City Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. It's good to see everybody this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, we're now in the hands of our capable city clerk, Ms. Lisa.

This is the pre-meeting of the Mobile City Council Tuesday, July the 7th. We have approval of minutes from June 23rd and the 30th.

Any issues, anyone?

Okay. Appeals, we have requests for waive the noise ordinance on July the 18th from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Airport Boulevard. October the 10th. from 6pm until 10pm on Blacklawn Street. Public hearing today is the public hearing to fix the cost of demolition of structures at 1966 Halls Mill Road and fixing the cost of demolition, debris removal of structure at 1401 Vega Drive. Okay. Presentation of petitions and other communications to the council, Melvin Jones on request funding from the council for the field rental at Sage park. Jasmine Jasper provide information about Anisha Baker movement regarding community safety. And Reggie Hill requests various investigations rule, economic development and public safety. Consent resolutions held over 31714 authorize the mayor to apply, accept and receive a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the policy development and research programs automated permitting systems demonstration grant. No local match.

Mr. Reynolds.

Can somebody go into greater detail? I read what the small paragraph release or something on this grant. Can somebody go into greater detail of what the expectation would be for how we would use this grant?

Sure. Good morning. So there's a lot of national conversation regarding the need for single-family residential housing. and even more so affordable housing workforce, development housing, and then just simply a diversity of housing. throughout our country. And so this NOFA grant opportunity is asking municipalities and other jurisdictions that have a permitting process in place to explore AI as a solution to obstacles within the permitting process. So we have been working to identify opportunities with getting third party assistance to come in re-evaluate our process as it currently stands and particularly post implementation of some software solutions that we adopted several years ago. So with that this presents a great opportunity for us to utilize this funding stream to be able to offset costs there. But specifically, the way we see the process going is we would have an evaluation of our existing permitting process and identification of obstacles that are presented within the permitting process. And again, all of this is specific to single-family residential development. But as we understand where those human touch points are in the process, particularly in the plan review process, to permit issuance all the way to the need for a certificate of occupancy to see how to demonstrate how ai solutions can be utilized to reduce timelines reduce delays and really reduce any omissions um with the goal of trying to uh streamline uh permitting to to to support and encourage more single-family residential in our community the the request is six hundred thousand dollars it looks like

could have requested up to like 1.5 million.

You can. So why we landed on that number is what we don't want to do is bill a lot of staff time and grants. That gets super complicated. You can kind of see a lot of funding and budgets allocated towards staffing. We are working with the finance department right now to make sure that we have a robust budget to fill our staffing needs. But where we think that through the procurement of a software solution, there are many, many, many AI solutions that are out there. And so this process is going to help us vet to determine what's the best solution for us. And that's where we see the utilization of this funding for the first phase of this project is to help us to identify a technology AI solution to support us through the demonstration.

And do you have a company already in mind that if we were to get this award that you would engage with?

I've been contacted by many, many, many. But this process will require a federal procurement process. So it's not who Shayla gets to pick.

And as far as staffing goes currently in Build Mobile, is Build Mobile currently fully staffed with all of their positions, or do you all have some vacancies?

We have vacancies in the inspections department.

Inspections? Yes. Okay. What about in, like, the permitting?

Permitting, there are vacancies, but... The way we've been able to recruit the appropriate staffing that we need and to promote that, that is an area that we stay focused on. But our critical need is in this inspections realm. But I think what this grant will also help us to understand is where there may be opportunities for greater staffing and how we plug that into this process. This does not eliminate an individual We have a pre-development process. We have a 16,000 permit volume. That's a pretty significant volume. So the hope is that this solution will help us be able to better wrap our arms around allowing the contracting and development community the ability to move smoothly through our steps.

And so you say 16K, that's an annual permitting?

That was 2025. an estimate.

Okay. And that includes like the bulk permitting as well, your right-of-way permitting?

Yes, it does.

Mr. Woods.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a quick question. Going into this, we mentioned this was obviously the need for residential. Should we acquire this or should you get this grant? Is it also applicable to more commercial as well as far as the process or what is that?

100%. While this is focused on single family residential, the process transfers into commercial development as well. What we find is the larger scale projects stint tend to stay on track. They've got a lot of professional design professionals that support them all the way through the process. It's those smaller commercial projects projects where we see opportunities for growing in our small business arena where this could be applicable to commercial as well.

Anyone else? Thank you so much.

And I will say, you know, good Lord willing on my knees praying we get this grant. But what this has allowed us to do is to develop a good strategy where we can put forth an RFP process. We'll have to figure out what a funding stream would look like outside of this grant. But it gets us very organized and it's building upon things that we had already started with with evaluating our process.

I'm sorry, Mr. President. You said we'd have to find a funding stream outside of this grant process. You mean once the grant expires?

That's assuming we don't get it.

Oh, assuming we don't get it. Right, yeah. There's a desire to pursue that anyway.

To pursue this process in a way that's outside of this federal grant, yes.

Thank you. All right, Madam Clerk.

Resolutions held over. 01707, agreement with CSX Transportation for Shipyard Road boat launch. 08708, approved purchase order North American Fire Equipment Company for Hamaltro Trench Rescue Equipment. 08709 approved purchase order to North American Fire Company for homologous equipment. 08710 approved purchase order to Dell Marketing for 50 Dell desktop computers. Consent resolution is being introduced, 09715, transfer funds from District 3 discretionary account to account for Oakdale Community Cleanup and Unity Day Mail Out. 37, 716, 717, and 718 approve Recommend approval to the ABC Board for issuance of a retail beer, table wine, off-premises only license to Lois Grocery and Market on Plum Street. For issuance of a retail beer, table wine, off-premises only license to the People's Room, St. Francis Street. For issuance of a special events retail liquor license to Inflatable Night Grown Up Edition on Hillcrest Road.

Mr. President?

Yeah, Mr. Woods.

And I talked to Shonda about the 37-718. The application, I mean, this obviously is for a city-sponsored event, a city-produced event, with hours of 7 o'clock p.m. to 10 p.m. But the alcohol license for Medal of Honor Park is from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Um, I don't know if, uh, and again, um, you know, I was told that we're only going to be selling alcohol. The alcohol is only gonna be sold from 7 to 10. I don't know if there's a modification we need to make or if we'll just go off of, we're only going to sell it, allow them to sell it from 7 to 10. And I just wanted to point that out that, um, you know, I don't want to set a bar up in Bellevonne or Park at 9 a.m.

So we can just amend it. I'm in the approval to those hours. Okay.

If possible, I'd like to amend it just to match up that seven to ten.

Okay.

Madam Clerk.

4719 and 720 are fixing the costs for the demolitions at 1966 Halls Mill Road and 1401 Vega Drive. 6721 through 728 are determining appropriations to Next Level Moxie, Opportunity for Entertainers, Mobile Christian School, Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc., Forest Hill Elementary, John Will Elementary, Archer School, Mobile Arts Council, serve a public purpose and approve the payment. Resolutions being introduced 08729 approved purchase order to Carwin Equipment for compact track loader for stormwater department $95,660.80. 08730 Approved purchase order to Graybar Electric for decorative aluminum light poles with cross arms and light fixtures, $20,336.30. 08731. Approved purchase order to Muse Software for subscription and implementation fee for Muse point of sale software, $20,000.00. 08732 approved purchase order to peach state truck centers for crew cab truck with a 26 foot dry van body $276,674 08733 approved purchase order to research electronics international for enhanced spectrum analyzer for detection of hidden electronic devices $15,500. 08734, approved purchase order to Samsung equipment for garbage truck with yard automated side load body. 398,360. dollars zero eight seven thirty five approved purchase order to simtech fire for one fixed cargo container flashover simulation one hundred eight thousand three hundred thirty two dollars 08736, approved purchase order to Ward International for two Freightliner crew cab trucks to dump body, excuse me, with dump bodies for stormwater department, $253,222. $21,737 authorized contract with Bill Smith Electric for lighting assemblies upgrades at Tremere Park, $288,175. $21,738 authorized contract with Chris Brewer Construction for 2026 Public Services storm drainage repair and maintenance, $1,432,149.36. Mr. President? Yeah, Vice? On this one, can we get the list of where these repairs will be made?

I'm sorry. I couldn't hear what you're saying.

Um, can we just get the list of where these repairs will be made?

Yeah, sure. We can, we can generate a list for district. Yeah. We have a, we have a pretty short list for each district right now. So there'll probably be more added on over time, but yeah, we can give you the preliminaries for sure.

Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks Matt.

Mr. President. Yes, Matt. Um, the, um, I know you said more will be added. Um, do we already have an idea or is this opportunity that we can suggest some places?

If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Okay, yeah.

Our hope is to fix everything. So, yeah, if there's something that's a concern, like the biggest thing that this contract is going to be used for is sediment removal in some of these ditches that are really, really backed up with sediment, inlet repairs, some of the catch basins that are cracked and causing erosion issues, repairing those, repairing ditch walls. So fundamental repairs, that's what this contract is about. So when you see things like that, I definitely want to know about them.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Madam Clerk.

21st.

21739, authorized contract with Finn Partners for marketing of Son of a Son of a Sailor exhibition, $90,000. 21740, authorized professional services contract with MGT Impact Solutions for comprehensive cost of services study for development-related user fees within Bill Mobile, $60,490. Mr. President. Yeah, Mr. Reynolds.

If we intend to improve the process surrounding permitting by way of this grant or other funding, wouldn't it be wise for us to improve the process and then evaluate our fee structure? That's your question? That's my question.

So I see this as pieces in a larger puzzle and one shouldn't stop while we're waiting on the other. So I appreciate your comments regarding improvements to the process and know that that's something that we're always focused on and will continue to be. focused on that's how you ensure that you're working toward an efficient process. So part of what this will do is help us to understand where we have gaps in terms of staffing as it relates to the fees that were charged. So what the user fee study will will analyze is it will give us an understanding of our current fee structure. And where we have, we believe significant deficits when you compare that up against the staffing that it takes to get a permit approved. So at the end of the day, I don't see the benefit in waiting on the user fee fee study because for me that the two should work hand in hand, and they should fit hand and glove together.

know don't what if their work is for nothing like you know they evaluate our processes currently and then give us this product that says you need to charge more for this or you need to restructure this city for that and then we've got our work product from them and then we say hey we're gonna change the way we're doing this all together where you know we're going to be more efficient in many ways because we've implemented AI or some new software or whatever it is. I mean, it doesn't that sort of make the work product from this $60,000 contract somewhat obsolete?

No, so what you're going to get at the end of the day is a series of recommendations and they will communicate to us essentially how we get to an optimum level of permitting and what fees we need to tie to that process. A good example would be they benchmark your community amongst other similarly sized communities in your region. So they are looking at your staffing levels to see how they match up with your permits and then how they compare to other communities. What I think stood out for us with this particular company is it's also helping us to identify what priority areas that we need to spend more attention on with regard to how we're funding things. So as we're working through an analysis of our permit workflow in another area, it could potentially say that we have a deficit. And I'm just for an example in the land disturbance process. and what it's taking to complete that review to the point of issuing a permit, to the point of getting a certificate of occupancy to close out that project. So then analyzing that workflow will help us to understand that we may have a deficit of staffing in that particular area. and then it'll help us to better understand is our fee commensurate with the time that it's taking to issue that permit. So the way that I see it, the two things running parallel is a benefit and not, I don't, the rationale that we should wait until we're moving toward a process improvement plan, we should always be working on process improvement. So if we're waiting on that to be complete, in order to start a study, then when do you start the study?

Well, I just don't want to waste the money in doing it. That's all. I just think it's wise not to waste the money and get a work product that's a useless work product, and we modify our processes shortly thereafter. So that's all I want to do is avoid doing that. And I want to avoid... fees that are unnecessary charging more than what's necessary to make this instead of just covering costs actually like making a profit or making money to put back in the general fund i kind of want to avoid doing that i want to be encouraging of you know more construction so on and so forth so if if we do it the way that is has been put forward the risk is high because government doesn't remove taxes The potential is high that you get a new fee structure put in place and then you come up with some AI or other solution that makes the process more efficient. And now you're charging more than what is actually needed to cover your costs. So that's the worry, I guess.

I hear you. But I would say we should also be concerned when we're thinking about our governmental process with permit fees being subsidized by other operating costs. And I think that's a concern that we should all be thoughtful about. Because right now, you know, probably not the best example, but folks flare up all the time over fence permits. Someone has installed a fence on their property line and it's encroaching on their property. We get a complaint. We go out to determine if a fence permit was secured. There's a lot of work that goes into that. A fence permit is $5. So that's where Our operating costs are eating into the staffing that it takes to issue a $5 fence permit. And the other concern that I have is we believe in the permit fee that is used to support the South Alabama Home Builders Academy. I'm not certain if we continue in this direction that you're going to yield the result that's needed to be able to fund that entity appropriately.

What do you mean by that?

We've looked at the numbers based on what that fee will generate, and it does not match up with the performance contract that was issued.

Yeah, we got a report on that. And I think just based on the numbers of permits issued that would apply to the ordinance we passed, over the past or the previous three years, I think that's been found to be satisfactory if the trend continues. But the nature of that sort of deal, which is a five-year deal, is that it's going to ebb and flow based on the productivity of permitting. That's known.

Well, I think that there are other priorities. I mean, the council has expressed priorities with regard to bolstering development in our community. And what we hear from our stakeholders, the developers, the contractors, the engineers, is the permit fee is low by comparison to all the communities that we do business in. So if you need to raise that fee in order to ensure that you've got the optimal staffing and the services and the technology that you need, then we would support that. And so, again, what this report will provide you with is a recommendation, but I think also out of it you're going to get an understanding of some key priority areas where we need to support our efforts.

I've received some. We're about to beat this one to death. It's on first rate. We've got a whole other week. The feedback I received is that there are a lot of folks that maybe don't mind paying a little bit more. But what they absolutely object to is paying more for the same product that they're getting currently, that there's some dissatisfaction amongst many. We learned this during the campaign. This is not something that's unknown to everyone. There's some dissatisfaction with the time it takes to get these things done or the complex nature of it all that takes so much time that they just don't want to pay more for the same product. that if we're just going to get the same output, why charge more? There's no business that operates that way that if you don't have the best product, typically you can't charge more for it.

I could appreciate that comment if this fee study was being advanced without other initiatives that we're working on. And I can name a few of those things and what they look like. I could understand that perspective. But I think, again, this is a piece in the puzzle, I think a necessary piece in the puzzle, as we are working toward evaluating and assessing where we are with the goal of process improvements. And I know that there's not a weight to complete this any other analysis to to decide where we need to make some modifications or changes the goal is that they're moving in parallel so that you so that the council can be confident that mayor can be confident and that the users that we interact with very every day will see those improvements as a justification as to why this fee the council chose to accept this fee study and the recommendations that it offers

Would it be the, let's just say this goes off flawlessly, these fees are evaluated. Okay. And we make improvements, you know, never mind. I think we've beat this one enough for now.

Okay. And I'll just end by saying this. The last time we did a comprehensive fee study was over 20 years ago.

Ms. Woods.

In regards to the Home Builders Academy, obviously we saw the numbers that were provided to us, and we do realize that at first it's probably not going to be matching the performance contract. But also, too, the way we increase that, the way we continue to fund that at a higher level is churning out permits. And the only way to churn out permits is to have the workforce to be able to build the houses. And then hopefully we somehow or another have a constructive and proactive working together permitting process. And then it doesn't take weeks and months to get a permit done. There's municipalities out here that, I talked with somebody last week, municipalities, there's a one-stop shop of getting a permit within 30 minutes. And I think that really, if we're doing this, we're funding a study to figure out if we're not charging enough for fees and we're doing an AI thing to try to figure out if there's some inefficiencies. I really think we, you know, I'm not saying I oppose any of these or both of these or all of these, but I guess what I'm saying is, is, you know, I really think we got to set a vision for where we want. What's our permitting process look like? You know, do we need somebody that, you know, you, you have a, you have a buddy whenever you come up to apply for a permit and you're assigned this buddy and this buddy helps you walk the file through and, you know, from start to finish instead of, you know, because I've heard stories of going for permitting or going to revenue or going somewhere. And it's just like, well, sorry, you don't have everything you need. And I've said this before, and this was kind of what my point was of putting services out into the city as we grow the city. You know, right now, my district's out almost to Jeff Hamilton Road. If you want to do business with the city of Mobile, a lot of times you have to come downtown from Jeff Hamilton Road. And then you got to you got to find a place to park downtown and you got to find what floor it is on. I mean, numerous times seeing people stand out in the atrium, staring at the TV, trying to figure out where they need to go. I just think that if we just need to cast a vision to say we we want to, you know, I liken it to Kim Hasty and 10 minute tags, I guess. So I just think that, again, I'm not opposed to any of this. I just think that, you know. In order to go places, you've got to cast a vision, and I just think that that's something that we probably need to use this process to cast. Thanks.

Yeah, and just to respond to that, President, wanting to – am I on? Am I on? There we go. You know, I do think it's important to cast a vision, and the – The vision for permitting, we cannot have a process that discourages development in our city. And talking to contractors, engineers, all the parties, developers that are involved in that process, speed is key. If you are dealing with a nationwide corporation and they're looking at investing in your general area and they know that it's going to take generally 18 months to build in your city versus nine to 10 months in a neighboring County or other municipality, we're going to lose business. We're going to lose development in that situation. So the, the vision in talking with our permitting department, Ms. Biko, it is to increase speed. It is to increase in efficiency. I think we also need to increase our ability to provide top tier customer service. So liaisons direct points of contact for, for, the customer, you know, the company, the builder, whoever that party is, having that singular point of contact so you're not wandering around the building looking for someone to talk to, you know that you call Karen or you call Jim, whoever that might be. you know it takes money to pay for that this this idea of taking a look at our processes processes understanding where we have deficiencies in personnel in technology products it is all a part of the vision of having a faster process that's more efficient and more friendly to the customer I do appreciate Ms. Biko's work on this. I personally think this $60,000 that we're talking about spending on this contract is absolutely integral to the entire process. And that's even if we do adopt an AI approach. program that helps users on the front end prior to submitting to the city to know that they have all the documents in place so that submission can go quickly you know this is a company that that reviews not just our processes and where we might have deficiencies or lack of personnel but they they're also aware of processes in other places so they can make those recommendations There's no doubt that we need – this is not a money-making venture for the city. We're not going to make so much money on permits that it's going back to the general fund. That is counter to the law when it comes to permits. All the money that if we do ultimately raise prices, which – Comparing us to local jurisdictions, we almost certainly will. We are low. We are very low compared to most of our neighboring jurisdictions. We're going to make sure that that money is applied in a way that actually improves the process. This is not just to get more money and people. It's to get more money and people and resources dedicated to the areas where we suffer the most so that we can make up the most ground possible. as far as efficiency and speed. So faster, more efficient, more friendly is the goal. And in my talks, we've all heard it on the campaign trail, and the truth is it's going to be more complicated at times, especially in historic districts in the downtown district, to build in Mobile than it is on some raw farmland in an unincorporated area. we still need to be fast. We still need to move at the pace of business. And, you know, that is the overall goal, making sure that our permitting department and land disturbance and everything in between moves at the pace of business and moves in a way that is friendly to the customer. We need more customers, we want more development, and we need to make sure we're able to treat people as valued customers instead of them standing in a stack of 100 people requesting information and nobody there in the office to answer them. That's not exactly where we are, but we need to make sure we have those liaisons, those people. And frankly, we need to make sure that we're providing the service that our developers need. So appreciate your point of view. And certainly that vision has to be cast and that's, That is generally the vision I've been casting towards, you know, Build Mobile and all the parties. Certainly when we have these findings and as we're developing these findings, we'll be talking to people from that building community to make sure they're a part of the process, they understand our goals, and we can understand their needs and desires. So I look forward to having that conversation as we go through this process. Mr. President.

Thank you. Mr. Spann and Vice President.

Thank you, Mr. President. As I heard my colleagues speak, Ms. Biko and the mayor, I agree with all of them. I think it's very important that we do both. I heard Ms. Biko say that we can do it at the same time, and I think it's the need. We all heard the complaints on the campaign and outside the campaign. But when I look outside right now, I'm looking outside this this window and seeing our city, we have a city like none other. We can't even compare what other cities are doing around us. You know, I think that that's why we need to look into this and find the best way because we need to be faster. But at the same time, the city is not dealing with what we're dealing with. It can't be compared. Nobody can look out their window and see what I'm seeing right now that's around us. So we got to be efficient. But at the same time, we need to study. We need to understand what other certain other cities that may be similar to us so we can get a vision and so we can move forward to make sure that we bring these business owners. So I think we can do both at the same time. Thank you, Mr. President. Vice.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Really appreciate that. your vision on this and everything you've said. And Shayla, thank you for your work. It's been a long time coming, as we all know, and just grateful to see that we are moving forward. The fees and processes, I see them as two different things, really. They'll work together, but it's two different things going forward. So I don't have a problem with either one of those being separate. I like the idea of the liaison. I've called them the concierge, the account manager, whatever. But we definitely need somebody to lead people through all of the processes so that they don't have to go, well, who do I see over here? Who do I see over here? Who do I see over there? Well, they tell me this and they tell me. You know, it gets really confusing and very frustrating for anybody doing a project. So I think this is really a step in the right direction. And I think we will see really good results. So thank you.

Anyone else? All right. Madam Clerk.

6741, authorized settlement agreement and release, mutual release announcements. Council?

Anything from the administration? Vice President?

Yeah, let's look at the resolutions that we can waive the rules on. Not that many today. 20, let's see, 08-730, 731, 733. That looks like it. OK. Anybody else?

OK. Everyone good? OK. I would like to make a motion to go under executive session under 35-25A-7A1. Can I get a second to go up under executive session, please? Second. Madam Clerk?

President Small.

Yes.

Vice President Gregory. Yes. Council Member Penn.

Yes.

Council Member Ingram. Council Member Reynolds. Yes. Council Member Fleming. Yes. Council Member Rule. Yes.

And we will reconvene at our 1030 meeting.