City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm calling our August 29th agenda meeting to order.

Oh, Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for another day, Father God, for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we pray and ask that you touch all the families that are here, that are represented here, Father God, that you bless my colleagues, that you bless the administration. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen.

Yes, Mr. President, I got a few things. The first thing is I'd like for us to look into the changing the contract between the city and ENTG. I did a little research and I think the contract goes back to 1959 in regards to the cutting down of the trees when ENTG comes in our neighborhoods and have to cut the trees down because they run through the power line. I would like for us to revisit that and put some stipulations on how ENTG is to do that going forward because If you looked at the way they did it this time, a bunch of people had to cut trees down because of the way that they were cut. An

So just for clarity, you're saying that the grandfather one can still exist, but they just got to come register?

if you remember there was no reporting We had no way to regulate them.

And while you're doing that, are we going to set a deadline for those grandfather people to have to come sign? Yes.

Appreciate it. Another one is, did we come up, did we finally resolve what we're going to do about security? I know we spoke about that, but it was never, at least I don't remember hearing what our final plan was. Are we going to renew with the company we have now? Is it another plan you have, Mayor?

We haven't come up with another plan yet, so we'll probably renew. We still have, even if we renew, we have the option to get out within 30 days, so. We just need to revisit that. We've been trying to get, obviously, that application in by the October 15 deadline.

Is it any way possible that we can put in there that we can cancel we can do month-to-month because the thirty days if we don't make up our mind let's say in thirty five days we locked into whatever the term of that contract is no the way the contract is set up at any time we can give thirty days notice okay I'll give thirty days notice all right gotcha okay okay gotcha... Do we still plan on revamping the smart codes I know we had a couple of meetings and the administration was busy at the time are we going to go back because I feel that the longer we linger we creating some other issues comi

Others are, we'd like for it to be more of a resolution and a guide for development as opposed to hardness because you come out with some unintended results when you do it that way.

What is our plan to deal with adjudicated properties? I know we spoke about it before, but now that CivicSource is gone, I get a lot of calls about adjudicated properties. I don't know what direction to point them in. Now, how are we going to handle them? Are we going to terminate the sale of them right now or

Yeah, right now we have a moratorium because we're figuring out what's the next route to go because apparently the way it was working with CivicSource, the people weren't getting clear titles to do what they wanted to do with the properties. Basically what we were doing was passing on the city's grass-cutting obligations to the property owners. I recently got appointed to the Senate Task Force on Blighted Property, and that's something that we're going to be addressing. Blighted properties, what to do with those, but also how to get adjudicated properties back into commerce. I had come up with

Okay with that being said is it possible that the council can get a list of city adjudicated properties because I run into a lot of problems when people call me about addresses is it a city property is it a a parish property so if we can get the council a listing of all of our adjudicated properties to keep on hand that would be pretty good let's see I think we have that okay okay the other thing is all right yeah I would like us to revisit again our ordinance on campers in the yard. There's still some vagueness. I rode around my neighborhood. As an example, 712 17th Street, they got a camper

Now, just for clarity, you say one on an unapproved surface. So can I have one on an unapproved and one on an approved? Yes. Okay. All right.

Gotcha. Gotcha. That's all I have at this time, Mr. President. Thank you. Mr. Bilbo.

But, Chief, the violation comes when your officer recognizes it, right, witnesses it?

I know what you're telling me. And just to clarify, Dr. Jackson, it's a noise ordinance for the 1 and 2. It's...

We've noticed that too, that there's been an increase of unhoused people. I don't know if they're unhoused or not, but people just hanging out on some of the benches in front of the businesses, kind of panhandling, some sleeping on the benches. We contacted the marshal's office. Their office is right down the street. And they've been sending out, I think, Marshal Bellow has been walking and asking people to move on and we've asked to find out if we can to find out where they're coming from too because we've gotten some reports we haven't verified yet that some people may be dropping unhoused p

That's one for, I think it's panhandling, but those are like at interstate areas along major arteries. If they're in front of a business, I'm not quite sure how that works because, you know, we've seen some places like at the Walmarts where you've seen people panhandling, but they're on private property. So that's a different.

I'm not quite sure because I don't want to say they're all homeless because I think there's just some people that just walk around and then they decide to stretch out. We're trying to get together and figure out exactly how to address that. We've been asking them to move on. The ones that are actually sleeping on the benches, we tell them that they absolutely cannot do that. But in terms of enforcement, like trying to arrest them, you run into space at the jails and whether the sheriff's office would even accept them. So we're trying to be, you have to be sensitive if there are people that are

Yeah, I'd like to get that out to the general public, too, because it's not just the downtown businesses. I know that we've been having a lot of complaints at some of the shopping centers, too, about this kind of situation.

Mr. Howard, before you move on, Mayor, if we can, in regards to what you just talked about the homeless, I stopped two people, not stopped them, stopped and talked to them. Some of these people are being relieved or removed from incarceration. because they're being let out with their big boxes of all their stuff, and they just stopping at the first bus stop or the first building and migrating. You know, one night they sleep here, one night they go to others. So that may be something we need to reach out to to

capsule parish the jail and see you know when those people are being released and do they have a destination because if they just letting them out to just go into the city and they don't have nowhere to go that problem is going to exacerbate itself yeah and you're right the one thing we find is that there's no two that have the same story so we have to it's going to probably be a more holistic look at it because everybody has their own unique circumstance why they're out there in the first place whether they're in-house, whether they're even traveling through the city. I ran across a a transpo

And Councilman, your timing is actually perfect because myself and Ms. Theory went down Railroad Avenue today from, I think it was from Bilbo Street to Kirkman to look at the condition of the roadway there and started identifying funds to go ahead and start an overlay process over there. But we did see some some bush hogging being done out there we saw some Union Pacific people out there and some look like some drainage pipes and stuff so we'll look down a little bit more into that because they have I think everything they the railroad controls everything from the track to a certain area and w

Mr. Harvey, before you move, because the same thing. I got a call from Mr. Harvey's constituent. Is there a rule and regulation of how long the railroads can block the street? There's this lady. I have to get her name. She's monitoring them. And she sent me on four different occasions where the train sat in the middle of... right behind Mount Pilgrim yeah right behind that tracks that run across Mount Pilgrim is that Kirkman Street it's Kirkman but the blockage is on Jackson so when they come in from the west they come across Kirkman Street and they go across to the back of Mount Pilgrim and t

I know years ago we were dealing with one of the exit, the railroad storage yard is by Shattuck Street, and one of the crossings they had over there, there was a lot of complaints because at night they'd have to blow their horns because once they get so many feet from a crossing they have to blow their horn and that's at a hundred decibels speaking of noise ordinances so we wound up closing that intersection because the reason why they were blowing so much was because the the main engine was switching out train cars over there but further down by by that church that should not be a that should

And I think the first thing is to is to identify the people that's doing that. It used to be where when people on their way to the scrap metal yards, they would drop tires off because that didn't wait.

And if they keep getting fined for prop, that's something that's not their responsibility, and we can't move the tires, then it's a quagmire there.

Well, sometimes we would put deer cameras when we had places where we knew there was a lot. I remember at one point, the intersection of Fitzgerald and Goss, somebody had actually taken out the street light at that corner, and we started seeing a bunch of tires, and we wound up putting deer cameras up there, and we found people. But what you also find is that when people go and change out their tires, they pay a disposal fee. But some of these shops are keeping that as profit because they're not disposing of the tires. I'll give you an example. When we did Riverside Park, we discovered in that

But you're putting the city at a great disadvantage because you don't know where they're going to drop the tires at.

And let me be clear, because we meet regularly with all of the Lake Charles City Council on agendas that's coming up before the council on items that we are considering. And we've sent invitations to all of the councilmen to come up and talk with us about that. And every time, consistently, we've had six councilmen come up. And the only one that does not attend these meetings are you. And may I finish? May I finish?

You sent us a request to write reports for you because you said you don't trust what we tell you. I don't do business like that. If we can talk on the 10th floor, if there's something that you need, let's do that. But we conduct our business on the 10th floor. We come down here and conduct business on the first floor. I'm not doing business by text. By email I want to sit down and talk to you about whatever your concerns are and whatever you need but if you're asking us to stop everything we're doing and generate reports to you things that we are meeting regularly with councilmen about I just

I disagree, Mr. President. Addressing it, as long as the council don't have to engage in it. If they just want to make some statements about it, that's totally different.

And point of clarity, I think that the rule has always been, and I think we misinterpreted it, the council can't engage in any discussion on anything that we got to vote on. But they can come and make statements about whatever they want to say. We don't have to engage in that.

to engage in a conversation about stuff. This is the way I read it to understand. To engage in something that we gotta vote on, that the council shouldn't engage on it until it come to vote. But if a citizen is in an agenda meeting, they can make statements about anything they wanna make a statement about. That's the understanding I have.

No, but we shouldn't have to vote if that's not what the vote says.

Nope. Did we get an answer back from HUD? Nope. I thought that item was deferred indefinitely to be heard back from HUD.

No, no, let him talk. Let him talk. That's what he's here for. Let him talk. I'm fine with it. Point of clarity. If this is going to be deferred indefinitely, can he do it properly now?

No, they can talk, but it takes the thing out if it's indefinitely.

Mr. President. Yes, sir. Can I speak? Sure. First of all, like I've always said, this council represents the whole city so everything going on in everybody's business in everybody's district is relative to this council case in point sports complex other people voted on that so with this I have a problem when we give out false information when councilman's go out and give inaccurate information that could be supported by facts I went with those residents to the architect got permission from the mayor before I went and talked to him went wait no no yes I did yes I did mayor I came and I told you

What is the problem with people stating their opinions? She did. Okay, but the way it's being handled.

Just to give a little clarity, Mr. Andrews called me about that and that's what I spoke with Emily about when Emily told us that the new system that took over and they had about 100 residents that went through what he went through. When speaking with Mr. Andrews, I explained to him what Emily had told us about that and they said they had those names at the water system and they knew who the residents was. I think you went up there and spoke with him. Right, right. Yes, sir. And the problem he had was his bill ran so long And even if they weren't, at some point, they stopped taking the money. S

He understands he had to pay the bill because he got water all that time. Yes. He wanted a breakdown of how did his bill get to that amount. What was he charging? Because he lived by himself. Right. He's a single resident. You know, if your bill, I live by myself. My bill at max is $40.

So that's what he's trying to explain. Right right that's that's that's what I'm trying I mean it's sixty dollars six hundred dollars a year four years you know you could be twenty five four twenty five hundred yeah so yeah yeah but he's a single resident right yeah but it always started from the the last the transfer over from the old system to the new system is what they saying what I call the water company they said that company wasn't drafting the money

So who can help him? This is the first time here. I will get together with Mr. McDane tomorrow, but I think we can figure this out.

So Chief, just one question. What is the fine line between the laudering, when does it become laudering?

I would not do that because you're inviting the public to your place, so they can be misconstrued as to who has permission and who doesn't.

You submitted a public record request. The city responded, right? Yes. In the timely fashion that they were supposed to respond? Yes. They gave you the information? Okay, and something was missing? Yes. Absolutely. And did the city respond to you?

So help the council to understand, what does the stop order say?