and the mayor will have the administration contact you where we can get together and sit down and talk about this. Okay. And listen to what you said about what you got on your plate, and we'll let you know what we got on our plate and see where we can meet. Okay, all right.

Because we applied for the grant. You know, we can't say it's coming.

Do I need to talk to someone? You just did. You want me to talk to them, Tom?

Yeah, but do remember, you're in district C. You know me.

Yeah, I know you. You know me.

All right, any other comments? Thank you so much. Mr. Harvey?

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Judge.

Just for the record. I know a lot of times, I'm speaking for me, I'm not speaking for anybody else. As an elected official, I know what comes with the territory. But when I asked for us to be proactive, not singling anybody out, but when we listen to things like that, that's what allows the public to create a narrative of things that's so not true. So there's a narrative out there. that number 19 that we're speaking about was pulled by the councilman. That's not true. I think we all know that. Yes, I did pull it, but I pulled it so that we can get pertinent information out to the public before making a decision. I think anybody would tell the truth about that. What I need us to start doing, though, as I've been as I spoke about the Railroad Avenue project, I spoke about everything is saying, hey, what are we as a city going to do to be proactive versus reactive when we're putting out information before we come and vote on projects? Because when we pull something again, for the record, I didn't pull anything to say that I was against it. Anybody who would know I would be a fool to be against something coming in my particular district. However, if the people are not properly educated on something, then we allow people who consider themselves to be influencers to have sound bites and put out information that they think they know what they're talking about, but they don't. As a city, I was like for us to be better as far as proactive and speaking to the public and educating them on what we are planning to do versus letting someone else control the narrative. That is a District 8 issue. That has been an issue for me as a councilman. That has been an issue for the person before me, the person before her, and the person before him. I think we, again, have to do a better job of being proactive and educating the constituents on why we do something or why the administration is suggesting that we make this decision or why the councilman is recommending this. to come into petition. Because a lot of times, constituents, they go off of sound bites. They don't listen to the whole story. They listen to catchphrases and what seems amusing at that particular time. So just for the record, again, I am going to have a community meeting in my district. Everyone is invited. I'm going to put it out to the public. But it's to dispel narratives of things like we get tonight. and the things that you heard for the previous three Tuesdays. I just think we have to do a better job of communicating to them why we do things and why we don't do things and stop letting people just run with a narrative. That's just my sentiments.

Mr. Fundare.

Mr. Washington, you didn't fill out a card.

No. Are we through with the cards? Yeah, we're through with the cards.

You're with the ditch, right?

Yeah, I'm with the ditch, the drainage.

Can we give him a chance? Yes.

your name and address for the record my name is Gabriel Washington on behalf of my mother and father the elderly are having drainage problem over there on Church Street 22 10 22 Church 22 14 Church Street it hadn't been cleaned in 20 years the ditch hadn't been drained out it's a On Church Street, Hershey Street, it's running east and west along the railroad track, and the water sit there for weeks at a time. It need to be drenched out. They could drench it out and throw the dirt on our property, and we'll love it off. But it's on Kingsley Street, too. It has a big canal there. The canal is running east and west along the railroad track, so it should be no problem for it to drain, but it hadn't been cleaned in 20 years, and it needs to be addressed.

What's the address again?

Church Street, 2214 Church Street, 2210 and Hershey Street. And then next is the railroad track with the big canal and Kingsley Street. You can get back there and clean out the ditches to get to the canal.

Coming off abroad?

Kingsley?

No, it's back there for nine and by the YMCA back there next to the track. Okay.

Kingsley is on the other side. Other side.

Yeah, Kingsley runs. Kingsley is running north and south.

Kingsley is on... Looked like the ditch ran to the back of another property that's on Kingsley.

Yeah, Church Street is running east and west. Church and Hershey. And it needs to be cleaned out.

I thought it drained back this way towards the...

It should be draining back towards the railroad track where the canal is. Yes. It's an easy fix. It just needs to be addressed and cleaned.

I think she had something on it. Yeah.

How about the railroad track that's to the north?

The railroad track? Yeah, the railroad track is to the north. Oh, north, right. Yeah, but the canary is running east and west. OK. Yeah. Church Street running east and west in the drainage. Easy fix.

Yes, sir. Mr. Washington, I actually spoke to my superintendent this afternoon when I received the email. So we will be going out there tomorrow and assess it. And he does admit that it needs to be cleaned. We will also probably go down some of the streets. I think it's either Church Street and Hershey Street because he said some of the pipes, I think, that's under the driveways, he's going to also blow all of those out to make sure the flow works properly.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Yes. Mr. Cardone, doesn't that belong to, I don't know what the Gravity Drainage District is, but we need to reach out to that. District 2.

That canal, maybe. We'll be looking at that. I will.

I will. Thank you. Thank you.

Hey, I don't want to keep this, fellas, but I got called, too, when I was coming in for 2721 Church Street.

I didn't have time to call you because I

We was all getting in. They said, I was sending you the stuff, but I hadn't got to it. Down on the other end of Church Street, across from where old Pawpaw's was, in that area, same problems.

Yeah, that's the main railroad ditch on that side.

Yeah, same that, yeah, back there.

Any other questions or comments there?

No, sir.