City Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah, you can go and start if you need to. Just 30 seconds. Maybe 30 seconds.

All right, before we get started, I'll just make a couple of housekeeping announcements. Items 3 and 18 are deferred to October 7 of 2026. If you're here for those items, those have been deferred. Item 9 has been removed to go through the administrative hearing process. And what date? Do we know the date that that hearing will be at?

No, I was just told that it would be moved to the administrative document.

Okay, all right. So we won't be discussing that item tonight. And items 10 through 17 have been deferred until October 21st meeting as well. And item 28, I'm sorry, 10 through 17 have been deferred until October 21st. And item 28 has also been deferred. Actually, that one's been deferred October 7th.

That's item 18, not 28.

No.

He requested 28. Oh, did he?

I just said, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. He's been really busy and haven't had a chance to review it. Probably would be good to go, but I decided to go ahead and defer it. I got it. Good. Timing is not critical on that, so we're good on that. All right. So those are all announced. Let's go ahead and call our meeting to order.

Let's see if Mr. Harlan, can you lead us in the application, please?

And Mr. Fiesel, can you lead us in the pledge? Absolutely.

Let's be by here, please. Father God, we come to you tonight, first of all, thanking you for another day of fresh air existence and the possibilities that lies in front of us, Father God. We thank you for the opportunity to be able to serve this great city. We ask that you allow us to make sound decisions tonight that's in the best interest of all constituents. We ask that you cover this entire city. In Jesus' name, we pray by saying amen. Amen.

Please face the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Yes, roll call please. Here.

Mr. Young. Mr. Harvey. Here. Mr. Weatherford. Here. Mr. Visano. Here. Mr. Feindel. Here. And Mr. Marks. We have a call.

All right. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes of our last meeting? Are there any issues in the discussion related to those? If not, please approve.

5-4.

All right. Item to appoint chairman review business project number CP 3537 gospel recreation splash pad. Mr. Harvey. Yeah, I am through was deferred till till October the seventh. Item for appoint chairman review business project number CP 3492 Malaco golf. Mallard Golf Club driving range improvements. Mr. Bilbo. It's cool. I do it. All right. Public hearings on our foreign demolition and authorized say like Charles entered an agreement for demolition structure located 711 Fall Street rose young pot no and Frank bought no owners. Pastor

good evening council and this is a residential structure you can see in the pictures the roofs pretty good on this house you can see there's exterior wall damage there's some window damage there's some weather damage inside the structure and the structure was open to the public

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer into the record photographs of the subject property with interest party having appeared at the June 17th and August 19th hearing. August 19th hearing, they were told in person to reappear tonight. All right.

Okay, we do have a card on this item. Annette Walker, if you could approach the microphone and let us know what your wishes are on this item, what action you'd like us to take or not take.

Well, right now it's still under secession. Your name and address? Oh, I'm sorry, Annette Walker, 1627 St. John Street.

Okay.

And as far as I know, it's still under secession.

Are you going to be an heir? Are you representing someone there?

Yeah, I'm the one taking care of everything over there.

Okay.

All right. This is Mr. Fondell's district.

I'm going to recommend 30 days.

30 days? Okay. So you want to defer for 30 days? Okay. We'll defer this item 30 days, and this will be your only notice, right, Mr. Stoots? That's correct. Okay. At what date will she have to reappear? October 21st. Okay. Please vote. all right so if you could be back of course if certainly communicate with any property standards and if it's resolved before then that's great but if not make sure you're here for October 21st yes sir we need to contact the legal department to tell them what you were trying to do yes sir okay yes sir thank you very much All right. I am six and orange on demolition and I say Lake Charles interchange agreement for demolition of a structure located 738 Riverville Street swimming pool only the Kia event gallery owner and council this is a residential swimming pool.

And we've had a lot of complaints about this pool. There's stagnant water, there's mosquitoes, the smell of the water. So we need to do something about this pool.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer an indirect photograph of subject property and proof of service to the Marshal's office. This is a rehearing from August 19th. Mr. President, please call out Mrs. Gilrey should be in attendance. Yes. Is Ms. Gilrey here?

So, Nakia, you've had Gilrey is not present?

Mr. President, she was here at the August 19th meeting and stated that she wants to repair the pool.

Okay.

That's all I have.

It looks like, I assume, these are new pictures. Yes. It looks like 9-9. It looks like there's a fence around it. Has it been drained?

There's a fence around it. It has been drained. It looks like she's putting dirt in it. Maybe that are the bottom of the liner of the pool is so damaged so bad. Where it's just the dirt, right?

I remember she she did name a particular pool company that I'm familiar with that that she had discussed it with I did. I know that's true.

Remember that too.

So

Has Mr. Marks had any discussions with you about this since he's not here?

We've had complaints, though, from the neighbors, especially when it had the water in it. Because, like I said, it breeds so many mosquitoes, those pools do.

I mean, should we – I'm thinking maybe we should go ahead and – Demo and then if Mr. Marks wants to, yeah, we can always delay some of the action of actually tearing it out.

Yeah. I mean, there's two options the owner has to either repair or fill it in. Right. And if they don't do either one, then we'll go in and fill it in at the last meeting talking about repairing.

Yeah, she was 30 days.

Do we want to do it? Yeah, we can certainly defer it.

Yeah, correct. Not here.

Why don't we defer it till October 7? Okay, fine. Yeah. Is that good with everyone?

Can you let's defer to October 7? We can do that. October 7. Okay. I need to vote on it.

Oh, yeah, yeah, please vote. I'm sorry.

We got 455 in favor.

All right, so item seven in our turn demolition all I say like Charles engine agreement for demolition structure located 312 Maple Street, Madeline Johnson marks on and we do have a card on this item.

And this was a residential structure. It had roof damage from the storm. It has exterior wall damage. It has some window damage, but the owner has secured all the windows on the property. And it had some interior damage to the structure.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer in the record photographs of subject property and proof of service through certified mail. This is a rehearing from August 19th. Mr. Harvey, Councilman Harvey, has been in touch with them. Property has been posted and secure. Bayou Title is working on quieting title. Mrs. Marks is a real estate agent. Crystal Craven should be here to answer any further questions. She's right here.

Are you Ms. Crystal? Hi. How you doing? Yes.

Please state your name and address.

Crystal Craven, 2002 West Walnut Street, Suite 3, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Currently, this property was supposed to close on August 31st. Because of the way that the property was previously acquired, there was some discrepancy in how to get it insured for the new buyer. So they were working with the title company to get it insured so that once it's transferred to the new buyer, there's some insurability on it. um we're requesting another an additional 15 to 30 days at the most per our recent email this morning at 9 25 the title company said that he was sending over the docs to the actual lender so hoping to close by the end of this week or next week

You want to defer to the October 21st meeting? That's fine.

We should be done by then.

Okay. All right. Motion to defer to the October 31st meeting. Please vote. And Ms. Craven, this will be your official notice, so hopefully it will all be... done by then and it'd be resolved but it's not you need to be here on the 21st all right all right so what item eight hey what date you gave them what date you had a October 21st October 21st

Okay, I was letting them know.

Okay. All right. I had to make an art or an evolution author say like Charles energy agreement for demolition structure located 1302 11th Street Stephen Daniel Peters and Betty Louise Allen Peters owners.

And this is a residential storm damage structure and this one has severe roof damage. The whole back of the house is collapsing. It has a lot of exterior wall damage. It has lots of broken windows, lots of overgrowth and all the interiors weather damage.

Mr. President, this time I'd like to offer the record photographs subject property and proof of service through the marshal's office. This is a rehearing from August 19. Please call out see if anyone's present. And I think Mr. fondell knows something about the structure as well.

All right. So do we have either the Peters here tonight? Or would you not miss fondell?

What standard 30 days?

Yeah, I mean, as you what third standard is 3060.

You said, I thought there was that you had some knowledge or no.

Oh, okay. Okay. No, I didn't know.

Okay, then nevermind.

So yeah, the standard is 3060. Basically 30 days to pull a permit total 60 days to complete the work. Yeah.

Okay. All right. 3060. All right. 3060. Please vote.

Six in favor.

All right, and as stated earlier, we're going to skip over to item 19. Before we do that, since Mr. Marks wasn't here on the swimming pool, since you weren't here, we deferred it until October 7th meeting. Okay. Since you were here, I just want to make sure because we could certainly revisit it if you wanted to. All right. Moving on, we're going to go on to item 19. Ordinance for final action. Ordinance accepting the most responsive and responsible quote and authorizing Lake Charles to entertain an agreement for project number CP3134, North Louisiana Avenue, Jackson Street, interchange water main improvements. Mr. Harvey?

Yes, Mr. President.

Yes, Mr. President. We'd like to recommend that the lowest responsible bid was our cloud construction company with a quote of $237,225. I move that we accept this quote.

Any discussion on this item? Please vote.

Six and five, ma'am.

All right, I am 20 and artists author I say like Charles Henry to a cooperative endeavor agreement the Louisiana Department of Treasury for the Prairie and Lake Road pedestrian bridge and that's they were all familiar with that that but that's the bridge on Prairie Lake Road near Olmstead shipyard and where there's a lot of pedestrian and behavior and bike traffic but a lot of pedestrian traffic and it's pretty dangerous so uh our state senator uh stein was able to secure some funds from the state so that we can complete this project and make that a much safer walk for the folks that are using that question yes sir what's that what's our portion do we have to pay for anything from the city i think it's all as i understand it's all state money it's all statement all right any other questions or comments please vote

Six in favor.

All right. I am 21. Not in the South by say like Charles Inerton a co-opter endeavor agreement with the Louisiana Department of Treasury for electrical streetlights on Sally a street. All right. Of course, it's Mr. Young's district. But any questions or comments on this item? Please vote.

Six in favor.

All right, I am 22 in ordinance amending section 24 dash four dash 205. parentheses five parentheses a city of Lake Charles zoning relative to variance limitations. And we have Lauren here to let us know what we're going to answer any questions we may have.

Good evening. Thank you. The Planning Department is proposing some changes to the limitations on variances in the zoning ordinance. Namely, it's the Planning Commission's ability to approve greater than 10% for height, floor area ratio, and lot coverage. And then also matching their limitations on variances for the rear setback to match that of the side setback, which is uh no less than three feet on the side setback so that would be the same on the rear so i'm here to answer any questions if y'all would have any and of course it would be appealable to us yes everything is appealable to the council okay yeah all right any other questions or comments thank you for the detailed explanation already on the phone conference thank you so much okay appreciate thank you please vote

Six in favor.

All right. Next item is the inarticulate settlement of a claim against City of Lake Charles for Sioux style Jana M. Gallier versus City of Lake Charles and Tyron Dean McGinnis, docket number 2025-1812. Division H on the docket of the 14th Judicial District Court, Parrish-Coxhugh State of Louisiana. And since this is litigation, we can choose to go into executive session. And of course, if we do, there will be no decisions made in that session. Does anyone wish to go into executive session on this item? All right. Are there any questions related to we were all apprised of the settlement? Are there any questions on the settlement?

I didn't know anybody, but I mean, I'm good with it.

Okay. Please vote.

It's in favor.

All right. We have, of course, resolution number 28 has been deferred, but the rest 24 through 27. Do any of these need to be pulled? A couple of people we need to appoint chairman. So does anyone want to pull any of these separate at this point? All right, I'll go ahead and read a resolution. Yes, sir.

I'd like to pull number 2525.

Okay. All right. I am 25. A resolution always say like Charles to issue a request for proposals for the most qualified proposal for maintenance of city lights for the public works department.

I guess my question is, we're going to hire a contractor. We don't cover that through our public works. Our public works don't work on our lights.

Councilman Marks, that's actually for interstate lighting and also overpass lighting such as Enterprise Boulevard, Shattuck Street, MLK, also underpass lightings for the interstate. So what's happening is that Entergy is transferring all that responsibility to the city of Lake Charles and not just to the city of Lake Charles they're doing it all over the state of Louisiana but we're actually going to be taking care of our interstate lights as well as on-ramp lights uh underpass of interstate lights and and overpass lights is that just servicing it are we going to have to pay to replace them as we're we're our proposal our Our proposal is to go out for RFP on this and get a most qualified company to do the work. Actually, a lot of the work was never done by Intergy themselves. They actually contracted it out, as well as DOTD. They contracted all of this work out. So in other words, they were actually the middleman in this, and now they're getting out and giving that responsibility to us.

But I mean, they used to pay the middleman, right?

Yes. We're going off RFP. We will have to pay for those services. The funding coming from DOT? No. No. That is all of our responsibility. That's going to be the city of Lake Charles responsibility.

Wow. They're doing that all over the state. What we want to do is we want to assess what they're trying to push on to us because certain segments of the interstate where the lights are out is not because of bulbs, it's because of the electrical systems. So we want to get a full look at what it is that they're trying to get us to absorb. They're doing that all over the state too.

So we do have an option or some means of regress, I guess.

No, those, they're, as you said, they're getting out of the light, no, they're getting out of the light business on the interstates. Oh, just on the interstates.

Just on the interstates.

I think Ms. McDaniel can try to explain the funding source. I think that's what you're getting at and how it's been handled in the past and where energy is asking it to go into the future. So if you could kind of walk through that briefly.

But to speak with the mayor, just so we do have a meeting with them, I believe, tomorrow to kind of talk through what all this means. But historically, the lights on the interstate are owned by the city. But Entergy would contract a company to go out and fix them for us and then charge us for it. So we... Ms. Robinson was right. Entergy had been the middleman for a lot of these lights. But what we want to be sure of in our meeting tomorrow is the quality of the lights and then being sure of what lights exactly are they handing over to us because we kind of want just the ones we already own. So that's what we're going to be talking about.

We were already paying for it.

Yes, sir.

But we were already paying for it. I guess that's what stole me for a loop.

Most people don't realize it.

So this is nothing new. Now we're just taking ownership of everything.

We already had ownership. What we are doing now is the contractor will work directly for us, the city, rather than Entergy going out and contracting it and then turning around and giving us the bill.

So where was this budget, where was this money coming from? It's in Public Works.

but we were already allocating that money anyway yes sir okay hopefully we it's good whether we'll get street lights and streets but we'll we'll have more control over the process because we're going to be directly with with the contractors in theory that's what tomorrow's meeting is about that's what it should be As long as it's being paid for, as long as we're not having to pay more.

The concern that I have is that some of these lights in certain stretches of the interstate have been out since 2020, since the hurricanes. The under lights for sure have not ever been on, so we want to see what the condition of those systems are and who's responsible for maintaining those systems. The city owned the lights, but the equipment itself, that's the questions that I have, and whether they maintain those, because if they're turning a problem to us that they sat on for a while, I want to know about that before we take control of it.

I agree. It may be something that we may want to consider taking on with the Public Service Committee. I don't know if that's... The industry certainly comes under their jurisdiction, and I don't know whether... This is part of what their authority is, but certainly worth exploring.

I think there's a reason why they're giving it over, so we just want to make sure we understand that before we accept this.

So the streets that we have, I guess streets like Legion Street, would that fall under them, or is that considered us as well? Is that considered the highway?

No, sir.

No, okay.

But I do want to say, when this process happens, we are going out for RFP. Most companies that we've sat down and talked to about a proposal for this, they're going to do an assessment for us. They're going to figure out what kind of polls we have on these things. through ways that we own, what kind of lights we're going to have, and they're going to keep those stored for us. And all that's going to be added into, it's going to be in our cost of this.

But just like the mayor said, how many of those companies are going to take on that dead weight we got of stuff that's already damaged?

Well, that's what we have to, that's why we're meeting with Entergy on tomorrow. Okay. And so that some of that load can be distributed equitably.

Got you.

All right. Any other questions? Please vote.

Six and five.

You know, I do need appointed chairman. Mr. Morris, we'd like to be chairman of that.

Sure.

Okay. All right. Item 24. Resolution authorizing Lake Charles to advertise or receive seal bids for project number CP 3545 West McNeech Street drainage improvements south side, borrowed high school parking lot. And Mr. Visano, would you take that?

Absolutely.

All right. Resolution authorizing Lake Charles to advertise or receive seal bids for project number LCR 109 city sidewalk and median enhancements. Mr. Harvey, can you take that? Yes, sir. all right uh resolution setting date to appoint a member to the recreation district number one one of war three board of philly expiring term of mark young for a period of five years his term expires on october 27th 2026 we'll be making this appointment at our october 7th meeting yes sir um for this i know in times past

The breakdown of the board consisted of certain districts. What districts is this? I'm not sure.

I think it's, is it E and G maybe?

E and G? Yes, sir.

and then I just want to ask that Mr. President sure I understand I don't know I was thinking the same thing and I remember from before I thought it was E and G Mr. Marks if you look on the agenda fact sheet in the back of the book it'll explain the districts to you okay all right all right so please vote on this item six and five all right I was informed the owner of the pool at Everville Street, I believe, is here now. Is that true? She's here. Since she's here, we'd like to go ahead and so we need to make a motion to reconsider. Yes. Okay.

In a second.

Oh, no, we will just we're going to make a motion to reconsider. Then we're going to ask you to come up. Okay. I'll make a motion. Can we have a move? I don't think you can because you weren't here. Okay.

I make a motion.

Mr. Harvey made the motion seconded by Mr. Bilbo. Please vote.

All right.

So now it's back on property on the table. I don't know if that's the correct legal term, but we are able to reconsider it. So let's see. Item number six, an orange horn demolition law for I say like Charles energy and agreement for demolition structure located 738 Iberville Street. Swing pool only. Nakia Yvette Guillory owner and Miss Guillory is here. So if you could approach this microphone. State your name and address for the record and let us know how you'd like us to handle this, please.

My name is Nakia Guillory, 738 Abbeville Street. We're still working on it.

Does it still look like this?

No, it's not that bad.

You don't have any pictures with you? No, I did not bring any pictures.

But progress has been made. Yes. My guy called me yesterday and sent me a message yesterday and told me that they should be measuring by this weekend.

Okay. So about another 30 days? Yes, sir. So are you living there?

Yes, that's where I live.

Okay, I was just curious. I know it's behind a fence, but I saw that the gate wasn't locked. But if you're there, you know.

Remember you told me to post it. I posted both sides.

Great. Perfect. Mr. Stoots, whether it would be the correct defer or extend?

you can do either one I mean you can defer it for 30 days and have her come back this would be the only notice she gets and assuming that she makes acceptable progress you can he said by this weekend they're gonna be late excuse me measuring for the liner so then you'll have to order the liner and it's gonna take about three or four weeks for the lining to come in

Well, I'm going to give you 30 days, and you come back. This will be the only notice you get. Okay.

So it'll be October 21 is that meeting that's after 30 days.

Okay.

Okay.

I'll be here.

Now you need to vote again to defer it again. Okay.

So let's vote to defer until the October 21st meeting.

Six and five are?

all right yeah this be only notice that we're going to be discussing this again on October 21st here I'll be here October 21st thank you all right so all we have left now is move on to our

Mr. President, I don't think y'all voted on 24 because you started pulling them. You didn't vote on them.

You didn't vote on 24 or 26.

You voted on 25. Okay, let's go ahead. I mean, you can vote on them. You didn't pull any of the others. Yeah, let's go ahead.

We already discussed employment chairman for 24, 26, and 27. Read 28 as part of it. 28 we deferred into October 7. All right. So please vote.

Six in favor.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. And items 29 through 35 will be read into the record tomorrow.