City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up we have Mr. Travis Phipps. Come on down. Why do you want to be on the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority?

Council Member Hughes. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Phipps, what high school did you go to? D. McDonough 35. I think that makes you eminently qualified.

All right. With that, Councilman Hughes moves to approve. Seconded by Councilmember McCarron. All in favor? All. There you go. Machines are working. Vote your machines. All right. Six yays. Someone's missing by us. All right. Six yays. Someone's missing.

Seven yays, no nays. You're approved. Thank you, Mr. Phillips. Thank you, Al. All right. Councilmember Harris.

Thank you, Council President Murrell. We can move on to the budget presentation.

That concludes my report. Thank you, Alyssa. I do have a question. We passed a resolution asking your department to consider amnesty. Where are we on that?

Okay, if you, to your comms team, if you have a deck or a slide or something that you want us to post, we can do that because... and we can put it in our newsletter so people understand that there is an amnesty program, and hopefully we can get in some money before the end of the year.

All right, thank you. Council Member Hughes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Really quickly, thank you, Director. In that same spirit, what's the status, you know, these vacant lots that we have cleared title to? I know we had to put a pause on auctions because of the debacle with CivicSource. Look, there are a lot of residents. Let's put out-of-town folks aside. There's a lot of residents that are taking care of lots that they live next door to that they would love to acquire. Now they have to pay property tax, which is more revenue. And we've been talking about this since January 12th, since I've been sworn in. Are we making any progress? When

Okay. The only request that I'm going to continue to reiterate as we get these auctions back online. Let's please keep in mind that many of my residents are elderly. They are not going to touch a computer. They're not going to go through the mundane process of bidding online. So we've got to have some type of mechanism where those folks can go somewhere and be assisted if they want to bid on these lots.

I know y'all are working hard, but if we can just really keep the foot on the gas with that, because that's revenue. I mean, that's easy revenue that we can put in our general fund.

Thank you, Director. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you all.

Thank you. Next up, Aaron, I believe we have number four, correct? All right. And the committee will consider this resolution to extend the electric formula rate plan rider. The resolution allows for four additional FRPs. We have a comment from Mr. Jesse George. Aaron, any non-present comments we'll add to the record?

Are there any other comments? hearing none i will move can i get a second second by council member willard all right please vote your machines five years no nays next up we have item number five

Yeah, can you, Councilman Willard's asking if you can give us a little idea for the tens of tens watching, can you explain kind of what the FERC opinion was in the most generalist of terms? I don't want a 45-minute dissertation on FERC.

Okay, so we are taking the conservative estimate while we wait for a final decision. Sound conservative estimate. Okay. I will, there's no cards, correct? Alright, I will move. Second. Oh, you have a... Okay. I'm sorry I don't have your card, ma'am, but come speak and we can find your card later.

Yes basically the basically and this is not really within our We do not have the discretion as a regulatory body. If the federal regulatory authority says that Entergy New Orleans owes things to other parties, they can dictate to us that we have to pass that charge, that cost, to our rate payers so that that debt can be paid.

I hear you. But unfortunately, the group that's above us at the federal level said they can collect that and that we have to pass that surcharge on.

We are involved at the FERC level in trying to mitigate these decisions, but when FERC issues a final opinion, then we are bound by it.

We lost. So we have to pay. Okay. All right. I will move. Can I get a second? Okay. Second by Freddie King. Please vote your machines. All right. Six shays, no nays. And then we have the last item, which is item number six, Hurricane Francine Cost Certification. The committee will consider a resolution certifying costs incurred in response to Hurricane Francine. Excuse me. The resolution concludes docket UD2502. An essential resolution finds that E&O's costs in response to Hurricane Francine were proper. Is there any public comment cards? Hearing none, I will move. Can I get a second? Second b