City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm not quite sure he told you that. They got the wrong one.

Thank you.

hello hello how are y'all good

I never did that. We're going to call this city council meeting in order.

I'll start the pledge. Mr. Young will do the prayer.

Please bow your heads with me. Lord, thank you for bringing us together this evening. We're especially grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and for the people who have entrusted us with this responsibility. God, right now we just ask for your discernment, your grace, your wisdom in the way that we conduct this meeting and go about the business of the city of Lake Charles. We especially Pray your hedge of protection and grace over our colleague, Councilman Tommy Bilbo, and his family's loss this week. Will you just wrap them up like a blanket and be there with peace for them? In your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Place your flag.

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. Young?

Here.

Mr. Bilbo? Mr. Harvey? Mr. Marks? Present. Mr. Visano? Here. Mr. Findale? Here. And Mr. Weatherford? Here. We have a quorum.

We have a point of personal privilege for a presentation from the mayor.

Hello, everyone. Every now and then we come across some young people in our community that do something that's very transformational. And I think it's very important that we support and uplift the talent that we bring into this community. So today I want to recognize a young man. He's at FK White, Mr. Noah Blackwell. Noah, could you come up here for a second?

Sure.

Noah is a member of the Beta Club at FK White, and he wound up doing a competition here. Matter of fact, Councilman Young was one of the judges of that and saw the talent that Mr. Blackwell has, and I got a chance to see video of him making his presentation. He gave a presentation to me on his way to nationals. So Mr. Blackwell last week went to Nashville, Tennessee. There was over 10,000 beta club members from 18 different states and he was running for national president. Now he came out in the top three, didn't win, But in many ways he did because just the fact that someone from our area would go and compete at this level and come out with this, it's incredible. But I want you to keep this name and this gentleman's face in your eyes because there's great things for Mr. Noah Blackwell. Noah, I want to say congratulations and thank you for what you do. And if you don't mind, because he's the, I mean, this gentleman is a more advanced speaker than most lawyers we run across. Please introduce yourself, tell them a little bit about the competition and what you wanted to do.

My name is Noah Blackwell, and I ran for the national president. I made top three, and it was a five-day long convention. You had to campaign a lot throughout the convention. It's kind of like running for actual office. So it was really fun. You got to meet other people from other areas, learn about what they did. You made new friends along the way, and I would want to do it again. Congratulations.

none of this would ever happen if you didn't have the strong family support that we always think that it it's it's so incredible that foundation could because it brings generational blessings uh noah's mother is here miss miss uh miss miss daniel armand could you stand please thank you miss daniel When Danielle introduced Noah to me, she said, Mrs. Mayor, he wanted to meet the mayor. So he came up to the 10th floor. We had a good time talking, told me about his dreams and aspirations. And you were about to leave to go to Nashville. And I knew right there that that was going to be a storm coming to Nashville. So even though you went to number three, understand that three is a very holy number. It's a trinity. And one, two, and three is always interchangeable because the last is always first. So this is just a launching point. I look forward to seeing great things from you. Thank you.

Noah, you're gonna be our next Michael DeBakey. Don't forget you grew up in Lake Charles now. Congratulations.

All right. Our first order of business today is we've come up on the first year of this administration and this council, and we have to conduct our annual elections. I'll start it off by accepting nominations for the Office of President. I'll take the liberty, if my council members don't mind, and I'll nominate Stuart Weatherford to be our next president. Thank you for that.

Second.

Second by Mr. Visano. Please vote.

5-4.

Okay. And I'll let the new president take it from here.

Thank you, Mr. Martins.

All right. I appreciate the support and all. Now, our second action tonight is to elect our vice president. So open up the floor. We have nominating for VP.

Mr. President, I'd like to take this opportunity to nominate Mr. Ronnie Harvey as vice president.

I'll second.

Second. Okay. We have a second. Any discussion? Please vote. All right. Well, thank you. And Mr. Harvey's was is out on a previously planned family vacation. So that's why he's not here tonight. So he's spending time, most of our time with his family. And I like before we get into the meeting, I like to make a presentation on behalf of the council.

Mr. Marks, you come down here with me. Yes, sir.

All right. I'm the old timer here, so as tradition has it, we always want to recognize our president because it is a lot of work to be here and run our meetings. I wanted to thank Mr. Marks for serving that capacity actually for two consecutive years and in our transitionary year. I think that we're off to a good start. I think we're going to continue in the second year of our friend Marshall Simeon's term and just bringing bigger and better things to you like Charles. So thank you and congratulations. Thank you. All right. For those of you who are here, sir, I want to let everyone know we're going to be deferring several items tonight. We're going to defer item five. to August 19, 2026. And we'll be deferring item 7, 9, 11, and 11 to August 5, 2026. And we're also deferring items 15 and 16 to July 15, 2026, our next regular meeting.

15 and 26, Mr. President.

15 and 16, right? 26.

My book says 26.

Okay, is it? Is it 26 or 16? And we're deferring until?

Okay, so I have to learn how to write a little bit better. That's all right.

So so 15 and 26 are going to be deferred to July 15 2026. All right. As everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes, are there any questions or revisions or amendments needed?

Please vote.

All right. First, I appointments appoint chairman or you best for project number CP 3433. That's 2022. Drain of infrastructure improvements. Package number one. And that's for Mr. Bilbo. Our public hearings. Public hearing series laterals plan is only commissioned decision to deny request for a variance in our established short term rental unit within 1000 feet of existing license short term rental within a mixed use zoning district at 3121 and 3123. June Street.

Mr. President and members of the council, this item is before you this evening on an appeal. The Planning Commission considered this proposal for a short-term rental within 1,000 feet of an existing short-term rental that's existing licensed, considered the testimony of the applicant, and we had a couple of individuals show up from the community against the request. So this item is before you this evening for consideration. to operate within the 1,000-foot requirement.

And what was the vote?

Oh.

You may have said it, but I was looking at the cards.

It was denied. Yeah, 4-0. 4-0. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

Yes, sir. Can I get some clarity from Mr. Begiris before he leaves? It's saying that it was denied because of the 1,000 feet of an existing short-term rental. Can you explain that to the council?

They have an existing short-term rental that was licensed before this one. And when this applicant came in to apply, they were within the 1,000 feet of that lawfully existing short-term rental as registered through the registration requirements of the city.

And that's a rule that the city put in you can't have?

The city adopted that rule three months ago.

And it was due to the fact— I believe March. of not having short-term rentals in a certain proximity of each other correct that is correct but wasn't that for neighborhoods not mixed use it wasn't it's it's across it's across the board this is just the zoning yeah

Yeah, the intent, I think, of that ordinance was to not allow for too many Airbnbs, VRBOs to populate in one neighborhood. And at the time, we couldn't measure by blocks because those vary in distance. So we said 1,000 feet. If at some point we need to go back and look at allowing exceptions in mixed use or in commercial districts, I think that might be something we could consider.

Mr. Fondell, for clarification, short-term rentals are not allowed as of right in neighborhood and residential zones. They just have to go through a conditional use process. This one is allowed, but it doesn't meet the 1,000-foot requirement. It doesn't have to go through a conditional use approval.

Okay, but in mixed use, there's other businesses in that area. Could be. Just a neighborhood. Could be. The criteria changes from residential to more...

The rule still applies to short-term rentals.

I'm just wondering if the intent was to protect neighborhoods or missed district areas? What was the intent?

Thank you for bringing that up. Good question. It was my intent, and I sponsored the ordinances and got council support for it, was to protect neighborhood aesthetics. And so I think whenever we look at it, maybe we need to look at how far is 1,000 feet to the nearest one, and is it in a different neighborhood? So a little bit of research that I did today showed that closest Airbnbs were across Ryan Street from it. And so it gives it a little bit of a buffer to kind of stand on its own in that neighborhood. The original intent was there were four Airbnbs that popped up on one road, and that starts to change the dynamic of it, of a neighborhood.

And it may be where it isn't for now. Resident will excuse and commercial mix you specifically. I agree versus residential and and neighborhood.

I agree. Residential zoning.

All right. We do have one card in support. Chad Carroll and just see he will provide information if requested so does anyone have any questions for mr. Carroll all right yeah I do would you mind just confirming a couple of things I did a little bit of research on this and have passed by the property but you're directly behind the commercial business That's correct.

And name and address for the record.

Chad Carroll, 1320 Lower Street, Sulphur.

OK. And then how far are you down from Preon Lake Road? I would say probably 500 feet. So pretty close to probably one of the busiest intersections at Orion and Preon Lake. Correct. Also, just could you clarify the number of parking spaces that are in that? I probably have seven or eight. Okay. And the reason that I ask is just because one concern is you don't want too much on street parking. But if you have eight parking seven or eight parking spaces, each it's a duplex.

Each unit has four spots. They're not another doubled up, but they can essentially park four cars for per unit. That's all.

I don't know if somebody's going to bring it up. I got one question. Is this a new short-term rental or have you been existing?

I've been existent and existent since I have a document from Airbnb that I prepared to bring to you guys since August 16th of 2022.

So what were you before? You were a B&B before?

And as of August 16th of 2022, it's been an Airbnb from from then and to now. And before then, it was just a single, just a rental.

Well, I mean, Mr. President, I would suggest that we defer this until we go ahead. Mr. Big Ears.

Just for the council's information, we are looking at an amnesty program since the ordinance was passed after a lot of these short-term rentals were already operating, but they weren't required to be registered. So we are looking at an amnesty program for those who have been operating that can provide us with documentation that They were actually legally operating through a short-term rental platform and paying their occupancy taxes and things of that nature. We just don't have that in place at this time.

My concern is what Mr. Young was concerned about in neighborhoods. having them piled up on each other. Now, it may be some cases where that's not the case, where they were already existent. But I think that we don't have a definite plan for mixed-use zoning as it stands right now. And I would hate to... Vote against this a vote to keep this in place and not have anything in place for mixed-use zoning Which is an abnormal that that wasn't our intent when we first established this but I think we need to go back and revisit on Timely in timely fashion the mixed-use zoning district and having these short-term rentals in there because we could potentially come up with the same problems not enough parking or too much parking on the street, even though it's a mixed-use area. So I would be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt right now is to defer this until we can discuss this and maybe put a timetable on the date, if that's all right with the administration, because we're ruling on something we don't have no standard for yet.

I wouldn't disagree with your assessment to further refine the ordinance. Having looked at this one and spoken with people around it and the business owner, I don't have a problem with it. Of right, in mixed use, can a bed and breakfast operate if it complies with all standards?

Only in a historic district. Okay. An actual bed and breakfast.

Yes, which is different than short-term rentals.

It's a little bit different than short-term rental. I would... I'll defer to the legal department on this. I would be hesitant to putting him in limbo and he can't operate going forward.

I'm not saying don't operate. I'm saying until such date, just leave him as he is, as he's functioning now. Is he not operating now?

He can't because he doesn't have the variance.

Legally, he can't.

He can't legally register.

Sir, do you mind coming back up? Would it would it be a problem to you? Let's say we defer until the 15th or later in the month to have a clear cut decision on this being that I would hate to just vote. to keep in order what planning and zoning has put in place and it be a disadvantage to you because we don't have any rules in place for mixed zoning use right now. And if you give us a couple of weeks, we can probably tweak the ordinance we already have, because Mr. Young sponsored it, as opposed to just voting against it. That would be my suggestion. I don't have a problem voting for it tonight.

But I think we do have a rule.

Not for mixed use.

Yeah, but I think the rule is- It applies to all zoning. It applies to everything.

right now, it's just citywide.

It's citywide.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. But you said the spirit of what you did was for neighborhoods.

Right.

So we didn't think about mixed use areas, which he falls into a mixed use area.

Right. I mean, it's adjacent to neighborhood zoning. Having looked at this particular neighborhood, I didn't see one other Airbnb between Bryan and Lake near Preon Lake. So I'm comfortable with giving the variance for this. But I absolutely will go back to put together an amendment on the ordinance.

OK. All right.

And what was the, I was looking, trying to look through the minutes again. What was the discussion at planning and zoning? Or was there no discussion? Was Mr. Carroll there?

I wasn't at the meeting. You'll have to defer to the minutes. Robin Bassoni, 5545 Swift Plant Road. There was one.

occupant of the house next door that indicated some very minor maintenance issues on the north side of the house, that the gate was off the hinge, and that there was some water damage at the base of a door. Mr. Carroll has already repaired those things. That was the only complaint.

Because it was a 4-0 vote against.

It was in the spirit of the ordinance, and that they knew that you guys would make the final decision.

That is a difference. We probably need to visit that. But that's really for a meeting. And probably the only place we'll get a visit is the first meeting in August. Because it would be in August. So someone can put it on Tuesday.

We'll start looking at some language and distribute that to you guys, and we'll help you guide through that process.

But I just want to be clear. We're not agreeing to the amnesty part of this? No.

No, we're still working through that. All right. All right. So this is your district and your?

Yeah, I'm going to vote for the variance. OK. All right.

Any other?

This is a yes vote.

Yes. That is correct. OK. All right.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Please vote for. All right. Moving on. Item number four, public hearing consideration, electoral planning is only commission's decision to now request for a variance in order to construct a new 1925 foot, 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.

Members of the council, this again is an item that was appealed to you. The commission denied this request by a vote of 4-0. The reason for the denial, the planning commission is only authorized by law to, through their review, to issue a variance up to 10% of the 40 allowed. So they felt that they had to deny it based on that requirement. Therefore, it's being referred to you on an appeal to consider the overarching 10% allowance for the accessory use of variance. So it really wasn't in their purview. They couldn't take action. They couldn't take it. And again, we're looking at the ordinance and taking situations like this and maybe making some technical adjustments so in the future they can make that determination based on testimony from the applicant and any opposition. All right. To be fair.

all right we do have um one card um is robin bassone or bassoni um so if you could or microphone and court just give your name and address again robin bassoni 5545 swift plant road in lake charles representing the property owner i'm here to answer any questions they are also present but her application was very comprehensive

i remember from the meds because they have a lot of items that need to be undercover and they need the square footage to keep it out of the yard different yeah have it under shelter and to more effectively um mr president please speak in your mind yeah to screen it from right nearby residents okay miss bisoni it talked about they couldn't approve anything over 10 percent over the 40 percent

How much were they over the 40%? Do you know?

I don't. I didn't memorize them.

I looked at the property size. That is, what, 86 front by 320 feet deep, the property. Nearly an acre.

Oh, so it's not a normal, small residential home.

No, it's a big lot. You're looking at, I think, between 5% and 8% increase over the. OK. So it's not. The lot is 320 foot deep.

So you're saying 5% over the 40%?

One fact that over the allowable 10. So it's close to 50% of the principal structure, 48, 49%.

And we're making these assessments based on the size of the primary structure as compared to what's allowed for the secondary. But one other thing that I thought was interesting with this one was, as Mr. Fondell pointed out, it's nearly an acre. It's 27,000 square feet on the property. Even if they are allowed to build this secondary structure, it's only going to be 5,000 square feet of total house plus structure, so less than 20% of the property. And I spoke with Ms. Hunter. And one thing that she did point out as well is that she owns the property to the east or west of her where where the back structure is being added.

And so the only reason that planning and zoning denied this was because they couldn't do it. They couldn't make a decision over team. That's what I understand. Correct. OK.

Any other questions? Comments? Please vote. All right, moving on. Item number six, an art or demolition author I say like Charles to enter into an agreement for demolition structure located at 922 Gulf Street burn structure. Benny Patrick Morrow owner.

Good evening, council. This is a burnt structure. You can see on the pictures.

I don't think that's the right picture.

This structure, it's been on our radar. It's open to the public. We've had a lot of vagrants going in and out the structure. The structure was pretty badly burnt on the inside of the structure. You can see in the pictures.

Excuse me real quick. Can we go to item six? The picture for item six, not item five.

Mr. President, I have a question right quick before we move on, just for clarity. Mr. Stutes, the owner of number five, they called for the deferment?

Yes, well, because they, they're not, both were not available. There are two cities, but they sent an email, which I sent, and it's going to share and sell on August 5th.

Okay, just wanted to be clear on it. Number six.

Are we on number six? All right. There we are. That's good. Yeah.

So it is a burnt structure. Yes. And we don't have any cars on it.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs the subject property and proof of service through Mr. Morrow's attorney of record, Gage Stewart. Mr. President, I believe Mr. Stewart is here to speak. No, they declined on behalf. Mr. Gage Stewart, a lawyer with the Varon Vice Firm, wrote us a letter indicating that he was accepting service and that neither he or Mr. Morrow would be here in attendance.

Do they have an ask?

They said they were leaning towards allowing demolition. This is apparently a physically and mentally impaired person, but he has been represented by Mr. Stewart, and he did not ask us to not demo it. He said he was leaning towards demos, and they're not here.

Do we know if he's living in it?

No. I don't believe anybody's living here. And he's asking that we don't?

No, they're okay. I mean, they basically said we don't really want to oppose it.

So, Mr. Fondale, what's your... Yeah, so we can do that.

He's been served. Correct.

They had asked for 3060 on the delay. Oh, 3060? If that's okay. Yes, good.

That is what they asked for. All right. 3060, please vote. All right. Item number eight. An ordinance or a demolition of the city of Lake Charles energy and agreement for demolition structure located at 2005 7th Avenue. Teresa, no middle name, Bible Baldwin owner.

And counsel, this structure is, you can see it's pretty bad. It has roof damage, it's bad, the inside's really bad. You have ceiling, floors, walls, all damaged with water. So there's lots of interior water damage to the inside.

Mr. Are we on number seven? We're on number eight. Oh, we skipped seven.

Okay. Yeah, seven was the first.

This is 2005 7th Avenue.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs, subject property, and proof of service through certified mail.

All right, and we have no... No cars on this item. This is Mr. Bilbo's district. We've had no contact. Had no contact. I think it's normal delays or 15th or whatever.

Mr. President, I would just ask that I see there's a car in front. Is that car still there?

The car's still there, but they have moved completely out of that house because it's not livable.

so would that be part of our demolition we have to get rid of that car as well we'll tag it and they'll get it um towed if the owners don't tow it okay yeah i it it looks like it's secured at least from these pictures i guess there's no complaints about keep people coming in and out no not so far but they did move out the people that were living there so do we only just do normal delays 30 60. Or 3090? No, let's do 3060. Yeah, let's do 3060. Any questions or further comment? Please vote. All right, I am not an author on demolition. All I say like Charlie integer 10. I'm sorry, we're on 10.

No, no, we're skipping now.

Okay, yeah, item nine. We have the honors Demetrius Antoine is Mr. Antoine or anyone? Any one else associated with the property in attendance tonight?

No, he called it off with nobody there.

All right. So so we they haven't been notified properly. So we need to defer this.

Yes. Robert need, Robert.

You're right, yeah.

The reason for the deferral. Number nine.

Yeah. Okay, so you want me to go over the, okay. Okay, yeah, this is a residential storm damage structure, and it's like the other one. It has pretty bad, severe roof damage to the structure. There's window damage, exterior wall damage, and you can see in the pictures. interior is probably severe weather to the um weather damage to the structure i'm confused was that nine or ten that's nine this is nine that's not nine okay

Do we have service issues as well?

We did, yeah. I called it out because actually this young man is number eight is his mother, and she was served, and I was going to take the chance if she was going to be here. She might have insight on what was going on. They're kind of next door to each other on those properties. But we don't have service.

We don't have service on nine. Okay, so do we need to defer 30 days, or is 15 enough to –

30. Okay.

All right. Let's defer this to August 5.

Please vote for.

All right. Item number 10. An orange orange demolition authorized to say like Charles entered agreement for demolition of a structure located 655 South Franklin Street. Norma Goodwin owner subject to tax lien held by city of Lake Charles.

And you can see in this picture, this structure has severe roof damage to the structure. It's collapsing. And this is a residential structure. So exterior roof damage, exterior wall damage, window damage, all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of this structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer him the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through certified mail.

No contact with them at all?

No. No, Mr. Martin. Mr. Fondale.

No, I'm going to make 36.

All right. Any other questions or comments from the council? Please vote. 5-4. All right. On to item 12. An auditor on demolition of the City of Lake Charles entered an agreement for demolition of a structure located 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.

Mr. President, we only have service on three of the eight owners. I think there might be some of the owners here to speak.

There's about four people raising their hands. I'll let Mr.

Okay, this is a storm damage structure. It's a residential structure. It's in bad conditions as you can see in the pictures. It has severe roof damage to the structure, exterior wall damage, window damage, all exposing the interior to severe weather damage of this structure.

All right.

We don't have any cars, but do one or all y'all want to come speak? Okay. Yes, sir.

If you could come eat the either microphone. Oh, we do. Yes. Number 12. The green.

I'm sorry. 12. Okay, we do have two. I'm sorry. We do have two cars. Are you? Mr. White?

My name is James White, 2520 Oak Cliff, Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Okay. What would you like us to do related to this structure?

Well, I put forth great effort to try to resolve this issue by having all the family members sign the property over to me. And I take on responsibility of the property. I've also solicited, I think it's Chris Morrow. And he agreed to work with me to demo the house. But we have one family member, I'm having problems of getting in touch with that person. So I spoke to Ms. Stoots.

I don't believe it was me.

No, no, no. Ms. Appleby? Ms. Appleby. Yes. I spoke to her earlier and exchanged my information. We're going to communicate and try to get this resolved as soon as possible. Ninety-nine percent of the family members are agreeing to go ahead and sign the property over because they're basically all on fixed income, and they can't afford to do anything with it. I just relocated from Beaumont, Texas, back home again, and – I just purchased my home south of town. So if we can kind of defer this until I get with her and try to get this ball rolling. I don't know what the law is when you got one person, which is a state person, not a direct heir. How did that applies?

Mr. President, if I may say.

Yes, sir.

Being that you you trying to take over, I would suggest in the meantime, we can give him a cost of what the city would charge to knock this down that will give you an estimation if you have to pay for it yourself or if the city has to do it and you don't get the property until later on you would know what you're up against as far as cost okay and we could still defer but just give you an estimation of what it would take okay so if it if it's the young

the financial thought of my mindset i would just go ahead and let the city tear it down exactly right and what happens is they'll put a um lean on and it'll become when the property taxes become due right so i've been paying the taxes myself since i've been here this year okay so it's not a problem with the property tax But if I can get all the family members to agree, then I would assume that responsibility. But if they don't, then I think they have to be dispersed among everyone to pay their share of what the city would charge.

And knowing the cost might sway that other person. Right. That would be a problem.

And I have a question. It looks like the door, that front door, isn't secure.

I mean, it's got a lock on it.

Okay, it just looks like it's a jar there. Yeah, but it may just be the weather stripping. I went over there.

It's definitely, no one can live in that place. Right. It has to be demoed. And you don't have any vagrants going in because there's a family member, which is a great nephew of mine, has an RV parked on the property.

Yeah.

He's living in that RV, and his idea is basically to keep people from going over there. How much time do you need, Mr. White? I don't know how I'm going to get this person to agree to this situation. Like you said, if we propose the amount of what they would have to share in demoing this, she might go ahead and agree. But if she don't agree, then.

Mr. President, can we give them a little time to come back to us?

I'm going to be speaking with her. 30 or 45 days?

Something like that. You agree with that, Mr. Stutes? Yes, I do. Okay.

So we're going to say August 5th?

Yeah, that's good.

Okay, good.

Okay, we're deferred August five. And this will be your only notice. Yeah, so just and maybe to get resolved before then when in communications. Let me ask you another question.

Yes, sir. I have a letter is already been composed. And each person is going to take that letter and take it to a notary and sign it, saying that they are donating the property to me. Okay. Once they sign it, they do not have to attend these meetings anymore, right? No.

I can't give you legal advice, but just make sure in Louisiana, donation of movable property, real estate has to be in a proper format to be valid. So just make sure you got it in the proper format.

Yeah, yeah, I got that, and also I think it states about the deeds, a copy of the deeds and all that has to be attached to the documentation as well. It's got to be an authentic act.

But to answer your question, if everything is done legal, they don't have to come to the meeting.

So I'll be getting with her. She'll probably give me the guidelines on what documentation I need and what is suitable, and then we'll kind of move this ball and get it out of the way because this should not have gone this far. Appreciate you, Mr. White.

Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Please vote on the deferral.

No, no, I just don't know what it is.

Amen.

Voting on the deferral.

Oh, I'm sorry. All right.

I am 13 in orange orange demolition all the way to the city of Lake Charles entered an agreement for demolition structure located 317 South Louisiana Avenue front house only. Grace Smith, or require price Charles Y price, Monica Manker Russell, Monica Manker and Gregory Manker owners.

And this is a residential storm damage structure. And you can see in the pictures there's severe roof damage to the structure. There's exterior walls. There's broken windows. All exposed in the interior to severe weather damage to the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer into the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through the Marshal's office and certified mail. This is a rehearing from June 3rd.

And we don't have any cars, but is there anyone from the family here to address this property?

Mr. Weatherford, if I may, before they speak, there was a permit applied for on April 15th, and the California air was supposed to be at the June 30th meeting but was not. Staff subsequently tried to contact the air. No contact was made. The air from New Orleans who applied for the permit for the roof has been able to make contact with the California air. in hopes they can work on the property together. However, since there's no contact from the New Orleans Air, no contact with the California Air, the New Orleans Air apparently does not want to push forward with repairing the roof. But I'll let them speak for themselves.

All right. I don't have a car, but if whoever would like to address this issue for the property, they could approach one of the microphones and give us a name and address and give us some insight into what y'all would like to see done with the property.

Is there somebody here?

No. I wasn't for sure that they were coming. I just wanted to pass along our communications. I know we've been dealing with this for a while.

But it's the best maintained piece of property we've had.

They just don't want to say it.

The reason why is because the widow of Dr. Frank Price stays in the rear, so she makes it. Oh, okay.

So the demo is just for the front house. Yes.

I got you.

So we delay this till Mr. Harvey gets back? I don't. What do you think?

I think Mr. Harvey was clear when he told them last time he was just waiting to hear from whether or not somebody was going to make contact. I think from a legal perspective, Mr. Stutes, if we go forward with the normal delays, that still gives them time within that time period. They could still pull the permit. And that time, Mr. Harvey might have some information by the time we come back.

So we'll go with normal at 3060?

Yeah, we get a normal delay at 3060.

All right. Normal delays, any other comments? Please vote.

5-4.

All right. Item 14 orange are in demolition. All right, then say like Charles enter into an agreement for demolition of structure located 2344 C Street, Marlene marks, Marquesa, at least marks and Kendall Wayne marks owners.

And this was a storm damage structure. And we had asked the owner, and she had called me, to make sure it was secured. All the windows are secured from the inside of the house. So that was the main thing on this one. It was secured properly. And I think she's planning on selling it. And she was going to get documentation to me for that.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer into the record photographs of the subject property and proof of service through certified mail. This is a rehearing from June 3rd. There has been contact yesterday by email with legal staff stating that the house has been secured, posted no trespassing signs. She has a title company working on trying to quiet the title. She's requesting additional time, and she lives in the Houston area and was not able to attend the meeting tonight.

And, Mr. President, if you remember, she came here last time. It was involving two properties. That's right. She was going to sell them both. But that title was what was taking a long time, the type of title, quiet title or whatever it was.

So what do you think is— Should we defer the 60 days to give her time since it is secure and looks like?

Do you have any confirmation that the house is now secure, Mr. Hester?

Yes, it is secured. From the inside, she's secured all the windows.

If I remember correctly, she was going to make sure the grass was okay.

Yeah.

I don't know when this picture was taken or by now. It was just taken last week.

And just for clarity for Mr. Stoots, what other way can we do it to give a time without having to keep revisiting this over and over? Is there any?

I mean, other than deferral, I mean, if you're not going to demo it, I mean, I don't really know what else there is to do.

What's the max we can defer?

I think you can defer it as long as you want to defer it.

I would say give it just two months.

Yeah, I was going to say 60 days. That gets us to September or whatever the first meeting in September is.

Yeah, that would be. I would give you the first September meeting.

Is there any way we can reach out to her to let her know to keep us abreast of that quiet title?

September 2nd.

September 2nd. Can we contact her and let her know? Yes. Okay. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Marks.

So deferring to September 2nd, any further comments or questions? Please vote.

5-4.

Second. Or 7th. Second. September 2nd.

Second.

All right.

Did we vote?

Yes, we did. We did vote, correct? Yes. 5-0. OK. Item 16. An Orator and Demolitioner of the City of Lake Charles Interim Agreement for Demolition Structure located at 2310 Channel Street, Lewis Green Estate, Owner.

Okay, this is a storm damage residential structure and you can see in the pictures it's bad. The roof has severe roof damage, exterior wall damage, it's open to the public, window damage, exposing the interior to severe weather damage of the structure and we've had a lot of calls with squatters in this house and this is the second time it's been to council.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs, subject property, and proof of service to the appointment of a curator. This is a rehearing from May 20th. I have an email, and we've had contact with legal staff that the family is okay with us demoing the home.

All right. This is Mr. Harvey's district. If they're okay, I think it's 1530, 1515. Let's go 1515. Any discussion, comments from the council? Please vote. All right. Item 17, an orthodontic demolition in the north side of the city of Lake Charles, entered into an agreement for demolition structure located at 2110 Railroad Avenue, Andre N. Walker, Brittany Ann Walker, Denver Jerome Weathers, and Javon Ramsey Yoakam, owners.

And this is a another storm damage structure news in the pictures. It has severe roof damage, sear wall damage when the damage all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of the structure and it is open to the public and we've had complaints about squatters in this one too.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photograph subject property and proof of service to do counsel. This is a rehearing from May 20. I think that Mr. Hawkins was supposed to be president. Brett Hawkins? I don't see him. I don't.

OK.

So we did have contact on somebody? We were told by Mr. Brent Hawkins that he would be here, but he's not.

He's wide open.

Yeah. Give him normal 30, 60.

OK. Any further discussion or comments? Please vote. Mr. Fonda, do you want him to try to secure that? Yep. Door?

Yep, he can sure work. All right.

Yeah, if we could. See if you can reach out to him. Please ask Mr. Hawkins or the owner, I guess through Mr. Hawkins. We'll do that. Get that secured.

Yes, Mr. President. 3060 and cleaned.

And cleaned. Yeah, it's pretty bad. All right, item 18, an order in demolition of the city of Lake Charles, entered into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 902 North Simmons Street, John A. Parker, owner of a subject to tax sale, state of Louisiana.

And this is a storm damage structure, and this one's been like this for quite some time, even before the storm. So you can tell there's severe roof damage to this structure, exterior wall damage, window damage. It's open to the public, all exposed in the interior to severe weather damage of this structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs, subject property, and proof of service through certified mail. This is a rehearing from June 3rd.

Owner lives in Alabama.

He's been in contact with Mr. Harvey. He had asked Mr. Harvey for a 30-day deferral, but we haven't heard from him since from the owner.

I mean, how close? I know we have two parks on North Summit. Is there close proximity to those parks in the school where we have kids getting in there?

Yes, sir.

And I've spoken with the owner for way before the storm, and he was supposed to repair it, and nothing's been done.

This house has been damaged since Hurricane Rita. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Rita? Yes, sir. Yeah, and like I said, it's— I can ask you a question, Mr. President.

Yes, sir. It says subject to a tax sale. Does that mean that's out here quieted or he's about to lose it to a tax sale?

Alabama is the parents on me as a as a emotional attachment to it. But this this property has been pretty much like this for the last year in 2005.

Yes. 20 years.

Yeah.

1515. I'm Google. Yeah. 1515. Any other comments? Please vote. All right, we have ordinance for final action. I am nominating 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.

You can explain it if you want to explain it. Members of the council, we're just changing the membership requirements. You know, right now to fill a term, it's an unexpired term. If they leave and there's only six months left, you have to appoint someone. You have to reappoint them after six months. This just says, you know, when you appoint them, they've got a three-year term. So we're going to have to go on through the process. reappointment over and over again.

Do we have a time limit with that, Mr. McGarrett? I mean, like, if he got two years left on that term, are we going to appoint him to another term, or this is with the muster?

This states the date that he's appointed. He's got three years from that date.

Okay. But I'm saying if one term is going to expire and he got two years left. No, it's time start.

His time starts new. That's what he explained. It has nothing to do with the term. It's time to get a three-year term. Oh, from that time. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Got you.

All right.

Simplifies it.

Yep. Any other questions or comments? Please vote.

5-4.

All right. Item 20, an Orange College-Salade-Charles Indian Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Koshu-Parris School Board to cost share in the McNeese-Barb Drainage Project. Mr. Vizano? I know. What is it? I'm sorry.

Yes, I can answer questions. Basically, it's that ditch on the west end of McNeese Street at Barb that's been eroding real bad. The administration, thank you very much. We met with the school board out there, looked at it. I think it's estimated around a $600,000 project. The school board is going to pick up an estimated half the cost, $300,000.

So that's from the corner of the four-way or two-way? Three-way. Three-way back the length of the sports complex.

We were back to the east, right? Yes, by the tennis court.

It's going to go back to the tennis court. Okay.

And we've seen, I know we saw pictures, and I mean, they're losing parking lot. Yeah, I had pictures.

We did a temporary repair, thank you, Ms. Wendy, that will kind of sustain it until we can really fix it. So thank you very much.

Mr. Visano, what are they going to do?

Well, there's a utility in the ditch, which was part of the problem why it took so long. So the engineers, they're going to put culverts in it, and it's no longer going to be a ditch.

Let me save you some trouble of what I'm asking or why I'm asking. Mayor, last week we had some people come from Beau Blanc. Similar situation, same thing. So I'm wondering if we can monitor that, see what they did to remedy that problem. And that may be something we can refer back to for them at Beau Blanc.

Yeah, you're talking about off of Magny Street.

Oh, yeah, where they got utility poles in the street, in the ditch.

The difference with Beau Blanc was that they had telephone poles.

Telephone poles in the middle of the ditch now.

Dealing with estrogen and removing those poles, it'll take a little more effort than what it's going to take here.

Okay. But I'm looking at the material that's used to do it. We could keep an eye on it.

I think the covering and closing the ditch is going to be the best way to do it. You never have that erosion anymore. They can actually put a drainage drainage collector right there to take the water off to a dozen. Okay.

All right. Any other comments or questions? Please vote for. All right. I am 21 in order to have the lowest responsive and responsible bid in our city. Lake Charles entered an agreement to purchase one new sewer inspection system, camera and crawler for use by the Public Works Department Wastewater Division. Mr. Young.

Yes, sir. We advertised for this project. Unfortunately, no responsive bids were received. So staff has recommended that we reject all of the bids and authorize the project to be re advertised.

Mr. Young, if I may ask, They denied it for what? Because it was going to cost more than what they did?

There were a number of, I'll let Ms. McDaniel address that. There were, I think, a total of six bids, but none of them were responsive because there were various reasons that they didn't meet threshold for the city.

I'm just curious as to why they weren't responsible.

Are they saying we, we're not willing to pay enough or no, there were some specs with the, like we set out. And then when the companies responded, there were specs from different, all the different companies that didn't really fit with what our wastewater department needed. And so they're going to go back in the wastewater department is going to go back in and take a look at what those specs were and put it back out to hopefully get better, uh, quotes from the companies.

All right. Any other questions?

Please vote for.

All right. I am 22 hours, except the lowest possible been authorized save like Charles energy and agreement for project number CP 3400. 18th Street reconstruction Lake Street career street phase one, Mr. Young.

Yes, sir. Received a total of three bids for this project. It's my recommendation that we accept the lowest responsive and responsible bid, which was submitted by Alfred Palma LLC in the total amount of $2,062,966. All right.

Any questions or comments on this item? Please vote.

Five-four.

All right. Our final ordinance. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for to purchase annual supply of public safety uniforms for use by the Lake Charles Fire Department for a 12-month period. And that was Mr. Bilbo. So I will go ahead and take a look at that. Let's see. Looks like we... received two bids into no bids. And the recommendation is Southern specialty products, lowest and responsive, responsive and responsible bidder meeting specifications. And their bid was $2,968.22. So I move that we accept that I have. Yes, sir. Question for Miss Emily.

What was the increase from last year? First of all, is this the same company?

A few things happened. So it was time for us to go out for a bid for the uniforms for the fire department. And we sent out the bids. Two companies responded. In that time, those companies merged, so they're now one company. um the quote you see in front of you is uh that is the entire that is if one one person went in and bought everything on the list so that's how that's kind of how we have to price it out because one person can go in and buy just a few things nobody's can go in and buy everything at one time but that's the only way we knew how we show you what the cost is. And so there's not really a notable increase, but we just had to go out and re-quote the package.

Are these companies the same ones?

They are now.

Any other questions or comments? Please vote. All right. We have Only three resolutions. Anyone want to pull any of the resolutions?

Only two, Mr. President.

All right. Which two are those?

No, we only have two. 26 was different.

Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. All right. Let's go ahead. And we don't want to pull the 24 and 25. All right. Let's go ahead and I'll read those two in. A resolution accepting project number CP3257, Sallie Mae Medore, dead end, phase two is substantially complete in authorizing the advertising of the 45-day lien period. And 25, a resolution accepting project number CP3262, Southeast Water Treatment Plant, new water treatment facility is substantially complete and authorizing advertising in a 45-day lien period. Any questions or comments on these two items? Please vote. 5-4. All right. Items 27 through 34. These items are for introduction by consent and will be read into the record the day following this meeting at 11 a.m. in the City Council Chambers and City Hall. Please vote.

You don't have to vote.

Okay, that's right.