City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council, and if you'll please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you and welcome, everyone. Thank you for your patience with us as we got started a little late this afternoon. We'd like to, at the beginning of our meetings, give kind of a rundown of how our meetings operate so you'll know what to expect. The first half of our meeting is what we call our agenda session. And so council will go through and consider the items that are before us for a vote tonight and also the items that are before us for a vote next week. And then even farther out, items that will come befor

We have a motion properly seconded on the minutes from our September 22nd meeting, and they will stand as published. And at this point, I'd like to invite up Charles Frazier from CARTA. to give us an update about their parking enforcement initiatives.

Okay. Councilman Harvey, you're recognized.

Yeah, Charles, this is spectacular. I mean, this is great. Great job to know that there are 2,400 more spaces where the most you will pay is $3.00. Is unheard of. I mean, you can't go to any city in the country, I think, and pay more than $3 to park. And to know that we've got 2,400 more of those spots is awesome. It's exactly what the city has been needing for many years. For a while, it was like we were kind of monopolized with some of these private parks. outfits who are controlling parking and, quite frankly, without mentioning their names, we're taking advantage of Chattanooga. So, man, t

Okay. So it all counts? Yeah. Okay. Councilwoman Hill.

Thank you. Thank you, Charles. One question. The lackluster return that you all were collected, $16,000 and change through amnesty and payment assistance, remind us how much is out there in outstanding tickets?

I would encourage you to think about, if you haven't already, some type of easy brochure or card that could be handed out to every tourist that comes to the visitor center to say, this is the best way to get parking. I'm not sure what those lots are at the aquarium. I know we've got some pretty predatory lots near there, so they may already have been burned. But I think the more... positive peer pressure we can provide, the more likely we will have for other lots to come on. I mean, I think this red lot that you have on your slide, y'all, you might notice it's a $96 daily rate in this little g

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Charles, for this presentation. I know it's hard to see over this fabulous purse, but I appreciate your time and all of this and really working to get this done. My question was, have some of the parking lots already started using the... Have they already put some of the rates in place? And I ask because I went downtown like a week ago and I paid like $8 for parking in a lot that I usually would have paid...

Right. Okay. So there's some of them – well, it seems like it's working because I've paid – like $8 for like four hours, three or four hours. I was in a prime downtown lot. And I was like, Oh, okay. So maybe that is the, it's working already or something. And it was a Friday night and that.

Okay, that works. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. Okay.

Councilman Harvey. I apologize. I forgot to ask this in my excitement about $3 parking. Going back to the website, and I might have missed this, so I apologize, but is there an app that would correspond with that?

Council, any other questions or comments for Charles?

All right. Council, let's turn then to this week's agenda items. We'll start with our ordinances. If you have any questions on any ordinances, please hit your lights. All right, I don't see any lights here to discuss ordinances, so we will turn then to resolutions. We do have, as we discussed last week, quite a few resolutions and the nature of board appointments. And I do intend unless there are objections to take as many of these as possible as a package to make things a little more efficient. However, I do know there are some questions about the Regional Planning Commission items, and so we

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a particular question regarding our appointment to the Regional Planning Agency. I've had some concerns from some of my district quite a more than I expected, from my district involving the appointment of Ethan Collier to the Planning Commission. And Ethan and I have spoken, and I appreciate you taking the time to hear me out. And if it's all right with you, Mr. Chairman, I would like to answer some of the, asking some of these questions for state of transparency.

Well, sure, if he's here and willing to come to the podium, thanks.

Thank you for... I'm sorry. I promise. It's not that I'm tired of being here. It's just been a long day already. Ethan, I appreciate you coming. You know, you do a lot of work in and around my district, particularly with your Milltown development. And I have two neighborhoods in particular that has expressed some concerns. And I'm going to throw these out to you. And if you can just take them however you want. And I'm going to go first. My Missionary Ridge community, they had the opportunity to work with you some years ago prior to me taking office. And this is something that I heard quite a b

The final one, there's been concern from community members that there are too many developers on the Planning Commission.

Ethan, let me say this. I appreciate you for coming up, and Ethan and I had this conversation prior to this meeting and both agreed that it's probably best for the public to hear this narrative. This is one of those situations where sunshine is the best disinfectant. And so I appreciate you for coming up. And this is not a space where I intended for you to come up and get any, like, ring your neck about some, you're, you're trying to do a job as a volunteer base. And I don't think anybody should be chastised for stepping up and serving. I think we all understand it is hard finding people to se

The planning commission makes recommendation. And so ultimately, I own all rezonings that happen in my district. And I just want to speak for myself. So, Ethan, I do appreciate you. Thank you.

I'm happy to answer any other. We do have a couple. Sure. Bear with us. Councilwoman Hill, you're recognized.

Thank you. Ethan, I appreciate you being willing to talk with counsel today. I'll be honest, when I saw that you were up for an appointment, I was pretty surprised because I was shocked that you would be willing to do it again. I personally was really disappointed in the way that the changes happened and spoke to that when it did. And I want to thank you for your long service on the Planning Commission. When I served on Planning Commission, I definitely got the full taste of just how complex those cases are, the amount of homework that you have to do to be prepared. And to Ethan's point about

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your willingness to serve our community.

Thank you. And Councilwoman Burrs, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I won't take up a lot of time in repeating some of the things that both Ethan said and Councilwoman Hill. Ethan, it was a pleasure to sit next to you as the chair. I hate not sitting next to you. You're not known for your warm fuzzies at all. But I appreciate the fact that I learned a lot from you for the short period of time that I did sit next to you. And I think it's important that we appoint people that have a fresh outlook as we'll be appointing or hopefully we'll be approving Janice Gooden and those that have that institutional and technical knowledge. to your point

And Councilman Harby. Ethan, thank you for being here. Thank you for your service to our community the last 12 years. It's a volunteer position. There's a lot of stones that are thrown at you. So, you know, I appreciate your service and being willing to go through that. I think I've heard more about this board position than I have any other board position since I got in office. So I do feel like I need to ask the questions that I'm getting from constituents. So I'll give you an opportunity to answer those. What do you say to those who, and Councilman Elliott hit on this a minute ago, say, one,

Yeah. Two more things, if I may, Mr. Chairman. Walk me through the decision to no longer serve as chairman of the planning commission.

kind of following procedure sure yeah thank you for that lastly um you know i've gotten this question a lot um what do you say in response to you know 12 years is a long time maybe it's time to step aside let another home builder serve or let you know someone else uh whether it's a planning background or not um have a shot at the Planning Commission. What is your response to that?

That's all. Okay. Councilman Henders. Thank you, Ethan. All I've got to say is you must really have a passion for this in order to come and face this kind of questioning to serve on a volunteer board. And I admire you for that, by the way. And I tell people all the time of all the developers since I've served on council, you're the only one that I know of that has come to me and said, what do you think about this project? And if I've told you I couldn't support it, you've not gone forward with it. And I can appreciate that. I think you do bring that wisdom, that insight. And one thing that I d

I think that's all we have. Thank you very much. Thank you. Counsel, do we have any other questions about any other resolutions on tonight's agenda? We will turn then to next week's proposed agenda. And please hit your lights if you have any questions or comments. We'll look first at ordinances. And seeing no lights on the board here, we'll look then at resolutions. Oh Councilwoman, no, you're recognized.

You're under resolution. Are you at Public Works?

Can we be there? Sure. Okay, item X. So it is my intent to table this this evening. I need to actually knock some doors and I need to have some conversations and the process was put out there and it was put out there with the cart before the horse. So we need to go back and revisit that. Is there anyone here from Chattanooga Times? They're not? Okay, because they printed an article that was, who's here? John, raise your hand. Oh, okay. You all printed an article last week that was incorrect. And if whoever was in this meeting last week, I don't know how they got that out of that. So you can go

Okay. We'll look for that motion. Thank you. Well, council, let's look then at the purchasing items that are before us this evening. And if you have any questions about those. And I'll just note there is one emergency purchase. We don't often see those. And so any questions or comments? Seeing none, we'll turn then to future considerations. Oh, I'm sorry, Vice Chair Elliott, you're recognized.

I think this is, I think they're planning on speaking on this one now or later.

Are they speaking on this one now or later?

Jay is here. So, yeah, I think, Jay, we might have a question.

Yeah, I thought we were, you know, speaking on this earlier. This is just a quick one, and this is a similar thing, kind of just shining light on it. Jay, with this brush contract, this would allow us to get caught up on brush pickup, correct?

Okay, perfect. I just wanted to make sure that was clear because I know it's been a large concern for a lot of people, but you guys are doing whatever you can to make sure you get caught up. Yes, sir, absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you, Jay. Anything else?

Counsel, do we have any other questions for Jay about the emergency purchase in particular about rush pickup? Awesome. Thanks, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Back on to future considerations then. Council, if you have any questions about any of the items on our future considerations list, please hit your light. And Councilwoman Burrs, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a public works one as well. Sorry, or it may be. I'm not sure who to answer this question or who will answer this question. But the item under public works, item number two regarding the Raccoon Mountain project. Is there a, you know, the longer we go to approve this and to get started, I imagine pricing is going to change. Is there a cap on that spending?

Yeah, I'd like to know, get more information or make a recommendation to add some language that it's not to exceed. a certain amount. I'd like to look at that to see.

Council, are there any other questions about any future considerations, items?

Seeing no lights, I'd like to invite our DTS folks up to talk with us about the SMART grant project.

And we do have a couple of, oh, we got a little bit more.

probably for different members of the team here. So we'll start with Vice Chair Elliott.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all so much for taking the time to update us on this. I have a couple questions. The first being, what is the buffer time between a signal changing and emergency vehicle coming through? How much runway are we talking about?

And have we had to change, this may be a question for Chief Knowles, have we had to train any of our pedestrians engine drivers on how to navigate this software, or has it really been a difference?

Okay. And... This next question, I saw that snippet of, I think it was our road, maybe in Central, which begs the question, what type of data are you guys tracking with this information and these cameras or whatever you call them?

And are we storing any of this data? that we keep over time? And if so, who all has access to it?

Good deal. And excuse my ignorance on this, and I could be wrong, but does any of this involve any signal recalibration in the signal time of recalibration?

Well, I do appreciate you guys taking the time to unveil it. I know this is something that folks have been working on for years and, um, I haven't been able to articulate it myself, so it's great to see it. I've just been told, oh, they had some real cool stuff going on at UTC with the city. I didn't know really what it was. And you have to excuse me. So somebody said, hey, they've been doing signal time recalibration. I thought that's what it was. And so it's great to see what it was even more, a little bit better. So thank you guys so much. And I do appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks again to the whole team. Any other questions, counsel? All right. I don't see any, and that takes us through our agenda session. Counsel, we do need an attorney-client meeting, so we'll be in recess until 6 o'clock.

Move to approve. Thank you. We have a motion properly seconded on this ordinance on final reading. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on final reading. Item 7B, please.

Move to approve. Thank you. We have a motion properly seconded on this ordinance. On final reading, council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the ordinance passes on final reading. Item 8A, please, Madam Clerk.

Thank you. Motion probably seconded on this ordinance on first reading. Any questions or comments, counsel? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? An ordinance passes on first reading. Item 8B, please.

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

Thank you. Motion properly seconded on this resolution. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Item 9B, please.

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

Council, we have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Are there any Questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Madam Clerk, if you would please read items 9D and E as a package.

Motion properly seconded on these resolutions. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolutions are adopted. Item 9F, please.

Do I have a motion properly seconded on this item, Council? Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Abstain. And the resolution is adopted with the one abstention by Councilman Harvey. Item 9G, please.

We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. And then Madam Clerk, if you would please read items 9H through K as a package.

We have a motion properly seconded on these resolutions. Counselor, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolutions are adopted. And if you would please read items 9L and M as a package.

have a motion properly seconded on these two resolutions council are there any questions or comments before we vote all in favor aye any opposed and the resolutions are adopted and then if you could please read items nine n and o as a package

We have a motion properly seconded on these resolutions. Are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolutions are adopted. Item 9P, please.

Say okay. motion properly seconded on this resolution are there any questions or comments council before we vote all in favor aye any opposed the resolution is adopted item 9 q please a resolution confirming mary kelly's reappointment of scott mckenzie to the water mechanical examiners for a term beginning on december 14 2025 and ending on december 13 2029 A MOTION PROPERLY SECONDED ON THIS RESOLUTION. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BEFORE WE VOTE? ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ANY OPPOSED? THE RESOLUTION IS ADOPTED. ITEM 9R, PLEASE.

Motion properly seconded. On this resolution, council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Resolution is adopted. Item 9S, please.

Motion properly seconded. On this resolution, Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. And if you would please read items 9T and U as a package.

We have a motion properly seconded on these resolutions. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolutions are adopted. Item 9B, please.

I HAVE A MOTION PROPERLY SECONDED ON THIS RESOLUTION. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BEFORE WE VOTE? ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. ANY OPPOSED? THE RESOLUTION IS ADOPTED. ITEM 9W, PLEASE.

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

Councilwoman Noll, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I want to make a motion to table until we can sort out the proper process for the renaming of the street. So I make a motion to table.

Do I have a motion properly seconded to table this item? Council, are there any other questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is tabled. Item 9Y, please.

We have a motion properly seconded on this resolution. Council, are there any questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? And the resolution is adopted. Before we move on to purchases, we've had a lot of board appointments. Are there any appointees in the audience this evening? I see Mrs. Goodman. Congratulations. And to any of the dozens of others who may be watching online, congratulations and thank you for your service to the city.

We have a motion properly seconded to approve these purchases. Councilwoman Burrs, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Weston, I just wanted to say thank you to your office. I had a couple questions about a couple of the items on purchase and sent a message, email to your office, or I think I sent it to somebody in your office and they got right back to me with more information. So I really appreciate it. It helped me learn a little bit more about the purchases before we got to today's meeting. So I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. Council, can I get a motion on the purchases? I'll do it. Okay. Forgive me. We have a motion properly seconded. Are there any questions, other questions or comments before we vote? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Motion approved. I actually don't need a motion on that one. It's an announcement. This is an announcement? Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you, Weston. Sorry, I thought it was an announcement. Okay, we'll go around the dais now for committee reports. We'll start with Councilwoman Noll.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No report, but I do want to do a correction. It was not the item 3 credit that printed that article wrong about changing of the data of Canada as it was the child and the doctor. Yeah, the child and the doctor. So I did go back and pull it off.

Okay, thank you. Councilwoman Dotley, you're recognized.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I do not have a report, but I did want to announce, I'm sure people have seen it in the news, the Wild Nut Street Bridge is reopening, and it is shared by myself and Councilwoman Hill, because we're the best, and the city is preparing for a major community celebration this Saturday from 12 to 3, so meet us on the bridge with your walking shoes and bikes and all the things. It's going to be a time.

All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilwoman Burrs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll have a planning and zoning planning, zoning and housing committee meeting next week, um, which we'll be reviewing the cases, planning cases that will be coming up on our agenda on the 13th. Um, and then we're going to be changing our planning and zoning meeting schedule a little bit with our new committee structure. We will have, um, with the new committee, a Planning, Zoning, and Housing Committee meeting on October 13th at 1230 in the J.B. Collins Room. And then the last thing that I wanted to say is I attended the Purchasing Department's Expo. Thank you all for i

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did have a marathon budget and finance committee meeting. I think it was started this morning. I don't know. Where we discussed budget amendments concerning police service center, holiday bonus for city employees, the WTCI endowment fund, Purpose Point Learning Academy, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and the Eastdale Collective. We did reach some consensus on the WTCI Endowment Fund, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and Eastdale Collective. They need a little bit more work ironing out some details on the Police Service Center and then the holiday bonus for city employees.

And in addition to bringing your walking shoes, I'd like to go ahead and tell the wedding industry in Chattanooga to get ready because I predict within a year we will have a wedding boom. And I also think our maternity wards ought to get ready. Because I think nine months out, I think people are psyched, and that is a bridge of love. Ronald's looking at me. You've got to take your girl over there. You never know what will happen. That's all, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Okay.

Councilman Harvey. No report, but I concur with Councilman Dolly and Councilman Hill as I ask my wife to marry me on the Longstreet Bridge. I propose there. So, yes, it is a bridge of love. Everybody come out.

be a good time yeah that's all councilman clark oh i will be on is that the new name for the bridge bridge of love well i need to stay away from the bridge of love because it is not in my stars um so this saturday well i do have a committee report um Chairman Davis from the Department of Public Works and Outdoors. One, we did celebrate the opening of the Bellevue Pavilion in Lake Hills this Saturday. It was a great success. Thank you again to the Department of Parks and Outdoors and to Militia and Tara Veland and Monica McKenzie, who made that possible, along with the Neighborhood Association

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. VICE CHAIR ELLIOTT. And that takes us to the portion of our meeting where we're happy to recognize members of the public who are here to address counsel on any topic. So if you're here for that purpose, if you would please come to the podium down front and listen while our attorney reads the rules. And as always, we just ask that everybody listens to and abides by the rules.

Okay. This period is not particularly for question and answer But if you wanted to stay afterwards if there's any council members who would like to talk with you they can do that, okay Is there anyone else here who would like to address the council this evening Motion properly seconded to adjourn all in favor aye