City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'll call to order the Tuesday, September 15th meeting of Chattanooga City Council. If you'll please stand and join me in a pledge of allegiance. all right well welcome again everyone um we'd like to at the beginning of our council meetings kind of give an overview of how the meetings run before i do that though just a reminder if you have a cell phone please silence it so that we don't put it on vibrate or whatever you need to do so that hopefully we don't have any distractions during our meeting um The way our meetings operate is they go in two parts. Our first session is what's called our agenda session, where council up here will go through the items that are before us to vote on tonight and ask any questions. Council will ask any questions that they might have about those items or raise any concerns, and then we'll do the same for items on our two-week agenda, so items that are coming before us next week. Council will also discuss those as needed. And then we'll look further ahead to items coming before us in three weeks or later. We like to be well prepared before we vote. So we'll go through that process for those items as well. We'll also look at the purchasing items that are before us for approval tonight to see if council has any questions or concerns about those. From there, we sometimes will have committee or department reports, council committee reports or reports from different administrative departments. And tonight, we do have Chief Chambers here with us from CPD for a presentation about the Motorola LPR cameras that the city uses. And so we will hear from him at that time. that will take us up to our recess and normally at our recess we'll have a meeting with our city attorney and I am advised we do need one of those this evening and so we will recess then and meet with our city attorney in an attorney-client meeting and before we do that I'll announce the time that we'll be coming back and then when we come back from our recess is when we vote on all the items on our agenda this evening And at the end of all of that, after the voting in the second half of the meeting, there will be a time for public comment from members of the public who are here and would like to wish or would like to address the council on any topic. And so we're happy to welcome you at the podium down front at that time if you're here for that purpose at the end of the meeting. All right. So with that out of the way, council, could I get a motion on the minutes from our previous meeting, please? Second. DO HAVE A MOTION PROPERLY SECONDED AND THE MINUTES FROM LAST WEEK'S MEETING WILL STAND AS PUBLISHED. COUNCIL, IF YOU WOULD LOOK WITH ME AT THE ITEMS ON OUR AGENDA FOR THIS EVENING. WE'LL START. WE DON'T HAVE ANY ORDINANCES ON FINAL READING, BUT WE DO HAVE SEVERAL ON FIRST READING, INCLUDING SOME PLANNING ITEMS. COUNCILMAN HENDERSON, YOU'RE RECOGNIZED.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for your knowledge, for council's knowledge, I will be asking or making a motion for withdrawal on planning item C and E this afternoon. And I don't see Councilman Clark here, but he has an item under G that I have spoken with him, and he's indicated to me that he is good with this particular item on lifting conditions. So unless I'm notified otherwise, I will be making a motion to approve of that. Okay.

Okay. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you very much. Item A, under the Office of the City Attorney, it's a very simple resolution related to the beer board. So I'd like to understand a little better. It just says that expiration of beer permits should be in accordance with TCA et cetera, et cetera. How is this changing how we do it now? Are we not currently in accordance?

Well, the current requirements of Section 548 in the city code have an annual renewal requirement here. And the state law says at this point in time, unless you change ownership, you have a person to die, you move to a different location. There's about four or five different provisions in state law that require a new permit to be issued, but that permit lasts. Your payment continues here for your doing business. Your sales tax requirements continue on the sales of alcohol at that location, but there's no requirement to have an annual renewal of a beer permit.

Okay. Thank you for that clarity. I appreciate it.

Yes, ma'am.

That's all, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Council, are there any other questions on ordinances on tonight's agenda. I will just note item 8B there on the first page, also under the Office of City Attorney. Item B there, that is an ordinance to reduce a speed limit in my district on Lake Resort Drive from 45 to 40 miles per hour. And so I would appreciate a motion to approve that ordinance from council when the time comes. All right. Looking ahead then to resolutions that are on our agenda for this evening. Councilman Henderson, you're recognized. Is that Councilman Clark's button behind me?

That's Councilwoman Hill. Okay. Councilman Clark, I'm going to go back to planning agenda. It was my understanding planning item G under the 0098, lifting conditions, that you were good with that. It's my understanding you won't be here during the voting. Right. So I am good with that. We have had the discussions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the recognition. My green light came on. Karen Renick, I think we're good. I think there was confusion. I know there's two lines. There's 5312 and 5314. The Planning Commission recommended lifting the conditions on one lot versus the second lot, and then we added some. I just kind of want to give a quick... I know someone had emailed and said they were confused by that, but I'm okay with the... with the recommendations for both properties. And I asked council to support that in my absence because I have to leave for shortly.

And I spoke I think the person we communicated with via email also spoke to just before the meeting. And I think we've I think it's a little add a little more clarity.

Then there's no need to go into that any further. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So if you could assist me in getting that approved in my absence, that would be great.

Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you. Resolution D under economic development. This is a resolution declaring surplus property at 1517 Old Ringgold Road. Excuse me. I always want to understand why we are declaring something surplus, what we're doing with it, and why we're not keeping it. So if somebody could help me with that, please.

We have someone from the administration that can speak to that. Apparently so.

This is an economic development item.

Councilwoman, I do apologize. We do not have Richard Bielan with us today. He is out sick from this morning, and it was not addressed in this morning's meeting. So if you'll allow us a few moments to pull that information together, we'll send it to you as soon as we can.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is that all, Councilwoman?

Yes. Okay. Okay.

And Councilman Clark, is that a new light for you or an old light? Oh, great. All right. Thank you. All right. Council, any other questions on resolutions on tonight's agenda? All right. Seeing no lights on the board here, we'll move on then to next week's proposed agenda. Councilwoman Burrs, you're recognized.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were going to purchases before you went to.

Okay. Next week's agenda, whatever your preference is. Okay. Yeah, we'll look at next week. We will come to purchases next.

Okay. Go ahead.

All right. Any questions, counsel, on looking first at ordinances on next week's agenda? see any lights, and so we will look at resolutions. Are there any questions or comments on any of the resolutions on next week's agenda? Seeing none, we will now get to purchases. Councilwoman?

this properly because it is actually something that's going to be on next week's agenda, but I'd like to make a motion to reconsider the item that we deferred to September 22nd that had to do with our security, our safety and security contract, and request that it be put on today's agenda to get approved or to get considered for approval.

Okay. And so there is a motion to revive that security Contract. Okay. We do have a second. Are there any questions or comments about that, counsel, before we vote on that motion?

I do have a question or comment. Apologies, Councilman Harvey. I saw your hand go up. Mr. City Attorney, what is the proper form to get it on the schedule for us to approve purchases? Is that just Weston just needs to bring it forward, or what's the

Just asking him to bring it forward here for this evening based upon a motion to reconsider. I had to get my handy-dandy 11th version of Robert's Rules out for this purpose. And I was actually looking at that. And whenever a motion to reconsider is to be done, it's like restarting it again. And so that can occur. And for a motion to reconsider, it has to be made at the next possible meeting. And we didn't have a meeting last week. So that's the reason this is your first opportunity to be able to make this motion.

Okay. And I just want to add, just for the record and for the public, the reason why I'm asking for this motion is two weeks ago we made a motion to defer it to the 22nd. This is a contract for our safety, for our security services, for several parks, community centers, I know the Family Justice Center. And it is a timely decision because the goal is to have the contract in place, I think, by the 1st of October, at least as soon as possible. We don't want to leave those spaces vulnerable and without proper service. So I think that all the questions, it's my understanding that all the questions that anyone had two weeks ago have been addressed, as opposed to waiting for another week and causing this to maybe not go into place again. By October 1st, I thought it was appropriate to ask that we bring it forward again today. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Councilman Harvey, you're recognized.

Yeah, thank you, Councilman Burns. I second that. I support that. I had the same question. Was this the procedure? So would we not make an amendment to purchases or just simply make a motion to reconsider?

Just a motion to reconsider and then consider that item on purchases for tonight.

Okay. All right. Very good. Yeah. That's all. Thank you.

So the motion will be made at that time then rather than now is what I'm understanding.

Well, the motion to reconsider has been approved, and then whenever you get up to purchases this evening, you will consider that and approve it. Understood. Okay. Yes.

Very good. So we go ahead and vote. Oh, yes. Yes. So we're having a discussion. Does this need to be a vote by the entire board?

Yes. Okay. Is there any further discussion before we vote on the motion? It was properly seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And so the motion to reconsider is approved. And we will take up that item at the proper time. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you. First, I would like to say I know sometimes we have to pull out the book for Robert's Rules of Order and backtrack a little bit, but I've been in some very heated meetings recently within my community, and it just makes me appreciate Robert's Rules of Order and an orderly meeting all the more. It takes a lot to run one of these meetings well. It takes a lot of practice on the part of all of us to maintain the decorum. So high five to everybody on this dais for that. Two questions about purchasing. The first is a police department item for the Red Dot Reflex sites. How many Red Dot Reflex sites are we going to be purchasing for $171,000?

Along with that, we are already in the process of purchasing 400 replacement rifles, so we'll be getting 400 sites to go on those rifles. These are replacement rifles.

Okay, so 400 sites to go on the rifles we approved before.

Yes, ma'am.

Great. Thank you very much, Chief. And the other question I have, Weston, perhaps you could join us up here. I've texted with Kevin a little bit about this, but I personally found the fleet management request for an additional $145,000 untimely. I appreciate that fleet has approved this increase. I think fleet has lost some... privileges in my own personal mind. Can you please speak to this item and why they have an increase of $145,000 over their expected spend on this line item?

Sure. I'm actually going to invite Bill Payne to speak to it. I think he's prepared for that.

Thank you, Councilwoman, for the question. This contract is for what are called PMBs. So our preventive maintenance on our vehicles are divided into two categories. One is PMA and one is PMB. The PMAs are done on a 5,000-mile sort of – the very first one is a 5,000. PMB happens in the next 5,000. at the 10,000-mile intervals. And so those are a little more in-depth. We are able to contract those out and able to have them performed at a lower cost than having our staff do them, which also frees up our mechanics to actually be able to perform uh other repairs and things that happen the contract does have in in its place there are several pieces that are there for line items but occasionally a driver may take their vehicle directly to the vendor and the vendor may suggest things where such as brake pads or something that may be getting close and so whenever those are performed those are things that we just are happening at a higher utilization than what we projected for this cycle whenever this contract was put in place. So that's what's happening is that those projections are happening. We are working with the vendor in order to tighten up that process because there is a markup and a labor rate on those which is different than what we would charge internally for doing those same services. But once they're performed by the vendor and we're having to pay those invoices, that is what is resulting in that higher utilization is because those are services that are sort of outside the scope of the PMB, but they happen to be occurring at the same time that the vehicle is being taken in for that PMB service. But typically these are driver-initiated and not directly by fleet. And so that's where we're working to help tighten up that process.

So... Wow, that's really interesting. I had not learned that earlier in the day in my messages with the Chief of Staff. So what I'm hearing you say is we are allowing people who drive city vehicles to take their cars in for an oil change, that 10,000-mile service, and then say, sure, yeah, go ahead and do what you've recommended. as opposed to bringing it to the city garage for things outside of the 10,000 mile service. Am I hearing you correctly?

Drivers do take their vehicles over there directly. Fleet's request is that PMAs be taken directly. PMBs, fleet actually requests its vehicles. I know I've asked before about a PMB for a vehicle that I've driven in the past, and they've said if I could drop it off with fleet, they would have the vendor provide the PMB service for the listed items. If there's anything more than that that was needed, then that would be covered. And Fleet would handle those typically. Our markup is less and our labor rate that we charge internally is less. And so those are – that's the way that we would prefer to do it. But there's no prohibition on a driver taking it for a P&B. What's happening is sort of this, you know, does it need it, does it not type thing that's occurring. And because the contract does have – line item in place for those to happen. Those are things where, again, we're working to tighten up that procedure with the vendor.

To the point that we have an expected spend of $145,000 more than our contracted amount because of a process in which they get the call, just like we all get the call and we take our private vehicles to a private shop and they say, Ms. Hill, your Subaru needs brake pads. Can we go ahead and do that? And I say, okay, let's do that. Only it's my car and my money, not the city's vehicle. Y'all, these fleet processes, they're a mess.

That's what we're working to tighten those up. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you. Wow. That's all, Mr. Chair. I'm just very concerned.

Council, are there any other questions on purchases up for approval this evening? I will note we also have an RFP format recommendation and a few sole source purchases as well. Any questions on any of those? All right. Seeing no lights, we'll turn then to our future considerations document. I will note on the front end, if you get down to the mayor's office, number 16, there's umpteen different board appointments again. And what I've asked our city attorney to do, and he's graciously agreed to do, is to, wherever possible, group these together for the benefit of our the efficiency of our voting, I guess I'll say.

There's a little problem with the terms on some of them being different, so we'll do that the best that we can. Right. Sure.

Are there any other questions or comments, counsel?

Okay.

Going once, going twice. Very good. Then we will at this time welcome Chief Chambers to the podium to talk with us about Motorola LPR cameras that the city utilizes.

Good afternoon, Council. John Chambers, Chief of Police for the Chattanooga Police Department. Thank you all so much for this opportunity. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk about this topic over the last several weeks and months. I think it's very important that, you know, having this opportunity to kind of explain and educate about our policies, procedures, and then actually differentiate between what you hear in the news and then what we actually utilize here in Chattanooga. brief outline of what we're going to talk about then I'll get straight into timeline and before I get into 2019 I do want to specify that license plate reader technology has actually been around for decades several decades back in the late 1998, 99 to early 2000s, we had a couple of those that were placed. They were mobile-ish where you could mount them here and there. That technology has long since gone away and it's antiquated and hasn't been utilized in a number of years in between that time frame in 2019. So prior to 2019, we had those two, but then again, I couldn't even tell you when those stopped working, probably around the 2010, 2011 mark. And we didn't have anything in between. In 2016 is when we started working on our real-time intelligence center. And the primary focus of that was partnering with our community on our public safety cameras. And this was essentially a grant that came about focusing on violent crime. And we wanted to... with kind of our current methodology, crawl, walk, run, and we wanted to use this grant in order to purchase our first modern license plate reader technology. In doing so, we selected Motorola Solutions, which had just procured Vigilant, which was a standalone company that focused only in that area. Motorola procured them, and now they actually own them and the technology that they had originally created. And with that, in 2019, we purchased four. And when we talk about the license plate reader technology that we possess, just envision for each one single camera, that is one single lane of traffic. So when we have four, if it's on a two-lane road, then two of those four go to one location, if that makes sense. So we had two different locations in 2019, and we tested those for a number of years to see the efficacy. Does this do and offer what we hope it would? And the manner in which we placed those was the same way at that point in time that we did with our public safety cameras, where we use a combination of violent crime data, community input, officer input. And we placed those two where those were needed, and they proved to be very effective. They were a very useful tool to help us as long as we use them responsibly. They helped us with holding violent criminals accountable. And then we had another opportunity with a state-funded grant in 2023 to purchase additional license plate reader cameras using the same vendor. We stuck with Motorola. We haven't used any other vendor to actually purchase and deploy cameras. With that, we purchased or we now possess a total of 41 Motorola license plate reader cameras in 26 locations. Understanding there's multiple cameras in different locations. I'm sorry, multiple cameras in single locations. So you have a vast number of, you know, almost double the number of cameras as you do locations. So the access and purpose, all CPD officers have direct access to essentially a dashboard where they can search the information, where they can search the data that's possessed there. They must log in. It's attached to their user ID so that we know exactly who that is that's logging in. And if they... don't log in at least once every 90 days, they're automatically deactivated from the system. They would have to reach out to an administrator in order to be reactivated. That type of redundancy helps us to ensure that if for some reason somebody separates, that there's a fail-safe there that they don't retain direct access to a database that they have no business having access to. Additionally, our license plate readers are strictly for investigative purposes only, and they cannot be used as the only piece of evidence by which to take law enforcement action as probable cause to actually make an arrest of some kind. This can get very complicated and confusing because I know the perception is that, okay, there's a license plate that gets hit, we're looking for a particular offender, and we have a possible tag, and we run the tag, and all of a sudden, oh, there's the car, so this must be them, and then we go make the arrest. That's not how that happens, nor is that even a remote possibility. What I would like to do is take this opportunity to relate it to something we all are very familiar with, and that would be DNA evidence. So the presence of DNA at a given crime scene in and of itself cannot be used as a sole piece of evidence that we make an arrest off of. There has to be other established facts and evidence in order for that to be part of it. And then you can. But that single piece of evidence is just what it is. It's a clue. This license plate reader technology, when we get a hit of some type, it is a clue. You cannot then just take that clue and build a case and say, okay, this is my only piece of substantiated evidence, and now I'm going to put somebody in jail. That's not a thing. That can't, it's not how that happens. No longer can we even do that. Not no longer, sorry. Never have we ever been able to do that, even with DNA evidence. There has to be other substantiating facts and evidence that supports that a crime occurred and this person probably did it. This one piece of evidence alone does not support that. So hopefully that kind of helps a little bit with understanding how that plays a role in developing a case. It is a clue, sure, but it in and of itself is not something that we can take action on to then take somebody into full custody. Thank you. There we go. Batteries might be going down. So while I do know a good bit about the policies and procedures, there's some in-depth things we want to take you all through. We want to demonstrate and show you all the actual dashboard, explain what that looks like, and then what a return looks like on the back end, what our officers see. So in order to do that more eloquently, I've asked Lieutenant Billy Atwell to come speak. He is one of our department subject matter experts, and he's going to walk you all through exactly what that looks like and how we use it.

Good afternoon, Council. Billy Atwell. Since May of this year, I've been assigned to CPD's Violent Crime Division. Prior to that, I spent the previous nine years developing, building out, supervising, and ultimately commanding the Real-Time Intelligence Center, which uses both the public safety cameras and the licensed plate recognition cameras. Today, I'm going to talk about how our officers use this technology and some things they can and cannot do. As you can see on this slide at the top, it asks you to enter a plate number, the registration state, the vehicle type, make, model. All of those things are available to help us assist in finding the right vehicle. At the bottom, I think it's important to note that it shows the current user. Next to that is a case number. There must be something entered in that case number. Next to that, it says authorized purpose. There's two options in that drop-down. One of them is law enforcement. The other one is training. Next to the authorized reason, the officers must enter something in the authorized reason to run the search. If they don't enter something in those three things, it's going to not allow them to move forward when they do click the search button. It's going to say, hey, please enter something in these three blocks. So officers enter a full or partial plate. This helps narrow down the results by date and time, geographic location, and other available vehicle descriptions. This is helpful when investigating things like a stolen vehicle, a vehicle described in a report, or a vehicle connected to a burglary, a missing person, or other active case. The second thing I want to talk about is how officers review historical sightings. Once we have an identified vehicle, officers can then enter that plate into Motorola software and examine its prior detections to establish timelines, where it appeared, how often, day of week, time of day. This is helpful to generate leads, corroborate information that's been given in a report from witnesses, and it's also helpful for follow-up investigative work. The next thing I want to talk about is hot lists and getting alerts. For vehicles that require attention, authorized users are officers and analysts can add a plate to a hot list and then set up active alerts once that active plate in the hot list runs past one of the license plate readers. They can set it up to receive text messages or they can set it up to receive an email every time that hot plate hits. Once an officer gets an hot list alert, they must take a couple of things into consideration. They must evaluate the hit. If we have a plate that's ABC 123 Tennessee, license plate reader might recognize ABC 123 Alabama, right? So they have to evaluate the hit. They then have to confirm the information and then decide on an appropriate response. Prior to using any of Motorola's technology, officers are trained to use this system. Some things that they are trained is number one, and this must be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes. They must access only the data needed for their case or their specific role. They must treat license plate information as a lead, like Chief Chambers talked about. This does not give them probable cause. It's only a lead in investigation, and it requires further verification through law enforcement sources. They must follow agency rules for hot list, retention, sharing, and dissemination. Officers must avoid to use the hit alone as basis for assumptions about the driver or the occupants and they must consider officer safety dispatch coordination and legal justification before taking action. Up here I have basically what an officer sees when he gets one of those alerts. At the very bottom there in the bottom right it shows the image captured the date and time It shows the UTC there. That image next to it is blacked out. That's where the license plate would appear, what the image that the camera actually took. We showed one of our police cars running past an LPR. It also, to the left of that image, shows the map of where the LPR read that plate, and then it shows overall map of the city. At the top, you can see the plate number. This is also another image at the bottom. You can clearly see the plate on this one. In summary, license plate recognition technology helps our officers search for vehicle sightings, map historical locations, and create hot list alerts. Again, this helps generate and prioritize investigative leads, but results must be verified in accordance with CPD policy, state law, and officer safety practices. The license plate readers that we use take still images. They do not take video. Again, we use them for plate searches, hit alerts, geofencing. We must enter a case report number and a reason for using the license plate technology. Thank you for your time and giving me the opportunity to explain how our officers use this technology. At this time, I'll turn it back over to Chief Chambers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Billy.

transparency and some facts. One of the things that we did shortly after I was appointed chief, is we took all of our policies, every one of our policies, and we made them public. We have a dashboard. This is a link to our specific license plate reader policy. Obviously, there was a lot of talk over the last several months that's caused us to review those policies. And as it stands right now, so our images that are not used for investigative purposes, those images that have been determined that they are not clue or a lead to an active investigation are deleted after 90 days and that is in accordance with state law. We are currently working to marry our public safety camera policy together with our license plate reader technology. So what that would do is that would reduce that storage time from 90 days to 30 days to keep it consistent. It's also when it comes to the placement of those. We want to make sure that we're analyzing that on a regular basis. We do that with our public safety cameras, whereas they're analyzed every single year to determine how effective that they have been. And if crimes trends have moved and shifted, then these cameras and this resource would move along with that. We feel like that policy has been a solid foundation that we have built on in incorporating The same process for license plate reader technology just makes sense to us. What that entails is an extremely detailed data analysis of violent crime-specific data, and then we receive community feedback at our CPIC meetings, and then we receive officer feedback at lineups to determine the final location of where our public safety cameras go. We'll be doing the same thing with our license plate reader technology. All searches, every time an officer is logged in, like I stated earlier, they're logged in under their account, and all of that is recorded for audit purposes. We are going to start performing those every six months. We just completed one for this current year, and that will be the path going forward. And then also, all of the data that's captured is owned by CPD, or the city of Chattanooga. It is not owned by Motorola. So therefore, we can dictate what is done with that, which gives us the latitude to make those requirements, the retention requirements, what we choose them to be. Something that we will continue to do is Be transparent. We have a community police academy going on right now where we open the door for our real-time intelligence center and show everyone what this looks like, how we utilize it. We want community feedback. We want the input because we do believe that this makes a significant impact in violent crime in our city. Something that I also wanted for us to kind of discuss a little bit. There is a significant difference between the technology that Motorola, previously vigilant, utilizes and what Flock utilizes. Now, Flock has been said so many times that I've lost count over the last several months, to the point where some people think that it's essentially synonymous with a license plate reader. Like in the South, sometimes we'll say Coke, and Coke could mean a number of different things. Well, please understand, it is absolutely not the same thing. It is completely different, and it's different by way of not just the physical camera itself, but also the artificial intelligence on the back end that does the work for it. So when it comes to Motorola, like Lieutenant Atwell explained already, that is an actual picture-taking camera. It is not a video camera. It is not a constant feed. Police officers cannot log into that and view that camera. They do not have that capability. Additionally, they can be mobile or fixed. And then it is a true license plate reader technology where the technology in it, it's looking for a rectangular object with a series of letters and numbers. That's what it's looking for. It's not looking for a vehicle or a person. It's just looking for that. And when it spots that, it takes the picture. That is how that works. So when it comes to flock, which we don't use, we've never used, despite some of the misprints in the media. They do have specific retentions that is governed by the company itself. Additionally, it is a real video camera. It is an actual video camera that is live and it's constantly recording and officers can log into that and view what's going on at whatever that camera is pointing at. And what it does is it's taking this video and it's using AI on the back end to analyze that video to determine what's going on and what it's recording. And it allows you to search actually quite a bit more. For instance, if you have a suspect vehicle description, but you don't have a tag and you have a, the description is a dark sedan and it has a bumper sticker on the bottom right corner and a cracked windshield. In the FLOX system, you can actually search that and it will go find it for you. We don't have that capability. We're not interested in that granular technology. And obviously, with the amount of privacy concerns that are very, very legitimate, we're not going to go down that road with Flock. So vast differences between the two. The reason why we went with Motorola from the very beginning is because it's Motorola. It is a reputable company who has longstanding security practices. They've been in the public safety sector for decades. many, many, many, many years. At the time, Flock was a newer company that we hadn't really heard of, and we have been burned more than once with spending dollars, taxpayer or grant dollars, on a piece of latest and greatest that just didn't work. We didn't want to go that route. Another thing that I have yet to hear anybody talk about, though, but it is a very present reality, in that there are a tremendous number of privately owned license plate readers all over our city, all over the country. When it comes to hotels and motels, They have them on their lots. Car washes have them on their lots. It's out there. It's everywhere. In fact, one of the selling points that Motorola uses after procuring Vigilant is that they have the largest private sector database out of any other country. I'm sorry, any other company in the country. when it comes to privately owned. Even like neighborhood associations can purchase privately owned license plate readers. And then they can monetize that if they so chose by selling that information back to the company if they wanted to do that. So there's a lot of questions that I feel like apply across the board, private sector as well as the public sector, when it comes to this type of technology and how it's used. And we are absolutely willing to be at the table to have those conversations to explain how we use it and how we can keep those safeguards in place. One of the things I want to also talk about is how this actually applies to the members of our community. What it gives us the ability to do that previously we would not have been able to do. And we have unfortunate incidents in our city, as well as we have members of our community that need us, even when they don't realize they do, for various reasons. Unfortunately, we had a situation earlier this year, early summer, where a 15-year-old was taking his uncle to work and he was on his way back. and apparently did something and somebody got upset, and this individual decided to act violently and shot into the car. We had a 15-year-old boy who is now paralyzed for the rest of his life over a road rage incident on Highway 153. And we didn't have a whole lot of leads to go on at the time, but after further investigation and the use of this technology, we were able to identify the suspect in that, further the investigation, and make an arrest. We had an incident actually in Lookout Valley that was precipitated by eyewitness. Saw someone trying to load a body up in a car, couldn't, ran over it. We used the cameras owned by that company or by that hotel to try to get an idea of what that car was. And then we used both public safety camera and license plate reader technology in other parts of the city to identify who that individual was. And we were able to detain them for further questioning within about five hours. We had another incident that honestly should happen to no one ever. This is not something that I would hope would occur here, but unfortunately it did earlier this year where we had a mother dropping off her son at Brainerd High School and a male clutching a firearm approached her and her car and threatened to blow her son's head off. License plate reader technology was utilized to help identify that suspect vehicle and identify who that suspect was for further investigation. We had another incident where a suspect who was soliciting undercover officers posing as minors for sexual activity was positively identified through an investigation. Warrants were obtained and we were able to locate that individual in Kansas. And they have now been arrested and transferred back to Hamilton County where they await trial. We had another situation where children in our city ought to be able to play in their front yard without parents having to worry about their safety. We had four juveniles playing outside in their front yard when a silver car drove up and asked them if they needed a ride. The male that was driving the vehicle was completely naked from the waist down and fled the area when the juveniles declined his offer. That suspect and the vehicle were identified using, again, a combination of our license plate reader technology as well as public safety cameras. We were able to identify the suspect for further investigation, eventually able to obtain warrants, and he has been arrested. Another situation where we had an 83-year-old female. She had several medical issues and her family, she lives here in Chattanooga and her family called because they were terrified and did not know what to do. With the use of our technology as well as others, specifically license plate reader technology, we were able to locate her in Crossville, Tennessee and found her safe. We had another situation that really could have been dire. We had a 76-year-old man who was missing. His family reported him missing. And we were able to use our license plate reader technology that narrowed down the search to the Camp Jordan area. Officers responded to the area and actually utilized drone technology as well. We found the man lying in water. He was injured and clinging to a rock. And there is little doubt that had they not found him when they did, he would not be with us today. And finally, we did have two suspects that stole three bronze plaques valued at over $18,000 from Sherman Reservation. The vehicle description was provided by the investigating park ranger, and we were able to identify the suspect vehicle to give us a lead for further investigation in that case. It's very, very useful technology. That's just over this year. Most all of those are from this year. Additionally, we're able to use them from a fugitive standpoint to be able to identify violent fugitives that have either committed crimes in our city and now fleeing other places or are still operating in our city to be able to hold them accountable. Before I go into questions, I do want to address a couple different things. Law enforcement can be a very difficult job, and we all know that. Therefore, we have a lot of tools at our disposal. And sometimes those tools are not used responsibly. We have a 3,000-pound vehicle that we drive on a daily basis. And we have had incidents in this city and in this country where sometimes those vehicles are not used responsibly, and it adversely affects members of our community. But when that's happened, we didn't take our vehicles away and give us horses. No, we don't. That's not what we do. What we do is we ensure that our policies, our practice, our training, our laws, all support the responsible use. And we hold that individual accountable. And this piece of technology, if it's used responsibly with the proper governance and in conjunction with what we've already established with our public safety cameras, it only will be a force multiplier. It helps us keep our community safe, which is our mission. I do want us to take a look back for a second before we had the real-time intelligence center, before we had the responsible use of modern technology. In 2016, the city of Chattanooga experienced 30 homicides with a clearance rate of only 50%. We had 15 families that never saw justice. That is not acceptable. And now let's just look back to last year, where we saw a 48% reduction in that number of homicides, and we had a 90 plus percent clearance rate. And as I stand here at this very moment, with the 48% reduction in homicides that we had last year, as I stand here, we are 23% below that number here today. Also, we are 24% below our criminal non-fatal shootings. And if you remember last year, we saw an all-time low since we have recorded that data, which was 2013. The lowest number ever recorded, and we're 24% that number as I stand here today. The implementation of our public safety cameras and the process that we used that works with the community that needs us the most is the same process we'll continue to use with license plate reader technology. It has proven its efficacy. It's proven that the members of that community want us there because they realize the value it offers. What we can't ever forget is that we didn't have this in 2016, 2015, 2013. And the things that we started to see, and it was the first time in my career in about the 2011 to 2012 mark, where instead of getting a call that there's a shooting at a given location and then we respond to the shooting, we didn't get those calls. Those stopped. We started getting calls at a local emergency room to say somebody got dropped off for the gunshot wound. And then we'd go into the communities and say, hey, what happened? And out of fear, very reasonable fear and real, we wouldn't get a lot of cooperation. That makes sense because everyone knows we can't be everywhere at the same time. And jokingly, I will say we're usually never where you need us when you need us. But the truth of the matter is this technology offers us the opportunity to have an unbiased eyewitness that will always show up in court. It's a clue. It's a valuable piece of evidence that has proven to us, proven to the communities that are most affected by violent crime, that it works. And I really hope that as we move forward in these discussions, as we move forward with technology as a whole, that any time there is something that comes into question, that we will always sit and have the conversations and include the communities that are most affected before we make decisions. Thank you so much for this time, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

I think we do have a few, Chief. Thank you. Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you. Chief, I really appreciate this presentation and your leadership and your entire CPD team. Thank you all very much for what you do. A few things stood out to me in this presentation, and I'll say that I got my first question about flock cameras in January of this year and sent it straight to Gerald Neal in DTS and he gave me a terrific detailed answer about the kind of cameras that we use, what we don't do, and it has been immensely helpful. And the links that you've provided direct to the policies I think are going to be really helpful to people. I, you said that even though we're not, you know, the CPD isn't perfect and humans aren't perfect. And sometimes, you know, if you have a car accident, we haven't taken away the cars and given you horses. And it occurred to me, you don't have horses because the CPD is not cowboys.

Yes, ma'am.

The CPD has proven time and again, how thoughtful and professional you are with your approach to law enforcement and keeping our community safe. And the success stories that you shared with us are the life-changing events for individual families that every one of us prays every day we never experience. And yet it's so important that we hear them from you, that we hear about the young man on 153 whose life is forever changed, but you were able to find and connect him with justice in a way that 10 years ago would not have been possible. That's important. That's really important because that driver could have just zoomed on down 153 and never thought about it again. Um, I, Really want to highlight the clarity of the policies and how dedicated you are to the transparency there and being willing to reevaluate policy and always improve it is a very important cultural standard for the CPD. And I'm glad that you have it. And the final thing that stood out to me that I want to acknowledge my appreciation for It's your thoughtful deployment of technology in the district, but also the city of Chattanooga as a whole, the thoughtful deployment of technology. You can't always get it right. It moves fast. But going back to we're not cowboys and this is not about how big your truck is or how loud your engine is or how, you know, ladies, we know what we're trying to say, right? It's not about that. It's about keeping people safe. And so getting the appropriate technology for the job that works within the community of who we are as Chattanoogans is important. I just deeply appreciate you and all of CPD. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Councilman Harvey, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chief, thank you for being here. You and I have had extensive conversation about this topic over the last few weeks. So I want to go over just a few things to confirm with you to better understand our technology at hand. First of all, I can't imagine any law-abiding citizen disagreeing with the fact that this can be used and has been used for good. Absolutely. So thank you for that. Glad that that has become a thing. But we've heard a lot from the public on this issue. The main issue is mass surveillance. That's the main concern. For me, the main concern is mass surveillance of law-abiding citizens. It remains a concern in perpetuity. I think it's something that we've got to take into consideration when we talk about this technology, especially as AI... We're experiencing, right as we speak, the AI boom. The tech boom is where we're seeing that with AI. We have a duty to protect law-abiding citizens from mass surveillance. I'm glad to hear that we have guardrails already in place on the current technology that we have. But to confirm, we have no flock cameras. Correct? None.

Zero. We have never procured and implemented any of those, whatever words you want to add to that to make it clear. No, sir. I want to make that crystal. We have not.

The media is in the back. We do not. We want to make sure you guys get that on record. Zero flock cameras in the city of Chattanooga, and we're proud of that, by the way. So, okay, well, I'm glad to hear that. So what I hear you say when you talk about these Motorola LPRs is that these have guardrails on them that flock does not. Correct. Is that correct? That's correct. Specific to mass surveillance who is able to – get in and use this technology and use this information, correct?

I don't know what Phlox platform looks like, like from a user's perspective, so I don't know about, I don't really can't speak to that. I will say that the platforms are vastly different in that Phlox cameras are actual video cameras. They are what you would call a surveillance camera. Whereas Motorola's are not. Motorola's take pictures like you're like an old school camera. They take pictures based on, like I said, there is. So artificial intelligence is something also that has a vast definition. Sure. Right. We've all used Microsoft Word or Google Docs. And when you misspell something, there's a squiggly line under it. That is AI. Right. Right. So there is a version of AI, right, that's antiquated compared to flop, but that Motorola uses that it looks for rectangular objects with letters and numbers. So to say it doesn't use it would be false. It does. It's just there's varying forms of it, if that makes sense.

Well, let me ask you that, speaking of that topic. So how do hits work? So there was some information there in the slides that talk about when a hit comes up. What does that mean? Is that a car that was reported by a citizen that they were – whatever, a robbery or something, and they happened to snag the license plate number at the last minute? Tell me how that – how does a hit work?

Right. So there's two ways that a hit would work. The first way is the primary way. The first way applies to the NCIC. So it's a database that's a nationwide database. So if you call me and you say, hey, my car's been stolen. So we come out to take a report. Then we have to call into dispatch and we have the car entered into that national database. That way, if any police officer in the country, right, runs your tag, it comes back as stolen. And they say, oh, this car was stolen. Contact, you know, officer chambers of the Chattanooga Police Department, and it has a whole list of things. Also, if there's an order of protection against someone, if somebody has an AMBER alert, there's a number of factors there, and there's guardrails and guidelines in order for something to be entered in that database. And there is a national and state level certification you have to have to be able to enter that information. The other would be a hit list that would be local. So that would be one where a police officer is taking a report or maybe an investigator is following up on a crime and, okay, we have a shooting, we have a partial plate, or maybe we do have a full plate, but regardless, either way it works the same. Then they would submit to a supervisor that they're going to, we want this plate put on the local hit list. That way if a Chattanooga police officer, you know, we get an alert on our LPRs if a car drives past that but that process is similar to what you just looked at to where it goes to a supervisor in our real-time intelligence center who reviews it to ensure all those boxes are checked it's got a complaint number there's a reason for it it's logical it's like it's it's a true investigation it's not You know, I want to go see what my spouse is doing, so I want to enter this on a hit list. No, it has to be approved by a supervisor. It has to be a lawful investigation related to a crime that they're investigating, and then it's applied to that list.

Okay, so when I drive by an LPR and I've not broken any laws or whatever, I'm not popping up on anything. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. And then those images, if I don't pop up in the system, then those images are gone right now in 90 days. Correct. In the near future, it'll be 30. In the near future, it'll be 30 days. Yes. Okay. All right. Good. Okay. Well, again, thank you. I'm glad to hear that we're not using Flock at this time, and I hope that provides the public with some peace of mind as well and that we don't have any plans to use Flock. Again, I really want to double down and make sure that we have guardrails on these things where they are used appropriately and they're not used for mass surveillance. So, again, glad we're not using Flock and don't have any plans to. Appreciate the information today. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Councilman Henderson, you're recognized. Chief, I think you explained a lot of the questions that I had. So this database that this Motorola captures is taking pictures of every vehicle that goes by. If it has a tag on it, yes, sir. Yeah. And so it will store and create a database for 90 days. Correct. And then if there is an investigation... or whatever, and we say, you know, we need to know, you know, we enter a, we have a license tag, we enter that license tag, and basically it'll come up and say, okay, it came through this intersection at such and such date. And that's, we're using this for proximity at that point then, correct? I mean...

proximity.

I'm sorry? I'm sorry? Proximity, I mean, to establish was this car in an area or in the area of a crime? It could be.

Right. Depending on the information, the type of investigation, it could be used, yes, sir, to see if, you know, if we had a suspect vehicle, okay, here's the potential vehicle and tag number we're seeing. Was this vehicle in that area at the time this crime occurred? Is that what you're asking? Yeah.

Yeah, because you're... Well, you said earlier this is a clue. Yeah. And the clue is this car or this vehicle was in the area at a time.

Let me just say, could be, could have been in this area. Because even though it comes back as a hit, doesn't mean for sure it's that car. It has to be reviewed further. It's not guaranteed. It has to be followed up and verified by other facts and evidence, not just the hit alone.

Okay. And so what would be the purpose of going from 90 days to 30 days then if this database could be used for?

investigations well i mean why would we to be consistent with our policies honestly um if our public safety camera policies is at 30 days and that was like we determined that kind of based on you know one mtas national trends industry standards then if i'm going to marry the two policies keeping those policies consistent to me makes logical sense uh You know, it's very rare if ever that, you know, we're losing evidence on a violent crime after, you know, that 30-day mark. Normally, we get notified of the violent crime and start the investigation within 30 days. So that supports that in my opinion. Okay.

All right. And then is there, like, what guarantee does the public have that these are actually being deleted or destroyed after the crime?

90 days or the 30-day policy? That is part of our administrative role where we have administrators that are keeping check on that. I mean, that is a contractual obligation by Motorola. So there would be civil litigation if we were ever to find out for some reason they were using our data outside of the scope of that contract. Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you, Chief.

Yes, sir.

Okay. Council, are there any other questions for Chief Chambers, I'll take you again.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right, counsel, that takes us to our agenda meeting. We do have a couple of things to discuss. An attorney client will be in recess until 5.30.

We are back in session.

Madam Clerk, if you would please read Item 8A.

An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 5, Section 548, expiration of beer permits.

We have a motion properly seconded. Council, are there any questions or comments on this item before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on first reading. Item 8B, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 24, Article 14, Section 24502, Schedule 2, Speed on Through Streets.

Motion approved.

We have a motion properly seconded on this ordinance on first reading. Are there any questions or comments before we vote, Council?

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on first reading. Item 8C, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2 Chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone properties located at 6411, 6511, and 6611 Dayton Boulevard from RN16, residential neighborhood zone, to RN13, residential neighborhood zone, subject to certain conditions.

And for the record, this is Planning Item 2026-0095. Is the applicant present? And is there any opposition present?

All right.

Councilman Henderson, you're recognized. Thank you. On request of the applicant, I move to withdraw. We have a motion properly seconded to withdraw this ordinance. Are there any questions or comments, council, before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance is withdrawn. Item 8D, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2 Chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 5502 Dayton Boulevard from RN2 Residential Neighborhood Zone to CNT Neighborhood Transition Commercial Zone, subject to certain conditions.

And for the record, again, this is Planning Item 2026-0103. Is the applicant present? And is there any opposition present? All right. Don't see any opposition. Councilman Henderson, you're recognized. Second. Do we have a motion properly seconded to approve this ordinance on first reading? Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on first reading. Item 8E, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2 Chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 1123 Mountain Creek Road from RN 17.5 residential zone to RN 3 residential zone subject to certain conditions.

And this is planning item 2026-0100. Is the applicant present? And is there any opposition present?

Councilman Henderson. On request of the applicant, I move to withdraw.

Second. All right, council, we do have a motion properly seconded to withdraw this planning item. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance is withdrawn. And item 8F, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2 Chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 1307 Hickson Pike, from INST Institutional Zone to CNT Neighborhood Transition Commercial Zone.

And this is planning item 2026-0097. Is the applicant present tonight? Okay. Is there any opposition present? Don't see any opposition. Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

I make a motion to approve.

Okay. We have a motion properly seconded to approve this planning ordinance on first reading. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on first reading. 8G, please.

An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2 Chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance so as to lift condition numbers 3, 4, and 6 from Ordinance Number 13479 previous case number 2021-209, and to amend condition number five for the property located at 5313 Champion Road, Hamilton County tax map number 120KA003 only, subject to certain conditions.

And this is planning item 2026-0098. Is the applicant present? Okay. Is there any opposition present?

I have...

So this is on page 3.

It's item G. Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Okay. Sure. Do we have those? Yes, sir. Hold on just a second. I'll get them to you. Yes, ma'am. And the conditions on that property here, it's actually lifting what were conditions 3, 4, and 6. And the conditions will now be subject to the following conditions. No storage of vehicles within 50 feet of the right of way of Champion Road. Lighting to be directed away from all residential areas and properties. and heavy retail rental and service with no outdoors storage only. And then it further says that those condition numbers 1 through 6 will remain in effect for 5312 Champion Road, and that is the six conditions that were there before, which is no storage of vehicles within 50 feet of the right-of-way of Champion Road, lighting to be directed away from all residential areas or properties, one access point onto Champion Road, A seven-foot-tall opaque fence shall be installed around the storage facility areas. Outdoor storage facility use only and adult-oriented establishments, gas stations, open-air markets, vehicular repair or service facilities, car washes, and wholesaling with accessory warehousing uses shall be prohibited. And those will remain in effect for the property there for 5312 Champion. Okay.

So having heard those conditions, is there any opposition that would like to be heard? Okay. Seeing none, Councilman Henderson, you recognize?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Earlier, Councilman, this is in Councilman Clark's district, which he's not present at this time. He did state earlier that he was in favor of this recommendation. So at this time, I move for approval.

Second. all right we do have a motion properly seconded yes ma'am yes ma'am yes ma'am you're welcome we do have a motion properly seconded council to approve this planning item on first reading are there any questions or comments before we vote all in favor aye any opposed and the ordinance passes on first reading 8H, please.

An ordinance amending Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 38, the Chattanooga Zoning Ordinance, as adopted by Ordinance Number 14137 on July 23, 2024, Article 9, uses Section 3841.1, use matrix table to amend drive-throughs standalone or as an accessory use as a permitted use when located outside the urban overlay zone, and to amend Section 3842, and 3843 by amending the stacking requirements and to add no drive-through increase egress can cross the Riverwalk or Greenway connector.

We have a motion. Properly seconded. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on first reading. Item 9A, please.

A resolution confirming the appointment of Ruth Walker to the Head Start Governing Board for District 3 for a term beginning on September 2, 2026 and ending on September 1, 2028. Moved and approved.

Second. Council, we do have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. I don't see Dr. Walker in the audience, but she is from my district, and if she's watching online, I appreciate her willingness to serve. All right. Item 9B, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Economic Development enter into a license agreement with 4J's Ducks LLC in substantially the form attached. for the term of two years beginning May 1st, 2026 and ending April 30th, 2028, with the option to renew for one additional term of two years for access to a specific location at Ross's Landing Ramp to provide access to the Tennessee River at the monthly license fee of $300. Move to approve.

Second. We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9C, please.

A resolution authorizing the Administrator for the Department of Economic Development to enter into a Second Amendment to Lease Agreement with Friends of the Zoo, Inc. in substantially the form attached to expand the area of the leased premises on November 1, 2026 to include the area identified in Exhibit A of the Second Amendment to Lease Agreement.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution, Council. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9D, please.

Resolution declaring the surplus of property located at 1517 Old Ringgold Road, further identified as tax map number 156FC016, as recommended by Resolution MR-2026-0101, and substantially the form attached on August 10, 2026. Second.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9E, please.

A resolution authorizing the appointment of Nauman Maori as a special commissioned police officer unarmed for the Chattanooga Housing Authority to perform duties expressly limited to the performance of the duties in the position of investigator.

I have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9F, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to award the continuing on-call professional services for Birchwood and Summit Landfill Gas and Groundwater Sample, Monitor, and Reporting Blanket Contract Number SWD26002100 with the following four consultant firms. 1. Andura Group, Inc. two, CTI Engineers, Inc., three, GeoSyntec Consultants, Inc., and four, Terracon Consultants, Inc., based upon their qualifications within the identified service categories for a four-year term for an annual amount of $345,000 for use by all departments.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Counsel, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9G, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to award the continuing on-call professional services for Birchwood and Summit Landfill Deficiency Recommendations and Repairs Blanket Contract Number SWD26001100 with the following four consultant firms. One, Andura Group, Inc. two, CTI Engineers, Inc., three, GeoSynTech Consultants, Inc., and four, HDR Engineering, Inc., based upon their qualifications within the identified service categories, for a four-year term for an annual amount of $900,000 for use by all departments.

I have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9H, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to award contract number Y23009201 Eastlake Community Center Satellite Parking Lot to Integrated Builds LLC in the amount of $505,299.00. and authorizing a contingency in the amount of $10,000 for a total amount not to exceed $515,299. Move to approve. Second.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item nine, aye, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to approve change order number one to contract number M23007201 Development Resource Center interior improvements to BJB Construction Company Inc. of Brentwood, Tennessee for interior cosmetic repairs to previously water damaged areas for an increased amount of $52,203 for a revised contract amount of $227,433. with a contingency in the amount of $15,000 for a revised total amount not to exceed $242,433. Move to approve.

I have a motion properly seconded to adopt this resolution. Counsel, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Resolution is adopted. Item 9J, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to accept the donation of 11 40-foot storage containers of office furniture in good condition from Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga with an estimated value of $112,000 and authorizing the reimbursement of $4,999 in moving expenses.

Second. We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9K, please.

A resolution authorizing the appointments of Bruce Hunt, Hubert Paris, Josh Burgess, Tyke Gooden, Ed Graham, and Samuel Manning as special police officers unarmed for the City of Chattanooga Department of Public Works Land Development Office expressly limited to the performance of duties in their position as code enforcement officer in the Land Development Office.

Aye.

Aye. I have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution council. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. And then finally, 9L, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the wastewater department to enter into a permanent easement agreement where a public sanitary sewer line with Chattanooga Golf and Country Club on a portion of tax map number 136GA001 in substantially the form attached for the amount of $75,000.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. It takes us to purchases. We're happy to welcome Weston to the podium. This evening we have... Oh, before you get started, yeah, let me recognize Councilwoman Burrs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question for the city attorney. In the earlier meeting, I made a motion to reconsider, and it was approved. It was second and probably second and approved to bring that item from two weeks ago back to the agenda tonight for our security services.

And it was scheduled for the 22nd, and instead you want to take it up this evening.

Correct. So Weston has the proper documentation to read it at the end of today's purchases. Is that proper?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Based upon Robert's rules, that is appropriate.

Okay. Thank you. I apologize, Weston.

Proceed. Thank you for the clarification.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Perfect. So tonight we have nine purchases recommended for approval. The first is with wastewater. Wastewater has requested a one-time increase of $200,000 to agreement PA100374 with Chattanooga Armature Works for future invoices and services through December 7, 2026. The new spend limit will be $400,000. Item number two. With technology services, they're requesting a one-year extension to agreement PA100309 for integrated networking technologies, LLC. The annual amount limit will remain the same. The next item is with DTS. Tech services is requesting an increase for GoGov by $10,800 in year three. the current year, and $14,400 for year four, the new annual spend will be $51,665. DTS Technology Services is requesting a two-year agreement with Tyler Technologies, Inc. This will be utilizing the source well contract with a total spend limit of $275,000. The next item is with CPD. This is a one-time purchase of red dot reflex sites for the police department. This purchase from GT Distributors is in the amount of $171,676, utilizing the buy board contract. The next item is with Public Works. This is a one-time purchase of a 2026 Freightliner automated leaf collection system truck by the Fleet Department for stormwater maintenance. This purchase from Stringfellow is in the amount of $307,000 utilizing the source well contract. Item number eight is with Public Works. Council approval is requested for a name change from Highland Tire and Auto, Inc. to Sun Auto Tire and Services, Inc. The next item is also with Public Works. Fleet Division has requested an increase of $145,000 to be added to agreements PA100934 and PA100935 for preventative maintenance PMB services. The new annual amount limit will be $275,000. Fleet has approved the increase. And finally, Parks and Outdoors has a new agreement for security services at multiple locations across the city. This will be a four-year agreement with an annual amount limit not to exceed $2 million. The award will go to Walden Security and SEI Inc. as the best bits.

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve these purchases. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

And the purchases are approved. Wonderful. We are requesting approval to issue one RFP and not approval to award any contracts at this time. It is for early learning, monthly cleaning services, request for proposal for all five main Head Start buildings.

Council, could I get a motion? All right. We do have a motion. Properly seconded on this RFP format recommendation. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? An RFP format recommendation is approved.

And finally, we have three sole source purchases to report this evening. The first is with the library for streaming services from Canopy Inc. for the amount of $25,000. The second is for DTS for enterprise content and process management platform from Navient for the amount of $31,634.75. And the third is with wastewater for Grindr Pump from Carl Eric Johnson Inc. for the amount of $27,733.82. Thank you very much. Question.

All right, that takes us to committee reports. We'll go around the dais here. We'll start with Councilwoman Noah.

No report, Mr. Chair.

Councilwoman Dotley.

No report.

Councilwoman Burrs.

No report.

Councilman Henderson.

Mr. Chair, next Tuesday, the 22nd, the Budget and Finance Committee will meet in the conference room at 1 p.m. All the council members should be receiving the agenda for that committee meeting. Okay. Thank you, Councilman.

Councilwoman Hill.

No report.

Councilman Harvey.

No committee report, Mr. Chairman, but I do want to make a point to celebrate the grand opening of the Harvesting Inclusive Playground in my district this past weekend. Thank you, Chairman Davis, for being there. There's a plethora of people that need to be thanked for this project. But I do want to specifically give a thanks from the dais to former Councilman Darren Ledford, now Deputy Chief of Staff, for everything you did to get it off the ground. With Captain Skyler Phillips, one of our brave Chattanooga firefighters, it was his vision and the dream finally came to reality this weekend. Despite a pandemic, rock formations, leaks, drainage issues, you name it, we ran into it. But it was a beautiful thing to see. uh children from all walks of life um whether or not they had a disability it didn't matter because this playground allows all children to be able to access it and that that's what makes this really really special um so uh former councilman ledford thank you uh for everything you did uh to make this a reality and of course scholar phillips Commissioner Lee Helton, former County Commissioner Sabrina Smedley, who was here in the audience earlier. State Representative Esther Helton-Haines, both Mayor Kelly, Mayor Wong. Of course, the Kiwanis clubs of both East Brainerd and Chattanooga were pivotal. uh, to making this happen as well. So, uh, it was certainly a group effort. And again, if you were there, uh, Saturday, you saw how awesome it was to see, uh, hundreds of kids being able to play together. It was just, it was a beautiful site. So, uh, just wanted to give those shout outs and thank yous and celebrate that for a moment. So come out and visit Harvesting Inclusive Playground at Jack Benson Heritage Park.

Thanks. Thank you, Councilman. That takes us to our portion of the meeting where we're happy to recognize members of the public who are here to address council. And so if you're here for that purpose, if you would, please come to the podium down front here and listen while our attorney reads the rules. And we just ask that everybody listens to and abides by the rules.

And at the end of each council business meeting, the chair will recognize members of the public who wish to address the council. And here's your rules. Each speaker wishing to address the council can only be recognized at the microphone up front provided for that purpose. And you can't have more than three minutes to speak. And you can address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi-judicial authority and not on matters which are not under the authority of the council and are regulated by other governmental bodies or agencies. Do not engage in any vulgar or obscene language nor use the floor to personally attack or personally denigrate others. and address your comments to the council as a whole and not make comments directed towards individual council members. And lastly, do not engage in disorderly conduct or disrupting a public meeting, which is prohibited by Tennessee law, and someone commits that offense if a person substantially obstructs or interferes with the meeting by physical action or verbal utterance with the intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting or gathering. Having stated all those rules, ma'am, please give us your name and your district.

I'm Blake Wright, District 9, and I said last time I was here that I was going to be here every time until Farm Park happens because the land is on the market, and so that's why I'm here. But I also do want to highlight something that, I mean, we're all seeing it. You go to the store, you grab food that keeps getting more and more expensive. Is that food going to kill you in some terrible way that you'll have to relay to your family? Maybe at this point. this is going to get worse. It's going to become more expensive. Oil does not have access to the United States. We, as Chattanooga, do not have enough energy that we can source locally here to compensate for that. So food, water, Energy that is going to be a major concern now where a farm park is it's at East Lake It's right in an area where 50% of that community is 21 and under 39% of that is 15 years and younger of those children 77% live in poverty I am just asking for the city of Chattanooga to help out Farm Park by putting $250,000 to this deal. We are hustling, we're bustling, we're asking everyone and anyone for money. We've got over 100 donations. We have very engaged community members. All of the neighborhood associations support Farm Park that we're around. We're constantly meeting with new neighborhood associations. Every neighborhood association is doing amazing things in their own community, and that's what we're going to need. I hear some concerns from the city that, oh, well, if we give y'all money, other people might want to do this. And I say, that is literally the point. Farm Park is creating a blueprint for green spaces because we need every neighborhood to be able to grow their own food. We are meeting with farmers through the Southeast Young Farmers Coalition. And all these farmers are telling us, I can't get anyone to take over this farm. There's not people interested in this. And then they're concerned we're losing farmland. We're losing green space. And this is both those things. It's green space. It's old farmland. It used to be a farm. And now it's trying to become a new farm, a new way of farming that will be a future for this community. So I just ask, if you haven't been out to Farm Park, please do. We are very available. I will, like... My husband does not work a job at this point, and he is ready to jump through anything. So just, like, connect with us. We're happy to share the mission. We're happy to show all the letters of support, one of which was just written by our friend over here, Chief John Chambers, about the level of security a project like this would bring to this community. Because maintain green spaces are safe spaces. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, Council. Thank you for letting me speak. The thing I would prefer to talk to you about is the fact that our Creator has made this a beautiful place, and I love the people here, and there's a lot of warmth and commitment among the people. I'd rather talk about that and maybe sing Amazing Grace or something. But for now, I don't mean from me. You won't get a solo. But I'm not here to stop development. I just feel like this is a place where the Lord has put me like he's put you here. we want to work for the benefit of the community, the shalom of the community, the peace, the prosperity of the community. So I'm here not to stop development, but I'm here to say I'd like to take steps up to see us take steps to improve safety and address meaningful citizen participation. And if we could establish these in Plan Chattanooga as statements, I think it would be very valuable. I think we already recognize that you cannot avoid addressing safety when you talk about things like road works, the volume of cars on roads. You really want to have exits that are in emergencies. Why? For safety. You want them to have sufficient roads. You don't want to be like a tall building that doesn't have enough stairways. Safety is involved when you're worried about damaging to neighborhood communities because of runoff or, you know, wastewater. You want to prevent runoff that would damage the roads. You probably know Lake Resort Road had to be repaired multiple times before they had to build a bridge. That's where we live. So Hickson, could expand the information that's already in its chapter. And we've talked to the community about it. So we're here to say, could we add something in the Hickson chapter? If you don't want in the citywide section with respect to valuing safety and valuing citizen participation, Hickson would benefit from that. But we'd also like to know that we could, since you're probably not going to be able to do this quickly, that you could give us an option to maybe put a placeholder in to plan Chattanooga so that the groups which have met and are communicating about their concerns, the ones that are on the ridge and in flood points, there are things in your city objectives that are specifically needed in those areas and they'd like to have a voice in saying that. So I've forwarded to you a proposal with some ideas on how Plan Chattanooga might address those things. And I would love to have some feedback on how we as citizens could participate in doing that. We're a modest community, a few people that are publicizing this. We don't have a lot of resources, so we want to know what to do. We appreciate your help.

Thank you.

Oh, did I not say, I'm sorry, I did that once before. Jan Purdy, that's P-U-R-D-Y, District 3.

Is there anyone else here who would like to address the council this evening? I don't see anyone. Council, what's your pleasure? All in favor?

Aye.

We're adjourned.