Remarks by Jonathan Lambert-Melton
24 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
“You can email them to the city council and hard copies can be placed in the basket in front of the dais.”
“Octavia, you may need to pull the mic closer too.”
“I had that same question with the request recommendation of not a previous recipient. That would mean that... On one agenda, an organization could receive an allocation from several council members if it doesn't exceed $5,000. Yes. But then no council member could then subsequently allocate funds. Okay. And then on the must be a reimbursed activity, is that- the funding is not paid until they submit an invoice, or we can't even make the request unless the event has already happened?”
“So I have some... Well, first of all, general concern is I think we should get rid of council contingency. So I'm going to put that out there first. But if we're going to go with these recommendations, I have a concern about that requirement because some of these... The whole point is to get money to folks that don't have a lot of funds that are nimble. They may not be able to put on an event until they know that the funding is coming. And so I think that you should be allowed to... have the vote from the council table and say, yes, we're going to allocate $5,000 to this organization, get it…”
“I think my concern is I don't think the requirement should be that they have already completed the activity for the funding request to be approved. I certainly think. that before they get the money, they have to say, here's my invoice, I did the event, please reimburse me. But I think that making the event already happen prior to the funding approval may actually make it to where the event can't happen. And so I just think, I totally agree there needs to be an invoice for reimbursement, money can't be paid on the front end, but I don't think that should be a requirement to make the funding…”
“Understood. I think that addresses my concern. Okay.”
“Yeah, I'm going to add that was what I was trying to weigh in on. At the retreat, I took the position we should get rid of council contingency. What swayed me to let's just find a better way to do it was that comment right there by Councilmember Fort. And so I just think we're at a fundamental, like, maybe not disagreement, but we're out of alignment with the intent. And so if we're keeping council contingency to get quick, nimble funding to truly small boots on the ground, doing good work in the community, then some of these recommendations I think are out of alignment with that intent. If…”
“Well, and two of them can't qualify under the new rules because it's 10,000 cumulative. So, I mean, that's got to be a conversation too.”
“Can I make a record? I don't want to make misplaced. Why don't we just vote on the pending funding requests and have this come back to you all at your retreat in June? the next term or the next term. I just think everyone needs to process. We just got these. I think we all need to process this more. I don't want to hold up the requests that are pending. I would be fine voting with the ones that are in the pipeline or under the current rules. And then having more time to process and in some setting bring this back to the next, I will not be here. Don't bring it back next month.”
“So with that, I would move to approve these.”
“Yes, I think we're clear. The ones we're about to approve will be under the existing rules that we have in place right now. Those requests came in.”
“Council Member Harrison just withdrew her $5,000.”
“I think it needs to be paused. So is that the motion from? I move that we pause or suspend additional funding requests until the council can approve new rules.”
“I think we're all extremely eager to have this put in place and done. So move to set the public hearing on November 17th. Second.”
“And actually, to clarify, is that? Day. Yeah, it's day. Sorry, we don't have an evening meeting. That's right. Never mind. Go ahead.”
“I'm also going to point out he's probably going to have to demo it anyway on sale, so I'm just going to move to approve. Yeah. Second.”
“I'm going to agree with Council Member Patton.”
“Yeah. we've got this has been sitting for years we've got neighbors here that are talking about rats and other problems well i can appreciate that now there's a sale on the 11th hour they're going to demo it anyway i i'm prepared to just make the motion to do it right now i don't want to hold it i don't want to give them grace period it just needs to get done like it's too late too little too late So that's, I mean, you've got a moat. Did you make a moat?”
“But don't we charge the property owner for all the work we do? So it's gonna be a lien that they'll have to clean up on sale. I move to approve.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Briefly, I just want to highlight that this past Sunday was the last day of operations for Legends Nightclub in their existing space on Hargett Street, which is about a block away from where we're sitting right now. For those of you who don't know, Legends is one of the most, I guess, historically significant LGBT establishments in the city, certainly in the city, and probably in the Southeast. They opened in the Warehouse District decades ago when it was not a place where folks were wanting to spend their time or invest their money and resources. They've sort of been leading the charge on…”
“Uh, no. I'll come down here. Put them in the middle.”
“I just want to say I think that the this is awesome and I would love to see more of this intentional placemaking Calling on our history throughout the city it really honors the past and also gives I think a sense of purpose and place to that area now and and What a great message that's gonna send for everyone who's coming in from out of town to see how we as a city separate celebrate our history and I just think it's fantastic and I don't think miss Rainey's here, but you know I don't think any of this would have happened without her advocacy and the neighbor's advocacy for decades. And so…”
“good afternoon uh first arts commission one regular vacancy and second design review commission one regular vacancy no nominations were made for either of those categories so those will be carried over i submitted a nomination but it may have been um late sure but i would like to nominate for a design review um andrew osterlon o-s-t-e-r-l-u-n-d i also submitted a late nomination for mr osterlin”