City Council - Regular Meeting

I did an ablation right now. Yeah. I'm making my No, I've had a lot of problems.

So, I try to do all the things that I can do about moving out. Yeah, I'd like to see that. Yeah, I'd like to see that machine. I might get me one of those. Was it expensive? 800 bucks. Okay. Yeah, I might. Yeah, but this Hey, this was a Mercedes van. Yeah. No, I'd like to see that. Thank you. Hey, Don. Do you have an extra pan here? Um, no, ma'am. A pen? Yeah. That's okay.

All you got to do is push it. That's your own district. No, I'm with you. But still, but I'm with you. But I still want him to have us a picture. Even a piece of paper. I had one when I left the office and I went by the bank. I guess I left it in the bank or in my car or something. and I don't sound

never been.

Yeah. Is that a gender meeting? I want to tell him

cut your mic off. Can you get somebody to do the little

enjoy it? Want to call this uh special meeting to order. Uh Mr. Fund will lead us in the prayer. Mr. We if you don't mind lead us in the pledge. Lord we pause to recognize that thou our God and without thee we know no other. Lord we want to thank you for this day. Thank you for life, health and strength. And we play your pray your blessings be on this city council meeting and may your spirit guide us in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

I pledge algiance 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.

Mr. Bilbo here. Mr. Young. Mr. Harvey, Mr. Marks here, Mr. Viso here, Mr. Fondell here, and Mr. Weatherford here. We have a quorum. Before we get started, I want to make sure we clear on the cards. This is the special meeting. And I'm looking at these cards and it doesn't say is this for are these people for the um agenda meeting or the special meeting? The agenda meeting. Okay. And Mr. more special uh agenda meeting agenda. Okay.

All right. All right. We are here today to discuss one item. Uh let's see what it is. It's number one. It says uh an ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter an agreement for project number CP 3242 Southern Sewer Loop Golf Highway Lift Station force main. It got me on there, but we don't get the fact sheet. Um the fact sheet says that Engineering is recommending Gunter Construction and the base bid of the amount of 8,219,47.70. Any discussion? I I have a few things if nobody have anything. Uh first of all, is it possible for anybody to explain the bid process to us? Anybody here can explain it? No, nobody here.

In term in terms of uh what is the basic process of it from from submission to the awarding? Yeah. What happens is uh once we come up with a project uh the the uh consulting engineers go in and and and help put together the the uh the formulation what's going to be required for this project and put together a bid package.

Once that bid package is put together, it's put out on bid X and people invited to come in and bid and then uh and then based upon the bid specifications what it's requiring then the by law we have to accept the lowest responsible bid that's responsive to all the specifications. Okay. Who is responsible for Okay. Once the bid process go in and the consultant reviews it and gives it recommendation to the city, who's responsible for reviewing the recommendation from the consultant? Uh the most engineering department does that? Yeah.

Okay. And so the engineering department is responsible for making sure all of these all the T's are t are crossed and all the eyes are dotted. Yeah, so to speak, they look at they look at everything. They look at the uh whether the bid the the requirements for the bid have been met. Then they also do some due diligence and see if if any of the people that's on the bid have had any type of issues with the city before. So they go and look at it's really a due diligence uh inquiry. So at that point like you said to see if anything is um arrived with the with the contractor that they're picking that is um

and also Mr. Marks to ensure that the bid was in accordance with all the specifications and that's what I was getting at. Uh that's the responsible part right responsive. Responsive. So it's not responsible.

Yeah. Responsible is vetting the contractor and the subcontractor. Responsive is does it comply with all of the bid package which includes instructions to biders. The bid specifications all the all the bid package has to be complied with for it to be a responsive biz. Responsible is directed towards the suitability and the the ability of the contractor to perform. So when it comes from the consultant, does the consultant deem responsible or does the engineer deem responsible?

They can both make recommendations and note and observe issues and then if they note issues, they escalate those to the administration or to my office. Okay. Now, there's a portion in in reading through these contracts, I'm learning a lot of stuff or bids, not contracts. There's a good faith portion, but I I've been seeing on a lot of bids that portion is not filled in. Are we holding them accountable for the good faith portion or or not? I'm not sure. I know exactly what you're

there's a good faith portion that Well, it it it gives it gives the city the understanding that the contractors who are trying to bid have gone out and try to get minority participation. In other words, there's a portion of those contracts where you supposed to sign and say, "I reached out to so and so, but they don't qualify for whatever the reason is." So, your question is, are we vetting whether or not they're doing the good faith portion of it? We're we're relying upon the consultant and the engineers to tell us if that's been done. And if they note that there's a problem or a concern, then they escalate that to the administration andor to my office.

But, but that's the responsibility of the contractor who's submitting it, right? Not the city or the consultants. Correct. And he's and he's required to certify that he's done that. Okay.

Gotcha. Okay. Well, I I say I asked all those questions to this particular item could have gone by and mistakes happen. People make mistakes. I don't care if you're the city or the contractor, whoever the case is. My concern is that we do our due diligence when these people um turn in their contracts to make sure that they have what we need to be responsible and responsive. You know, and I think that um I I mentioned it before, but I want to go on record again. I think that all of the bids, whether it's RFQ, RFP, bid process, I'd like to have all that sent to the council

so that Mr. Marks, if I may, just real quick. Yes, sir. on most of these projects, I think probably all of them, we have pre-bid conferences and at that pre-bid conference, the engineers there, we also have someone from the fifth floor who is responsible for making sure that that compliance is met and they advise the contractors at that time those requirements and that it's going to be enforced. So just as an example, anything that the contractor fells short on, he's informed at that meeting. Yes, sir. And so if not if something is not done, it's on the contractor. It's on the contract.

Yeah. But on the other side, we're responsible for making sure that all the bids are compared right, all the things are met right, and that we're awarding it to the proper person. Right. So, but I think that the council is at a disadvantage because a lot of times we hear about these bids, we've already gotten the bid, we reading out the back of the book who's it been awarded to and we going from there. So going forward, I would like to recommend that those bids be sent to the council. That may be logistically a little more difficult than normal. I give you an example. The um the the the sports complex, we did a RFQ for BIS for the design of it.

We got 15 um 15 responses in.

All these responses are uh at least 50 pages or more. But the bigger problem is that a lot of them contain uh proprietary information that's confidential to the businesses of those people. They part of the bid specifications. They have to disclose uh their financial status. They have to disclose their experience, what they've done. And some of them they have they stamp that they have confidential business proprietary information that's in those packages. Well, I I do understand what you're saying, mayor, but I think even if it's down to the one that we choose, we need to get that information to the council before we vote because I believe that if the council have time to look at these documents, we'll understand better of who we voting for. Because in this particular incident, I think it just came about because the council didn't know a lot about it. We could have very well went and voted on it and

went on about our business, you know. So, I'm I'm asking that as much as possible we get these bids because I know it used to be done before. I used to get every bid that came through the city and they would they would send it to me and I would go through and I'd read, you know, when it when it was warranted to do what I need to do. And I'm saying that because we got a lot of council members that are new and going through these things for the first time. And a lot of things we're being told that's not correct. And I'm not saying the city is telling, it's just in general. And so I believe to get a clear understanding like with this one, the meetings we had worked, you know, we got a good understanding. It was explained to us in depth, you know, because there's a lot of it's still a lot of questions. This is my I'm going into my sixth year and I still got a lot of questions about the good faith. I got a qu a lot of questions about the responsible and the responsive, you know, and some bids don't warrant that much attention, but some of them do, you know, especially this one. we had $8 million uh on on board, you know. So, I'm just asking that maybe we can come up with another way, you know,

and and we'll make I think we can make the bids uh available. I mean, we we do meet regularly with you guys, so we can always do that. But to send them out and disperse them, especially with with proprietary information that that that I I do have some concerns about that, but isn't that all submitted to the city anyway? If we was in the bid meeting, we could see it, couldn't we? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So, uh, that's that's all I had, uh, in regards to that because my concern is you hear a lot of times, well, you don't hear it. I don't know if y'all social media, but I'll be on social media and the city takes a beating, you know, because they say we don't give contracts to such and such people and we don't do this and we don't do that. They don't understand that the city puts out rules like Mr. Cardone said about the meeting, everybody who wants to bid has an opportunity to bid. And I think when we understand that the public would be more aware to not have that cloud hanging over us like we doing something illegal or or out of order.

So if if you know I'll tell you I would we would prefer to have as many bids that come in as possible. I think competition is good. We I remember throughout the years we dealt with different type of barriers. One of the the biggest barrier was always the bid requirement. I mean the bond requirement. A lot of people just couldn't go out there and get bonding. We even tried to be innovative and said, "Look, let's do rolling bonds. Instead of having to have a bond that covers the entire project, which is almost you got to have cash in the bank to do that. If the if you're breaking the project into fourths, you can have a fourth of the bond and when that's completed, then the bond rolls over, things like that." So, we've tried to we've tried to do things innovative like that because the bonding has been a lot harder. There's people out there that that's what they do for a living. They they offer bonds on contracts. So there's there's a number of ways to solve that, but we we I would prefer to have as many business as we can, especially if they're qualified.

If I can, and if you don't mind, I want to I I think I understand what he's asking for. And and the way I've my experience tells me a bid, let's say, is opened at 2 p.m. At at 2 p.m. you can't accept anything else, right? And at that time, you open the bids, make sure that they're responsive and they have their bid bond and their their their contractor number and all those things. And all that's recorded on a bid sheet, right? And it's it's got categories and you check and yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And at that time, you know who the lowest bidder is, but that's only the first step,

right? I think if we were given that piece of paper and we had more questions then then that would start the process of us being in the loop a little bit knowing what's coming. And that's good because that's not disclosing any proprietary information. And that's the thing you hand out to every bidder. They also get a copy of that sheet at that time also. Right. Yep. They're entitled to that. I think I think that gets you a step closer to what you're asking. And it also puts a little bit responsibility on us,

you know, because if we vote on something and we passed it and something was wrong, that's on us. We didn't do our due diligence. It's not on the engineering department. It's not on the consultant. We didn't do our part, you know. So, I just want to make the council more aware so when we voting on this, it don't just become second nature, but we reading it and we voting on it. Right. Mr. Marks, if I may, you know, we always try to, well, not always, we do, we always sign a sponsor to one of these projects,

right? And typically what staff does, they should be doing it is contacting that sponsor and saying this is the recommendation, this is the provisions of it, this is what we see and try to answer any questions the sponsor may have because the sponsor is the one that typically looks at it and reviews it on behalf of the council to make that recommendation. So typically we've been going through that with the sponsor of each one of these projects. So every one of them has a sponsor and if we can maybe we need to do a better job of communicating with the sponsor on what that is. That's a very good point

because that's what that's what is was the intent that we get with that sponsor to make sure you have all the questions you may have about that particular project is answered. And if it's been vetted through our consulting engineering and our engineering department and they got a concern, they reach out to the cons uh to the sponsor and they try to say this is our concern. this is why we're recommending this and if you have questions and we respond to you at that point as the sponsor representing the council and to add to that uh I think that it's good with the sponsor but I think the other councilman need to get it as well because the first time we're going to hear about it is in that meeting you know if the sponsor don't get it to us then we just relying on whatever's being read in the book

the sponsor was to get with the rest of the council members that they have concerns about it that was why yeah but I mean I it's simple if we just sent them to Renee and Renee sent it out to everybody and we'll have it whatever that whatever you decide to come up with. Okay. Any other questions or comments in regards to this? A yes is in favor and a no is against. Please vote 54.

This meeting is adjourned. Now we're opening up to our agenda meeting. Miss Renee Appoint a chairman to review bids for project number CP 3242 Southern Sewer Loop Golf Highway Lift Station. Appointing chairman to review Bid for project number CP 3507 Lake Charles Event Center green rooms and amend the budget as necessary. Appoint a chairman to review bids to purchase roll based limestone active per specifications for use by the public works department. Rebid. Appoint a chairman to review bids to purchase replacement retractable telescopic riser seating in the coliseum at the Lake Charles Event Center. Rebid. Appoint a chairman to review bids for the purchase of bus stop signage for use by the public works department transit division. Appoint a chairman to review bids for the purchase of one new service body crane for use by the public works department wastewater division. Appoint a chairman to review bids for the purchase of water infrastructure maintenance and repair parts for use by the public works department water division. Public hearing and consideration of the Lake Charles planning and zoning commission's decision to deny a request for a variance in order to construct a new addition United Way. One, construction of singlestory building versus required twotory. And two, allow channel letters and a six-foot logo, thereby exceeding the allowable 3-foot in height within a T5 urban center transct zoning district at 8:15 Ryan Street. An ordinance ordering demolition and authorizing the city of Lake Charles enter to an agreement for demolition of a structure located at 1400 North Shadic Street, Cleveland Nash, and Elvar Nash owners. Another demolition at 411 Gelpy Drive. Gerald no middle initial Armalan senior

owner. Another demolition at 902 Carmelia Street garage only Matthew A. Macintosh owner. Another demolition at 2725 Louisiana Avenue. Holly Ryder Bruier and Zoe Gaspard Rider owners. Another demolition at 2110 Railroad Avenue. Andre N. Walker, Britney Anne Walker, Denver Jerome Withers, and Javon Ramsey Yokum owners. Another condemnation at 21107 Clarinda Street. Julius Lee Fontno Senior and Jennifer V. Fontno owners. Another condemnation at 21105 Clarinda Street. Julius Lee Fontno and Jennifer Valmont Fontno owners. Another demolition at 819 M Street, Brian Keith Design, LLC owner. Another demolition at 17516th Avenue burn structure. Rose M. George size owner. Another demolition at 1701 North Adam Street burn structure. Robert Billings Poochie Robert Billings Poochie Senior Nancy Artis Gry Pooie Brenda Diggs Arf Robert Willie Poochie Alvin Willie Poochie Jr. and Alnetta Poochie Gatewood owners. Another demolition at 2310 Channel Street, Lewis Green Estate, owner. Another demolition at 2401 Wood Street, Lara L. Stinson, owner, subject to attack sale to the state of Louisiana. Another demolition at 1206 Hunter Drive. Brandy Alexis Henderson and Edward Joseph Henderson, owner, subject to a tax sale to the state of Louisiana. Another demolition at 1716 22nd Street. Brian Keith Gillery, owner. Ordinance of final action. An ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the city of elect Charles Center into an agreement for project number CP 3520 WWTP A BAS AO2 sewer rehabilitation. an ordinance accepting the lowest responsible bid and authorizing the city

of Lake Charles entered into an agreement for project number CP 3503 2025 asphalt overlays and amend the budget as necessary. An ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into an agreement with the most qualified architectural/engineering A&E firm responding to the request for statements of qualifications to perform professional services to prepare cost estimates provide engineering and design services provide construction management oversight and other additional services as needed for the design and construction of an indoor recreation facility in Lake Charles. An ordinance accepting the best proposal received for renewal coverage and authorizing the city of Lake Charles tending to an agreement for property and casualty insurance for the city of Lake Charles effective May 22nd, 2026 through May 22nd, 2027. An ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to accept North Bridge Road, Westmeir Drive, and Pinnacle Road in the ridge at Morgan Field phase three, including public rideaways, drainage, water, and sewer lines, sewer, and traffic control devices for ownership and maintenance by the city of Lake Charles. The city of Lake Charles will not take ownership of the detention ponds. An ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into an architectural and engineering A&E agreement with DW Justin and Associates LLC for engineering services relative to project number CP 3070 Oaklan Drive and Ory Road sewer lift station upgrade. An ordinance authorizing the city of Lake Charles to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement with the Kauashu Parish Police Jury and the Consolidated Gravity Drainage District number two, East Kaukashu Parish to share in the cost of the Greenwich Terrace Buyout Initiative Project. An 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 LCRR Avenue Revital 0088 in order to transfer funding to the Gossport Community Center to construct a primary community resilience hub in accordance with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Developments. 's national objectives for the use of funds from the CDBGDR program. An 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 resolutions. A resolution accepting project number LCR49 Buddy Prejan Park enhancements as substantially complete and authorizing the advertising of the 45day lean period. A resolution accepting project number PR 0000002, North Beach restroom replacement as substantially complete and authorizing the advertising of the 45day lean period. A resolution accepting project number CP 300003 lakefront signage phase 1 as substantially complete and authorizing the advertising of the 45day lean period. A resolution setting date for public hearing on combination of a structure located at 922 Golf Street Burn structure Benny Patrick Mororrow owner with a companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on combination of a structure

located at 1703 Winter Halter Street. Bradley Joseph Kle or Mintine Pete Armentine Pat Henry Joseph Ka Jr. L Marie Cole, Mary Kle, Seavoi, Lewis Cole, Ruby Marie Cole, Alli Joseph Kle, Gustain Cole, Joseph I mean James Phillip Cole, Adele Brousard, Norris Klay, Audrey May Leblon and Marjorie Sagal owners with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on condemnation of a structure located at 2005 7th Avenue. Teresa, no middle initial, no middle name. Vital Bwin, owner with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on conjination of a structure located 2007th Avenue. Demetrius Antoine, owner with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on conjination of a structure located at 655 South Franklin Street, Norman Goodwin. owner subject to a tax lean held by the city of Lake Charles with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on conjunation of two structures located at 210 Cherry Street and 212 Cherry Street. Benjamin Guan Jr., Willie May Jackson, Chester Gian, Claudet May Guanne, Franklin Guan, and Margaret Haley owners with the companion ordinance. A resolution setting date for public hearing on combination of a structure located at 2436 Popular Street. John Lad, James Lee White, Charlie Carter, Willie Rogers White Jr., Marie Thomas, Samuel White Estate, Florence E. Esprey, and Bertha H. Davis owners with a companion ordinance. Ordinances for introduction. Introduction of an ordinance authorizing city of Lake Charles to enter into a rental agreement with rent. fund to provide on-site automated kiosk for rental of equipment to be used for game and sport

recreational activities at various parks throughout the city. Introduction of an ordinance authorizing the city elect trial center to a cooperative endeavor agreement with coastal protection and restoration authority CP for administering a grant from national oceanic and atmospheric administration NOA for construction of a kayak launch. Skip to number 51 because those are companion ordinances. Introduction of an ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a mixeduse 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. introduction of an ordinance for consideration to amend the official zoning map from a residential zoning district to a mixeduse zoning district companion with a major conditional use permit in order to construct a duplex located on the west side of the 500 block of McNav Street. And that's all that I have.

Um, anybody got any questions on the agenda? I have a couple. Uh, first off, the two that you just mentioned, 51 and 52, just for clarity, uh, Mr. Stoops, this shouldn't go to planning and zoning first. It did. It did. It did. Or it's a This is appeal. No, it's not an appeal. It has to come to us after. It has to come. So, it didn't pass. No, it's not that it didn't pass. They always have to come before us. They're amending the U because it's zoning now. So that's not like a variance. Okay.

Oh, they they pro I assume they approved the zoning. So then yeah, we're the final arbiter on all on reszoning of propert have to there's no difference. You just still have to approve it. Okay. Because it's a it's it's a change to the zoning ordinance. Gotcha. Number one, mayor. Do we have to hear that again? I thought that's what the special meeting was for. No, number one is the uh this is the the what you what you uh bid on was the actual the force man. That's all the piping. This one is the actual lift station. Okay.

So this this project Yeah. This project has about seven different pieces. Three three different uh lift stations. So but the first bid was on the first part that was the force main. This is not actual lift station. Okay. The other one is I think number 18. We talked about that before. That house has already been torn down and cleared out. I think that Yeah, it it will be deleted. Okay.

Um number 25. Now, Mr. Stews, before I ask this question, I'm just asking about the wording. Should I wait until the meeting? the wording of the of of the ordinance, I mean of the uh agenda item. No, I think if you got a question about the wording, you should ask it now. Okay. Number 25, it says enter into an agreement with the most qualified. We're basically giving you permission to enter an agreement with an A&E. Yes. If we do that, then it don't come back. It don't have to come back to the council.

Uh it comes back after the design is done. has gone out for construction bid. Yeah. But I'm saying once y'all make the agreement with this particular company, the the the the council don't get to review who y'all selected because we giving y'all permission to go into that agreement. Well, we we're going to come back with a recommendation. I mean, that's So, this basically went out for bid. I know it was RFQ and you're going to present us with your findings. Yeah, that's right. And we could approve it or deny that particular company. Yeah. So I I just want to be clear that enter into an agreement. We're not giving you permission to sign into agreement with them.

Well, once you once you select this this particular we make a recommendation once you select the person, then you are authorizing us to enter into an agreement. But after it comes back to the council after it comes back to I just want to be clear that it's coming back to the council. And the reason why this is happening because the this this kind of sports complex is a very very specialized design. So it's it really we wanted qualifications because uh because of the specialy the special nature of it. Right. And this one is the committee. Are you saying right uh uh Councilman Harvey is the is the sponsor on this one. So he's going and he's he's going to be part of the group that's looking at all these

and I understand that but I'm on the council. I want to be aware of what's going on with that as well. Okay. The other one is the same thing with number 31, the construction of the item. And and help me to understand if if I'm understanding this wrong. When we approve this, we are approving the purchase of the land and the project together.

Yes. I'm wondering why we have why we can't let's say one of the council members want to they agree with the resiliency hub but not purchasing the property and they vote against it or we we all four of us vote against it. Does that kill the whole project? Uh well, let me back up because you you can do it separately.

Uh the the to use the funds to build a resiliency hub and then to go and buy the property, but uh for the authorization to go back to the state, they want an ordinance that's saying exactly what we're going to do and where. And I I understand that. But I'm saying I'd hate for us to have a situation where Ford not agreeing with a portion of the project and the whole project gets scrapped. What I'm saying is should it be worried that okay, we agree to move the money and do whatever wants to be done with that and then we come back and we vote on whether or not we going to buy the property. Once we tie them together, any portion of this fails, the whole thing fails. Yeah, pretty much.

So I'm asking y'all recommendation. I mean, I think that's the intent. That's that's the way you want it. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. So, let me ask a question. Like even this one, this was introduced at our last agenda meeting. Why do we introduce it and then we come back for a final action? I mean, we introduced it. I didn't get no new information on it. I didn't we didn't review anything on it and now it's back on here for final action because by law it has to go through

that's the law they have to an ordinance we have to have it introduced at the meeting and then it is voted on for final action but when it's introduced you don't tell you I don't inform the council what it is you just yeah it's it's always motions of introducing it cuz look like once it was introduced we should have met and we we can ask questions and get an understanding instead of having to go into right now is this coming up in the agenda meeting. I got all kind of questions that we're going to air out because that's going to be my first time discussing in detail what this is.

You see what I'm saying? So it looked like to me that uh do we need to pass an ordinance that when something is introduced that you guys inform us what is being introduced exactly what's being introduced. Mr. Stutz Mr. Stutz if I might. If you look at items 42 through 47 those are all introductions and all these items are introduced at the agenda meeting for final action at a later meeting. So that's on well that's well any of those you can take and these are introductions

well that's it's put on an agenda meeting say on a Tuesday the following Wednesday is when it's introduced and then two weeks after that is when we actually have the vote. So you got this ain't been I ain't seen this that long. This is my Oh, no. It if it's got if it's up for final action, it had to be introduced at our last meeting. Now, certainly there needs to be just Yeah, I think that's what Mr. The questions you have, right? The questions you have needs to be addressed administration between now and next meeting. Yeah,

correct. All of them go on the agenda, then it's introduced the following week, two weeks later, you have final action. That's what we do in all these projects. And that's that's my issue. We we we're asked to vote on stuff that it just it's just paperwork and just come through and there's no there's no in there's no information about it at all. I mean maybe what's wrong with sending Mr. Fondell every agenda fact sheet has information on it.

I think what Mr. Funell is saying that we introduced it and it's coming back for final action but in between that time there's been no conversation according to him in-depth conversation about what this is so that we can understand when we get to the next meeting to vote on it. Yeah. Cuz see I know that this was the this was a project with uh with um who was it? um second harvest and you know we was going they was going to build a a um um kitchen and all of that, right? I don't have a clue what we building here with this project. Well, that

I know it's a resiliency center, but it's just a building. What services is it going to offer the people of Lake Charles? That that's and that's what we when we have uh individual meetings, uh that's what we talk about. go through anything that that we need to discuss about before you come to the before you come to the vote because y'all have a lot of questions. And Mr. Fun is saying he hasn't had that yet. No, that's going that's being scheduled now as we speak. Yeah. Well, and he's going to schedule an hour before the agenda meeting.

No, we No, we schedule we try to schedule all these uh early. I'm getting I'm getting I'm getting the feeling that I'm being I'm being asked to vote on a lot of stuff that not just this particular one, but it it there's no background information and based on what just happened like Mr. Mort was saying with the previous uh thing, we're responsible and we I can't make an informed decision.

Mr. respond, if you don't mind, uh we we would never ask you to vote on something that you didn't have the opportunity to discuss that that we we we make uh we we schedule meetings with council members to go in and go through everything under agenda item and ask any questions and and because otherwise if we if if you're hearing it for the first time, you're voting on it, that that wouldn't be fair to you and it's not us doing our job. So, we do all these things are introduced first and then they become an agenda. Then we schedule meetings with council members to go through everything that you have questions with and present different things.

Well, I I'm telling you, we need to do a better job at and I'm going to leave it at that. But I I I've been here and I I'm not I'm I I'm I'm struggling to figure out what's going on and and what's happening with a lot of stuff. not one item, but it it just seems like like he said now we voting on two items on this. And on the previous one that we discussed with the zoning, we're not only discussing zoning, but it's a major condition uh attached to it. Right,

Mr. Fonda? I'm going to apologize for that. And this is, you know, the intent of trying to schedule these meetings on Tuesdays was to address issue to bring youall up to date on issues we have and to answer any questions you may have that's coming up on the agenda for final action. So that's why we are scheduling these meetings. So if we didn't explain that well enough, that was that's the intent of us having these meetings a week early so we can go through any of this and try to answer any questions you may have. And I just want to inform my my council members that I will be asking us not to vote on on items that I don't feel like I got enough background on. And I hope you guys would respect that cuz I got a responsibility to to to know what I'm voting on.

That's that's your right as a councilman. All right.

All right. Uh moving on from Anybody else have anything? No. Okay. We are at the I got lost. Mr. Bilbo, this my time to read in. Okay. I want to um read in a ordinance amending chapter 13 section 13-42 of the code ordinance regarding maintenance and order within the vicinity of a business establishment. All I'm asking for is that we change from it saying two blocks to 300 ft. That's so the police will know and a business owner know what area they got to be responsible for. Two blocks could be as far as whatever.

Yeah. But we limit to 300 ft uh circum of the front door and everybody know what responsible for and everybody got to be able to take care of their business. Then it depend instead of the depending on the location there's a definitive circle around each place that's that's measurable. And then the the business owner should be able to handle that. We're responsible taking care of police or security and then everybody know who's responsible. So how much So you trying to put that on the agenda? Yeah. Just to talk that's you putting it on the agenda right now. You want the votes to put it on the agenda right now. That's what we got. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To put it on the I guess over the next time it it come up agenda. Now he he's eligible to put it on the next agenda if we vote on it.

Correct. He's a councilman. He can put on an item. But here he has to have votes, right? Or can he do it straight just to counsel? No, you put it on. He can put it on. Okay. All right. I mean, you can I mean, you can say you don't want You can have ask for the council to vote not to put it on, but it's kind of by acclamation the way it work. Typically, typically when y'all put that on the agenda like Mr. Bilbo just did, absent any objection, it goes on. And so, it's going on. So, at this point, I should ask, does anybody have any objections? Well, this is just going to be an introduction of it to start the conversation. It won't be for final approval or anything.

Just like we were talking about before, this is going on the agenda. The following week, it'll be introduced and two weeks later final action. And just to be clear, just because you put it on don't mean you have to agree with it. We just saying we giving him the opportunity correct to put it on the agenda. So, it's on the Yes. It'll go through the same process, Mr. Fund. introduction. It'll be intro next a week from tomorrow and then two weeks after that or the first it'll be the first uh the first Wednesday in June. Well, it'll be introduction for this one next week. Should be introduced on the 20th. Yes. On the 20th. Yeah. And then it'll be to put it on on the 20th. Yeah. That's all you're doing voting to put it on as an introduction.

Allowing it to be as And the final vote will be what? June 3rd, I believe, is the first Yeah. Wednesday. Now see now just just we just uh go ahead ask your question. My my thing is see I I I talked with Mr. B but I don't even know what this is about now. So when it comes back to put it on the agenda if I don't have any more information I'm still not okay but let me let me let me tell you this. Let me tell you this. When he puts it on for introduction it'll come on the agenda for introduction. At that point, even even as of today, you get the chance to ask him everything you want to ask. He's gonna give us the background. He will. I responsible responsible. He's going to give you the reason why he wants it changed. Yeah.

Okay. Good. All right. If there's no objections, then it'll be added to next week's agenda as an introduction. Good. All right. You don't need a vote. No, we didn't have no opposition to it. And that agenda fact sheet will be sent to the council. So you will see it ahead of time. It's not like you don't see it. He's asked the item to go on the agenda. It goes on the agenda after any objection. There was no objection. So once you get the agenda fact sheet, if you have any questions about it, it was sponsored by Mr. Bilbo. You can call him and ask him why he did it. No. Or you can get with the city to do my background. Who who's responsible for who who's in charge of the You can get with the city attorney attorney.

Either uh if Mr. St, if I'm saying right, Mr. Reuben or who who helped you draft it? Oh, you drafted yourself? I drafted myself and I spoke to Mr. Rubin and Miss Renee on how to get it done. So, they looked over and said everything is proper. Yes. Okay. So, you can talk to Mr. Rubin. So, Mr. Rubin will be able to tell me what we're changing. I know it's right. Okay. Right. And you can always call me too. Yes. Oh, Mr. St. All right. You take so many patience now. Now, now most most of the time the agenda fact sheets in the council book and that doesn't come out till right where it should come out the Friday before the Wednesday meeting. The Friday before the Wednesday meeting, but it's a lot of time between now.

I need some background information on this. Whatever you need, you let me know. Yes. Or you can get Mr. Bibble to give you a copy after this and start from there. Okay. All right. So, it's added to the agenda for next week. Uh, any other thing, Mr. B? Okay. Yeah. Um, couple of months ago, I asked I knew we was all concerned about uh what they call it off of Fifth Avenue. We just agreed to what the place. We called it Johnny want to say Johnson Hall. But as I've been going check on it so I could have understanding, I've been seeing I think it's Whispering Pines. It's getting worse. The one you had to drive by on the left.

The one you had to drive by on the left. It's getting worse. Uh the people next door, they say they got parts in the fence way in the back that we can't see. And now it's getting hot and rainy. They done broke a bunch of windows up front. I think we need to get in contact with these people and we need to make them do something with it. It's almost becoming a eyes sore. If you go down Fifth Avenue on the left, you see the trees are growing. All the front windows are bust and it's so deep we can't even see what's going on. And I think people starting to to move in. They need to answer us to say talking it's on the east side of what it is. It's on the east side. On the east side that we need I know exactly what you're talking about.

Make them answer for what they going to do. We just can't have places just sitting making our areas look that Mr. Bibbo. We had conversations about it today because I think some of the winners are boarded up and there's a provision that says it can only be boarded up so long and so I think the inspectors are going out there and Paul can probably give you an update on it if you'd like. And just for uh edification, Mr. caught on. I think we had agreed to what two years. The board the boards can be I think it was we gave a time limit on it. I I just guess you got a you got a one-year time limit on uh residential I think and a two year or two year on residential and a one year on commercial. Okay. Right. Is what it is.

This one is not boarded up. Um we had the company did renovations on some of the um the buildings. Well, pretty much most of the buildings and they basically abandoned the apartment complex. Uh we've been cutting the grass for a while. Uh we have a lock on the front gate where we unlock it for the contractor to go in and they cut it. I passed by there the other day. It needs cutting again. But there is homeless going in and out of the buildings. They're destroying the buildings, breaking windows and things like that. Is it a local owner?

No. And I have tried to get in touch with the owner. Um, I do have phone numbers and stuff, but they don't answer anything. So, we have another abandoned apartment complex that we are maintaining. So, can we red tag it? Uh, we can red tag the buildings that aren't structurally sound, have open windows, so we can't redt we can red tag them under our nuisance ordinances, too, right? Um, you know, if I may, this just came up today. and we're asking our legal department to look at it and I don't know if we can condemn it and tag it to be condemned but we can tag it under the housing code and I think there's some things we can do to get this place cleaned up. So it just came up today.

I only brought up cuz Miss Paula hears from me all the time and she does a great job. I know she needs some help with this. We need to get so she can get the powers of be to get get somebody behind her. There's more than just a a normal yard cutting dispute. is this can get out of hand. We agree. Yeah. So, I just wanted to get her some help so everybody know that she needs help, you know, with a project this size. We talk all the time about it. Yeah. Okay. And you said they have multiple build. Is this is this know that there was a not for profofit that owns several? No, they tore that down. Well, there the not for profofit they tore theirs down.

Okay. This one has several buildings and like I said, they did obtain permits and they did repair a lot of the buildings. I think they had left where the front the front buil the buildings in the very front, but um they have long since abandoned everything. I'm not sure why. Uh but we've had several apartment complexes in that area that were abandoned. Um but um this is our last one, I believe, that we're dealing with that has an abandoned owner. Uh, the other ones have um different investment companies that are fixing them up. So, thank you, Miss Paul.

Okay, I know this a legal question. I I sit here every Tuesday and I I read all the condemnations and people not take care of their property. I might have asked this before, but I don't know why we can't find somewhere legally that before we spend the money, when these people not showing up and before we get to the point that we're spending money and just tying up a property lease and we putting a bill to a lease they don't evidently don't care about anyway, can we get to the point that we can offer it to sale? Maybe somebody want to I'm just asking, can somebody purchase it before we spend money that we never going to get? I mean, we got a list of 70 80 houses that at the end of it is costing us 5,000. One lady called me in the terrorist. It was $12,000 just to tear down a house that I know that somebody could have came in and say, "All right, you don't want it. Sign it over and we can sell it." Not for profit, just so they can have it. So, we don't have that total expense. I can imagine what kind of expense this is. And when I came in the council, it was about six, seven pages, you know.

Well, we we dealt with that same issue in the last council. And legally, you'd have to deal with the owner. The city can't can't do anything with it. We just have to go through the process of going through adjudication, leans, and all that cuz then once it go to adjudication, now we got to cut it. Every

I would tell you it's a that is an issue that every municipality is dealing with. And uh the the state has a a task force on blighted property that's dealing with all those issues not not just before by the time it gets to adjudication but as they start in blight because usually it's is you know it's der property owners it's people that just don't have the financial means and they're trying to find a way out because invariably once all these properties come out of commerce they create these donut holes. when we start to see more and more areas now where we've got all this infrastructure, streets, lights, water, sewer, and just empty lot after empty lot, all of them outside of the flood planes. So, we're trying to do infield development, but the first thing is how do we get title to those properties? And maybe it's not a title issue. How do we get title insurance on those properties to put them back in commerce and get them redeveloped?

Cuz I'm asking if these people at Whispering Pines ain't even in communication. That's going to be a hefty bill if we had to red tag it and eventually tear it down. That's a monster bill. And I'm sure we could finally find some group that say, "Oh, we we we'll buy this before we spend the money on that." Or we do we just let it sit there like we did place Vome. How long that it been a while. But you you can you can get in touch with the owners and No, they not I'm talking They not answering to no one. I'm just asking to

No, you're right. the owners the the Louisiana's property laws, the constitution protects property rights. So, it's it's a it's a process to take to get somebody's property. They can sell it. Maybe there's some ways to encourage them, but if they choose not to sell, there's a lot of heirs involved. If one decides not to sell, it stops it. But but and that that that issue first came up in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. And now after hurricanes Laura and Delta, you're seeing it more moreh citywide. And it's so it's an issue that eventually has to be addressed because you know each each of these storms that's people that just don't have the ability to fix their properties or don't have insurance but at the same time these properties are falling upon the taxpayers to maintain

for us to maintain. And so I'm saying at that point, can we say, "Hey, can we give you a contact number? They might want to purchase it before we tear down." Not us sell it. Just say, "Hey." Yeah. We can always contact them and tell them that and try to encourage them to do something. But as far as us No, no. Just just so that we can put that as a step to say, "Hey."

Yeah. Now, the problem I I tell you one cuz one constituent had given me a a call about that. They had a a home that was uh in their neighborhood that was falling apart and they they did contact the the the owner had passed, the mother had passed, the the son had it. The son wanted to charge them basically as if they were buying a house and the house is already done. They would have to tear it down. So financially it just didn't make sense. So even once you get the right person, you know, you got to deal with their motives. Are they going to just give the property for just for it to be torn down or they going to try to profit off of it? So a lot of dynamics in that.

Okay. Cuz I agree cuz that's what I think they starting to board up windows and I always say old Kroger parking lot but it's park place. They starting to board them up. They have some busted windows. So yeah, we initially got to start seeing a time frame of what we going to force them to do because eventually it's going to become Yeah. like those places. And and I think the the task force that that's working on the blighted property, we we actually met with the uh with the members of the task force. They're working pretty hard because this is going on everywhere. Now, it used to be just in big cities, but even when you talk to the mayors from Venton and Derilla and places, they're having they're dealing with the same issues now. Okay.

I I believe there's uh some legislation in process now. Um and I think ultimately it's going to probably will be a constitutional amendment to address some blighted property issues. But I think it's only on you and I talked about that. only on uh populations of 7,500 under. It's helping those smallities that don't have all the resources, right? And it would be great if they could expand that, right? Give us some more tools.

And that's what and that's what been the big roadblock like you said, it triggers a constitutional provision, but there's al always the the thought that look, if you if you change the constitution even for blighted property, will that open the doorway to come and get properties that's not blighted? So they they really have to work through it because the property rights in Louisiana are constitutionally protected.

All right, Mr. Weather. Um, I don't really have I do have um have had constituents request um on a couple temporary um stay properties um that are we got a notice of um minor conditional use requests. I wanted North Lock Point Lane that wants to Yep. um have a hearing planning and zoning. Planning zoning. And I don't remember I want to say it's 217, but um the one that's on Park Yep.

road. Uh I say it's road park that's next off of P Lake Road across from Pri Lake Park. So you're requesting the 15-day appeal, right? Okay. Yeah. They've they they've notified me that they want to have a hearing on that. And that's what I um I wanted to tell the council. You need to read the um we got a bunch of them yesterday. Yes. I got BNBs, right? Shortterm. Short-term rentals. Well, yeah. Now Yeah. B&B is a little different. Yeah. I mean B&B traditionally you have to live there or or there's someone that's full that's lives there, right? Um and offers that you That's it. bicep. How many you had? Two. Two.

All right. You got y'all got that, mayor? All right. Uh, Mr. Funale. Um, I don't have anything. Um, I do the way the parish does it, but I think it'll help me a lot and I think it'll help Mr. Fondell with some of his questions. And I think we need to do like a five-year plan. We talk about resiliency centers a lot and I'm glad we're spending a lot of grant money on them, you know, that way we don't have to come out of our own pockets and I'm sure our goal after we finish with resilience centers is to have them all over the city so that they benefit everybody.

We need to geographically make sure that that's happening. So, I'm asking if there's a way, doain engineering or get with the Paris GIS, if we could plug in the resiliency centers that we have now and any future ones, plug them onto a map so that me, the city councilman, the citizens, everybody feels good about the efforts and the money we're spending on resiliency centers that they're there for everybody. Sure. and we spread them out far enough because I know some of the ones we talked about seem geographically too close to really benefit people more. Does that request make sense? That absolutely makes sense. Yes.

So I don't and I'd like to have that pretty quick so maybe we could talk about the resiliency center that's on the agenda. Maybe I'm asking too much. I don't know. I think if we don't have that we need to plan for that because hurricanes are coming. We know that unfortunately and it'd be nice to say, "Hey, this is what we've been working on. We've been planning ahead. Your city's behind you. Here's what we have." And you're absolutely right. That's exactly what we're working on is it's strategically uh distributing resiliency hubs throughout the city so that it can help with recovery because uh like you said, we can't control the weather, but we can try to control the recovery.

Well, I'm I I use GIS a lot. I think it's a great tool and you could plug in population numbers, city council districts, all kind of stuff in the GIS that really give you some data about how many people that resiliency hub is going to benefit. I I would think to equalize that is our goal to make sure that each residency center serves 17th of the population or whatever how many of them we have. So yeah, and and I think I don't want to get I don't need to get in.

No, I I think that's a great idea because not only should we have these uh strategically placed resiliency centers, but also inform the communities and bring in do a lot of outreach to let them know these are the resources that you have, not just for hurricanes, but if there's a freeze, flood, if Yeah. Right. So it's a project and yes, if we figure out who can do it, I'll be glad to work with them and help. So that's it. That's it. Thank you, sir.

Okay. I got a few things and some of the things may be repetitive but I'mma keep uh banging it home. Well, bringing it home. The the first thing is I want us to be mindful of ordinance 11 372. That ordinance states that anytime a consultant makes a recommendation and it's a consultant that we're paying taxpayer money for, we should have those results 14 days prior to we have to vote on any issue. So I think that would help a lot of us if we got that information it when possible as close to you as much time as we can give before the vote. The other thing is the scheduling of meetings. I know when we have these meetings, mayor, y'all y'all have a um y'all have a schedule that y'all have to work to, but with the exception of Mr. Funale, I think every councilman works.

I work. So, I have a job. Just for the record, I'm very nosy in my community and I like to be to every meeting. So, if we could try to make an effort to coordinate between you and us to get a feasible time where we can make those dates, that would be greatly appreciated.

Sure. Um, and if it can't be done, then the council is going to have to understand we're going to have to do our due diligence to educate ourselves on whatever that issue is that we have to vote on. Uh, I talked about the wording of the sports complex. We already um did that. So, you're going to go over that. Oh, we did the request for the short-term rentals. That's already it. Um, to my understanding, we have a new director on the fifth floor or the Yeah, the fifth floor. Is that correct?

Uh, we have a interim director. Interim? Yeah. Yeah. Miss M Miss Taria Williams. How How long do we plan on leaving it interim? Uh, we may make it permanent. We're trying to we we got a lot of projects we're getting out there. We're going to sit down and and evaluate that whole how the uh how that floor is operating. Okay. So far so good though. All right. What's the fifth floor for? That's a that's a community development. I know it's above four after that's a community development. All right. that development. Uh I just go to Miss Paul me. So

I was reading through well I knew this already but in the in the powers of the city council it states that the the the council has the right to investigate any department that they see fit to to investigate every every every department for the city can be looked at from the council perspective. I am asking that I would like to set up a meeting with Miss Wendy um Robinson to discuss the wastewater division. I I have some questions. I've had several complaints and I've been dealing with this for some years now and I want to sit down and take a look with any council that that want to be a part of it as well. Take a look at the wastewater uh division and and see uh is there any validity to what I'm hearing? is in validity that do we need to make some changes? Whatever the case may be, I'm asking the administration to work with me on sitting down and and going over that particular uh department. Um I'd like to set up a time to further discuss that um when y'all have time or when Miss Robinson has time.

We'll get that done. All right. The other thing is there's a grant that I read about today. It's a Louisiana water and wastewater grant. The EPA is given $90 million out and it's being broken down into is two categories. One is 30 million and one is 60 million. And they deal with infrastructure and things like that. And I think this is a grant that we may be eligible for. I I'd like for us to look into it. Maybe it could help us with some of the future plans that we have.

Yep. And that's that's where some of these consultants going to come into play because we've asked them to be able to pull down federal grants as they come. not based on whether they fit us, but just give we give them a subject matter and they go hunting for it.

Right. Uh the other thing is I've been getting a lot of complaints about speeding in neighborhoods. Uh for example, Cactus Drive. Uh uh Mr. Miles Brown had been telling us about speeding on 4th Avenue. I would like to come up with a plan. I know we see it on the highway where they said if you speed in these areas, it's higher fines. Is it possible for us to come up with an ordinance where we can put these signs strategically placed in certain neighborhoods where if you get caught speeding through this particular neighborhood, it's a higher fine, you know, and and I'm talking about the congested neighborhoods like Cactus Drive, for instance. That's one way in, they got a stop sign that's basically in the middle of a street to turn. And I'm getting complaints that they they running up and down. I I reported it to the uh community police, but we only got one community police. So, in the meantime, I think we need to start doing something to let people know we're not playing when it comes to speeding because if you got a kids in play sign, that ought to be an indication that you can't speed down this street, you know. Um, so if we could work on that and find out the legal parameters of whether or not we can we can do make higher fines in those areas, I'd appreciate that. The other thing is Morgan Field. I'm getting complaints. We had worked on it. Diesels are taking breaks like on the weekend they park on the side of the roads and they let their road their uh diesels idle and the homeowners are say they can't sleep you know because it's it's

18 wheelers 18 wheelers. Yeah. I've seen those and and and they they doing it all through Morgan Field I guess cuz it's a it's a less travel place late at night. But I don't know exactly what we can do. Maybe put some signs up warnings, you know. I don't I don't know.

There's a solution. We'll find one. Yeah. And the other one is me and Miss Sharon went out and looked at a park this past weekend and there's another complex on Prej and I noticed that they have a sign on it to contact 491296. So I'm assuming that we have some communication with the owners of that because they to people have torn down the the rod iron fence and they're dumping tires in there now. So, I would like for us to see if we can expedite that in some way because we have plans for that area and why it's being focused on it. We need to and and I think the apartment complex is like Mr. Bilbo was saying, if if we work it, we can possibly get some investors to take it over because, you know, it's not bad,

not like Johnson Hall, but I just want us to be aware of that. So, that's all I have. Any other questions of any more questions or comments from the council? At this time, it's the portion of the meeting where we hear from the public. The first one is Mr. Paul Moore. Please state your name and address for the record, please. Paul Moore. Wait till you get to the mic. And uh I need everybody to be mindful. Uh 3 minutes. If you need more time, ask the council or if you got somebody donating time, we'll grant it to you. Try to do my best. That's all right.

My name is Paul Moore. I have the property across from the problem property. Mine's 808 Alco Street. And the problem I'm asking is about 809 Alco. And there's a halfway house there. And I have hit every brick wall in the last 8 months trying to do something about a halfway house. I just want to make it clear. I've probably talked about eight people in this this room. I want to make it clear. This is not about conflict with the federal government. This is not about the individuals living there. This is about people from Texas coming in getting a house they don't own and open up a a halfway house, you know, in in our neighborhood. And the problem is they're not registered. And I can't seem to get anybody to get them to get registered. First complaint, the first problem was

Mr. Moore, before you go any further, can you give me a a mark of where we talking about? Yeah. Alco is off of Louisiana Avenue. Oh, 809 Alco is right off of Kurt Street. Kron. Yeah. Kurt Lrange area right there. Kurt Street. Okay. So, if you go down Kurt, you take a left before you get to school street and that's Alco. Okay. Okay. And what bothers me is 8 months ago, I've been in this house 15 years. I've been in the neighborhood. Okay. You hear these cars coming at 2:00 in the morning, the first first time I had a problem, and dropping off people. At 2:00 in the morning, every day for 2 weeks, 15 people was put in a two-bedroom house. Okay? Okay. And these were all supposedly transition people.

Problem is not the people, it's registering these people. You can't have 15 people living in a two-bedroom house. Exactly. And then you had uh couples, you had babies in there and all these people. And then you have a ped um sex offender that was put in there, too. It's like it's it's crazy. It's out of control. And uh all I'm asking is that somebody get them to register it. And the person that owns it is um Princess Taylor. Now, I've given all this, not trying to stick anybody out, but to the mayor's office has most of the information, not the mayor himself, but that office uh the website. First, they said it's not a halfway house. I proved it was a halfway cuz she has a web page with her name on it. The name is Princess Taylor.

Princess Taylor and she's married and they go by she has different aliases. She has, you know, I'm not going to go into more more detail about that. So she she's supposedly married and has another name. And these are Texas people. These are not Louisiana residents. These are all Texas. They have four of them in the city area. So every time there's an issue with one, they move them. Thank you, ma'am. And so I just want to make it I just want to have somebody try. I've talked to about eight different departments. I just want somebody to do something about it. I'm not care about the people living there. It's not about federal. You just want it legal. I want it legal. Everybody else has to be They have to be legal. And there's a reason they don't want to be legal is because what they're doing is illegal. And you,

if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Moore, I I may be speaking out of turn, but I think in the packet that we received from planning and zoning, there was one of these Princess Taylor, I'm thinking, is one of the names. So, I'm going to go back and check it. She has four locations. It's not registered. I I I'll get on it. So, if I have any questions, my last 20 seconds, I'll be glad to answer any questions. Well, what I want to do right now is I want to put the appeal on record for those uh for those uh short-term rentals under that name if I got the right name. Can I do that legally? Short-term rental. Well, you know, he's he's not talking about short-term rental. He's talking about that name associated. I'm saying that associate with short-term rentals as well.

They're not buying houses now. What they're doing is getting these these people that can't do something with the house and they're doing like owner financing. the person that owns it supposed Marshall's office been trying to get her for years. The person that like owner finance or whatever you want to call it doesn't even own the house. Okay. So, it's a I guess you call a rental, right? So, so we'll get on it. Appreciate. Thanks. Thanks for having and check back with us. You have something on it. Check back with me if you did have some some history on it. Yeah. Um we're familiar with the company that owns uh that sober living home. So living

Yeah. They own own the home, but it own the the business. And she has uh I think three other places. They they they are registered, but I'm I'm not certain if this one is. So we'll make sure she I know for sure this was not registered. And like I said, two I'm too old for 2:00 in the morning, people blowing horns and talking on the street like a like it's you know what I'm saying? It's not that neighbor. It's not it's a register. It's people that are older retired. And I think we do have an ordinance about how many people can be in that that house. We do have an ordinance that that they have to register and then we'll we'll work work from there. Okay. Cuz I mean at one time when they first moved in, we're talking 15 people in a two-bedroom. Okay. Right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Fitzgerald Darbone. State your name and address for the record, please.

Pizza. Pizza. Fitzgerald Darbone. 2523 Hagen Street. Uh question. When I left here in the early8s, we had communities. We had Gosport, Fisherville, Car Shop, all those communities. When did the city get segregated into having a north and south Lake Charles? When did that happen? I don't think the city is segregated. It's connotations that people put on sides of town because it's the northernmost part of town and the southernmost part of town. We got Midtown. We got all that. But that's not designated names.

Well, I mean, whenever we the the television, the council, the city, the parish, it divides the city, North and South Lake Charles. I'm just I'm asking how did that when I left, we had communities, but now we have two parts. Any you have to ask the person who calls it that. I mean, there it's law that say that that's the way it is. Well, I mean, you guys all call it that. Yeah, because we grew up in those neighborhoods. That's how we knew it. I'm I'm just I'm so I'm asking, but I mean, was it designated somebody we voted on that that be North? I mean, I left. That's why I'm No, we didn't. No, we didn't.

Okay. All right. The uh sports center, the um the sports center was is moved is going to be built where the amphitheater was supposed to be built. What are we going to do with that money from the amphitheater? Is it going to stay in that district? Is it going to move out of the district? What's going to happen to that? Money is still going to be used on the amphitheater. On the amphitheater where at at the current site that's the tentative agreement of the where the other amphitheater is. Okay. Um so it will it will be built. Amphitheater will be built. Okay.

The now that's okay. uh seat center. What is the latest on the seat center being built on 171 uh near Enterprise rental car still going to be built? And why I said that because of the fact that we've been introducing a lot of community resilience hub that in their language they want to do financial literacy and and that stuff. Well, if we don't have all these community resilience hubs, thank you. Why do we need that one? And if we don't need that one, can that money be used for something else? And what is that money?

When you say that one, what are you talking about? The seed center. The seed center is not a resiliency hub. Well, yeah, but they're going to be in their description. They're going to be teaching financial literacy and all the other stuff that the comm the resiliency hubs will be doing. So, if we're going to do all these in the res, why do we need that seed center? And if that seed center was is being funded by CBD uh disaster relief money, can that be used towards something else? Now, that's a whole different entity. Okay. The Louisiana Chamber of Commerce is building that building. Okay. So, would they building it or they leasing it from the city? No, they building it. Okay. The building it with their money or our money and their money

portions partnership. You know how much? No, not right off percentage of that that we're going to be using. They got the majority. Okay. I'm So I What's the latest? I haven't heard anything on it. Uh no one have heard anything on. So I couldn't tell you I couldn't tell you anything about that. I'll tell you a little bit. the um the the uh the Louisiana Chamber of Commerce and at the final stages of getting all their procurement together, they they started uh the design of the building. Uh they had a a funding uh situation that they got resolved. So they're they're they're migrating towards uh procurement and starting the project itself. It's called the the business incubation center. Correct. Correct. Um last thing.

Hold on, Mr. Dborn. You need more time? Yes, I have a question. We vote to give Mr. Dobon. How much? Uh three minutes. Two ends. Two minutes. Please vote. Four.

The uh so you guys had the uh I don't remember what number it was on the agenda by the uh Immacort Mary uh resiliency hub um wanting to purchase that property and you guys had some issue with that. Let me tell you that is the best possibility for that resilience. Uh we created S SWLA Center for Health Services. After the storm, we processed over 3,500 people every day for 3 months at that place. And we did uh far as logistics wise, it's perfect. Uh I thought that's the way they were going to be doing that before, but I am in agreeance for that location to be used as a community resilience hub. Mr. Finally, I know you had some information about the whole uh about the purchase or something you had mentioned about not having the information on that one, but uh uh I know for a fact that that will work in that area because I worked it during the hurricanes. Uh and um I think that location would be best for North Lake Charles. That's all I have.

Okay. Thank you. Thank Mr. Magd. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I finish that. You guys speak a lot on um that LC rebound and the taxes. You guys voted on, not you guys, but the previous administrator voted on that and we we keep saying the fact that the city agreed to this. The city agreed. I keep hearing that. We didn't agree to that. This is the results from the voting for LC rebound.

Mhm. 100% of like y'all call North Lake Charles voted against LC Rebound, but the councilman that's on that area and you guys voted against what? Mr. Speaker, the time of the gentleman is expired. What the community wanted. You need another minute. Uh, no. I just I wanted to just Yes. I wanted just to to to understand that it wasn't the whole city that voted for LC Rebound. It was part of the city cuz the other half of the city voted against LC Rebound.

So how much of this money of LC Rebound other than the Enterprise Boulevard extension is being used in the community of North Lake Charles? Well, first of all, let me correct you. A vote takes place citywide. So, majority rules, so the city did vote on it. The council did what the city wanted. Now, there are several projects going on in North Lake Charles from uh the Enterprise Extension. Uh we moved the sports complex out of there and there's some other ones coming down the pipe. The uh but that sports complex had nothing to do with LC Rebound. Well, but I'm giving you what's being done in North Lake Charles as a whole. Okay. We have the seed center coming.

We have uh uh various other things. Project Build the Future is doing something. There's things happening in North Lake Charles. Now, maybe not as much as we would like. Mhm. But that's where we need the the public to come out and speak. That's why I'm here. Uhhuh. That's why I'm speaking. Other than the Enterprise Boulevard extension, what money is LC rebound tax increase or tax where however they split it or said it was, how much of that is being spilled in spent in our community other than the extension? Well, I would encourage you to come back, get with the mayor's office, sit down and have a meeting, and they can break that down to you because we don't have that off the top of our head right now.

Mhm. Okay. I just thought the councilman that would represent our area would have that information. He probably do if he was here. Yeah, that's the question. If he was here, he's generally at all the other meetings. I'm sure you're seeing. Thank you, M Delafos. State your name and address for the record, please. 1917 19th Street. All right.

Good evening, council. I won't take up much of your time. I have three issues that I'd like to discuss. One is your agenda. So, as a citizen, I rely on pretty much what you have on the on the internet as to what's going on, what's going to be on the agenda. Miss Renee does an excellent job, by the way, of posting those agendas. But what I'd like for the board to do is this agenda that y'all have says meeting agenda. the this is even though it may not be your permanent agenda, this is nowhere on the website. We can't find this. So, what I'd like for the council to do is at least to whether or not it's going to be in draft form or whatever it's going to be is to post it. So, if I want to come down and see what's going on or what you guys are going to maybe move to the full agenda for us to view it would be great. And I know um I don't know what you're required on. you have 5 days uh to put it on the site for us to be able to look at and you can amend it as needed. But I think it would be a good step forward for transparency for the board to at least put it on there. Well,

I don't know what would be the problem for pres for not doing it. Well, correct me, Mr. Stouts, if I remember correctly or Mr. Cardone, we first of all, we have that's what this meeting is for, for us to approve the agenda. So, we don't officially have an agenda until it's approved. Understand? And from that point, we can post it. Well, you can post it if you want to. As a matter of fact, but it won't be an agenda. Well, you say meeting agenda at the top here. Uhhuh. So whether you want to call it what you want, it says agenda. So my thought is if you're going to why not post it if it says agenda. If you don't want if you want to call it something else. But for me, it steals an opportunity for us to be able to see what's going on, what's coming down the pipe. So So let me just be clear. Okay. You want us to post

this be before it becomes an official agenda. Correct. Yes. The draft. Just like it says here. Mhm. Okay. So, I mean it's and no action is going to be taken until it gets to you guys anyway. But it allows me to say, "Okay, I want to go and at least see it might be right." Okay. This Renee, is that a problem? I know you're working on it until the last minute. Exactly. That's That is That's why she not posting it. I can Well, you post all the other ones. So, deadline that I have to post. 5 days before. No, not 5 days before. Well, that's what that's the law. That's not our law. That's not the city council. Well, what's what's what's law versus city council law? What what supersedes city council? No, your state law. I can tell you state law.

Long as we work long as we work within the parameters of the law and we don't defy the law, we can amend it to fit. M. Can I can I ask council? You ask Mr. Stouts, what's the law on posting your agendas? You talking about the local ordinance? Local state. There is a state law on on ordinance on which As far as I know, we're fully in compliance with What is that law? the time. How many days? How many days do you require? Look it up, but I have to look it up. Okay. But you can give me that. But this is not the agenda. This is a draft of the agenda. Correct. Well, she says she's under a deadline. So, I'm just saying is is it possible for you guys to do because I think it does a service to the community. If you're talking about having citizens knowing what's going on, it it works.

But I I understand what you're asking. You're asking us that. But right now, we're in compliance with the law. I never said you was out of compliance, but I'm just making it clear. Yeah, I understand. I'm just asking for something additional to put out. Does the board do that? Do they post? Oh, yes. We're always we five days before agenda. We don't have a draft agenda. So, y'all we have one we have when the agenda comes, agenda goes out. We don't have a draft meeting. No, we don't. See, that's that's only it's two meetings. 24 hours before the meeting is when the agenda has to be focused. So, exclusive of holidays. That deadline is 24 hours. So if you can get it 24 hours before I don't Well, no. Can it be done?

Let me be clear. Not 24 hours before this meeting. Once this agenda is adopted, it has to be posted 24 hours before the actual meeting which is next Wednesday. Correct. That's the our obligation under state law. It's not to post this draft agenda. So just to be clear, Mr. Delos, I understand all that. Just to be clear, we're going to take what your your suggestion under consideration. Okay. All right. So, that's what I'm asking the council to do. So, I don't know if that if I have to ask a council member to to put that as a an item at some point that y'all can look at. Okay. Uh if so, then I'll I'll I'll take that route. Okay. I'll probably need some more time, I guess, if you don't mind. You How much you need? Two more. Yeah. Okay. Vote to give him two more minutes. All right.

I had two other items and Mr. Visel kind of touched on I think Finch D on about these resiliency hubs. So, you know, as part of your planning and your your what you're going to do in the future, I'm just curious. Do how many resiliency hubs do we have currently in in the city? You talking about as we speak? As we speak now, none that I know of. Okay. So, what are the purpose of the resiliency hubs and how many or do we anticipate are in development and that's planned?

Well, may you want I I'll answer this. I think first of all, uh it's been a a lot of loose lips, a lot of loose language. Everything being built is not a resiliency hub. We have some designated uh areas that are considering a primary resiliency hub and then we have some as secondary resiliency hub. I think in the community there's been a lot of conversation about buildings coming up and everybody think they resiliency hubs and they're not. uh the mayor and his administration as well as the council hasn't designated anything as of yet, but once we do build them, we will mark them as a primary or a secondary resiliency hub.

So, are there any plans to say, "Okay, I mean, if you're going to have a 5-year plan, I'm pretty sure the mayor and you guys say, "Okay, this is what we'd like to see in 5 years. Here are the locations." So, what you're saying right now is there's no plan as to where they're going to be. Oh, yeah. There's a plan. Okay. So, do we know where those are currently? Yes. Okay. What are those? Well, the only ones that we know of right now, we have a proposal for the one that you seen on the agenda item today uh for the um the Mhm property on uh Appaloo Street. And then we have a hopes the hope center which is going to be on uh I forget the name of the street. I thought it was just said that that wasn't going to be a resiliency

that was just mentioned. No, here the current the current situation is that in cases of storms and emergencies, uh the the city's recreation centers, the event center, uh uh Burton Coliseum has been used as recovery sites. Uh the event center has failed because the the roof caves in. We had problems with with recreation centers. That's why places like SWLA Center for Health Services took it upon themselves. So, what we're doing now is we're we're putting together resiliency hubs. And resiliency helps means these buildings are going to be built to to withstand 140 mph winds, have independent power sources, charging stations, staging areas closer to the main arterial places so they can be be uh supplied. Uh one is going to be this the sports complex that's here for the downtown area. Another the other another primary one is proposed to be at by next to SWLA on Appaloosa Street. Then you're going to have secondary uh centers for the same monies that have gone out like the hope center, teen center. Those aren't going to be primary hubs because it wouldn't be fair to put it upon those operators to u to to staff and and and do things in cases of emergency. So the city the two that I just mentioned, the city owns those. They're going to be built and going to be staging areas for recovery. Uh we also looking at uh other places like we we've gotten together with Ward 3 about identifying sites that we can actually uh retrofit and and reinforce so that those can be staging areas because uh the city has not had uh total uh resiliency places that are that are available when disaster strike. the um SWLA became one because the Allen August Center

the Allen August Center uh wasn't available. Uh uh MLK wasn't available. Gospel wasn't available. So we instead of relying on uh recreation centers and events and we actually going to build some and fortify others and strategically place them throughout the city so that every person can come back and stage recovery. You mentioned that the city is going to own two of them. Is that what Yes. Where are those locations and I guess are those how how are those funded? What's uh with the disaster recovery funds and that's going to fully uh build them and operate them? Yes. Okay. So, will those be going to operate them?

Yeah. Operate the the Well, we we have people that we get we're going to have cooperative endeavor agreements to operate those, but the city's going to own them. The sports complex is one. The other one would be the one whatever we do with the second harvest funds. We've asked not to have anybody other than the city own that. We just have other people that we want to contract with. But the others are going to be part of that that the program that was done and that was part of the the previous administration's promise was to go ahead and build these these centers and after a period of time that those those facilities would be owned by those operators. Okay. By the oper you said the city was going to own it. So it's not the city owned versus I think you just mentioned that the operators were going to own it. the city's going to own. You just mentioned you said

I said two of them the city is going to actually own without any without anybody else having an oblig transfer obligation later on down the line. Do these buildings sit dormant until it's needed or what? No, we're going to have we're going to put programs in them and operate those to because they have to meet national objectives. They have to meet uh provide certain services that's going to benefit low and moderate income communities. And we think they're going to benefit the the entire the city as an entirety eventually and the city's going to pay for staffing for those. Uh no, not necessarily. If we if we build these facilities and there's people that that can show to demonstrate that they can operate in those centers, then they we'll we'll enter into agreements with them. The time of the gentleman is expired.

I get another minute. You got another minute. Okay. The I I'll hold some questions. I think that's still kind of in a development with that. So, I think I'll probably just come back on that at another day. Uh, this is for my mother. Uh, she has, you know, whoever I don't remember who her last city councilman was, but there's constant speeding on Louisie Street. And that's off of Ryan between Ryan and Lake. Yeah. And they're constantly, I mean, going. We can add Louis to that uh to our list street. So, if you would, I don't know who our councilman is right now, but I think she did. She told me she addressed it with whoever it was prior to Mr. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, and I haven't spoken to anybody. She asked me to do it. So, that's all I have. All right.

Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Delo. Uh, Mr. Gerard Decker, he may have had his um he had sent his in early. Uhhuh. So, the Mr. Castile got with him on his issue might have been resolved. Okay. Uh Miles Brown. Miles has uh Kenner Ray Gay. Kenneth Gay here just to donate time. Yes. I'm just making sure you're here. Mr. Prudam, Mr. Prudam is here. So, Mr. Brown has nine minutes.

Miles Brown 10204th Avenue. Um, believe it or not, guys, over the past few years, my only agenda is to try to figure out with the city as to try to find out a solution on the reckless driving that goes on on the north end of 4th Avenue. If you are aware, there was a vehicle of homicide in that area. That's a hidden run that's still under investigation. And uh it's a little personal because I actually knew the person and I know over the past few years there's been a lot of little discrepancies on traffic studies in that area and me coming up here and trying to bring up a solution and showing how I hope the documentation's wrong or something's some kind of error. But um ironically, day before that this tragedy happened, I was able to actually get a lot of the documentation from the past traffic study most recently in 4th Avenue and also uh the ones that have been done around the city and I found out some differences in it. And then I was going to kind of wait until a few months and just try to do some more research, but with what happened, I feel like I got to come up here and try to plead my case for another traffic study. Now, the one that they just did last year, um, for the most part, it was done okay, but basically where they put the traffic box and stuff, it did not really catch a lot of the reckless driving in between. So, when the drivers would pass that little traffic box, they would go a certain speed, but right after they would just keep going. So, none of that data was caught in the traffic study. So, what I've done over the past few months, I've kind of just been outside in that area and I've kind of tracked it to show you on the council like some video examples. So, if you can go to video one, that way I can y'all can see what I'm referring to. There's no sound.

Yeah, there's no sound. But this right here to me is good enough. Um, just what I what I've seen over these past few years. Going past 35. Yeah. And that look,

let's say hypothetically, and hopefully this never happens, somebody gets hurt. Need this one. parents doesn't care about a traffic study. You know, uh that homeowner is not going to care about uh that somebody run into their house cuz that has happened multiple times over the years. You know, not saying it would be a civil or big lawsuit, but you know, people are going to want demand answers and they're going to realize that this has been addressed so many times, you know.

Yeah. So, I'm not really here to even though I have a lot of documentation to show some things, I'm not really here to go back and forth and say pass one's done and all the stuff. I'm just asking if it's possible to do a new traffic study. And this time when it's being done, I would like to speak to whoever is conducting it. that way we can kind of be on the same page as to what I'm trying to refer to and where the actual speeding goes on so that stuff can get tracked because the videos that you saw there in the last traffic study none of that is being tracked in between. So that's really what I'm asking for is that possible for that to get done. Mr. Brown, if I if Mr. Dr. Herman, if you don't mind, can can you

I I guess the confusion that I have is that in in that where where is it that you are advocating for the stop signs to be? Okay. Um so basically second well a four-way stop on Second Street in Johanna Place. There's a four-way stop. Um kind of like in that but it's not a four-way. No, I wanted it to be a four-way stop. But I'm saying it's not four ways in, right? You got fourth Avenue and Johanna turns off of that, right? Johanna's. Yeah, that that's uh it's on one side. Yes. East to west. But the way it's set up, there's one side is Johanna Place and the other side is Second Street. So they offset, right? Yeah, they kind of offset. So

but just somewhere in between really. Well, I know Mr. Herman anywhere in between Fourth Street and Broad Street on 4th Avenue basically. But and Mr. Herman, can you explain? Mr. Herman, can you wait till he get through his nine minutes? You guys tell me what you want to do. Can he just wait till he get through his nine minutes? Oh, you still talking? I just wanted to bring No, I thought he had ended. No, I'm I'm just wanted to finish that part, but I was going to bring up something else after we was done talking with this. You finished. finish your nine minutes. Well, I Well, that's why I only had a question on was could we get into traffic study? That's That was my only question, but I had another item I wanted to bring up afterwards. go to your other item and we're going to address everything you're saying when we when you finish.

Okay. Okay. Now, the second thing, uh I'm glad that Well, how much time do I have left? You have four minutes, three and a half minutes left. Okay, that's good to know cuz I got something for y'all. Um for quite some time, I've noticed that when it comes up to me when I'm supposed to speak, the rules change. And I and I thought, well, maybe it was just me. But I realize that a lot of times you on the council are not really following or conducting the rules properly. So if you don't mind, can you pull pull up video two? That way I can give an example.

This is not a public debate. You come here. No, it's not. We don't engage with the T. Now, one thing we going to get straight in the city council chambers, we have protocol. Uhhuh. That protocol is the people come up and talk and y'all address the council. We don't take a poll of the citizens to see if what we talking about is popular. It's a lot of five in the air. I know that's going to happen. Dash back.

As an elected official, we were sworn in to do what the community wants. I'm looking in this audience. I'm seeing a bunch of fellas in black suits. by a show of hands if it's okay. I want to see how many people there to support this community development center. That's enough for me. A flashback.

So, you see how there's a contradiction where you just said that people aren't supposed to vote or you're not supposed to ask the the audience, but then some people don't know the rules. Well, that's happened plenty of times on other aspects. And even just the mere fact of like how time is managed, it seems that it's not managed properly. So, uh, I'm just going to ask that for the council that some of y'all get or y'all get educated on the Robert's rules of order because these things are continue to happen and they shouldn't. May I stop you? Yes, sir. You showed some videos. Show me what rules were broken. So, you just stated, now this is a question, so this is rebuttal, right? Okay.

Okay. So, you just stated that you cannot ask the crowd for their opinion on a vote, but meanwhile, you had a councilman that just did that in the video. If you go back and you check mine, I think what I said was we don't go by a popular vote. Mhm. So, that's so that's proper protocol for councilman to ask the crowd right now, hey, is is it okay for me to get more time or hey, is it okay that we get a traffic study? Is that is that the protocol?

If you don't mind, Mr. President, I think I can I I think and I remember this meeting pretty well. I think what the president was telling the gentleman that he was asking the people for opinion and he was saying no, you're to address the council. The council has free reign to do whatever they need to do to handle their meeting. But I think that gentleman wanted to ask an opinion of the people that was in the audience and he told him, "You have to direct your coun your comments to the councilman." It's it's a difference between you being there and me being here. Okay? You understand? Okay. So, you say we broke rules. So, I just want you to tell me what is the rule that we broke.

Well, basically, so this is a question that you're asking me, right? Okay. So, basically, when you ask me a question, my time is supposed to pause. So, that's one rule right there. And this is an ordinance that I have here. Matter of fact, Mr. um IT guy, can you pull up the uh PDF file because this is a rebuttal. Mhm. And now you got one minute. But if you look on that page right there that y'all could see, it says at the bottom anytime council members speak, that time should basically pause. That's where it says, "Okay, Mr. Miles, every time you've come up here, I mean, Mr. Brown, every time you've come up here

and you said, "Hey, that's my time." We've given you ample enough time. We've never cut you off and said you couldn't talk no more. Have we ever done that? You don't have that video. I've been interviewed. I mean, I've been interrupted plenty of times. Interrupted, but you've been giving your time back. Just like I'm talking to you now. You going to get your time back. Well, he just put one minute left. That's was his job. He still has a minute left. Yeah, cuz you're answering a question. Is that sir? Anytime. He's over 10 minutes now. Yeah, I've been over sitting here standing here over 10 minutes, but I have not spoken for 10 minutes. I just told you I'm going to make sure you get your 9 minutes, but you wasting your 9 minutes pointing out that we not giving you 9 minutes. That's on you. Well, it says here you get a fiveminute rebuttal. Rebuttal to what?

When there's when there's something to rebut, but you're the one making the statement. Well, because you're asking a question and Okay, but you going to answer my question and I'm out. Now you got your time back. The time is yielded back to you. Okay. Well, so what is your question right now, sir? My question was, have we ever cut you off and said you can't have your time? We cut you off and told you you was done? Yes, that's happened. When it was the end of your time, right? Well, in the midst of that, a lot of times I'm interrupted and and the time just runs consecutively. So, even if I'm talking right now and all of a sudden you interrupt me and talk for a minute, it'll happen and all of a sudden the 3 minutes is gone and I'll ask for extra time and I don't get it. Well, I'm going to do this for you, Mr. Brown. I apologize if we fringe upon your your rights, right?

Okay. You're going to get all your time back. I'm going p as long as I'm president, I'm going to make sure you get every time back when there's a question. But now note when you ask us a question, we on your time. Yeah. All right. Now, another thing I want to add to to that is that I've noticed and I'm I'm thankful sometimes that you ask if I need another minute or two, but technically according to the Roberts of order, when a person asks for extra time, it's not just up to you to give them extra time. It's always a vote that has to be made. It has to be a two-thirds vote. Did you see us vote just now? No. I I might take the leisure, Mr. Brown and give you some time without going to a vote. That's a courtesy.

I have a right to give you that courtesy. Now, if you want us to vote and we voted down, then that's fine, too. But you just witnessed me asking two other people came before you and we voted to give them time, didn't we? Not Not all Not all of them. Oh, you can go back and look at the video. You just say you need another minute, I'll give you another minute. Okay. And it says Yeah, it say rebuttal. And it says on section 13, it has to be a two/3 vote. Okay. and it's clearly not been doing that a lot of times over a period of time. Now, I respect whenever you ask or ask if I need more time, but regardless for anybody that asks for extra time, you all are supposed to vote for it. Okay? And so, that's what I'm saying how a lot of times these rules are not being followed all the way properly. Now, I can give plenty other examples. Time is expiring 12 minutes.

Okay? This was a rebuttal, right? A rebuttal, you get five minutes. I just told you you're not rebutting nothing. You are the one speaking. All right? Your time is up. Okay. Well, I appreciate your time. Hopefully, y'all get educated on this and that way. Now, before you go, like I like I said you would, Mr. Herman, could you come and tell us how a traffic study is conducted and why we place them? You know, where we place them?

Herman Stevens, engineering manager. Um, traffic studies are conducted by the traffic division, which is separate from the engineering division. Um, we have a limited number of boxes. Um typically we may have a request that's associated with an intersection and if we have sufficient boxes we can monitor um every branch of that intersection. Um some of the things he mentioned seems like speeding in between intersections and so I'm not aware of that being measured or studied. Um we haven't been involved in a lot of traffic studies I guess since we had our most recent uh traffic division manager. Um, my last interaction with Fourth Avenue was the uh stop signs at Joanna Place. Um, so I'm not sure if we've ever looked at the speeding in between the stop signs. It's possible, but I wasn't involved in it.

But but you have to be very specific in terms of what you're asking, right? So, generally, we put them in the spots that that they're asked to monitor. Now, if you pass that spot, it may be some speed prior to that spot. It's different things. You know, you can have people stop at a stop sign, hit 70 mph, and stop at the next stop sign. There there are different things that you need to test for. Um and I'm not aware of all the things that we've tested for. I know cuz I know we've been out there multiple times on 4th Avenue um with Mr. Brown. So do do we use stop sign to control speed? Stop signs are not a speed control uh device period.

Um and in particular um and again I have to defer to the traffic division. Um I know on 4th Avenue um we have to be careful. Um a lot of the intersections are similar. So when you make a change or a decision at one intersection, you really open yourself up to a lot of change possibly throughout the city. Got you. A lot of lot of changes seem simple, but it's really not that simple or small. Thank you. Thank you. But I'm I'm going to go on the record now. And Mr. Brown, I'm going to request your traffic study again. And now I I can't tell them to do it. We're going to request it at the same spot for I think the third time. This will be the third time. Well, they put it in different areas. Yeah. All right. So, thank you. Can I speak to that? So, I guess the question I have is I had a question.

There's a different there's a difference between a a speed study and the inter and if you ask for a stop stop sign, you have to do something to determine if it meets the warrants to have a stop sign at that intersection. And that's a traffic count. We do have some traffic count that will you know see what the speed is and it's going to have the number of vehic it should have the number of vehicles and it will tell how many people it should within range it should tell you how fast people are going. Is that what you're requesting? I can answer that question. Yeah. Okay. Um I kind of lost this. Can you just

are you are you requesting a speed study or I'm just trying to figure out a solution to try to you want driving or or something in between there cuz it it continues to happen and cuz like Mr. Steven said that stop sign is meant to control an intersection. It is not meant to control speed. I remember you told me that a while back and I'm not saying I'm just trying to figure out what is a solution to stop something from happening again and that's and Mr. Brown to answer that question. You just heard me mention a lot of neighborhoods where we got speeding in. And so there's signage we can put up. There's many things we can put up, but to stop them from speeding, it's it's I mean, if somebody's going to speed, they going to speed.

Yeah, that's true. I I I figured that stop sign was the best option. You know, if I just figure, hey, is there someone in the city that could figure out another option if it's not a stop sign that way? Well, we're going to look into it. Okay. All right. Um, Chief, could you take um, so what what do you recommend with that speeding situation? Is it I noticed sometime they put out the little sign that shows you how fast you're going. Is that only for school zones or

Deputy Chief Kevin Kirkham? Um, as the engineer said, the stop sign is is not for speed control. Your devices for speed control are going to be your speed bumps that you would have to put. But I understand that we have to follow the the dynamics of the street, the length of the street, the width of the street. We have to know how much distance is in between each stop sign. There's a variety of things that we going to need to know that the engineers could give us that would be able to come up with a better solution. If it's not just a stop sign, I don't think you want to throw speed bumps all through a major street. travel area. So, please don't give me a ticket.

You know, uh you you earn tickets. We don't give them to you. You earn them. But but can we get some some traffic enforcement in that area for I say we just sit him in front of Miles house and let him with the gun. We just going to pay somebody to sit in front of Miles Brown house and with the gun and just do temp do speed control. Since we got hit this all the time. How many times we done did this? Four times. But Mr. B, they get a right to come every meeting. They come. Well, we going to just pay a cop just to sit out there in front of Miles Brownhouse and do speed control. That's that's a good answer. The question is to address the speed. It's obviously a speed issue there. Well, we don't we don't know that for sure.

I I just watched the video and I travel that area too. So I I But you speed on people speed everywhere to to to answer your speed anywhere and and sometime we we do we write tickets and we can slow them down sometime different things that that's what I'm trying to get him. Mr. Fondelle I will address this to Deputy Chief Moss. Mhm. Who heads up the traffic division and tell him that we have an issue with potential speeding vehicles on Fourth Avenue. Good enough. And when we have the manpower allowable, we'll be able to go out there here at Cincinnati out there. Huh? What?

No. No. You can't you can't No, you can have a a traffic study. you you know you see the two little tubes and that tracks your speed and you can u depending on how si sophisticated the um the measuring mechanism is you can determine over certain say a oneweek period how many cars have gone across there what percentile what what the whatever I don't know what the posted speed limit is there is it 30 maybe 35 I'm not sure I I couldn't tell you right off but there is a posted speed limit there and That study will tell you how many people are going. So, we we're going to put in the request. So, you can you can do that, right? So, you can do that. Yeah.

And I know that there's uh because there's one on Holly Hill now. There is a sign. There's a one that will measure your speed and it will say slow down. Slow down. Too fast. And sometimes it's just some people just they don't care. They're going to Once you get past that sign, you take off again. No. Wow. For for your immediate relief, for your immediate relief, we'll get with our traffic division, ask them to step up some enforcement or at least be present and and run radar or whatever it is that they do out there for some immediate relief. But the traffic study by far is going to be your best solution.

Appreciate it, Chief. Appreciate it. Mr. Harvey, glad you're here. Public can see that you're here. All right. Anything you want to say? Meeting a jerk.