City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. A zebra with a sunburn? That'll work. Excuse me.

Maybe a zebra with a sunburn.

Okay.

No, I don't mean you. I mean, one of them says, like, how dare you. Up there? It could be a zebra.

I didn't hear nothing.

Right.

Thank you. Mm hmm. Thank you. Well, well. Again? Hello. Say hello to me. Okay. Well,

One, two, three, four.

Hey.

I love it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Father Paul.

Mm-hmm. Y'all need to go get something to drink.

Go get...

We all agree? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there someone already here?

Let me have a seat.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. The Shreveport City Council meeting is now called to order. We're going to have quite a few presentations on today, so we want to try to move through this as expeditiously as possible. We have just our regular council meeting, and there are two probably proposed discussions in that. And then after that, we have two subsequent meetings. So when we call your name, get ready to rumble. All right, Father Paul, will you please come and lead us in a word of prayer, and then we'll ask Councilman Boucher to lead us in the prayer.

Thank you. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, send upon these who hold office in the city of Shreveport the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice that withstood fast purpose They may faithfully serve in their office to promote the well-being of all people through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And as we think of yesterday, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead, we give you thanks for all your servants who have laid down their lives in the service of their country. Grant to them your mercy and the light of your presence. and give us a lively sense of your righteous will, that the work which you have begun in them may be perfected through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilwoman Taylor? Present. Councilman Brooks? Here. Councilman Talaferro? Here, ma'am. Councilman Butcher? Here. Councilman Jackson? Here. Councilman Green?

I'm here.

And Councilwoman Bowman?

Present. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the Administrative Conference and Special Meeting Monday, May 11, 2026, and the City Council Meeting Tuesday, May 12, 2026? So moved. So moved by Councilman Butcher, second by Councilman Talaferro. Is there any discussion? Let's vote.

So we know there are council members that have awards, recognition, and distinguished guests not to exceed 15 minutes, but I

Please note that I want the children to go first. That would be an honor today, and then we will go in subsequent order from that time.

Councilman Jackson, there I know that you have a presentation.

Councilman Green, is there anybody else that has one? Okay. Councilman Jackson.

If IT can go ahead and queue up the screens, we'll give them a moment. As they're doing that, I would like to call Christopher Daniels to the podium. If our clerk can read the letter.

Let up commendation delivered the 20th day of May, 2026. It is with great honor and pride that I commend Christopher Daniel at the first Southern University of Shreveport graduate to earn an associate degree while attending Southwood High School. Christopher Daniel has distinguished himself through outstanding academic achievement leadership and service as a graduating senior at southwood high school with a 4.8 gpa he has demonstrated remarkable dedication and perseverance while reaching his historic milestone throughout his high school career christopher has excelled in athletics leadership organizations and community service including participation in football soccer power lifting track and field National Honor Society, Top Teens of America, Upward Bound, Alpha Exquires, and Caddo Parish Commissioners Youth Alliance. Christopher is also an active member of the Paradise Baptist Church, where he serves as president of the youth ministry. His leadership, discipline, and integrity, and commitment to excellence serves as an inspiration to young people throughout the Shreveport community. As he prepares to attend Grambling State University, the best, to pursue a degree in kinesiology and a career as a physical therapist, we celebrate and congratulate Christopher Daniel for his historic accomplishment, strong character, and bright future ahead. With deepest respect and admiration, Dr. Alan Jackson.

Floor is yours. Christopher, do you have any words? I would like to say thank y'all for this opportunity. Let me say this. You know, this is new. I've been in education all my life. Dual credit has always been a thing, but receiving full associate's degree while in college is remarkable. I think Chair said we had about 100 students that achieved that feat this year. And for the audience, let me put this in perspective. College is expensive. You have cut off 50% of the cost of your college education by doing what you have done. That means to receive your bachelor's degree only requires another two years. You have saved time. You could be in the workforce two years earlier than any peers that did not do what you did. That is extremely, extremely remarkable. You have saved your family thousands of dollars in student loan debt. You are literally on your way to having a master's degree. At the same time, it would take any of your peers to receive a bachelor's degree starting in August. So I do just wanted to acknowledge that. When I heard about it, I wanted to bring you down. I wanted to honor you. Southwood is in my district and I can go on and on about, you know, how proud of Lafitte it is. I do want to shout out studying versus Shreveport. for giving this opportunity. For those who don't know, these classes are free. Southern takes on the burden of the cost with that. And so I encourage every high school student to take advantage of that. But Mr. Christopher, congratulations, job well done.

Job well done.

Thank you.

Hold on, stay there. I'm gonna invite the council to come down to take a picture with you, including the mayor.

CONGRATULATIONS.

Congratulations. THANK YOU.

Councilman Green.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, would you read resolution number 49?

A resolution recognizing Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs Medical Center Employee Remembrance Day. Whereas during the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States of America, citizens, veterans, families, former employees, and community leaders gathered for the Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs Medical Center Employee Remembrance Day to honor employees of the medical center who have passed away. whereas the day provided an opportunity for remembrance, reflection, fellowship, and support for the families, friends, coworkers, and veterans whose lives were impacted by the dedicated service of those employees, whereas Councilman James Green participated in the program and offered prayer in recognition of National Day of Prayer while remembering families who continue to grieve the loss of loved ones, whereas Doc Voorhees funded the VA, founded the VA Retire Alliance 12 years ago and initiated the Day of Remembrance five years ago. And together with Shirley Ledbetter, the current presidents continue the organization's mission of honoring retired Veterans Affairs employees and preserving their legacy of service to veterans. Whereas Overton Brooks Veteran Affairs Medical Center has served veterans throughout northwest Louisiana, east Texas, and southwest Arkansas since its opening in 1950. And the employee remembrance day reflects the lasting bond between veterans, their families, and employees. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City of Shreveport, in due legal and regular session convened, that it hereby recognizes Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs Medical Center Employee Remembrance Day and honors the memory, dedication, and lasting contributions of the employees whose service has made an impact on veterans and the community.

Dr. Voorhees, would you come, please? Would you stand? Let's give him a great. So, Doc, I was there, and I didn't even know about it until you told me about it, but something that you have been doing for years, giving your service, and you're such a servant to the people of Shreveport and all over the architects, and I just thought in my heart that you all should be recognized and appreciate all your work, all that you do. And also, I wanted people to know that you were brilliant and you do a lot of things besides being on the podium. Come on, Doc. Come on, bro. But, Doc, thank you so much. And the mic is yours for some expressions.

Well, I'd just like to say thank you. And we did send an invitation to all elected officials. And we thank you for coming. and we owe a debt of gratitude to the veterans, and it's been my privilege and honor to serve for 33 years the veterans that have served this country and sacrificed for us.

This has been the highlight of my life, and I thank you.

All right. Could y'all come down and take a picture with Doc?

Sure.

Councilman Boucher.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could, could Mr. Diamond with the project on East 70th Street come up? So as they're making their way up, I requested the developers and I'm assuming you're actually with the financing portion of it, correct? That's right. I asked them to come up and kind of give us an update on where the project is. Uh, we did have a meeting. Was that late February, early March via zoom?

I think it was April or May, actually beginning of May.

It wasn't. Okay. That all starts to run together. Anyway. Um, I was very, I was very optimistic whenever we had that conversation about where we were, but now as time has passed, I think, uh, councilman Talaferro has been getting some complaints. I've got complaints. Um, The building actually is in my district and the fire station and then where the Bayou is, that starts Councilman Talaferro's district and across the street. So we are both just being bombarded with questions about what's gonna happen, what's happening. Two meetings ago, I asked property standards to go over there and take a look because the grass is really, really high around it, and that's been the main complaint that we've been getting is overgrown grass. I mean, honestly, I'm just going to be honest with you. Like I told you on our Zoom meeting, it's an eyesore, and I don't like it being in my district. I think that that's – You know, it's just, it's an eyesore. And I think we can all agree on that. So I wanted you to take just a minute and kind of give me an update on where y'all are with it or where y'all are going with it. And then is there anything that we as a city can do to help y'all move this project along?

Thank you very much. My name is Paul Diamond, and I'm here representing my company, GreenLake. I just want to acknowledge this project's caused frustration in the community, and I certainly acknowledge that. It's also caused frustration for my firm. You have questions, so you asked me to come back and be here, and here I am. Just a little bit of background. GreenLake is a private lender. We specialize in commercial bridge loans across the United States. Our firm was founded 18 years ago. We have projects funded in roughly 30 states across the country. We have over 25 years of experience working together as a group. We have a long, over this nearly 20 years, track record that we take our obligations in the communities that we work in very seriously. This is not the first project of ours that has hit a rough patch. Construction lending is complex. Not every deal goes smoothly. But I will say in our 18 years, every project that we've been involved in has been brought to completion, and I don't expect this project to be any different. Again, I represent the lender here. I'm not the owner or developer. This project, to give you a little, you know, my read on things, this project is stalled because of bad actors on the construction side, not on the financing side, not on the ownership side. The owner hired two different contractors who were both dishonest, and those contractors brought in several unscrupulous subcontractors. The result has been significant harm to the project, money stolen and money wasted. The result was, I'm sorry, so, you know, the owner absolutely should have hired better suppliers, and that's their fault that they did not. The dollars spent to date should have been enough to finish this project, but given that they were misused, it was not. You know, the developer that owns this project we've worked with previously, they're experienced, focused on hotel development. They were victims of contractor misconduct. That said, they should have handled this better, and they didn't. They didn't hire the right people and didn't oversee them correctly. As the lender, we weren't involved in those decisions and we can't be. Lenders don't get to choose the contractor or to manage them. It's outside of our role and our ability. I want to be clear that our interests, as my company's interests, are aligned with the city. It's our capital that is in the building that we have already invested and we've invested Substantially more money in this project than we had set out to do but we need to see it completed and we want to see it completed It's in my view the community's best interest to see the project completed and We do not intend to walk away from this project. That would be the worst outcome for us, for the owner, and I believe for the city. And completion is the way to get there. The good news, the borrower's in advanced stages of replacement funding to finish this. Based on where these discussions stand today, we expect them to have liquidity in the next eight weeks. We'd hoped this would happen sooner. There's been a great deal of uncertainty in financial and banking markets across the country. We've seen this everywhere from Atlanta to Oregon, across the country, without a doubt. Things are not moving quickly. But work is actively underway. Conversations are real. We've been involved in those conversations and heard it from those individuals. So it's moving towards a resolution, not away from one. I appreciate this project's taken too long. I'm here because, number one, you asked me to be, but also we believe in this project and in the community. and we're committed to ensuring that it gets to completion, and we believe it will, and we will do everything in our power to do that.

So, Mr. Diamond, thank you for coming. I know you've traveled. It's not like you live around the corner, so I appreciate you taking the time to come. I think that what I'm hearing, which I didn't hear in the original Zoom meeting is, though, that there has to be additional financing approved to finish the project. Is that right?

That's correct.

So, is it Am I correct in saying that you're close to $9 million? Is that how much has been spent on the project so far?

You know, unfortunately, in my role, I'm not at liberty to disclose information that's the owner-developer's information.

It's public record. So, I mean, I know that there's been some public records that say it's $9 million. And I'm trying to figure out if this is on this one project because, like you and I discussed, I would assume that the owner is going to want to either sell this or something. I don't know. But at some point, I feel like the property is going to be stigmatized because it's been open for four years. And I just don't see being in the real estate business in Shreveport for almost 28 years, that building being worth $9 million. But I may be wrong. I don't know. I'm not playing appraiser or broker or anything today. But I just don't see that. So I feel like that we need to really get a timeline on this, when this is going to be done. Because if there has to be more, I just don't know if there's enough value there for them to pull any more money out anywhere.

And I can't speak to what the owner's ultimate goal move will be what that, you know, I know this is approved for a dual brand Marriott property. So that certainly is a valuable thing. As a half finished, or it's more than half, but as a partially completed project, you know, you don't get the full value until you fully complete it. And you don't even, you know, let's say I'm picking numbers out of the air. Let's say it's 85% complete. You don't get 85% value today. It's got to be finished.

Subject to, it's subject to completion, so.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and that's the other question I had, and then I'm gonna let Councilman Talaferro ask a couple questions, because we're kind of limited on time today, but... So what does Marriott think about their sign hanging on the side of that building? I mean, because it looks horrible. I mean, the grass when I went by there this weekend was knee deep, almost up to your hips in some areas. I mean, what does Marriott, when does Marriott come in and say, okay, we're done, we're taking our signs off this thing?

Again, as a lender, I don't work with Marriott, so I can't speak to what... They directly are saying my understanding is they're up to speed and yeah, they're they're a stakeholder in this and I would imagine They're similarly frustrated Thank you, I'll yield it councilman Telfair Thank You councilman is Marriott a stakeholder or is Marriott just lending their name to The building of this Marriott is a franchisor, so they... Do they have any money invested? They do not, to my knowledge. I can't speak...

So all they have is their name.

Mm-hmm.

And it's a franchise, you're right. Okay. Well, as... You've got high aspirations. Wait there, Jim. As Councilman Butcher said, we are very disappointed. And I think words don't describe the disappointment of our constituents. And it was mentioned that, yes, it is in our districts, but it is the Shreveport is what we're looking at, the city as a whole. And we consider this a blighted property, plain and simple. It does nothing to value our... Our district does nothing to value our city. And I'm surprised, and I'm kind of disappointed as well, that in the last meeting was January, nobody from corporate, nobody chose to say, you know, we owe these people an explanation. You know, everyone knows that lives in this part of the country, everything is relationships. And sometimes you should not be asked to show up or whomever. Whoever's our boots on the ground, we don't even have that, where we can reach out and touch someone when we have issues, we have concerns and so forth. I think that's paramount in all the construction projects that we do. The ones that we fund, the ones that we support, is that we have someone that we can hold accountable that is willing to come to us face-to-face, and I agree with Grayson, is that we appreciate you taking the time out, you know, to come to tell us or to share with us what you know. And unfortunately, I guess you're limited on what you can tell us as far as a deadline and eight weeks. It sounds to me like we really have not progressed any further than when we had the conference, you all had the conversation in February. I really wish I could have something more optimistic, but it is a piece of blighted property in my opinion. I don't know if it'll ever make money. I'm concerned that the doors open and six months later they realize we're going to write this whole thing off, pack it up, and now I'm stuck with another piece of blighted property looking for someone to buy it.

It's like I told you on the phone.

We are the biggest small town you'll ever come to. And, you know, if I had my daughter coming in from Alabama to visit, I would say don't stay there because it was opened up. You know, there might be issues with it. You know, I mean, that's what I foresee this being now. And I pray that's not it. But, you know, I have asked Mr. Green with property standards, we're going to start We're going to start fining y'all for that yard and keeping that stuff up. And we're also... We'll take care of that. We're also looking at some legislation with the city attorney on once a permit is issued, how long you have to complete a project without giving us an update. I don't know where we are with that, but we're looking at that. So we're really going to start trying to hold some of these developers. We had a hotel. Nobody ever saw it because it was behind... HealthPlex clinic on Burke Coons that was about 60% complete, set there forever. It was a five-story building. And two Thanksgivings ago, homeless burned it down to the ground. So I don't want this to happen in a business corridor that, you know, attracts a lot of people. So I hope, I'm not picking on y'all, but we're fixing the light of fire, I'm afraid.

I appreciate that. We will definitely take care of the weed issue, and there is security at the site, but I understand that's small steps.

Thank you. I'm glad to see that the finance company lease is not bailing. I think that's an important silver lining in understanding that this is dealing with unscrupulous contractors. We've all kind of experienced that. I'm hoping the owners are going after those contractors in some form of litigation. Are you able to speak to that?

I'm not able to speak to that. I don't know what their plan is. Yeah. Okay.

But as long as the finance company is still on board with making sure there are enough fundings to complete the project, that is the silver lining. hoping that is the case and we can still see that in the future. Thank you. Thank you.

One follow-up, Madam Chair. Who is doing the construction? That's concerning.

Yeah. I'm having a moment.

Yeah.

Hold on. I'll tell you.

Okay, so who are you giving?

Dean Commercial, Byron Chapman.

Okay, so they're the ones that you're giving money to.

They get funding through this project.

But they're out of money, so they can't be funded, so they're not working.

That's the issue.

Okay.

So they've got to basically go get an additional loan to finish the project.

There's liquidity from the owner that's coming in to fund the project.

But it's not coming, the additional funding is not coming from you.

There are other projects that we work on with them, and we are diverting funds from that, which we don't have to, to this project to see it complete once they get those funds.

Okay, so in the 30 years, in the 30 states that you said that you have projects going on, is this out of the ordinary for you, being in the business of lending money to know people that do construction work projects of this size that you have this this many issues and hurdles and non-compliance the list goes on this is it's one of the books isn't it this is not a good project yeah okay thank you madam chair i i think madam chair one more one more thing um

I do appreciate y'all staying with it, but it's a $94 million mortgage on that from what I understand. I'm very, very concerned that at some point somebody's going to walk away or the city's going to be forced to, like Councilman Talaferro said, this is a blighted property. Our list of blighted properties is long, so it will probably be when my successor dies. takes my place before we ever do anything with this. But there is potential there on blighted properties. We have a very robust mayor, and we're doing everything we can to clear up our city of blighted properties. It would be probably way down the list, but I would think that we would need – there is that possibility that we could deem it blighted and – I don't know what happens from that point. But I don't think your investment would be very well protected in that.

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. It's not our intent.

Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you. Doug. Doug Boris. Give Tonya your resolution. It was a holiday and I didn't get it framed, so we can get it framed and then I'll get it to you. Yeah, just give it to Tony. Yes, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Any other council members? Mayor Arsenault, do you have any awards, recognition, or distinguished guests not to exceed 15 minutes?

I do have, briefly, I asked the police to give their report.

Okay. Chief Wayne?

And they promised to be brief.

Okay.

Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. The matter that you and I talked about earlier, I did some follow-up. Our cameras caught it clearly. Six seconds passed, so the event, as reported, probably did not happen. And there was some recanting of statements later on in the investigation. Okay.

Well, I mean, it's not good. It's not good, but it's good. Right, I understand. Thank you.

Yes, sir. All right, well, I'll move pretty swiftly. I think all of you should have a copy of it. Our felony crimes, and these are basically the same ones that I report on every month. Sex crimes were down 18%. Vehicle thefts down 10%. Robberies are up slightly by 8%, which is about 38%. Burglaries are down pretty good by 14%. Vehicle burglaries are down 26%. Next slide. Next slide will be shootings. You can see the shootings for 2026 are down by 20%. Next slide is the homicides, the criminal homicides. Shows a plus four, so it's up by 25%. That big spike came from April 19th when the horror occurred. If that wouldn't have occurred, it would have been the opposite. We would have been down by 25%. The next slide you see is a violent crime for service, as you see that it is down compared to 2025 by 3%. Next slide you see is the crash data. Even though you see that the total crash data is down by 3%, here is the alarming part that's not showed there. Last year, this very time period, we had 10 fatal crashes here in the City Limbs report. To date, we have 18. So fatals are up 18%. And that's due to just about every reason that you can imagine. This next slide is fatalities across our parish. And we put up there some other parishes to have you something to compare by. Caddo Parish, This year is up to 20 fatal crashes. And you can see Bojan, Orleans, Parrish, Calcasieu, Livingston, and Ouachita. So I'm pretty sure that we're probably leading in the state in fatality of crashes. And that concludes my presentation.

Yes, Councilman Jackson.

Chief, you may not be prepared today, but in the future, when you give these reports, can you give the audience or the public recommendations on things they could be working on? I'm looking at, for example, vehicle burglaries. Are these occurring in apartment complexes or these unmanned areas? I just want to have a little more insight on that. how the public can help detour some of these crimes. We've always talked about apartment complexes. That's not something you routinely patrol. So that means apartment complex need to hire their own security. I'm just kind of curious where these crimes happening across our city and if there's anything the citizens can do to assist you guys in detouring some of this crime.

Absolutely. You know, for apartment complexes, we will, if you call our community-oriented policing bureau, we will have an officer to go out, one of the experts, and go with you throughout your facility and make some observations from our perspective as law enforcement where you may be vulnerable. So I'll definitely do that, absolutely.

Chief, I know we had... Sadly, DV occurrences to happen this past week, and I know that we are trying to work with our messaging as much as possible, and I'm not sure exactly what are the steps that we can take. I would say, again, that we use the public access channel to put out more information when it comes to domestic violence, but these particular situations sometimes are so different in nature of when they occur, and we're not in the home. I know that we look to working collaboratively. with other entities, it's just hard when you just hear it, when you just see it, when you finally learn the circumstances of it. I don't know what else we can do.

We need to continue to keep our messaging out there and continue to capitalize on the help that's available. Last time, I think, when I made my presentation, our domestic violence calls were up. And that's been over a month, a couple of months ago. And I do frankly believe that because of the messaging, what's been going on about domestic violence, that's contributing to this time period, it is actually down. But nonetheless, the majority of our violent offenses there is a domestic violence component into it. So we really need to continue to push that message and get help. where help is available.

I know that we have made several arrests. Yes, ma'am. Sometimes there's some, may not. We see them all the time. Yes, ma'am. And I'm just thinking again publicly, even more so with everybody that we have, what else do we need to do? Or you look at, or Chris, if there's something else that you think from the law enforcement side that we can do. I'm looking at on the community side. what we can push. There are a number of programs and activities that are going on. But you know as well as I do, the person that's in it and looking at more direct things of what we can possibly do. And we will talk about that. It's just sad. I just want to extend my condolences to the families. And I know that the words... you know, may not resonate at this time in a tragic situation such as this. It's just hurtful to hear it.

Oh, absolutely. And through our PIO's office, we are actively designing some PSAs, some public service campaigns.

Yes.

And definitely that needs to be a part of that.

Okay.

Madam Chair.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

To piggyback on what the chairwoman said, you know, I talked to you about the incident. out in Councilman Jackson's district. One concern that I have and what I've had all along, and I've expressed this to the mayor and to you, is when our officers are going out in a domestic violence situation, are we making sure that the victims of that domestic violence situation know they have someplace else to go because from what it sounds like in that particular incident, there had been issues at that home before. Yes. And then it ended up that the guy came back and shot her.

That's correct.

And then he ultimately committed suicide. And that's just a horrible situation for that family.

Right.

I want to make sure, and I don't know, I think that with some of the planning that we're doing and some of the studying that we're doing, I want to make sure that our, and I know, and I don't like saying this much, but we're so short on officers and they're going from one call to another call to another call. But I want to make sure that we're taking the time to make sure that these officers are giving the victims the information they need. And I'm assuming that they do on everyone in there, like a Lavin's or something like that, that they give them or,

There it is, and we are in the process of updating our pamphlet, our handout material. Because you are so correct. Beside telling a person what's available during their most difficult moments, it may not be resonating and sinking in right then and now. We want to physically, when we get ready to leave, put something in somebody's hand so later on when maybe things calm a little bit, they can look and say, well, here is where help is available. I know who to contact. So we're in the process of doing that, and we're going to have them in every police car. So every domestic violence call, you'll actually put something in a person's hand.

Because just running somebody off, and then... the victim or whatever, the other side of the fight. I mean, it could be vice versa, just running somebody off and then they're still mad and they come back four or five hours later. I think that's what we're seeing a lot is retribution for what had happened earlier. And, and I just, I don't know. I'm just kind of talking out loud to try to, Because I know with the eight children that this has been festering for quite a while.

Yes, that is correct.

And I just feel like that we owe it to the victims to make sure we're doing everything we can. And I'm not saying you're not. I just want to, as we study this and go further along, I'd like for us to move. One other thing, Madam Chair, on a different subject. Downtown, I was downtown Friday afternoon about three o'clock, and I'll be honest, I actually told Councilman Brooks, I said, it is booming downtown. It looked so good with all the boats in, with the races going on the river, and there were families pushing kids in strollers, and it just looked like, I remember downtown looking in the late 80s, and I'm very concerned about all of the violence that happened over the weekend in several areas, and that's one reason for my call earlier. Um, what can we do? Because I can tell you if I, if I had invested in coming to Shreveport and, um, for this boat race, let's just use it. Cause I know a lot of it looked like we're staying at Bally's or, or Sam's town or something like that. Uh, it would be devastating while I'm on a vacation to watch a shootout less than 50 yards from my hotel room. And I don't know how well I would respond to, uh, You know, I don't know if I would ever want to come back to Shreveport. So we've really got, and I know that there's loitering that goes on and y'all try your best. I hope that the helicopter would help spread people out, but I don't know if that late at night it was even up, you know.

It was not, no, sir.

So, I mean, I just, I have to say that as a council member that it's disturbing to me that we're bringing in and we're working hard to make Shreveport look good and then we have Just stupidity go on, and there's a shootout less than 50 yards from a major hotel that's hosting an event.

Yes, sir.

So, I mean, I don't know what we can do other than the Realtown Crime Center, but there is a problem. And I notice the numbers are down, and I applaud that. But I can tell you, when I put this up on social media, I'll get about a million comments. We don't feel like crime's down. And it's a perception. We've talked about that. But we do know that it is going down. But events like over the weekend are just really kind of scary.

We had hired back a significant number of officers off duty that was down there. There was officers just about everywhere you look. And the assailants, committed this offense in the presence of the officers right there within shouting distance of them. So, I don't know. We'll continue to look for solutions, absolutely.

Thank you, Chief.

Yes.

Yes.

Since we are talking about the incident downtown, how many arrests were actually made out of that incident?

Three or four, I'm not sure, but it was three or four.

And how many people were involved?

Three or four. Four, I think.

Those are the shooters?

That is correct. And the weapons were recovered.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yes.

Okay.

Anybody else? Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Sano, do you have any other communications of the mayor relative to city business?

Yes, ma'am. I have two. One, it's a good segue from that discussion. Several weeks ago, the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence approached the city about offering some resources to develop a long-term plan to fight domestic violence. After that, I convened a meeting of stakeholders, including yourself and Councilman Butcher and Councilman Green, to talk about what we could do about this. I invited the sheriff. The sheriff was very, very cordial about it. We waited until after his meeting that he had. And so the long and short of it is that there is a memorandum of understanding on your agenda today that the sheriff and I are both supporting. that the sheriff would be the coordinator because he's working on that one-stop shop, and that's the appropriate place for it to be. So I would ask for your support for that memorandum of understanding so that we can get the consultants in and get them working as quickly as possible to help us address some of the issues that y'all are raising today on both a short-term and a long-term basis. So I would appreciate your support on that. The second... Second thing is a little more fun, and that is that on this Friday at 5 o'clock, We're having an announcement party for the America 250 celebration in the city of Shreveport. We have planned with Ms. Regal, with Lyman McKellar, with Cedric Glover, with Dr. Michael Hicks, and Leanne Iwinski in my office. They have got a great plan for our celebration of America 250. Cross Lake turns 100 years old. The Revel and the Independence Bowl both turn 50 years old. We have a lot to celebrate in Shreveport this year, and we're going to announce all that, have a big party. It's free. It's open to the public. It'll be in the Red River Entertainment District, and it starts with I think I'm going to come down and see if I can learn a couple of line dances. I think that starts at about 5 o'clock. So if you want some really good entertainment, there should be a good laugh going on with the line dance instructions.

I did have plans that day, Mayor, but if you're going to line dance, I'm going to rearrange.

Well, I only know one, so I'll have to learn at least one more, Councilman Bush. That's all I have.

Get you some icy hot. Yes.

Mr. Mayor, the best time to do the line dance is on the song where them fans at, and then I'll be right beside you, and we can work that out. All right.

No. Ms. Riegel, can you come forward, please? I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, you had anything else?

That's all I had.

Shelly, you know what everybody want to know. About the swimming pools.

I think I sent something out to everybody earlier today, so if you haven't seen it yet, it's in your emails. So our pools normally open, you know, the second week in June. We'll be ready to open Bill Crockerle, David Raines, and Corby's on June the 9th. We're going to do a ribbon cutting on those two pools, the 8th and the 9th of June. Then we will open the other two June the 28th. or 29th, it's in your email, just in time for the 4th of July, and we will have ribbon cuttings on both of those. If you haven't been by your pools, go by and take a look. You can see the slides are up. You may not be able to see inside. Plastering is happening at Bill Cockrell and David Raines this week. We'll begin filling them and start chemical treatments so that they'll be ready for those days.

Thank you so much, ma'am.

Ms. Riker, for the audience, can you just tell everybody what was done to the pools?

In addition to just when you go out, there's going to be a lot more fun activities in each of the pool, but also one of the biggest things was all of the equipment has been replaced, so they're going to operate way more efficiently. They're going to have chemical and operating systems that are automated that make it much easier to maintain the pools. But most importantly, there's a lot of safety features. Our pools, you know, Southern Hills was the newest pool we had. And you know that it was built in the 70s. So all of our pools, you know, were very, were older. And when we had, I think some of you remember when we had an aquatics engineer come in and look at our pools. One of the things he said is, I can't believe y'all can still operate these because of the aging infrastructure. And also there was, he said, They're not family friendly. They're not kid friendly. So now they're going to be friendly for all ages. And there's going to be lots to do in the pools. And I think the kids will really enjoy them more.

How deep are they?

How deep? Some of them, they'll go to four and a half feet. So you'll also have more room for children to play. You also start at two and a half inches and go to that four and a half feet so toddlers can, you know, like David Raines, Bill Cockrell Airport, they didn't have a place for toddlers because there was not a children's pool like Southern Hills has. So it's going to make it more usable for families. They'll also give us more square footage to teach swimming lessons. And we do lots of senior water aerobics in the summer. You'll see the slides. You'll see new plaster. You'll be able to see a lot of the updates, but a lot of the updates taken behind the scenes in the operations.

Thank you so much.

Shelly, when did you say Apple Park?

June the 29th.

Okay. Certainly, it's beautiful, and you've done a great job, but I'd like to challenge all the council members, including the mayor, to come on the day that we cut the ribbon. I challenge them to slide. That would be the first to slide down the park. That's right. Just bring your trunks, and I'd like to challenge them.

I'm not messing up my hair. We'll have a scarf for you. I'm not messing up my hair going underwater. Yeah, yeah. I didn't see him go through the sprinklers.

Winter will have a free lunch at Morrison.

Well, I know we're not coming in. Does any member have any questions or concerns relative to property standards for Mr. Jimmy?

Madam Chair? Yes. I haven't talked to Mr. Green lately, but since we just talked about the about the old Sheridan property on East 70th Street. If you all make a pass by there.

As a matter of fact, that was given to a contractor this morning. Okay. And I spoke to him. He said he'll have it done by this week.

Okay. I appreciate it.

We're ready to proceed.

Thank you. I sent something to Mr. Green. Really, I guess Jarvis can come up to just kind of update everybody. I know we've been having a lot of rain, so grass is high everywhere. Just want to make sure the public know that we have a plan on and just to bear with us to try to get all of that grass cut due to the enormous amount of rain that we've had over the past couple of days.

Yeah, we are cutting, yes. We are out cutting, so yeah.

Councilman Talaferro.

I know this probably goes against the metrics of cutting grass, but any time that the grass gets so tall and we cut it at the same height as we normally cut it, we're just stuck with dead grass. So, I mean, I'm going to make the suggestion that, you know, we cut it a little bit higher to where the grass clippings actually have an opportunity to break down with the sun and so forth. Because if we continue mowing it on the same level as if we were on a regularly scheduled maintenance program, we just get stuck with dead grass unless someone wants to get out there and start raking it. And then on Urey Drive, that it just pools into the concrete ditch. that somebody made money on, the concrete ditch. And if we don't get it out, then it starts to smell and so forth and so on. So that's my suggestion.

Mr. Morgan, I think one of my issues in my area is when we cut the grass, we can't cut the paper and then leave it there. Because you have cut grass and cut paper, and it's worse than it was before we cut the grass. So I think we need to pick up the paper first, then cut the grass.

Yes, ma'am. That's normally what they do. It just depends on the height of the grass. Right. They don't want to stick their hand down there or anything like that.

If you go right now, y'all cut grass today on Pines Road in the median. Okay. You'll see an old bumper that just stayed there that could have been hauled off. You'll see paper where we cut freshly this morning that's there. It's all of those little things, which the grass looks good, but it doesn't look finished.

Yes, ma'am. All right.

Thank you. Madam Chair.

Yes. Mr. Morgan. While you're up here, a couple things. The first thing is that dip on Ellerbee Road near Leonard Road. Yes.

Have you... Yeah, I've seen the name. I've seen the name.

Okay. And then secondly, I've had the opportunity to drive all over town the last two weeks, about 30 different houses in different neighborhoods. And we... I've never seen so many lack of street signs from Highland to Queensborough to... to Ingleside, Allendale, street signs are gone. And I typically know where I'm going, but I'd have to go and make a look at my map to make sure I was on the right road because there was no street sign. Do we have a plan? And I don't know if we need to budget. Is there any way to just go through the city and redo all of our street signs and make sure they're good and crisp looking and can be found and not covered up. But like I was on Hearn this morning, like I believe it was Hearn and right around Westover, right around Warner Park and four streets on Hearn, no street signs, just a pole.

Good with the traffic engineers about it. So what we're having is we're having a high theft in those as well, so. People like to hang them inside their home.

I can imagine.

They're not putting them up. Once we put them up, they're gone. So we'll check into it.

I would like to see us freshen them up a little bit, do something different in some areas, just to make it where it's a little bit easier to see because sometimes they'll be underneath. A tree will be covering up one or something like that. Thank you.

Mr. Morgan, this is my question. And even with the street signs, if you have some alternatives to what you think that we should do as it relates to those, let me know. Because I know several that you all have put up and they've been taken again.

Yes, we're having the same thing with our traffic signals as well. I don't know if it's something on the Blackwell. We did spoke to police about it. The traffic signals and the traffic signs are coming up missing now, so...

Can y'all please just leave our street signs and traffic signals alone so people can drive on the street, please?

That's really bad. They like to hang them up in their house. They can.

Order some off Amazon. So this is my other question. My other question, because a lot of streets in my district, of course, they don't have sidewalks. So this is a question for me. When the... Grass is growing on the street. Who cuts that?

The grass on the street?

Yeah, when it seems like it's overtaking the street.

If it's in the front of a citizen's home, the citizen is responsible for the upkeep. But we do go by. We work with property standards. We'll write a fine, whatever we need to do. But most of the time, if it's in front of a citizen's home and they're They're there. They're supposed to take care of that. If it's an abandoned home or something like that, then we'll take care of that.

No, it's just a lot.

Okay. Well, if you got the address, we'll look into it. We just have to look into it. I just can't say who it belongs to. But in the ordinance, it's up to the backside of the curve, the citizens all the way to the sidewalk.

I have wooded areas. I have wooded areas in my district, a lot of them, in MLK. And I have some. In Allendale. And so where I can see part of the asphalt street, there's nothing on the other side, no homes or anything else like that. And it's just all the grass that's just growing like it's taking over the street. So do we take a bush hog and... Clear the street so that it's passable because it's still cars that drive down the street is the question that I'm asking. Is that public works? Is that property standard?

It's either one. We'll go through and cut it. What he do is he'll have an inspector go through, he'll shoot the pictures to us, and we'll send a tractor through there and cut it.

Okay. Mr. Morgan, who's responsible for the ditches? Like I sent you an earlier.

Streets and drainage. Yes, ma'am. I sent that in this morning.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Mr. Jean, do you have a master plan committee report?

We have a very brief report today. I just wanted to bring to your attention, I made sure that all of you had copies of the resource guide. And also, I just handed out the plan summary. This is something you can hand out to different neighborhoods and your constituents. It has a QR code that can go directly. They can use their phone to actually go to the master plan. And we are actively using this plan in all of the cases that come to you. We are referring to this plan when we make recommendations from the NPC to you for cases. So I just wanted you to know this is a live active plan. We're using it every day. That's the end of my report.

Did everyone receive the budget to actual financial report from finance? Public hearing there is none. Madam Clark, will there be any legislation to be added today?

No, ma'am.

Today we'll hear public comments on non-agenda and agenda items. You have, please state your name and your address for the record. You have three minutes to speak. Madam Chair, we'll handle this part of the agenda. Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you. First one, Sammy Mears.

Sammy Mears, 1133 South Point Parkway, Apartment 111, Shreveport, Louisiana, 71105. I wish today to speak on resolutions 9A49 and 9A50. If you would please recognize Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs VA Medical Center employee Remembrance Day, and if you'll vote yes on this, it would really be appreciated very much. Also, executing a memorandum of the understanding between the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office, City of Shreveport, Coalition Against the Domestic Violence, and other parties concerning this situation and the development of the implement, and the Caddo coordinated response model and the related domestic violent response of collaboration. If this can be voted yes on today, both of these I would really appreciate.

Thank you so much. Mr. Ricker Chipman.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Eureka Demaree Chipman. My address is 857 Sherwood Road, Shreveport, Louisiana, 711-06. I am coming before you all to express the serious concerns and ongoing of our residents regarding the traffic safety issues on Thornhill. Despite our previous outreach, the neighborhood continues to witness frequent speeding and the running of stop signs by parents using our street as a school transit route. These safety violations are particularly prevalent between 7 a.m. and 8.15 and 2 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. This is especially dangerous as elementary school children must walk to their bus stops and elderly residents walk to the grocery store in areas that lack desperate, needed sidewalks. We are specifically concerned about the four-way intersections of Sherwood Road and Thornhill, which we've had several accidents, including our fire hydrant that has been knocked over recently, about a year or so ago, which almost flooded my house because my house is at the four-way of Sherwood Road. as well as people speeding with Robin Hood and also Evangeline where the kids catches the school bus. And also I brought the attention to the city's, the school board last week about forced the bus, school buses speeding on our very narrow streets. Wanted to bring the following points concerning previous attempts at resolution is bus safety, traffic enforcement signage for as we desperately need that 25 miles per hour change on our narrow streets of 15 miles per hour as well as trying to get no through commercial vehicles basis signage for our streets because they're coming through the Vehicles, well, the buses, not only the buses, also like for Sonic and another broken egg, all of those deliveries, they're coming through there and they're tearing up our streets. We done had four people to have bus tires. And I want to thank Streets and Drainage for when we call, they come out immediately and take care of the potholes. So I would definitely like to bring that to attention. As well as by bringing this to attention, we have had police officers last week, traffic control has sent out for two days that they did give out some tickets because they see that it was desperately needed that people were running our stop signs. And also we had my stop sign to be plowed down, and we don't have our street signs. It's been over a month.

Um, so your time is expired. Oh, I didn't know. I'm sorry. My husband did give me some issues you had. Um, it seemed like it's Mr. Brooks district, but it does seem like there needs to be a traffic study there.

Well, it's Mr. Tell affairs. He's my city council. Okay. I thought it was Brooks.

Okay. I'm sorry.

Okay.

Um, but I did take notes from the count from the school board meeting. Um, Jerry did pass on the message, but I'll, I'll let Mr. Tell affairs. Do you have any questions?

I'm well aware of, you know, the situation over there. I've been in constant contact with Alan Pierce of Traffic Engineering on some of the issues that we've raised there. Yeah, this is, I don't say it's an epidemic, but it is of grave concern. So I can assure you that we are diligently working on, you know, various assets of, you know, making things happen

So can I ask a question? Yes, you can. Okay, so can I get a note to where I can give feedback to our community because all of them are on the email traffic as well, so I can notify them and let them know a follow-up of how the city is going to try to rectify the speeding as well as the signage being changed.

Yes, ma'am. I have been in contact with Lieutenant Dean Willis, Traffic Enforcement.

Yes, sir.

I've also been in contact with Allen Pierce, and I've just sent Allen a request for an update on a variety of projects that are in that area. So, yes, ma'am, you sure can. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Good to see you. Ms. Najira Davis.

Good afternoon to the honorable mayor and to the honorable council. My name is Najiri Kamara-Davis. I am a resident of 1505 Abbey Street here in the city of Shreveport. I came to share with you all something that I believe is very important and many of you have touched on. on the notion of what we experienced on April 19th within our city, and you all have done what I saw, a fabulous job. I just behold, held everything from my television screen. But what our community has suffered in this loss and the discussion, Councilwoman, I felt you asking, the sheriff what can be done because the notion of the domestic violence, all of the things that are going on, is going on inside of people's homes where you're not able to legislate people's morality within their own homes, but you have to respond to the results of what occurs. What I'm here to offer to you all is an opportunity for the community to participate in a restoration and healing event. I serve as a founder and pastor of Restoring Broken Lives Outreach Ministries, and outreach is what it indicates. We're outside of the walls. We do work with people in the community in their homes with what is going on. And so what we have, what we see as a solution, and we've met before also with sheriffs, I mean, Chief Smith, as well as the sheriff, with regard to what we see. Sometimes, you know, to find a solution to the problem can be found inside of the problem. So if you're, you know, everybody's sitting at their tables looking inside of something and they've not been a part of what happens, then It's kind of, you could come up with some rosy ideas that don't work. But anyway, I'm here to share with the community a family preservation festival. This is our second annual family preservation festival scheduled to be held Saturday, June 6th, beginning at 10 o'clock a.m. at the Pomoja Cultural Arts Center, 3806 Linwood Avenue. It is something for the whole family. It's an educational training and enlightenment event event, the focus, we built it around young men. Our focus is African-American youth and young adult men trying to solve their problems, but inviting them to the table to give a structure on what it is that they need. And so I have these flyers. I will leave it with your clerk to provide it to you all. And so it's I heard the mayor indicate about the 250th of the nation where we're doing, you know, dancing and so forth, but this one here is real serious. We're going to be trying to see how we can elevate people's minds so they can reduce what's going on in their homes. People can change their behaviors when they get better information. So I'd like y'all to ask the sheriff to include me with that when they create those... the flyers, the information that they're going to give, you know, to the officers when they are meeting with people.

I appreciate you all. You're going to give those flyers? Yes, ma'am.

I'm going to leave them over there.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ms. Davis. All right. Thank you. I have to get rid of this and I'll call you Jones.

Mr. David Hackney.

Good afternoon. My name's Dave Hackney, 9660 Railsback Ridge, Shreveport, Louisiana, 711-06. I spoke here a couple weeks ago at the March 12th meeting. I stated that I am in support of this Red River Express bridge and road project, but I do have concerns about the ordinance. And last week, I sent all the city council members and the mayor a letter detailing my concerns. And thank you, Mr. Mayor, for acknowledging the receipt of the letter. I'm not going to go through all those again, but I think they're valid. You know, sitting here listening in this meeting today, hearing about the problems with the hotel, You know, we don't want to be here three or four years from now having those same kind of discussions about this bridge and this road and the neighborhoods. So the tighter you can make the wording on this ordinance, the better, in my opinion. You know, we received a flyer in the mail, which I guess was a requirement. And so Mr. James has checked that box, but... You know, it says for adjacent areas to 12 Oaks and Esplanade, the city council will prohibit heavy truck traffic. Now, from what I gather, this ordinance is just about the trapezoid. So I measured that trapezoid. From Flournoy Lucas to the southern extent of the trapezoid is about 1,000 feet, give or take. It's not a big distance, 15 acres of land. So is that what no trucks and the 35 mile an hour speed limit is going to be? Or is it a bigger area? I thought it was at least all the land in the city limits, which is only a little bit more. I think Mr. James would be well served if he would clearly state the 35 mile an hour and no trucks will be from Flournoy Lucas some other point, and I don't know what that point should be. Should it be LA-1? Should it be the Red River? Should it be some intersection? I do want to say that this project is complex. It's a lot of different government entities, you know, Bossier, Levy, Board, Caddo, Police Jury, Caddo Commission, Shreveport, Bossier City. There was a meeting in December of 2023, and DOTD issued a letter to Mr. James and to Jeff Filder, the head of Willis-Knighton, stating what DOT would accept and what they wouldn't accept. So if we could use that as a starting point or just a reference point, and what is the same and what has changed? And if something has changed, Show me the audit trail, the paper trail.

Mr. Hackney, your time has expired. I want to ask Attorney Edwards if he could answer your question. Do you have the information, Attorney Edwards?

As far as I can tell, there's more than one question. The question regarding where the stipulations have effect, the stipulations themselves in the right of way agreement pertain to the property, the premises of the right of way agreement. which is just a trapezoid. I do believe that there have been some discussions with Councilman Butcher and the people behind the Red River Expressway LLC of Alabama regarding stipulations that cover the larger area. But in terms of what the City Council has the power to do today, we're just talking about this property that the City of Shreveport owns, which is commonly referred to as the trapezoid.

I'd like to request an extension of time.

Well, let me, Madam Chair. So my understanding is, and we started this with this being a major roadway with hazardous materials and 18 wheelers, and we've whittled this down to somewhat of a boulevard, for lack of better words, and I think you and I agree on that. I mean, I can't... All I can go off of is what we put in this resolution or this ordinance to allow this to happen in the good faith of what Mr. James has said. I told somebody this today. It may have been Mr. Edwards. I can't predict what's going to happen down the road. I can't predict what the next council is going to do. You're going to be looking at several new members of a council down the road. I can't say four years from now what that road's going to look like, and I don't think there's any way for the council to guarantee y'all or constituents how that road will look. I mean, I just can't do that. At some point, you've got to go in good faith. I can tell you that the few meetings that I've had with Mr. James, I've asked him to get under 35 miles an hour speed limit on the roadway, and... When we get to that part, I may ask that question again to his representatives here. That's the way I understand it, is the roadway. No hazardous materials, 18 wheelers on the roadway. He has also agreed there's an amendment. Is that amendment on here? Marcus?

The council clerk has it. It'll be read in today.

Okay. There's an amendment also that will require fencing requirements. that will go down the Esplanade side of the subdivision where you will remain, you know, there will be another level of privacy. The flyer was intended to give the neighbors privacy I looked at it, and maybe because I've been dealing with this for two years and know the ins and outs of the project, maybe I'm just not seeing it the way that y'all are seeing it. But I think it gave the information that it needed. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen on there is maybe a contact number for somebody to call if they had questions, and that could be me. But I feel like that all the boxes have been checked. I mean, I just... But I can't guarantee you what that road's going to look like. I can't guarantee you if an Elk Hog and they get together and it becomes a four-lane, I can't guarantee you that. Just like whenever we were talking about this in 1989, putting in a port road, it was supposed to have gone in south of Leonard Road all the way to the port from I-49. That never happened. So, I mean, I just can't make guarantees of what this is going to look like down the road. All I can do is go off of what Mr. James and his team has told me, what I've heard from constituents in the neighborhood, and I've heard from probably six or seven since this came out, and the majority of it has been somewhat positive. And, like, we know it could be worse. So I just don't know what else we can do. But I will get them on the record. That's all I can do is get them on the record for that.

Continue one minute, please.

Yes, yes.

Okay. So the flyer makes no mention of the 35-mile-an-hour speed limit. And again, starting from Flournoy-Lucas, to what point is 35 million? You say the road? Does that mean all the way to the bridge? I mean, what I'm hearing is good, but... but it needs to be better defined, and that's y'all's job, to define this ordinance better. So I'm hearing the things, and I'm not asking for a perfect ordinance, I'm just asking for a good ordinance. I'd like to close in saying at the conclusion of the May 12th meeting, I walked out in the lobby, exchanged pleasantries with Mr. James, with Mr. Bradford, with Mr. Binet, We walked outside, and Mr. James turned very confrontational and made a lot of derogatory comments to me, a lot of threats. I didn't appreciate it. I remained, I think, fairly calm. And I thought I was fairly nice here last week making supportive comments. I want to compliment Mr. Vinay. basically took Mr. James by the arm and said, come on, let's go. And it was over. But I'm not going to tolerate being talked like that to somebody that's trying to get something in my town, in my neighborhood. He told me I needed to get a life. I have a good life in this town. I live in a nice neighborhood. I live in a nice house. I'd like to keep it that way. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hegney.

Thank you.

Mr. Young-Glover?

Good evening, members of the council, Mr. Mayor. John Glover, 9100 Walker Road, Apartment 217, Shreveport, Louisiana, zip code 71118. Share publicly available information relevant to the strategic planning efforts. That was one of the four or five items that was in Section 4 of the MOU. As I read over today's agenda, and especially ordinance, I think it's ordinance or resolution, what is it called? Resolution 50. And I started looking and doing some homework, and I was trying to see, are we duplicating efforts? Yes, we have a problem here in our city, in our parish. Domestic violence is out of control, it seems. And like someone said, you cannot legislate morality, but we can hold those accountable for those actions. At the same time, reading, I know that we have the Shreveport Police Department, the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office, the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office, the Northwest Louisiana Family Justice Center, Project Celebration, and now the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, already working seemingly in conjunction one with another. So I'm trying to see exactly what it is that is to be produced With this collaboration that the mayor has asked you all to consider approving, you know, um, having information is truly, truly essential, especially for us citizens. We understand that you all are our representatives and that you will make decisions prayerfully in our best interest. We give you that. But at the same time, we would ask that you like the, um, the things they share publicly with us, information that's relevant to this strategic planning effort. We're not trying to be seen as one that does not understand the totality of where we are. We do understand that, but we're wanting to make sure that we understand what you understand. And when you make these decisions on our behalf, that is that indeed we are being considered as a whole, not that you all seven have come together and had a conversation, and now we're going to meet the decision that you've decided for us. Just let us know what it is that we need to know when you are contemplating such a thing. Again, this is new to all of you all because it just came out. So how you all affected, definitely we need to understand the totality. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Glover. Mr. Mayor, did you want to respond to that?

Actually, I think it is pretty self-explanatory in the memorandum of understanding. We're basically engaging a consultant to help the parties come up with a plan, and that will take time to develop. Actually, we probably didn't need a council vote, but I wanted to have the council on record with me. to develop to help develop this plan. It'll be coordinated by the sheriff and the purpose of that is to prevent any duplication of effort.

We have eight children that were that were grossly murdered and we gained nationwide attention regarding and our stats were already there Ms. Glover and so in the interim we knew that And the mayor understood that there were things that we needed to do differently because what affected our city. And it affected our city, this nation, the state, all parties involved watching that. You're a parent, grandparent, whatever you are. When you see eight children murdered, it does something to your soul. there was a pleading cry already as it relates to domestic violence. And this entity reached out to Mayor Arsenault And Mayor Arsenault said, listen, I want to bring everyone together. And we want to move to a point that Shreveport will not be behind in an effort to, Shreveport wanted to be intentional about the things that they do for domestic violence because you see, just as Ms. Davis said, that it's something that happens inside the home and it's hard for us to control. these consultants and in their areas of expertise in other cities that they have looked at have gained recognition for the work that they do. And it's not so much to the point that it has solved it in its totality, but it lets the nation know and it lets our citizens know that we are very, very, and I use this word again, intentional, about combating this cause at every level. And this training is not just for us. It's for our entire city at different levels. And just has been explained that we can't tell you what all is going to happen or what all the full outcome is going to be. It would be derelict in our duties not to do anything. And so we have to take those steps forward. So I'm going to applaud Mayor Arsenault and Sheriff Whitehorn and the other entities that are coming together and this council that said, listen, We need to do this. We've got to do this because we feel helpless not to be able to help people because we don't want to see people continue to die from something that is preventable. It kills us to our soul when we see it. So I'm going to say, and I'm going to go out on a limb, that it's not just professional, it's personal too at the same time because as you say that we represent you all, we lost our constituents. We lost our constituents to something that maybe we could have had a helping hand in. And it cuts like a two-edged sword. So it's not the fix-all, but it is a fix and it is a step in the right direction. And we will gain probably so much information of this of listening to other voices that are coming in and sharing those particular stories with us. And it crosses all ethnic lines. It is that silent killer that sometimes people don't want to talk about. But what we want to do in Shreveport is tell you that there is a safe place for you to come. And we have to make it accessible for the victims that are affected by domestic violence and them thinking there is nowhere to go. So it's training for us all. It is that heart check that we have to do. And when you are leader of this city, that you have to take those particular bold steps, even sometimes when some may not agree with it or some may not understand it. But we have to trust their process in doing so.

Madam Chair.

Ms. Glover, I have to agree with Madam Chair. This past weekend, we had another young lady that got killed with domestic violence. You wouldn't believe the phone calls we received during this horrific crime. So I think anything we can do to collaborate with anybody to help, if we save one life, I think it does make a difference. I have to commend the mayor for working with the sheriff's office. I think right now we don't know everything, but we are trying to all stick together and help at least, if we can help one family, it's more than we did yet, so.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

Also, I'd like to commend the Mayor and the Sheriff. Mr. Mayor, you brought your team together. Sheriff brought his team together. You sent your staff to his meeting. He sent his staff to your meeting. I think this is the one thing that this city is coming together on, that we need to be together because together we stand, divided we fall. I attended both meetings. I attended Mr. Whitehorn at LSU. We attended yours in your council room. And both of them were top of the line. And I just would like to commend you and others for your putting this together. And I think once, after everything has been said, I think we will have a program for the nation. And sometimes in life we don't understand what's going on. Sometimes God stops us in order to save us. There are some things we don't understand. That's why I do the serenity prayer every day of my life. There are some things that I don't understand. There are some things that I do, but I ask God to give me the wisdom that I'll know the difference. And so I believe that within the next 90 days, I believe that that was about the time limit, Mr. Mayor? Did we say 90 days or whatever we were spending together?

They anticipate having a... having a plan to recommend to us within 90 days.

Yes, and I think at that time, Ms. Glover, I think we will have a wholesome plan for our city and a model for the United States of America. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair. Ms. Glover had a question.

I stopped her first. Can we have an answer?

Okay, Ms. Glover.

No, I didn't have a question, but I did want to make a statement.

Can I make mine first?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Ms. Glover, I... First off, there is no fee for this at all. This agreement has no fee to it. It's a national group of experts of domestic violence that are coming into Shreveport at no fee to give us somewhat of a roadmap to point out where our weaknesses are, where our possible strengths are going to be. It is something that we would... Unfortunately, and I said in the meeting to Chairwoman Taylor, it was myself and Reverend Green and the chairwoman that were in the meeting with the mayor, I said, this is so sad to me that it's taken the death of eight children to get us to a point of where we're really looking into what domestic violence is. the toll that it's taken on our citizens. And I agree 100% with Councilman Green. This is something that's going to be nationally known. And you've got the mayor, you've got the majority of the city council, you've got the sheriff who are all elected that are working so hard to make sure this doesn't happen. And so first off, My first point when you were talking is there's no fee to this. So there's no tax dollars being spent on it. It's not like we went out and found some consultant and we're paying them an exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars to do this. This is no fee. Number two, these are national experts that have been in the trenches for years. We're talking about FBI agents, domestic violence detectives from large departments that teach Classes, I mean, it's just incredible the list of people and their credentials. Colleges, the sheriff is bringing in people from colleges. And then thirdly, before any dollars are spent or any legislation is done, it has to come back in front of this council. And then you, at that point, can reach out to us and say, hey, I don't like this. I like this. I don't like this. But this is all part of what I kind of honestly feel like we're elected to do. We're not trying to hide anything from you. We're trying to make sure that we're doing the best for the citizens and especially the smallest ones that were killed. So I just, this to me is a no-brainer, and I 100% support it. I thank the mayor. I thank Councilwoman Taylor. I thank the sheriff for standing up, and we're really moving this ball forward. So I can promise you a year from now, once this study is done, Shreveport's going to be in a much better shape when it comes to domestic violence. Thank you.

Okay, I think when I stood here, I read one of the items that said share with us publicly I did not make any accusations. I made no allegations. I talked nothing about money. I just said, share with us what is going on. And then I also asked, are we duplicating efforts? As I mentioned, those entities that I mentioned. It was not to stir anyone to believe that I'm trying to be combative, I'm not being supportive. I just needed an understanding of what was going on. Now, I read that document. I did. And some of it was in layman's terms. Some of it wasn't. So it would be humane to ask you all, who seem to have the expertise with this document, what was it that you were proposing? And that's all I intended in my comments. There was no need to go beyond just me asking. You are sharing with me what that document was supposed to provide. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, since it was your plan, then I think that you answered that for us is still very fresh.

Mr. Kenneth Crawford.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Kenneth Crawford. I reside at 7349 Mallard Bay Drive in Shreveport, 711-07. I've got on my towing shirt today, but I actually come on behalf of the cab company. I think some of you guys are familiar. I came a couple months back, and I am on a ground level fixing to basically renovate the entire company. New vehicles, new computers, new everything. Try to get us. And so over the course of the last couple months, we've gone front to back over the ordinance. I have. There's a lot of things in this that needs to be brought up to date. I didn't really know where to start. I visited with the chief. When Uber and Lyft were brought to town, it was intended that Uber and Lyft would operate a lot under the same parameters as the cab company, a lot in respect to background checks. The pricing was intended to be about the same, but there's a lot of difference, a lot, a lot of differences. There's huge paragraphs of the ordinance for the taxi cabs, and there's about 10 sentences or so that govern Uber and Lyft in our city. I think if you ask the chief and his people, they'll tell you that if you have an Uber and Lyft problem here, it's just almost next to impossible to follow out that complaint and find somebody that you can speak to in regards to that. And when you have a problem with the cab company, there's me. So what I'm going to ask from the council is, I found out this evening in talking to the chief that Councilman Butcher is in charge of the Public Safety Committee, which I'm sure is going to want to review a lot of the changes that I'm going to be requesting in the ordinance. But a lot of it basically just takes out the city's hand in controlling our pricing, controlling our hours of operation, controlling how we handle our background checks currently now versus what we would like to see. That in itself would take a lot of the workload off the vehicle for hire unit and allowing us to do our own background checks, which of course the city is able to come out of the office and see at any time. things like that and so I Come today to kind of tell you like I'm fixing to open this door and start sending emails to everybody and Say in like this is what I want to change This is the reason why I want to change it and that way you guys have an opportunity to kind of fire back like why now But why now is because now is as good a time as any I guess so Yeah, I just wanted to let everybody know that I was going to get started on that. So if you kind of saw it in your email box, you know what it was about. Thank you, Mr. Crawford. Thanks. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Mr. Kennedy, do you have a storage yard?

I'm sorry? Do you have a storage yard? I have a storage yard both in Caddo and Bossier, yes. Okay. That's... I want to talk some about the central storage yard and that kind of thing, but I'm sure that's for a not busy day. Thanks.

Thank you. Ms. Catherine Bogart. Hi.

Hi.

My name is Dr. Catherine Beauregard. I live at 9382 Millbank Drive, Shreveport, Louisiana, 7-11-15. I've spoken before. It's been several months ago. I've resided at that address with my two children since June 1st of 2022. I lived in Island Park area when I was divorced from my ex-husband. My ex-husband and I resided in the Plantation Trace Estate area. for several years. We lived there in 14. They just built the wall, you know, Arthur Ray Teague Expressway along that corridor. So I'm going to try to keep it short because I've mentioned this before in the previous meeting. The main two concerns for me, because I'm on the backstretch, you know, there's Bayou Pier behind us and we have beautiful wildlife and whatnot. And that was one of the intrigues that I had was moving into that home is having, because I love nature and I garden and and everything, but I'm all for progress to this area. The Jimmy Davis Bridge, you know, that's needed to happen. And the Arthur Ray Teague extension, you know, that has helped the traffic flow. But the noise is the number one thing. Pollution is another issue in the aesthetics. And I know the aesthetics of it with the berms and the, you know, like Mr. Hackney said, yes, we got the flyer in the mail, and it gives some facts, but, you know, a berm, trees, okay, to dissipate the noise, trees, I mean, I'm a gardener, and Lex's plant farm has planted seven trees in my yard, and, you know, by the time they're big, you know, my grandchildren will be old for dissipation of noise, and even fast-growing trees, you know, that's, I mean, literally, Doug Brown, the builder, and then Scott Musket, their houses over there in Plantation Trace Estates, they would not have built their dream homes knowing that they were going to build the metal Berlin Wall, you know, encompassing their backyard. I mean, you literally look out and you feel like you're in Shawshank. I mean, you see this huge metal wall, you know, going up, and there's still noise. There's still drag racing. It's a 50-mile-per-hour ordinance, I think. Even Bossier Police, my father-in-law was a special deputy for Julian Whittington in Bossier Parish. He got stopped there one time. That's kind of a funny story. But there's no law enforcement. I mean, cameras, I mean, we're out of the city limits from what I've been told, and there's not enough law enforcement to monitor this 35-mile-per-hour so-called speed limit. There are drag racing going on in our old neighborhood in Plantation Trace Estates. pollution. And, you know, and that's supposedly, you know, mandate. I mean, watched, I mean, by police force. So where are the policemen going to be? What kind of cameras? I'm with Mr. Hackney. Where are the details? You know, where are the specifics? I'm all for the progress of this area and for growth in this area. And I'm proud to say I'm a part of Shreveport, but I want to know some, some details, you know, I mean, especially since I've invested in this beautiful home and, uh, You know, the sound and pollution, what is traffic, you know, what is it, jack breaks on trucks that make the noise?

Dr. Barberi?

Sorry.

Your time is expired. Okay.

So real quick, I'll answer this to the best of my ability because I've been pretty engaged on this. I think that, number one, my understanding is the roadway is 35 miles an hour through where the neighborhoods go. Am I correct? I've got... Two attorneys and the developer shaking their head. So, 35 miles an hour. There will be no 18-wheelers. Thus, there will be no jake brakes. That's correct, right? I'm going to ask you all that on the record. So, okay. So, no jake brakes. There will be no hazardous materials. It'll be pretty much a road, in my opinion, similar speed limit to the road going through your neighborhood.

Okay. You mean...

Millbank.

Millbank?

Millbank. Isn't that where you live?

And then what about the park? I'm sorry, may I speak for a few more questions?

Yeah, go ahead.

May I ask a few more questions? Apologize. The park, you know, Millbank Park, that's one of the main parks. A lot of food trucks come there, a lot of people, there are dogs. I mean, it's a big thoroughfare through there. You know, when I asked Mr. James, no disrespect, he said, well, you can just move the park. I mean, y'all can just... Scooch it over a few feet. It's no big deal. There's little kids. There's dogs playing. It's going to be, what, 100 feet from the park? You know, so just scooch it. And when I asked, would you want this in your backyard, he said, oh, hell no. Excuse my language. Sorry. He said, those are his words, no, absolutely not. I would not want this going through my backyard.

That's the first I've heard that. That must have been a private conversation. It was. I've never heard him say that in public.

No, it wasn't in public. It was after a meeting.

Full disclosure, I own a lot that's going to be less than 100 yards from this road. So, in Esplanade. So, I feel where you're coming from. I just, just from where we started with this almost two years ago, from where the project started, and then the other part of it is, like I said, I've been around In Southeast Shreveport, since I was 14 years old, I attended these meetings. That was always proposed 3132. Always. That was the corridor. That's why the city actually owns the trapezoid is because it was always proposed to be 3132. And in my opinion, this is 500 times better than an elevated interstate going through. I agree with you on plantation trace. It looks awful. I hate those big things. It looks awful. I don't foresee this in the drawings that he has provided to me, and he also provided to two community meetings. It's more of a boulevard with trees. There will be some fencing that will be done in areas that abut the neighborhoods. I don't know if he's doing that up against the park or not. I don't know. I've not talked about that. But I can't. From what I'm seeing, there's no reason for me to vote no against it, honestly. And I've told Mr. Hackney that. Now, if I had some kind of magic ball that I could look into and it tell me that all these terms are going to change, any term is subject to change. We could change the speed limit. If the seven of us get together and decide we want to change the speed limit on Millbank to 75 miles an hour, we could do it. I mean, we would never do that, don't get me wrong, but I don't know what the council's going to look like next year at this time. There's going to be two of us that are going to be gone, and the rest are up for re-election.

Don't mention cameras. I mean, who's going to monitor?

I'll ask Mr. James all those when we get to that point.

Okay. I'm just curious because there's not much jurisdiction in that area.

Supposedly, it's going to be monitored by the sheriff's office. There will also be electronic. I don't know. I'm going to ask him those questions because I've got the same questions that you do. There's a few things that I need to ask, and I will.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry for the cuss word.

No. Jonathan Graham.

Hey, good afternoon. My name is Jonathan Graham. I'm at 9378 Millbank Drive in the Twelve Oaks community. Thanks for setting this up. But thank you, Mayor, Council, for hearing concerns on the residents. of 12 Oaks and Esplanade and how this toll road is going to affect their quality of life, their home values, and their children's safety in a negative way. So I wanted to address the story that you just talked about, that we keep on hearing that this privately funded toll road is going to be better for the community than the state project that might come in because they're going to have some berms and some noise mitigation and the state would build a four-lane highway. I respectfully believe that that argument is misleading and somewhat untruthful, because first off, when this road concept was originally discussed over 20 years ago, like you talked about, the communities of 12 Oaks and Esplanade either didn't exist or hadn't expanded anywhere near where this road was going to be. The state's original concept of 3132 was created in a completely different development environment. Today, there are established neighborhoods, families, and the Millbank Playground that we talked about that's just 200 feet from the proposed roadway. Secondly, the Department of Transportation's own highway priority program shows that this extension of 3132 is in stage one, which is planning and environment. It has no funding identified, much like Tim James' project, and the projected cost is approximately $150 million. In other words, after 20 years, the state has made essentially zero meaningful progress toward the extension of 3132. That strongly suggests to me that it's not a high priority and this road isn't needed. So when people claim they know what the future state-built road is going to look like, how could they possibly know that because the plans haven't even been developed? If the state were to ever seriously reconsider this project in the future, they would almost certainly have to reevaluate the alignment and the impacts due to the surrounding development that has built up since in the last two decades. So I don't believe that we should approve a privately owned toll road from an out-of-state developer based on a fear of a hypothetical state project that has no funding, no final design, no construction timeline, and has remained dormant for over 20 years. The decision before you today is not whether or not a state might someday build a road. The decision is whether or not to grant the right-of-way to an out-of-state toll road developer that would permanently and negatively impact the communities of Esplanade and Twelve Oaks, which are your constituents. I respectfully ask that you would protect the residents of these two communities and vote no to this granting the right-of-way instead of catering to an out-of-state developer that's just trying to make money and then get out of here while we still have to live with it. Thank you so much.

I would respectfully ask you to go talk to the people of Allendale. Thank you.

Curtis Rambin.

My name is Curtis Rambin, 9374 Millbank in 12 Oaks. There's just so many things about this roadway that's not clear. And, Councilman, for you to say that you don't know what this roadway is going to look like in a few years, that's disturbing for us. Without you saying that, this roadway on the south side of 12 Oaks is going to ruin our property value, or it's going to lower our property values. It's going to lower our quality of life. It's just not good. And then you say there's wording. He's saying no trucks. In the beginning, it was to take trucks off of Orono Lucas and help trucks get to the port. How can we now say there's not going to be any trucks? Can we? Really? No trucks?

I don't want to take from your time. I mean, I can answer you, but I don't want to take from your time. Pause it. That's what I've been told by the developer, and I will ask him that question again. Okay.

Well, my comments are just simple. I would wish that you would vote no. There's just too many things that are foggy and vague. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Sean Atkins.

Mr. Edwards, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Mr. Atkins is going to speak on the zoning appeal.

Correct.

Do we do that now or during the appeal? You can do either or both. Will he get to speak twice or just once this time?

If you let him speak now, he can speak twice. If you don't let him speak now, he can speak once. It works either way.

Mr. Atkins, do you want to speak during the appeal, or do you want to speak now?

It would be best if I spoke with everybody else, but if I get to speak twice, then I'll go ahead and speak twice. Okay. You're more than welcome. John B. Atkins III, 235 Kings Highway, Shreveport, Louisiana, 71104. I'm here to speak against the development on the corner of Highland and Kings Highway. This is the second time we've been before the council about the situation. I am not against the development per se. I'm not against the development at all. What we're against is the... is alcohol and the gas sales. And the gas sales are a draw for the convenience store, as the developer knows, and is his vehicle to make money. That neighborhood is a very tentative neighborhood at the present time. It's in flux and danger because the buildings north of there are being burned. They're street by street in Highland is questionable as to its vitality, as to its viability. And we don't want that to creep across King's. I myself have had to extricate homeless people's shopping carts out of bushes, under houses, and we don't want anything that would entice them to come across the street. And a convenience store, gas station, panhandling, in my mind, would be something that would entice them to do that. And my proof of that is the Circle K across the street. is a magnet for these people. And I feel sorry for them, but unfortunately, it's not my job to take care of these people. It's my job to protect my property, just like my neighbors. The main problem that we're dealing with on this piece of property is that when Don's was put there, the business zoning was pushed all the way to Atkins, where they tore down some houses at that time. that lot, which is C1, which is the NPC shot down on being C2, should not have ever been business. It's the only lot, interior lot, on that entire Atkins Avenue that is business whatsoever. And in my mind, of course not in the NPC's mind, whether the development is on the front, the back, the middle, whatever, the entity that's there is the entity that's there inhabiting both the C1 lot as parking and the C2 lot on Kings as their main building. And it's going to be a nice development, but it's not going to be a nice development for us with more alcohol. We have plenty of alcohol in the area. and more traffic that can be drawn from Highland. And those are my two cents on this currently. Thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Atkins. Danny Thomas? Danny Thomas? I only have one, no first name, but last name Graham. No first name. It's just the last name Graham, but it's 503 Atkins.

Thank you, good afternoon, or no, good evening, everybody. Graham Todd, 503 Atkins Avenue. Also speaking in opposition to the requested special use permit. You know, we've had a lot of discussion today about our city and the challenges And you all are wrestling with much bigger issues than one or two lots and what goes there. But big issues like these, crime, violence, and especially domestic violence, which is really, I think, the core of so many other problems, big things start with small challenges and problems. and um in this case each neighborhood is also its own little microcosm and so we're here to talk about our neighborhood and this development proposal you've already heard from mr atkins just is not consistent with the new shreveport master plan and one of the key principles was fairness and opportunity for everyone that it would be a neighborhood of choice Last time when this was here, no one spoke in support. I don't know if anybody's going to speak in support today. Core neighborhoods by the master plan, most besides residences, should have neighborhood serving retail services. And that's really the question. Is this proposal a neighborhood serving retail establishment development? No one, to my knowledge, is asking for more beer and wine. I'm pretty sure the chief and the sheriff and this team that come out here will probably speak to alcohol being a factor in domestic violence. As a former law enforcement officer and sexual assault investigator, I know that alcohol is a factor in serious crimes. The performance metric is that we should increase diversity in housing types. not commercial establishments that are trying to make a bunch of money off of beer and wine. And that's not what's going to happen. You would all wisely ask for an updated traffic study. The traffic study in our appeal that we submitted points out that it did not address traffic turning left westbound, turning into the new establishment. It did not address eastbound traffic that will be turning left into Brookshire's right across the way. They'll almost be doing one of these right in front of each other, Kitty Corner, and that will back up. That was not addressed at all. And so we think there's going to be accidents. I would say there's going to be some challenges there. And that's unfortunate that that was not evaluated. The report you have from the MPC staff never addresses the number of retail beer and wine, which are three, and it doesn't even address the other gas station nearby. It makes no mention of any of those, and that's unfortunate. This is about our community and trying to fight for this area. We know that South Street, this area, is doing well with restaurants. We're actually seeing a battle of restaurants right now between Maryland's Place and Louder's. It's getting a little contentious, unfortunately, but that means business is booming. So those type of places work. We don't need more beer and wine. Thank you.

Thank you so much. On Karen's.

Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, members of the board, Mr. Mayor. My name is Ian Cairns. I live on 507 Atkins Avenue, next door to Graham and his wife, Pam. My wife, Patricia, and I have been there for 25 years. And I'm also here to speak in opposition, but I'm really here to speak about the community. I have here the MPC's One Shreveport Plan Summary. and I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but some of the bullet points on the plan, the plan elements contain strong neighborhoods, transportation choice, healthy people and environment, artistic, historic, cultural wealth, thriving economy and workforce, quality city services, and whole community implementation, excuse me. We really don't have the whole community implementation. We've been somewhat vilified because we've spoken out that we love our neighborhoods. And it's not our fault that somebody bought a lot that wasn't zoned for the purpose that they are trying to make it now. The only reason that they changed the initial plans were it was denied. So Jeff will come up here and tell you what a great person he is, and they had a meeting, and they moved everything around because that's what we wanted, but we don't want it. We want a business there that improves our community. Like Graham said, we have restaurants all over the neighborhood. You can't get into Fat Calf anymore without a reservation. Marilyn's Place on a Sunday, you have to park probably 300, 400 yards away to get there. So there's definitely opportunity for businesses that make sense. And businesses that make sense are ones that are going to improve our community. The 500 block of Atkins has roughly nine houses. Average house price, 300,000 plus probably. We pay our taxes. We are proud of where we live. We keep our houses up. We spend a lot of money on them. Like I've said before, if anyone's ever owned a 100-year-old house, it has 100-year-old problems. But we fix them and we keep it going. So we have one of the best streets in the neighborhood. We'd like to keep it that way. I don't really think opening up a gas station that sells beer and wine across the street from our houses is going to improve our community. Thank you for your time, folks.

Thank you so much. Okay. Chris Lyons.

Chris had to leave due to the length of time. He had a prepared statement to read. Can I give it to the clerk to pass out? He had multiple signed copies of it. Yes, sir, you can. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

To the members of the Shreveport City Council, I write to you today not as an opponent of development, but as a community advocate who has watched this neighborhood engage this process in good faith and who believes their voice deserves the same weight as any other stakeholder at this table. The Highlands and South Highlands neighborhoods have demonstrated exactly what civic engagement is supposed to look like. When the project was first proposed, residents showed up raised substantive concerns and pushed back through proper channels, and it worked. The building was reoriented to face the street. The drive-through was eliminated. Access from Highland Avenue was removed. The fueling capacity was reduced. These changes have made a huge difference in this project. The community deserves credit for suggesting them, and the developer deserves credit for listening. That said, the residents of this neighborhood are still saying clearly in consistency that Consistently that the gas station component and the concentration of alcohol retail in this geography are not welcome This is not obstruction is exactly the kind of signal the special use permit process was designed to capture Sustained place specific community level feedback about whether particular use belongs in particular location the UDC special use permit process requires the council to weigh compatibility with adjacent land uses the impact on public health and welfare and whether this particular use is appropriate for this particular location The record before you already reflects multiple gas stations and multiple alcohol retail points within a few hundred feet of this site. The community has documented lived experience with the downstream effects of that concentration. That experience is data. It should be treated as such. The appellants are not asking this council to stop all development of that corner. There is a version of this project, the retail and restaurant uses, the street-oriented architecture, the pedestrian amenities that this community could support and would patronize. The question before the council is whether the gas station and alcohol retail components are necessary to approve, or whether the community's sustained documented objection to those specific elements meets the threshold that UDC was designed to protect. I ask only that you extend to the people who have already invested in this neighborhood, who have maintained their properties, paid their taxes, and raised their families here the same deference you would want extended to you if this were your street. They have earned it. Respectfully, Chris Lyon, 509 Market Street, Shreveport, Louisiana. Thank you.

That was a mouthful. Ooh, you read that face.

I was worried about time last time.

So I just. So he said no. Pardon me, ma'am? He said no. He's opposed to the gas station.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Andrew Corbis. Okay. Madam Chair, that concludes public comments. Ooh, we got through that one.

We don't have any cards for them.

Your card is in your hand?

Oh, no. Come on. You have to turn it in.

Well, she could speak at the appeal part as well, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Last time I turned it in over here. That's okay.

That was at the commission. My name. And the council, make sure you turn it in to the clerk if you come to council meeting.

I can't.

If you come to council meeting, you have to turn your card in to the clerk.

Okay.

Okay.

That's okay. My name is Mary Soros-Hughes. and I live at 524 Atkins Avenue, right next to the former Don's Seafood property. I have a few observations I want to make. They're a little bit different than some of the others. I believe that the city of Shreveport should have some concept about what our inner city is reaching for, and it should be a varied use of available commercial property and not to have Oh, and not to have embarrassing, full of car-damaging potholes and rough riding which disturbs drivers while driving. I must state this again concerning riding, concerning the project. If there are already two gas stations with a third failed station within two blocks and five within a mile, why wouldn't the city think that another third station added would not cause another failure somewhere between these groups of gas stations. Why do we need a fourth source of alcohol when we already have three sources within a block distance apart? This project will be a fourth source. It seems to me that the City of Shreveport needs to have a plan, a vision of their own we can count on so we don't have to continue defending ourselves. We have lost the beautiful Barnwell Garden and our center donated by a citizen of Shreveport to the boats, cutting away our generous parking lot to one narrow strip. This took away the community arts and garden home from the Shreveport citizens. I had an art career and was one who felt the poor decision. Shreveport has the responsibility to have a vision of what a vibrant city is. Maybe there is a city service that could be built, a really unique restaurant not like any other in town, a small strip mall with one-of-a-kind establishments, the development of two-story homes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Gas stations and alcohol are not the only answers for empty spaces. When I visit my family in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington State, I see lovely roads, historic buildings repurposed with interesting uses, cities that are healthy, cared for, and a joy to visit. I am not pleased about what we have become. We have too well maintained properties in Highland and two well-maintained properties in South Highland, one of which we will sell soon. There are around the two Highland properties things that have changed dramatically. The one we built and the purposed and one purchased the other. the awful roads and potholes grow worse around .

.

.

I apologize, but your time has expired.

Oh, can I finish the one thing that I want to say? No.

Good seeing you, Ms. Varela. Hi. Did you have some additional thoughts about that?

Okay. Instead of making, okay, Shreveport should be reaching for a better vibrant city for all of us and not putting us in a position of defending ourselves. Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Chair, that concludes public comments.

We have no executive appointments to consider tomorrow. There are no items under consent agenda for introduction or to be adopted. Madam Clerk, please proceed. TO REGULAR AGENDA LEGISLATION.

RESOLUTION 47, AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE A TASK ORDER WITH BURNS AND MCDONALD ENGINEERING COMPANY FOR PROGRAM MANAGEMENT SERVICES REGARDING THE RENEWED STREETPORT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM.

SO MOVED. SO MOVED BY COUNCIL VICE CHAIR. SECOND BY COUNCILMAN BROOKS. ANY DISCUSSION? LET'S VOTE.

Councilman Brooks?

Yay.

Okay, and this passes with seven.

Resolution 48, authorizing the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, Purchasing Agent to Reject All Bids Received for Festival Plaza Pavilion Lighting and Fan Upgrades, Bid RFQ 26-506.

So moved. Second.

So moved by Councilman Butcher, second by Councilman Talaferro. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Councilman Brooks.

Yay.

This passed with seven.

Resolution 49, recognizing Overton Brooks Veterans Affairs Medical Center Employee Remembrance Day.

So moved.

Second. So moved by Councilman Green, second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Councilman.

In this passage with seven.

Resolution 50, authorizing the Mayor of the City of Shreveport to execute a memorandum of understanding between the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office the City of Shreveport, Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and other parties concerning the development and implementation of the CATO coordinated response model and related domestic violence response collaboration and otherwise provide with respect there too. So moved.

Second. So moved. So moved by the chair, second by Councilman Boucher in the discussion. Let's vote.

Council Member.

This passage was 7.

Madam Clerk, would you proceed with the introduction of resolutions not to be adopted prior to June 9th, 2026?

Resolution 51, authorizing the mayor to execute a cooperative endeavor agreement with the DeSoto Parish Sheriff's Office. Resolution 52, authorizing the acceptance of a donation for Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Louisiana. And Resolution 53, authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with WHP Training Towers to construct a fire training tower for the Shreveport Fire Department.

So moved on introduction. Second.

So moved on introduction by Councilman Boucher. Second by Councilman Green. Mr. Dark, will you give me a brief synopsis on 51, please? You can email it to me. Yeah. Is that the agreement? Okay. Thank you. These items have been introduced. Madam Clerk, would you proceed with introduction of ordinances not to be adopted prior to June 9th, 2026?

The administration has requested that Ordinance 54 and 55 not be introduced, so if there are no objections, I won't read that so that they aren't introduced.

She's not going to read it. Okay.

Ordinance 56, amending the 2026 Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund Budget. Ordinance 57, amending the City of Shreveport, Louisiana 2026 Capital Projects Fund Budget. Ordinance 58, to terminate and repeal the Downtown Entertainment Economic Development Area established by Ordinance Number 143 of 1999 and the Downtown Entertainment Economic Development Area Special. Revenue Fund established by Ordinance Number 144 of 1999 and to provide for other matters in connection therewith. Ordinance 59, to repeal Division 6 of Article 5 of Chapter 26 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, relative to the Downtown Entertainment Economic Development Area Special Revenue Fund and to provide for other matters in connection therewith. Ordinance 60, amending Section 94-165-6, of the Code of Ordinances relative to flat rate sewage rate charges. Ordinance 61, to approve the amendment to the Unified Development Code regarding landscaping requirements and water tower height. And Ordinance 62, zoning case number 26, that's 34C, an ordinance to approve the amendment of the zoning map of the UDC with conditions by rezoning property located on the east side of Linbrook Boulevard at the intersection of Pratt Road. from R17 single-family residential to I2 heavy industrial zoning district to C4 heavy commercial zoning district.

So moved.

Second.

So moved by Councilman Boucher, second by Councilman Green. These items have introduced Mr. Dark or Attorney Edwards are 59 and 58 and 59. Are they removed to replace what we already have for the new economic development district?

Yes, Madam Chair. A lot of the same area that is in the former DITA district is actually included in the new one. Okay. So this will supersede that.

Okay. Madam Clerk, please proceed with ordinances on second reading and final passage.

Ordinance 47, amending the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, 2026 Retained Risk Internal Service Budget.

So moved. So moved by Councilman Green. Second. Second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Councilman Brooks.

Okay.

This passed with seven. Ordinance 48, amending the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, 2026 general fund budget.

So moved. Second. So moved by Councilman Green. Second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

And this passed with seven. Ordinance 49, amending the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, 2026 capital improvements budget.

So moved.

Second. So moved by Councilman Green. Second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Yay.

And this passed with seven. Ordinance 50, repealing section 18-187 through 18-190 in sections 18-242 through 18-245 of the Code of Ordinances.

So moved.

Second. So moved by Councilman Green. Second by Councilman Talaferro. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Yay.

And this passes with seven.

Sounds like a cheerleader. Just write it down on a sheet of paper and hold it up.

Ordinance 51, repealing section 26-216 of the Code of Ordinances.

So moved.

Second.

So moved by Councilman Green, second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Yay.

Yes.

And this passes with seven. Ordinance 52, providing for the incurring of debt and the issuance in the sale of not exceeding $90 million of general obligation bond, series 2026 of the City of Shreveport, State of Louisiana, prescribing the form, terms, and conditions of said bonds, designating the date, denomination, and place of payment of said bonds, providing for payment thereof in principle and interest, and providing for other matters in connection therewith.

So moved.

Second. So moved by Councilman Green. Second by Madam Vice Chair. Any discussion? Let's vote.

Yes.

And that passes with seven. Ordinance.

Ordinance 53, approving the grant of an amended right-of-way servitude agreement with the Red River Express LLC of Alabama for the construction of a railway facility on city-owned property, authorizing the mayor to execute the same. And there is one amendment. The amendment adds the following to the title of the first ordained paragraph. Number six, River Express LLC of Alabama must construct fencing along the western border of the Carriageway Boulevard congruent with the adjacent neighborhood. This amendment adds an additional stipulation requiring fencing along the western borders of the roadway.

So moved on the amendment. Second.

So moved on the amendment by Councilman Boucher, second by Councilman Talaferro, and the discussion. Discussion. Discussion, Councilman Boucher.

Do we discuss this now, or do we wait until it gets on the floor for full vote? We can discuss the amendment now. Okay. Basically, this amendment adds offense to one side. So moved on the ordinance as amended. Second.

Second. So moved on the ordinance as amended by Councilman Butcher. Oh, we got a vote on it. Got a vote. I'm sorry.

Sorry. We'll move on the amendment. You were pausing. So moved on the amendment.

You can vote on that one, Council.

I have a motion by Councilman Butcher, second by Taylor Farrell.

I just need everybody to vote. Yes.

Councilman Butcher.

On the amendment.

On the amendment.

Mm-hmm.

And that passes with seven.

So moved on the ordinance as amended.

Second.

So moved on the ordinance as amended. Councilman Butcher seconded by Councilman Green. Discussion?

Discussion. Could I have the Red River Expressway folks come up, please? Anybody that may have pertinent information?

Good afternoon, members of the Council, Mayor.

Thank you for your time today. William Bradford, Blanchard Walker, Quinton Roberts, 333 Texas Street, Suite 700, Shreveport, Louisiana, 7-11-01. I'm joined with Mr. Tim James as well as Mr. Robert Vinay. We're all part of the same Tim James team.

So, Mr. Bradford, Madam Chair, okay. Mr. Bradford, there's been several questions that have been asked. The first one is pertaining to the road, the speedway. the speed of the roadway in the ordinance, it says just over the right-of-way, will that speed of 35 miles an hour carry through all the way through the end of the roadway as it travels through 12 Oaks and Esplanade?

Yes. And that will remain? The 35 is intended to slow the traffic down in front of all the houses, but not once you get further down. So once you pass the houses on...

the Red River Expressway, it will go up to a higher speed limit?

50 or whatever, right. Okay, 50? I think it's 50, but it's... 50?

Somewhere between 50 and 60. Yeah. But through the roadway, through the neighborhoods... It will be 100%, 35 miles an hour.

Yes, sir. And to put your mind at ease, all of these concessions were made in consideration of the neighborhood, making sure that we understand the limitations. As you know, Esplanade has its defined geographic location as well as 12 Oaks. And so any of these concessions, the 35 miles per hour, is intended to be along and congruent with those neighborhoods, with those dimensions and geographic locations of the neighborhoods.

This has been one of the hotliest contested votes that i'll make as a city councilman in eight years and um in my experience there's been a great deal of transparency with mr james about this i think that there's been a lot of miscommunications that's gone around out there um so i i just want this to be on the record because like i said and it may be troubling but i can't predict what the future is i just can't And I don't want to get up here and tell people that this is the way it's going to be forever because I just don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. But I do have a level of confidence that this roadway is better than what was proposed with 3132. And for us to be naive enough to say that 3132 would never extend, you know, we've got I-49 that's looking to be funded for the final leg. It's going to happen within our lifetime. So the second question I've got is no hazardous materials on the road at all. And that's the length.

of the road as it goes through the neighborhoods. Is that right? That's correct. And as you're aware, 3132 is called the inner loop. It was intended to be a looped roadway. And so this effectively creates a less intrusive, more neighborhood-friendly mechanism to develop that roadway to connect to Highway 1. And so part of the conversation has been no heavy trucks, no hazardous materials, which Mr. James has agreed to, as it relates. And to your point earlier, this has been hotly contested, but the entire room is not opposed to it. There are people here who are here in support, as well as a letter from the Chamber of Commerce, which represents over 1,100 members, that I will give to the clerk as well, that are in support of the project.

I think that the other question is in the resolution or in the ordinance, it is specifically to the trapezoid. I can understand where the concern comes in. Sure. That's why I'm asking you these questions on the record. I can understand where people would say, well, he's only just getting this in. I've seen text messages. This is a bait and switch. They're going to change this on us. Okay. I'm putting faith in what y'all are telling me as a council member to make an informed decision. And I do think that the project overall is good for Southeast Shreveport as long as these stipulations are met and they're held on to for an extended length of time. The other question that we don't have an answer on is the lady that lives in 12 Oaks asked a question about the park. Is there anything we can do to mediate? Because this could be pretty close to the park, is it not? Yes.

We're going to build huge barriers on both sides, evergreens, heavy crowns, everything you can do to suppress the sound as much as you can do it.

Is there any way to put fence up in that little small section right there?

Yes. We've already told them all we would do all that.

Okay. And to your point on the entranceway, Councilman, that is the entrance to 3132. So protecting that trapezoid effectively protects that leg until you get to Highway 1. There is no other access point.

It would flow through there. What is the potential of 3132?

I mean, where do you think we are with that? I mean, look, as recently as 2024, there was a finding of no significant impact, right? There is a Fonzie on that protected corridor. So, you know, I think the statement was made earlier that we may never see it. DOTD has made active steps into progressing that project, and this becomes a much better alternative to that entire corridor. So when you get a DOTD project, as it's contemplated under their code, is a controlled access four-lane elevated highway. This is a carriageway. So this is very congruent with the neighborhood and intended to protect the surrounding properties for development.

Speed enforcement. Who will be handling the speed enforcement on this road?

We're in early conversations with automated servicers like Blue Line Solutions. So speed enforcement will be handled through automated systems, but also we are early conversations with the sheriff's office as well about certain traffic mitigation measures.

Is there any city ordinance that would not allow speed enhancement cameras on this since it's privately owned?

Not that I'm aware of.

The city can't do that. To the extent that a private entity can, that would be something I haven't looked into.

But if the roadway continues to be privately owned... which there's speculation amongst many that say that it'll go to the city, but I don't believe that that's, from the research that Marcus has given me, I don't think that that's the case. The way I see it, there will be somewhat of a guarantee by the city on some rural development funding or something like that. Is that kind of how it works, the way that Mike Posada explained it to us?

through the Northwest Louisiana Financing Authority.

Okay. It is dedicated for public use. And the intention of the roadway is that all nine miles, with the exception of the bridge, is free for public use. Mr. James does not make $1 from anyone who decides to go from 3132 to Highway 1. When they cross the bridge, that is the expectation of revenue. And so, again, this is intended to give some relief to the traffic flows of 12 Oaks as well as Esplanade. Traffic flow from 12 Oaks is horrible when you have to make the suicide left out of that neighborhood. We are working on measures that will give relief to that neighborhood. The same happens for Esplanade in protecting their entrance and egress so that you don't have to make that U-turn as well.

So it will make the change to Esplanade's entrance, correct?

The intent is to give, and this is the developer of Esplanade's decision, but ultimately we will have a spur of the ability to tie in so that they will be able to get in and out better, have a better point of access.

There will be required some zoning changes as well.

By the developer of Esplanade.

By the developer of Esplanade because several lots are being replatted. Thus, there has to be some type of MPC action taken on that to replant those lots, correct? I agree with that, yes. And if that does not happen, then this right-of-way is revocable, correct? It's in the ordinance.

I think the intention of that language, and let's be clear about that, is that any land use requirements for the roadway, if they are unsuccessful, that is revocable. But again, this applies to the right-of-way and the trapezoid, right? This is a right-of-way decision.

But if you don't get the zoning to build the road, then there's no sense to even have the right-of-way.

Right, and that's a tertiary limitation, right? If it's outside the control of the developer, then there are stipulations and restrictions there. Yes, sir.

Last question. The comments have been made that this is all a way for Mr. James to turn around and sell the road to the state.

He's here I can I can tell you I mean I'd like to address it is to run a roadway a toll road States not asking No, this is a family business. I have three children Spouses the boys are working in this country. This is what we do Private infrastructure you you fix where needs and let me let me remind our how we got here. The state of Louisiana, like the state of Alabama, it is the local government that gives the license or the CEA the approval to do this, and they make the decision. It started because the parish commission granted us a CEA to build this exact project because it was them who make the decisions that is needed in this area. That's how we got here in the first place. If the Caddo Parish Commission had not done that, we would never be here. The second part to that, if the city went all the way to the port, we would have come to the city for the entire thing. So the blessing was given by statute to the parish, who we went through a long, drawn-out process, and they decided that we want you to pursue this project Two-thirds of 100-plus million bucks is on free roads that have nothing to do with me making money. Every person going to the port every day can shoot straight down there to the port, go to work, come home, and they won't pay us a penny. Saves time. There's a reason the support broadly has been insane. It's because it's needed. It's setting up a southern loop of Shreveport into Bossier Parish around the hall, and that's what's going on here. And I don't really normally respond to comments. But I will say one thing. The nice lady with 12 oaks, I didn't cuss in front of her. But I will say that she mentioned to me, if your house was right there, would you like it? And the answer is no. No one. I understand that. I mean, I get that. But we wound up in this location because first, the parish determined us to build this route. Hold on, Mr. James.

Secondly, I'm going to ask you all to stop talking in the chamber so we can hear.

The second is the movement of events over the course of a long time led us back to the alignment of 3132. where you have two wings going down, which is like the end of an interstate. And everybody knows when you see that, the interstate's going to keep going forward at some time. It's not a secret. So that's how we got here. And the other thing about a semi-derogatory comment about an Alabama developer. I want everyone to know I'm an Auburn man. So we're all on the same team.

So to go back to my question about selling it, what happened to the roadway that we've all probably traveled going to Orange Beach? You developed it. You sold it. Is that right? I did. So you didn't sell it to the state, though.

I sold it to a big infrastructure company.

Okay, so no state, it's not a state road?

States don't do that. Okay. The market does that. States don't do that. And if they do, they basically do it for nothing. That's not an idea.

So what part of this is in the city?

About a quarter of a mile.

Okay, does everybody know what a trapezoid is?

For those that may not be familiar with it, it is the foot. It is about, and Robert may have the exact geographic size of it, but it is a four-sided, five-sided. How many sides? Five sides. Thank you. Trapezoid, right? Geometry. Five-sided piece of land that the city currently owns. There you go. Appreciate it. It's LSU. Five-sided piece of land that the city owns at the foot of Florent Lucas and 3132. It is on the south side of Florent Lucas.

So what is it designed to do?

It is right now a dedicated corridor for 3132. Okay.

And it's to make access easier?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. So what the residents are speaking of, specifically this young lady back here with... Is it which area do you live in? 12 Oaks. So she's talking about the noise factor by her house. And so Councilman Butcher asked the question that you all will place noise barriers and all of these things around where she is for her protection. trees, all of these things, correct?

Yes, ma'am. I don't know where her house is, but we will, okay, yes.

I do believe she'll let you know where her house is.

No, yes.

So my question is, for her, this road right here goes through, do you all have that in writing? For her, not just what you're saying here, but to put it in writing, for as much protection and soundproof for her home so she would be able to enjoy where she lives.

Of course, we would. Okay. Or you can put it in the ordinance.

I just want to make sure she have her trees and her noise barriers, whatever it is that it is that you all agree upon. You know, because I know, and I'm not saying you, we can say a lot of things, but it doesn't mean that it's going to happen. I know that we can't predict what is going to happen Five years down, as Councilman Butch says, now the council comes in. How much of this road that you're building is in the city?

About a quarter of a mile.

About a quarter. So the rest of it belongs to the parish.

Well, we own it.

You own it.

Right. This is basically the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority technically owns it. We're the operator on it. So we don't own the trapezoid either. We're contemplating a long-term lease, a 99-year lease is what this is. So that property will be retained by the city. We just have an easement to build the road through the trapezoid.

How much does it cost us to maintain? Nothing. It's not going to cost us anything for how long?

Maintenance. We do the maintenance of everything forever, just like you would.

Golf course. Part of the finance structure contemplates a maintenance reserve fund.

So whenever the grass gets high. That's our job. I don't call Jarvis, I call y'all. The grass won't get high.

It won't get high.

That's right. Something else is, we're not giving you this.

No. The appraisal on the trapezoid easement was about a million bucks.

And you will be paying a million dollars for the right of way?

before construction starts. Unless you want to give me a discount. No, Madam Chair.

We out of discounts.

Mr. Dorr, we got any plans for that money?

Police cars, I've already talked to the mayor about it.

We'll get you something together, thank you. I appreciate it.

The only discount is he estimated it's actually 980,000.

And there was an appraisal that was done And state certified appraiser, and that's what the value of it is. Right.

So what I'm looking at is that we're talking about for the city side is approving the trapezoid.

The easement.

The easement.

Right away from you. Yes, ma'am.

The roadway, that expressway.

Well, no, it is, but I think that section where it runs through those two neighborhoods is ours.

Is that what it is?

Yeah, it's about a quarter of a mile, three quarters of a mile. It belongs to us from the trapezoid all the way down to when it clears Esplanade and 12 Oaks.