City Council - Regular Meeting

to order. Uh let's see. Monday night we will have quite a few reports, review of the payment of bills, the minutes from February 19th and the 23rd. And we'll start resolution 876826 approving alcohol license for Jimco LLC doing business as Beef Brady St. Patrick's Day event. Miss Dickerson, any issues with this? There are no issues with this request from the police department or from the zoning department. And this application is for an annual event. Any comments or questions on this,

Mr. President? U Mayor, there was a time, wasn't there, where somebody like this would be able to apply for a permanent application? Um, did did that I guess that never went through? I'm unaware of a permanent application. I I was under the impression for for situations like this that it's a it's it's percase basis. Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Any further comments or questions? Seeing none, resolution 876926 approving the engagement letter for the selection of Walder Stewart and Kendrick for attorney services. Mr. Munger,

good evening. So, what you have before you is something that was discussed extensively in the budget and the fees that you have here for uh the law firm that represents the city and that was appointed by the council upon taking office are reflected in our operating budget. Um those are billable at a rate of $265 an hour with various flat rates for representation of things like the solid waste authority uh storm water uh fees associated with some of the items that you'll see later this evening uh external affairs and uh municipal court as well. So that is this is basically a formalization of uh what the council has already approved in the budget and is within the monies allocated on an annual basis.

Very good. Any comments or questions? Mr. All right, cut off easy on that one. Resolution 877026 authorizing the mayor to execute an engagement letter with Valkan Bingum for the purpose of government relations services.

Yes, sir. So, as you said um and as mentioned also in Mr. Waldrip's letter. Uh the city has a desire to bring on representation uh from the firm Boston Bingham uh to help with external services. Uh this includes some of the work that we're doing in Montgomery uh as well as in Washington uh helping with the city's uh different legislative desires uh as well as external affairs as it relates to economic development. Um this is paid for also from the legal services line item. uh although these services are not uh purely legal in nature uh at a rate of $20,000 per month with an initial $40,000 payment uh due to the firm. Again, this is within the amount that was previously authorized uh by council uh within the legal services budget, which I would point out is less than in previous years.

Very good. If uh some of our trips down to Montgomery come to fruition, they'll pay for themselves very easily. Uh any other comments or questions concerning this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to resolution 877626 authorizing the mayor execute a general services agreement between Waganir Engineering and the city of Hoover.

Mr. President, uh this is a on call consulting agreement covering a wide range of engineering and consulting services. As you know, the city has relationships on a project specific basis with a number of engineering firms. Uh this work will be centered solely around specific projects. Uh and there is a singular task order included uh for uh all of the different items that are enumerated there. Some of which will involve storm water work, some of which will uh involve items related to the municipal sewer system, but also possibly uh some items that skew outside that scope as they arise. Uh the amount that you see there is on a not to exceed basis. uh although it's to be determined what scope of services will be engaged in uh specifically payable on a monthly basis um I do not see this viewing outside of the amount authorized for professional services in the mayor's uh and administration budget uh for this year um and I think uh those will be updated of course with the monthly uh bills that you receive for consideration

very good any comments or questions regarding this item all right group Resolution number 877126, a resolution authorizing the mayor and police chief to execute a memorandum of agreement between the Alabama law enforcement agency and its state bureau of investigations in the city of Hoover to establish investigative authority and procedures for conducting certain investigations. Chief Morris.

Yes, Mr. President and Council. Thank you. This is just an agreement really formalizes what we already have in place with Aaliyah and that the investigations are when our officers are involved in an officer involved shooting. this memorandum would cover our their participation and them taking over our investigation. We had a recent meeting with Aaliyah and the chiefs of police in Shelby County to go over the theou and also our city attorneys reviewed it and again it's just a it's just a formalization of the process we already do. Very good. Any comments or questions for chief? Mr. President, Chief, is this not already identified in state code?

No sir. No sir, it's not. We we would not have to use Aaliyah. We could use any other agency, but we would choose to use Aaliyah because it brings an independent review, you know, for our officers and really an unbiased opinion where no one can say that we're, you know, investigating our own people. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move on to resolution 877226 approving the law enforcement personnel work period for overtime purposes as it relates to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Yes, Mr. President. This is just a request from us to change the way we calculate and pay overtime. Currently, we we pay overtime anything over 40 hours in a 7-day period. We're asking to change that to anything over 80 hours in a 14-day period. And that's to get all officers in our department on the same level for how they're compensated for overtime pay. Any comments or questions regarding this item? I have some, Mr. President. Mr. Schulz. So if an officer works over 40 hours per week that will he will not get paid overtime he will get paid this is going to be based on a twoe period not a oneweek period. Is that correct? Yes sir that is correct.

And currently what is the standard currently? The currently the standard is anything over 40 hours and seven days. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes sir. Mr. Driver. Uh just a followup for clarification. Uh, the Fair Labor Standards Act allows the 14-day 80h hour look back period. Correct. Yes, ma'am. It does. Thank you, Chief. I understand this is to help facilitate um possible new direction and and working hours and so forth. Yes, sir. We're going to do a pilot project with our patrol division for 12-hour shifts. And this would allow fair compensation once we during the pilot project for all officers to be paid at the same rate. Yes. Uh if that once the pilot project is over.

Yes, sir. If it's successful, great. We keep going. If it's If you decide to return to the traditional work period, I just ask that we revisit this. Yes, sir. We absolutely 40 hour a week. Yes, sir. Happy to do that. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Yeah, I have one more. When when is this pilot program going into effect? If we have been working with finance and HR ironing out the municip system to make sure everything is working properly and we expect it to start on March 29th. So, is that going to come in front of the council or does it not have to? It's it's my understanding it doesn't have to. Okay. And uh how long is this pilot program going to be for? We're going to do for a minimum six months. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

M Mr. President, just one more question, Chief. Yes, sir. Um does the 12 give a a uh day off between like every other Friday? Is that the week? Yes, sir. The reason part it gives um every other weekend is a three-day weekend. Yes. And so we have a lot of young officers now and right based on our our schedules now they don't they don't have a weekend off and really wouldn't have one for many many years without taking annual leave.

And so it's it's it's to help those young officers. It helps recruiting. There's a lot of benefits to trying it. And and I would say this to um uh with public safety uh I do commend uh that entire unit because u you can pay a nice piece of money to um protect and serve but uh many times with all the programs we have going on SEC uh tournament and the more we have come to the city the more is required of them and the burnout uh is real. uh the fire department has one on two off but still they have other responsibility so having that flex flexibility is critical so yes sir thank you for thinking outside the box on that yes sir thank you chief

thank you president one thing that I have learned from talking to officers about this is amazingly is they are for it uh a lot more than I thought they would be um because of the uh the uh averaging of of the new days off and and not having to burn vacation days to be able to have a a three-day weekend or maybe more than that. Um I know the chief told me uh how that how that uh 12-hour shift works because it varies from week to week.

Yes, sir. There's you have one long week and one short week. It's referred to as the Panama schedule. So on your short week, you only work Wednesday and Thursday and the rest of the week you're off. So the benefit of that is if you think about it from a leave perspective, they can take two days off and have seven days off. And again, our our workforce in patrol almost 70% is has been on 10 years or less. And really out of that, 40% has been on five years or less. And under the current system, it would take those guys a very long time to get a weekend off without having to take leave. And I understand this is going to be a a uh wonderful recruiting tool as well.

Let's hope so. We we hope again we are we are in a very competitive market for recruiting and the agencies we would like to recruit our lateral officers from they're on a 12-h hour shift and it's very difficult. They don't they don't want to take they don't want to give that perk up so to speak. They're only working 14 days a month and it's it's difficult for us to hire lateral officers now when historically Hoover that's all we would hire. Um but the you know everything has changed in recruiting and we we here I've spoken to our recruiting uh unit now in the previous recruiting unit and many times when we don't get lateral officers it's because of our lack of a 12-hour shift because all the other benefits the city provides are outstanding. Any further comments or questions? Chief, you're now free to step away.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Resolution number 877326 authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between Crown Castle and the city of Hoover for Dark Fiber. This is the Batman fiber. You got that right. All right.

Uh evening council. Um so a little background. In 2014 uh the city entered to an agreement with Access Fiber um for the use of four strands of fiber or two pairs of fiber. Uh, in 2018, Crown Castle bought Access Fiber, and at that point in time, we had to enter into a negotiation for leasing with them. In 2020, uh, we came to terms and signed a lease for the fiber that we use. Uh, that lease was up in December, and they've offered us a three-year lease with the exact same terms and the same monthly rate that we currently have. Um, so that's kind of the basic nuts and bolts side of it. Um, I did want to take a minute, if you guys will humor me, to kind of shed some light on dark fiber and how we use it. I guess no pun intended there, but uh, I guess it still works. And, um, as a former school teacher, I like to play show and tell. Um, that's a 144 strand fiber cable. There's a very tiny one sticking out of the top. You, if you might, like me, if you're like me, you might need glasses to see it. Um, we have four of those. And to kind of explain how that works, if you think of it as like a water hose, um, if you have one water hose that's got a colored water going down it, that'll do a gallon per minute. So, let's say it's red. We can take 25 of those water hoses with different colors and put them in one water hose. All those colors will mix together inside of there, and it's still putting out the 25 gallons per minute. And so, when it gets to the other side, it filters all that water out into the separate colors again. And so what we're really doing is we've got 25 different data channels that are pushing 100 gigs of data at a time back and forth between city hall and the PSC and the other 25 to 28 facilities that are connected to it to tie everything together for all of our storage, our communications, our public safety, our cameras, our security. And

when you think about storage and data, we're dealing with about 10 pabytes of data. Um most people don't know what a pabyte is. that's uh 10 million gigabytes of data in our storage when we're talking about our duplication and process. So, hence the importance of kind of what we're doing there with it. All right, I understand now that I've confused everybody. Any questions? We'll rely on Robins. Uh yeah, I fig I figured Robin might play along. Any comments or questions for Moose? Uh

does he or anybody else. I understand that this is going to have some effect on the the NCFI expansion. So, it does have uh an effect on it. Uh you guys have previously approved an AT&T and a charter expenditure for the relocation of fiber. The timing of this was perfect uh for the renegotiation of this. They've actually agreed to do the cut over for free. Uh, if you remember back the AT&T relocation was about $30,000, a little 30 plus. I think charter was around 40. So, the fact that we're actually getting this for free inside of there is a pretty good catch on that.

Good. Any other comments or questions? Thank you, Moose. Thanks. Moving on to resolution number 877426 authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement between BBHBMC LLC in the city of Hoover to obtain experential education for clinical emergency department staff. Chief Bentley.

Thank you, Mr. President, Council and Mayor. Uh this is just a standard agreement between us and Brookwood Hospital for their staff to ride along with our emergency medical services. Um we've got several of these contracts in place. Uh Children's Hospital, um Alabama Fire College, different institutions that teach and so this is just kind of a standard contract. Very good. Any comments or questions for Chief on this one?

Chief, I would like to say I met the SRO at Gwyn this morning and he would make an excellent truck. Um the mayor didn't didn't like me bringing that up, but uh He would I mean this guy's about 6 foot 12 and got got arms as big as your thighs. Yeah. And he would make an excellent trucky if you want to try to convert him. That's fine. You know, I almost had uh Mayor Duris converted at one time. He wanted to be a fireman, but he couldn't pass a test. So we Oh, I was wondering if you going to keep that banter up when he became

He's He stuck with He stuck with He stuck with the police department, but we're he's he's been successful. So he's been successful so far. So yes, that's right. What a performance review. All right, moving on to resolution 877526 authorizing the mayor execute an agreement between Holston Gases and the city of Hoover for industrial specialty andor medical gases. This is general contract with Holston Gas to provide medical grade oxygen for um our EMS services. Um the Holston gas contract has expired and um this has been vetted by our city attorneys. Um and so that's what that is.

Very good. comments or questions for this item? Mr. President, um, how do we select Holston Gases as the provider? Have we used them in the past or That's a good question. We've we've used Holston Gas for many many years. Um, they they've done a great job. So, we haven't seen a need to change and um um I really don't know why we chose them, but we've been using them for many years. Any other comments? You like me to check into that more? Yeah, that would be that'd be great. Yeah, I'll do that. Is there an increase in in fees? Yeah. No, sir. Very good. They're consistent. Very good.

Resolution number 877726 awarding a request for a proposal and authorizing the mayor execute an agreement for SEC FanFest to Drummer Boy Productions LLC doing business as Martin Sports Properties. Mr. P.

Good evening, Council Mayor. We put out an RFP for SEC baseball for the FanFest. Um this year we received three proposals back. One of those proposals got kicked out because it did not meet the minimum requirements um outlined in the RFP and therefore it was kicked out. So the remaining two proposals were uh thoroughly evaluated by our committee um independently scored and after that process, Martin Sports Properties emerged as the top ranking uh proposal. They're a new company to us, but we're excited about the potential that they uh that they bring. They have a very strong history producing championship type of events for the Cincinnati Reds, the Boston Bruins, Cleveland Cavaliers, uh the New University of Notre Dame, and several other professional sports teams and and universities. Their proposal demonstrated strong creativity uh planning and a clear vision for the event. uh their proposal builds upon the success of past FanFest events while introducing some new elements that we feel like will elevate the experience for the fans. So our top priority remains ensuring that fans continue to have a fun, inviting and family-friendly atmosphere uh that supports the baseball championship and we believe this proposal accomplishes that goal. So therefore, we're recommending that we move forward with Martin Sports Properties.

Very good. Any comments or questions for Mr. Pepper? Thank you, sir. Thank you.

The following item, resolution number 878426, approving the request to review a decision by the personnel review board. Um, Miss Dickerson, if you will move this to the regular agenda for Monday night. Any comments or questions involving this for the city attorney? We'll take that up on Monday night. Uh resolution number 877826 uh resolution in consideration and approval of storm water drainage improvements within the city of Hoover Chester Street. Should we just take the next five and you can go through them one one by one? Okay,

sounds good. I was hoping Moose since he started talking down for a minute would handle this for me. Resolution number 877926 is consideration approval of storm water drainage improvements for Glennwood Road. Resolution 878026 is storm water drainage improvements for Napier Drive within the Green Valley area. Resolution 878126 uh storm water drainage improvements for Laredo Drive. And resolution number 878226, storm water and drainage improvements for Lester Lane. Mr. Prome. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Council Mayor. Uh before I get going, I just wanted to cover some highlights before we jump into each case. Uh just so you know, so these come in through a cclick fix or complaint of some nature. Uh so what happens is our team which is comprised of Justin Marlin, Rosemary Jin, uh Jason Welch, Keith McKay, and myself uh look at these to see if they can elevate uh to the potential of being public purpose or not. Um once we get to the point where we see maybe this could fall on that, we engage legal to get their opinion on our review and then we come before you to present them for public purpose. So I I just want to say something before I get going. Each one has to be kind of reviewed on its own merits, which we've done. And so we get a lot of these cases. So some elevate to this point and some get denial letters. So just wanted to make that clear before we get going. Um, I'm going to jump down uh in case there's any budgetary questions here. So, uh, we did a rough order of magnitude on these and we feel certain that the miscellaneous drainage budget account for 2026 should be able to handle all these cases or use rollover funds from 2025. Okay. And then before I get in, I'm going to use some terms. So, I just wanted to kind of highlight some of them so you don't just hear funny little acronyms and what's he talking about? So there's a process when you go in to look at these. U so first of all we go put eyeballs on it and look at it. Okay. So when we start evaluating for what are we going to do for this project u we do an H&H analysis which is hydraologic and hydraulic. So what that does is we're looking at the volume rate of those waters and then the depth and velocity after you capture it and you start piping it. Okay. So uh we also work with partners. So we did reach out to Jefferson County who's done a Gisha

study which is grid surface subsurface hydraulic analysis and they've already had these available. So we're able to quickly use some of the data they have to identify flows. So for some of these cases we reached out to see if they'd share that and they're willing to share. So I wanted to make that point. And then lastly doing a survey is looking at the topo of the ground and then getting into design once you get through those first elements. So with that I'll get into number 14 there. And I'm just going to read uh Chester Street located in Bluff Park near Alfred Avenue currently experienced flooding due to storm water over topping the public rightway. The city's engineering department conducted an evaluation of the storm water inlet serving the section of Chester Street as well as the associated drainage pipe located within the public rightway and adjacent easements. The assessment identified uncontrolled overland flow, a sinkhole, storm water pipe failure, system surch charging. So system searchcharging is when the pipe itself is blown out of the top um and open overground flow. So the engineering department has determined that correct measures needed would include a topographic survey. Engineering design and construction mitigate the flooding within the public rightway and restore safe conditions for traveling public. This proposed drainage pipe repairs will involve work in both the public rightway and the easement associated with 1313 Chester Street. Because certain elements of project extend beyond the public rightway, city council needs to determine whether this meets the threshold of public purpose or not. And that's what we bring before you tonight.

Sir, if I could ask real quick. Yes. Um any of these projects, uh Mr. Waldrip, have we identified public purpose for any of these projects yet? So, do those need to be voted on prior to having votes on these resolutions? That's what this is. This is for public purposes. Is it going to be two, right? Public purpose only. At this point, I didn't know if we needed to vote specifically for a public purpose prior to voting for the resolution to assign the funds.

Okay. Okay. Does it exist in the resolution now? Because I haven't read it yet. So, Mr. Smith, it does. Okay. Author resolution and it contains the moving parts necessary to make this lawful and it's supported with attachments obviously from your engineering. I just want to make sure we didn't put the cart before the horse. I'm right there with you. I appreciate you asking that. Thank you sir.

So contracts will become before you for approval once we go out. So some of these two within the budget element too I wanted to note. So, I don't want to get into specific dollars at this point on these particular cases because we may be going out for bidding or seeking calls for engineer services and so we don't want to give them a bogey publicly. So, we want them to submit and have fair competition. So, we'll go through the process to get those in so you guys can approve them.

Okay. Glennwood Glennwood Road within the Bluff Park community near Alford Avenue currently experienced flooding within the public rightway near 1524 Glennwood Road. The city's engineering department conducted an evaluation of storm water inlet serving this section of Glennwood Road as well as the associated drainage pipe within the public rightway and adjacent easements. The assessment identified uncontrolled overland flow, storm water pipe feller system surch charging and inlet over topping. Based upon these findings, engineering department has determined that the corrective measures needed would include topographic survey, H&H study, engineering design, and ultimately bidding and construction. Uh, this would restore safe traveling conditions for Glennwood Road. The pros evaluation design and stormwater system repairs require work both within the public rightway and adjacent easements near 1524 Glenwood Road because certain components of the project may extend beyond the public rightway. formal determination by city council that the project serves a public purpose is required before public service department may proceed

and Napier Drive.

Okay, this is Green, it's actually Green Valley. Uh Napier Drive is one of the roadways uh that that's located in this area. So Green Valley community located within the area bounded by Patton Chapel Road, I459, Thomas Lane, and Highway 31 has historically experienced storm water drainage issues during significant rain events. These issues include flood water over topping open drainage channels, search charging within the storm water system, and uncontrolled overland flow. Collectively, these conditions result in flood water over topping public roadways, including Charlotte Drive, Plet Drive, and Napier Drive. The roadway over topping has caused damage to public infrastructure and poses potential safety risk to motorists and pedestrians. The topographic survey H&H study along with engineering design vans for the Green Valley storm water improvements are complete at this time. So that was approved prior to my coming on board. Uh these documents will serve as the basis for construction bidding which is the next step in the process and ultimately construction. The proposed improvements include system upgrades both within public rightway and easements. Because certain project components are located within the easement, project must formally be determined as a public purpose by city council before public services department may proceed with bidding and project execution. So, one thing I have not mentioned at this point, so there will need to be waivers signed by the pro private property easements that we have to get on. Uh this case in particular, we've identified 18 different properties that we feel we'll need to have to sign uh this waiver.

All right. Laredo Drive.

Laredo Drive located in Green Valley Community is currently experienced flooding due to water ponding in the public rightway near 360 Laredo Drive. The city's engineering department evaluated storm water inlet servicing the section of Laredo along with associated drainage pipe located within the public rightway and adjacent easement. The evaluation determined that the drainage pipe has collapsed, resulting in flooding that impacts the public roadway. The engineering department has concluded that repairing the damaged pipe will resolve the flooding within the public rightway and restore safe conditions to the traveling p public. Proper roadway drainage essential to safe and effective operation of the public roads. The proposed drainage pipe repairs will involve work both in the public rightway and the easement associated with 360 Laredo Drive. We'll also need to get a waiver from the neighbor as well because certain elements of the project extend beyond public rightway. City council must formally determine that the project serves a public purpose for public services department may proceed.

Very good. Finally, Lester Lane.

All righty. Lester Lane. Storm water inlets located inlets and piping systems serving the Clear View Road right away in Lester Lane within the Bluff Park community is experienced storm water drainage issues. The city's engineering department conducted an evaluation of drain drainage inlets and clear view road as well as the downstream storm water piping located within the public rideway and easements running parallel to Lester Lane. The assessment identified issues that include collapsed pipe segments, sinkhole scharging during storm events and uncontrolled overland flow. The engineering department recommends that corrective action include a review of the existing design plans to ensure that storm water flows are properly evaluated and addressed. Upon completion of this review, the city may proceed with soliciting construction bids and initiating necessary repair work. These proposed improvements may require construction within existing easements because certain components of the project extend beyond the public rightway. formal determination by city council that the project serves a public purpose is required before the public services department may proceed.

Very good. We will be sure to take these one by one on Monday night. But for now, what uh comments or questions do we have for Mr. Promer? Just something quick. And if you don't know this right now, it's fine. Okay. Can we um verify if it's any fish and wildlife stream gauges in this area? And if it's not, do we need to add some to get a before and after? there. And if you if we don't know it right now, that's fine. I'm just for So within the property limits that I've talked through tonight, there are not any. So even downstream and upstream downstream.

So So I guess the question I have once water gets if it's approved and water is actually redirected um wholly right to the particular locations, it may modify the stream gauges that US fish and wildlife utilize. So, uh, it'll be nice to know what we have and do we need any more. I mean, you guys make make decisions with Jefferson County that you may not need another one, but and that's a critical component of H&H because you you corral the water and then you put it in a pipe, you've all of a sudden have a water jet. And so, you have to kind of evaluate the effects downstream. Yes, sir. And so, that'll be part of the H&H study, which we then can

So, we'll come out of that is possibility of adding more stream. You don't want to just transfer the problem downstream to whoever that next neighbor is. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a quick question. Um, can you outline the Green Valley roads that were impacted? You said Napier or Pette? I can. Yeah, if they came up might have a map that we can show you guys there. Okay. Green Valley. So the the roadways in Green Valley are Charlotte Drive, Pette Drive, and Napier Drive. Perfect. Yes. Any further comments or questions?

Mr. President, I was wondering if you would entertain a comment from uh someone in the audience. they made a specific trip here and uh they they made a request of me as well that they could uh talk basically in support of one of these projects and so I'm just bringing that to your attention if uh we typically do not entertain comments during the work session that's typically on the Monday night council meeting if they can't be here on Mon can they not be here on Monday night that I don't know and that's why I was asking just in case but who's is it these we can be here Monday night

if you'll come back on Monday night and make your comments we'll be happy to hear them Thank you. Any further comments or questions from council on this item? I would just like to comment u y'all staff and mayor, y'all did an excellent job keeping us and the public up to date on the uh Treya Regina drainage case. I would ask the same that these be done on on these cases. Um just keep us up to date on how the work progresses. I realize on some of these it may take a while to get to get those uh easements agreements. So, it'll be a process.

Very good. Moving on to resolution number 875226 granting conditional use approval to allow drive-through facility for Dutch Brothers Coffee for the property located at 1855 Montgomery Highway. Mr. Martin.

Yes, Mr. President. Uh this particular case involves a proposed drive-thru coffee shop uh less than a th00and square feet in size but uh exhibiting a dual lane drive-thru uh configuration. Uh this particular case uh does involve a site that is designed to handle a total of uh 50 58 automobiles on the site. Uh 22 in the protected queue for the dual lane drive-thru as well as uh 38 uh total if you include the overflow beyond the protected queue. Um, also included are 20 parking spaces. Uh, this particular item came before the planning commission at their meeting in February and it comes to you with a positive recommendation uh with a couple of conditions. Uh, the first is that if any queuing backs on to US31, the operator would amend the ingress and egress to the satisfaction of the city engineer. Second, uh any new lighting on the site would match the existing lighting of the shopping center as closely as possible. Thirdly, uh sign uh package would be applied for separately and meet the requirements of the Riverchase plan unit development. Uh next, that the site and building would be planned and constructed in substantial conformity to the conditional use plans. Uh next, that the property uh would be subdivided prior to permitting. Uh next we have the landscaping on the master site uh would be restored at the time of the subdivision plat being considered. And finally that the operator would obtain a

business license prior to operation. Very good. Any comments or questions from Mr. Martin on this item? Yes, Mr. President. Um Mr. Martin, can you describe what the landscaping condition is?

Okay. So in addition to the U site itself, the new development that would occur on the p pro perspective new parcel, uh you have the larger shopping center that at the time it was approved and constructed met the minimum landscape criteria of the Riverchase plan unit development. Now over time uh the the property has lost trees. It has lost landscape areas and so in an effort to try to bring the entire property up to uh the current standards of riverchase uh the property owner has agreed to restore the treecape across that property and bring it back to its original design.

And when does that need to be done by? that would be done in conjunction with the plat being considered by the planning commission.

So in the past we've had where uh developers have promised to do certain landscaping and then have not fulfilled their promise yet the the the project has moved forward. Is that the case here or will the the promise need to be fulfilled before they can move forward? Well, the promise would need to be fulfilled when the subdivision plaid is before the planning commission. Um, we also have as a stop gap measure issuance of a certificate of occupancy. So, that gives us an additional layer um for a back stop, but um our intent is to have the landscaping up to date and in place when the subdivision plat is brought to the planning commission.

Okay. Thank you. I will note that uh the project engineer is present if you have any additional questions that you would like to ask of them. Any comments or questions? Thank you, Mr. Martin. You've got the next one as well. Set a public hearing for resolution number 878326 declaring as a public nuisance the conditions allowed to exist on the property located at 3766 Abby Glenn Way.

Yes. Uh this council dealt with a a hoarding situation at this address uh last year. Uh we were able to get the property abaded the hoarding of various incundry items uh garbage uh furniture a number of items that aren't customarily in open air space. Um, and there was quite a bit of of garbage that accumulated uh on the property leading up to our abatement. Uh, we did have a company come in under contract, clean the property, and bring it into compliance last summer. In the time frame since last summer, uh, garbage and other items are starting to accumulate once again uh, on this particular property. And so what we are asking is for the council to declare the site a nuisance and authorize us through our legal team to go back before the circuit court and uh consider an injunction on this property and allow us to go abate the nuisance.

Any comments or questions for Mr. Martin on this? Mr. Martin, is the is the dwelling occupied? It is. Do you feel that conditions within the dwelling are as bad as outside? I I sense that they are very bad on the inside. Should the city ask the health department to become involved? I think that uh that is a good course of action. Thank you, sir. Any further comments or questions?

Thank you, Mr. Mark. Finally, uh we'll have a first reading of ordinance number 262688, uh authorizing Hoover Fire Department to charge a fee for service for cost recovery of non-emergent lift assist responses to the Alabama state licensed assisted living, residential care, nursing facilities, and other healthc care providers within the city of Hoover. Chief Bentley, welcome back.

Thank you, Mr. President. council. Um the fire department offers uh services and we're super happy to do that on lift assists. Um but in u our facilities that have skilled nursing um we're called there a good bit to uh just lift someone out of the floor uh and they're not they're uninjured and it seems to be an issue where it's kind of taking advantage of the system if you will. uh most of the u assisted living facilities uh say that it's a a legal issue with them that they're not trained to do that and and that kind of stuff. But we have skilled nurses nurses uh at these facilities. U this this has nothing to do with a residential uh call where someone needs help. We do that every day and happy to do that. But we think that um these uh facilities are um kind of abusing the system and other cities across the nation have build and started building assisted living facilities and these type of facilities uh for this service.

Very good. Any comments or questions for Chief Bentley?

Mr. Do you believe that based on that it it sounds to me like they when you say they're abusing the system they're doing it because they don't want to pick up they they don't want to help the lift assist. Do you believe that for some reason if they start to receive a bill that the calls will get reduced and they will perform the service or do you think that they will just not call if that if that happens? Our hope is that they will assume the duties of of taking care of these people the way they should and stop calling us for these lift assists uh in a facility where there's people watching us pick these people up off the floor. It's not that we don't want to do it, it's the fact that we're, you know, it's there's people there that could do that very job. Um and so our hope is that it curtails that and they they do what they're supposed to do. Any further comments or questions?

Residents in these facilities. I've got a sister. I'm getting ready to move into an independent living here in Hoover uh in the next few weeks. Um but I've believed for a long time that that uh that they just don't want to do it. Um, I think that they have the capability, um, whether they're worried about, uh, legal issues or whatever, but they have the capability to hire staff that can take care of this as well as other duties within the campus of where these people are living. These people are paying from seven to $10,000 a month uh in fees and this should be a service because there's if they're laying there in the floor by the time they get to them, who knows how long it's been and then the fire department's going to not going to run emergency uh to the facility to get them out of the floor because it's not a an an injury situation. Uh correct, Chief?

That's correct. We we have noticed uh over the past um year or so that these facilities are are um kind of wising up the situation and they're they're saying it's a fall with injuries instead of just a lift assist. So there, you know, there's ways of of getting around it, but that is correct. Now, I want to reiterate the fact that in these independent areas where there is no one to help these patients, we're we're going there. Okay, we're these independent living where there's not nurses or someone who can do that. We're still responding in those locations and would not bill for that. Very good. Any further comments or questions?

Yeah, one question, Chief. Is it the skilled nursing facilities, are they required to have somebody on staff to do lift assist?

Uh, it's hard to determine that. We have we have gone around to all these facilities. our EMS people have gone around and talked to them and educated them. We work with them on a daily basis teaching them CPR and doing different things. So, I think we're good partners. Uh we tried to explain the situation. Different facilities say different things. Uh some of the management and uh at these facilities say that it's a liability for them uh to pick the person up out of the floor um because it's injuring their staff or or or whatever reason they come up with. So, we don't know if there's state law that's that requires them to have people to do liposis. I do not think there's a state law that requires that, but I'm not sure.

I do know um because this is somewhat related to my industry is that there's licensing that's required for a skilled nursing facility that's more involved than an assisted living facility. So they should uh skil skilled facilities in particular should absolutely have the capabilities to to do a lift assist in in my opinion. Thank you. Any further comments? Thank you chief. That we are ending the business portion. Any council comments before we journ tonight? M Miss McClennon, do you have some scores for us tonight?

Um I was out on a uh mission for a delegation to watch Hoover High basketball. So I was doing that. So both the girls and boys won again and they will both be playing on Saturday night for the championship. I think the girls are at four at BJCC and I think the uh guys will be like around after that. So they're very well once again they're going to play for the state championship. Very good. Mr. Mayor, do you have anything?

Yeah, I just want to say that I attended the uh attorney general safe school award at Gwyn Elementary School, one of nine schools in the state of Alabama out of 1500 that received it. So uh kudos to Gwyn and uh it was it was a fun event today. Councilman Smith was attended. And I want to remind everybody that Arbor Day celebration is at Aldridge Gardens from 8 to 11. And um there will be food and vendors there on Saturday. Yes. And um they will be giving away free trees to Hoover residents. So if you want a tree, come get one. Great. All right. With that, we're adjourned. Thank you.