City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty-four.

So we're going to advertise what does what mean?

So we're going to have to put all of those projects on the agenda at some point. So the money reverts back to us.

I got the only girlfriend I ever want to have. Hey John.

Don, how you doing, bud? Let's go, man. Yeah, and yourself?

Good. What's up, bro? You all right? Yeah, man.

How are you, Mr. Mayor?

Just give me just a touch, just in case you start coughing. I have to walk out.

All right, how you doing, Mr. AB? It's okay. Thank you.

I said, I'll bring it up. We just want to verify before we send that application on.

I'm just for that guy. I got it.

I'm a star employee. How you doing? Well, what it is? Awesome. I don't want to get picked.

All right. Hey, folks. Hey. Josh. Thank you, my God.

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Yeah.

I'm going to ask Mr. Young to lead us in prayer. Mr. Bilbo in the pledge.

Please bow your heads with me. Father God, we come to you right now just thanking you for guidance and for grace. And we ask that you give us eyes not to see Lake Charles as it is today, but what it can be tomorrow. We ask that during this council chambers, in this meeting, all things done decently and in order, and that you be number one. In your name we pray. 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.

Ms. Renee?

You want to start with the presentation? Oh, yes. We're going to start, take the point of personal privilege right now. We have a presentation. I'll respond to that.

Okay, Mr., where you at, Mr. Bennett?

So, yes, I'm here to talk. If y'all want, can they come as well? These are the guests of honor. Please come up. Please. Cody?

Y'all got to excuse this presentation. I'm a new city council member, so I didn't quite get it all together before they come up. You're not coming up, Ms. Amanda?

If y'all don't mind, please introduce yourselves. Everybody wants to know who y'all are.

I'm Billy Vincent with Acadian Ambulance.

Cody White with Acadian.

Coach Tony Johnson, Lake Charles College Prep head girls basketball coach and dean of students.

And this guy almost tried to make me a widow at a young age, Amanda Johnson, the better half.

And Mr. Billy, if you don't mind, I'm going to say a little. Now, Mr. Marks had some questions with the ambulance service. You remember that, the response time on the ambulance service? And that's where I met this man at a city council meeting. And he came back, and he handed out these flyers about CPR and the other thing, the other stuff that he did. And we do a children's program with the job I work with at what's the school? College Prep. Lake Charles College Prep. You know what I'm saying? And so I called Mr. Billy, and I asked him. I said, well, Mr. Billy, we got kids we're trying to teach how to – advocate for themselves with health advocacy and other things, you know? And Mr. Billy said, sure, we'll go. Now, Ms. Gmar is not here today. She's the nurse at College Prep. It took us how long to organize that? It took us about three or four tries to organize the CPR class for this group, you know? And then I think we reset the date. Three times?

Correct.

And now you can tell the story.

So the flyer's on the board, and all in the right timing, correct? I mean, it was rescheduled several times, and then when it happens on that day, Mr. Tony goes into cardiac arrest that day and goes down. The nurse immediately starts working on him shortly after. They apply a defibrillator. Our medic that is going to teach the class arrives on scene to be the instructor for the CPR class that's going to happen that day, Cody White. And then they all work together, and he's defibrillated multiple times on the scene. They do get a pulse back. He's brought to a local hospital and, as you can see, has made a complete and full recovery. Once again, this reiterates the importance of CPR education in our community and early and quick access to AEDs in the community. So we are a true, true partner in trying to make sure that this happens. Today I taught a CPR class for the city. for the youth that are working for the Parks and Recreation Department to make sure that they have the education needed in case somebody goes down at one of the parks during the summer programs. And the more that we can integrate this CPR education and early access to AEDs, the more people that get a new birthday, like Mr. Tony.

That's a real, I'm blessed, you know, and I'm just happy. And God still got things for me to do on this earth. So that's why he had Cody there at the time that he had him there that day on April 29th. And I appreciate everything everybody did for me that day. Okay. And thank you.

So the flyer says, I heard you, the birthday, that's T. So Tony will get to see his 62nd birthday on June the 15th. Thank you. All right.

Thank you all for the time to talk about this. It's really important to us and to the community to make that difference. And we're so glad we have good partners in the city of Lake Charles. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Y'all want more?

We got one more presentation. Yes.

Good evening, council members. Thank you for a few minutes of your time tonight. I wanted to show you a project that we've been working on for the last six months or so. Sometimes things happen in a pretty serendipitous manner. Around this time last year, I started talking about the dreaded words of the city's website needs an update. And that's a major undertaking, but also kind of worked out as the new administration took office. There were a lot of conversations about increasing accessibility and usability on our website. And so I am thankful, first of all, to the administration for their support in getting this project off the ground. But as you will see tomorrow morning, we will roll out a brand new city of Lake Charles website. If you can scroll down a little bit for me, Mr. Jonathan, you'll see these quick links up at the top. This site is designed to be citizen-focused. So we really put a lot of time and energy into thinking about what do our citizens go to our website for and how can we make those things easier for them to find. And so you'll see that how can I section. If you scroll down a little bit, each one of those tabs has some direct links to highly utilized city services from paying bills to requesting records to finding a park to finding out when your trash or garbage schedule may be to connecting with the city. If you'll scroll down some more for me, Mr. Jonathan, you'll see the news and announcements is now very picture-based and a lot more dynamic than it is on the current website. And then our calendar below that you'll see is split now. So we have a tab that signifies just public meetings. And if you'll click on that community events tab, you'll start to see, well, scroll over to June for me, Mr. Jonathan. This one. So you'll see we've loaded in events and they're split by public meetings versus community events. And then scroll down for me a little bit more. And then we've also embedded some of our most recent videos that we've produced straight on the homepage. Now, what's really nice about the new website is The citizen can create their own login to this website and design their experience. So if they want to stay in the know of public meetings that are coming up, they can set what their experience looks like when they first go to cityoflakecharles.com. It'll prioritize the information that they want to see. And that's if they just create a simple account. The other thing that we've really worked on with this, there are some federal regulations that will go into effect next April that define how our website has to be accessible. One of the tools that you will see on this website tomorrow when it launches will be down in the lower left corner, and it's called AudioEye. And what it'll do is if a citizen needs to use a screen reader for visual impairment to better read the website, it'll adapt to their use. You can change the contrast on it. for better visual clarity. You can change the language on it and you can make the text bigger, make it smaller. It helps them kind of adapt to the website. The other capabilities we have with the site, if you'll scroll over to the next tab up at the top for me. We're also with this launching an alerts and notification portal. We actually activated this back in December and we've done some smaller test uses of this. But citizens can log in and create, sign up to receive alerts on whether it's an emergency alert, on specific projects, on solid waste schedules. This is designed a little bit more like the police department's Nixle platform that they use where you get like the traffic alerts. This is very short, like 160 character messages. So this is one means that we can now communicate with residents. If you'll go to the next tab, this is another one that's through the website. So residents can sign up for notify me. If you'll scroll down for me a little bit, you'll see we've got some different categories that we've started to create on this. And so we can do construction-related road closures, parks and recreation programming, trash and garbage schedules. So what this will do is if a resident subscribes to receive these alerts, when we load that media release into the website, we can have it push out that media release straight to that resident's email, text message, just any number of means of communication with them. And go to the next tab for me. other thing that's gotten a major upgrade with this is our mayor's action line now you will always be able to call 491-1346 or email mayorsactionline at cityoflc.us but now we have an app that you can download the one lc action line you can also report through this website but on your phone if you're out walking and say you see a sidewalk buckled you can snap a picture of that upload it through the app and it is going to go directly to the streets division for them to address and they'll get that picture that location pinned on a map it will only allow you to upload issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the city of Lake Charles so if it falls outside of our boundaries it's going to tell that citizen this is not under the purview of that agency the other really cool thing about this is is we have overlaid the council districts into this so monthly we can provide you with reports of what citizens are submitting through this app and the kind of the steps that have gone through getting them resolved. And then one more tab for me. And to help us with all of this, this is a sandbox version of this, but tomorrow morning this will appear on the lower right-hand corner of our website. This is our digital assistant, Ask Charlie. Charlie is our chat bot that will be embedded in our website, and if a resident goes to the website, still can't find quite what they're looking for, they can ask Charlie a question, and Charlie can go find it for them on our website. If the answer is not to the satisfaction of the resident, if they give it a thumbs down, it sends me a report and it creates what they call a content gap and shows me that, hey, you should put something on this page about this service. Or if it says I'm having trouble finding this answer, it sends me a report so I know to go and look and make those adjustments on our website. Overall, we're really excited about this. I want to thank the departments. They've had a big part in getting involved with the training on this. Sophie Candler and our print shop has been my right hand on getting all of this activated. Anytime you launch a new website, even just an upgrade to a website, it's a pretty massive undertaking, but to do a complete overhaul. on a brand new platform with several products launching at the same time in six months is pretty phenomenal. But I'm really excited about it and I think it's going to go a long way towards the mayor's goals of increasing accessibility and transparency with the city. And I'm happy to answer any questions. We do have a screen that as residents go to the website for the first time over the next month, that's going to say welcome to our new home, please be patient with us as we continue to optimize the site, we have a mechanism for them to send us some feedback. So that way, if something isn't where they think it should be, or they're having a hard time locating it, they can contact us and we can look at that and make those adjustments as we go along. So I'm happy to answer any questions if y'all have them.

The community calendar, is that for residents or organizations to send in?

It's for city events on city properties. Yes, sir.

If a regular citizen has something at a city venue, can they get it on there?

They can submit it. limit those events on the calendar to city sponsored events just to preserve the nature of the events and make sure that they're family friendly and free and open to the public the only exception to that would be events that are booked through the event center those um we we do list those on there uh jonathan one other thing i want to show one other unique thing scroll up a little bit and click on recreation and parks or parks and recreation i'm sorry So with the large scale of things that fall under the purview of the Recreation and Parks Department, we did do what they call a department header package for community services. So this is sort of a website within a website. And if you scroll down a little bit, you'll see that they have separate like different buttons. This is still being kind of built out, but you'll see that they have different quick links. It's all focused on recreation programming. So it may be booking a tee time, registering for summer camp, registering for a sports league. But this will be a central hub for community services programming.

And Kate, I see you can tell when you're on the right link because it'll change the toggle.

Yes, scroll back up a little bit, Jonathan. Yeah, see they kind of spin whenever you hover over them. They move a little bit.

Katie, this is incredible. Thanks for the work putting it on. I think it's going to lead to more involvement with city events and knowledge of where we are with it because they're getting real-time info. I was just happy when we moved occupational licenses and park rentals online, but this is incredible. Thank you.

We tried to make it very citizen-focused, and we'll continue. A website is never truly done. It's always a living, breathing thing, so we'll continue to optimize it as we go along. So we definitely welcome any feedback that the community has on it. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.

Mr. Marks, I want to make just a quick comment on it. A lot of time and effort has taken place by a lot of staff members. Katie has taken the lead for this. She's done an excellent job for us, and there's a lot of work that goes into making something like this happen. Also, you know, there may be some growing pains. We ask you all to be patient. If you happen to see some of those growing pains, let us know, and we'll try to correct it. But we do believe that this new website will take us into the next direction, which is very positive. Thank you.

Anybody else? Ms. Renee.

Appointed chairman to review bids for project number CP 3400, 18th Street Reconstruction, Lake Street to Creole Street, phase one. An ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the City of Lake Charles Center into an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1610 Graham Street. Allen J. Mitchell, owner. Another demolition at 317 South Louisiana Avenue, front house only. Grace Smith, Yorick, Y. Price, Charles Y. Price, Monica Manker Russell, Marcia Manker, and Gregory Manker, owners. Another demolition at 902 Camellia Street, garage only. Matthew A. McIntosh, owner. Another demolition at 9010 North Simmons Street, John A. Parker, owner subject to a tax sale to the state of Louisiana. Another demolition at 1509 Pear Street, Edward Gallion Jr. and Jules J. Gallion, owner subject to a tax sale to the state of Louisiana. Another demolition at 621 Bank Street, Earl Melvin Anthony Wilts, Danielle Melo Wilts, and Monique Michelle Wilts, owners. Another demolition at 2123rd Street, Cecilia Petrie, owner. Another demolition at 2344 C Street, Marlene Marks, Markeisha Elise Marks, and Kendall Wayne Marks, owners. Another demolition at 808 Golf Street, Melvin Reyes and Yolani Reyes, owners. Ordinance for final action. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for project number CP3242, Southern Sewer Loop, Gulf Highway Lift Station. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for project number CP3507, Lake Charles Event Center Green Rooms, and amend the budget as necessary. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement to purchase row-based limestone aggregate per specifications for use by the Public Works Department. This is a re-bid. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles into an agreement to purchase replacement retractable telescopic riser seating in the Coliseum at the Lake Charles Events Center. This is another re-bid. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for the purchase of bus stop signage for use by the Public Works Department Transit Division. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement for the purchase of one new service body crane for use by the Public Works Department Wastewater Division. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsive and responsible bid and authorizing City of Lake Charles to send into an agreement for the purchase of water infrastructure maintenance and repair parts for use by the Public Works Department Water Division. In ordinance of the City Council of the City of Lake Charles, amending resolution number 313-23 to authorize the City of Lake Charles to modify the location and scope of RCIP LDI City of Lake Charles LC, second harvest 0084, and further authorizing the purchase of a vacant lot, parcel number 00751405, from Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church to construct and own a primary community resilience hub in accordance with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's national objectives for the use of funds from the CDBGDR program, an ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles Center to a rental agreement with Rent.Fund, to provide on-site automated kiosks for rental of equipment to be used for game and sport recreational activities at various parks throughout the city. An ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into a subrecipient professional services agreement with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority for administering a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for construction of a kayak launch. An ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a mixed-use zoning district, companion with a major conditional use permit in order to construct an accessory storage structure for a business located at 708 East School Street. An ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a mixed-use zoning district, companion with a major conditional use permit in in order to construct a duplex located on the west side of the 500 block of McNabb Street. An ordinance amending Chapter 13, Section 13-42 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Lake Charles regarding maintenance and quiet order of a business establishment. A resolution authorizing the City of Lake Charles to solicit proposals and advertise for a developer to design, build, finance, own, operate, and maintain a food and beverage and recreational establishment on one acre, more or less to be leased in Track 3 of the lakefront of the City of Lake Charles, all in accordance with and as authorized by Title 41, Section 1214 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950 as amended. A resolution accepting project number CP3274 Red Davis McAllister Water Main Extension as substantially complete and authorizing the advertisement of the 45-day lien period. A resolution setting date for public hearing on combination infrastructure located 1302 11th Street Steven Daniel Peters, and Betty Louise Allen Peters, owners with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1400 McNabb Street, Isaac Jackson Estate, and Beulah Antoine Jackson, owners with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 1300 Wendell Street, Austin, Rogers, Fontenot Estate, owner with a companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 738 Iberville Street, swimming pool only, Nakia, Yvette, Guillory, owner with a companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 304 Calcasieu Street, Betty Jane Jefferson, Lisa S. Jefferson, Leslie M. Jefferson, and Jessica L. Jefferson, owners with a companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 312 Maple Street, Marlene Johnson Marks, owner with a companion ordinance. A resolution authorizing the City of Lake Charles to advertise to receive still bids for project number CP3433-2022, Drainage Infrastructure Improvements, package number one with the companion ordinance. A resolution authorizing the City of Lake Charles to advertise to receive sale bids for project number CP3534 CNI Park with the companion ordinance. Introduction of an ordinance authorizing the City Council of the City of Lake Charles to amend section 21 That's 92 of the Code of Ordinances to allow car washes with State of Louisiana discharge approved to use irrigation meters for vehicle washing purposes. And that is all that I have. The rest are companion ordinances.

Ms. Renee, I have a question just for clarification. A couple of weeks ago, Well, yeah, a couple of weeks ago, myself, Mr. and Mr. Weatherford, there were a series of applications, minor conditional use permits for short-term rentals that we said we wanted to address on appeal.

Those were appealed to the Planning Commission.

Oh, so they don't come back to us?

I don't know if they come back to us or not, but I know that there were appeals that were going to the Planning Commission.

Yeah. I think, go ahead.

When a conditional use permit is appealed, it goes to the Planning Commission first. That decision could be appealed to the council.

OK. I knew they were on appeal, but I didn't know what the step.

All right. Thank you. Mr. McGarrett?

Mr. Marsh, there's one that's missing on this agenda that I later updated the agenda, and somehow I missed printing out the correct one. But it was a deferral from last week, and it had to do with the Greenwich Terrace.

oh yeah for the parish right for the parish and so I printed out the wrong one it's not on this but so are y'all aware what we're talking about the retention pond yeah okay can you read that in well that's supposed to come next year I'm gonna get Shelly to get it so we can read it okay we're gonna need to read it in the key this ordinance number 18 yes sir

That's quite a change from what we voted on. But it's already authorized?

No, that's a different one. That's a different one? Yeah, this is for Second Harvest. The other one was for Railroad Avenue.

Yeah. Y'all voted last week on Gosport.

Railroad Avenue was the one that went to Gosport. You voted on another change last week.

Mr. Mayor, didn't you tell us that second harvest was gone?

Well, we can't defer it. Excuse me, Mayor. We can discuss this at the meeting. It's on the agenda.

Okay. So my question is, the process of this is, an ordinance is introduced. Resolutional and then then. We vote on the resolution, and it becomes an ordinance.

An ordinance requires that it be introduced at a meeting, and then it has to lay over to another meeting before it can be approved.

So from introduction, you go to ordinance.

Yes, sir. Well, it's always an ordinance. It's just being introduced as an ordinance, and y'all can't vote on it at the first meeting.

So you can introduce an ordinance and or introduce a resolution?

A resolution doesn't have to lay over like an ordinance.

So an ordinance, what does an ordinance, when we say ordinance, that means that's an order to do?

It's typically a commitment of funds or an obligation of the city. Resolutions are viewed differently.

So a resolution is not an action?

It's not typically. Jump in, John, if you disagree, but it's typically a resolution doesn't involve the commitment of funds.

Correct. Can I add to that? Yeah, please. Okay. Let's take tonight, for instance. If someone tonight wanted to put a resolution, they could put a resolution on the agenda tonight. And at our June 3rd meeting, we would vote on that resolution and pass or fail. If you wanted to introduce an ordinance, we can introduce an ordinance tonight. It would be read in on June the 3rd, and then we would vote on it on June the 17th. And then, of course, it could be deferred and all that, but that's the procedure.

What he was saying was the ordinance generally means money is involved.

Committed. It's obligated. So, like, if you look at items 24 through 33 on the agenda, Mr. Fontenelle, they're all resolutions. And you can see they're either authorizing a condemnation or they're authorizing you all to get bids. They're not a commitment of an obligation by the city.

Hey, I'm a new council member, okay?

I'm a new attorney. I'm a new city attorney, so we're learning together, my friend. I'm the old guy here. We're the same age, but I've been around here longer.

That's what it's for. Any other questions in regards to the agenda? Okay. Moving on. Mr. Weatherford, you got anything? I do not. Mr. Bilbo.

Yeah, I want to put in a change of ordinance on 4th Avenue between 12th Street and when you get to the track heading south. I've been getting a lot of complaints that they're parking on the grass on the street. So as soon as you turn off at the red light, you're only down to one side. So the neighbors on 4th Avenue wished could we put no parking signs so people won't park out there. From 4th Avenue, 12th Street to the railroad track. Coming down 12th headed east, you would make a right on 4th Avenue. Okay. 20, 24, 4th Avenue.

But isn't that private property?

Yes, the people is probably asking for the signs.

You want no parking on the west side of 4th Avenue?

Yes, sir.

South of the railroad track?

South of the railroad track.

Or north of the railroad track. Between 12th and the railroad track.

Preferably 20, 24, 4th Avenue. Something just came to me today, so I was writing it down. So just a question, Mr. I think even Mr. Miles, didn't you ask me about that area on 4th Avenue was getting complaints?

no yes no it was a couple of people been calling me about but i'm talking about this when we put those um like we did on elaine street uh yeah when we put no parking signs how far do they go meaning like if you just got one parking no parking how far does that go

Typically, you put a no parking sign between this point and that point and defines that area where there's no parking. So you put two? Yes, sir.

You want one in each yard or just that yard? No, you can put them to cover the block from that area because it's on, what did I say, that would be on the east side of the sidewalk is city property anyway. We got to cut it, but it's still, it's really not your property. Right. Yeah, but I'm saying, does every resident want that by their house? No, I just got the call from that resident. I got this call, so I just was writing it down when Mr. Fondale called me. Okay. I would have called you more, Ms. Wendy. Waterside, that's in the city? Yes. Two? I think that's in Morganfield, huh?

Yeah, it is in Morganfield, but all of it may not be in the city. This is 5514.

They sent me a picture. uh isn't that that's like the ditches now uh that's one where one side is sitting in one side south side of the world i think it's two phase two is in the city phase one is you see like the water not draining send me that picture i was gonna send it then i got uh if miss wendy want to come look all this just came to me i i usually be better prepared it's a piece I mean right here the sidewalk is real and Doug you say that's that's the city side 54 14 and 55 11 55 11 is the sidewalk and 14 the ditch he wanted to see me a picture they had a guy there with a shovel trying to empty it I said no don't don't send me that okay That'll be all for me.

Mr. Fundale. I remember a little while back we said when we were buying property, we would say what the property was. For the parcel?

If we had the name at the time?

Yes, it had a name.

Or if it had an address. Yeah.

You got one in there that don't have it? I just noticed it changed different times. Well, sometimes we know the known address, and other times...

Sometimes vacant lots don't have a municipal address.

Vacant properties generally don't have a municipal address. If there's a structure on it, the structure has an address. The property has a parcel number. If it's a demo, does it keep the municipal address? It would have an old address, but if someone comes in and reapplies for a permit, the address could be different because the numbering could be wrong and we need to correct that. That's what I thought, yeah.

And my next question is, I never did understand the process of these CBGs because apparently it's a process before it's usually accepted. Then they go through a process. CBGs? Yes. CDBG. What's a CBG? Yeah. What is a CBG?

That's federal.

CDBG.

CDBG. Yeah.

Community Development Block. CDBG-DR, actually.

Okay, so put your mic down, Mr. Fundasso, so it can be on the record. So my question, I'm just figuring this out, you know, because it's a lot of money being generated and a lot of money going to a lot of places. And I just, so you accept, it get accepted by the state, the project? Is that right?

The city sends in an ordinance that lists out the projects in the state. There you go. Okay.

I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor.

I'm really, I get hyped up. I owe you an apology. Okay, so it depends on where the funds are coming from. So in the city, our entitlement program is the money that, you know, we receive CDBGN home money every year. And that's federal money. I'm sorry. You know, HUD, New Orleans office is, you know, we get it through them. And what happens, we do an action plan. And as a matter of fact, that's going to be coming up.

So this project is the same one, so we don't have to go out and ask the citizen. And what I want. Let me finish first.

All right.

So we have to do an action plan.

Give me one second. If you're asking about that one again, we can't discuss it. No, I'm talking about in general.

I'm just saying in general. I'm sorry. So what happens, though, before you do anything, you have to get input from the public.

So normally we'll have... How much money did we recently spend? Right now we are doing this... We're actually allocating money to different groups and stuff. All right, so how much money was that in total funds?

okay so if you're talking about our CDBG-DR money we received the total of from from the from the state the first thing so the state provided us with I think is like forty eight point six million dollars so all right now stop right there and I want the citizens of the Lake Charles to understand that they had meetings in the city

where they were talking about $40 million. Yes. And where were, I wonder if most people even, how many people you think showed up at most meetings?

Well, probably for these projects, I mean, you might have had like 20 people that showed up. Now, mind you, this was back in 2023. So we had meetings at Allen August. We have a meeting here. And most of the time, but through our other programs, we'll have them out at Riverside. How do we announce these meetings? We advertise in the newspaper. We put it out on the city's website.

Do we discuss it in the agenda meetings?

If it comes up for discussion.

I want to, I'm all over the place. So I want to introduce an ordinance that for CBG's funds, they must come before the council to announce those meetings. They do. They do? Mm-hmm.

So not necessarily to announce the meetings. We can do that. That's not an issue to do that. But generally we just, you know, we do the advertisement in the American press and on the city's website to make people.

But somehow we got all of this money coming. That's what I'm trying. Go ahead. I don't even have to introduce it, but I would appreciate it if the council we work on doing a better job of getting more input when these decisions' time come for input to spend this money.

So just notice, the only time we're going to do this is when we get this annual fund. Oh, it's an annual fund? I'm talking about the money that we get every year. That disaster recovery, you've got to remember, that's one time. So you're never going to, nobody's going to call us with more disaster, at least I don't think, Mayor.

Hold on, hold on.

Unless we have another disaster. I don't know. And even then, even if this is the first time the city of Lake Charles has ever received a direct allocation for disaster recovery, And the state's money, and when I say that's the one that funds the Hope Center, the Business Incubation Center, these new apartments you see up in the Fire Department campus, that is directly from HUD. And then the state money, of course, we're considered a sub-recipient because it comes through them from HUD. But generally, not generally, but we're not going to see that money again unless something drastic happens. That money I never, no.

Not in this volume, right?

No, no, nothing like this. So, you know, like I said, we got a total of $48 million through the state initially. Then they gave us $10 million extra sort of like out of nowhere. So that is the money that we talked about that's going towards the indoor. And they would only let us use it for the indoor sports facility. But we received the $17 million I mentioned directly from HUD. That is your Hope Center, business incubation center, the three apartment complexes and fire department. But what you will be able to get on an annual basis is notice when we get the CDBG and home funds. So how much in home? Generally about a million dollars a year. All right.

Thank you. All right. Okay. No, but for you. So let's take the – can we talk about the Hope Center? Yeah. I mean, have you got a question? So let's take the Hope Center. So it was introduced – I mean, I remember having the discussion about what it was going to do, and we had paperwork on it, exactly what it was. Do we have paperwork for –

this particular one no so so any of the projects does disaster related that was decided on in 23 so none of this was decided you know recently those those we had to turn in action plans for those for those projects in 2023 to HUD yeah so

That's it.

And we can talk offline. You got anything? We can talk offline. Yes.

Can I add something real quick? You were talking about how I was advertised or how I was communicated. I'm sure, periodically, KPLC may cover that those meetings are coming. May or may not. I'm sure they're notified, just like all the media, probably the radio station, everyone are notified. Then it's a matter of what, if anything, they do with it. I mean, we can't compel them. to do any sort of coverage of it, but it depends on probably what they might see as a significance of the meeting and what else is going on that day. If they need to fill space, they probably cover it. If they got it all covered up, they don't.

And I think what Mr. Fundale is saying, Mark, is once we decide, once the administration decides what that money is going to be used for, whatever project that is, that we do a better job of advertising it to whatever area it falls in. You know what I'm saying? And a lot of times... it'll be on the councilman to help put that out with community meetings or whatever is in that particular area.

And just an FYI, you guys vote on the action plan, you know, whether to approve it or not. So in that plan that Renee, she's good for the, she always asks us for a copy of the projects that were chosen. So, you know, she gets that. But we can make sure that you have it,

You know, yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. I think it was miss funder.

You good, Mr. Young? Yes, sir. Thank you.

You set me up with community meetings. I want to take the opportunity

to say that substantial progress has been made on Sally Street. I had a pre-construction meeting last week that I was able to attend, and thanking Miss Wendy and Miss Katie are helping us put together a community meeting to make residents aware of what that project entails, the order and the phasing of it. But I think that that will be very helpful for those that live in the area and are concerned about what that looks like for traffic. Probably coming the last weekend in June, but announcement coming from the city soon. And I'm sure it will be on this brand new website. Thank you.

That's it?

Yes, sir.

Mr. Beeson out. Just one thing.

I'd like to... I don't know who to ask, and it doesn't have to be tonight, but I would love an update on the Sail Road Bridge project. I get a phone call. School's out now. It's great. I wish they would work 24 hours a day. But everybody wants to know, is it going to be done before school starts? And it should be. They are targeting to finish that in July. That's what I understood, but an update would be nice. It doesn't have to be tonight. So I could share it with people that are asking.

Herman Stevens, engineering manager. The mayor covered it. The current timeline is mid-July. There was some delay due to some excavation of fill that was of poor quality. And we'll have an update of schedule tomorrow. So it could change. There's been some weather and that sort of thing. But current target is mid-July.

Just to let people know what's going on. So basically it was going to be July, so it's been pushed back a couple weeks. But we don't think there's any danger of it extending into the new school year. No, sir. Perfect.

Thank you. I got to walk to Stewart's house. Can't drive. That's right. That's right. That's it, Mr. Visanoff? Yes. Okay.

I got a couple of things I want to run through right quick. First off, I don't know who you got in touch with, Mr. Cordone, Mayor, but I haven't gotten any more complaints about the diesels parking on the side of the road in Tome District. So that seemed to be working for the time being. I would like for us, now that we've had this situation with Coach, to revisit the grant, maybe get with Acadian Ambulance. We had spoken when you first came in there about putting AEDs throughout the city. You was familiar with a study that had been done in some other part of the United States.

State of Washington.

Yeah. And I think if we can get with you and start working on that so that we can have those placed strategically throughout the city.

I think it was not just AEDs, but we wanted to start in our community centers, public training on CPR in general. Having the AEDs, but if nobody knows how to operate them is one thing, but sometimes you don't need AED, whether it's choking or whatever else. The general thing was to go out and teach people CPR. Chip, come.

Yes, recently at the... Donald Ray Stevens Center Swim Education, we spoke to get something started for October. It's American Heart Shocktober is what it is, and we're looking to do a community CPR event free to the public for hands-only CPR hosted here in Lake Charles at the Civic Center.

Don't forget my project.

Yep, the education. I got it, the health. for the men's health. Yes. Yes.

And we can offer, we're there four hours, and we can offer the classes there, and you have to go to the website at SWLAHEC I don't have my phone, y'all. I lost my phone there. SWLAHEC is Southwest Area Health Education Center is what it's called. And You can go to the website and just say, I want to take the CPR class. and register, and if we get enough, we'll just teach a class there.

We can, absolutely. And if not, we're offering hands-only CPR education that day as well. Thank you, sir. But the big one's coming. You wanted to say something?

Yeah, so after we had the event with Coach, I got with Jamar, the nurse, and we're actually going to, we're looking at planning a CPR class for their entire school at Lake Charles College Prep. Probably a hands-only CPR, like the first week of school, So hopefully we can get all of those students kind of educated on it. And then a side project that we're kind of working on is looking at maybe trying to incorporate Calcasieu Parish Schools, other like, you know, St. Louis and all that stuff too. Thank you.

Okay. The other thing, Mayor, I'd like for us to form a committee to revisit the smart code. so that we can kind of refine it. I mean, it was a lot of back and forth with our last discussion, but I think it's time that we revisit it. Maybe get some community activists. The speeding on Cactus Drive, it has come up again. Blowing my phone up. I don't know what we can do. We got a stop sign there. The man, Mr. Briley, is asking for some help. He says getting real out of hand on Cactus Drive. So I don't know what more we can do other than maybe put some more signage out. Chief, you got any ideas? Yes, sir.

I believe at this point we have speed signs available for each one of the districts. So I can make that happen tomorrow. I can get one on Cactus Drive. Absolutely.

All right. All right.

One more thing just to add real quick. After our recent issue on 4th Avenue, we have one in that area as well after the hit and run.

Are y'all responsible for the speed sign on 4th Avenue?

You mean the speed limit sign or the electronic speed sign? The electronic. Yes, sir. We just put that out about a week ago.

Yeah. Mr. Miles was asking, there's no poles on the other side. So the way the speed sign, you're going out of the neighborhood. You know, you're going towards Broad.

You're going northbound on 4th Avenue? Yes. Okay.

You're going towards Broad. The speed that he showed on his films, it was actually going south.

Okay. I can have him move to the other side. I don't have enough to put one on every side, but we can move to the other side for sure.

You can just move that one over. Okay. But I didn't see many poles. Do you have any poles that you've seen? Oh, there are some? So I just wanted to mention that. Y'all did a good job because I travel that road. I have to slow down a lot.

Yes, sir. Quick question about that particular. I know it because I saw that sign. I guess it was yesterday, or in the last few days. I know it notifies you of your speed. Does it record any of that? In a video sense? No, not in video. In that period, they were... 500 cars that passed there and their speed was between yeah i'm not sure i don't think it does i don't believe i don't think it does but no sir okay thank you chief uh i also had uh miss wendy the speed bumps on 22nd street alley do you know if we taking care of those already

Wendy Robinson, 4331 Broad Street, East Broad Street. No, I need to get Mr. Thompson's contact information because we have put speed bumps out there, but I don't think he likes where we put them.

But I want to clarify that. I went out and I looked at him. What he's talking about, you did go out and move one closer to Fifth Avenue. But he's saying that once they pass that speed bump, they got a long way to speed up again, and then you get to the next speed bump, and then there's one speed bump, next speed bump, speed bump. He basically wanted them spaced out in the alley to kill at any point you can drive at a high rate of speed. But I'll get you his contact information.

Give me his contact information. That way we won't have to move them. We'll try to put them where he thinks they need to be but where we can put them.

You're right. Thank you.

You're welcome.

uh i sent an email to the um the administration about me wanting to conduct, investigation is a strong word, but of the Water and Wastewater Division. I plan to start looking into things on Monday, and I'm asking the administration that make the department heads aware that I may come by and ask, along with any other councilman that wants to go and look at some things in the department.

I'm trying to figure out, is there anything in particular that you want? Because we could investigate that for you and give a report.

No, I'd like to look at it myself because I'm getting a lot of complaints and it's been going on for years. So if it's all right, I'll go to the department because it's within the purview of the city council.

I don't honestly think it is within the charter. The city council does policy and legislation. All of the department heads work under the administrator and So it would be within the mayor's purview as far as the operations of a division.

Well, in the city charter, it says that the city council has the right to investigate any department that they deem to need.

I don't recall that.

I'll get it for you.

But it is very clear that the operations and the administration of all the departments are under the purview of the administrator and the mayor. And certainly who's hired, who's fired, what they make, all that comes within the purview of the mayor. As far as an investigation, You can send that to me, and I'll take a look at it. Okay, we'll do it. But I'm not saying for sure that I know you're wrong or right, so I'll take a look at it. Thank you, though.

Mr. Marks, if I just make a comment, it would be nice, whoever's calling you, that they at least reach out to us and let us know what some of these issues are because we haven't had the opportunity to investigate it as well.

Well, I won't get into detail, but I know that they have reached out.

We can talk offline about it. Okay. Thank you.

Also, going back to what Mr. Fundale was saying, Mayor had mentioned to me today that they found out some new information in regards to the projects, and I am asking what Mr. Fundale said. I know the Mayor said that the requirement is when we put it on the agenda, correct me if I'm saying it wrong, as long as it's on the agenda, that's notice to the public. But I'd like to see us Go a little bit extra to advertise whatever projects we are going to go forward with, that we advertise them a little bit more. Maybe do a little of what Katie does to talk about the particular projects once they're approved. Sure. And I would also like, when we do complete the applications, I would like the council to get a copy of those completed applications prior to us sending it in to OCD, if that's possible. I have asked for those before, but now that we know we have definite dates, we know what's new, what's not new, I think that the council should be able to get that before it's sent out. The other thing is...

So since this was an already approved project, the one you're talking about, can we have a copy of the complete project of the one we're going to discuss next week? See, when we voted and when we first brought it up, This is totally different from what this is, right?

Well, it changes the location and the scope of the project, but it's always a resiliency.

When we first boarded up, it was just vague information. Now it's got a lot more detail. So you're modifying a project that's been okayed,

everything right it was a I think it was a project that was sent in the action plan but right but that project that project well it was sent with a with a purse a car instead of being awarded that project that entity was disqualified so we changed to where the city is now the awardee of that that okay so it was entity was awarded the project The city was awarded the project. The city is the sub-recipient on all these projects. And then the previous administration chose to make different entities awardees with the understanding that once the government closed their books on those projects, then those facilities would go over to those awardees. When this one was disqualified, we made the determination that we wanted to have a permanent resiliency center. So this is the difference. We did not have an awardee on that one. This is going to be the city's building, just like the sports complex is going to operate as a resiliency hub. And then we can do a cooperative endeavor agreement with somebody that's operated during Blue Skies and put programs in it and keep the lights on and pay the bills.

So basically, I think what you're asking, Mr. Funday, is you want the information of what it's going to be once the city builds it.

And I would like the old one that was awarded or awardee, however you want to say it, there was a project and they were disqualified. So we sent in some information on it, right?

Yeah. Well, I think. Where's Mark?

Who are you looking for, Mark?

Yeah, because all this happened before I came in. We're just dealing with what we're dealing with now. I don't know what was sent in right then.

So the project that we're modifying, it was an approved project by? So can we get a copy of that approved project?

Yeah. What happened, it was submitted as a part of a proposal. But, yes, I can get you a copy of that. It was submitted as? Part of a proposal. Yeah.

I can get a copy of it for you. It was a project that was proposed. Well, then it got disqualified, and then we went to this. So he can get you a copy of what was proposed.

Okay.

All right. Good? Yeah. All right. The other thing is I got word today that there's a new law. I don't know if it's parish. It was explained to me as being parish, called the lien law. And it deals with, for us, adjudicated properties. So they're separating the adjudicated properties from the sheriff's sale. Sheriff's sales are now going to handle foreclosure. And then they're going to do the other properties that have liens against it in the lien sale. That's the way they explained to me. But what threw me, they said it was a parish law. So does that govern us as well?

I'm looking. I was just looking as you were saying it.

You said this is a new law? A new law. It's been put in, but I think it just passed this legislature.

I was going to say, maybe, Mr. Morris, we could let our city attorney take a look at it and then provide input to the council.

It does look like they may have just passed something, so I'm going to need to take a look at it.

I just want to know, when they say parish, I know the city is part of the parish, so does their rules supersede ours? Well, it's a state statute. Yeah, a state statute applies to everybody. We can answer those questions. Because I think that will affect the way we handle adjudicated properties.

Yeah, it's brand new. 2026, yeah. Act 557, so I'm going to have to take a look at it and get back to you, Ms. Mark.

Okay, appreciate it. The last thing, I think the last thing I have is we discussed wording in the last meeting. We had a... We voted on a resolution that was supposed to be reworded before it was sent out. We agreed to it. So I would just like the council to have a view of that application before it's sent out to make sure that the words align. I think Mr. Visano.

I don't remember exactly the wording, but I remember a suggestion.

It was supposed to be recreation center as opposed to resiliency, and it was supposed to be modified, was supposed to be taken out because it was a new project. So if we can have that wording before it's sent out, I think the council would appreciate that. We were just talking about the Gosport Park. Yes, Railroad Avenue money.

And can we get it in time where we can, you know, not right before the vote? Right.

And as well as that. We've already voted on it.

He wants to see the actual approved ordinance. Y'all amended it. Ms. Renee should be able to get that.

We get to see the whole process on that one. Right. No, on this one that you're doing, the one week that I'm talking about, we've already voted on. Yes. But it was supposed to be changed.

Mr. Marks, I just talked to Miss Renee. She's going to get y'all a copy.

OK. And as well as the projects that we have to formulate and come up with, I would like the applications once they're complete, once the projects have been established. like the council to get a copy of the applications that are going to be sent in so that we can be aware of it before and again in a timely fashion before we have to vote on it other than that I think that's all I have right now any other comments from the council can I read in that one item Yes, sir. I mean, yes, ma'am.

An ordinance authorizing the City of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and the Consolidated Gravity Drainage District No. 2, East Calcasieu Parish, to share in the cost of the Greenwich Terrace buyout. initiative project, and that should have been on this agenda that I read.

And that was my next question. Are we going to have somebody here by Wednesday? Okay. That's what she was asking. They'll be here Wednesday. Wednesday, that's what I'm talking about. I said before.

And that's just the title. The actual talks about the cap and the amount that we're going to contribute to purchase all that.

$38,000 and $124,000 in the seven properties. Okay. Okay.

This is the time we uh... Mr. President, if you don't mind, I have a meeting to go to at 7 o'clock, so I'll excuse myself. Okay.

Thank you. We have A.B.

Franklin.

State your name and address for the record, Mr. Franklin.

Yes, A.B. Franklin, 2460 Lane Street, Lake Charles, Louisiana, 70601. I'm here today to let's do a little discussion on attacks that we just lost. I don't know how well the people knew anything about it, but let me tell you what's gonna happen. We have a gentleman sitting down right here with the police department who watch over us while we sleeping at night. It's gonna affect them. Public works, the backbone of the city, gonna affect them, the fire department, everybody. So my thing about it is this. When I was on the city council, We had a special meeting before on agenda meeting to discuss this. We heard nothing from nobody. And it's the first time ever heard that a renewal got beat. So I'm hoping that don't wait till next month, start right away and try to get this thing passed. Because this is serious. I mean, this is going to tear this city up. There's going to be some layoffs. A lot of people won't be working. You know, so it's just putting the city in a bad place. And I'm going to tell you something else that really kind of aggravated me. Mr. President, you're a very smart, intelligent man. I think what's happening, I noticed two weeks, a week or so before the voting came, it was chaos up here between the city council and the fire department. That shouldn't be happening. And I know you can run a better meeting than that because it just got out of hand. And a lot of people just got discouraged. So I'm just hoping in the near future that some of this stuff be cut out. That's just like in a neighborhood where you're building a new subdivision, Would you move that subdivision if everybody was shooting, killing everybody? I don't think so. So right now the city is getting a bad name because every time we have a meeting lately, it's too much bickering, making noise. That shouldn't be happening. But my thing about it is this. If you don't get this tax passed, that's going to be a serious problem for the whole city and for y'all too.

So, Mr. Abey, you said we can talk about it. I thought I heard we couldn't do certain things about it.

We can't campaign. We couldn't actively. No one can actively campaign.

I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, I can't hear you.

No one can actively campaign on a tax renewal, but you can get the information out there to let people know that that is on the ballot and what those services are that it provides. You can put out the facts. You can't ask people to vote for it or vote against it. You just can put out the facts.

And so what did you all do, Mr. Abey?

okay this is what we've done we had a special meeting five o'clock before we read the photo okay okay yeah we're gonna extend you another okay what happened is he still had a minute left so he's good yeah okay but when we done when we had a meeting five o'clock meeting we just was explaining to the people what these taxes is for we're not taking a vote yes or no nobody's done anything with this this is so quiet Nobody said nothing about it. And I think what put a lot of fire and all this, was all this meat we had just before with the fire department.

No, I think part of the issue was they had a lot of amendments on the ballot that impacted that as well.

And you're right. The state had five amendments. The city had three. And if you look in the paper, on the news and everything, they was telling you about support Amendment 3 for such and such thing. The city of Lake Charles did not do anything.

We can't.

The police department, the sheriff's department, I mean, the public works, nobody said nothing about the election.

I don't think we can do that, but the police union could do an advertisement if they wanted to.

The police department itself could not. Well, you couldn't use city or public funds to do something like that. But yes, you can get the word out. I mean, we put out, I think I put out a video specifically letting people know that there are three renewals on the ballot. and what they provided. Now, that made its way onto the city's website, and some people shared it, but we did contact some of the news media, and they didn't cover it. So on this side, we tried to put it out, but you're right. We cannot... use city funds to I mean, basically we can put out facts. Usually we do that through a city council meeting where we talk about the renewals, what they fund.

We can't pay for like the amendments three and four. The amendments, it wasn't the state that was putting out that information. It was different groups that were spending money to put that information out.

Well, the bottom line, Mr. A.B., what you say may be true, but we're working on it, and it's going to be better next time. So that's all we can tell you from this standpoint right now, that going forward, when the election come up again, it will be told to the public and explained to the public.

Okay. Okay, because this is critical.

I'm not up here anymore with y'all, but I understand.

So whatever we can do to get this thing passed, we appreciate it.

One more thing I want to say. I hate to do this to Mr. A.B., but y'all can extend it, but his time has expired.

You got another minute?

Okay. The 2212 Elaine Street. It's been on the agenda for a while. You put the signs up and everything, but the guy's still not doing the right thing.

So I just want to pass it on to the city council. What property was it?

2212 E. Lang Street.

Now, that's the guy that was bringing in the vehicles?

Yeah, he's bringing in, that's right, and then he's parking cars there. He parked right there by the sign that said, no parking, two-way zone.

To my understanding, that house was raided, wasn't it?

Oh, I don't know.

I think so. I think if you check the records, the man was violated. Now, whether or not he went back and started doing the stuff all over again, the police department went out and handled it.

Okay. The only thing I'm saying, you know, as a citizen, let's do better. Please, let's do better and get this together and pass this so everybody can be satisfied and happy. Thank you.

Great. Before we go to the people, what would it take to – I get a lot of complaints. People be texting me, people, I thought you was going to bring it up, about edging properties. We force people to cut it, but we don't force them to edge it up in the grass, be covering up the sidewalk. Is it? I'm just asking the question. That's a violation. Cover up the sidewalk.

We do have an ordinance that addresses sidewalks and street curbs, the overgrowth. It has to be six inches over. sidewalk into the sidewalk for us to be able to address it we cannot ask people to edge anything but we can ask them to trim it okay which is what we do so like I said we cannot ask them to edge it but we can ask them to trim it I mean it won't look pretty but at least the overgrowth will be gone Stephanie Maybank

Stefan Maybank, my bad, I'm sorry. To? Mr. Fitzgerald. Okay. Fitzgerald with door bone. State your name and address for the record.

Fitzgerald, Darbone, 2523 Hagen Street. On tonight, I am representing as the president of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Lake Charles. So I'm going to have two videos. That is going to take a little time, but... This is something that we put together two years ago, and it's time. I represent the community of North Lake Charles, and in many ways, I spent a lot of money trying to educate my community. So can we start?

Which one would you like first?

It's going to be the STEM agriculture.

It's just a baseball field. a place where games were played. But what if the next generation's greatest game isn't played with a bat, but planted in soil? Today, we're not presenting a garden. We're presenting an ecosystem. Just imagine. This field is being reimagined as a living system designed to serve the community in three ways. 40% of what grows here will go directly back to the community.

Here you go, sir. Freshly picked this morning. Oh, thank you.

40% will help sustain the system itself, allowing the garden to fund its own growth. The whole thing.

It was delicious.

And 20% will be dedicated to education and research. Creating opportunities for students to learn agriculture, science, and sustainability in real time.

As little farmers, we need to make sure the soil is always moist. Who can tell me why? Because the plants need water to grow.

And this couldn't come at a better time. Hunger Action Month is coming this September. But even the best systems need one important partner. The bees.

Ah, welcome. You see, while humans plant the seeds, my workers help them grow. 300 hives. 300 teams ready to help. Helping the city.

That looks like Sharon.

Helping our partners. And most importantly, helping the community of Lake Charles.

Collector team moving out. Activate flower sector three. Transfer pollen. Go. Man, that's a lot of flowers.

Oh boy.

I need a break. This is where the system comes full circle. Harvest happened throughout the season. Fresh produce goes back in the community. Some is sold to help sustain the program. And every step becomes an opportunity for students to learn science, entrepreneurship.

I actually started working in this garden. And because of programs like this, I'm now studying agriculture through the STEM program.

One of the most powerful parts of this garden is the STEM program. This isn't just a place to grow food. It's a place to grow knowledge. Students who visit this garden aren't just looking at plants. They're studying science in action. They learn how soil health affects plant growth, how pollinators like bees increase crop production, and how ecosystems work together to support sustainable agriculture. But STEM here goes beyond science. Students explore technology through irrigation systems and data tracking. They learn engineering through garden design and infrastructure. And they experience mathematics every time they measure, track yields, and plan harvests. Through partnerships with local schools and universities, this garden becomes a living laboratory. A place where young people can see how agriculture, science, and innovation connect to real careers. For many students, This may be their first experience with agriculture, but it could also be the beginning of a future in environmental science, food systems, engineering, or agricultural technology. Because when students learn here, they're not just studying the world around them. They're learning how to help shape its future.

So I'm trying to get in my six minutes. So play the next one, please.

You have one minute remaining.

Daddy, I wish we could do something fun today. Real fun. Fun. Fun.

Oh, sorry about that.

I restarted the time.

Daddy, I wish we could do something fun today. Real fun. Fun! Fun!

Time has expired.

Honey, I'm starving.

Say less. Let's eat. Another one?

Just once. Each. Wait.

Is that Rusty playing tonight?

Oh, we're not missing him. You may want to go elsewhere But if you come inside and go This way you need to be right here So if you know you're gonna hide You may want to go elsewhere But if you come inside and go This way you need to be right here This way you need to be right here Oh yeah

Thank you. So I need to ask for three more minutes from you guys.

Y'all want to vote to give them three more minutes? Just do it by your hand. Do it by your hand.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Great. So this is stuff that we had put together in order to help our district. You know, we, as the African American Chamber of Commerce, you know, we reach out to communities. We, you know, people ask us for, where's our membership? Well, the community is our members. So we work on behalf of the community. So I'm asking that you've seen things that could happen along this bayou. The party has always been on the back porch, growing up. I know we recognize the front of Lake Charles as the party area, but really and truly, nothing went on the front porch. The party was always in the back porch. So I'm asking about that $25 million, that amphitheater. Let's not have that there. Let's move that to where the community of North Lake Charles can take advantage of opportunities. I mean, we get 40,000 pieces of traffic going through. This is from the city's engineering saying this. That goes through North Lake Charles to Moss Bluff. We need to create a destination for people. If we're going to do this Enterprise Boulevard extension and this, we need to create a destination. So I feel, as far as my organization feel, that We need better representation for our community. We don't have a development party. It's in the works, but it's been long enough. The North Lake Charles Redevelopment Authority, whatever it's called. We don't have representation of our district, and we need better that. We need better representation, and I feel these are some products, these are some projects that can come to fruition in our community if we do things a little better. Can you put two pictures up there? Because I did talk about the Mr. A.B. Frankenbart about the voting thing. But no, go to, it may say, I can't see.

There's a Bayou Sunset.

How about Bayou Sunset?

There's something else.

So this is what Bayou Sunset could look at. Get ready to click on the other one, man. So rather than having... Our people that come to visit Lake Charles and visit and stay in our hotels on the lakefront.

Total 10 minutes has expired.

I mean, this is what they're going to actually look at versus this bayou. You got to click on the... You want the Civic next? His time is up.

You need another minute?

Yeah, I need another minute.

You want the Civic one next?

It says... Yes. How about Civic Center Sunset? I hate to do this to you, though, Matt, but. So this is the view from the amphitheater that's in the evening. I mean, I might be stretching it a little bit, but I'd rather that Bayou view than that view and using that money that y'all are going to spend on this amphitheater.

Is the African-American Chamber proposing a partnership?

To help do design stuff? Or when you say partnership, be more specific.

Just like every, we get partners that come in and they put money with the city. Sure. They're private partners.

Love to. We love to do that as well. Also as the, you know, we're about to lose Chase Bank on that corner. And that's going to be another issue. And... I heard the mayor's working on that, but we also are working on that too. That's going to be a big blow to that community when that bank leaves because every first of the month, these elderly people go and cash their check. They drink coffee. They talk. That's going to dissipate, and that's going to be a problem. So we're working on that too. So yeah, sure, love to. Absolutely.

I would encourage your organization to get with the administration. Let them know how much money y'all bring into the table and the administration can get with y'all and work a public partnership on it.

We'd love it. Especially if I can get my councilman to participate in this.

Well, your councilman put on a lot of stuff. You need to attend.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

Ruby L. Guillory. State your name and address for the record, please.

My name is Ruby Lewis Guillory. I live at 605 Sally Mae Street, North Lake Charles, 70601. And I'm trying to understand how we ended up with a rehab house, halfway house, whatever it is, on the corner of Sally Mae Street and Cesar Street without seeing any rezoning signs come up saying that we're rezoning this house for this. All of our neighbors noticed it at the same time when we see the guys walking up and down the street with the little black bags coming from the liquor store. So we're trying to figure out if it's a rehab, a halfway. We don't know what it is. We just know it appeared.

Do you have the name of it, Ms. Gillerick?

There's no name on the front of it or anything. What's the address again? It's on the corner of Sallie Mae Street and Cessford Street. It used to be the Ola Verne's property, and they sold it, and then this person has turned it into something. And we noticed it, or my dog noticed it, when he kept seeing different strangers walking down the street. And... That brought it to my attention, and I started asking the neighbors. And the neighbors said, oh, I think it's a halfway house or a rehab house. But we never saw a sign or, just like they said, they let you know when things are being brought up at city council. Well, when my husband died in January, that kind of threw me off a little bit from attending a lot of city council. But I would have noticed if there was a sign. saying we're rezoning this because I pass there every day. And now I don't pass there because there's a bunch of guys sitting out in front of the garage calling, waving. No. And school is out now, so people have their kids walking, going towards the park.

Yes, ma'am. telling him he need to go to other direction if he trying to find and tell him go back more than likely more than likely is a sober living house okay I don't know that for sure but that's an educated guess this right here all the way to the right

Shouldn't we have known about it before it appeared?

I can't give you clarity. I know we had a lot pop up in my district.

Okay.

They're all over the city.

And there wasn't, I don't think it's a stipulation. Ms. Paula, is there a stipulation that they have to have? Oh, I didn't see Doug back there.

I'm sorry. Fair Housing Act and the ADA.

Yeah, we've looked at this issue. Disabilities Act. I think the only requirement that the city has for a sober living house, they are a federally protected group of individuals. They just have to register with the city. There's no prohibition to them locating in a house in the city of Lake Charles. It's my understanding, and the legal department is working through some issues that the state legislature is working on some type of Senate bill to address these, but there is no prohibition.

regulation at this time other than they just have to register and and we don't know whether this house is or we don't know we're not we don't they may or may not be registered to see as far as you know they're not miss gillory we can we can look at it that's what we're going to do um we got the address we're going to look in and first and see if it's registered if it's not registered and it is functioning that way then they're in breach of the law and we can do something at that point okay

We can make them register. That's about all we can do is make them register. We may not be able to do that. I think someone's disputing whether they even have to do that. Miles Brown.

Miles Brown, 1020 4th Avenue. First and foremost, I do want to thank you all for implementing that radar. I'm not just speaking for myself. I'm speaking for other people as well. I just want to echo.

I'm sorry about that.

for the other people I didn't mean to say it was just for you oh okay yeah it's fine but yeah I just wanted to echo basically what you were kind of saying about possibly putting a radar on the opposite side because that's really where the real speeding goes but that was kind of already addressed so I just wanted to echo that part uh second thing i wanted to bring up was um i went to the legal department a few weeks ago and i spoke with a city attorney about possibly how some protocols are not being met and uh he told me to give him some examples and i showed him some examples and he said he would get back with you council president who said that mr rubin And I was just trying to see if you got any of that information or did you have any answer to what I gave him?

I missed what you said. He's supposed to tell me about what?

In particular, like how certain protocols are not being made with city council meetings and certain rules that apply.

Yeah, but he said everything met the protocol. So you have something specific that you're saying didn't meet protocol?

Yeah, quite a few times. For example, like as we speak right now, when you ask me a question and I answer that question, that time doesn't go against me.

Because here's what the protocol that Mr. Rubin brought to me. If you address a question to the council, that is on your time. If we address something to you, we'll stop the time and then restart it again. Like you just asked me that question. We're on your time.

Yeah. So you just asked me a question, too.

And it was a continuation of your question. Yeah. But you got your time. I tell you every time you come up here talking about time, I'm going to give you as much time as you need to get your message across.

Yeah. Well, as I say, this is just a clear example of just the interrupting and just how the time is not being managed properly. And I'm just making sure to let you know that there is a resolution. See, for example, right there, I only have a minute left, but I actually have more minutes than that because my time was supposed to stop whenever you interrupted me, and that did not happen. And that continues to keep happening. It's been going on ever since you've been council president.

Can I say something, Mr. Brown?

If it doesn't go against my time.

You asked me the original question, right? I didn't recall what Mr. Rubin had gotten with me about. But now that you brought up the minutes, I'm going to explain it to you again. You asked me a question. At that point, we're on your time. Now, if you're talking and I interrupt you, then I'll give you that time back or any counsel that interrupt you will give you that time back. Okay? Okay.

Well, here's what I'm proposing since these things will continue to keep happening. And like I said, there's a resolution that shows all this about how the time is not being managed. I'm proposing that there needs to be a time clock that's visible to the individual as well as to the audience so they can see how much time the person has speaking as well as everyone else they can see and make sure that it's been done correctly. So I don't know if that needs to be put on the agenda or if I'm just asking if it can get done. So that's what I'm proposing. Now, let me ask you this, Council President. Is there a way that I can ask the crowd in favor and see if they would like to do that or not?

No. You address us.

We're not allowed to do that?

No, you're not supposed to.

You're not supposed to. Can you put up video one, please, Mr. Jonathan?

Before you go to this, now, if you're talking about a councilman doing it, that's different from you doing it.

Yes. Can you put up video one, please? The time is expired. My time is not expired. I've had someone yield their time to me.

Mr. Brown, the protocol is if the city attorney says your time is expired, we will give you more time. How much time did I have? Would you like more time?

How much time did I have altogether?

Three minutes.

I had six minutes. Someone yielded their time to me.

Nobody told me they gave no time to me.

Was there another card? I gave a card.

Okay, this last card said your time to Mr. Brown. Exactly.

Can you put up video one, please?

You have three minutes, Mr. Brown. Yes, sir.

If y'all are okay with it, I'd also like for everyone that's here in favor of the United Way application to stand.

If you're in favor of United Way, please stand. Show your support to the council.

Thank you.

Now, this happened last week. They had a guy that did the exact same thing. But I didn't see you, no one on the council, no one in the administration let him know that that's not protocol. Now, why didn't you not do anything? I don't know. But that just shows the example right there, how you guys are not following protocol. And you, being president, you are the one that's ultimately responsible for making sure things get done properly. So that's what I'm bringing up about how it's clear that these things are happening, and it's not until I have to bring it up to you and show you that you realize it. So I'm just asking, is there a way that we can present this to you, probably behind closed doors or something to show you examples of how many times that these protocols have not been made? And it's not just you. City attorney has not been calculating time properly. There's plenty of examples I could show that. But that right there shows how you're showing favoritism or you just forgot the rules and protocols of the meeting. So that's what I'm trying to bring up to you. Is there a way in the future that I can speak to someone or someone who does know the protocols? That way we make sure that there's a parliamentarian, whoever it is, that these things are done properly at all times.

Yes, it is. You went to Mr. Rubin last time, didn't you?

He told me he would get back with you in order to get in. I never got an answer from you or from him.

I just gave you the answer once I remembered what you were talking about.

He said you would get back with him, never got an answer. So that's what I'm trying to see in the future. How are these things going to get better so they can be prevented in the future? That way it doesn't happen at all. Okay. What needs to get done?

You need to go to Mr. Rubin like you did last time. When Mr. Rubin instructs you of what you need to do and he says that I'm going to get back with you, then he needs to tell me that. We talked about it. You brought it up. I told you what the protocol was. I can't do no more than that.

Well, I just would like to just add this to the last is that since these things are continuing to happen, I would also want to propose that I don't know if there's a parliamentarian or someone who does, but there needs to be someone that enforces these laws to make sure they don't keep happening. So that'll be all for now. And again, I'll just add that I do want to thank for the radar. Well, we want to thank for the radar and just to echo the things earlier about possibly putting on the opposite side. So thank you. Anybody got anything else?