City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and call the August 18th, 2026 City Council meeting to order. We'll start with a roll call. We have Board 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and at large present. I will ask Councilwoman Moynan to lead us in prayer.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit, amen. Gracious God, we are grateful for the opportunity to serve our community, guide us with wisdom and strength and clarity in our decisions. Bless this meeting in our city and our shared commitment to the common good. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Winning. You're welcome. I also know we do have a pretty crowded room, so just a reminder, be respectful when others are talking. And also, if you can go ahead and silence any cell phones so we don't have any disturbances. I will move on to the approval of the agenda. If there are any amendments, I am going to add under guests. We do have Chief Kingston here with us tonight. I know we requested at our last meeting that him come to answer some questions regarding flock. we did have something that is not on the handout it was added under what item was that caitlin you added it under the mayor's report um it is just want to highlight it it is read it read it thoroughly It is a motion directing the, it's 12B, the motion directing the sale and award of a taxable grant anticipation note, non-revolving line of credit, series 2026 of the city of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and the maximum principal amount $3,285,000 to authorize the execution of a term sheet regarding such sale by the mayor and city clerk. so i just wanted to make everyone aware that that was at it um it's you can pull it up online it'll be there but it's not on the handout other moving on to announcements september 1st 2026 is our next city council meeting at that meeting we will also on september 1st we also have the public hearing for the fy 27 budget And then on September 8th, we will have the meeting to accept the budget. So September 1st is the public hearing for the budget. And also just something that's not on the agenda but an announcement. I put the sheet by the sign-up sheet outside the door. We do have a burn ban in effect until further notice. With that being said, we'll move on to guests. Then I'll invite Chief Kingston to the podium. Good afternoon. If you want, I'll just, I don't know if you have anything to start off with. If not, I'll open up the floor to the council and we'll start with Councilwoman Moynihan and work our way down. Questions?

I'm good for the moment.

You have a clock.

Okay.

Give me just a second. I wasn't actually certain about that.

on that's a hot topic nationwide so not we're not unique in that mike have we had any success in getting with the flock representative i know we talked last meeting about doing a zoom call or having somebody kind of explain on their end i think they are available for a zoom call if we can make that appointment they weren't available today okay um yeah i'd certainly love to kind of hear from flock's perspective you know um but i guess uh just a few things on our end um I just wanna confirm, obviously there's any technology, we wanna make sure the police obviously have the technology needed for you guys as per support. Then it gets into the debate of is there infringing upon our constitutional rights in the Fourth Amendment. But I say all that, do we have something in place for an internal control, SOP, policy and procedures, access,

Yeah, as law enforcement officers, we have access to a lot of sensitive data, so we have policies in place for those things, including FLOP.

Okay, so we have a specific FLOP SOP and policy. How many users do we have access to? Is it every officer that has access to it? Certified law enforcement officer. So how many, roughly, is that?

We have 34.

34 spots. Is there any kind of internal mechanism? Because I know, again, there has been some abuse in other municipalities that is coming to light. What's an example of kind of an internal mechanism? I know there's been instances where an individual has pinged an ex-girlfriend or ex-wife hundreds, thousands of times. So is it two people have to sign?

This use of authority or power as a law enforcement officer. So it happens with all sorts of databases, not just block. But to answer your question, we do have an audit process that we can go through for FLOC. FLOC also has an automated audit process that it does. If it sees something that's a little wonky, it'll flag it so that the administrator can look at it.

Okay, so it does. Because I've read something here of late that FLOC's trying to put in some internal mechanisms for the different municipalities or entities using this that it would ping if there's a, you know, I don't know what that is. specific number is, but if you're accessing a certain individual's description multiple times within its time frame, do they come out, roll out what that mechanism would be?

So, for instance, if you log into it, you want to search for something. It's an inquiry into an investigation. You're required to put some certain information there. If that officer doesn't put that information, it's flat.

Okay, and this might be more, Heather, would this fall under, in the state of Mississippi, would any individual be able to do a FOIA request? Because this is information that's obtained on public roads with public funds with a public entity. So could any person go in and do a FOIA for information on another individual?

I can answer that pretty good. So the information that we get from FLOG is license plates, mainly, right? And then, of course, it takes into account what the vehicle looks like. It doesn't have anybody's information stored into this FLOG. So if I'm driving down the road, my name doesn't pop up. It's just a license plate.

So that's the 13, the ALPRs, but we're about to implement 25 pan, tilt, and zoom cameras throughout the city, correct?

That's CCTV. It doesn't tell you who you are. It shows you something. Okay. Just like a camera, like that.

Okay. But based on that information, could there still be a public record? So if I know somebody's tag and want to say, hey, if it's a reasonable request, say, within the past two weeks, can I see everything that's been pinged on that? Could I, as a citizen or any other citizen, because I want to make sure our information is safeguarded from that.

So this information is protected. It's for law enforcement only. According to our public records, if you requested something and we have that record and it's a public record, I could give it to you. If it's not a public record and it's not something that we have, then I can't give it to you.

So would this qualify as a public record, then?

I don't have a list of tags to give anybody. Okay.

Okay.

We don't create record to give it out, so it'd have to be something that we had in our possession. And then if they had it for investigative purposes, that typically will file under an exception to the public records.

So what she's saying is, if there's an investigation and I have to run this information, I run that information, I run a report, and I add that to something. If it's part of an investigation, as being part of an investigation, it's exempt from disclosure anyway. So that's how we would create that record.

Much better explanation than what I was giving until it could eventually become public record once that investigation is finalized and closed. But during the investigation, it would not.

And I know, okay, and I know there are some legislation, a couple pieces of bills from the House that have been presented. One was the Congressman is no longer in office, but the other, I believe, was Congressman of Tennessee, don't quote me on the name, I think Congressman Pritchard, but what it would essentially render is that any municipality or any entity would not be able to use federal funding, because we get this from the Homeland Security, right? It's a $121,000 grant. I think that was House Bill 9800, which was presented probably about a month or so ago. And we discussed that during our budget, because the bearing on that would be, right now we've set the budget, but then if this goes into effect, it would affect the next year's budget. Certainly something we're keeping an eye on, because then that would render this to where it would be our taxpayers that would be paying for this, we're all taxpayers, local, state, federal, but it wouldn't be federal funds. So obviously we'll be keeping a keen eye on that. In terms of the placement of the 25 pan, tilt, and zooms, have we mapped out those locations? Can we get a list of those? And what kind of promulgated the main areas? Are we doing it in parks?

Yeah.

Yeah. So do you want me to just tell you what they are? Do you want me to send it to you? I mean either way I mean this is all accessible by the public I just want to make sure again everyone's fully aware because I think I think when you know when you hear about the license plate readers and a lot of the citizens and Scott constituents I've spoken with about this because it has gained national attention so the plan for the ones that we're going to be implementing would be boat launches

parks, downtown, thoroughfares, there's some big places that we pick because of the places that they are.

And would this be the same access? Yeah.

You got it, I didn't know if you could reach it. I didn't know if you could reach the silence thing.

Sorry, and so this would be the same access? It's pop off. But the same access internally? Yeah, all officers.

It'll be all ran by the FLOC by law enforcement.

Okay. And we've been in contact. You have a representative with FLOC that can answer some questions too. We do. Okay. Yeah, Jerry's been in touch with him. He's got a few contacts that he speaks to.

Okay.

Yeah, that's all I've got. That was just off the cusp. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were coming today, Alvin, so I'm just trying to.

That's okay. But yeah, if the council has any other questions. Yeah, just kind of, I know Kyle asked a lot of how many authorized personnel, and I know you mentioned that there's a audit log, and this is something I looked at on FLOC's website. Every search has a signature with it, so do we have a supervisor that in turn goes back and reviews those searches periodically? It'd be the administrator. Administrator, okay. Just making sure that, because I know FLOC implemented the flagging of searches that they seem out of order, but in addition to that, I just wanted to make sure we had somebody in-house, and that's what I had.

Okay.

I think college most of them that was my only concern but I know they are useful tools and I know there's a lot of stuff being said right now nationally and publicly and everybody's against them but they really are useful tool for the police department save lives so they're There is a downside if it's abused, but I believe it can really be more beneficial than harmful to have them.

Yeah, and on that, so it's an investigative tool, so just to let everybody know, if you're not getting citations, it doesn't record your speed. You won't get any notification from us. That's it.

I was just gonna say that I think that it's a great idea police can't be everywhere at all the time all times this is a great way everybody practically in here has a phone with a camera on it people have cameras on their homes Bay St. Louis is my home and I want it protected and I want the police to be able to use every tool in their tool belt to be able to help

Just to reiterate or clarify, there's only certain positions and officers that have access to the flock cameras, correct?

No, they all have access to it. They all have different roles to access it.

Okay, so they don't have the same full scope as everyone else.

Correct. So you have users, supervisors, and administrators. Same thing with body cameras and other things that we use. Right.

Also, comment of the point with that, is it a House bill, Senate bill goes through and we aren't able to get the funding. The equipment that was recently purchased, is it already in place or is that something that can be returned so that the funds come back to the city?

The cameras that we recently purchased, we've already been awarded that money. Okay. That we expect to receive that.

And if not, I'm assuming we're still going to maintain the ones we have already up. The original 12 or whatever it was.

The plan.

Okay.

Well, I'm just one other point that it was brought up last meeting and again this meeting, you know When there's it was example that private entities So if you have a ring camera at your home or if you're at Walgreens or if you're at Walmart, those are private entities I mean, I have the right as a private citizen to have a ring camera on my property, but then we're talking about we're talking public roads public areas and so um i just again i opt in as a private homeowner to have that camera um you know we've essentially opted in all the citizens have on the public road so there's a difference there i know that the example has been brought up yeah i opt into my cell phone i can be tracked any point in time i can opt out of that and get rid of it so i've made that decision so this is where again this is a decision that's for the whole so a little bit of difference there i just want to clarify that

And Chief Keaton, one more question. I spent probably about an hour and a half on FLOCC's website after our budget meeting. And one of the things I noticed, I just wanted to make sure I understood it correctly. The license plate readers, even though it's capturing the license plate, Flock does not have access to whose license plate that is. They're only capturing the number. They don't have a database to tell you whose license plate it is. We have to go to the county or use our.

We have to use something like NCIC, which is for law enforcement purposes. Purposes. Yeah.

Okay.

And then also in Mississippi, they recycle tags, so even if they could, it wouldn't probably be the right owner.

Right owner, right. That was just one of the things I saw.

Yeah, well, multiple states have some of the recurring tags, too, and you're in law enforcement. You know, if you run a tag, it can come back to four different vehicles, and they ask you which car.

Okay. Any other questions?

Just one. Who is the administrator?

Captain Osborne.

All right. And you do prohibit non-law enforcement searches?

Only for law enforcement purposes. Okay. Thank you. And if y'all ever have any questions, please call me.

Thank you, Chief.

All right. Thank you.

We do not have any other guests signed up. We will move to public forum regarding agenda items. I also just want to make this reminder. I know everyone in attendance probably went to the public hearing at the planning and zoning meeting. Regarding planning and zoning items, I guess that's the, for lack of better words, that's the time for the debate where people can come up multiple times. At our City Council meetings, whenever you're signed up, you will have three minutes to talk. So if you're here regarding a P&Z item on our agenda, now is your time to talk. Whenever we get to that, unless the council wants to call on the applicant, you won't have time to talk about it at that point. So just wanted to bring that up and make sure everyone is aware of that. With that being said we will start and you do have three minutes as well. We will start with Brian Harrington Regarding 234 actually, that's the public hearing. So we'll hold off on the I'll list those If you're okay with it, we actually do have a public hearing regarding that specifically Let's see Make sure we're good. Okay. We do have Sean Burks. You are an item 80.

Okay, my name is Sean Burks. I work with JV Burks and Associates. We're the engineers of record for FE and SE Investment Group. On this particular case, we're calling it Sunshine and Crossing. If y'all remember back in May, I believe it was May 19th, so I was here before. and we received approval for a seven lot subdivision, and the road actually backs up, it's kind of by Third Street, and it backs up to Ramoneta, right there, Ramoneta, sorry, and then, Basically the whole reason why we suggested a change, we did kind of like a construction set of plans, came back to cost, cost came back crazy expensive. So we were looking at what could we do to maintain the character of the area and reduce some of the expenses. So really the main, we went back and met with Jeremy Burke and he had suggested us go for a special, guess it's called special use zoning and the main purpose was to go ahead and convert the 24-foot wide concrete road for seven houses and make it a limestone private drive it's kind of what the intent by doing that it we believe it maintains the character in the area or remedy do they have I think six limestone driveways out over there and that's really the main reason for the change of cost and that's that's what here I would appreciate your consideration for that one change. Other than that, we're not changing any lots, we're not changing density, we're not changing, we still wanna have individual ownership of each one of the houses and we still gonna have some kind of common agreement with the land owners to maintain that area. All the agreements we had previously in this group, I know we had to put up some fencing and some foliage. Those all remain true. The only main difference is really just the private limestone. And I'm here if anybody has.

If you want, I... I anticipate whenever we get to the action item, we'll call you back up. Sure. If you want to stick around. Thank you. And we'll call them back up. And for the sake of this as well, I know we have a handful of people signed up for this item. So I'm going to go ahead and call the rest of them up. Thank you. You have 40 seconds left. Okay. Thank you. We do have Sean. No, that's you, Sean. Buddy Robinson.

Hi, I'm Puddy Robinson. I'm a longtime family friend and the realtor for the family with this development. And I just wanted to state to everybody here that the family has owned this property for over 80 years. This is really simply a family compact. The only reason it was named a neighborhood is because we thought that's how it was gonna have to be okay to be able to put it in there. They are having plans for seven structures, but probably there'll only be four homes there for a very long time. And this family has been a part of the community for over 80 years, and they are an asset to your, and they want to contribute to the community, they just want a family compact. They're all at ages now where they can afford to build their own home to be able to have a second home over here. And again, they grew up coming to their grandparents' home on the property, then they sold off the front of it. And we would just ask you to really allow them to have, the father who owns it is in his 90s and we've been trying to get this going so that he can actually enjoy it. for the years that he has left. So it's really never intended to be anything more. It's the least dense sort of development you could ever wish for in here, and again, the family would be a great asset, and they are an asset to this community, and they own the property for 80 years. So thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Okay, I do see we have Mr. Cliff signed up regarding that too.

Would you rather me wait and let you do it at the end?

Yeah, that's a public hearing we'll do that separately so we want to talk about this subdivision Okay, I'll put you for the you're actually the third person for that Cliff rabble a to 702 3rd Street the issue we have is that they have an approved subdivision and

they asked for a paved road, they were granted a paved road, they don't want to pay for a paved road, so now they want a gravel driveway. If they had come in and asked for a subdivision of a gravel driveway to start with, we wouldn't have to have a special use district. The rezoning of an area to a special use district is not an appropriate use for a special use district. what this application needs to do is go back to planning and zoning and ask for a private driveway out of limestone as a variance to having to have a private road the bottom line is a special use district is an inappropriate use an inappropriate thing for a private subdivision we got a private subdivision approved we need to are we going to allow a driveway instead of a road because the driveway instead of a road doesn't meet the subdivision requirements that's basically what it said a special use district is a means of circumventing some if not a lot of the P&Z rule this is like I repeat myself but it is inappropriate use to approve a special use district because they want a gravel driveway when they didn't ask for a gravel driveway to begin with it needs to go back ask for what they want and get that approved and then we wouldn't be here talking about having to change the zoning in an area. It's residential, needs to stay residential, doesn't need to be zoned to a special use district. Five years from now when people pass away and heirs don't want to spend the money and all of a sudden the family compound kind of becomes a, maybe it's not such a close family, then we got a problem. So let them come back, let them go to P&Z, ask for a, gravel limestone driveway instead of a paved road. Because that's what they want. I don't know how much support or resistance they're gonna get against that, but we don't need to change the zoning because they didn't ask for the right thing. So I would ask that you turn down this and send them back to PNZ. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Cliff.

Okay, we're going to move on. We do have Kevin Barty. Kevin Barty regarding the tree removal.

It's Kevin Barty, 11650 Bayou View Drive. Just requesting.

Real quick, Jordan, I think that is an appeal. So we can, I would recommend you take that up under that.

Under that?

Yeah, that's under the council business request for appeal.

I saw it under council business, so I didn't know if that was.

11650 Bayou Drive. Yeah, I would recommend that you take that up when we get to that appeal.

We'll call you back up when we get to that appeal. Thank you. Let me make a note of that. Mark Johnson zoning appeal

Good afternoon, Mark Johnson, 601 Citizen Street. I'm here to ask for a variance on my home. It was, I purchased it a little over a year ago. I've come down to, I moved from Stocher down to Bay St. Louis. I've retired now from my primary job in the military. And I've been coming down here for 30 years and I love it. And I love Bay St. Louis. But I wanted to add a, I started in April and I wanted to add a outdoor kitchen and a law office onto the back of my home because I do work out of my home. I have another job, I work for the Mississippi VA and I work out of my home a lot. So I need a home office. So I was trying to get a home office and an outdoor kitchen put in and I was denied in April. So I went back, and I had my architect redraw the plans again, and I took four more feet off my variance, brought it back up to the house, brought four more feet off the variance, and reapplied again. I just got through with the zoning, the property and zoning, and it was denied again. So I'm asking for a exception to the variance so I can have the office and the outdoor kitchen on it. I've got both of my neighbors on both sides of me. I have one here tonight and they are both, you see the letters in the packet, they both do not have a problem with me building this. I've had my architect come in and explain to zoning that, because it was the lady that talked about, she wasn't sure about the fire codes. We meet all the fire codes. It's all done the way it's supposed to be done. It's all drawn up. It's all the way it's supposed to be built. So I would ask that you give me the variance so I can build my addition onto the back of the house. Are there any questions?

If we do, we'll call you back up during the application period. I'll just add, I know I went out to your house and met you that day, and I'll cover that part whenever we get there. Yes, sir. Thank you. Is that Susan? And I'm not even gonna try to pronounce the last name. There we go, that's it. Regarding the fence.

I'm gonna make it short and simple. My neighbor bought four sections of fence. And she added it halfway up the legal six foot fence. So now it's two feet high. and they're only screwed to the old fence. So the other day when the wind was blowing, they're wiggling, so I'd hate to see what they were doing during a hurricane. But it's hiding my complete window in my den and my sunroom that when I walk into my room, I see nothing but fence, and I receive no sunshine. I'm making it short.

Absolutely, well thank you for coming up. Thank you. do not have anyone else signed up for public forum regarding the agenda items yeah just in case did anyone else sign up on the wrong forum or okay just making sure all right we're gonna move on to our next order of business which will be the minutes approval I'll call for a motion to approve the minutes of August 4th 2026 to have a motion motion motion my councilman Smith do have a second

Moin and seconds.

Any discussion? Vote the motion.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries 7-0. Moving on to agenda item 5B, I will call for a motion to approve the minutes of August 5th, 2026 workshop.

Motion.

Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second?

Moin and seconds.

Any discussion? motion aye motion carries 7-0 moving on to item 5c a motion to approve the minutes of August 10th 2026 recessed meeting motion motion by councilman Smith do I have a second so woman Davis seconds any discussion vote the motion Now we're gonna move on to our public hearings You have the Specifically do I need to read into we're entering the public hearing We are opening the public hearing for 231 Sycamore Street at 6 o 2 p.m.

I will start with those that I know are signed up regarding the property and But first, Jordan, let's just go over a little bit of what the property is from a city's standpoint. And Mayor, jump in here if you'd like. This is a piece of property, as mentioned, located at 231 Sycamore that has been a, in the administration's view, a menace to public health, safety, and the welfare of the community for quite so many years now. There's been different battles with this property, meaning the grass has at times been extremely tall. Right now the grass is, the grass is, More decent than it has been at the past, but there's a severe overgrowth growing around the house, including trees. The boards going around the house, many places, if you look, you can look from the street and see clear into the house where the boards have fallen off. The neighbors have complained multiple times about rodents and bugs and different varmints living in the property. So with that, I would present to you Exhibit A. All Exhibit A is is the notices that were sent out. It was also posted at, I believe this is City Hall. And then the notice was also placed on the property itself. So that would be exhibit A. And then exhibit B would be pictures of the condition of the house. And I can pass these around to all of you so that you can look out for yourself. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions from the council for the administration?

Heather, I know you had mentioned this has been an ongoing process for years. So the notification on this, do you know estimate of when this was first notified of the condition?

Are you talking about this condition now or?

Or just how long the process that we've been trying to work with the owner to no avail.

I don't know, I can't tell you.

So it's been a long process with little or no response, correct?

Well, it depends. I mean, there's there's been times that they have responded about the grass. I think the main concern now is the house. The house is extremely dilapidated, very poor condition and is just basically a breeding grounds for vermin and bugs. It was also a safety hazard.

Any other questions? I'll go ahead and open it up to the public. I'm going to stick to the order we had people signed up, Mr. Brian Harrington.

And just for the record, too, the property is, the owner of the property is Annie B. Wilkerson. I'm not sure if she is here. You come with me, Brian.

I'm Brian Harrington. I'm the resident of 231 Sycamore Street.

Did you say resident?

Yeah, that's me and my mom. We moved in at the same time when she first moved in.

Oh, you live at, you currently reside at 231?

I have. That is still our property.

Okay, but you don't reside there right now?

No, no, we haven't lived there since they took the trailer, you know what I'm saying? Okay, that's fine. I was just clarifying.

Okay, gotcha.

I understand. You say that there's been an ongoing problem for a while, but my mama just moved from there. She had a FEMA trailer there for a while. Then she got the money to repair the house, and she reported that some of our neighbors, I guess the ones that complained, reported and told her that people were stealing the stuff out the house that we got from FEMA. They even took the wire out the back shed that we got from legal at Hancock Bank. We called Bay PD, she reported it. They said there was nothing they could do about it. The money from FEMA can no longer come to us because we have no proof of the work that was done. Now that part, nobody talked about. But that was a report to Bay PD, my mama right here.

you know what year that was in sir what year was that mama when you called him you know but i actually lived in my house after the dream but mississippi power was not turned my life because i had 14 inches of water in my soul The stuff that I had, somebody stole it.

Can we have you come to the microphone? They got people at home listening as well.

Oh, hi.

Thank you.

They stole everything that was brought to my house. One of the attorneys I was working for, he bought all of my electrical. They sold that. They sold my water heater. They sold my furnishings. Went through the back door, knocked it down. The tree from next door grew through my roof, so that's why the back part looks like that. But that's the part I was going to take off anyway, because that's not the original part. It was added. But it's the screen. Somebody stole that. They stole everything I brought to 231 Sycamore Street to repair my house. But I actually stayed in the house after Katrina. I had the electrical pole in the yard.

What year did the house become vacant?

Well, Katrina, you know, was in 2005. Yeah.

I'm sorry. I thought you said you lived in it post-Katrina. After Katrina. Yeah. How long after Katrina were you able to live in the home?

Hmm. They told me I had to gut it. That's why the house was gutted. Because they told me I had to do a full rewire.

So did you move into a Katrina cottage? I was in a cottage, yes. And you were in the cottage until the cottage moved out and never moved back in?

Right, because they were doing a rental assistance, and that's what I was doing.

Ms. Wilkerson, what is your plans for the home now?

I would love to get in my house. I'm going to let him take it.

I have a jag working on transferring the deed of my name to mine. I'm going to repair the house. We're going to repair that. We, the Army and the Disaster Rescue Association, are working on repairing the house. My jag right now is drawing up the papers to transfer the title of my name to mine. That's all. But like she said, lived in the house, the only reason the house is in this condition now is because of the property next door, tree fell on the house and crushed the house. Other than that, nothing was wrong with the house. Nothing was wrong with the house. Like I said, the stuff we had to repair the house, when we called Bay PD and reported to them, they said there's nothing they can do, and we knew the stuff was in the house. The neighbors that they say complained are also the neighbors that told us who was taking the stuff. And the neighbors that complain, I don't know who they are. I talk to my neighbors every day.

And we're thinking that, I mean, that's not within the last few years.

That is something, you're a decade. Right. And I will say this.

I just want to clarify, that's not something that's happened in the last couple years. That's a decade ago.

The tree, the tree. Like I said, the house wasn't like that decades ago. It grew through it. That's the tree from the garden.

I will say this.

The plum tree.

Okay. No, it was a plum tree. The, um... All of the grass that you see to the third street side, that ain't mine. So whoever it belongs to now, we have cut that quite a few times at our expense. So I don't know who it belongs to when I talk to Mr. Favre and Mr. Vince at City Hall. I told them, I said, that is not mine. Colin told me that my property was grown up. I said, no, mine was cut. He said, have you been by lately? I said, yes. He said, well, you need to go by again. And so I told him. They pulled it up. I said, that's a whole nother house used to be there. You can see the two little cement things where the driveway was. I said, that's not mine. He pulled it up. He said, well, I'll be damned. It was a whole nother house there. He thought it was between me and Miss Rose. I said, no, it was a whole nother house.

The street to the left is Bamboo. And that Bamboo's been there since my nanny, Miss Emma K. Gaddy, stayed up. That's not wild trees growing, that's bamboo. That's been there. Bamboo and them ferns, that's been there.

Mr. Charlie planted it. Well, you know, I'm just saying he intentionally planted it. But we get the benefits of rose on the outside.

Ms. Wilkerson and Mr. Brian, it's certainly, this is never an effort, I mean, we try to exhaust all communication efforts, whether that's, I'm looking at a certified mail receipt for May 1st, but there are many other attempts. We never wanna get here in a public hearing. I mean, we wanna try to, you know come to a solution prior to us having to condemn this and so i'm looking at a may 1st letter that was that was sent certified and there's other attempts so what what are you all what have you done up to this point to work with administration to go over the plan to ensure that all of these concerns are being addressed because we need a timeline as well i mean we've heard a lot of times hey we intend to do this and tend to do that and it keeps going to him it keeps drawing and drawing and drawing you say a certified mail but up until the letter that we got in the mailbox this time

No mail was delivered there and they say they didn't deliver mail to abandoned property. So we never got any letter. We never got any letters up until I just went up there and now they got a sales paper and a letter from y'all but at the time there was no mail delivered to that address at all.

Does somebody reside, Ms. Wilkerson, you have 1219B Joseph Avenue, Gulfport, Mississippi, 39501. Okay, that's where it was sent. And it's official, yeah, I've got the official receipt on that. So it wasn't sent to this property.

He didn't know it but I got it.

So I guess I go back to my question. What level of correspondence and coordination have you had with the administration? Or administration, have there been any kind of resolution to amend or fix this up to this point?

It has gone back, at least what the building department sent me since July 2nd of 2024, where they left the card at a door at 870 Keller. For property owner, on the next day, they spoke with the property owner. Says they're very cooperative. We'll have the property mowed by the end of next week. I mean, this is 8-13-25.

They spoke again, 10-16-25.

There was a voicemail left, 10-20-25. spoke with the property owner, has partially cleaned up the yard, 11, 10, 25. that was talking to historical I guess about the repair. I'm not really sure about that one. January 27 to 26 left a voicemail. Also January 27 of 26, the property owner returned the call. And it's explained that the yard needs cutting. They need plans for the house restoration. March 24. They received another complaints from the neighbors. They attempted to call and left another voicemail. 324, again, talked to the property owner, says her son will cut the grass and remove or straighten the T-pole. Her church is working on ways to help fix the house may 7th also talked with the property owner and explained that you know the time is that it's got a repairs need to be moved grass must be cut immediately so again this has been I mean you know that's starting January or July 2nd of 2024

It's been cut quite a few times, in Bush Oak and everything, even the other side, but might not be as often, but he does come over to live in it.

Yeah, I understand, and that's one component, certainly, but I know based on the assessment from our building department, the house being beyond repair and the concerns about it meeting current building codes and FEMA requirements, the house itself in its current state is also a concern, as we discussed about drawing rodents and other concerns um so it's not just the grass that's of concern and that needs to be mitigated and corrected it's also the the building itself and up to this point there's really been no level of assurance there's a coordination i don't want to speak for administration but other tonight but having plans brian where i guess you're going to get it in your your name and you have plans to to fix it up but i don't think i mean that's is that something that's first come up tonight have we had any indication that there's going to be any repairs before now

I think I read off the other side. She was talking about it then. But you have to understand, it wasn't always the way you're looking at it right now. That is from the tree falling from the yard next door and crushing the back. Y'all got to remember, she's lived in the house for two years before Mississippi Power forced her out to live in the trailer, which they had the power pole, which is the deep pole you talk about in the front, that y'all told me we had to move, which I cannot remove because I'm not on the pole. That's Mississippi Power pole. It wasn't. That's Mississippi Power. I would have got a fine if I had moved that pole. And y'all know that. I couldn't move that. That was in the power pole. It's down there.

We did move it. Because when I called them, they said because it was a FEMA trailer, it technically does not belong to Mississippi Power. So the pole is gone. And the back part of the house, that was added on. It was going in it.

But the rest of the house is straight. And the inside of the house is actually gutted. Nothing in there. We just went up in there the other day because she was going to put the floor down. And for the road, I don't think they must have ran out before we got there. Or they must disappear every time I come to cut the yard. Maybe they know I'm coming. And for the neighbors who complain, like I say, they in here. And I guarantee none of them complain. Maybe a neighbor complained.

So have you had any active fixing up the house before the tree fell on it? Was that the wrong way?

And that's what I said. Every time I brought something there to repair, they were stealing it. They were stealing it faster than I could do anything with.

The house was destroyed by the tree. It was not. That was about a fallen tree from next door.

Right, but you had 14 inches of water in it. I had 14 inches of water. And you obviously had to replace sheetrock. And they told me I had to gut it.

That's why I said I ended up gutting it afterwards. She ended up living in it. Because I was overseas. I was in Iraq. I wasn't here for nothing. I came afterwards. So, I say the house was not, every door on the house, every window, even the old window, she complained because that's old glass. She can't get no more. They even stole the old glass. Those windows were antique. They stole everything out the house to repair the house. And like I say, we in here because we can't repair the house. But when we call Bay PD to tell them what happened to the stuff, that's not under discussion. And now we can't just, like we got money to just repair a house when we still, I'm still paying for houses in Gulfport. But it ain't like we just up, we ain't got money like that. The money we had for it that was getting allotted for it, we can't get because when Bay PD says nothing we can do because they stole it and we can't prove that we stole it, wouldn't even check next door when she told us. We can look in the house and see. Now you can't get money from FEMA because you don't have proof of what you've done with the money that they allotted with you. Lone had her sheep right down there for 10 years. Right there and waiting. Had her sheet rocked. Probably still got it. But because when everything else was stolen, we couldn't do anything about it. Now FEMA won't give us anything. No place will give us anything because we don't have the receipt. And y'all know that's how that works. I'm not the only one that went through this. This is real general information.

I think that it is in the best interest of your family to go ahead and try and get those deeds into your name and take over the property. Especially with you being a veteran and having that VA access, you're going to have access to grants and different organizations where your mother may not. My question to you would be, I know you say you're working with the JAG to do the documents. Do you know how long that may take?

Oh, it shouldn't take long.

And mom, you're not against that, right?

I'm expecting no more than three months to get all that taken care of because I still have to get all the rest of the stuff that I'm keeping at the table. I have other things that I have to get placed to go with that.

Right, and that'll help you with taxes and everything else, right, 100%. Right, so, Mom, you have no objection to your son doing that, so that won't hold up the process as well. Any other errors that may come up, I'm just making sure.

It's on record. He'll get it anyway. But, Ms. Farrell, the sad part about it is it gets me everybody. My house was paid, and I'm living like a gypsy right now. I shouldn't.

Have y'all tried to contact like Habitat, anything like that, or the resource center?

Don't make me do it. I'm just asking. Don't make me, I've tried several, several, several places. And I have to tell y'all, the last time I tried someone, Hancock Resources, I got some money. Everybody go fuck. The lady called me, and my address was a Gulfport address. I'm telling you, that lady laughed in my face over the phone. If I'd have been close to her, I'd have been in jail. You don't laugh at me when I'm going through something like that. You know what I'm saying? You live and go for it. I said, but my house is in Bay St. Louis. You know? I've gone to Habitat. You make too much money. Well, I'm glad y'all see it.

Do you have documentation that you're in this process working with JAG?

I don't have it on me. Because all this was a surprise to me. I'm coming tonight for her. Like you say, I didn't even know she was getting a certified meal. All this is new to me. All I know is what's been going on. Like I say, I'm here because I came. Like, I didn't get the city council meeting to come in. Say, oh, well, your stuff was stolen. And the Bay PD didn't say you couldn't do anything about it. But I'm here defending myself because I couldn't repair my mama's house when the stuff we needed was there. But Bay PD said, there's nothing we can do about it. Didn't even invest in it.

So if you transfer, just real quick, like the record to reflect that I have checked Bay PD since 2018 and there have been no reports. I'm not sure what the time frame, but it's prior to at least 2018.

Because it was some different people living in it even. Yeah, it was brown at the time.

So once you transfer the deed to your name, is this going to be your permanent residence?

I have to. I have to stay there.

You have to stay there.

I'm going to have to stay there. Okay. The government not going to help me because I got a property in my name and, you know, my mama going to stay there? Of course. It's her house. But I have to stay there also.

Right. No, I was just saying, because you're talking about assistance, and if it's not your permanent home, it's not where you're going to live, the assistance is going to be very limited to what you can receive.

No, no, this is my permanent home. I mean, everything I got with the VA and the DAV, all this is already understood. I have grants and everything, you know, so like I said, I'm a 100% disabled combat vet, so everything I got is already understood. I really don't have to go through no hoops and ladders. It's already given to me. You know, I've earned that already. So it's not like this, oh, well, you know, you might got to get this amount. No, I have, I'm already allotted this amount. You know, this is not a guessing game. This is actual fact.

Do you think that that amount is going to be enough to repair this home? Because I'm looking at, I haven't been inside the home. I passed by it this evening on my way to the meeting, and I'm looking at the pictures of it. I mean, I hate to say this. It looks like it's beyond repair. No, it's not.

All the structures are good on the inside. Like I say, everything is good except for the back part, which we weren't worried about anyway. We was gonna tear that part off anyway. But the main house, the original house, it's no structural damage. You might see the paint falling off from the inside, from the outside is what you see. You might see some vines growing up on the front. You might see the side, which also the back part we're gonna tear off. But other than that, the main house that we're gonna keep and fix, All they need is sheetrock on the inside, paint on the outside, and electrical work.

Do you have, kind of back to Phelps, do you have any evidence that you've reached out to transfer this to your name? Do you have anything?

I don't have it on me.

I can get it to you. Yes, I can get it to you. Do you have it and it'll be dated prior to? Yeah. How long ago did you start that process?

I just got my disability June 30th, so this is recent. This ain't like a long, long time ago.

It would just be a deed, Jordan. That's not a... It would just, from what I'm hearing, would just be a deed transferring it from... Yeah, that's a simple process.

I thought I had to buy it, but I don't have to buy it. It's just going to be a deed transfer.

That's all it is. Because my concern is the way it sits right now, It's to me, I'm looking at it's a menace to the neighborhood. And I think that's the point we're looking at this meeting. If I say, hey, if my feelings are, let's give you three, three months to get it cleaned up and start renovations. It's almost to the point where it's unfair to the neighbors. I know, you know, neighbors send in complaints and not everyone's going to come to the podium and speak against it because that's a hard thing to do whenever it's your neighbors. But when those are being sent in, the reality is somebody's complaining. Right. And it's...

But it's kind of renovation part is nothing in the house. It's already interesting. It's already good.

It was it was getting ready to be repaired as a matter of floor to ceiling or just roughly is good is empty.

So let me just remind everybody.

It's not the modern wood. It's that old, the actual real wood. And that's what she's trying to keep.

So let me just want to remind everybody, what we're here today is a public hearing to determine whether this... Homestead is a menace to the public health, safety and welfare of the community. So that is the decision before the council today. If the council finds that it is a menace to the public health, safety and welfare of the community, then several things can happen. What that will allow is that the city or the homeowners can go in and clean this property up. So with that being said, the city could proceed, the homeowner could proceed, you can get an outside contractor, you can cut weeds, you can cut grass, you can remove or tear down the dilapidated dwelling, you can remove personal property, etc. all pursuant to Mississippi Code 21-39-21. And so with that being said, if the property is found to be a menace tonight um what i would suggest the homeowners do is call the building department tomorrow and make efforts to tell them what's going on and what you're going to do to bring that property up to where that it is no longer a menace so my point is is that if it is declared a menace nobody's going in with a bulldozer tomorrow and knocking down now down your house you will have the opportunity to bring the house up to code, tear it down to yourself if you can't. You can go walk through with a building inspector to see how you can bring the code, because you're gonna have to have building permits. So you have to have building permits, and so this has to move. So the question is whether it's a menace today. If they find it is a menace, then my recommendation to you would be to make a appointment with our building department as soon as you can so that you can work towards starting to make progress to restore this property.

So the goal is to get the property cleaned up, whether the city has to clean it up or whether you all have to clean it up.

I have one. I promise I'm not going to say anything else. What makes a property a health hazard and a menace?

I'm going to defer to my attorney.

I mean, like, what actually does the physical house have to be doing to either harm somebody that's not trespassing or the community?

Well, it's a mixture of rodents, varmint, grass being torn. It's not blocked off. There's multiple boards missing that if kids wanted to get in this house or homeless wanted to get in this house, that they could. It's sitting there. And so all of those things put together is what constitute being a menace.

It was boiling up, not because it was Bradley, because we didn't want nobody.

And that contributes to, even though, correct me if I'm wrong.

The uncleanliness of the property, all of these factors taken together.

Even though they are trespassing, it's, you know, you're going to have squatters, or then it becomes a fire hazard, and then you go from there.

But even with it looking like it is, when I came before the Historical Society, Mr. J.B. wanted it, his wife wanted it. He said, you don't know the value of what I said. And he said, I went in that house before. I said, I know you did. And he jumped and high as far as he could. And it's just as sturdy today as it was. Jump, jump. So it's leveled really good and everything. Like I said, just the tree went through the back and righted it out. But the back part was added on. We were going to get rid of it. We definitely wanted to keep the front. And we have plans.

Well, thank you for being here tonight. If we have any other questions, we will call you out. We do have some other people signed up to talk about it. Thank you. Thank you. We do have Mr. Cliff Rabelais.

Cliff Rabelais, 702 3rd Street, speaking as the chairman of Historic Preservation. This house was brought before us little over two years ago and at that time we were told repairs were getting ready to be made nothing has been done meeting minutes from our July 13th meeting of this year historic preservation Commission I'm reading from the minutes. The house at 231 Sycamore Street has been brought to the HBC twice in the past three to four years. This house is being allowed to deteriorate. The City Council of Bay St. Louis has set a public hearing sometime in mid-August, currently August 18th, for a public hearing to declare the property as a safety hazard and a nuisance. light of the pending city actions discussion was held in consensus reach that the house is beyond is being demolished by neglect which is a violation of historic preservation ordinance motion was made to declare the house as being in violation of historic preservation ordinance due to demolition by neglect motion was second by mr. John bazoo was approved five to zero building apartments verbally notified of this violation That house was brought before us, like I say, about two years ago. I was told it was going to be repaired. Nothing was done. It was brought before us again. We were told it was going to be repaired. Nothing has been done. What I heard tonight is in 2007, the FEMA trailer was moved. It said two years. 2007, the FEMA trailer was moved. No one has lived there since 2007, obviously. That's almost 20 years. I can tell you how long it takes to write a warranty deed, because I write them on a regular basis. I can write one in about 12 minutes. Getting a warranty deed moved is not a time consuming event. I was told at one point that there was requesting historic grant money. My knowledge, there's no, we're not aware of that. So, The, we, Historic Preservation, voted to demo the gym at Stanislaus because it was a safety hazard. Meaning someone could go in there and get hurt. And that's why this house is a safety hazard. Someone can go in there legally, illegally, otherwise, and get hurt. City officials cannot go on that property. I deal with derelict property in tax sales on a regular basis. City officials cannot go on that property without the owner's permission. But I assure you that that house from the outside compared to other houses in the immediate area is termite ridden and is unsafe.

Thank you very much, Mr. Cliff.

And to Mr. Cliff's point, like I said, it's not time-consuming to get a warranty deed, but when you don't have the resources or know-how or, you know, the ability, it can take a little bit. But I think we just consider their situation and also how he now can get stuff like that done for free at the VA.

Right.

Thank you.

And just for clarification, if a city declares it a menace, the city has, kind of depending on what you're doing, 12 months or 24 months to reenter the property with certain notices. So just...

Okay. Any other questions, discussion amongst the council? So Heather, if we do want to declare it, do I just read we, well, I know we got to exit the public hearing first, right, before we take action?

Yes, if there's no other comment, we can go ahead and close the public hearing.

If there's no other comment, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing.

At 6.34 p.m. At 6.34 p.m.

Okay. with that being said if we did want to declare it as a minutes Do I just read the resolution of the mayor at the top, or what motion? Yeah, it would be a motion. My personal feel on this is I'm going to call for a motion in hopes that the administration give them some time. Personally, I don't want to say give them 30 to 60 days, and then 30 to 60 days we're sitting here with the same discussion.

And I actually don't think you have the authority to really do. I mean, you're just deciding whether or not it's a menace. It's a menace, yeah. Correct.

so i'm hopeful that maybe administration will if they are making progress but the ultimate goal from a council perspective is the property needs to be cleaned up not whether it's city or the property owner so i think it's reached that point and beyond just cutting the grass yes right they kept the yardage the house now

so I will for the motion though to do that it's just yeah a motion to approve the resolution authorizing the cleaning of property and making well yeah so it actually should be a motion to approve the resolution finding property located at 231 Sycamore Street, Bay St. Louis, owned by Annie B. Wilkerson, as a menace to the public health, safety, and welfare of the community, and authorizing the cleaning of property, private property, and making provisions for collection.

I will make that motion that Heather just read, and I will call for a second. Second. Second by Councilman Smith. Any other discussion?

And so just with that, I just wanted to be very clear that the property would then be declared to be a menace to the public health, safety, and welfare of the community. If the owner does not do so herself, the city shall proceed to clean the property by use of city crews or an outside contractor at the choice of the city. The city may cut the grass and weeds, remove or tear down dilapidated dwellings, remove personal property with removal of such personal property shall not be subject to the provisions of Mississippi Code 213921. If addressed by an outside contractor, the city will follow proper procurement. If the city proceeds with cleaning the property upon completion, The mayor and city council shall determine the actual cost incurred and at that time a resolution will be passed determining the cost and essentially placing it on the tax bill for collection.

May I ask a question? Of course. What is the timeline to see some movement on this by the owner?

So you would declare it a menace and then the owner would need to work with the building official. Okay. to try to get that and work together. If there is no movement, the city could start taking action. So my recommendation to the homeowner, if you guys declare this to be a menace, would be to reach out to the building department as soon as possible to start making a plan to clean up the property.

Thank you.

Any other discussion? Vote to motion.

Aye. Because I don't see any safeguards in this, I'm going to say nay.

Aye. motion carries six to one also just I know one thing they mentioned was the property next door that's that grass is like six feet tall when I drove by the grass property to the left Yeah, it was pretty hot.

Well, they allowed to let it go back to the actual state if they don't have anything on it. There's no slab. I think they allowed it to go back to the actual state, possibly.

I shouldn't say this, but I have a piece of property somewhere in North Mississippi.

But it's got to be a certain, what is it, three feet off of the adjacent property. So, yeah, it can be natural state, but it's got to stay on the property. Right. Okay.

all right we will enter the public hearing regarding 2 1 or 2112 bienville avenue i um jordan i would actually recommend that that public hearing be tabled upon looking at that property specifically There is, it is now in the estate and the administrator has been notified and I think the administrator of the state will be looking at how to clean up that property and that property, the maintenance that is required on that goes past the blighted property. There's some building code violations that need to be addressed and that's more of a appropriate avenue to get what needs to be done.

Okay, everyone good with that? We will exit the public hearing that I just entered, or never entered, and we will table 2112 Bienville Avenue's public hearing. Okay. They will, the city administration.

I'm living there. And that is the the legal requirements there will be a sign posted and There is to the

There is to the owner of the property. So if you're not the owner of the property or you're not the record owner, then you will most likely not receive property. I'm not sure if you have a mailbox.

If you do, it should get mailed there.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

We will move on to our consent agenda. I will call for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Motion.

I have a motion by Councilman Smith, second? Second. Second by Councilwoman David, I mean Holmes, I'm sorry.

Any other discussion? I just had a quick question, just a point of clarification. On items H and I, this would be the grant application for the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund. This is different, because I know one came out for the Mississippi Heritage Trust with the Mississippi Community Revitalization Program. It's in the same amount, but I just want to make sure those are two different grants. I think it would be. I think this is funding for the National Park Service. Paul Brunn is the one I'm referring to. That's the Historic Revitalization Grant. This isn't the same grant, right?

um i i don't know i don't know but this is the outdoor steward to i mean i do know this grant funding is we've utilized this before so this i do not believe it is the same grant that you're referencing this is i don't think so this is the one that we've used to do the um josh i think i think we had money for here for the 603 boat launch that is that grant program

If I find out the mayor left to go to the bathroom and I had to use that bathroom, I'm gonna have a problem with him.

No, he said no. No, that's the only bathroom.

That bathroom, I had to use that when I came in here, and that's a hazard in there right now.

Okay, Jordan, okay.

I thought that was... You better clarify that. Before you went in there, it was like that.

Yeah, it was like that before I went in there. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, my. Did you want to wait and hear clarification from the mayor, Kyle, or...

I mean, it's the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund.

I just want to make sure it is. Because in this one, the one I referenced, the revitalization, I think the max is up to $150,000. So that would exceed ours. Because that would exhaust it. We're going for it to exhaust it. But yeah, I'm good with it.

did have i did have i guess two things while we were talking about it i noticed the uh ncrs extension request goes into january 6 2027 for the main drain removal project i know in our budget is that would that have to be changed before No, you're fine. You want to ask your question first? You got it. So the NCRS extension request for the city of Bay St. Louis main drain debris, do we have to change that in our budget being it's going to go to January of 27? Because I know we didn't, we planned to finish that before the end of the year.

And what it is is that was the extra projects we put on the I think the six big culverts going across the roads in different areas, two or three off Second Street, Bush Log, Pennshire Lane, and there's one more, I think. But anyway, so when they took that work on, they extended that time frame. But if we have to go back and amend the budget, we still expect it to be done fairly quickly. But if not, we'll just have to amend next year's budget to show.

Carry over?

Yeah.

Okay, perfect. Just wanted to... Any other questions?

Mike, I just asked before, just a clarification. I think we addressed it for the most part. The H&I, we're going after the $750,000 for the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund. That's different than, because I know in the past we've done, there's also a $750,000 grant funding through the National Park Service, the Historic Revitalization Grant. But I think those are two different grants, right? Because I believe on that one, we actually did that a couple years ago with the depot. We're attempting to, the revitalization. Yeah. Okay. Those are two different. Yeah.

This is the most grants that we've done some work in Bayou LaCroix with down in that area. Yeah. I think the ADA boardwalk at the end of Auburn that goes down and going to be fingered out into the water for ADA accessibility. That's a grant we received from them. So this would be the same one as those.

Okay. But it's not the same as a revitalization grant? No. Okay. That's what I just wanted to find out.

Okay. Any other discussion? Vote to motion. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, moving on to the easiest part of our day, planning and zoning applications. We'll start with 8A, a motion to follow planning and zoning's recommendation and deny the application variance of a four foot from the maximum allowable fence height of six feet, resulting in a proposed fence height of 10 feet, submitted by Mark and Nancy Mellon, located at 410 Carroll Avenue. Parcel 149E-0-29-088. Only if the council has questions. The opportunity to speak was on that agenda. No, no worries. You're fine. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Lewis. Any discussion? Well, no discussion I did actually I had one question real quick and and I know 10 feet is is

It's their ten ten-foot fences in my block in the 400 block of Carroll so there's precedence and their house is three feet from my property line which is not comfortable My question is that I know I know they mentioned you put additional panels on the fence Not me personally There were additional panels And they're secured by four by fours And is that what got you to ten feet? No, it's at seven. I haven't done 10 feet. I had some other fence repairs on the other side of my home in the front. I had my metal gate extended. I personally removed a rot stump and then I replaced the panel, a six foot panel. my guys tacked up on the other side of the house three panels because we had an issue with them throwing things our dog and privacy and the fence needed to be replaced they are 7.9 feet high and i have photographs um i didn't start construction of the new fence it's a fence that has always been 100 paid for by us and our previous owners it has never been by definition a party fence i have an eight foot fence on one side a ten foot fence on another and a six foot fence I brought you up but up I didn't bring you up because I'm considering the 10 foot I wanted to ask what the existing fence line is without the additional panel only six but it's not six when I stand

it comes to here because what i was not what i was going to recommend is to maybe come back and ask for the existing footprint of the fence if it's a seven foot nine in some places but uh i don't know myself and obviously the the way the vote will probably go i don't know that many people would consider the 10 foot but maybe if it's in some areas i don't know that they would consider that but um

No, that would be if I could just have, I've got eight in the back, I've got 10 on one side. I've only been in the house for five years.

You have 10 foot existing currently?

Yeah, I've got 10 more houses in the 400 block of Carroll that have 10 foot fences.

I'm talking about this property.

On this property, I have it on one side, but I'm just saying there's precedence. In Jeremy's letter, he said there's no precedence. There's precedence. And I didn't start.

We see these on a case-to-case basis. So right now we have a motion. Is there any other questions for her?

Yeah, no, I'm done. Thank you.

But I have to come back and go for the. He's just suggesting that you could. I can't guarantee that. No, no, that's fine.

We've had many, I mean, we've had many fences that are, we've had eight-foot fences that have come and been shot down as well and been denied. Ten-foot, this is probably, actually, I know you mentioned precedent, but again, as Councilwoman Holmes mentioned, we do everything objectively and case-by-case. Oh, sure. Something existing doesn't mean we double down on that.

I have a situation where I have creepy peepers and people throwing things over the fence at my library door.

Sorry to hear that. We've had those instances, but I did want to see what the existing was. I was just curious. Okay, we do have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Vote the motion.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries 7-0. okay moving on to agenda item 8d for this one i did want to make a motion to overturn planning and zoning's recommendation if the council is okay with that i'll go ahead and make that motion instead of i don't know instead of voting it the other way. But I'm gonna make a motion to deny Planning and Zoning's recommendation and approve the application for a variance of 12 foot 10 feet resulting in a seven foot two setback to the rear yard submitted by Mark and April Johnson located at the corner of Citizen Street and Old Spanish Trail, parcel 137J-0-44-213.001. Do I have a second? second second by councilman smith um i just brief discussion on why uh overturning that uh actually myself councilman smith and actually councilwoman moynan we were all having breakfast one morning and went over to this property owner's house When you look at the house, really there's a hardship present as well because where he wanted to do it, they have a main sewer line, I believe, through that property. But when you look at it, he has a 25-foot side yard on one side. He has 25-foot in the front yard pretty much all the way around the house. and the neighbor is facing old spanish trail so the way i viewed it and when i talked to him i said you know i would be okay with this if if you looked at it as if your front yard was old spanish trail and that would mean he would have an eight foot setback which i think at the closest point he would only need one foot if we looked at it as a side yard setback So I think if being he's on a corner lot, that's what I'm okay with. I'm only one vote, but I know we have a second. If there's any other discussion, be open for it.

If not, I'll call it for a vote. Just procedurally, do we have to go ahead and vote on the motion made by P&Z first? P&Z first? Yeah.

You do not. No, we don't. We just... Any other discussion? Aye.

All right, motion carries six to one. Moving on to agenda item 8C, a motion to follow Planning and Zoning's recommendation and deny the application for a special use district to allow a private seven cottage residential development on property to be recorded on a condominium plat submitted by FE and SE Investments located at the 600 block of 3rd Street, parcel 149N-0-30-10. 238.001, it was approved 5-1. I have a motion. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith, second by Councilman Lewis. Any discussion?

Yes. Is he still out there?

Yeah.

I just wanted to clarify that the reason you are going out for the special use district is because of a recommendation from Jeremy is that correct yes the whole goal is to just change the road from concrete to a

And let me just clarify that a special use district would still have to follow your subdivision regulations. So what would actually need to be required here, now a special use district has some merit in a situation like this to maybe not go with your planning and zoning guidelines if you need funky lot lines or whatever the case may be. There's some residential uses for a special use district.

But you would still have to follow your subdivision regulation.

So what would ultimately happen is you'd have to ask to a variance to your subdivision regulation is where that would come in for putting an all limestone road.

What would that, so what would be the bearing if we're going to use a special use on a condominium plat? So that's going to, is that going to be, what are going to be the building standards? Are we going to follow the R1, R2? What do we currently have? R1, R2, R3 building setback standards? Well, so condominium.

Typically, when you ask for a special use district, you're creating your own, the idea is to create your own zoning district is what you're asking for. I'm not familiar enough with this, Kyle, to tell you exactly what they are asking for. But ultimately, even when you're, if you're keeping it all as a joint owner or you still have to follow your,

subdivision regulations meaning okay so so if we're creating our own use there and and this is r1 r2 and then the condominiums would fall under r2 r3 so what setback standards would be following the specialty or that's something that we would create i mean that's something that's typically created under the special use district but you know you're thinking of a condominium plat as a i think at least you're thinking like a Condo like we're normal like you normally would think about but that does not have to be the concept well And so I'll use for instance because I'm not a fan of the special use because when we set those we're stuck with those Shieldsboro for instance We set the parameters and the special use for the lot width on the front. We never made the total square foot lot So we're stuck with that when it's not consistent with our other zoning, which is we had our one our two standards so I don't even think we have a clear visibility as to what the parameters of a special use for condominium plat would be to even have an educated decision on this. So again, I would think all those details need to be thought through before it's even brought up as a possibility. Because once we set it, then it's there for good and we haven't had all those details.

And he already has an approval. I think I would take Cliff's advice and approach the council and maybe, well, not the council, but planning zoning with an exception, like with the road, instead of changing the whole district use.

It would just be the surface of the road. There would still be the necessities of ensuring the proper drainage and everything that goes along with that. Infrastructure would still be there.

Infrastructure. That's when you would ask for a variance to your subdivision regulations. Right. I can't point to, I don't have those with me tonight.

Which they were granted originally, as Cliff had mentioned, for those specific lots. And again, I... I'm not saying it's a situation, but in times past, when you say family compound, that can always change, dynamics change. So we don't put much stock into that, and we want to ensure that in the future this does not create more issues. And we've seen it happen, so we want to make sure there's safeguards in place. But the way you're going about it, I don't agree with the special use. We didn't invent it ourselves.

I get that. We just want to build, as Buddy said, we're probably going to build a gathering house that will probably have three more houses that will probably sit like that for 10 years or so.

And I think also, when I look at this, it's all one parcel. The last one we approved, I believe it had the parcels split out. Sure.

We do not have a problem with the original way it was done. The only thing that we asked for was, you know, we came up with all of our construction costs meeting the current regulations and costs were just... It's really good, it's a family compound, because we're creating very large lots. Typically, people don't have lots this big for new developments, so the cost is just dramatic with following the higher standards. If we could get the road as a limestone road, and if y'all don't think that would be a major problem, then I guess we would go back to the Planning Commission and ask again. I don't know if I can get a feel for what y'all think, if y'all would be okay with that. Because ultimately, it's going to come to y'all anyway.

Well, depending on how we vote, you'll know how we feel.

I'd be more open to that than a special use district, because that just opens up a can of worms down the road.

And you're creating a huge tax bill, too, by having it one parcel. I mean, I don't know if y'all have a trust or something in place to take care of that, but you're creating a huge tax bill.

They're people, they're going to pay the least amount of taxes as possible, I'm sure.

And it's hard for me to tell you that, yeah, come back that route, and we'll approve it, because you're going to have a whole other public hearing. Somebody might come from the public with a great point against it. Just bring plans forward, and then we'll take a look at that.

Yeah, I understand. Like I said, we don't like wasting time. We like being able to do it, but also realize there's a separate entity between administration and planning commission. I mean, it's a perfect system.

you know so i realized that uh there's a disconnect but but hopefully our intent is just to have a crushed limestone road that's it a private driveway any other questions discussion we did have a motion thank you oh thank you we did have a motion in a second uh if there's no other discussion i'll call for a vote there's a motion to deny aye aye aye aye aye aye motion carries seven zero Okay, moving on to agenda item 8D, a motion to follow planning and zoning's recommendation and approve the application for a variance of two feet resulting in a three-foot side yard setback to allow the construction of an accessory structure slash pavilion submitted by Ray Montjoy located at 355 Main Street, parcel 149E-0-29-277. It was approved three to two. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second?

Moin and seconds.

Any discussion? Vote to motion.

Aye. Nay.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries six to one. Project updates, looks like there are none. Ordinances, there's none. Moving on to the City Clerk's Report, Agenda Item 11A, a motion to approve the docket of claims 26-044 dated August 18, 2026 in the amount of $1,205,097.65. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second? Second.

Moin and seconds.

Any discussion? Vote the motion.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. Councilwoman Holmes has left the room at 7.02. Moving on to agenda item 11B, a motion to approve docket of claims 26-045, special dated August 18th, 2026, and the amount of $299.94. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second?

Second.

Councilwoman Davis seconds. Any discussion? Vote the motion.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Motion carries 6-0. Councilwoman Holmes has re-entered the room at 7-0-2. Agenda item 11C, a motion to approve the docket of claims 26-046 special dated August 18th, 2026 in the amount of $814,202.64. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman DeSalvo. Any discussion? Vote the motion.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries 7-0. Moving on to 11D, a motion to approve the docket of claims 26-047, an addendum dated August 18th, 2026, in the amount of $34,110.55. Motion. Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second?

Moining seconds.

Councilman Moining seconds. Any discussion? Vote to motion.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

motion carries 7-0 moving on to agenda item 12 a mayor's report discuss public works roof

yeah uh that's for the across the street well back through here and everything i think the lowest bid was 160 68 000 to replace that roof um low bid was not accepted because of lack of information everything i think it probably tells you all that now um i think they forgot to submit yeah they forgot some of the paperwork i think that they forgot to submit their bond so anyway just i think that i don't have it in front but i think it was 160 we want to move forward with that or do we want to go back out for bids and ask? How many did we receive?

It was a pretty, you had about five of them, maybe six.

Six of them.

I think it was six.

I think it should all be attached.

They didn't have a bids here at the company or something? Yeah.

What's the urgency? What's the, how quickly does it need to be replaced? Is that something we have time to?

Well, the problem is these bids were, these bids are, I think they've extended them, so these bids are about to expire. Is your urgency of why this is?

Okay, yeah, see, May.

Is it the whole facility?

So what is, is everything over public works and tying this building right here, redoing this here, tying it in? However, it's tied in redoing that as well. You know, we do have a few leaks over on this end down here some more. That one may be fixed as of now. There's a leak over here on that. So there is some hiding in leaks that's out here. We looked at trying to coat it. That was from the air condition here upstairs that leaked and all. So we looked at trying to come up with some coatings that put on it. We did run into some stuff at MML.

Yeah, ceramic.

We've used it before where I worked before and worked very well. So.

Well, anyone want to bring up a motion? Do we need to do this now or bring it back?

make a motion on all the prices are kind of public record now something that cannot be waived

Might be why it was so cheap, I don't know.

But he was, you know, we put, I think we budgeted like $100,000, $110,000 for it. It's just, you know, $60,000, $70,000 over budget.

What's that coming out of? Huh? What's that, what fund? What are we pulling that out of? It was in capital projects.

The, didn't that once we get this subtracted? Everybody else had a deduction. They had a $65,000 increase on their bid. You think they did that math wrong? I mean, look at the bid tab sheets. For alternate one, everybody else deducted money, and he went up $65,000. Could be different.

Maybe so.

Depending on the contractor, there's different methods of doing things.

And what's the recommendation on the base bid and the alternate or base bid? We got alternate number one, alternate number two, one and two.

What was one? It has base bid plus alternate one, and then base bid plus alternate one and number two.

I'm trying to, one of the alternates was like painting the, remember it was?

Window replacement.

Painting and window replacement.

Window replacement. Is that what? Out front is one.

And one was for non. Stand and seam roof.

Yeah.

Do a stand and seam.

Just stand, yes.

What would be your recommendation in terms of getting the most complete project?

Don't ask.

The most expensive one?

No. No, believe me, no. I believe in some of the coatings on it that you can come in and coat it. It's not like it's rusted through, but it is leaking. Take the skylights out and see what we can do. Roofers don't believe in it, but of course they put roofs on it. but I've seen firsthand in a lot in acid rain coming out of stacks and all that, you know, chemical plants and all where it was put on and still standing today, whereas normal tin didn't last five years and was rusted through. And it's 25, 30 years later, and it's still standing with no problem. You know, so there is things out there. Standard roof, you know, I thought, I didn't think it would come in as much as it did just to go in and put the same roof that's on, you know, your normal, 26-gauge whatever roofing, the standard seam roofing is more expensive than everything. If we need to go back and look at it, we can maybe ask if they would extend the deadline on their quote on it and work with them and see what we got.

So he's saying to extend it so you can look at the extent of the repair? Yeah. Or...

I've had coating issues before on flat roofs and had problems. Because ABC Rental is a flat roof and I ran it for years. We had that roof coated tons of times to keep it. I don't know if this is a flat roof or what the pitch is on it. If it's got a pitch, I would say mellow. I wouldn't coat a flat.

How much of the price difference would it be to coat it versus to fix it? I guess because I don't want next year's to sit here.

The guy we had over there is probably less than half price. You know, originally when we looked at it, we really liked the low bid. It wasn't a whole lot more for new metal and everything. But with this, it's more than twice as much as what the coating would be.

Standing seems the most expensive metal you're going to get, though, probably. I'd say do a 26 gauge, a 29 gauge, or whatever, and it'd probably be fine. Just a ribbed panel.

That's probably what we'll end up going with.

all right so i guess from council are you what are you wanting us to do tonight you just want to discuss it off the next meeting and make a presentation you know one or the other all right how long do we have them to hold these bids because i i'm thinking of the worst case scenario we just have to go back out and then all these are public yeah that's that's the issue if it's public When did they extend the bids? When did they extend them until?

They're probably due now.

Yeah, it was probably 30 days.

We'd like to wait and see. Like I said, worst case, go back out for bids or come up with another game plan.

Change the specs for the bid?

Yeah, or any of these bids don't have the coding, right? So I'd like to see what that comes in.

Okay.

It looks like.

All right.

Sounds good.

Since you're bringing it up. Is the coding not just a band-aid? I mean, we're going to eventually have to fix it, right?

The one we looked at over there had a 20-year warranty on it.

Yeah. It's a ceramic coating, and it's a thick, like almost rubber type coating.

They come in and seal everything off, all your screws, this, that. Right. And then they come back in and coat it with it. The condition of the existing roof will sustain an additional weight for 20 years.

Okay. All right, well.

And it's just one of the options. You know, we go back with the regular metal roofing and all. And they come out like that. I think that's all that's up there now. Okay.

How long does that last?

Yeah. We won't be around. Okay. It's been up there for a long time. But, I mean, it'll last. and go that way.

And metal is cheaper than this coating? No. Coating is over the existing, what's there now. Coating would be over the existing.

It takes the skylights out and everything, you know, so we can do away with them, put the metal there to replace them, come back, seal all that, and then they come in and coat everything.

Do we get a guarantee with the coating?

Yes.

I'd like to see, I'd like to see.

There's a lot of options in the coating, you know, They've got some where it's almost like a foam that's on it, probably about four to six inches thick, and they coat that. And that's one of the things we use out in the private sector that is still sitting on the building 25 years later.

And it's white. So it reflects. Reflect.

That's not conditioned. All right.

Well, any other discussion? Okay. Well, thank you, Mary. Anything else? All right, we'll move on to council business, old and new business, 13A.

What are we doing here? It's in limbo. No, the grant anticipation.

Oh, the grant anticipation loan. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, we added that to there. I was using my paper one. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't have it on mine. Yeah, I got it online right here. I'll read it.

And Jason Thomas is here. He can answer any questions you may have on that.

Do you want to go ahead? Let's handle this real quick. One second. What are we handling? The sale and award 13B, the one that was added.

Yeah, that's what Jason's here for.

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. I thought it might have been the trip.

Hello, everybody. Jason Thomas, Municipal Advisors in Mississippi. This is for the $3,285,000 taxable grant anticipation note that's being issued to provide you all with cash flow for Hurricane Ida recovery projects that you have a confirmed and obligated grant from FEMA and VEMA to cover. You have to expend the money first. This gives you the money to do that, and then you get reimbursed, and you pay down the grant note when you get reimbursed. I sent an RFP out to nine banks, three responded. The lowest bid was Community Bank at 5.77%, and I'm recommending that y'all accept that one.

I will go ahead. Does anyone have any questions?

I do. Does the grant pay for the interest?

You know, that's an open question. In the FEMA zone that Louisiana is in, they've been doing that. In the FEMA zone that Mississippi is in, they haven't been doing that. We are hoping that they will at some point, but as of right now, I don't believe it. idea is hopefully that you know when you draw on this grant you draw when you have a bill you have to pay hopefully it won't be outstanding too long before you get that reimbursement and you want to pay interest from the day that you make that advance to the day to reimburse it so if we don't touch it then we don't that's right cost us anything okay mike will this require i know last time we went through this i mean weekly calls to make sure that we're on top of it i mean we anticipate what couple months i mean it's hard to say i know it yeah it is you know and we

I think we're trying to close it out now. The FEMA part of it, with the exception of the roads we added, you know, to this project. And we started sending in. And, you know, they always like to do a close one time. You know, for debris pickup, we waited almost two and a half years for that. Tied up almost two and a half, 2.8 million dollars. and funds for that. It's hard to tell. You know, MEMA's got, from my understanding, MEMA's got the money sitting there. You know, FEMA, we always thought it was a FEMA problem and all, and MEMA has the money sitting there, and that's how we ended up getting, you know, some help out of Jackson there to push MEMA to get our funds when we did.

This project will be closed out soon.

Yeah, this project will be closed out. I think we're doing a final ride through. Josh, you remember what that day is? I don't know the exact date now.

And Puffy should be on the budget too, huh? We should be way on the budget, I think, on this. We are.

I think we're 2.5, some ways in there.

Are we paying that all in one sum, or is it going to be paid?

No, we've been paying as we go.

Yeah, okay.

We've already paid the majority of this. But the thing is, is try to work with FEMA. It would be there if we need it, and try to work with MEMA. And if they think we're going to be out here another couple years, you know, we may go back and see about, you know, using the money. But, you know, it'll be sitting there. And the only thing it can be used for is this project. It can't be related to anything with Zeta, you know, like the harbor repairs. We have one sitting there for that. That one we'll probably have to go after. We're probably looking at $4 million on that one to tie up for a length of time. So we'll probably go after the grant, you know, anticipation on that. This one, I mean, we're floating it now. We're still in good shape, very good shape in the city with funds and all. It's just we'd like to get a little more information before we jump on getting it. And if we did decide to use any of it, it would have to come before council and whatever.

Jason, over, say, one year at the current interest rate, that's recommended by community bank at 5.7%.

Yeah, and it's actually this, the way I've learned to do these notes really is we ask for a two-year commitment from the bank because, you know, I've been doing this 27 years, and grant notes, sometimes they take a lot longer than anybody expects, and I don't want y'all to get to the year from now and have to go out and do another note. because the project didn't finish. So I just ask for two years now to make sure you have plenty of time. There's not that much of a difference in the rate. It's a short-term interest rate. It's just the taxable short-term rates are higher now.

So what are we looking at just ballpark dollar-wise? I know we're not looking at the max amount of 3.2, but let's just say for hypotheticals it is over a year's time, what are we looking at in terms of interest?

Well, it's a nearly 6% rate. So at 5.77, you've got a million dollars outstanding per year. That would be $57,700.

Any other questions? I'll call for a motion directing the sale and award of a taxable grant anticipation note non-revolving line of credit series 2026 of the city of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in the maximum principal amount of $3,285,000 to and authorize the execution of a term sheet regarding such sale by the mayor and city clerk.

Motion.

Motion by Councilman Smith. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Councilman DeSalvo. Any other discussion? Any discussion?

Vote the motion.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. Okay, we are gonna, we have now, we'll move on to agenda item 13A, a request for an appeal for 11650 Bayou Drive, the tree removal. You have the, go on up.

Kevin Barty, 11650 Bayou View Drive. Just asking for permission to move a tree. I have a half acre lot. Trying to center the house on the lot versus putting it all the way to one side, the side it would go on would put me within 25 foot of the house next door. Hate to take the tree down. More than willing to plant other trees, just ask and see what we can do.

I spoke with him prior to the meeting about we would have to do for free planting and everything and get with ricky i think it's like 12 45 gallon trees maybe ricky told me that's not right i think that's a 24 inch tree yeah inch and a half two inches usually falls in that 45 gallon range yeah that's what that's what i was told so um I think it would have better looking trees probably because this one looks like it hasn't been trimmed or pruned or nothing else. Probably the damage when the lot was cleared years ago or something just looks rough.

I'm nervous too. Building is close. It may end up dying. You know what I mean? Just trying to keep space. I mean, it's a unique spot on Bayou View right there where everybody's got two to three lots. So just try not to build right on top of the people next to it is all.

So you have, if I'm looking, you have two lots?

I have two and a half lots.

Two and a half, so you have half of, I guess, 36, you have 35 and 34. Correct. And you said you have a neighbor, I guess it would be to, I don't see a road, but to the lot 34 side that you're worried about?

Yeah, where we would have to put the house because of the other trees would put us within 30 foot of them right now. which typically would be fine, but having a half acre and then I've got a ton of room on the other side.

How far from that? I guess for it to make sense, if I said, hey, look, let's just shift the house over, looking at it, it looks like that would be ideal. But I remember I've learned more about trees since I've been on this city council than you would imagine. But one thing that, and one thing is like we know the root radius. You have to be so far from the root radius to protect the tree. So I guess if someone may know how far would they have to move it, would it be? Some of them are 20 feet, 25 feet. And if you did that, that really puts. Yeah, I'm going to be right on top.

Right now, 24 foot between the neighbor and myself, I am right at the drip line of the tree.

I know this would be I assume a raised house being where it's at so I guess maybe the root radius maybe not as important I think it's a slab that is worried about but the trees I was saying when I looked at it originally I was just going to say bump the house either back and over but

yeah there's another bigger tree in front of that one and then also there's two oak trees on the same side as the house that i'm concerned about where if we move it over the driveway is going to be right on top of those also so it's nice because we do have trees out there but and it looks like it is a smaller

Well, any questions? Anyone have any questions? Okay. Now, does anyone want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to overturn, to allow them to cut the tree down with the stipulations of replacing it with what is required and the tree ordinance to remove it.

We have a motion on the floor. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Smith. Any other discussion? All right.

If not, I will call for a vote.

Nay. Nay.

Nay.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Motion approved. 4-3. Thank you, sir.

4-3. 4-3.

okay um we do have some people signed up for a general public forum uh we do have uh marcus allen signed up oh i'm sorry i'm so sorry marcus one one second uh any other council business i'm good anything yeah but one thing i just sent so on 305 turner that's that main hole

And I think Ronnie went and looked at it, because it was reported that it was loose. I think he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but then I sent you a video, so whenever someone's driving over and it's making a pretty, that's when it's sounding loose, so it's making a pretty loud noise, then we just take a look at it. So it's gotta be, at some point, it's just not snug there to where if someone's driving, and there's multiple videos. But I sent you one of them. 305? 305 Turner, yeah. Okay.

So I have the handout I copied the first paragraph actually off M dot for a grant that they are providing I Just need to be Supervised on how do we go about applying for a grant? It may fall within Ward five it may fall within some of Ward one depending if we did get a bike path or a Sidewalk set up and to see what we could do we have until September 30th to apply for this grant and either sidewalks or bike paths and Lighting they would provide.

Yeah, you know, we've been trying to find some grants. Hopefully this one here may come through with ditch on Blue Meadow right past the school in that area deep ditch narrow down the road and everything so you know we'll go after something here to try to maybe get some funds for I would say I would suggest set up a meeting with the mayor and come look and pull up the grant application and just

Because there may be this grant there may be a resolution or there might be something that you guys need to pass and

you know committee funds I don't know so I just don't know enough about this grant but so I would just say let's all get together and pull it up and look at it I guess the main thing is just it doesn't have to be a vote just make sure everybody on council would be okay with applying for a grant for this because there's no use to waste a lot of time applying for one if y'all are going to say no we don't want that so as long as y'all just so we'll see what the match is if there is a match okay some of them's 20 some's none some and that's usually what 20

point of using well like I said depending what saw we go and maybe Ward 5 and maybe it's a much-needed project in that area if this isn't if we can't get it through through this and through M doc can we maybe try through GRPC no I'm good

i am uh good myself um okay if there's no other council business we'll move on to our non-agenda item um we do have marcus allen if you'd like to come to the podium yes sir my name is marcus allen um i work for the sea of bay st louis seven years uh started out as uh cutting grass all the way to uh utility to provide I've been working in utilities for about 27 years. And just here lately, it was in the last eight months I was demoted to field supervisor with no reason of being demoted. As well, the guy that took my place was here for eight months only making $16, I mean 16 cents less than me as field supervisor. And as I get demoted, with all the new equipment, more workers, and the SCADA system, the GIS system, I was demoted, and he come back around to make $30 on salary, but I'm still making the same money that I was making when I was supervisor. The only reason that I feel like I didn't make what they wanted to see because we never had two crews if that's what they were shooting for but as of right now eight months into me being where I am and where he is we still don't have two crew so I was told to come here today to let you all know this due to my investigation for being I mean you can tell the way I take it as if It's not that I wasn't doing a great job. My time doesn't fit that position. Because there's nothing in seven years that I haven't done for this city. Putting myself on the line. I don't have a trench box. I get down in a 10 foot hole with no trench box. I've been covered up before. Not here, but I know what it feels like to be dying covered up. But at the same time, no one explained to me that my job was on the line or was up for grabs. I had to look on the city page just to find that out, that my position was available. But no one could never explain to me why I lost my position, other than me not having two crews. And right to this day, like I say, it's way more, we have way more people now. We have better equipment now than when I was going there. We have a skater system now. We have GIS. We can find things now. But when I was doing that, I had a map. I have to ride and check those lift stations because we didn't have a skater system. Plus get all my work done as far as doing services in this town. And put my life on the line by climbing down in those 10-foot holes with no trench spots. You know, I have family just like everyone sitting here. Why do I have to be demoted When that person was hired in with $0.16 less when he first started than what I was making as a supervisor, now he's at $30 an hour and I still make the same money. And there's no room for growth in the position I have where I have to go to the council to ask for a raise and that's why I'm here today.

And Margaret, I'll extend, let you finish.

Yes, sir, and that's why I'm here today because my position no longer holds any more money from where I was when I was a supervisor to now being demoted.

Thank you for coming here. I guess from a council's perspective, you know, we set the budget and administration is usually on the HR side, right, and day-to-day operations. Yeah. But so I know it's probably hard for you to come here and uncomfortable. It takes a lot to do that, but... And I guess I'll reach out to the mayor and I'll talk to him personally and see if I can find out more to it on an individual level. And I'm sure council will do some due diligence as well. But thank you for coming forward and making a statement. I don't know what the outcome will be, right?

But just... Well, my thing is that I'm still doing the same job as when I was, you know what I'm saying, the supervisor. Well, when I was a supervisor, I did, I worked. I didn't sit back and punch on an iPad. Didn't have that luxury. I didn't sit back and look at our skating system to see how long what pump ran where. I had to read it on the wall. But soon as all these gadgets come available, I get demoted.

Margaret Spatt, may I just ask you one thing? Have you talked to your supervisor? Yeah, I have talked to Ronnie.

Ronnie, okay. Yeah, I have.

Have you gotten any resolution with him?

Well, no, I just never got to prove I lost my position. to a person who was under me making $16 less, I mean 16 cent less when they first started here, eight months ago, okay? You left your job where you were, you came here, and you made $16 less, I mean 16 cents less, okay? Somebody who been here seven years, you leave, okay? All of a sudden my position come available, now you're back. But now you're back and you're on Saturday making $30 an hour. And I'm still doing your job as of today. There's no one that works with me have more experience than what I do here. No one. Because they're from drainage. Or they're from wrecks and parks or whatever. You know what I mean? So I'm having to teach these guys. And once they figure out what I do for a living, they don't want no part of that. It's not... that they don't, when they figure out the work that we do here, as far as utilities, they don't want no part of it. They think they do until they actually in that field.

And Marcus, I know, you know, I've given you some extra time. Yes, sir. You know, you've been here for seven years and being a city employee. Yes. I hope Mr. Cliff doesn't think, because he's on the historical, I'm going to start giving him extra time. Okay, I understand that. but it's it's kind of you know um i think we all uh receive the message and and we'll see you know each person may reach out get clarification they may or may not but thank you um for your time here tonight and stay into the meeting and i sure appreciate it actually i was the only one on that side of the docket i wish i was first but you made me stay and watch the whole meeting thank you

Mike is this that special position that we created that we was able to bring I would not recommend having any if you want to come see me I'll talk to you but there's nothing been added since last year moving on we have Mr. Cliff Rabelais

Good. Give him 90 seconds. Last man standing. I don't know. We still got Mr. John.

Cliff Ribley, 702 3rd Street. A lot of discussion about money. I understand the school board is looking for a $19 million bond they're going to come up with. I'm going to ask because the school board doesn't really report to the citizens. Whether you believe it or not, they don't. I'm going to ask from the city council that we find out how many students we got going to Bay St. Louis Bay Wayland school district of that how many of them come from parents that live in Waveland and how many of them come from parents that live in Bay St. Louis and then we want to find out how much tax revenue comes the city of Waveland and how much tax revenue comes from the city of Bay St. Louis Because, and I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect when you look at the millage rates and you look at the valuations of houses, the City of Bay St. Louis is pretty well heavily subsidizing the City of Waveland. So I would like to dispute that. So I'm going to ask you, the City Council, because they won't give me that information. Hopefully they work for y'all. How many students come from Waveland? How many students come from Bay St. Louis? How much money we get in tax revenue from Waveland? How much money we get in tax revenue from city of Bay St. Louis? I think that's a very fair question before they start coming and telling us, well, the $15,000 per student that we spend, we didn't bother to put anything aside for capital improvements. Now, if you guys run a business like that, You guys know, you run a business, you gotta have money put aside for capital improvement projects, and that's what supposedly this $19 million bond is for. And then if you look at your tax bills over the last several years, it hadn't been 4% a year, even though that's what they asked for, but since, was it 2022, they were asking for $38 million? They done got several percentages since then. And this will be a 12, 15% bump in our taxes. We talked about P&Z earlier this year. We want affordable housing. Guess what it costs? Those of us, Bay St. Louis is a city of retirees and second homes. That's who's moving here. Most of us retirees are on pretty close to fixed income. So I'd like to know where our money's going to go and how much of it goes where. Because I may or may not be supporting a bond issue you know i'm shy i won't really express my opinion hardly at all but i do think it'd be appropriate for the citizens of bay st louis to know how much we're paying of that tab versus the citizens of wavelength and how many kids come from bay st louis how many kids come from wavelength thank you thank you very much mr cliff when when they vote on this bond is it open to wavelength residents as well as bay st louis residents they get to vote on it also yeah

But it's the same mill upgrade. The value of the bills are different. Been a while, right? Been a while.

Probably, yeah. All right, well, nobody else.

Nobody else is signed up for public forum. There's attorneys report looks like there is none. Do you have anything? executive session is not needed well I will call for a motion to adjourn the meeting of August 18th 2026 any discussion motion carries 6-0 meeting