City Council - Regular Meeting

Mr. Dwayne Prince Holmes, Jr., would you come forward and have a seat here, and anybody else who wishes to stand around him can do so. Thank you, Dwayne, for being here today. United Fellowship. United Fellowship. I'm going to ask Elise Williams, as a member of United Fellowship Church, I don't want to put you on the spot, but you're welcome to come. Okay.

What's your thing again?

0-4. 0-4-1-2-5-8. Not a total world. Not a total world. It's good to see everyone. And you can balance it all. But we're going to take the picture on this side eventually. But he is going to take some pictures now. Ms. Williams. Yes, representing United Fellowship and the family. I have a proclamation today that I'll read first before I ask Mr. Dwayne Prince-Holmes to comment, and it's a proclamation recognizing his work, especially with Youth Building New Orleans, but also his contributions to our city and our region as someone who's concerned and wants to work especially with youth, but he's in a committed person relative to this city. And so whereas Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. is the executive director of Youth Rebuilding New Orleans and a proud Algiers native who has dedicated more than 15 years to strengthening communities across Greater New Orleans through affordable housing, workforce development, youth mentorship, environmental resilience, and disaster recovery. And whereas, and it's a little bit lengthy, but I want to read it to everybody because Mr. Holmes has done so much. Whereas Dwayne Prince Holmes began his journey with YRNO as a volunteer before advancing to intern, assistant construction manager, and ultimately executive director, a position he has held for nearly a decade. Whereas Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. has a leadership that reflects a deep commitment to empowering young people, expanding access to affordable home ownership, and building stronger, more resilient neighborhoods. And whereas over the past decade, Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. has mentored more than 60 young people annually, connecting them with long-term employment opportunities, skilled trade training, financial literacy education, leadership development and pathways to home ownership and through his guidance countless youths have been given have gained the tools and confidence needed to build successful careers while giving back to their communities and whereas under Dwayne Prince Holmes leadership Youth Rebuilding New Orleans has completed 15 affordable housing projects, including both home renovations and new constructions throughout the Bayou St. John, Lower Ninth Ward, and Seventh Ward communities. And whereas recognizing the growing impact of climate change and aging infrastructure, Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. has expanded Youth Rebuilding New Orleans' mission to include environmental resilience and green infrastructure. And during the past three years, he has led efforts to plant more than 100 trees and completed over 30 green infrastructure projects. and whereas Dwayne Prince Holmes, Jr. has coordinated thousands of volunteers following hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, organizing debris removal, home gutting, cleanup operations, and emergency recovery services, now therefore be it resolved by the City of New Orleans that the New Orleans City Council today recognizes Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. at my request and is signed by all seven members of the New Orleans City Council. It's great to see you here today, and it's also great to see family, friends, church members in support. I'm glad to see you all here today. So I'm going to ask us all to give a round of applause to Dwayne Prince Holmes Jr. Mr. Holmes, and then we're going to hear from a couple of family members and also Elise representing United Fellowship. Mr. Holmes.

Family want to speak first?

I would.

They got to get a chance. Well, we're going to hear from you, and then they'll respond to you. Go ahead. 100%.

Well, good morning, everyone. First, I need to honor and thank God for placing me in this position. and it's a true honor. I want to thank all my family and friends, church members, for coming out and supporting me during these times. I need to give a special acknowledgement to Bob Whitman. He is our board president, the Utah Building New Orleans board president. He saw something in me at the age of 17 that I didn't see in myself. I had no business degree. I didn't have all the fancy accolades of my colleagues, but he saw the passion and the love that I have for community for people. And he identified me as the executive director of Youth of New Orleans at the age of 23. So I appreciate you, Mr. Bob. All your love and your support. I'm honored to receive this proclamation and I accept it with sincere gratitude. I am blessed with the opportunity to lead at YRNO. Youth Development New Orleans provided a platform where I could create and be the change that I wish to see. Being able to point to the community by providing job opportunities, teaching skills, cultivating young leaders while honoring our neighborhood by showing love to those in need. I've never done this work for recognition or applause. I do this because I believe communities deserve hope, young people deserve opportunities, and neighborhoods deserve people who are willing to serve with love and consistency. Receiving this proclamation tells me that those efforts have been seen, and for that I thank you. At the same time, I cannot accept this honor without respecting my truth. While the city recognizes my service, I've also endured one of the darkest chapters of my life because of the poor investigation skills by New Orleans 8th District Police Department and the misuse of facial recognition technology by Caesars Casino. I was publicly accused of something I did not do. My name, my face, reputation, and character was put on display, causing harm to me, my family, and an organization that can simply not be undone. To this day, there has yet to be any acknowledgement, apology, or correction of harm caused by Caesars or New Orleans Police Department. I didn't come here to police blame, but I do ask for accountability and meaningful change. So one of the policies that I wish to see is before someone's face is shared publicly in connection with any alleged crime, there should be a thorough investigation and evidence. And when mistakes happen, because mistakes do happen, agencies should be just as committed to correcting them as they were in making the accusation. We should ask ourselves where the resources are best spent expanding surveillance or strengthening the communities we want to protect. Investing in our young people Neighborhood programs, education, and violence prevention does more to build lasting public safety than technologies that have been shown to be disproportionately misidentifying people of color. Today, I accept this proclamation with gratitude and also with the hope that my experience can lead to change. so that no one else can endure what my family and I have endured. I ask the city to remember that recognizing service should never replace correcting injustice. Thank you for this honor, and thank you all for listening.

Thank you, Mr. Holmes, and your services are appreciated, greatly appreciated. And, you know, the issues that you addressed, we certainly, as a city, want to make sure that people are treated fairly. But I'll go into the family, and then we'll come back to the discussion. I'll start with Elise, member of United Fellowship.

Good morning.

Tell us where United Fellowship is. Let the public know.

United Fellowship is in District D, 2401 Annette Street. Everyone should come. We have service on Sundays at 730 and 930, so it's a great service. You'll definitely be blessed if you come in. was not prepared to give remarks, so please know that this comes from the heart, Prince, when I say that I met Prince through United Fellowship, and our first interaction was helping kids, helping the youth ministry at the church, so I'm very blessed to be learning from him and growing in how to interact with kids, how to be a good role model for them, and I thank you for being that example, not just for me, but for all of the young adults who are coming up in UFC who have to bring in these kids. We have a great... population of youth at the church. So thank you for being that model for us. And, you know, I hope that this acknowledgement is only one step in, you know, your joy returning. That's it. And the joy for your organization returning as well. And that's what I have to say. Thank you so much, Council Member Green.

Okay. Thank you, Elise. Yes, thank you.

Good evening, good morning everyone.

You said good evening.

I'm sorry, good morning. It's been a hard night. Listen, God is good and I truly love him and I thank you so much for allowing my nephew this opportunity to express his gratitude to serving the city and the people of New Orleans and you having him here to present him with your honor and recognition. Duane Prince Home is exemplary as a model, as a young adult model in the community, in the home, in the family, in the church. United Fellowship pastored by Pastor Brandon M. Boutin is his uncle, and we're very proud of Prince because he displays the character that we want most of our young adults to display in this city to help our city be better and well-informed and practice good citizenship. In the recent experience that Prince did speak about, it's honorable that he would present it to you in a professional manner so that it would help others and our city to be more accurate in our declarations of people's innocence or non-innocence. We thank you so much for having the listening ear to hear what he has to say and what his experience has been. We hope that it will be a benefit to the city and all young adults. Thank you so much for your service and for having us. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. And thank you very much. You're welcome. Tell us who's with you for a second. Let's just, come on, for the record, a lot of people are watching. Just state your name and if you're affiliated with the youth rebuilding or with the church or just family members, just tell us real fast. Okay. Great.

Tammy Mark, Princess Mike, my boxing coach. Princess, your boxing coach?

Well, let me add this to the proclamation. You're a boxing coach, too? I didn't have that in here. Go ahead.

Okay.

Jasmine Petty, neighbor and recipient of Youth Rebuilding New Orleans Services.

Great. Kristen Johnson, I'm a member of UFC as well.

Minister Joseph Johnson, I'm a member of UFC and a friend of Princess's.

Good to see you, Minister.

That's Desmond Holm. That's his brother.

Oh, okay. Good to see you, Desmond.

I am Reverend Candace DeSales. I am Prince's aunt.

Okay.

My name is Joan Rose Robinson. I met Prince at my job, so I consider Prince my loving son.

You said you met him at your job and what?

Where I work.

Okay. Good. I just want everybody to know, and I want them to hear, that he's brought such an array of family members and friends and church members here in support.

Darian Dyson, lifelong friend as well, and I'm really happy in the leadership he has in the community.

Okay.

Melissa Given, he's a friend of mine and also a partner with the Regional Planning Commission as we wrap up our Louisiana Watershed Initiative as well as our Climate Adaptation Planning, Long Range Plants. He's provided a lot of good information about how to engage the workforce development with our youth and our emerging industries as we look to grow as a region.

Good. Thank you.

I want you all to pray. Hold it.

Mr. Coley. I'm Darryl Holmes. I'm Prince's brother. My brother is an exceptional leader, man. I hope everything that's been said does not go on deaf ears. He's an exceptional leader, like I said, and I just want justice for my brother. We are definitely appreciative of the prestigious award he just received, but Please hear everything that he said, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Harris, this is Mr. Dwayne Prince Holmes. He is the Executive Director of Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, and he's involved with youth and his church on multiple levels, and I just want you to, if you wish to say anything to Mr. Holmes.

Mr. Holmes, I know and understand what happened, and I just want to thank you for being here today, and I want to thank all of your supporters for being here today as well. I know it's tough, but you're strong, and we'll all get through it. So thank you for being here.

Thank you all very much for coming. We're going to do a photo with Mr. Holmes in the middle. We're going to surround him. We're going to take a picture so that we have the seal in the background. So come on this side, if you will. Yeah.

Thank you.

Transcend Louisiana, Sarah Jane. Come on down. Are you waiting?

Okay, you want to do it now? Okay, great.

Yes, please, please, please sit at the dais. Council Member Green. All right, good morning. Good morning. Many of my favorite people are sitting in front of us today.

Do you want to go ahead and introduce yourselves? Yes, good morning. Thank you so much for having us, Council Member Harris. My name is Sarah Jane Guidry, and I'm the Director of Policy and Ag. Excuse me for one second. Everyone, if you could, if you could, Council Member Green.

I'm going to keep myself on the line.

All right, if you start over. Yes. Good morning. Thank you so much, Councilmember Harris, for having us. My name is Sarah Jane Guidry, and I'm the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Crescent Care. We're a federally qualified health center, and we're really fortunate today to have our Transcend cohort that is here with partnership of Louisiana Trans Advocates. And it is in its second year, and we're very excited to have also our partners, Britain, I'll actually let you guys introduce yourselves.

Yeah, Britain Forsyth, you know me as the team from the Workers' Bill of Rights that's lobbying you for something else right now, and a trans advocate in the community.

Good morning, Monique Blossom, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center. We're really proud to work in coalition with these good folks at the legislature and here locally as well.

And then we have our Star Transcend member.

Hi, yes, my name's Nola, cohort member. Happy to be here with the council and all of these lovely and talented people that I get to work with.

Great, thank you. Transcend Louisiana is a six-month advocacy and leadership training initiative developed by Crescent Care in partnership with Forum for Equality and Louisiana Trans Advocates. It's designed to give trans plus individuals across Louisiana the tools, knowledge, and skills to create meaningful change in their communities through legislative advocacy. This is more than just a training program. It's about building a community of empowered trans plus leaders ready to change and advocate for equity, justice, and systemic change. So I just want to please want everyone to join me in thanking Transcend Louisiana's leadership cohort and Crescent Care Forum for Equality and Louisiana Trans Advocates for their extraordinary commitment to building a stronger, safer, and better Louisiana together. And we do have a proclamation. Councilmembers, would you like to say anything? Councilmember Green.

I like the way you said that. You know I was going to say that. I know, always. First, I'm so pleased. I want to start off with Crescent Care. You know, Crescent Care has a strong presence in the district that I represent. But just in general in our community, in areas that would be difficult for people to get services in if there were no Crescent Care. So I just want to tell you that I appreciate that. I appreciate any time that I have an opportunity to go to the building for an activity. activities that I know are reaching people who would not be so comfortable walking into some of the other medical facilities. So I'm trying to parse my words and just use it correctly by just saying thank you for that. And transcend, you have an important role to enhance education, to also enhance opportunities, and to promote people understanding, you know, what the world involves. So I just want to thank you for what you're doing, Transcend, and also Crescent Care, and thank Councilmember Harris for bringing you fall to be recognized today.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I very much appreciate that. Council Vice President Willard.

Thank you, Councilmember Harris, for bringing this esteemed group forward. I've had the privilege of working with most of you in the city council as well as in the legislature. So I know individually you all are mightyful, and collectively you all are a force to be reckoned with. So keep up the great work, and proud to have a relationship with all of you. Thank you.

And just thank you for being here today. I know it's early, but we do have a proclamation if you'd like to take a photo. Yes. All right. Thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you. My daughter picked that one. She was like, that's you. Good morning. Ready to start? All right. Previous.

All right, good morning, everyone. We're going to start the French Quarter Economic Development District meeting.

Roll call. Council Member Willard? Here. Council Member Morell? Here. Council Member McCarran? Here. Council Member Harris? Here. Council Member King?

Here.

Council Member Green?

Here.

Council Member Hughes? We have six members. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ms. Carso?

Let me do this real quick.

Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reports of the French Quarter EDD Trust Fund. Michelle Carso, Executive Director of the French Quarter Management District. Christine Bondo, Board Chairperson of French Quarter Management District. Board of Commissioners, a report on the fiscal and operational administration of the French Quarter Economic Development Trust Fund. Item two, we have motion M-20-26-02 by District Member King. Consideration of a motion to authorize District Member Freddie King III and in the event of his absence, District Member Leslie Harris as representatives of the French Quarter Economic Development District to execute future legislative instruments cooperative endeavor agreement, and other documents related to the governance and operation of the French Quarter EDD, the FQEDD.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. This is a housekeeping motion to reappoint myself and Councilmember Harris as authorized representatives of the FQEDD, which will allow us to execute any future legislative instruments, CEAs, or other documents related to the governance and or operation of the FQEDD. We pass a motion to the same effect in the last term that simply reauthorizes us as representatives for the duration of the current term of this move of adoption. Second by Council Member Harris. All in favor, please say aye. I have five, six ayes, six yays, no nays. Motion's adopted. Any nays? Hearing none, okay. Motion's adopted. Madam Clerk.

Ms. Corso, you can go with your presentation.

Good morning. I'm Michelle Corso, Executive Director for French Quarter Management District. We have the operational and fiscal oversight responsibility for the French Quarter Economic Development District funds. That is the quarter for the quarter tax. This is our second quarter report. We are pleased to share that we are collecting more taxes, thank you to the city, for quarter one and quarter two. We are at 56% of what we anticipated this year and a little bit lower at 35% for the expenses thus far. The expenses largely are low just because of timing of different projects that we ensue, so you'll see those numbers go up in subsequent quarters. The purpose of the French Quarter Economic Development District is to provide funding for supplemental patrols, public safety, and attend to homelessness in the quarter. These are the key performance indices for the supplemental patrols. All of these patrols really look good. You'll see the numbers have significantly exceeded the expectations for citizen contacts, business checks, and all of the KPIs are above where we anticipated. Additional categories that we track, you'll see all of those numbers there. Again, by and large, the supplemental patrols, those are those blue lights that you see that go all throughout the French Quarter, are there to be responsive to the incidents in the quarter, be proactive in deterring any safety concerns, and being a direct link to the citizens and businesses that we support. You'll have in front of you our French Quarter Task Force app. This is one of those tools that is paid for by this quarter for the quarter tax. This is the residents and businesses direct link to those supplemental patrols. On average, we're looking at five minutes or less. I believe, excuse me, six minutes is the average that we have for the first six months of 2026 in terms of response time. But we are actively promoting this right now to our businesses, the employees in the quarter, and certainly the residents as well. One of the, while we have Covenant House as our contractor or vendor for our youth homeless outreach, we are also in coordination with the Office of Homeless Services with Dr. Vagno's team and Taylor Dials. We will be starting the tag team approach. It's simply a replication of the Home for Good plan last summer to have a Office of Homeless Services professional go out with one of our patrol officers Literally 24-7. There's some variations of that. But we will be starting that probably August 1st. Those positions are posted right now. I know Dr. Avegno is anxious to get those positions filled so that we have some good reporting to give for you for next month. Finally, we are in our budget process right now, as are so many departments across the city. We are seeking engagement from our partners in DPW for those public safety issues, with NOPD certainly for what they need for the supplemental patrols, and certainly Dr. Avegno's team for what their needs are for 2027 for homelessness. And so we always seek input certainly from our council members and also from the city on what other things you want to see in 2027's budget. I'll take any questions that you have.

Any questions? I want to really quick ask Captain Palumbo, the overall safety of the crime in the quarter, what is it looking like for someone on the streets?

So overall, we're about 26% down. That equates to 17% down on the violent crime side and about 24% down on the property crime side. The only category that we've seen an increase in on the person's crime side is aggravated assaults. We're roughly 22 this year going against 18. So that's an increase of four crimes. All 22 of those have been solved. So there's either an arrest made or a warrant issued. On the property crime side, thefts and shopliftings are what drives our downward trend. We have seen increases in business burglaries as well as residents and simple burglaries. However, if you look at business burglaries, we're 20 going against 10. If I go back to 2024, that number was at 30. So we had a major decrease last year, and we have been at 20 for about four weeks now. So although we're up for the year, the trend over the last four weeks... is a reduction. You see the same thing with auto theft and auto burglary. While we're up for the year, the trend over the last month is down, and that's attributed to many of the arrests that have been made, not only in the 8th District, but we did have a crew that was hitting the 8th, the 2nd, and the 6th, and we worked in coordination together to make apprehensions on those.

Well, I believe that's it for comments. That's it. Nothing else?

Nothing else from us.

All right. I make a motion to adjourn. Council of Vice President Willow, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? No no's. Six yays. Motion to adjourn. Thank you.

James, let the clerk know that Matt's running the meeting. I don't know if Crystal told him.

What's up? Hello. This is your binder. Hi.

Hi.

I'll be back with...

Wait, wait. Look at my mug.

Can we start?

But this museum was batshit crazy. It's like a castle. Crazy castle.

Thank you.

She knows. Okay, cool. Courtney had a meeting yesterday.

Hey, good morning, everybody. We're trying to troubleshoot some IT issues before we get started. We appreciate your patience.

Roll call. Council President Moreau.

Here.

Vice President Willard. Council Member McCarran. Here. Council Member Harris. Here. Council Member King. Here. Council Member Green. Here. Council Member Hughes. We have six members. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Today's invocation will be given by Elder James Simmons with the Greater Zion Field Family Worship Center.

Thank you, sir. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts acknowledging that every good and perfect gift comes for you. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather here in service on today for the people of the city of New Orleans. Father, we recognize that leadership is both an honor and a sacred responsibility. And we ask for your divine wisdom and your presence to guide every decision made in this chamber on today. Father, we pray and bless that you will bless every member of this council, the mayor, city officials, department leaders, and every public servant who works to improve the lives of the residents of this great city. Father, we pray that you will grant us discernment, wisdom, and the integrity to do what's right. encourage us to make difficult decisions, and the compassion to serve every citizen with fairness and with respect. So Father, we lift up the people of this city, the families, the businesses, the educators, the healthcare providers, the police officers, and the volunteers who make this city resilient and strong. So, Father, protect this historic city from our hurt, our harm, and our danger. Bless the police officers once again, the firefighters, the EMS personnel, O God, and all who place themselves in harms to keep us safe. So, Father, as this meeting begins, may your words be thoughtful and our actions honorable and our service pleasing unto your sight. Let all that is accomplished on today contribute to the place and the peace and the prosperity and the well-being to the citizens of the city of New Orleans. We ask these and all blessings in your holy name and the people of God say amen. Amen.

Thank you, Elder James. The pledge will be led by Councilmember Harris. Members, we're having IT issues, as you all know, so today we're going to do voice votes, unless we get the system back up and running.

At the top of page one, we have approval of the minutes for the meeting of June 4th, 2026 and June 24th, 2026. I'll move.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six yeas, zero nays.

Consent agenda. We have a communication from Aaron Spears. This may be received. We have a communication from Joseph I. Jerusalem III. This may be received. We have a communication from Russell Kelly. This may be received. We have a communication from Amy B. Trepanier. This may be received. We have a communication from Jonathan Wisby. This may be received and referred to the Budget Committee. We have a communication from Jeffrey Swartz. This may be received. We have a communication from Jesse Evans. This may be received. We have a report of Elizabeth Holman. This may be received. We have a report of Robert D. Rivers. This may be received.

Hearing date 7-23-26.

We have a report of Alyssa Ramble. This may be received. We have a report of Micah Inch. This may be received. We have a report of Kaylin Temerick. This may be received. We have Ordinance Calendar 35,453 by Councilmember McCarran. Zone and Docket 2526. We have ordinance calendar 35,454 by Councilmember Harris, municipal address 420 Julia Street, zoning docket 2626. We have ordinance calendar 35,471 by Councilmember Green, Transportation Committee recommended approval. We have Ordinance Calendar 35481 by Councilmember King by request. Criminal Justice Committee recommended approval. We have Ordinance Calendar 35482 by Councilmember King by request. Criminal Justice Committee recommended approval. Councilmembers, we need to suspend the rules to receive motion M26270 by Councilmember Willard.

I move. Seconded by Councilmember King. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six yays, zero nays.

We need the vote to add to consent agenda.

So moved, seconded by Councilmember King. All in favor? Aye. Six yays, zero nays.

We have motion M26270 by Councilmember Willard. Community Development Committee recommended approval. This is all matters on consent agenda.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. I have two cards. One is from Herman Joseph. You can come up to the podium and speak. You'll have two minutes.

First of all, I'd like to give obedience to God, and I appreciate y'all being our new leadership. My name is Herman Joseph. I was born in 1955, let you know I've been here a while. Therefore, my subject today is guns and violence. Growing up in the Desire Housing Project, it's gonna take me one minute to tell you. We need a gym, we need direction, and we need people who have been through experience to help people that are broken, to be their voice. If you love me and you care about what God have done for you, we team up with Gumbo. We from the city called Gumbo. We got to help every district. We got to iron up. We got to put our differences aside because people are dying daily. I worked at the Desire Community Center. I played for the football team. I also was in Melanie Boy's home. I'm a historian. And I played music for y'all on Second Line Sunday. I'm the bottle man. I care about kids. I don't care about politics. I don't care about nothing. I care about reaching. Iron sharp and iron. That's my minute. I don't need nothing else. If you care, Article 3, Section C. If you tear it down, you rebuild it. And our center needs to be built because I'm tired of seeing people die for nothing.

Thank you, Mr. Joseph. Russell Kelly, you have two minutes.

Well, I ask that you suspend and I'm just reading my statement. I'm not going to try to go over two minutes, but I'm just reading a statement, please.

Public testimony is two minutes. I understand. Thank you.

I am one of the best and brightest people in this city and it started when I was a high school intern working full time for the city council. I was born and raised in the city of New Orleans. Unfortunately, I have been penalized and ostracized for having high standards and integrity my entire professional life. Late 2021, I practiced accountability and integrity by refusing to approve supporting this questionable hours work. As a consequence, I was demoted, suspended for two weeks without pay, and got a $15,000 pay reduction. I proved that the current director of property management and his formerly retired now two-day workweek program manager awarded a North Shore non-licensed electrical contractor a $78,422 emergency contract for what appeared to be non-emergency required procurement for Duncan Plaza electrical repairs. The CAO issued the contract a cease and desist letter because the contractor could not submit a Louisiana State Board license. My concerns, the CAO office started an internal audit November 1st, 2024. I questioned the contractor staff augmentation billing $20,000 plus a month performing JIRR construction safety because I had walked over 7,000 plus city of New Orleans blocks and hadn't come across not one augmentation staff member. The current director of property management was also using two contracted staff augmentation employees at $20,000 plus a month each to perform the exact work I had been doing for performing for two to three years. One of the individuals was his former co-worker office mate's brother. A question that appeared to be fraud, waste, and financial abuse, I was sent back to the PDU. I was assigned

Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Your two minutes are up. Thank you. So I'll move to approve the consent agenda. Can I get a second? Seconded by Council President Morrell. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six nays, zero nays. Six yays, zero nays. Sorry.

Regular agenda. Item one, legislative grouping. RTA 4417 Dry Street has been deferred to the meeting of August 6 along with resolution line over R26-9 and R26-10 to the meeting of August 6. We have item 4, 5, and 6 legislative grouping, RTA application 1401 Delache Street, along with resolutions lying over R2611 and R2612, has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 10... Number seven, HDLC appeal of 2663 Iberville and 206 through 210 North Broad Street has been deferred to the meeting of July 26th. We have legislative grouping 700 HDLC appeal of 700 Webster Street along with motion M26274 has been withdrawn at the request of the applicant. At the top of page 11, we have item 10, HDLC appeal, 510 Ray Street has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. Item 11, HDLC appeal of 1510 Religious Street has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. At the top of page 12, we have zoning docket 4226 has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. Item 13, zoning docket 4926 has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. At the top of page 13, item 14, legislative grouping. Zoning Docket 5226, Mag Oak Management LLC. Requesting a conditional use to permit a standard restaurant in the HUB1 Historic Urban Neighborhood Business District, CPC Character Preservation Corridor District Overlay Design Overlay District. and the Magazine Street use restriction overlay district. On square 236, lot 14, on part of lot 15, in the six municipal districts bounded by Magazine Street, Boudreaux Street, Camp Street, and Lyons Street. Municipal address 4807 Magazine Street. The recommendation of the CPC being for approval with three provisos. We have motion M26278 by Councilmember Harris, approving the applicant's request for zoning, document 5226, Subject to three provisos as stated in the CPC report.

Thank you. Stephen, can you advise us on your report, please?

Sure. This is an application to allow a new restaurant in the Magazine Street corridor. There's an overlay along Magazine Street that requires council approval through the conditional use process for new restaurants. This proposal is at the location of the former Surrey's location next to Le Bontemps that was open until about 2020. The new proposal is to open a new breakfast brunch restaurant there, so pretty much consistent with the prior land use. This particular restaurant is going to have a pay-what-you-can model, intending to meet customers sort of where they are in terms of price point. There was some public comment expressing concern about that, but really that particular operational thing is outside of the CPC's scope, and the principal land use as a restaurant is appropriate, consistent with the past location, and so the Planning Commission recommends approval.

Okay. Any comment from the dais?

I have a question about the pay what you can. I'm just curious, how does that work?

Yeah, I mean, my appreciation of it is that it's kind of like some museums do, where there are suggested prices, but in order for, I believe it's a non-profit operating the restaurant, in order for them to provide meals to people at a variety of income levels. They will essentially provide food and the customer will pay $5, $10, whatever they can afford. Thank you. Just curious about that concept.

Thank you. Any online comment? We can add it to the record. We do have some public comment cards. First is Adele Bergman, followed by Linda Akers.

Good morning, my name is Adele Bergman, and I'm the executive director of the Crescent City Cafe. We're thankful for the recommendation for approval for the Sit Down Restaurant at 4807 Magazine Street. It was Surrey's second brunch restaurant that closed due to the pandemic, and we're planning to serve brunch there again. We've met members and patrons of Magazine Street who are excited about Brunch Back. We've met staff of recently closed restaurants that are really excited to be hired in their neighborhood. And we also recognized as we worked on the site how much that site of the 4800 block needs the building back in commerce. We are a local nonprofit and it will be a pay-what-you-can cafe where anyone can have a meal. It's been a successful in other cities and New Orleans is perfect for it. The pay-what-you-can concept is not new here because concerts, yoga studios, and other organizations do sliding scale and pay-what-you-can options. And our community loves brunch and loves paying it forward. We're a long-standing good neighbor with our Saturday program on St. Charles, but that is separate from this endeavor. What excites me the most is that we found the space where we've seen our donors, our volunteers, and established low-income guests as we're at the site, so we already know that our neighbors will eat with us. We are community-focused and understand bringing people together around food is a big part of who we are as New Orleanians. And to explain to the concept real fast a little bit more, if you think of if you go to Guy's Co. Po' Boys down the street, you don't know if the person in front of you is paying for half a Po' Boy, a whole Po' Boy, a Po' Boy for his whole family. You don't know the income as they go in. It'll be that same concept. You'll be sat down, served, and at the end you will go to pay. And no one knows who's paying what. So it's very much a pay-it-forward, a restaurant, and the zoning is for the zoning, and the zoning request does not really stop the zoning request that we have as a brunch restaurant. Thank you.

Thank you. Linda Akers, followed by Joe Buckledge.

Good morning. I live two blocks from 807 Magazine Street. I'm speaking as a neighbor and also a volunteer with Crescent City Cafe over the past two years. As a volunteer, I found the organization to be effective in addressing food insecurity and having a positive impact on the community. I've always found the guests of the current Rain Church pop-up location to be incredibly grateful for both the meal and to be treated with dignity. As a neighbor, I would welcome a brunch option within walking distance, especially since the closure of Surrey's at the current site and the closure of Apple Line last year. We would be naive not to think that there are homeless and food insecure people in this neighborhood. I encounter a few on a regular basis. The Pay What You Can Cafe would help fill a gap for those in need as well as the larger community. I have personally spoken to neighbors who are in full support of the model. We would welcome the opportunity to support a restaurant that also does good for the community through its Pay What You Can model. I urge you to approve the cafe's permit. Thank you, Linda.

Jo Buckledge, followed by Kathleen Lewis.

Thank you. Before I speak with the owner of a Toyota, it's just a set of keys I found over here by my seat.

If you could just leave them right there, we'll figure it out.

All right. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Joe Bickledge. I'm the owner of the property at 4807 Magazine Street. Post-COVID, the 4807 property went dark due to the inability to staff a restaurant. And the 22 years as a restaurant there at that location is now going dark. The current owners of the building were out-of-towners and did not understand how quick a property can disintegrate here in New Orleans. And we started dealing with vagrants. peeling paint, broken windows, graffiti. I did my best as just a neighbor to stop this and correct it, but there was only so much I was allowed to do. My business partner and I decided to buy the property and maintain it and put it back into commerce to supply jobs and tax base for the city. We care deeply about New Orleans, a city we feel could do better for small businesses and people trying to maintain the beautiful qualities I think this city has to offer. I only hope to return this property to commerce to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood and to take on an abandoned building which would become an eyesore and was becoming a problem. I think we all stand here today with an opportunity to make the property a contributor to the city, not a detractor. It has been over two and a half years that I've been going through this process and the building has been sitting empty while trying to get approval to put a restaurant in. The process has been brutal. We're able here today, you are all able here today to make this happen. I look forward to your approval so that we can achieve this opportunity after a long, tedious process towards helping another small business in our city. Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. Kathleen Lewis, followed by Angela Ann P. Hello.

I'm Kathleen Lewis. I live across the street from where we're going to have the restaurant. I've owned my property since 2005, 2006, and I moved there in last year, 2020, well, last year. We were really excited to hear about a new cafe coming in. We've had several really expensive restaurants come into the neighborhood, entrees in the $40, $50, $60 range. Regular people cannot eat that kind of food. And so I was approached, and I said, of course I'd come speak, because we really, really would like something reasonable to come in. You know that stretch, Magazine Street, everybody loves it. They come there for everything. You see this recently during Essence, tons of people on Magazine Street, so... I just hope that you'll appreciate what we're saying today. Thank you.

Thank you. Angela Ann Peay, followed by Linda Rain. Are they here? They're waving their comment. They're in support. All right. I agree with CPC's evaluation that this proposal would return a vacant site to use while complementing the existing mix of restaurants, bars, and retail stores that characterize the Magazine Street corridor. This application met all of the approval evaluation standards and received strong support throughout the application process. and was recommended for approval by CPC staff and commission. Accordingly, I will be upholding the CPC recommendation. With that, all in favor? Any nays? That's seven yays. Thank you. We need a second. Amy McCarron. Council Member McCarron seconds.

Thank you.

At the top of page 14, we have item 16, legislative grouping, zoning docket 5326, Bearchild Company, LLC. Requesting a conditional use to permit a commercial short-term rental in a C2 auto-oriented commercial district in the transient lodge and interim zoning district on square 359 last C in the first municipal district bounded by Reverend John Raphael Jr. Way, Clyde Street, Elkhart Boulevard, and Ferrette Street. Municipal address 1131-1133, Reverend John Raphael Jr. Wade. The recommendation of the CPC being for approval subject to two provisos. We have motion M26-279 by Councilmember Harris approving of the applicant's request on zoning document 5326 subject to two provisos as stated in the CPC report.

CPC, will you advise us of your opinion?

Yes, thank you, Council Member. This is a proposal for a shotgun residence to be used as a commercial short-term rental. It is within this block of a commercial district that extends parallel to the Pontchartrain Expressway. This particular site is highly, highly commercial in its surroundings. There's an industrial building that abuts it to the side and rear, a vacant lot to the other side, and then opposite it is... a mini storage building, and a billboard. So in an almost exclusively commercial location, that makes a commercial short-term rental an appropriate use in the Planning Commission's view, and the Planning Commission recommends approval.

Thank you. I have one comment card. Rose Barechild.

Hi. Good morning. My name is Rose Barechild. I'm a co-owner of Bear Child LLC, and just like what he said, the location of the property is... right by, that's the only house in mostly like industrial parts. So I'm here for the request for approval for short-term rental. The former owner of the house, they used to have a permit for short-term rental, but they let it lapse before we even bought the property.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Given the location and the prior use as a commercial short-term rental, I agree with CPC that this is appropriate. This proposal receives support at its neighborhood participation meeting and at the CPC hearing. Any comments from the dais?

I have one comment. Okay. Just for the record, so I will be voting no today. It's nothing personal. My position has been consistently since we dropped the interim zoning district regarding commercial short-term rentals as we wait for the outcome of the transient lodging study. I've just been consistently a no on any exemptions to that IZD. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments? With that, can I get a second? Seconded by Councilmember King. All in favor? Any in opposition? Nay. So six yays, one nay. Thank you.

At the top of page 15, we have item 18, legislative group in zoning docket 5426, WDG LLC, requesting a conditional use permit to permit a social club in a CBD 6 urban core neighborhood intensity mixed use district on square 22, lots 11 through 13, Holmdale Park Annex in the second municipal district. District, bounded by Canal Street, Greenwood Street, Bigsburg Street, and Weldon Street. Municipal address 5325 Canal Boulevard. The recommendation of the CPC being for one provisional. We have motion M262783 by Councilmember McCarran, approving the applicant's request for zoning document 5426, subject to one provisional as contained in the CPC staff report. Thank you, Madam Clerk. CPC?

Thank you, Councilmember. This is a proposal for an architectural office to expand within an SLB commercial district that extends along Canal Boulevard. I believe there's a typo in the description on the agenda, but it's for an architectural office. The office already occupies the main building, which was historically a dry cleaner. There is a secondary structure, a garage, that they want to expand into that will bring the total square footage of the office to just over 5,000 square feet. This is a zoning district where offices are allowed by right up to 5,000 square feet, and then above 5,000, it requires conditional use approval. So that minor expansion of only about 450 square feet is enough to require the conditional use approval here. It does not materially change the intensity of use. It's still a neighborhood... sensitive, low-intensity commercial use that makes sense for the location. And for that reason, the Planning Commission recommends approval. No opposition expressed to the Planning Commission.

Thank you. Members, as CPC stated, this is a request to reuse the old deluxe laundry building for use as an office, which does require the conditional use. The new proposed use is similar to the previous and should not significantly impact noise, parking, or traffic in the area, and we have not received any opposition for this request, so therefore I move to approve motion M26-273. Can I get a second? Seconded by Council Member Harris. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seven zero. Thank you.

At the top of page 31, we have item 62, resolution R26271 by Councilmember Harrison Willis. Approving after the recommendation of the City of New Orleans Office of Economic Development, a pilot term sheet agreement exhibits C for the property located at 1480 Chapitula Street to be constructed and outfitted by RD&I Badter LLC, PCHRD&I Badter GP LLC, and Providence Community Housing. subject to the following modification on page 2 of the term sheet agreement paragraph C an annual administrative fee in the amount of $5,000 increasing 3% per year is authorized under act 212 of the 2023 regular legislative session

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Today is truly an important milestone, not only for the River District neighborhood, not only for District B, but for this entire city. The pilot resolution before us is the final piece of the financial puzzle for the Rivana housing development, which will provide our residents with 220 units of quality workforce and affordable housing that is central to downtown and uptown at a rate that's legally required to remain affordable for 40 years. Pilots are a standard part of affordable housing financing, and they are typically handled through either the Industrial Development Board or Finance New Orleans. This application only comes to the City Council for approval through a state statutory process specific to the River District and the Convention Center area. What's unique about this property is where the Rivanna is being constructed. It is on convention-centered land, which is state-owned and therefore has generated zero dollars in taxes for the city for the past 20 plus years. Now, through the River District, we have a chance to activate that land in a way that not only meets residents' needs, but also creates new revenue streams for the city. So this pilot locks in existing property taxes at $0 for a 40-year period, but in return we will receive hundreds of affordable housing units at a development that's projected to bring in millions in property taxes. and there's administrative fee attached as well. As you've all heard me say many times, my support for the River District neighborhood development is based on the commitment to affordable housing. This site contractually must create 900 housing units, 450 of which will be priced at the affordable or workforce level to meet New Orleanians' needs. The Rivanna is the first phase of meeting this goal, and today the pilot is required for it to move forward. The application has followed all processes dictated by state law and exceeds the minimum requirements of mean DB standards as well as job requirements. And we have a fantastic, fantastic majority partner in the nonprofit developer Providence Community Housing who has proven a track record and is working along the RD&I partner to develop this property. I do have cards for public comment, and then we'll take a comment from my colleagues on the dais. The first comment card is from Monique Blossom, followed by Terry North.

Good morning. Monique Blossom, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, 1340 Poitras Street. Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center supports the pilot you're considering today and the creation of 220, up to 450, high quality affordable housing units in a high opportunity area. New Orleans is in desperate need of more high quality affordable housing and we should invest now in the projects that are in the pipeline rather than further delay and have what's already moving fall apart. My concern is that the cost of materials is going to continue to grow and the way that we bring down federal dollars is already incredibly complicated. I'm worried that those dollars are going to be reduced and that New Orleans might be left out of those kinds of deals. As I consistently say to you in all personal meetings and here in council chambers, we need a giant menu of options for affordable housing from small to large-scale projects, individual solutions for homeowners, programs for renters like Healthy Homes to ensure people are living in safe and healthy housing, the Right to Council program to prevent evictions and homelessness, fortified roofs, small landlord repairs, mobility programs for vouchers. We really need every option, and I'm asking the city council that it's a big menu, let's take a taste of everything to close out that metaphor. Because if we had one solution, if there was one lever to pull to solve the housing crisis, we would have done it already. And so I ask that you support this pilot with your vote, invest in this one piece of the puzzle, and I look forward to working together to solve the rest of the puzzle.

Thank you. Thanks. Terry North, followed by JT Hannon.

Good morning. I'm Terry North. I'm CEO of Providence Community Housing. Providence is a 501c3 community housing development organization, and our primary mission is to produce, preserve, and operate affordable housing. We have just under 2,000 units in the city of New Orleans proper and 3,300 in the greater New Orleans area. We currently have other units under construction. And we have been working with the city since our founding 20 years ago right after Hurricane Katrina. We were brought into this project, the Rivana project, in February by the River District team because they're under a very strict timeline to get this done. It, like all affordable housing deals, is challenging because it requires so many levels of capital and subsidy. As mentioned, this project is a new construction project producing 220 rental affordable units. This project is perfect for the essential workers that work in the French Quarter, the CBD, for the Convention Center itself. If you earn $15 an hour, you will qualify for one of the 60% AMI units and pay under $1,000 for rent rather than over $2,000 for rent, which is the market rate in that area. If you make $25 per hour, you will qualify for one of the 80% AMI units and pay around $1,300 a month, again, in an area that is charging over $2,000 a month. Affordable housing deals cannot adjust rents to cover expenses. We charge and collect affordable rents. So as a result, there is a big delta here between what a market project could charge and what we charge. And it's about $2.5 million a year. It is not a small amount.

Harry, that's your time. That's it. Everybody gets two minutes.

Madam Chair, I have a question for Ms. North. Do you want me to ask that now or wait?

No, she's here. Go ahead now.

Thank you. Good morning. You mentioned 60% AMI units and 80% AMI units. Yes, sir. The total number of units is 220? Yes.

220, yes sir. Okay.

Are they an unlimited amount of 60% AMI units or are they a finite amount?

There's 140 that will be at 60% AMI and there are 40 that will be at 80% AMI. We do have some lower income levels at 20 and 30% of AMI as well. So we're doing something called income averaging. as tax credit deals do so we'll have several levels of income living in this particular project all right thank you very much thank you JT Hannon followed by Nola Thomas

Good morning, JT Hannon, Chief Strategy Officer of Morial Convention Center. We just wanted to express our support for Ravonna. Our partners at the River District are turning a long, underutilized riverfront property into a neighborhood with housing, businesses, and public benefit. For decades, I think since Olay, we haven't seen meaningful residential development in the area. And Ravonna helps answer one of the city's most urgent need by adding housing, especially near the convention center and the warehouse district. And the future Shell Riverside, which should open next spring. 100% of Ravonna One is planned as affordable housing. And this is one of the last pieces of the process to bring affordable housing to the river district. The Convention Center has committed $6.5 million in terms of a loan, and is an active partner in closing the financing gap to make sure this project moves forward. So we've been working with Louisiana Housing Corporation, City Council, the state, all these partners in a collaborative way to get this over the finish line and get construction started this summer. Thank you.

Thank you. Nola Thomas, followed by Sarah Jane Guidry. They both support. Britton Forsythe? They support. Michael Meredith?

Good morning. Happy to be here. And I've talked multitudes about the project. And BPG, we're a developer here. We own about 1,200 mixed-income housing units throughout the area. And one of the developers on the project and in support. And there's a lot of math and dynamics that go into these deals. But most importantly, what you as a city and the council are investing in is opportunity for folks who wouldn't have it. You know, we own these units across the city, and what we see is the opportunity for folks to have access to housing allows for them access to healthier foods, access to better transportation, access to align themselves with folks that they would have never met in their lives and helped to improve that. And so we're in support of that and also in support of the future phases. This is the first phase of multiple in our district, and we see this as a new neighborhood. A neighborhood where folks who didn't have access now will. A neighborhood where folks can start a new leaf of their life. And most importantly, I think to JT's point, is the convention center workers can walk across the street to the place that they work and have access to things that they didn't have before. So obviously speaking support of not only this project, but also the future to come. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Alita from the Convention Center is in support. David Phelps is in support. They're not speaking. And then the final card is from John Sullivan. And then Nicole Weber.

Good morning. John Sullivan. I'm with Enterprise Community Partners. We are fortunate enough to be the equity investor in this project. Since 1982, Enterprise has invested $92 billion and created 1.1 million homes across all 50 states, all to make home and community places of pride, power, and belonging. This investment is going to add to $400 million we've been able to invest in affordable housing in New Orleans, including $200 million in LaTeX investment to create nearly 6,000 homes for low and moderate income households. And our work in New Orleans goes way beyond investment. We provide financial and technical support to local housing nonprofits. We work closely with policymakers and housing agencies in support of housing affordability goals. And we're the co-developer with Providence of the Fauxburg Lafitte development. We're proud to be a part of this project. Like has been said before, a very transformational project, critical to get this neighborhood back going. We're proud of the income mix that has been mentioned. We're proud that several units are going to be able to serve the lowest income populations that we have in New Orleans. And like I said, we're just proud to be a part of this revitalization story. I ask you to, you know, approve this pilot. It is very critical and is the last piece. And I'll just say, in general, it's often the last piece of a lot of affordable housing development. So it's something that's really needed, not just for this project, but for, you know, a lot of others. Thank you.

Thank you. Britton actually wants to speak, and then Nicole Webber.

be quick. Britton Forsyth, I'm representing myself today for simplicity's sake. I just wanted to come up because I know I've met with most of you more than once around Workers Bill of Rights and the Healthy Workplace Program and in that we've brought up that residents of the poorest majority black neighborhoods in the city are expected to live over 20 years less than and residents of the wealthiest majority white neighborhoods. And in a lot of those conversations, they've been focused on economic opportunity, making sure people have access to good jobs, to healthy workplaces. But housing has also come up repeatedly in those conversations. And we know that closing that gap, that unacceptable gap, is a multi-pronged approach. So that's why we're here to support. Thank you.

Thank you, Brenton. Nicole Weber?

Good morning, Nicole Weber, 2131 Bienville Street. I am a partner with the River District as well as for the affordable housing development team. I actually am out of breath because I drove in from the beach where I have four teenage girls. on their own right now, so I will be flying out of here as quickly as possible to get back to them. But I just want to say the voters, and I've said this at the Economic Development Committee meeting, the voters have supported affordable housing across the board. And not just a close referendum, but pretty much unanimous, the voters have said that they support affordable housing. We are not just developers looking to make a buck and leave town. We are local. We're here. We're from here. We live here. We live in the city. We are your voters, too. We have a track record of doing what we say we're going to do. If the pilot does not succeed, the units are not built, plain and simple. The pro forma speaks for itself. We want to see this happen. We hope that you want to see this happen. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Are there comments submitted? I'll get to the dice, but can we put those comments on the record? All right. Who would like to speak first?

I have a couple questions. Councilmember Hughes. All right. So this is what I really want to understand. There's been a lot of references to the workforce, and so whoever can answer this question, I'd appreciate it. All right. We talk a lot about the workforce in the city of New Orleans, the people working at the convention center, the people shucking the oysters in the French Quarter. What I want to understand is, do those residents, do those workers have first priority to these units, or is it kind of first come, first served? Do we have a situation where the Tulane student from New York that comes into town, going to Tulane, making $15 an hour, a person that's working in Metairie or River Ridge or Harahan or St. Tammany that wants to live in the new and shiny unit, tell me how that works.

Sure. So I'm glad you brought up that particular issue about college students. So there are specific tax credit rules that prohibit from renting to students. We cannot rent to students. So this is being built for folks who are families that live in the area. Now we do have to follow fair housing laws and so you will have a situation where it will be first come first serve, but those folks do have to income qualify.

Let's put a period there if you don't mind. So there's no guarantee that the people who are actually living in, I'm sorry, who are keeping the economy going, right? Chucking the oysters downtown. When we talk about working at the convention center, being able to walk across the street, there's no guarantee that they're even going to be able to get in one of these units, right? Because it's sort of a free fall, right?

You cannot guarantee it, that's for certain, but those people will be the most interested.

We have to be authentic in our talking points, right? Sure. And really be honest with the public that these units are kind of first-come, first-served. Absolutely. Thank you for that.

We want to be transparent.

Let me now shift, whoever can answer this question regarding the property taxes, because this is, Madam Chair, where I get quite confused. I understand you know, right now, because this plot of land is owned by the Convention Center and it generates, you know, it's exempt from property taxes and, you know, you don't even have anything on the property. But I keep hearing mixed talking points. In one breath I'm hearing, you know, the pilot is going to exempt property taxes for 40 years, but then it's also being said that this is going to generate millions of dollars in property taxes. So can somebody clarify? What I want to know is, Is this going to generate property taxes or is it not going to generate property taxes? That's what I want to know. And I would appreciate if somebody would avoid giving me a very nuanced academic around the world answer.

The Rivana project itself will not provide property taxes and that's what we're talking about here today. I believe what somebody may have mentioned earlier is the overall River District and the projects that are planned there and the amount of things that are going to come out of that. It is an economic development project and it will be activating the area. There'll be vendors that pay sales tax, etc. I think that's maybe what they were leaning towards, but this project, very clearly, will not pay property tax.

Okay. So let me ask you a question. Since we're talking about affordable housing, I think you're very familiar with my district.

Yes, sir.

And let's focus on New Orleans East, right, where I have many large multi-family complexes that are pretty much 100% low income. Are those properties exempt from property taxes, or do they pay property taxes?

In some cases they are, and in some cases they are not. It just, it depends on how they were set up to begin with. The law allows affordable housing, if it's restricted, if it's actually restricted, the Louisiana law allows for taxes to be charged, but it's going to be based on what income you can produce. So typically those taxes would be lower, even if they did not have a complete exemption.

Okay. All right. Thank you. I'm just going to say this, and this is where I'm really struggling, because some of the same people today that are championing this cause and advocating for us to approve this pilot to not generate any property taxes, some of those same folks, right, in just a few short weeks, when we're going to have to make some difficult budget decisions— are going to be putting a lot of pressure on us to raise revenue on the backs of taxpaying citizens that are already stretched too thin. So I just want everybody to be mindful of that, and I'm going to remind folks of that when we have to make some very difficult decisions in the very near future. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any other comments from the dais?

Yes.

Council President Morrell.

I want to thoroughly explain my vote today because I'm going to vote no. And I don't do that lightly. And I just want to start with the Relocation Fund, Healthy Homes, Fortified Rooms. These are all programs we support, we pass into law and ordinances, and they all require money. Everything in the city, everything we do, every program that we seek to use to improve the lives of citizens all require money. The most reliable form of revenue for the city of New Orleans is Properties Act. At a previous budget meeting, my colleague to my right and I asked a simple question. the average cost of these units starts around $300,000 to build. We currently have a tremendous amount of city workers who are furloughed, many of which are paying full property tax on homes that are one-third that cost. The simple request we had at that budget meeting was we need to hear from the developers and all the sponsors in a way that our constituents that those city workers can understand why providing affordable housing which is a worthy cause, which I've supported over and over again at this time in this budget crisis, explain the math in a way they can understand. Because I get, before someone gets up there to talk about the federal tax credits, I want you to explain to that person at home who's furloughed and is paying full property tax why this is a good idea for them.

So unfortunately, affordable housing is not affordable to build. It's affordable to live in. So I guess it's kind of a misnomer. And as I believe it was you who said, we deal with the plate that we're given, right? I could go on for hours and talk with you guys and will on other things that we could do to change the system in which affordable housing is built because it is expensive. And those expenses in many, many ways are completely unavoidable for the developer. We have no incentive to up the cost. It does not help us at all. In fact, it just creates more gaps that we have to try to fill. But it is expensive to build. And it is needed. We have, as we talked about, we have unhoused people. We have people that are just... you know, getting by, and those folks need to be able to find a place that they can afford to live. It's about the stability of those individuals.

And I appreciate that the question remains unanswered, which is, give me a rationale to the Thousands of furloughed people in the city of New Orleans, probably more to come due to the issues going on at the state level. Give me something that explains to them why it is appropriate. Let's be very clear. This is a Sophie's Choice situation. There is no good... There is no clear, concise answer where either side is clearly correct. What I'm saying is that in this moment in the city of New Orleans, as we are struggling with a budget crisis, I need an explanation to the average New Orleanian, to the point Mr. Hughes made earlier, There is no guarantee under federal law that the people that will be in these units are displaced New Orleanians. It's first come, first serve. So you could have someone competing for this affordable unit who is somebody who needs, who's trying to move into a cheaper apartment out of River Ridge and in New Orleans and who meets the criteria and gets in. I need an explanation for the average New Orleanian, for that city worker who's currently furloughed, for that family that's paying full property tax on a house that's $120,000 to make them feel like this is the right decision at this time. And I appreciate you're giving me an answer, but you're not answering that. And that's the math problem. That is, to be frankly put, I mean, that is, I know that one of the developers said, talking about the math, the math, every family in the city of New Orleans sits, I hate to use that old metaphor because it's been done to death, they sit around their kitchen table and figure out how they're going to pay their bills. And when they are figuring out, on furlough, paying full property tax, how they're going to pay their bills, and then they see the council vote to do something like this, it is very difficult for us to be always in the position of saying, this seems like it's unfair, trust us. And what we're asking for as a council, and what we asked previously was, give us... a simple layman's explanation why the greater good argument works. Because that's basically the argument is the greater good argument. Yes. Explain to me the greater good that's going to make that person at that kitchen table trying to figure out how to pay their bills on a furlough while paying full property tax, why this is good enough for everyone that it's worth ignoring that dichotomy.

Okay. So I understand what you're saying. And in this country, in this state, and in this city right now, it's very difficult times. People are struggling all over. I totally understand what you're saying. And I liked your analogy of Sophie's Choice, because it sometimes does feel that way. But for us not to make an investment in affordable housing because other folks have to pay taxes and it's difficult for them. And believe me, we've created homeowners that are struggling with that right now, OK, that we have built those homes and sold them to them with plenty of subsidy in it. And they're still struggling at this point. So we totally understand that. But this is an investment in your city. It's an investment in your community and an investment in the future. And we have to start working towards that because we are in a bad place. That is the argument I have.

It's an argument. I would say it's probably not a great argument, but it's an argument. I want to end by saying something really. Every single... organization, developer, non-profit otherwise, seeking a pilot makes the exact same argument regarding undeveloped land and property taxes. I've heard this argument really through my entire 14 years in the legislature and now my fifth year as city council member, which is, well, if we don't give them a property tax, the land stays undeveloped and nothing gets built. I'm really tired of that argument, generally speaking, as a pilot argument because it's the same argument a guy making a shopping mall could make versus an argument of how you're building affordable housing. Simply saying that nothing is there so we should give a pilot is not a great argument. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying that, like, whenever someone comes up there and says, well, if we don't do this thing, then we're not going to get any property taxes, I mean, that can apply literally to any type of pilot. So I'm simply encouraging you because... Let's be very clear, I have no doubt, and it was very clear that there will be future developments at the River District area that will all seek pilots. Because we certainly could not get a commitment at budget that they will not seek a pilot for every piece of property at the River District. I would encourage you to bring supporting documents, supporting information, supporting arguments, that really establish that the investment is a good investment other than if you don't do it, we'll build nothing because anybody in the city of New Orleans seeking a pilot makes that same argument. It's a lazy argument. That's all. So when you come forward, this is less towards this project but towards the future projects, I know that I'm probably the only no today, but I think that you're going to find a council that is going to be increasingly discerning, especially considering the fiscal reality that the city faces, that there has to be a more robust argument that is defensible for us to consider because as we are able to pay for things, I'm going to tell you, as Councilman Hughes said, the Big Easy Coalition will be here arguing for relocation fund, for healthy homes, fortified roofs, for representation for people who are looking at eviction. And they're going to say, where's the money? And we're going to say we gave all the money away. And that's just the simple fact. I mean, whenever we do a pilot, we are choosing not to collect taxes the city's entitled to, and there needs to be a robust argument that we can articulate that explains to the average person who's not going to get relocated, who's not going to have the healthy home inspector, who's not going to get that fortified roof, that the investment in X was worth them not getting that thing. Thank you.

Any other comments from the dais? All right, let me just make some final comments. I think Monique Blossom said it the best, that we need a menu of options. So we need a housing trust fund that can assist with property taxes, and we have that. The voters voted for it. We need affordable housing units that have a pilot so that they can stay affordable for 40 years. I've seen the people under the bridge. who have fallen out of housing because there is no housing or the housing is low quality. This is high quality housing in an area where housing is needed. Another point has been made about are these people coming from Jefferson Parish or elsewhere. Do you know how many New Orleanians live in Jefferson Parish who can't afford to live here right now? Let's call them back. Let's build more affordable housing so that they can come back to the city, so that they can contribute to the city.

With that, I'll call the question.

I move. Can I get a second? Seconded by Councilmember Willard. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Nay. Six ayes, one nay. Thank you.

All right. We will stand. We'll stand at recess while we go into executive session.

We need to make a motion.

I'll make that motion. I'll second it by Council President Murrell. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. Madam Clerk, can we do roll call?

We can just make a motion to come back in.

Okay, I'll make a motion to come out of executive session. Seconded by Council President Morrell. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seven. It's six. Six yeas, zero nays. Council Member Green, no. All right.

Regal agenda. At the top of page 16, we have item 20, legislative grouping. A zoning docket 5526, Gabrielle Rouse. Requesting a conditional use to permit a reception facility in HUB1, his third urban neighborhood business district. on square 766, lot 1 in the third municipal district, bounded by St. Bernard Avenue, North Durban Street, London Avenue, New Orleans Street, and North Roman Street. Municipal address 1701 St. Bernard Avenue. The recommendation of the City Planning Commission being for approval subject to two provisos. We have motion M26276 by Councilmember King, approving the applicant's request for zoning docket 5526, subject to two provisos as recommended in the CPC report.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

CPC, the floor is yours. Thank you, Councilmember. This is a proposal to develop a site on St. Bernard near Claiborne with a reception facility. The building was occupied by another reception facility more than 10 years ago, but that has closed, and so its non-conforming status is lost. The conditional use approval then is needed to allow it to be reintroduced here. This is consistent with the purpose of the district to support neighborhood serving businesses. It's also consistent with an overlay district that applies along St. Bernard that encourages live entertainment, cultural venues, and reception facilities generally fall into that type of category. No opposition was expressed to the planning commission, and the planning commission recommends approval.

Thank you. Any comments from the dears? Any public comment, online comment? None? All right, this is a condition used to permit a reception facility on St. Bernard Avenue in the 7th Ward. This event hall has been in operation for many years, but its legal non-conforming use status lapsed after Hurricane Ida. This application enjoys the support of the City Planning Commission staff, as well as unanimous support from the full City Planning Commission. And our office has not received any letters of opposition. This I move adoption. Can I get a second? Second by Council Member Willard. All in favor? Aye. Seven yays. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes. Thank you.

At the top of page 17, we have item 22, legislative group and zoning, document 5626, Tony Montgomery and Nicolette Montgomery, requesting a conditional use to permit a commercial short-term rental in the CBD to historic commercial and mixed-use district in the transient lodging interim zoning district on square 130, Locksville. 14, and 15 in the first municipal district bounded by Natchez Street, Magazine Street, Padre Street, and Chapas Tula Street. Municipal address 422 Natchez Street. The recommendation of the CPC being for approval subject to two provisos. We have motion M26280 by Councilmember Harris approving the applicant's request for zoning document 5626 subject to two provisos as stated in the CPC report. Thank you, Madam Clerk. CPC, will you brief us on your report?

Yes, Councilmember, this is a proposal to use a two-story building on Natchez Street in the CBD as a commercial short-term rental. It is just off of the high-rise Poitras commercial corridor, and in the Planning Commission's view, that makes it an appropriate location for a commercial short-term rental. Planning Commission recommends approval.

All right, I have one comment card. Tony Montgomery.

Good afternoon, council members. Tony Montgomery representing 422 Natchez. I'm just here to express my appreciation for your consideration and to answer any questions that you may have.

All right, thank you. Any comments from the dais? All right, this property is a two-story, two-family dwelling with two off-street parking spaces that the applicant is requesting to operate as a CSTR. The commercial short-term rental is permitted use in the CBD2 historic commercial mixed-use district. This application was submitted during the transient lodging interim zoning district, however, which requires all transient lodging uses that are permitted by right in the underlying zoning district to undergo the conditional use process. This proposal receives support at its neighborhood participation meeting and at the CPC hearing. With that, I move. Can I get a second? Second by Councilmember King.

Yes.

All in favor? Any nays? No, sorry.

I apologize.

All in favor? We have six yays, one nay.

Thank you.

On this one? Yeah. Come on. All right.

Yeah, I want to thank this young man right here because I was down here to support this young man. During Katrina, we was feeding the homeless, feeding people. This man came down, brought his trucks. So, you know, this is a good guy. And I just want to, you know, thank him public for what he did with us, helping to feed the people, give them clothes, give them shoes. And I didn't know the dude had them for me. He just called me on the phone and did it. So I just want y'all to know this is a good guy.

Thank you, Nina. Can you fill out a card, please? All right.

At the top of page 18, we have item 24, legislative group in zoning, docket 5726, MMJSS Holdings, LLC. Requesting an amendment to the text of article 24, section 24.13.G.3.D, retail facilities in the VCS area. in the VCS-1 districts to alter the signage regulations for retail centers owned and controlled by a single entity not anchored by a major department store, unified by a specific architectural theme and consisting of major public or private events with more than 55,000 square feet of enclosed gross leaseable area devoted primarily to diverse retail, food, and entertainment facilities on all retail facilities within the VCS-Bucharest Service District and the VCS-1 Bucharest Service District. The recommendation of CPC being for modified approval, we have motion M26277 by Councilmember King approving the applicant's request for zoning document 5726.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. CPC, the floor is yours. Thank you, Councilmember. This would have the effect of updating signage regulations that in practice only apply to Jack's Brewery. When that building was redeveloped as a shopping center in the 1980s, it was given its own set of regulations over time. They've proven to be somewhat inflexible, incomprehensible, and difficult to administer. And that has resulted in the Board of Zoning Adjustments encouraging the property zoner to seek new regulations through an amendment to the zoning ordinance. So this application does that. It updates the regulations to make them more flexible to the building's current needs. to accommodate wayfinding signage and generally to be more workable. And so the Planning Commission supports the updating of these signage regulations. All right, thank you.

We have a card from Ms. Avery Poirier.

Avery Foray, 800 Brown Street, here with Michael Poussin on behalf of the Burger Company. Steven did a great job of recapping that really the impetus for the text amendment was to update some existing signage. And because of existing limitations within this specific section, it only impacts the Milhouse building, the Jacksbury building. I always want to thank staff for helping us massage the language. They made some recommendations that made a lot of sense, which we fully agreed with. And, of course, thank you to Council Member King and his office for supporting this. Happy to answer any questions. Thanks.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you. We appreciate your time today and consideration in the staff's work in putting together this text amendment. And we're here for any questions.

Thank you. Any comments from the DAIS or any online comments? Hearing none, this is a text amendment to permit signs for commercial tenants above the first floor in the VCS and VCS1 districts, which came to us at the request of Jack's Brewery. This application enjoys the support of the CPC staff, as well as unanimous support from the full City Planning Commission. And our office has not received any letters of opposition. This is a move of adoption. Can I get a second? Second by Council Member Harris. All in favor? Seven in support. Any opposition? Hearing none. Motion is adopted.

Thank you. Just, it's not seven, it's six. Did Harris vote? She voted. At the top of page 19, we have item 26, legislative group and ordinance calendar 34,385, along with motions M23-426 and M23-427 has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. At the top of page 20, we have ordinance calendar 35,117 has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. Item 30, Ordinance Calendar 35384 has been deferred to 723. At the bottom of the page, Item 31, Ordinance Calendar 35480 has been withdrawn. At the top of page 21, item 32, ordinance calendar 35483 has been deferred to 723. Item 33, ordinance calendar 35484 has been deferred to the meeting of 723. Item 34, ordinance calendar 35485 has been deferred to the meeting of 723. At the top of page 22, item 35, ordinance calendar 35,486 by Councilmember Morrell by request. An ordinance to amend and reordain section 70-565 of the Code of the City of New Orleans to clarify the intended scope of the ordinance to provide for exceptions consistent with court orders and judgments and otherwise to provide respects thereto.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Simply put, ladies and gentlemen, we had a previous ordinance that was on the books dealing with not requiring the school boards to pay fees associated with tax collection for this fiscal year. This simply tightens that language and is consistent with the settlement that was negotiated between the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish School Board. That's what it does. Is there any questions? Hearing that, I will move to take a second. Second by Council Member Hughes. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, seven yays, no nays.

Item 36, Ordinance Calendar 35,487 has been deferred to the meeting of 7-23. Item 37, Ordinance Calendar 35,488 has been deferred to the meeting of 7-23. At the top of page 23, we have item 38, ordinance calendar 35,489 by council members Morrell and Willard. An ordinance to authorize the mayor of the city of New Orleans to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement between the city of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office Civil Division for a term greater than one year to provide executive protection services to the New Orleans City Council as more fully detailed in the cooperative endeavor agreement as Exhibit A and otherwise to provide respects there to it.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Members, this simply seeks to slightly tweak how we contract our executive services. Previously, we did it on an annual basis. This allows for it to be greater than annual just because it was a rote thing that we were doing annually that has become something that is necessary. Second by Council Member Willard. I'll move. Second by Council Member Willard. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, seven yes, no nays.

Item 39, ordinance calendar 35,490 has been withdrawn. Item 40, motion line over M25182 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 24, item 41, motion line over M25183 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Item 42, motion line over M25184 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Item 43, motion line over M25186 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 25, item 44, motion line over M25187 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M25189 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M25235 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 26, item 47, motion line over M25236 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M25238 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M25288 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 27, item 50, motion line over M25435 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M2638 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M2639 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 28, item 53, motion line over M2640 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M2641 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M2644 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 29, item 56, motion line over M2683 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M2684 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Motion line over M26115 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. At the top of page 30, motion line over M26-198 has been deferred to the meeting of August 6th. Item 60, motion line over M26-266 has been withdrawn. At the bottom of the page, item 61, we have motion M26-269 by council members Morrell, Willard, McCarran, Harris, King, Green, and Hughes. to appoint council members to various boards, commissions, and agencies in global.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Members, this is just a suspension of council rules so that we can do an in-global appointment of the council members to various boards and commissions. With that, I move adoption. Seconded by Council Member Hughes. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Six yays, zero nays. It's been adopted.

On page 31, we have item 63, M26272, has been deferred to the meeting of 7-23. At the bottom of the page, item 64, resolution R26275 has been deferred to the meeting of July 23rd. At the top of page 32, we have motion M26281 by Councilmember King by request. Adding the president of council as a signatory to the recognition, non-disturbance, and atonement agreement between the City of New Orleans EMDRC Partners LLC and Greater New Orleans Future Energy Facility LLC and authorizing the President of Council to sign a recognition non-disturbance and a term in agreement between the City of New Orleans EMDRC Partners LLC and Greater New Orleans Future Energy Facility LLC as Exhibit A. We need to suspend Rule 57.

So moved. Seconded by Council Member Hughes. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six yays. Alright, Mr. Schwartz, is this you?

Thank you, council members. I'll be brief. This is a R&DA agreement that is a no-cost agreement that is needed for a new market tax credit transaction associated with the new lab energy incubator project that's taking place at the NSA building. This is a purely technical document, again, no cost to the city and it's simply recognizing the development structure that's taking place in order for the project to be consummated.

Any comments from the dears? Mr. Swartz, real quick, how is the project progressing?

The project is progressing very well. The foundations are complete. We beat the high-water issues with the river construction, and the structure is being framed right now. All right. All in favor?

Oh, I'm sorry. I move. I move. Second by Councilmember Willard. All in favor? Aye. Six yays. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion adopted. Thank you much.

All right. We have a motion under suspension. Motion 26282 by Council Members King, Green, King, and Wheeler by request. Adding the President of Council as a signatory to the Second Amendment between the City of New Orleans and H&O Investments LLC and authorizing the President of Council to sign the Second Amendment between the City of New Orleans and H&O Investments LLC. We need the vote to receive.

Moved. Seconded by Councilmember Harris. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six yays, zero nays.

We need the vote to add.

Moved. Seconded by Councilmember McCarran. All in favor? Aye. Six yays, zero nays.

You can either discuss or vote on the matter.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Members, this CEA allows the Department of Code Enforcement to start spending down a $100,000 funding allocation that I actually pulled down from the state when I was still a representative in the legislature. I've been working with the Department of Code Enforcement on how we want to utilize this money because we have a very tight turnaround. We have a plan of attack. I think it's important to note that we haven't used contractors to do lot abatement since last fall. And so since then, code enforcement's essentially been using their strike teams to do as much as they can to improve the quality of life in the city of New Orleans. So the hope is that this $100,000 allocation goes a long way in doing so. And Director Davis, you've been here all day. Do you want to say anything? You're good? Okay. So I will move adoption. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilmember King. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Six yays, zero nays.

We have motion M26283 by council members Green, King, and Willard by request. Adding the president of council as a signatory to the lease between the City of New Orleans and Mercy Partners LLC and authorizing the president of council to sign the lease between the City of New Orleans and Mercy Partners LLC. We need to vote to receive.

Madam Clerk, I need to be added to that, but I will move to receive. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Council Vice President Willard. All in favor? Aye. Six yays. We need to vote to aye. I'll move to add. Council Member McCarran seconds. All in favor?

Aye.

And we could discuss a vote. Members, this is a technical cleanup item following an ordinance that we passed back in April that authorized the city to advance a CEA lease and active sale with the Mercy Hospital development team. As we all know, Mercy is about to be demolished, underground water storage added, and then eventually a development going on top of that. So this instrument simply adds as the council president's signature to the lease. Are there any questions? All right, I'll move. Council Member Green seconds. All in favor? Aye. Six yays.

Special orders of business. First order of business presentation, Manning Family Children's Hospital makes history as the first hospital in Louisiana to successfully provide gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease. Speakers, Daniel Creasy, Dr. Ben Watkins, Daniel Physician. Oh my God. Louis Pargoso, chief executive for the office of Manning Family Children's Hospital, recognizing Daniel Pree says he becomes the first patient in Louisiana to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease.

Good afternoon. Welcome to Council Chambers. Thanks for being patient with us on this day. Members, two weeks ago, I had the honor to meet Daniel and his team and his family during the moment that he got to ring the bell at Children's Hospital to signify his completion of therapy and the cure of sickle cell disease. And it is such a major moment in our state and our city and for Daniel and science. These are the types of things that we can do when we as a society believe in and invest in science for the betterment of people, and the community, and for the betterment of Daniel. So today we are celebrating this remarkable young man whose courage and perseverance and determination have inspired our entire community. Daniel has made history as the first person in Louisiana to be functionally cured of sickle cell disease through gene therapy. For 23 years, Daniel has lived with a disease that affects thousands of Louisianians and disproportionately impacts African-American families. His journey, I know, has required extraordinary patience, resilience and faith through a lengthy and complex treatment process that spanned nearly two years. Rather than focusing on his own success, Daniel has committed himself to helping others facing similar challenges and advocating for access to life-changing treatments. Daniel's story is one of hope, proving that innovation, determination, and community support can make the impossible possible. So today we're going to congratulate Daniel on his historic milestone and wish him continued success as he pursues his dream of becoming a pilot. Today, I also want to honor the extraordinary physicians, nurses, researchers, health care professionals whose dedication made this historic achievement possible. The team at Manning Family Children's right there in District A has demonstrated what's possible when innovation and compassionate care come together. This milestone reflects years of research, collaboration, and unwavering belief that every patient deserves access to the most advanced treatments available. Their work has not only changed Daniel's life, but it's also expanded opportunities for the future patients throughout the Louisiana and the Gulf South. So I want to thank you all as well for your remarkable team and leadership in advancing this healthcare. Daniel, you are truly inspiring. I'm going to let you guys speak as well, but I just want to say this to you. So When I heard you speak at Children's, I felt the weight that you felt of being the first person to experience this treatment and to have all this publicity around it. And it's hard, I know. But you represent hope for others suffering. for others currently in treatment, for others currently patients that are hoping for access and waiting for access to care. And I look forward to having you back here when you get that pilot's license and we can honor you again for your next achievement. So with that, I'll let you guys say a few words and then I'm sure my fellow council members will have some things to say as well.

Well, thank you, Councilman McCarran. That was perfectly said. And thank you to all of you for having us and really taking a moment to recognize this historic moment. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Lou Fregoso. I have the privilege and the honor to serve as president and CEO for your children's hospital, Manning Family Children's. And as you know, and as Councilman McCarran just pointed out, Louisiana has one of the highest rates of sickle cell disease in the country. And for too many children and families, it has meant a lifetime of pain, of uncertainty, and hospitalizations. But today, We're here to share a different story. It is a story of hope. It is a story of innovation. It is a story of lives transformed because two weeks ago, we celebrated a historic milestone when this young man, Daniel, who is with us here today, became the first person in Louisiana, Gulf South, to be cured of sickle cell disease using gene therapy right here in New Orleans. That's right. And while today we honor Daniel and his remarkable journey, what this also represents is hope for the countless of families and children who now know that there is a life-changing care available right here in New Orleans. And I am so incredibly proud of our physicians, our nurses, our researchers, our care teams. and the amazing partnership that we have with LSU and Tulane, all of which combined to make this historic achievement possible. So I just want to thank you for the opportunity to share this story, to celebrate Daniel, our physicians, and it is now my privilege to introduce Dr. Dana LeBlanc, who leads our sickle cell program at Manning Family Children's. She's going to tell you more about sickle cell disease and the comprehensive care that we provide every day. Dr. LeBlanc.

Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Dr. Dana LeBlanc. I am a proud New Orleans native and the director of the Sickle Cell Disease Program at Manning Family Children's, where we provide comprehensive care for over 400 patients with sickle cell disease from birth until young adulthood. I'm here today to recognize both the extraordinary progress we have made in treating sickle cell disease and work that still lies ahead for the people and families living with this condition in New Orleans. Sickle cell is an inherited blood disorder that causes severe pain, chronic anemia, strokes, organ damage, and shortened life expectancy. Louisiana has one of the highest rates of sickle cell disease in the country, and many of those individuals affected live right here in our city. For these families, sickle cell disease is not just a medical diagnosis, it is a daily reality, but that impacts education, employment, mental health, and quality of life. Today, however, we also have reason for hope. We are entering a new era in medicine. Gene therapy and stem cell transplant, as well as advancements in medical therapies for sickle cell disease, are transforming what is possible for people living with sickle cell disease. For the first time, we can speak not only about reacting to the devastating manifestations of this disease, but about managing it, and in some patients, in some cases, about curing it. Here in New Orleans, we recently celebrated an incredible milestone with the successful gene therapy treatment of Daniel at our hospital. Daniel's journey represents more than one patient's success. It demonstrates that our city is home to world-class clinicians, researchers, healthcare teams who are bringing groundbreaking treatments to our community. That achievement deserves to be celebrated. But it should also remind us that innovation alone is not enough. Many individuals living with sickle cell disease still struggle to access comprehensive care. They face challenges with transportation, insurance coverage, transitions from pediatric to adult care, and too often delays in receiving appropriate treatment for pain. Many continue to experience disparities that have existed for generations. As these revolutionary therapies become available, we must ensure that access is equitable. A cure only changes lives if patients can reach it. I encourage the City Council to continue supporting partnerships between the City of New Orleans, our healthcare institutions, and community organizations to improve awareness, expand access to specialty care, and address the social barriers that prevent patients from receiving the treatment they deserve. Supporting people living with sickle cell disease is not only an investment in our individual health, it is an investment in our workforce, our families, and our community. New Orleans has the opportunity to be a national leader, not only because we're helping pioneer life-saving therapies, but because we are committed to ensuring that every resident living with sickle cell disease has access to compassionate, equitable, and high-quality care. Together, we can celebrate remarkable scientific advancements like Daniel's cure, while continuing the important work of making sure that every person with sickle cell disease has the opportunity to benefit from this new era of medicine. Thank you so much for your time and for having us today. And I'll hand it over to Dr. Ben Watkins, who leads our stem cell transplant and gene therapy program.

Yes. So first I want to start off by saying thank you so much for having us here. And that's really sincere because, you know, sickle cell disease is a disease that affects millions of people in the world. You know, close to 10 million people have it. It's the most common inherited blood disorder in the world. Over 100,000 people in the United States have it. And over 3,000 people here in Louisiana have it. It's a disease that often gets forgotten about. It lives in the shadows with not much attention paid on it, despite, as we heard from Dr. LeBlanc, how much suffering can come along with this disease. And so I think it's really important that we begin to shine the light on this disease and make sure the patients that are living with this have opportunities and access to care that they used to didn't have. These therapies offer something that a lot of people with sickle cell disease didn't have, and that's hope. Hope for a different future, hope for a life hopefully filled with less pain, less complications, and as we'll hear from Daniel, hope to regain their dreams. These therapies need to be here more than anywhere else in the country. The people with sickle cell disease live here. We know that our state has significant health disparities that face the black and African American community. And people with sickle cell disease have lived with the stigma of the disease and have often been marginalized. And so what we hope with these therapies is that it's not just Daniel, but we expand opportunities to everyone living with it. And I think that's why it's so important we're here today and raising awareness and why Daniel's story is so impactful. You know, Daniel, as we heard, he grew up here. He's from the New Orleans area. He was treated by our team since birth, soon after being diagnosed with sickle cell disease. You know, Daniel did phenomenally well, but then as he aged, he started to have complications as often comes with sickle cell disease. that led to frequent admissions to the hospital, missed days at school, missed opportunities. But what really is Daniel's story, what makes it so impactful is also his dream was taken away because of his sickle cell disease. As we heard, he wanted to be a pilot. But he was told because he was born with this disease, he wouldn't have that opportunity. And if anybody has the opportunity to meet Daniel, you'll be struck pretty much immediately by his intelligence, his determination, his passion for what he does. And it was his determination that led to multiple appeals to try to get him his pilot's license, but they said he couldn't do it unless he got gene therapy, which wasn't even FDA approved at the time. And so it was his determination that led to us becoming an authorized treatment center now two years ago, which is when his journey started. There were lots of hurdles. There are dozens upon dozens of people that are involved in getting these therapies actually to the patient. But we kept in the back of the mind Daniel's story and the hundreds and thousands of patients like Daniel that share experiences. his pain that he suffered because of sickle cell disease. He received his gene therapy now four months ago, about. He has done incredibly well. His hemoglobin is now normal and hope to go on to live his dream. And you'll hear from him in just a second. But I think we also need to take this moment and realize while we celebrate this moment, this is a starting point, right? We don't want to let off the gas. We're building momentum, bringing focus to sickle cell disease and shining a light on a disease that's not had a light on it before. We need more research into these therapies. We need to expand access to everybody that lives in this state. And so hopefully you'll hear more from us in the future about future great things that we're doing. And so super excited to be here and I'm not going to keep you from Daniel as I'm sure you want to hear from him most of all. So I'll pass it off to Daniel.

Hey, good afternoon everybody. I appreciate you guys having us and having me to speak on my experience navigating this cure. This has been the most difficult thing I've done in my entire life and I've done many difficult things in my life. What I realized is how there was a severe lack of awareness on sickle cell alone in this country and even in this state. And so I made it my mission to spread awareness on sickle cell so at the very least people know about it and what we're facing. And with the recent media and coverage of my story, that awareness has been spread globally. And now everybody knows about sickle cell and even the therapies that are available for sickle cell. But with that came the vivid problem, and that is access to this treatment that I got. Accessing this treatment was the most difficult thing I've done. On one end of the stick, I was too unhealthy to fly to pursue my dream as a pilot. But on the other end of the stick, I was too healthy to get this therapy. And that isn't just me. There are many patients out there struggling to even access a hematologist that they can talk to to access this therapy. And then you have insurance problems and then income problems and then location and zip code. And I'm just one person. It'll take much more than me, much more than Manning Family, It'll take the entire state and then the entire nation to make these barriers no longer exist. And I hope that with my story and even my success that it'll inspire somebody in this room who has power to make this treatment much more accessible to the average family. Thank you.

Colleagues, we'll start with Councilmember Harris and go down the line, and then we'll take some photos.

Daniel, thank you for being here today. Your story is amazing. Your tenaciousness is inspiring, but I think what most is inspiring to me is the fact that even though you received this treatment, that you're advocating for others to get it, for the barriers to be broken. for the cost to go down, for the increase in access for all of the folks who need this treatment and can look to you as a pathway forward. So keep up that advocacy because we need people like you in this world to advocate for others who don't have a strong voice or a voice that's loud. That's what you can do right now. And I'm sure you'll be a great pilot, but right now you are an amazing advocate. To Manning Family Children's LCMC Health, Look, people need to know that New Orleans is a hotbed of innovation and healthcare. I think we get looked over a lot by other areas. Geographically, we make sense. We have the brainpower. We have folks who are willing to step up. So, you know, keep innovating, especially as we expand and look to other partnerships with Tulane going forward. So thank you all for being here.

Council Member King?

Councilman McCarran for bringing children's family, Manning Family Hospital to the council chamber. And Daniel, thank you for your story. Manning Hospital team, thank you for all that you do. It's a very humbling experience to walk the halls of the hospital. You walk out being more appreciative for the life you have and for the health that you have. So just thank you for all that you do. And Daniel, your story is very inspiring. Sickle cell is something that hits my family, hits home. So you give me hope and my family hope. So thank you for your strength and sharing your story. I appreciate it.

Council Member Willard. Thank you, Council Member McCarran, for bringing Daniel before us today. I'll start with LCMC Manning Family Children's Hospital. Thank you all for investing in Daniel. I mean, this is unbelievable. Especially in a state that has such high rates of sickle cell in our population. So this is one of those situations where it's just a win-win across the board. And the biggest result is that Daniel gets to walk away and pursue what he's always wanted to do. I would push you guys to pursue some type of legislation at the state level. I served on the House Insurance Committee. I know it's a tough battle up there, prior authorization and all of that stuff. But for a condition that affects so many people in Louisiana, and for there to be a treatment out there, this is one of those issues where we could be a leader in the world. And we should be leading on this issue in the world. So I would encourage you to do that. Daniel, just powerful. I mean, you could have walked away from this and said, thank you all so much. Now I'm going to go do my own thing. But you know what? You did what we need everybody to do. You're trying to help other people. Use your experience to help other people who are going through that experience right now. And that is just admirable. I wish you the best of luck with whatever you pursue. And hopefully one day, you know, I'll be able to look up and see that you're flying my plane. You know, and that would be just full circle. So push your dreams. If you need anything from me, please let me know. I want you to achieve everything that you want to achieve. So thank you for sharing your story with us and with the rest of the world.

Thank you.

I was unable to attend the bell ringing, I believe it was, where they announced that you were here. But what was very interesting to me is that in this state where so many people disagree on so many things, everyone, the governor, attorney general, the mayor, everyone was there together to celebrate your achievement. It says something about what you've been through and what Children's has accomplished in that we still have the ability in this day and age to bring people together to celebrate something truly miraculous. I think it's when you look just at the history of sickle cell disease, you look at the fact it's a genetic aberration mutation to deal with combating malaria. and you deal with the fact that as a humanity has done everything possible to defeat malaria as a disease, And we are now using science to correct something that was necessary but is no longer necessary in a hindrance to people pursuing their dreams like yourself. It's just amazing what we can accomplish as a society and as an organization when everyone is pulling together. I mean, what I saw from the stories that you want to be a pilot, that is amazing. That's like step one to being an astronaut. I mean, you really are aiming for the skies. And I think as has been said already, this council wants to support you, whatever your dreams are going forward, because you've already kind of shown that you will not let anything stop you from achieving what you set your sights on. So as Council Member Willard says, my colleagues have said, anything you want to do in the future, I wouldn't bet against you at this point. So like I said... Pilots' first step to be an astronaut, maybe it's not Southwest, maybe it's NASA. Put that in your brain. Thank you.

Council Member Hughes.

Thank you, Council Member McCarran. And let me just say, this is one of the most meaningful special orders that I've seen since I've been on this council. Daniel, you've made history, and it's history we're celebrating. You know, it's been said to whom much is given, much is required, and you are the epitome of that. Because you've been given much, and you realize now much is required of you, and you're using this moment to make meaningful, impactful change. Maya Angelou said, when you get, give, and when you learn, teach. And you're doing that as well. And I don't mean to get spiritual, but I'm a man of faith. You said that this was one of the toughest battles you faced in life. As I reflect upon the Bible, God would pick... certain people that he knew could navigate the test in order to have the testimony. And so God chose you for this tough assignment to now use you as a vessel and a disciple to impact meaningful change. And so we celebrate you. Couldn't I be more proud of you? And you've just brought a lot of joy to my heart. And I really appreciate you. To Manning, thank you for literally doing the Lord's work, for being so steadfast. You're right. You know, people hear about sickle cell, and it's just sort of brushed aside. But I really appreciate your dedication and steadfastness to this issue. I served on the Health and Welfare Committee for six years in Baton Rouge in the legislature. John Pusho, stand up. I know you don't like a lot of credit and a lot of attention, but John, you came to me a couple years ago and brought awareness of this gene therapy to me, and we started partnering to bring awareness to our colleagues. And one of the things that I remind my colleagues, my former colleagues, and they're still my family and my colleagues, in pro-life Louisiana, if we're truly pro-life, then we have an obligation to invest in this gene therapy because we know it's a cure for sickle cell. And as I told my colleagues, you know, when they say, well, it's expensive. How do we pay for it? Well, we can't afford not to pay for it because when we invest in these therapies, then we allow people like Daniel to go be a pilot. Then he's going to build a home, and he's going to contribute to this economy. So the reward far outweighs the cost of the investment. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all. Daniel, thank you for being a blessing. John, my brother, thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing awareness to this in Baton Rouge. And I hope you all will put me in. Let's go to Baton Rouge. Let's go to D.C. Let's go to the community. Let's do whatever we need to do. And I've made it my personal commitment, because sickle cell does not get the attention that it deserves, that I want to keep pushing the needle, pushing the state, pushing the insurance companies. so that everybody, regardless of income, regardless of zip code, regardless of socioeconomic status, can have access to this life-changing, life-saving care. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Daniel, for your courage and for your willingness to share your story as you've done previously and are doing today. I've been around for a while, including remembering the early sickle cell anemia telethons, for example. I also know that, unfortunately, I know a couple of people who or not here with us now, who had sickle cell disease. It's great to see the gene therapy being used in a way that's going to save lives. The talk in the past was, well, it's gonna affect the longevity of this person, and we were expecting that the person might not be around for a while. Advancements have been made, but today is a significant, tremendous advancement, something that means a lot to Daniel, means a lot to over 3,000 Louisianians, 120,000 on a national level, but also internationally. And I hope that you tell your story internationally because there are millions of people who have the sickle cell trait. And in many countries, for example, they live with no expectations that there'll be any solutions. So this is a momentous day here at the New Orleans City Council in this great city of New Orleans where gene therapy has resulted in Daniel's full recovery. And so I'm looking forward to you continuing to share, Daniel, your story and looking forward to following you as you spread the message throughout the world that this hope exists. To Manning Family Children's, thank you for coming before us today, but also just in general for the work that you do. LCMC Health is involved with projects that I'm affiliated with in my district. You've invested. I appreciate that. But in this particular instance, this is so momentous because this is life-saving for a number of people, for thousands of people. So thank you for being here today, And Council Member McCarran, thank you. This is a great, momentous presentation today, something that I hope that the media will share widely because it means so much to so many people. So pleased to be here today, honored to be here today. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you. Manning Families, Joe.

Thank you, members. So I have some proclamations for Daniel and then Dr. Watkins and Dr. LeBlanc. So we'll come down and take some photos and give you these proclamations.

We can make a motion to go to ordinance on first read.

A motion to go to ordinances on first read. Seconded by Council President Morrell. All in favor? Aye. Seven yays, zero nays.

Ordinance is on first reads. Ordinance calendar number 35,491 by Councilmember Morrell. An ordinance to amend and or ordain sections 34-3, 34-14, 34-17, 34-18, 34-19, 34-24, 34-28, 34-33, 34-48, 3449 of Chapter 34 and Section 54-420 of Chapter 54 of the Code of the City of New Orleans to provide relative to the regulation of Carnival, including to increase the fine violations of the provisions of Chapter 34. update requirements for parade permit applications and float parade elements to provide glass and smoking on floats and glass throws. To establish that violations of certain provisions constitute a criminal offense and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. Ordinance calendar number 35,492 by council member Harris by request. An ordinance to waive the requirements of Section 70-12 of the City Code applicable of the Cooperative Endeavor Agreement between the City of New Orleans and Mercy Partners LLC approved on April 23, 2026 by Ordinance No. 30642-MCS. the wise to provide with respect thereto. Ordinance calendar number 35,493 by Councilmember Harris. An ordinance revoking the dedication to public use and authorizing the sale at public auction for a minimum price to be set by appraisal of certain portions of ground together with all the rights, ways, privileges, servitudes, and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining situated in the first municipal district on this Of the City of New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, being a portion of John Churchill Chase Street between Squares 25 and 26, bounded by South Peter Street and Convention Center Boulevard, and a part of Square 26, all is shown on a survey. Drawing number M247 by the Office of... Gandolfo Kun, LLC, dated November 10, 2025, revised December 11, 2025, and more particularly described below, which are no longer needed for public purposes and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. Ordinance Calendar No. 35494 by Councilmember Harris. An ordinance to amend and reordain Articles 17 and 18 of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, Ordinance No. 4264-MCS as amended by Ordinance No. 26413-MCS and subsequent amendments to establish a new overlay district called the Convention Center Hotel Overlay District affecting the area generally bounded by the Convention Center Boulevard, Andrew Higgins Drive, South Peter Street, and the Mississippi River Heritage Park. The overlay district would create new regulations affecting the permitted land uses, allowable building heights, floor area ration far limits, design standards, bicycle parking requirements, loading space requirements, curb cut allowances, signage restrictions, and exterior lighting requirements applicable to the following area, the entirety of square 12A, 24A, 25, and a portion of the public street situated in the first municipal district generally bounded by Convention Center Boulevard, Andrew Higgins Drive, South Peter Street, and the Mississippi River Heritage Park. The municipal address... This is our 1000 South Peter Street, 1001 Convention Center Boulevard, 1040 South Peter Street, and John Churchill Chase Street between South Peter Street and Convention Center Boulevard. And otherwise, to provide with respect there to zoning docket number 2426. They put an order?

Yes. Thank you.

Ordinance Calendar No. 35495 by Councilmember King by request. An ordinance to ordain and establish Section 34-3.1 of the Code of the City of New Orleans to impose a carnival gap adjustment for parade fees to provide relative to the collection and use of said fee and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. Ordinance calendar number 35,497 by Councilmember King. An ordinance to affect the zoning map change from an SRS single family residential district to a C1 general commercial district on all lot and rights of ways. currently zoned SRS Single Family Residential District, and the 5th Municipal District, bounded by Barman Place, Holiday Drive, General DeGaulle Drive, and Algiers Canal, and the former Brookdale Golf Course, and otherwise supervised. With respect, there are two zoning docket number 4126. Ordinance Calendar Number 35,499 by Councilmember Harris. An ordinance to establish a conditional use to permit a hotel in HUMU Historic Urban Neighborhood Mixed Use District on Square 73, Lots 12AB in the Fort Municipal District bounded by Jackson Avenue, Chippewa Street, Annunciation Street, and Josephine Street. Municipal Address 709 Jackson Avenue and otherwise provide with respect to Zoning Docket Number 5126. Ordinance calendar number 35,500 by Councilmember Green by request. An ordinance to authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement of member number one between the City of New Orleans and Tool Design Group LLC and Fur and Peers relative to develop, refine, and implement data applications that address specific roadway safety problems for the Safe Streets and Road for All program. The provisions thereof is set forth more fully in the CAA form attached hereto as Exhibit A and made a part hereof and otherwise to provide with respect thereto. Ordinance Calendar Number 35,501 by Councilmember Green by request. An ordinance to approve and authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans acting by and through the New Orleans Aviation Board to enter into a lease amendment to the airline airport use and lease agreement with Signatory Airlines United Airlines, Inc., operating at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport under circumstances in which a solicitation and selection process is not required by law and otherwise to provide with respect or to. Ordinance calendar number 35,502 by Councilmember Green by request. An ordinance to approve and authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans acting by and through the New Orleans Aviation Board to enter into lease agreements with Alaska Airlines, which is operating at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, under circumstances in which a solicitation and selection process is not required by law and otherwise provided with respect thereto. Ordinance calendar number 35,503 by Councilmember McCarran by request. An ordinance to authorize the Mayor of the City of New Orleans to enter into a cooperative endeavor agreement between the City of New Orleans and the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans relative to the administration, planning, and construction of the Monticello-Canel Covert State Capital Outlay Project is set forth more fully and to see a form attached or two as exhibit one and made a part hereof and otherwise to provide with respect or two. That concludes the ordinances on first reads.

Can we get a motion to adjourn?

Second. Motion to adjourn. Seconded by Council President Morrell. All in favor? Aye. Five yays, zero nays. We stand adjourned. Thank you, everyone.