City Council - Regular Meeting

I didn't know who it was. I just wrote it down when I passed. Okay. About the what? Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, gotcha, gotcha. In fact, she...

I said I want to sit by you. I'm sorry. So am I.

Yep Before we get started

All right.

Let me do that again. We're going to be deferring items 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 26 to August 5th. And we'll also be deferring items 9, 12, 13, and 14 to August 19th, 2026. And we're deleting items 10 and 11. So if anyone's here for those items... We'll be deferring and deleting a couple of those, so we won't be discussing those tonight. All right. Yes, sir. Yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. Okay. Let's see. Mr. Bilbo, can you lead us in the invocation, please?

Oh, yeah. I got my prayer, baby.

All right. Mr. Bilbo, can you lead us in the prayer? Yes, sir.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today with gratitude for the gift of community and responsibility of leadership. Grant us wisdom, fairness, and unity for this council as we make decisions that affect the lives of many. May everything we've done here today serve the common good and honor that we trust. Amen. Amen.

Peace be with you.

Before we get started, Mr. Harvey has a presentation he'd like to make.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'll ask Councilman Visanoff to please join me. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time I would like to ask Ms. Shelby Joubert to come forward. So first and foremost, this is not the first time that you've actually seen this phenomenal young lady. She is a Barb High School student, and the reason that we're bringing you, first of all, congratulations again. Thank you, yes sir. The reason we're bringing her forward today is because she has just recently received a national honor. Ms. Shelby has been named the National Senior Leadership Ambassador for the National Beta Convention, which was recently held in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm going to let her come to the podium and speak more about her new appointment, but I just wanted to say on behalf of myself, the mayor, the city council, and your home council of Councilman Visnock, we congratulate you. There's a lot of times that we don't hear too many good things about the youth in our community, but you are definitely a true example of what it means to like to keep moving forward on it. So we truly appreciate you for that. I also would like to recognize her phenomenal parents, Mr. Joubert and Dr. Joubert, who's also in the audience. We truly appreciate you. Michelle.

Good evening, y'all. My name's Shelby Joubert. I'm currently a senior at Barb High School. I'm going into my senior year where I'll be serving as the National Leadership Ambassador for the National Beta Club. I'm looking forward to the experience. As Mr. Harvey said, it's not my first time doing it, so I'm hoping that the second time I'll be able to do it to my fullest potential, and hopefully I'll be able to represent Southwest Louisiana and Lake Charles to its fullest potential.

Thank you, and congratulations again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Has anyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Are there any comments or questions on those?

If not, please vote.

All right. First item, appointment. Appointed chairman to review request for proposal. see for a developer to design, build, finance, own, operate, and maintain a food and beverage and recreational establishment on one acre more or less to be leased in Track 3 of Lakefront, City of Lake Charles, all in accordance with and authorized by Title 41, Section 1214 of the Louisiana Revised Statute of 1950 as amended. Mr. Harvey, will you take that, please? Yes, sir. All right. Moving on, we will skip all the way to item 16. In honor of the City Council of the City of Lake Charles, amending resolution number 31323 to authorize the City of Lake Charles to modify the location and scope of RCIP LDI.

Mr. Weatherford, it should be number 8 that we skip to. I know there's a lot of deferrals.

I'm sorry, we need to touch on it. Number 8. In May, yeah. Okay, we needed to call. I'm sorry. Okay, number eight. No R's are in demolition of Ohio City of Lake Charles. The interning is in agreement with the demolition of the structure located at 1716 22nd Street. Brian Keith, jewelry owner.

wall damage, window damage. The back part of the house has really bad roof damage to the structure. Also an interior weather damage to the structure.

Mr. President, I'd like to offer into the record photographs of the subject property and proof of service through mail acknowledgement. This is a rehearing from July 1st. I will note that the owner is a truck driver has called in. He's currently in Missouri, and he's okay with the city demolishing it, but he's asking the council for delays of 3060, which will give him time to remove any of his belongings from the structure.

Mr. Stoose is he asking just to remove from the little house in the back or the whole house I think he's got belongings in both structures and he wants to get back in town to remove it before we demo he's okay with the demo going forward okay okay I'm fine with that long as we no more delays that got to go all right all right any other questions or comments on this item please vote

7-4.

Just one question, Mr. Patrick. Yes, sir. You said normal delays are 30-60? 30-60. 30-60. Okay. 30-60. All right.

Item 16. Ordinance of the City of Lake Charles. Yes. City Council, City of Lake Charles, amending resolution number 3-1.

I'm sorry, we have one more demolition. 15.

Okay, good deal. In orange, demolition of City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1400 North Shattuck Street, Cleveland Nash and Elvira Nash owners.

It has severe roof damage to this structure. You can see it has quite a bit of exterior wall damage, a lot of broken windows, and a lot of interior damage, weather interior to the damage, to the incident.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through certified mail. This is a rehearing from May 6th. At the May 6th hearing, Pastor Lawrence Nash appeared and requested additional time to consult with family. At that time, he had stated he had recently lost a son. I'm not sure if anyone is present tonight.

Call it out, Mr. President.

Is anyone here from the Nash family or anyone representing this property? All right. I guess soon, obviously, no, this is not an issue. No. Mr. Harvey?

Yes. Last time I was actually here, and I know we asked for grace from the family, but there's no one here. I would not want to make a decision with them being here. I'll go ahead and defer one more final time for 30 days, and maybe we can either reach out to them. I'll try to reach out to them as well.

just before we make a final decision that would be august 19th mr harley deferred for 30 days just for edification you said it's a flood zone goss boulevard is a flood zone

so i guess the significance of that if it's more than 50 percent damage then they would have to elevate it and we don't know we don't right that's what i mean so we and we so we don't know what extent of the damage is at this point so so you're saying it has to be raised because yep right if it if it's if it's But as I understand it, if a structure is more than 50% damaged, it then has to be elevated if it's in the flood zone. If it's less than 50% damage, then you can repair your home.

They can raise the houses, though.

Oh, sure. Oh, no. Yeah, they definitely can.

Question for the record, Mr. Stutes. If in the event that we're unable to contact the owners, is it something that we can send again in certified mail just to show that we try to reach out to them again?

Yes. Would you like we do that? Okay.

Thank you.

All right. Any other questions or comments? Please vote. All right, we can do 16 now. An Orange City Council City of Lake Charles amending resolution number 31323 to authorize City of Lake Charles to modify the location and scope of RCIP LDI City of Lake Charles, Lake Charles Second Harvest 0084 and further authorizing the purchase of vacant land parcel number 00751405 Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church to construct it on a primary community resilience hub and of course with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's national objectives for use for the use of funds from the CDBGDR program. We don't have any cards on this. Do we have any comments from the administration? All right. Yes, sir. Any comments or questions?

Yes. I would like my colleagues to side with me in the fact that I'm for this program, but I'm not for us moving forward without an appraisal being done on this property first. That has been the consistent avenue which we took on all properties. We had to have appraisals before we made a vote. I don't think we should vote on this until we have an appraisal for the property.

Mr. Stewart, I mean, Mr. Stewart, whether if I may, again, I guess, Mr. Marks, you know, the city can't pay above appraised value. Right. We do recognize your concern. If you all wish to defer for two weeks, we're in agreement.

or you could also amend the resolution so that it approves it only if we pay appraised value but you can do it either way however y'all would prefer I would prefer to do the appraisal first before we do anything any other comments it seems likely that you can get an appraisal done in two weeks

We've asked for one and it hadn't come in yet but we anticipate if it doesn't we'll have to address it but I think it'll be done in two weeks.

So we've already requested it?

Yes sir. Remember it's three weeks to the next meeting so we have one more time. That's right. It's one of the rare times we have three weeks. Oh that's right.

Alright so Mr. Warren you want to make a motion to defer?

Yeah I'd like to make a motion that we defer this for until the August 5th meeting pending an appraisal on the property. Second.

We have a second.

Any other discussion? One other thing. Yes sir. Can I with with from the legal department we have a list of appraisers that we use right is it within our purview to suggest not who we use but who we shouldn't use or is that not something we can do could you could the council provide a recommendation to the administration for us not to use somebody yes

I certainly think you can give us that recommendation. Okay.

Well, I would like to recommend as part of that motion.

I think for it to be binding, it would have to be in the form of an ordinance, but certainly you can make the recommendation and the administration is here.

Ms. Marks, if I might, I believe it's already been assigned to someone, so they're in the process of doing it unless there's just an objection. You know, after the meeting, I can tell you who that is, if you like.

I'll just say it like this. If it's the one that appraised the property for the sports complex, I'm going to object to that appraisal. So I'll just put that out there. All right.

Any other discussion? I have a question.

What are we talking about appraisals? Is this one of the people that we have a professional service agreement with that we signed at the beginning of the last fiscal year? Yes, sir. It is?

Yes, sir.

So automatically that appraiser goes to that person because we signed those other things? No, sir.

We have more than one.

We have a couple of appraisals. Typically we give it to the legal department and they deal with the appraiser and they get it appraised. But they're legitimate appraisers that just do appraisals for the city.

It's not just one on the list. We have more than one.

And let me just tell you this. It is not the world's easiest thing to get appraisals. It got a little better about a year ago, but after the COVID and the hurricanes, it was near impossible. It's getting hard again. And so as far as the people that we have the approvals for, more is better that we have multiple appraisers to pull from because sometimes you can't get one of them to call you back for two weeks.

Right.

it's not a simple thing that's a good business it's it's a supply and demand thing and the demand is high and the supply is low mr president are we clear on my my motion yes sir you basically and you're going to share the you want me to say it again no no okay you just don't want whoever you didn't name by name whoever did the appraisal on the sports complex

is it binding if you vote on that i think it would actually we've been we're voting on the motion to have an appraisal done by the august 5th meeting pending to defer this till the august 5th meeting pending an appraisal and i am requesting of the administration that we do not use the same appraiser that did the uh the sports complex

that may delay it if we are using that same appraisal I'm just letting the council know because it's been assigned to them they're working on it as we speak and I'm sure we've incurred cost at this point we will not get it back by August 5th if we switch but we don't know whether we're going to have to switch or not or do we know that it is the same appraiser that did the Fitz and Ryder property I'm suggesting that that appraisal not be used

So you say if we're going to do it, so do we need to, if we are going to go with that suggestion?

I would suggest that we defer, like I said, until August 5th, and if it has to be delayed, the administration will let us know, and we can make arrangements at that point.

We can just defer it until the approval is complete.

That would be fine, too.

Well, let's just defer it until August 5th so we can. people are notified that we could be taking action on and if we need to defer at the always fifth meeting, we'll do that.

That's fine with me.

Okay.

But I'm just saying if the work is done, for the majority of it, we're going to present the appraiser to you with cope if that's the one that did it, then y'all can make a decision whether you want to approve it or not.

All right.

All right. Very good. Any other questions or comments? Please vote.

74. All right.

item 17 in ours I say of Lake Charles allow more than 10% cumulative increase for a change or project number CP 3426 wastewater treatment plant a operational reliability improvements collection system hardening any questions yes I have a question in regards to this why wasn't this found before we got started

We almost threw a project now and it's coming asking for a change on it.

Council remarks, that's a very good question.

But when the project was given out, these items are all for sale.

Unfortunately, when we dig into our underground infrastructure, our infrastructure is very old. And so therefore, there are times when we're going to find things that cannot be seen with a contractor going about it.

I understand what you're saying and I respect what you're saying but from my understanding this is a project repair so this was already in place so we've already had work done to that and I'm seeing too many things come through wastewater with change orders and that's why my concern is I think hardening whether or not something is hardening we should be able to we're hiring experts to do this so we should know when they bid on it what's going to be a part of it. I'm going to accept the fact that this, like you said, it was unforeseen. I don't believe it is, but I'll go along with it. We need to be aware of these change orders coming at such a late date.

Any other questions? Please vote. All right, I had to make the orange the mini section 24. See late Charles cut of artists by adding section 24 dash five dash 203.1 relative to outdoor light. We do have a couple of cars on this issue. All right. Are they just in support? We have. What are we doing with this ordinance?

Can I take a stab at this? Can I take a stab? Sure. Okay. So this is an ordinance that I sponsored and back in April was contacted by three people, each of whom I see in the audience tonight. really concerned about light trespass. So big commercial properties that have parking lot lights that are pointed upward, pointing outward, creating glare in the streets for drivers. The concern was that more lighting isn't necessarily smarter lighting. And so I looked at Baton Rouge's light pollution ordinance that they passed in 2020 and based it off of that, working with planning director and assistant planning director in the city. We are essentially revising, if approved tonight, section 245203.1 tonight to require light be facing inward, downward at a certain height and not to exceed 10,000 lumens. That triggers another couple of regulations that really controls where the light extends. So I think that residential property owners shouldn't really have to deal with spotlights coming into their bedroom windows from the next door commercial property. Drivers deserve the chance to drive safely. You've all been driving at night and been blinded by this light that's coming at you and really makes it difficult to see the street. And so asking my colleagues to support this revision in the ordinance. And again, it's not new to Louisiana. There's a precedent set in Baton Rouge when they adopted a very similar ordinance that seems to have worked well for them.

and I would note to if I could add to that Mr. Young there are exceptions in the revised ordinance for things like emergency vehicles police fire FAA and other necessary federal functions Mr. Stooge is this applicable to residents as well as commercial I believe that it would be anybody, well, not many residents are going to have that type of lighting, but if they do, yes. It doesn't distinguish between someone having that type of lumen power, commercial or residential.

Yes, sir. Yes, right now. No, sir, this is 10,000 lumens.

So you have to really request it from energy or by, you know?

The light? Yes.

You can't walk into Walmart by it.

Oh, okay.

Not typically. I'm just wondering who's going to be impacted by it.

Mr. Burgers can explain it.

Mr. Fonda is generally commercial establishments. And when they submit for a building permit, as part of those plan packages, they have a lighting type plan, generally speaking for for large commercial projects. So they will, they will identify those lumens and what type of structures will be in parking lots and on the building.

So we don't inform these guys that we have a list? Absolutely.

And from a commercial perspective, it's standard practice for them to submit for construction purposes to have that in there. That's a general rule. Okay.

One of the other reasons that residents brought this to me, and I think it's worth pointing out, is we're in the Mississippi Flyway, so a lot of bird migration in our patterns. And lights just pointing up really limits that, kind of limits the effectiveness of the wildlife refuges that are just to our south. And so this really helps us be true to the sportsman paradise that we like to tout in protecting wildlife there.

All right. The three cars I have that are in support. Don't wish to speak and provide information if requested. So do we have any questions for any of I think we're, are we ready to vote? No. Yeah, if we have any questions or concerns. Okay, yeah. The three people that submitted cards are Jacob Rafferty, Leslie Fane, and Ernest Monso or Monso? Monso. I think it's Monso.

All right.

You ready to vote? Yep. Please vote. I am 19 on a stopping loving the annual property tax millage is for the city of Lake Charles for the tax year 2026.

I have a question is present. Yes, Mister cut on it. This this miniature is that something we vote on us that are automatically renew. But does it go out to go out to vote like the like the other villages.

These are the property tax millages that are in place for 2026. These are the same millages that did fail in the election, but we have to authorize them so that we can collect 2026 property taxes.

So we're voting on it later, but we authorize it.

Right. We didn't put this before you earlier because we needed the vote. And so now we're going before you to adopt the current millages.

Okay. Any other questions? Please vote. All right, item 20. In Ordinance, I say Lake Charles enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Takachi Parish Sheriff's Office to fund two Sheriff's Office employee positions to the Real-Time Crime Center.

Again, I have a question. Mr. Cardona, you probably got too busy. I sent you an email. I'm just wondering, when you calculated the salaries out, are those positions in the line of progression, or can a new officer come in and get that position with the salaries?

I did answer the question. And I thought I said it all. So my fault, my apologies. But the pay rate that that was given to us was a zero to three year employee.

Okay.

And I don't know what the chair's intent is. But I think he had to give us a number. So he chose a zero to three. Now that don't mean the person that's actually assigned to us on our desk is going to be a 0-3 employee. It could be anybody. There's 7-10, you know, whatever their matrix is. But we're getting billed at the rate of a 0-3 deputy.

Okay, so that brings another question. So we're approving to pay a sheriff to do this?

Well, we're approving to reimburse them for the sheriff's deputy's expense.

Yeah, but I'm saying we're essentially paying the sheriff.

Yes.

Okay, so... I guess we couldn't put a city police officer, and I ask that question because of the salary we're paying. We couldn't pay that to a city police officer to be in that room?

Well, and if you look at the salaries, it was broken down in a couple different ways. One of them is without state supplemental because it was my understanding from talking to the sheriff that he could hire someone that is just coming in and they don't qualify for state supplemental. He may have someone that is already there that could do it. uh but those salaries that i gave you is not just the salary that you're seeing it's the salaries the benefits it's the insurance it's everything that goes along with that so it's there's a lot of it's all the benefits it's the retirement benefits so i mean if you plug those into what we pay our people it's really reasonable yeah close to the same i'm not going to say it's level but it's very close to being level the base salary is 48.5 i think what the city or the sheriff sure when we're reimbursing for 48,500 so if anybody knows if we had to pay a city police that same salary how long would he had to have been employed okay it depends I mean I can let the deputy speak to that but depends on what position it is right we felt that it worked well because it's managed by the Sheriff's Department okay and this these two people will be assigned to the city of Lake Charles so they're working for us but they're reporting you know basically to the sheriff not reporting to different agencies we do a lot of this we work real well with the sheriff's department a lot of other endeavors are good partners of ours they work with us on Mardi Gras and other events and he's offered to do this and you know we think it's going to have a lot of benefit for us so we will still have access to them like we have to the city police absolutely okay

I think if you look at it, and I'm going to take the opportunity to make this quick, we're getting a lot for our dollars. We're going to have access to that center on an absolute basis, not whenever they have time. We're going to have dedicated spots, and we're only paying for two salaries. We're only reimbursing for two salaries. 24 hours a day, seven days a week takes more than two salaries. So it's almost a 50-50 match. He's contributing some man hours, and we're paying for it. So it's a very good deal, I think.

Okay.

question how long would the cooperative endeavor agreement last we haven't written a corporate endeavor agreement but typically we'll do it for three years it'll be one year at a time and it'll continue to roll over until somebody gives 30 days written notice lastly I did ask captain Ty East here who's hands-on in the real-time crime center and the management if y'all have any questions

About the operation.

I just have a question for Mr. Cardone. In your experience, would it be better for us to do it at the terms of the mayor or the three years would be better?

I think we ought to go ahead and do it now. It doesn't have to end with the mayor. We'll see what kind of benefits we get from it. We think there's going to be a lot of benefit to it, but if down the road we see it doesn't work, we can cancel it.

Okay.

And I'm just a suggestive if some of the council members haven't been to the center, it is really impressive how it's set up. And we think about the economies of scale. It's way better than us trying to open our own real time crime center because it's a lot more efficient to partner.

Any other comments or questions?

Please vote for

Thank you, Deputy East. Item 21, an ordinance in the city of Lake Charles called an ordinance in Act Section 13-37.5 to provide for a prohibition against larding on border-like drive, the lakefront promenade, and all other city-owned property not specifically addressed by ordinance during designated hours.

again I have a question I just want to be clear when we first bought this up I think mr. Beeson all had give us some clarification that the officer or whatever entity is called out there to find this is at the discretion of them so mr. Stutes do we have a fine scale for this or how do we determine the penalty I think we actually wrote that

Oh, that actually would be, do you know, Chief? He's asking the summons, what kind of ticket is it?

It's a misdemeanor summons, right? What the max would be, it would depend on what's written into the ordinance.

So we can determine what the max can be?

Typically, yeah, for some kind of criminal violation, absolutely.

And I'm asking that, Chief, because if we're doing this to get teeth, it has to have some teeth. You understand what I'm saying? Sure. And I'm saying that, I guess, for the edification of the council and administration, when we determine how much the fines are going to be, I would just like for us to consider that.

Yeah, because, I mean, I assume we have a law and ordinance in place and it has established fines. That's what I was looking for. Okay. So I guess I'm looking on Munico.

Would it be, I know there's a remaining after forbidden, which is a state statute. When you tell somebody to leave and they don't leave, you can charge them with that state statute in addition to any other ordinances. Am I right?

You can, but I saw the language on this one. It includes similar language to remaining after forbidden and trespassing. Those types of conditions are covered under this one as well.

Mr. President, we do, under the Code of Ordinances, Section 1-8 is a $1,000 fine or six months in jail. That's the max, yeah.

For any laundering fine?

Correct. All right.

I have a question. Behind the Civic Center, the young lady brought up the last time, there are people out there that's fishing, doing different stuff. That's what we were talking about. So tell me, what's the difference between someone out there fishing and we just loitering?

Well, this particular ordinance does not necessarily make any distinguishment between those two different types of people. However, our officers are going to be targeting people who are causing trouble and not citizens who are out enjoying the promenade.

If you're fishing, you're not really loyal.

But the ordinance doesn't distinguish.

The officers will have discretion.

I just want to be clear on what we're putting in place. I understand we've got problems. I'm not arguing against it. But the public needs to be aware that whatever that officer, if you're out there, whatever that officer determines is laundering, that is laundering. Right.

Mr. Fondell, that's a true statement and a reminder that the time frame starts at 12 o'clock midnight and is at 5 a.m. It's really late at night and we're trying to stop the activity that's been happening at the event center, along the promenade, along the beaches and stuff like this. We think this is going to put the teeth in place for us to do it.

My whole part is that the public understand what's going on. They hadn't been a The officer was not approaching them before and now they can.

That's a true statement. And that's the tools that we need to deal with the problem at hand.

Understand that this is a big change that's happening, you know, and it's left up to the discretion of the officer.

Ultimately, you're right.

We don't come back later and say, you know, I didn't understand. We have to inform the public somehow that this has changed.

But we can also put signs, can't we?

Yes, sir. There'll be signs out there saying.

I understand.

And let me just say this. You're adopting an ordinance. We think this is going to give the police department the tools to take responsibility and to clean up some of the activity that's been happening along the border lag drive and along the lakefront. And if for some reason we want to revisit this at a later date, We can come back to the council. We can revisit it. So what we're trying to do is clean up what's happening now, and then we can address future changes.

And like I said, I have no objection. I'm just raising the question. Hopefully the public would be aware that things are changing.

I think that's a smart idea.

You know, previously the officer would not have approached them. Now he can.

Yes. And I might add that all throughout the city we have loitering signs. You know, this is new to the Civic Center, but loitering is loitering throughout the city.

We have city parks, signage. That's right. That's right. So this is just an extension of what we already had going on.

We're just putting this within the geographic boundaries.

But it wasn't a loitering sign?

Right. You're right. Not until if we adopt this.

But currently, just to remind the council, that the parking lot at the event center, the parking lot, not Border Lag Drive, is no laundering there. So that's currently in place at the event center. This just takes it from the parking area to Border Lag Drive where we've been having all those issues. That's good.

I mean, there is a definition, a general definition anyway, of what laundering is. It's probably subjective to some extent.

I'm not talking about to necessarily like vagrancy Western Dictionary.

This is certainly a certain level of subjectivity in this for sure.

Any other comments or questions? We didn't have any cards. So let's go ahead and vote. All right. We have some resolutions. 26 was deferred. Do we have any of the 22 to 24? Or through 25 and 27? Does anyone want to pull any of 25? Or pull 25? Okay. We do have part on 27. So we'll pull that one as well. Okay. I'll go ahead and read 25 in. The resolution ordering and calling a special election to be held in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, the city, on December 12, 2026. Excuse me, Mr. Weatherford.

I think typically you have a first and a second to pull it. Yes, sir.

Okay.

Just on this particular issue.

Okay. I thought I'd read it in and ask for a first or second. I mean, we need to know what the first and second is.

Okay. Okay.

Resolution ordering and calling a special election to be held in the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, the city on December 12, 2026 or such other election date prescribed by the legislature of the state of Louisiana as an alternative for such date in accordance with law for the purpose of submitting to the electors residing in the city qualified under the Constitution and laws of the state of Louisiana. propositions for authorizing the renewal of the levy and collection of certain special ad valorem taxes for the purpose described herein making applications to the State Bond Commission in connection therewith and providing for other matters in connection therewith all right we have a motion make a motion that we accept this

motion do we have a second we have a second motion Mr. Marks second by Mr. Vezina any discussion from the council yes yes sir Mr. Marks a while ago we were told maybe I just overheard it that we can't ask people to vote for this is that correct

You cannot lobby for it. You can provide facts to anybody that asks what the taxes are used for, but we're not allowed to lobby people to vote in favor or against. But we can go out and provide information about what these taxes are utilized for, what they fund, and what funding might be affected if these taxes are not renewed.

i would like to urge the administration along with the council that we start immediately educating people on on this because i get a lot of calls asking about what the last taxes was, we didn't give them a good explanation, all these other kind of things. So to head that off, I don't want us to have any excuse why our citizens wouldn't be in favor of this when it comes time to vote. So I think we need to start early educating them in some way, whether it be public forums, commercials, whatever it may be.

I agree with that, and I've had conversations with the mayor, and he agrees with that as well, Mr. Marks, and we'll be doing that.

Just so we could start that process, I was asking Ms. McDaniel if she could just go through the list of what these taxes we can start tonight real quick and provide the public that information, even though the election is five months off.

I mean, I think one good opportunity, I don't know when the police are hosting the night out, that might be a good opportunity to present some of that information.

i'm sorry go ahead um i do want to say this too i agree with mr marks is saying um i too just recently had a community meeting where i took the time to thoroughly explain what each one of them meant i think the questions that's coming from the public was the possibility of a low voter turnout on the december 12th versus having it on the ballot with several other things that's happening in november I don't know how we made a decision to just say, let's have a special election on the 12th.

I can address that if you would. Under state law, we were not eligible to bring this back up for a vote within six months. So we couldn't put it on the ballot with the things that are on the ballot in October. We had to do it for what would be the runoff date for the October elections in December. And then if we went past December, we would have to this would no longer be a renewal and it would be a new tax so we kind of got caught in a state law would not have allowed us to put it to a vote in october it was not possible and if we go out past december it we will have to call this a new tax and not a renewal

that was a true statement and it's the cooling off period is what he was describing the three property taxes very broadly because I don't have I don't have any information in front of me so I can't speak in absolutes but the three property taxes one is for streets and keeping up the streets of the city the other is for recreation go straight into the recreation fund to fund the wonderful things that the recreation department does for the city and then the other is salaries for employees of mainly of the police department and then if there's additional salaries it can go into other into other departments but it's so streets salaries and recreation are the three property taxes that are being voted on by the public and the one you just we just spoke about right there's only there's only well there would property tax you say we was authorizing it Correct. It's the same three property taxes that you just authorized to adopt for 2026. Those are the exact same property taxes that would be authorized for us to collect for the next 10 years.

Yeah, that's what I was saying. They were levied January 1, 2026. They are collected in November. And if we don't renew them, they will no longer be levied January 1, 2027. So the impact will not be on

current fiscal year?

Well, not beyond current calendar year.

Mr. McDaniel, could you remind the council of what those villages mean to the city dollars?

In total, it's about $13.6 million, which of the city's general fund revenues, that's about 13% 13 point million per year. Correct. Yes. So it will be a 13% decrease in revenues each year for the next 10 years.

OK, so we could. We could review this at every meeting. I'm going to talk about.

Sure. It's your meeting. I mean, sure. Yeah. Meeting.

Yes.

Mr.. Mr..

I just want to be clear. That's fine. Mr. Stu said if for some reason they don't pass, it becomes a new tax, correct? That is correct. And. Don, I forgot that fast. The next year. it would become, could we come back next year? We could come back, but it would be a new tax considered if we don't pass it this time.

It is currently considered a renewal because these taxes have been on the books for quite some time, for at least the past 10 years. And so this is a renewal and we have until December to consider these renewals. And like Mr. Stoots said, if it comes back, if the millages do not pass in December, we will have to ask the public for a new tax, because at that point the state considers it a new tax.

So technically we could ask for a new tax that's not an increase, just the same tax, but it's called a new tax.

It would have to be called a new tax, yes.

I just want to be clear on that. I've heard it said a few times, but it's a renewal, so it doesn't raise tax rates for anyone. This is maintaining the current millages.

No raises. 14.98 mills are our total property tax millages.

And in the past, it's been higher than that.

Oh, absolutely.

Yes, sir. To my recollection, we accepted all but one rollback, maybe?

In 2020, prior to 2024, the millage was 15.12. In 2024, there was a re-evaluation of all properties in Calcasieu Parish. The assessor did a re-evaluation. And at that point, our millage dropped to 14.98.

In essence, what that means is that whenever you renew the tax or whenever you have the new assessment, the new assessment cannot, the taxes collected cannot be higher than what it was in the prior year. So that's why when your property values go up, that's why you would have to roll back to a lower millage. Yes, sir.

They try to maintain revenue neutrality. Right.

Appreciate it. All right. Any other comments or questions? Please vote.

74.

All right. Let's go ahead and do item 27 now. Resolution amending resolution numbers 81-14, section 13, and 150-97, section 10, regarding the rules and regulations covering the City Council. For the City of Lake Charles, for procedures relative to comments by the public during City Council and agenda meetings. And Mr. Seuss, if you could, Professor Merritt, what we are proposing to the changes we're making.

um we're just tightening up the rules to make it clear about donation of time that the donor this has been in the rules but they are further clarifying that someone who donates time to another has to be in attendance at the meeting whenever the person they've donated the time speaks it also makes it clear that the council can extend the time allotted to a speaker by a two-thirds vote Other than that, oh, and then there was a max time limit of 12 minutes cumulative. If someone, you had three people donate time to you, that also will be nine minutes, which also can be extended for good cause with a two-thirds vote.

All right. Any questions or comments from the council? We do have one card looking for clarity. We've got Ms. Gerald Darbonne.

Fitzgerald Darbo on 2523 Hagen Street. I just needed more clarity on exactly what this was pertaining to. You okay, Ms. Marks? I'm not in your space, am I? so again I'm glad you're basically answer the question what I wanted to know is one thing I wanted to add we had mentioned at one time that having a display clock so that the presenters could actually see and adjust their presentation based on a visual rather than on somebody raising a card we

have considered adopting that into I know somebody had brought that maybe a month or so ago yeah we've talked about that I think it might be in the tax miss McGain was just talking about so hopefully we can renew that tax we'll get that clock okay all right that's it thanks appreciate it thank you mr. Dalbon appreciate you thank you any any other comments or questions please vote

All right, let's go back.

Did you have any other pulled, Mr. President? We do not. You can vote on them. Yeah, I'm sorry. Let's go ahead and vote on them. Because I have another one to read in after y'all do that.

You got to read them in, though. All right. All right. So we voted on, we did vote on 27, correct? Correct. 25. 27 and... twenty five twenty five and twenty seven were approved yeah yeah so now twenty six has been delayed and right so now we'll go ahead and address items twenty two to twenty four yeah all right and item twenty four the hearing date for it will be September second twenty twenty six Item 23, a resolution accepting project number CP-3242, Southern Sewer Loop, Sunset Lift Station Rehabilitation is substantially complete and authorizes advertising in a 45-day lien period. Item 23, a resolution accepting project number CP-3339, Lakefront Parking Garage Phase 2 is substantially complete. and authorizing advertising in a 45-day lien period. And resolution setting date for public hearing on accommodation structure located at 740 Cleveland Street. Russell Foster, owner. And once again, that hearing date will be September 2nd, 2026. Please vote. I have 28.

You got one more to read in.

One for me to read in, Mr. Weatherford. This is for introduction only to be approved at the August 5th, 2026 meeting. This is an ordinance authorizing the settlement of a claim against the city of Lake Charles and the suit-styled Nicholas Buck and Katie Buck individually and on behalf of their minor children, Caden Buck and Carson Buck. versus the City of Lake Charles and Jeffrey Floyd, docket number 20254984, Division B, as in boy, on the docket of the 14th Judicial District Court, Parish of Calcasieu, State of Louisiana.

All right. Do we need to go ahead and vote? You need a second and a vote. So we need a first? Motion. We got a motion, a second? Any discussion? Comments? Please vote. All right. Items 28 to 36 will be read into the record tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. in the City Council Chambers and City Hall. so yes sir these that are for introduction we don't get to talk about those not not until not until we they'll be introduced at our meeting on the you introduced them they'll be discussed and voted on that's right these are the awareness tonight and the discussion will be out August 5th meeting

In our books, do they have any information on those particular ones in our books?

Whatever information that I've received so far is in the book, yes, sir.

So they, like, each one of them has a page with the writer.

And it's probably minimal information at this point, but we'll get it, yeah, before our meeting three weeks from now.

Okay.

All right, any other questions or comments? Meeting adjourned.