City Council - Regular Meeting

as much as you can. Good evening everyone. Tuscaloosa City Council is now I think about you all the time. If you would please rise. We're gonna have our council pray and then remain standing for our pledge allegiance. Dear God, bless our proceedings tonight. Give us the wisdom to know what is just and the strength to do what is right. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Approval of the minutes. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes. Second. Moved and second that we approve the minutes. Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, thank you. Stand approved. Sorry, Mr. Fail. I was going to go ahead and make the assumption you were voting for the minutes. So, sounds good. Proclamation statements by mayor and council. Uh, any council announcements tonight? I'll be back at Jack Saturday morning at 8:30 for a little while. If nobody shows up, I'll go home. I'm going to I'm telling you. Yeah, I know. I'm waiting on that, mayor. I'm waiting for the perfect time. I got you. I'm I'm waiting. You know, it's kind of like having children. You can't wait for the Actually, every Saturday I keep waiting for Mr. Tiner to pick me up and take me over there. That'll be a long wait. It's too late. I got an announcement. What you got, Mr. We're not meeting next week, right?

No. He's going to show the big gauntlet film next week. You can show the G the Tuscaloosa Gauntlet is Friday and Saturday, April 17th and 18th. Okay. Be there. Mayor, I have You got kids that have too much energy? Bring them Friday night. Trash them. We'll hose them down afterwards, feed them a hot dog, load them up in the truck, and you're done for the weekend. And then Saturday morning, put on your big boy panties and come on back for the adult race. So local pavilion be there. Radio commercial says you're going to stuff two hot dogs.

Good luck. Good luck, Mr. That's a fantastic event and kudos to you for what you've done with it, Miss Howard. Um, just want to remind everyone that on Sunday, April the 12th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, the uh, WAMA festival will be at the Tuscaloosa River Market. That's the West Alabama Multicultural Alliance Festival. So, I just want to remind everyone to come out, get there early because it will be crowded and there'll be a lot to do and this is a familyfriendly event.

Thank you, Miss Howard. Any other council announcements? I do have one announcement. All city council and council committee meetings scheduled for April 14th are cancelled due to the district 3 special call municipal election. And I would remind everyone that lives in district 3 to please go out and vote. Any other announcements? Any department announcements? Agenda item comments by citizens? No, sir. We have no unfinished business. Consent agenda. Clerk. This approves items A through D on the consent agenda. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second. Voting. Mr. fell. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Consent agenda is adopted. Public hearings. Clerk. This approves a restaurant retail liquor license for Made in Mexico Tacos and Tequila. Adoption. Second. It's been moved and second. Miss Franks. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening.

Sorry, it's not working. Okay. I have Made in Mexico Tacos and Tequila LLC doing business as Made in Mexico Tacos and Tequila applying for a restaurant retail liquor license. They are located at 1825 Matt Farfarland Boulevard North Sweet 250. Their hours of operation will be Sunday 11 to 8, Monday through Thursday 11 to 9, Friday and Saturday 11 to 10. Here's the aerial view of the location. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will come and give their report and then the applicant for questions. Officer Champion.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Police doesn't have any objection to the applicant. Okay. Do we have the applicants here? Yes. If you would please come forward and give your name and address. Hello, council me mayor. Um, name's Javanni Sanchez and my address 4052 Cyper Street, Northport, Alabama 35475. Any questions for the applicant? All right, sounds good. All right, thank you guys. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak for or against this application? Seeing none. Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Application is approved. Good luck. Clerk. This will approve off- premises retail beer and table wine licenses at Cottondale Tobacco Outlet. Move it up. Second. It's been moved and second. Miss. Franks. ABC application for SLZ LLC doing business as Cottondale Tobacco Outlet. They are located at 5628 University Boulevard in Cottondale. Hours of operation is Sunday 8 to 9, Monday through Saturday 8 to 10. Here's the aerial view of the location. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will give their report and then the applicant for questions. Officer Champion.

Police department doesn't have any objection as the applicant either. Okay. If the applicant is here, they would come forward and give your name and address or the applicant's representative. Ken AOK, 1107 23rd Avenue. I'm here for Mr. Sam Isani, the applicant. Um, change of own change of ownership. Yes, sir. This is just change of ownership. Any questions, Mr. Ak? All right. Thank you, sir. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak for or against this application? Seeing none, voting Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Application is approved. Good luck. Clerk.

This approves a class 2 package lounge retail liquor license. Yeah. Lounge retail liquor license for Cottondale tobacco outlet. So move second. It's been moved and second. Miss Franks. ABC application for SLZ LLC doing business as Cottondale Tobacco Outlet. It is located at 5630 University Boulevard East in Cottondale. Their hours of operation is Monday through Saturday 8 to 10. Here's the aerial view. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will come and give their report and then the applicant with questions. Okay, Officer Champion.

No objections to this part of the application. Okay. Um, for the sake of process, if the applicant would come forward, please give your name and address.

Ken AOK, 1107 23rd Avenue. I'm here on behalf of Mr. Asami. Any question? This is a package store that's located adjacent to the convenience store. I I do have a question because this the it's new, right? The package store aspect of it. Package store has been there I believe three years. Oh. Oh, here he is. Sorry. Oh, okay. Because I'm sorry. It was hard to find the parking. We understand. Sorry, sir. So, I I didn't I wasn't aware that a package store was already there. It's by beside it. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah, it's like I say, it's about two, three years, I think. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? Good luck to you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak for or against? Seeing none, voting, Mr. Streetman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Applications approved. Resolution ordinances not of a general nature or permanent operation. Clerk. This approves a less than seven days special events retail license for Levy Premium Food Service. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second. Miss Franks.

ABC application for Levy Premium Food Service Limited Partnership doing business as events at Bryant Denny Stadium. They're applying for a special events retail less than seven days. This event will take place at 5036th Avenue at Lloyd Hall. The event dates and time will be April 17th, 18th, 19th from 1:30 to 5. Here's the aerial view. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will give the report and then the applicant with questions. Could you back the slide up to the the picture again? There. Hold up one sec. Where where are they going to do this?

Is it the purple on the screen? Purple circle. It's the red. It's actually going to be on the quad side. Okay. We got anybody from Levy here? Yes, he is here. Hey, come on up. The applicant will come forward and please give your name and address. Thank you, Mary. Welcome. What's your name? Herbert Tesh. 15566 Brookstone Drive, Brookwood, Alabama. Tell us tell us what's going on.

So, as you may know, the university is hosting a Morgan Wallen concert and this area will be the day of the event uh for uh private sponsors and uh things like that. Kind of similar to what we do for the Walk of Champions area. uh now at football, but that space wasn't available uh due to some trucks and stuff. So, they wanted to move it somewhere that was. So, is it a reception that people are invited to or is this a sale of alcohol? We will be selling selling alcohol there. Just like you do during the regular

Just like we do during the regular football season. It's just a little bit different of a location just further down the street. Yes, sir. They You will not be able though to take those drinks into the colise I mean into the stadium. No, we will only be serving within the barricaded perimeter of that area there. They the drinks can't go outside that perimeter. That's what we've that's what we've instructed our folks and that's the way we filed for the permit that they will not go outside of that area. And then if they finish their if they don't finish their drink and they want to leave the area, they're going to have to discard their uh drink there before they leave.

How many you expect? I withdraw. I I mean they are they are having a concert out there um uh that'll be prior to the events in Bryant Denny Stadium. So, uh I I would say it would be similar to the um walk of champions area uh before a football game. Alcohol being sold inside the state. Correct. Yes, sir. Is that y'all also? Yes, sir. Any other questions? question.

Mayor, I don't have a question, but um I just would like to remind everyone that although it's a university event, the the city of Tuscaloosa, I'm very happy to hear, will operate transit just like a game day. Am I correct in that? Yes, sir. Any other questions? I had a question. Director Blankton, we TPD are not responsible for that security. Is that correct?

No, sir. and I was going to speak on it um instead of uh investigator champion. Um we've had meetings with UA on this. Their security, they've got security plan, security details. It's a solid plan. Um we won't be participating. That's UAPD jurisdiction. Uh but we will always be there to help if needed. Any other questions for um Director Blankley? This is a public hearing. Anyone here wish to speak for or against the application? Seeing none, voting Mr. Bell. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Applications approved. Good luck, clerk. This approves execution of a rideway permit to TBG Homes. So move. Second. Moved and second. Voting. Mr. Eatman.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This abandons a certain portion of a utility and access easement located at Kmart subdivision. So move. Second. Moved and second. Voting. Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk, this accepts the installed public infrastructure improvements for high grow phase 4. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This accepts the cemetery sewer for Tartan Cove phases one, two, and six. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second. Voting. Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk, this authorizes execution and amendment number two to the subreient funding agreement with temporary emergency services. So move. Second. Moved and second by Miss Freman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution and amendment number two to the subreient funding agreement with Salvation Army. Move. Adoption. Second. Moved and second. Voting Mr. Pal. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk, this approves the conversion of the Tuscaloosa Police and Fire Pension Plan to the City of Tuscaloosa pension plan administered by the Employees Retirement Systems of Alabama. I

I would like to make that motion, but I'd like to say a word or two. This is huge for the city of Tusc. And I want to thank everybody. I want to thank Miss Howard from public safety as she's the chair of that. I want to thank Mr. Busby is the finance and and my other colleagues. And I want to thank Miss Carly Sandridge and her team for coming up with the money and and I hope those public safety officers chief are watching that told me this would never happen because it's about to happen. So I make a motion. Second. It's been moved and second. Any other comments? Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Resolutions adopted. Clerk. This tenatively awards a public works contract to Scottbridge Company Incorporated. So moved. Second. It's been moved and second. Voting Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of task order directive number five with Thompson Engineering. So moved. Second. Moved and second. Voting. Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of amendment number five to task order directive number one with Thompson Engineering. So moved. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Pale. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk.

This authorizes execution of amendment number five to the joint funding agreement with Tick. So move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes application for the 2025 Edward Burn Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. So move. Second. Moved and seconded by Mr. Pel. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of the America 250 Alabama Semiquentennial Community Grant Application and award documents. Second. Moved and second by Miss Streetman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of the safety first grant application and award documents. So move second. Move and second. Voting Mr. Pale. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes a contract with Mororrow Water Technologies Incorporated and declares a bid law exemption. So move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of a reimburseable agreement with ALDOT. So move second. Moved and second by Mr. Bell. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk.

The substitute authorizes a professional engineering contract with Hazen and Sawyer PC. Move adoption. Second. Moved and second by Miss Freman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This authorizes payment of flood insurance premium for the Tuscaloosa River Market. So move second. Moved and seconded by Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes amendment number one to the minor public works contract with Procle. Move it up. Second. Move. Second by Mr. Edman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes a minor public works contract with K&A Builders Incorporated.

So move. Second. Move and second by Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This will authorize a minor public works contract with Hughes and Molenex Incorporated. So move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Freman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This will authorize a minor public works contract with Apex Civil Construction. So move. Moved and second by you, Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes a minor public works contract with Robinson and Suns construction. So move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Eman. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes execution of a prof professional services contract agreements, amendments, and related documents with T-Mobile USA. Some move. Second. Moved and second by Mr. Fel. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk, this will authorize a dispersement from district 1 improvement funds. Move to adopt. Second. It's been moved and second. Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This will authorize amendment number nine to the fiscal year 2026 general fund reserve for future improvements fund budget. Motion. Second. Move and second by Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Clerk. This authorizes amendment number three to the fiscal year 2026 water and sewer reserve for future improvements fund budget. Move to adopt. Second. It's been moved in second. Voting Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution's adopted. Clerk. This establishes the 2026A warrant series budget. Motion. Second. Moved and second. Voting Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Call for suspension of the rules. Rules. It's been moved and second suspend the rules. Voting Miss Dreman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Rules are suspended. Clerk. This approves a less than seven days special events retail license for Downtown Entertainment LLC.

Move adoption. Second. Moved and second. Miss Franks. This is for ABC application. Downtown Entertainment LLC doing business as DK parents weekend. They're applying for a special events retail less than seven days. The event will be at 946 University Boulevard on April 11th from 3 to 11. Here's the aerial view. All my reports have been filed with the city clerk. TPD will give their report and then the applicant. Officer Champion, mayor, council, police doesn't have any objection to this application. Okay. If the applicant is here, please come forward and give your name and address.

Brandon Hanks, Downtown Entertainment, 504 Almond Avenue, Tuscaloosa. Any questions, Mr. Hanks? Just glad you're fe feeling better. I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Brandon, I'm I'm the Grinch who uh What a shock. Who comes to visit suspension of the rules and I don't like it. understand you were in the hospital and had surgery. You and the deaks owe the city of Tuscal. I appreciate you guys doing this for me. Glad to be on better. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Voting, Mr. Fail. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Application is approved. Auditing accounts clerks. Pay my bills. Bills. Moved and second voting Mr. Reman. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Resolution. Resolution is adopted. Citizens comments and other communication. Any citizens wish to address their city council tonight?

If you would please give your name and address.

Good evening. My name is Derek Collins. Uh I spoke last week regarding a public records request I submitted. Uh the city denied that one. As of today, I still haven't received anything. So, I would like to know if the city maintains that the cate that the categories are exempt, can the mayor or the city attorney explain how that exemption is being applied to nonsensitive records such as contracts, permits, and policies? uh council, the the items asked for by by Mr. Collins are are either security sensitive, which I think he has acknowledged or or simply don't exist. Some of the items he's asked for, I believe he's been responded to by the clerk, are things such as right-of-way use permits for these cameras. Uh we only place these cameras in our own right of way. We do not get permits for ourselves for the placement of of these cameras. Can we know what they are being used for or how do you authorize them?

No, sir. Thank you. Anyone else wish to address or see council tonight? If you would please give your name and address.

Hello, my name is Woods Hobbs, 8218 Eastern Hills Drive, Cottondale, Alabama. So, my name is Woods Hobbs again. Um, I'm a student at the University of Alabama and the student chairman of the Blackburn Institute. If you guys haven't heard of the BlackBurn Institute, we're a civic organization focusing on developing Alabama and making it, you know, the greatest state in the world. And I think we are already, but so we are doing a project on April 18th from 11 to 3 in um in Tuscaloosa and it's going to be a warrant clinic. So there's over 15,000 outstanding misdemeanor and traffic violation warrants in Tuscaloosa County alone. And so we're basically working with Judge McKenna and Aaliyah, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, to do a driver's license component. So basically on this day, again, April 18th, you can come in and if you have an outstanding warrant, then you can come in and get it dealt with and kind of get back on the get back in the judicial system because again, it causes a huge um backlog in the system. So we're trying to fix that. as well as again with the driver's license, if you lose or with some of these warrants, you can lose your driver's license. The only way to get it back is to pay a fine. So, we're working with Fali to kind of get them and make them aware of that component. So, we're also we've met with the mayor and met with um several administrators to kind of get this going, but I just want to make this bring this to your radar and if you had any questions, if you would share it out with your community.

Mr. Hobs, will you tell them where it's going to be located on the 18th from 11 to 3? Yes, it will be in First Baptist Church in downtown Tuscaloosa. Yeah, we were briefed by um by Municipal Court about it and and congratulations to you and and the other members of the Blackburn Institute. You always do really involved in really great work and great things for the community and it is appreciated. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. I want to say thank you Woods. We did have an opportunity to speak and I want to thank you and Blackburn Institute for doing this. I mean, it's a huge help to the community. So, keep up the good work. I'll see you Saturday. I had a question. By the way, you look very You're a Capstone man, too, aren't you?

Oh, no. No. But so, the everybody who has a warrant outstanding comes into a certain place and gets them taken care of.

No. So, basically, there's a whole registration period. We're out um we're canvasing in communities. We're reaching out to again you guys. That way you can put these flyers out in the community and we can make we can make that flyer aware to you as well. But so basically you can register online through a QR code or call this number and we're going to be able to screen you and figure out do you have a warrant that falls under the municipal court's um jurisdiction and if you do then we can kind of reach out and say hey show up to First Baptist Church on this day. So it is extremely important that people register ahead of time that we can make them aware of their status. And again this is also a pilot program is that as what we think of it as. This is the first year doing it, but we also hope to continue doing this in future years to come and expanding it to get Northport involved and get um the circuit court and district courts involved as well to make it um the biggest program possible and help the most people that we can in Tuscaloosa.

And we appreciate you using First Baptist to get started. Yes, sir. Thank you for allowing us to I mean it's a great church. Mr. Mr. Hobs met with myself, Mr. Holmes, Jessica Stewart, our our municipal court administrator, and also uh Director Blankley as well. It's very impressive what you're doing, and I was very proud of our municipal court who I know has been working um handin glove with you guys, but we appreciate what you're doing and and hopefully we can help support that effort. And so, if somebody wanted to register for an appointment, because it is appointment based, I think you told me we had two weeks ago about 144, I think. Yes, sir. 144. We're going to run it again. We expect it to be up to about 200 250 at this point.

So if somebody wanted to register, how would they do that? Uh they would go to we can we can reach out to them, give them a flyer. Um there's a QR code. There's going to be some billboards posting up around town or they can call the Blackburn office at the University of Alabama and we can get it to them. Okay. So we'll for now we'll say call the Blackburn Institute. if you could if you could forward over to our office some information. We'll we'll have it with 311 as well in case people call 311 and want some information. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. And thank you all for everything, not just working on this project, but everything you've done for our city because I'm born from Tuscaloosa. So, I just thank you guys so much for everything you're doing. Nice having you here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else wish to address our city council tonight? Like to welcome all the big group tonight. Mayor Maddox from the University of Alabama and roll tide. Well, I thought you were going to give the speech, Mr. Tiner, before we break. To the students that are here, you notice that the vast majority of the agenda went pretty quickly. That is because majority of that agenda went through committee hearings um over the last few weeks. So, by the time it gets to council, uh they've they have reconciled and come to a decision. So, we're glad to have you here tonight. Do I hear a motion to adjourn? No. I mean a motion to recess.

A motion to recess this week because we will not be meeting next week because of the special election. Oh, do I hear a second? So we just you would just recess. So we have a motion and second to recess. The council will re reconvene on Tuesday, April 21st, 2026 at 12 p.m. Voting on the motion to recess. Mr. Eatman. Yes. Yes. I Yes, the council is now in recess.