Council Committee - Regular Meeting

Regular Meeting of the mayor and city council, city of Fort Allen, Louisiana, Wednesday, July 9th, 2025, 5 38 p.m. Council chambers. Each person must decide before entering the chamber which agenda item they wish to comment on. If they are not seated in the chamber when the agenda item is heard, they will be notified by an officer to enter the council chamber to address that agenda item. Agenda. Please silence all electronic devices. Call to order. Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Mrs. Joseph here. Miss Garden, Mr. Hubble here, Miss King here, Mr. Payne here, quorum present. Warm establishment. Okay. Um before we do the um approval of the minutes, um I would just like to take a minute to show respect for our former council at large that passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. Uh on

behalf of myself and other elected officials in our community, I would like to offer condolences to Miss Clarice Lacy's family. Her words of transparency, accountability, and community first will always continue to ring in the ears of her community to keep her legacy alive. In the planning of her services, I ask that you keep her children, her husband, family, and friends, and the community in prayers. Uh if we would just take a moment of silence. Thank you. Number four. Um I'm sorry. I don't know if anyone had anything else they wanted to to say. Um give you that time at this at this time. A number four, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting on June 11th, 2025. Move motion by Councilwoman Hubble. Second by Councilwoman Joseph. Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Gordon, Mr. Hubble, yes. Miss King, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Motion passes here. Okay. Approval of the minutes of the special meeting on June 24th, 2025. Hey, was motion by Councilman Payne, second by Councilman Hubble. Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden, Mr. Hubble, yes. Miss King, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Motion passes. Number six, public comment. Comments from the public are allowed in accordance with LA Revised Statute 4211

section 2 through34 and specifically limited to an agenda item to be considered during the meeting. 3 minutes per person and 15 minutes per topic. Number seven, consider authorizing Chief Mitchell to make the following promotions. Are we doing them in global or together? You simply together global. Council may Okay. And that's for um Lieutenant Kendra Wisham to captain at step 118 grade I. Sergeant Eric Celeststein to Lieutenant to step 116 grade D. and officer Adrian Buchanan to corporal at step 113 grade C. Um, I got with you guys last week about these um employees. Like I explained to you guys, uh, they helped out tremendously uh, since I've taken over. And without them, um, I I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be where I'm at, um, at this point in my career and taking over this term. And putting them in these proper positions is the only one that help us out and help the police department and the community. Okay. get a motion. We're going to end global uh motion for all three at one time. Um so whoever makes the motion is for all three of the offices. Okay, this motion by Councilman Hubble, second by Councilman Payne. Okay, a roll call. Miss Garden, I'm sorry, Miss Joseph. Yes, my apologies. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble. Yes, Miss King. Yes, Mr. Payne. Yes.

Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Number eight. Consider authorizing Chief Mitchell Mitchell to create the position of assistant chief of police at step 118 in the police department. Okay. Um, one of the things that I did want to explain to you guys is, um, to have this position to be created, um, one of the things I already did was abolish a position, which was officer position. If you guys can recall, ever since 2016, we haven't had those four officer uh, positions um, filled. So, one of the things I already wanted to do and kind of I already started the process of was remove officer position and wanted to create that position for the assistant chief which I'm not um adding a position. I'm not adding a to the police department. It's still going to be all out taking just clarification. We're taking a position out while we're creating this one. So, we're not going to have a line in there to vacate. Correct. Okay. So, it's just a tie challenge. That's right. Yeah. Okay. So, it'll be 118. Or do we have to chief? Right now, you're just recommending the creation of the position. Are you recommending that the council fill that position as well? I'm also um recommending that they fill the position too. Okay. And that would be uh previous level at what level? 118 118 high. And you've gotten with finance there's money in the salary cover. Okay. That's good. My question as for finance that we did not go over in terms of overtime because

now that we're changing these from a position that is less to more at a budget does cover the lower part of overtime hours not the higher rate of overtime hours. So to clarify that I already spoken with every single one of them in the admin position. they already um are well informed that the overtime is not for them anymore. So they're taking their positions um as a more of an administrative role. And that's all three of these. No. U 17 and K. Okay. So they they're aware that they no longer be able to get over time based on their position. I've already had talking to them all. Yeah. Okay. So, I think the first motion would be to create you can do it all at once. It'd be a long motion, but basically it' be a motion to create the position of assistant chief of police at step 18. Abolish a police officer position off your books and accept the chief's recommendation for Rebe Smith as the assistant chief of police at step 118. We have something to overtime. Yeah, that'll be in the job description. So, the chief is going to have to create a job description and bring that map back to as well. Um, for those already. [Music] Okay. So, motion you want to state the motion. So the the motion uh is to authorize the creation of the assistant chief of police position at step 118, abolish

a police officer position and accept the chief's recommendation of Rebe Smith at step 118 I for the assistant chief position, the newly created assistant chief position. I move the motion. There's a motion by Councilman Hubble. Second by Councilwoman Joseph. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble. Yes. Miss King? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Motion passes. Nine. Consider a motion to amend the 2025 2026 police department budget in a general fund for 13,000 to cover the cost of four digital speed limit signs. G um like once again like I spoke to you guys last week. Um I told you I was going to end up getting actual quote for those four portable uh speed limit signs. Uh which I just passed out to y'all. Um, I kind of gave that a rough estimate. Uh, that should be at the time last week I said between what 11 and 13ish. So, I just gave it to you guys. It's for portable steel signs where we can uh track data and we can move them as as needed around obviously. I say this is actually introduction of an ordinance. Correct. Not a motion to because this is going because and chief we just kind of found this out a little while ago. Um because these are going to be a capital expenditure. These have to be itemized separately in your budget. So what we're going to have to do is amend the budget to specifically add these in as a line item under your capital expenditures. Okay. But that 13,000 is going to have to be pulled from from kind of your general

supplies and equipment line items. Yeah. Um, one of the things I was um hoping I could have gotten some assistance from the counselor and there too um with that especially it it benefits every single one of us. Um I'm pretty sure you guys also have people come to you about skiing and various of y respected jurisdiction. So um if you guys can I mean I I would I would love to get some assistance with it. So you mean assistance paying for it? What? No, it wasn't put in the budget at all. That's why we're You have to do the capital. Yes. Right. So it's still the same thing. We would still have to come back. We're just introducing the ordinance. So we'll have to come back to actually. So the motion on this line item would actually be introduce a motion I mean introduction of an ordinance to amend the 2025 2026 police department budget in the general fund for 16 to 13,000 to cover the cost of the speed limit size. That would be the motion. That would that would be the motion. The motion actually needs to be to introduce an ordinance to amend the budget. The ordinance vote on the actual ordinance next month. Correct. Next month. And there'll be a public hearing on it and then that would be up to final adoption. So that'll give you some time to kind of maybe figure out where the money can be potentially pulled from. But the first step for this would be introduction of an ordinance. So,

so Councilman Huggle uh made a motion for the introduction of the ordinance. Councilwoman King second. Anyone from the public? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Gordon. Mr. Hubble? Yes. Miss King? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Motion carried that passes. Thank you. Number 10. Authorize Mayor Pan to sign a contract with Essential Solutions for 15,983.95 for the police department server computer upgrades and labor. Um I think this was brought to everyone also. Um, I think the money is there because we were already um budgeted more for this. Um, I think this was discussed last month. Um, so we're just asking that you um authorize for me to sign the contract for it. Should I get a motion? I should have all received a copy of that yesterday from look at the detail. Everybody. Hey, it was motioned by Councilwoman Joseph. Second, second. Second by Councilwoman King. One from the public wish to be heard. Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Gordon. Mr. Hobble. Yes. Miss King. Yes. Mr. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. Number 11. Authorize Mayor Pan to sign a contract with Essential Solutions for $33,1026 for city hall computer upgrades, migration to Microsoft 356, migration to Microsoft Exchange online server warranty and labor.

Should be Microsoft 365. Oh, um, who sent this? I sent that quote to them as well. So, if they've got any questions, they're happy to ask me. Yeah. Okay. Can I get a motion? Motion by Councilman Hubble. Second by Councilwoman Joseph. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hollow, yes. Miss King, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Motion passes. Number 12. Authorize Mayor Panin to sign an engagement agreement with Lauren B. Tarver Tatamman of Jones Walker for assistance with the police department and valerium tax election in the amount of $5,000. Mr. D. Uh, as I've been progressing with trying to do the adarium tax packet, the next step is application to the Louisiana bond commission. It is a rather lengthy and uh technical thing. I did go to Evan at the end of last meeting. He recommended that I consult with our bond attorney or check with Michelle who's with Falcon Winkler with our bond attorney. She said we did not have one. So she checked with her supervisor, the managing partner, Falcon Winkler, Tommy Lern, asked first of all, did we need a bond attorney? His response was yes. So her next response was, who do you recommend? This was the recommendation. So I reached out to them at the end of the month, you see, June 24th, to get this. This was what she came back up with me. I wish I would

have known all of this ahead of time because she's not going to give us a discount. everything I've done so far. This is their flat rate for doing all of the mill documents and from start to finish making sure that all the appropriate agencies are notified when they're supposed to be notified. Secretary of State, the register of voter's office, doing all the legal documents that's required of those things because there's a lot more legal documents involved going forward than what I've already done and I don't know how to do all of those things. I'm asking y'all to do this so that the police department will not be penalized with not being able to have their adul. Okay. Can I get a motion? A motion by Councilwoman Joseph, second by Councilman Kane. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Can I get a roll call, please? Miss Joseph? Yes. Uh Mrs. Garden. Mr. Hobble. Yes, Miss King. Yes, Mr. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. 13. 13. Consider approving a resolution to adopt the policy on non-discrimination under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 and a communication with hearing impaired persons. Mr. D. Uh remember that I think in May we had the resolution to participate in the Louisiana community block grant program. There are over two pages of necessary steps that we have to do to get any of that money that says that we're going to get. One of the things is that we have to adopt a policy on non-discrimination under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973 and the communication with hearing impaired persons. So this is the resolution to adopt that. I sent y'all a copy of that what the policy would be yesterday as well and it we also as part

of that policy have to list a 504 coordinator. We have selected Tama Dura who is our HR person to fulfill that role. So again this is it for the Louisiana community to block the grant that we received. Okay. A motion. Motion by Councilwoman Joseph, second by Councilman Hubble. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble. Yes. Um, Miss King, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Motion passes. 14. Consider approving a resolution to adopt a residential anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan. Again, this is also part of the Louisiana Community Block Development Grant Program that all grantes that receive this award have to adopt this plan. Regardless if it would affect the grantee or not, this would not affect us because we are not displacing anybody. Our grant is solely working on repairing sewer lines that are already in the ground, not doing anything else. But government with the grant requirement says we have to adopt this and also the name a coordinator for this. We designated Lynette Lasain who is the secretary in the mayor's office. If anyone wants to call in that are displace we are anticipating again no one since our grant is specifically to repair sewer lines. Can I entertain a motion? Motion by Councilman Hubble. Second. Second by Councilwoman Joseph. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble? Yes. Miss King? Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes. Motion passes. A 15. consider approving a resolution to adopt section 504 grievance procedure. Mr. Again, this is another requirement in the Louisiana community block grant program is that once we adopted the 504 procedure that we get two resolutions ago, we have to have a policy on how people can voice their uh grievances. And this is what this policy does. It says how they can now voice their complaints if we didn't follow the resolution that we did two resolutions ago. And again, all of these would go to our 504 coordinator, Tamika Dura. Can I get a motion? Motion by Councilman Hubble. Second by Councilwoman King. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble. Yes. Miss King. Yes. Miss Payne. I mean, sorry, my apologies. Mr. P. Motion passes. 16. Consider making the advocate the official journal for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. Motion. And it's motioned by Councilman Hubble. Second. Second by Councilwoman King. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble. Yes. Miss King. Yes. Mr. Payne. Yes.

Motion passes. 17. Presentation of the monthly financial report. [Music] I presented to you the detailed financial report yesterday. I usually sent out a condensed version in on Fridays. Fridays was the holiday, so I didn't get around to it in dealing with also the Louisiana community block grants that made it into my inbox after we left on Thursday. So I sent you the entire financial statement as found in in code. So it may be a little bit confusing to read, but it gives you a more detailed explanation of where in each particular category the money went to in this past fiscal year. I don't know if you would prefer me to continue giving you these reports like this every month or you prefer the other one that groups everything together. But to look at the report that you got, I've kind of put letters on each of the page numbers. So page one a the very first page. The annual budget is what we had budgeted for in it's the very first page the column that says annual budget is what we had budgeted for for the 2425 fiscal year. the haven't quite figured out what the current actual column is. The uh year to date actual was how much we spent from July 1st, 2024 to or how much we've earned from July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025 that we've already recorded in the accounting system. And the last column, the percent of budget is how much we've used at the percent of budget. So this is as of June 30th, 2025. That's in our accounting

system as well. So that's 100% of the thing. So revenues, anything above 100% good. We got more than what we thought. Anything bel uh below 100% weren't doing as well. Um expenditures, we want those percentages to be less than 100%, not more. So the first page 1A gives you the entire general fund glance both expenditures and revenues together. So you can see that at the very looking over we had 116% in total revenues. So we were 16% over so far that we've recorded in our books and our expenses so far is at 86%. So we did very well in the general fund. Um then the sub subsequent pages 2A 3A breaks down that page in more detail. So page 2A is all the individual revenues to see exactly which revenues we got more of than we thought, which revenues we got less of. In page 3, it continues that with revenues starting on page 4 A are the expenses for each of the departments. So again, our departments are the administrative, city court, etc. So it breaks down everything for that. If we go far enough along, when you get to page 1B, that would be our water and gas fund. And it's the same format again, the overall revenue expenses together on page 1B. So our revenues if we looked at we only collected 86% of what we thought. So we didn't collect nearly as much as we thought we

projected when we did this budget almost 15 months ago cuz it was done like in March and April to get it to in June of last year. But we've only spent so far 79% of what we thought. So we spent less than what we thought. So we were good there. And then you continue on, you've got the three departments that make that up. The administrative, the morph, and the gas departments. Then when we get to page 1 C, that would be the third fund that we have, the sewer fund for the sewer department. And we really overestimated or we underestimate what we thought would collect revenues. We came in much better on the revenue side. As you can see expenditures, we went a little bit over than we thought. And then the subsequent pages breaks down the expenses and revenues by each of the categories. And finally, page 1D starts the section 8 on the low income housing fund where we did make the amendment last year. So you can see that by making that amendment last month, we pretty much got our numbers for both the revenues and the expenditures to be right at about 100% is what we're doing. So we met the financial obligations under the budget law for that special revenue fund. Um, some things to look forward or not look forward just to put you out there as far as expenditures since we were talking about this earlier. Part of that mill adoption for the police department when I read that long resolution last month was $3,400 was the cost of that election is what the secretary of state told me at that point in time. At the end of June, they sent me a revised estimate that they thought there would be some state

amendments on the constitution where the state would pay part of this election. Based upon what happened in the legislative session, those state constitutional amendments have been removed off the ballot. So, the state is not paying anything for this election. Therefore, the entire cost is being shifted to any municipality that has elections. and they changed that 3,400 to about 21,000 for the cost of the election. Um the vehicle liability insuranceances that we budgeted in each of the departments have now paid that bill for this year, they've gone up almost twofold. So we'll have to be shifting some money in the current budget to cover the vehicle liability and coverings of coverage. um insuranceances is going up up and up and you really don't know what you're going to get until you get the bill. So, just want to make you aware of those two things. Any questions? any comments and I will try to get this if y'all want the detailed report I will try to get to y'all on Monday because it's a lot of information but I think it's more comprehensive and gives you more information than the condensed things but it's up to you if I want the condensed instead I'm happy to do Okay. Thank you. 18 condemnation proceedings. Not at this time. Miss Lucy, you signed up for 18. The attorney heard me I think when we had our uh what do you call town hall meeting and I asked about someone recommended an ordinance I think to take

care of the blighted property and you said we already have one. My question to the council is you don't have anything. So no properties have been turned over to the council to be looked at. I know I have and Mr. Joseph can comment that I met with him never heard back. So, we have four properties. Um, I don't have the list in front of me. I think it's um 451 Harry Brown, 1205 Avenue C, 11:34 12 C, and it's 241 A Chapalai if my memory serves me correctly. Um, when I reached out to um Mr. Altazan that normally does our reporting for us. Um, which was last week. Um, he explained to me that he does have a job now and he needs needed to give them notice. So, I told him that he could go ahead and look at the properties and he could bring them to the August meeting. So, we do have four properties that's on the condemnation that I sent to both attorneys as well as Mr. Altazan to do a report on. Um but because of his now his work schedule cuz I think before he didn't do that um he had to give notice to his job um to be off or whatever he needed to do to give him time to go to inspect uh 451 Harry Brown. He was sure that he had an inspection on that but he needed to update it. Um so the other three were added to the list. So we do have we have more than four to be honest but the cost is the issue. My my question is though how what is the procedure like if I came and I said this house really needs I mean I've talked to

Mr. Gry before I mentioned to Mr. Joseph, you know, how does it get on the list for an inspection, an evaluation, or whatever? What is the property, I guess, that you're 1433 Rosedale Road, the grass doesn't get cut, the house is falling down, and I I feel for the neighbors. Now, we might ask Mr. Joseph, did you happen to look at it? Remember that meeting we had? Uh-huh. What about the poor, you know, and just like abandoned vehicles in yours? Do you want poor non-working vehicles parked next door to you and and things like that? How are we as citizens be concerned about the blighted property enhancements in Port Allen? We try to keep up our yards, but it's like when we report something, it goes nowhere. Now, I've heard from past administration, it's the cost. Well, we've got streets right now that have holes in shells. Is it the cost of the manpower? We can't even fix our streets. So, I I guess the whole question is how do citizens request that something be looked at or taken care of? Tell me, and I'm sure a lot of people would like to know. Well, I spoke to Mr. Altazan, like I said, myself because I didn't really know the procedure. That was something I've never done in the role that I had previously. So, I called him myself to see how did it go. So, he goes out based on the information that he's given from my understanding, and correct me Evan if I'm wrong, he does a report, then he comes back, I think, then we notify the family. He'll he'll do a report and he's only going to do reports if the city

sends him out there. That that is a charge when the city sends him out there. So once once a report is made to administration, the administration makes a decision. Okay, this is a property we want to look at. We send the property inspector out there. He does a report which is the first official step in the process. From there, uh, we have to we as the attorneys take it and then we do what's called a notice to show cause, which is we basically send the property owners and sometimes it takes a while to locate all these property owners, especially when you're dealing with the air property. Uh but we send a notice to these property owners saying look you know this your property is appears to be deficient for the following reasons attached in this report and they're required to come to the uh the next regularly scheduled council meeting. And if you've been in those council meetings you know that's the one where Mr. Alazan is present that he'll do a presentation. I will question him on on the contents of his report of his original court and and based on what he's viewed on the property even the day of the meeting. And then from there, the property owner gets a chance to say what they need to say. And then the council determines what the whether this property is going to be condemned or not. And then depending on the reasons as to why the property is condemned, that determines the next steps in terms of whether this is a property that's can just be repaired with certain certain things done to repair it or whether this property is in such a deteriorated condition that it just must be torn down. So whatever route the council goes, the property owner will be given a certain amount of time to do that. And then if they don't at that point in time, then the council can hire a contractor to go in and do whatever work needs to be done to that property and then it becomes a legal issue from there between the city and the property owner. So what I was saying tonight, you know,

no condemn condemnation proceedings tonight, uh just so we're clear, that doesn't mean that the city is not looking at any properties right now. As the mayor mentioned, uh Mr. Altazan is now uh in the process of going out to four properties to do the reports on. There are several other properties that we're actually looking at right now um that you know we're just we're not going to load Alpha Xan all up with all these different properties at one time because then we'd have a 5h hour meeting trying to handle all those at one time. U so you know there are four that the city is looking at right now that has been referred to the uh third party inspector. There are other ones in the queue. So when I say there's none pending right now, that just means there's none on the agenda for tonight. But that doesn't mean that we're not actually looking and going. And I totally understand all you said because I've been to a number of meetings. You explained this many times. My question still is how as a citizen, any of us in the city, who do we come to? Is there a form? Can we say we would like this check? and it's not next door to me, but I feel for the people that have to live next door to this. So, what is the procedure? Do you have it? Does the mayor have it? It's not a formal procedure. It can just be contacting the count your council member who's in your district saying, "Hey, look, can you check out this property and and and what about contacting the chief administrative officer? Should he be in the loop?" Sure, that's that's appropriate as well. I'm already in the loop. Yes, we you and I met about 14 33 Road. He sent Mr. Gary over there to to perform an inspection. Uh the grass was high at the time and took the photos. The grass was cut. Last time it was cut was June 9th. Uh according to the photos that I have, however, um it's a process that has to start over. Every time they have to cut the grass, they have grass cutting. Pardon me. It's not the grass cutting. Well, you mentioned grass cutting, too,

so I'm just trying to be thorough. So, so, so, so condemnation is a legal standard. That's why Mr. Altazan has to do an inspection. I don't think the house meets the condemnation legal statement. However, if um something has changed, then we'll perform another inspection. But at the same time, as the mayor and Mr. Al has uh just alluded to, that's a list. It's a long list. and um we're just not in a position to do the entire list at one time. But if there is a if you're saying there's something wrong with the buildings on that property, then then you now put it on the mayor's radar. So, you know, that's that's one that you know they'll put on the and it's been years. The old gentleman that lived there, I helped him out a lot and did some repair just because his bathtub was on the ground. So, I've been in the house and you know, I feel for the nation. Just as I said too, I brought it to Mr. Joseph's attention. You're living next door to a house with cars that the grass, they may cut the grass, but the grass is up to the window sills. So, how do we try to get our city cleaned up? How do we try that? And I hear it's expensive. It's funding. But at the same time, you know, we talk about beautifying and taking care of of what needs to be taken care of. And that's all we're asking. You know, I speak my piece. A lot of people just say, "Well, doesn't do any good." And I'm getting to feel that way. You can report it. Well, as I stated, I think Miss Crochet at the um town hall meeting before and I think at maybe one of the council meetings, um we know when we go outside

our door that our grass is high, that we have cars in our yard, they have cars that's not working in our yard. I understand what you're saying, but we have to be good citizens and community as well to try to keep up what we have and what our parents or whoever before us have left also. So, I do understand that, you know, you want the city to go out and do all these things, but we have to take some accountability ourselves in what we have to make sure where we're living is fine. everyone can't, you know, get a $200,000 house, $300,000 house, but try to keep up with what what you have. I do understand what you're saying. I think I had maybe 12 properties um that we put cuz I have had Miss Martin and Miss Murray just came to me yesterday. Um just so happened this one of the properties I just said was one of the properties they were coming to, you know, to tell me. They've seen me out riding behind Lance Gri looking at grass, looking at houses. Um, so I am trying to do my due diligence for the city, but we as community, as homeowners, um, we have to take accountability as well for places that we live. Um, I know things happen, you know, people get sick, people are elderly. I get that. But we have to also help. And I mean, some people sit outside their house knowing they have this on this side and this on this side, but at the end of the day, you know, everybody wants us to go clean their house up for them. Um, it's kind of, you know, personal property going into someone's yard. So, I mean, it's a lot of variables that we have to look at. So, we can't just go do certain things on properties. What about communication with the residents? Do y'all send the letter just?

We send certified letters. Yes, we do. When they come back, grass cutting, but I mean for other things, but like I said, the the cars and you know, Lance Giding does. He does. He does. Okay. that for every official condemnation, like when they're in the official process, you know, numerous letters were sent prior to us even getting to that point, you know, to try to help them or prod them to get their stuff in line. It with your memory and say the last year, has anything been demolished or in the last year? I'm going to say no. Um, but I want to say since I've been here, um, I know Bayer Lee had a running list at one time. I think it was 20 something between 20 and 30 properties maybe that may have been torn down. It's quite a few. Um the reality is the most important thing to recall about condemnation is that it is an extremely harsh remedy of other property or persons. And that is why Mr. Alazan is involved in the process. Listen, I was the city attorney at the time that we created the process because the city did not have it before. Mr. Durban used to do the uh evaluations when he was working for the parish as an engineer. You have to have a qualified individual issue an opinion that says it meets the legal standard and once that is

done then we run it through the process. But like Mr. Aler said sometimes it requires multiple notices and if you do not have the contact information for sometimes you're talking list of people uh then you may have to appoint an attorney to be to represent them as a curator and it's a it's an extremely complicated process to get from identification to destruction and all the bases have to be touched otherwise the city's liability is enormous. And may I reiterate, we are defending a lawsuit right now for a house that was torn down that we had nothing to do with. We didn't we didn't hire the people. Now, we identified it for condemnation and we notified the property owner and that notice gives the property owner a time to address it themselves before the city addresses it. And that property owner hired a private contractor who tore down the wrong houses and they are suing us. So all I'm saying, Miss Crochet, is it's not unnoticed, but it takes time and every house doesn't qualify whether people like it or not. Okay, we heard about the houses. What about vehicles in in in yard? You said it had to come under the not street worthy. If you got vehicles parking their asses up to the the windows, how can you who determines do y'all have someone an inspector to go check these vehicles?

I think it's the same thing. I was told that um we send someone out for Avenue C. Um because a complaint was someone that fixes cars were has so many cars on Avenue C and that we were able to tag him. We did that. He came back and tried to take us to court to sue us. what I was told. It was before my time, but that's what I was told. So, it's I think the same thing is kind of like a a that there's a process. I mean, you you got to take every situation different. I mean, you could have grass growing up this high on a perfectly working car that there's absolutely nothing wrong with. So, the issue there is grass, not the car. You could have a junky car, you know, on perfectly manicured grass. That's a completely separate issue. where you could have a junky car with grass that's tall on it. So you just got grass and junk cars and condemnable buildings. Those are all three different issues with three different processes. So again, it's one where if you have a concern on a property, you know, get it to city hall, get it to administration, and then from there it can be looked at to determine, okay, what's going on on this property? Is it a junk car? Is it junky yard? Is it tall grass neighborhood look nice and and as long as you don't do anything people won't take care of it. So whether it's the cost and we've heard that so many times. So we have all this blighted property but because of the cost. So but anyway thank you. Number 19 alcohol beverage permits. We have one more per onsite consumption

high as well as dies for taking off. Any questions? Just a renewal. Motion. Can I get a motion? Motion by Councilman Hubble. Second by Councilman Payne. Anyone from the public wish to be heard? Roll call, please. Miss Joseph, yes. Miss Garden. Mr. Hubble, yes. Miss King, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Motion passes. uh announcements and correspondence. Um, Miss Wharton is out, but she asked me to um make sure I relay the information um about the senior roundup. The parish along with the city are sponsors for the West Baton Rouge uh senior roundup at the community center on August 21st um 9 to 100 p.m. Um the city and the parish are both sponsors for this event. Um all seniors are welcome to come out and enjoy the festivities. Um also on August 2nd um we will have uh our first uh community bike ride. We we will be partnering with uh United Riders Bike Club of Baton Rouge. Um that's our bike club that's here locally. We see riding through the city. Um we're going to um have a community bike ride on August 2nd. Um we will meet up at Khan Elementary. I think they said about 6:00. The ride will leave about 6:30 for whoever wants to participate with that. And also, um, we will be partnering with

Jack's Running Club. Um, not sure what Thursday yet. Um, but I was told they leave every Thursday, 6:15, but we will probably wait and have a date for that also in August. Again, um, like I asked in the beginning, please keep Miss Lacy's family in your prayers, thoughts and prayers. Um, we don't have any arrangements uh for the services just yet, but I will notify the council if I get something.