Got a full house here today.

It's good to see.

When we go into public comments, we'll a lot of times we'll allow a few more seconds over the three minutes, but if there's a lot of commentary, we'll have to stick with the three minutes.

So with that, uh, we'll go ahead and begin the meeting, and the chair will ask for a motion to suspend the rules.

So moved.

Moved by Mr.

Creel.

Do I have a second?

Second by Mr.

Gray.

Any discussion?

Oh.

We can do that afterwards.

All in favor?

Those opposed need a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

So moved.

Moved by Mr.

Creel.

Do I have a second?

I get to it.

Well, you gotta read it.

Got to read it into the minutes.

Go ahead and read it.

The clerk read the revision.

To the consent agenda, we're substituting item 5 M resolution only.

Resolution authorizing repair order agreement with A1 Pinnacle Elevator.

All right, got way ahead of myself, but uh we'll just let that motion still stand without objection.

Uh or if there are any comments.

There being none, all in favor.

Those opposed, motion carries.

If I would uh ask everyone to rise so we can say the prayer before we begin the meeting.

And I'd like to ask Wick Weaver to do the pledge.

Um, can you do the prayer?

I will.

Thank you.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little.

When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life.

Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity.

And in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly to venture on wilder seas where storms will show your mastery.

We're losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push back the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our captain, who is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

One nation, one of the start with mayor's report.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

President, and welcome everyone to our first meeting in May.

And we just finished up with four nice presentations of uh people that started out in 11th graders, but they turned into some fine young men and women with ideas that are gonna help our city.

So first up on the agenda, I'm gonna ask Ms.

Hunt so we can uh present certificates of appreciation to each and every one of the graduates.

Thank you very much, and we're very proud of it.

We'd like all of y'all here.

You better see our future leaders in the line.

Come on up.

Go right over there, honey.

John Budeau.

Carolyn Butler.

Oh God.

By Cara Grace.

Why didn't you let me practice?

You need to tell me I was gonna do this.

Miss Grace, come on up.

The Cara.

Huh?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Jaden Graden.

Thank you.

Houston Hewlett.

Aiden Kelly.

Emma, Kill Patrick.

Oh, yeah, thank you.

Yeah.

Adrian, that right.

Pretty good.

Audrey and Adrian.

Adrian.

Lowly.

Come on up.

Paisley Langston.

Bailey Lee.

Emma Mitchell.

Patel.

I can do the Patel.

Come on up.

Adam Rug.

Come on up.

Caleb.

All right, I'm calling Kayla true.

Come on up, Kayla.

Gabriel White.

Braden Williams.

Are you Brandon or come on up, Braden Yard?

Last but not least, our Emerson Yelberton.

Come on up.

Some of our students could not be here because they came for the presentation, but they had to leave because they had a band concert.

So that's why some of our students are not here.

But let's give our leaders of tomorrow a round of applause.

Y'all come up here, get closer.

Mayor, you want to get in the picture with her?

Ah, yeah, all your hands.

Thank y'all.

It looks like a great opportunity.

Now the now it would be business as usual.

What about clear first?

Okay, Mr.

President, I would ask before I forget to uh please spread the expenses of the Bloxy travel credit card to the minutes.

And I'll turn it over to Rick for a brief report and some of the other directors.

We'll give you some updates.

Thank you, Mayor.

One thing I want to tell everybody is I appreciate the support that we had for the employee appreciation day.

That turned out very well.

We had several hundred employees with a lot of smiles.

Also, the city budget is on the website for everyone to take a look at.

Underneath the accounting and also underneath the financial reports.

You can pull up several years of the city budget of what we're looking at, where the money's going, all of those.

So all of that information is public knowledge.

And we'll also work with the mayor of being able to present that budget somewhere posted on City Hall.

We haven't nailed that down yet.

So and what I'd ask at this point in time is for Director Jamie Lee to come in and give us a parking wreck update.

So it should be open.

But we are planning on opening up that dog park tomorrow at twelve PM.

On the causeway itself, ninety-nine percent of the lights have been fixed.

Uh the electricians have replaced some bad drivers along there.

So the majority of those lights are now working again all the way from the bridge down to Yule's place.

Seven of them, I'd like to give a shout out and appreciation to the Biloxi Public Schools carpentry student, the high school who did build them.

Um we have some pictures of the of the trash cans themselves.

Of course, this is just we kind of got we got the idea from the port who has some down there.

They seem to hold up a little bit better than well that looking good.

Okay, so anyway, I'll just explain them.

Um they are they are wooden, built built very strong, built very sturdy.

We were able to fasten them down into the concrete itself and remove the old metal ones who are which you know, by the just that environment just totally totally destroyed and ate up.

Um but if they pop up, we'll uh we'll see them.

Um but that is seven of them were installed, like I said, by the Bloxy High School carpentry shop who who built them and they're they're finally built.

Um Hill Park restroom, of course we talked about last time we had the roof replaced.

Um the lighting and electrical outlets are close to being all repaired with the new LED lights.

Um the mayor task with going ahead and giving an update on the restroom.

We did have a a plumber come out and look at that, and it is gonna take some work.

He's you know, he don't think it'll be any more than 10 grand, 10,000 to go in there, redo the plumbing and the fixtures all in that area if there are no major plumbing underneath the slab or anything like that.

So um that is something we will look into and discuss very soon.

Um we still have to fabricate some of the entrances, making making some kind of unique things to where you can't see into the restrooms due to the state of the doors, um, stalls and vanity, and we're also having to explore the ADA requirements in into those facilities.

So that is something that we are exploring at this time.

So we should have an answer here in the next couple weeks on that.

Uh with our summer playground daycare program, we did hit our number.

Registration was this weekend.

Uh we our goal is to get 50, and our final number as of today is 54.

So we are able to host the summer playground program at North Will Market.

Uh we are registering currently for swimming lessons at the nadatorium.

For anyone who's interested, please contact the nadatorium.

Uh Beck Park, we met last week about some of the things that we would like to see done out there, and then uh very soon we will be doing a walkthrough looking at some of the safety issues that we'll be taken care of first and then figuring out a plan going forward with some of the other items that need to be taken care of at that location.

Uh Danella Park.

Um we have been going by there looking at some of the structure, the concession building.

Um, you know, of course, the block did get pretty extensive water in it during Katrina, and we have a walkthrough coming up pretty soon to check the structural integrity of that to see if the building can be used or if it may be something that we do have to look at different plans for, but we should know something um very soon on that as well.

Uh Point Cadet Pavilion.

We're looking at doing the dedication for the George Lawrence um naming, which will be Wednesday, May 20th at 530.

And then last thing I do have the um the Miramar Park, the two dentures, the two benches that were installed out there um from the donation.

That memor that dedication will be taking place on Monday, May 11th at 9 a.m.

for anyone who would like to come out for that little short ceremony.

Jamie, I do have a question.

Uh I know you had another tournament at AJ Holloway Sports Plex this week that past weekend.

How did it go with I know there was rain and all that kind of thing?

Did it interrupt it too much, or were they able to play or no?

They they did play.

They did play.

Um the the turf the turf is doing really well when it comes to that.

Um, you know, with the grasshop fields, you still have some different areas that do hold water, but it it's it's not bad.

Um they were still able to play.

Um the tournament directors, you know, they were they were really awesome, of course.

You know, starting late, they adjusted to where they stayed on time for the remainder of the games and um everything everything went well.

Everything did.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Well, Mr.

Cruber.

Um so on the dog part, just to reiterate what you said, and I appreciate this putting the sign on the on the fence uh several days prior to us closing it down for notification.

Um that that truly helped and it was recognized.

So thank you for that.

Yes.

Also uh thank you again for the combination locket access to the international fields.

Um that that's working as well.

And you didn't mention the pickleball courts, but I wanted to mention the area outside the uh pickleball courts on river view.

The county's there now um addressing the um the road on Riverview right outside the T of the pickleball courts.

So there'll be some paving they're gonna um address that issue uh this week.

If they didn't start today, they'll start um first thing tomorrow of uh doing the preparation and then coming back and fixing that area by the pickleball courts just said thank you.

All right.

Any other comments you can reserve it for your report or while Jamie's up here if you I just wanted to say that um Hill Park is probably the best it's looked in a long time.

It's looking real good.

Y'all doing a real good job.

Team effort totally all six departments anyone else on.

On Donella Park, can we look at doing the um getting the the power meter put in that small field so they can check the lights?

And uh maybe Christy if we can get the uh water and sewer out there to make sure it's working.

You know, I know the water is out there, but they just want to make sure everything's working on that.

It's not hooked to the building, but they just want to make sure they got water access.

That's all I have.

All right.

Anyone have anything at this time for Jamie?

You can reserve it for your report if you'd like.

Okay.

Thank you, Jamie.

Thank y'all.

Said it.

All right, we'll move on to council reports.

We're gonna start with Mr.

Shoemaker.

I do something a little different today.

Really?

I don't have a whole lot, just one thing.

Um finally the the Thomas Medical Park office Rhiners Boulevard.

I know that's been kind of a um I've been speaking about probably the last year or so, but we finally have a groundbreaking date, which is Thursday, May 14th at 10 o'clock, which is great news.

So um it's set in stone now.

Some invitations have been sent out.

So looking forward to that.

That's gonna be great development.

That's phase one of I think four or five phases.

So looking forward to that.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Schumacher.

Uh Mr.

Tisdale.

No report.

Thank you.

Mr.

Crew.

Uh, real quick, uh two things.

Uh Fred Hayes will be returning uh to Biloxi for the dedication of the Fred has Fred Hayes landing.

Uh it'll be sometime in June, but I don't think the dates have been set for that by the uh beautification commission.

Uh we have reached out to him and spoke to him, and he is uh looking forward to uh returning back for for that dedication.

Um secondly, I'd like to thank Rachel uh Quave for helping the beautification commission and the paperwork on the five thousand dollar grant to fund this project.

Uh these are the kinds of things that we wanted to see from this beautification commission, and so uh these are the ideas that come with money, and thank you very much for your assistance on that.

That's it.

Thank you.

All right.

Mr.

Neil.

Uh I got a couple of things.

Um any update on the broadwater golf course, Rick.

Yes, sir.

I spoke with uh Mr.

Anderson and also with the trust as far as on uh Mr.

Cotton.

So Friday they should be cutting down pass or down highway 90, cleaning that area up there, and then within the next two or three weeks, they'll cut down Pass Road.

We also discussed some of the trash and pick up.

If you take a look down Bohoir, they have done a great job there cleaning that area up as well.

And so they're continuously working on this as we go through.

So if you have any questions or comments, the administration is staying in touch with the property owners on both sides.

Okay.

Yeah, I notice uh the homeless people seem to be disappearing little by little now.

We got rid of the bench at the at the library.

That's gone, so they won't hang out there.

But and that's another thing I wanted to bring up is um we need any update on the library where we where we stand with getting out or Ms.

Libata, if she'll come in and give you some updates on that, but currently right now.

Christy.

Uh so right now we still um don't have any decisions made on yet what we're gonna do about the library.

Um we have uh I think Rick met with the library lady last week about maybe uh move moving the books out for the time being.

We're trying to make decisions on what's gonna happen.

Um we're still having some discussions with different electricians on how the electrical work needs to be fixed.

Um just just as a quick summary about what we have spent in the library, um, because I know there's been a lot of talk about not taking care of of buildings and things like that.

But uh just so basically uh I can go back till you know 2008.

But in 2022, just in the West Biloxi Library alone, we did about 17,000, 18,000 dollars worth of maintenance.

That includes contract and and in-house labor.

2023 we spent 141,000.

I think that was the year that we did the HVAC and the floors.

2024, we spent 27,000.

This is just in that library.

2025, we spent 6500.

2020, so far this year, we've only spent about 3,000, but that's because we have got a lot of this stuff that's kind of queued up on hold until we decide what to do.

On average, now remember, for all of our library maintenance, we only budget $20,000 this year.

Last year it was $25,000.

So we're spending that, and more than that in the last couple of years, just in West Beloxy Library alone.

Overall, you know, in 2024 in all the libraries, we spent almost 90,000.

2023, we spent 170,000 in library maintenance.

So we just we're still looking at options on the best way to move forward.

We are still talking to some electricians.

We have, like I said, some discrepancies on the best way to rerun that power and what to do with the inside panel.

So as of now, we're not doing anything.

We are we are having a problem with the homeless there.

We are looking at boarding up the doors because they have they've started to tear off the door handles off the back.

Uh they're trying to get in the building.

So we're trying to make a decision soon so that we can uh move forward and and and try to secure the building if that's what we're going to do.

But uh, we're still looking at all the options on the ways to make these repairs to this building because again, it's about just under $370,000 to bring that building back up to where it needs to be with the electrical, the roof, the plumbing, the ceilings, that kind of stuff.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Look, I wanted to yield the rest of my time to uh what Mr.

Wayne Hinge.

Okay.

Wayne.

I've had some exhibits prepared so that it might help y'all understand the position I'm going to take on a case that is back here from the circuit court.

I'm Wayne Hingon.

I'm an attorney here in Biloxi.

My offices are at 979 Howard Avenue, and I represent Pastor James George.

He is here tonight.

He'll make his comments during citizen comments.

I'm going to cover two separate things to try to make it easy.

I'm going to cover the history of when this case came up before and the facts surrounding it and why I would like to have your vote on this in favor of James George.

Here's the history.

On May 22, 2025, Pastor George submitted his application for a permit to use his property as a short-term rental.

115 St.

John Avenue, that map that we handed out could be yellowed where his home is in a block that is already zoned for short-term rental.

It's his second home.

He and his wife died primarily in Louisiana, but he also has this home here.

He applied back in 2022, Planning Commission then recommended approval, but the council denied it.

He has a short-term rental that was approved by y'all.

And uh that was done a few years back.

On July 3, 2025, the Planning Commission met and they voted 13 to 1 in favor of recommending this for approval to y'all.

On July 29, 2025.

Council had on its agenda and had the record before it in order to make a decision as your ordinance requires.

The motion made was not seconded and it failed.

So there was no decision.

For most of you, it was probably y'all's third council meeting.

Because you are newly elected at that point.

On August 8, 2025, I was retained and I filed an appeal.

The appeals go to the circuit court, not to the Supreme Court.

On January 30, 2026, we're now in this year, just a few months ago, the record from the Planning Commission and the Council was filed in the Circuit Court or our appeal.

Between February and April, the City Attorney and I, uh, the City Attorney was appointed for doing this job, uh, filed briefs back and forth, and then without going any further, I decided to concede to the city and in what they had in their brief as a proper way to do it.

I didn't have time to research that out for the 10 days I had to appeal.

So I was asked to obtain a court order for the city to make a decision since it wasn't made the last time this came up before you.

And the order was granted, and I'm here for that decision, hopefully to be in favor of Pastor George.

That's the history.

Your short-term rental ordinance sets out conditional use standards and short-term rental standards.

The exhibit that I have that's several pages there, set out exactly what the standards are.

They include the short-term rentals and what he's able to do to comply with all of them.

Your forms for filing a short-term rental permit, filing for it, uh, actually request the applicant to provide the information necessary to comply with those standards.

I imagine that's done on purpose, but it does help.

Pastor George's application and the supplement are complete, they are responsive, and they allow for the permit to be granted.

And he paid the fee to have it done.

It's more in the nature of bureaucracy, I would say, but y'all have the final vote.

He also provided his deed, it's required, and some other required and then voluntary documents.

They include an architectural drawing, a drawing of the property with the property already built up with measurements, uh, personal letter introducing himself to those who didn't know him.

Uh personally provided a presentation at the Planning Commission.

He also provided uh information regarding his management company.

Um, I'm sure.

Zydeco.

Zatico Properties of Louisiana LLC.

It's his managing company.

It's in his only short-term rental, nor is the one that he already has granted.

It receives a portion of the profits from his business to support missionary families returning from overseas ministries.

He also spent an additional amount of money on things that would be helpful for the council back when it was heard before to approve that permit, particularly spending money to put in a second exterior staircase, because he's on elevated property.

Uh he has to be up on polls because he's too close to the water there.

Um, and that was done at a time, my understanding is when it wasn't even required, but he wanted to comply because he wanted your vote.

This is not a rezoning case.

Please understand that.

This property is already zoned, already been decided in councils passed, uh, to be RM 30 for a short-term rentals, and it has been that way for years.

Here's a little about RM30.

STRs are allowed under conditional use, but there are permitted uses, quite a number of them.

That's the other handout.

Multifamily dwellings, two to three to four family dwellings, uh, assisted living facilities, group homes, adult daycare centers, uh, child daycare centers, family child care homes.

These they can get a building permit and go out there with a shovel and start their project.

They do not need conditional use.

As you can probably imagine, these mean traffic problems, traffic congestion, noise problems, parking problems, lots of people, 24-7.

Pastor George's S2TR, STR is a much better situation than any of those listed that can be started tomorrow.

And much better than the long-term rentals, which can be done now, right now, without a permit.

He doesn't want to do that.

It has a bad track record.

Probably everybody in this room knows about the bad track record.

Sometimes it's the landlord, sometimes it's the tenants, the condition of the property, the appearance in the neighborhood, the yard management, the car situation, and damages to private property.

Where the standards are met, your ordinance says that the approval must be granted.

That's y'all's ordinance, y'all's law.

If there is substantial evidence to the contrary, a denial may be appropriate, but it is still left to the courts.

Substantial evidence is this.

Number one is the truth.

It's also relevant.

It's not speculation.

It's more than just a tiny bit of evidence, and it's capable of supporting a reasonable conclusion.

You vote in favor of the case is over, and I would be dismissing the case at the circuit court before Judge Dodson.

If the vote is against, of course, the court retained jurisdiction by letting me come back down here, have this presented to you for a decision.

But if it is against, then it would go back up to the circuit court for uh review to determine whether or not there was substantial evidence on the part of the council to deny that application.

I hope this has been helpful.

I'm trying to do it in an instructional way.

I I don't think that you don't know this already, but it is important to me to see that this is done.

Um we'd respectfully ask for your vote.

Uh Mr.

New York concluded my report.

All right.

Mr.

Marshall.

Back to me.

I'm sorry.

Come back to me, sir.

Okay.

Speaking to the mic so that we can get it on record.

Come back to me, sir.

All right.

Thank you.

Can you call back to it?

Yeah, I can.

Mr.

Marshall.

Now I'll go ahead.

Um get my good notes here.

On uh Saturday, the ninth, they got the Arch and Festival.

Um cross street from the uh visitor center.

There are gonna be 60 vendors, and it will be with their items, pottery, reefs, candles, woodworking, and a lot more different stuff.

Um we'll give a report on a Danella Park.

I know Jamie touched some.

We met out there with several people yesterday and today, come up with a plan.

They need help cleaning, pulling vines off the bat and cages, replacing rot wood on a building, painting.

Just to get started, um, if you would like to help, you can reach out to their Facebook page, friends of Danella.

Um I want to touch a little bit on the homeless.

We have a homeless, they are trashing the area of the city.

We must come up with some solution sooner than later.

They're there are the laws.

There is there a law about setting up tents and feeding them.

Is there a health issue that we know of?

You know, for they need a permit.

I mean, we haven't people set tents up on the weekends, feeding them.

Um and not feel for them, but you know, we we got people riding around handing out food.

I mean, how do we know that's that's safe for them?

I mean, we we don't know.

Um camps underneath the bridge, dragging up mattresses underneath there.

I mean we have I know it's a burden on people, but we got citizens that are starting to move out.

They're they're putting their houses up for sale.

So I mean, we we have to look at doing something to help them.

I mean, I I don't know what to do.

I mean, we've been done over this several several times in the past.

Uh I just they I just want to bring it to the attention.

So we're gonna have people starting to leave, so we haven't a lot more.

Uh, I don't know if Chief wants to address on that.

I mean, I I know I'm seeing a lot more.

You know, our our our main thing going to Keysler, our main gate.

They're everywhere sleeping on the sidewalks and stuff.

So is there uh ordinance we might be able to pass or something to get them off the sidewalks?

I I don't know.

Well, we already have a lot of good ordinances in place.

But I'll start with uh CSX.

So over in the West, uh long CSX tracks, they went and cleaned.

Uh of course we have the stuff going on on the golf course like uh Rick spoke about.

But we went back through there, found another camp.

CSX came out and and cleaned it up uh this past week.

Some of the other locations, like under the 110, um, as you know, we'll go through and clean something up, and then you know, a day later we got somebody else there.

So some of the areas they focused on this past week was under the 110.

Uh back along Bayview, uh, you have uh some Keysler property.

They went out there with Keisler within the next few weeks.

You should see the fence going up to to keep them off that property.

Um, and then uh there's uh a couple other parks they they focused on to hit uh along with the library.

Got with the the librarian uh this past week, came up with uh hopefully a plan.

Um was mentioned about some different benches that were removed uh throughout the city to help with with this plan.

Uh there was some CTA locations that that was specific that we hit to try to uh to clean those areas up.

So in the in the the past couple weeks, what we've been doing is trying to focus on different areas and and target those areas and then move on to the next place.

Um we do have some uh additional manpower, hopefully in the next couple months that will be added to that that unit uh that should help.

And then we're of course we're continuing working with our our partners or or the different organizations, back missions, uh, some of those as they have funding.

Um we did have that, you know, we keep seeing them.

We had two people, two individuals come in town this week that we identified and and kind of gave them the rundown, try to figure out what their plans are and so forth uh to hook them up with resources.

Um any specific area, you know, let us know, and we'll target those areas.

Um, and we'll continue uh keep going as we find them.

Right, yeah.

And I mean the problem is they just trash the area they're in and just I mean, going across the the bridge.

I mean, you can look to either side and you know, and I know y'all doing that, y'all doing all y'all can do.

I mean, y'all, y'all short staffed, and you know, this is full time with so many here, and that's what we have to try to figure out some some type of solution and get some help somewhere with them.

We're certainly open to any kind of uh uh ideas, yeah, solution.

You know, it's uh a community issue, and we're we're open to working with anybody on it.

All right.

Well, thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Thanks the uh Mr.

Royce.

I'm asked the chief to give us an update on the blood drive from today, please.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

So we had uh as everybody knows, today's uh uh seventh anniversary.

We lost Officer McKeith, and uh today they had the sixth annual uh blood drive with the American Red Cross.

Um I don't have numbers yet.

When I called a little while ago, they were still working on it.

Uh but what I was told is that it was nonstop all day long.

They hardly had a uh a bed open uh for lack of better term.

So but uh so it sounds like they did pretty pretty good all day long.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

All right, Mr.

Marshall.

Chief.

Just kidding.

All right, uh, I'm not gonna complain if I say anything.

I'm gonna bring up one issue, and the issue I'm gonna I have other things I want to talk about, but I don't have enough time.

The issue I want to talk about is the library.

The reason why I'm gonna speak about the library because there are just certain things that as a city, our core responsibilities, and they're just certain things that we as a city must do.

Um I went online because I said I want to find a better, a better clear way to say, and I just I just Google you know what are the core responsibilities of a city or municipality, and strange as it may seem.

Um just give me a second here.

First thing that popped up is police and fire protection.

Uh public transportation.

Next thing comes up is parks and recreation.

Next thing is number two.

On the number two, say maintaining infrastructure.

Roads, bridges, street lighting.

And the third thing on that number two for maintaining infrastructure is public buildings like libraries and city halls.

Excuses.

I just want to say this, it is our responsibility as a city to provide what the taxpayers pay for.

Once they pay for it, it is our ongoing responsibility to maintain it.

We can't sit and point fingers when it is our responsibility.

We can't explain to someone why you're paying for something and you're not getting it.

I'm gonna speak very clearly.

We should not be closing libraries.

We should not, as a city, be closing libraries.

That is a basic core responsibility of this administration and this council to find a way.

We find a way to do almost everything.

But you mean to tell me we can't find a way to come up with $60,000 to get the power on in our buildings.

If you, as a Mr.

and Mrs.

Biloxi, let the power go out in your house or your buildings, then you are you are you will have trouble.

This city right there on you about it.

We must do what we ask others to do.

What they pay us to do.

Yes, there's a cheaper way of doing it by getting rid of a lot of services.

We can get rid of a lot of parks, we can get rid of a lot of buildings, but what are we gonna do?

They already paid for them.

It is our core responsibility.

So I want to find a way.

I want to ask this council to help me and have Mr.

Nell find a way to save that library.

We can save a lot of things, but we have to save that library.

Yeah, people expect things, but it's not free.

They know it's not free, but they are paying any taxes.

They are paying for that.

We have to make sure this is there for them.

We're gonna process now of our voting to put over a hundred houses within walking distance of that library.

Hundred brand new houses, a hundred families.

If you go to a real estate agent and you say, I'm looking at a subdivision, they will start to tell you about the amenities of the city first.

The parts they want you to know where your tax dollars are gonna go.

The schools, they want you to know where your tax dollars are gonna go.

This increases the value of your homes.

Is the home value increase?

We make more money as a city because we get to we get a part of that.

Also the libraries.

That is the only library that I'm on to, I'm under the impression is that it's on a bus for those who don't have cars of transportation to get somewhere.

So why are we letting that go?

We also got to remember this.

Yes, times are changing, things are changing.

And I was totally impressed when the kids were speaking about today about this uh bite lab.

And it's it was it's like is I told Mike, I said, that's the perfect business for that.

Maybe we should take instead of just letting the building go and turn into a cyber cafe.

Things that the kids would would like to go enjoy.

Things that a new way of thinking, still a library.

But to let buildings sit, to let books rot and mold.

No, that's not what we do.

We're better than that.

We have to step up.

We have to not make excuses.

We can't make it for free, but it is our job to do it.

And it's our job to find a way.

And that's what I'm gonna ask this council to work with me on.

I believe Mr.

Nell is in agreement with this.

We need to save the library.

That is the cause, and that's what I want to concentrate on.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Marshall.

Okay, I got uh just a few things uh here.

I'll get a couple of these out of the way.

Uh Stacy Lane and Shonowitz, uh, particularly on Stacy Lane.

I I know it's been on the uh paving list for uh quite some time.

Uh, but the residents out there are saying if we could just fix some of the potholes, they're getting deeper.

Uh and if we can get somebody to assess that, I'll I'll put it in B Connect, Rick, or I'll I'll make a request.

Uh, but that just came up um uh this afternoon before I got here, so I couldn't make a call.

Wanted to make sure I got got to that.

Um and then the other thing, um and I'm not gonna belabor this, but it was eye-opening.

Uh we we had a town hall meeting uh a few weeks ago, and and we talked about a lot of things.

We were great meeting, uh, had a lot of participation, a lot of people from other governmental agencies and support groups uh attended that uh meeting.

But one of the things, one of the hard questions that came out of there was uh all of this development, and and there's a lot of development uh all over Biloxi, particularly uh, you know, there's a lot of them uh going on in Ward 6.

Um, but it the question was raised about the ponds and about the Swiffer plans and about the uh I guess it's called the silk fences and making sure that we're uh doing a better job at that.

And you know, I listened uh with an open mind, and I actually walked up uh a couple of the properties this past uh uh uh Monday, I think it was Sunday, and I walked it um and we pulled, you know, there's a box where you can pull the Swiffer plan and you pull it out and look at it.

And it just appeared that we could do a better job.

So uh maybe Rick, I could I can get with you and uh look, I don't want to get into I'm not running that business.

When I see silk fences up, it's hey, silk fences are up, and I'm I'm thinking everything is working like it should.

But I had a little bit, I had a little bit more um schooling on it uh this this past Sunday, and I just think it may be behoove us to just take another look at it and make sure if we are able to capture or prevent a lot of that soap for running into our um waterways and making its way out uh in our canals and everything.

Maybe we can do things better.

And I'm not pointing the figure at anybody.

I just it looked to me that there's an opportunity there.

Um get some fun stuff.

Uh I was able to attend with Wayne Gray, Paul Tisdale, Mayor Gilwich, and myself over in East Biloxi, uh the 97th blessing of the fleet, uh unveiling of our shrimp king, uh, Captain Greg Baker.

Uh so it was a wonderful night at St.

Michael's in East Biloxi.

Uh, we were also able to meet the shrimp queen contestants and all the shrimp uh princesses.

That's a new thing.

They're now inviting these princesses to be recognized and getting them indoctrinated a little bit early and learn all their traditions and everything, and it was just a very enjoyable evening.

Um we also had uh poster unveiling.

I think the mayor was presented with a poster by uh a local artist, Elizabeth Alexander, and uh it was just a really good night.

The food was good, uh the company was great, and uh again, a lot of those young uh queen contestants that are sponsored by local traditional uh seafood companies and families.

Uh it was just really good.

So it was a really good good night, uh, Wayne over there at St.

Michael's.

Um and I want to touch on uh great job, Rick.

You you and the directors that participated in putting uh the employee appreciation lunch together.

You had a kind of pivot uh because it was I was really excited it was gonna be over in Ward 6 at AJ Holloway, and we were getting those uh facilities up to par and all of a sudden we had the threat of uh rain.

So we had to cancel the kickball and move it over to uh the community center, the Gruitt Center.

And there was a lot of disappointed uh kickball.

They were wearing their jerseys and shirts and uh and all that kind of stuff.

They're wearing to go uh when you have this thing, come come back in the fall and uh just to have Pafford on hand.

I saw a couple of uh old guys in there, and they they may you may have to have Pafford on hand for them.

But um Wayne, Mike, Jamie, Paul, David, myself, the mayor, Rick, and the department heads that participated in there.

Uh thank y'all uh for taking time.

I know we're all busy.

We can't always make these events.

Um you had a Danella event the other day, uh Wayne, and I couldn't make that.

I was trying to get down there, but I had a lot of stuff come up, and I apologize for not making it.

But um with that, that concludes my report.

Move on to uh our public agenda, citizens' comments.

We have a total allotted time of 45 minutes.

Uh when you raise your hand to be recognized when you're recognized, come up to the front and sign in with your name and your address and state it for the record clearly.

You can talk on any subject that you want.

Please direct the uh comments to the chair and the council up here uh and then we'll we'll go ahead and get started.

So on my left, your right, yes, sir.

Yep, right here.

Okay, um my name is Dane Sensor.

I'm a brand new resident to Biloxi from Maples, Florida.

I'm actually here for two weeks now.

Glad to be here.

Really love the town.

Uh here uh as a proveer of the world's largest American flag, and also a purveyor of the world's largest golden border flag.

Of course, we know that this is the 250th anniversary of America this year, and we're doing a lot of events.

Um one of the events that we're doing is we're bringing our flag here to Biloxi.

And uh I wanted to bring attention, Thursday, May 7th, is National Prayer Day in America.

Okay, uh over at Ocean Springs, they're doing a beautiful event.

I think there's five seven churches involved over at the Greyhound uh uh high school stadium.

They're gonna have a national day of prayer uh presentation over there.

Uh and what we want to do is uh bring attention to it, and also President Trump is gonna have a national day of prayer for rededication to the country, one nation under God.

As we know this country needs some prayer.

Uh we all have to look too far to see what's happening out there.

So I think this is a great importance to this country, this county, this city, to bring attention and pray for this country like we've never prayed before.

And um, so one of the things we're doing is uh we're we're gonna get a convoy together and get a video where we can do with our flag a beautiful lit up white cross underneath that flag, do a video and send it to President Trump where they can play that uh on the national mall on May 17th, Sunday for the National Day of Prayer and Dedication, so they can hopefully maybe honor the people from Biloxi and bring attention nationally to them.

So um, so anyway, uh hopefully the city will support uh and sponsor these flags and show America the patriotism because right now I'll tell you the first flag I did was in 1991 San Diego was a human flag.

32,000 people showed up to do a human flag in the parking of Jack Murphy Stadium, and uh patriotism was at all high, 86 percent.

You know what it is today?

It's around 36 percent.

Very sad.

So not only do we need to pray about it, we need to bring the patriotism of America up and show the people that uh let's make uh praying great again.

And so one of the things I hope they'll do is do that.

Uh hope you can all come out there on Thursday and hopefully support some of these things with the flag and the patriotism and prayer in America.

And uh like I said, we really need it and uh God bless America, Biloxi, Mississippi, uh some of the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met.

This is the first time I've been to this city.

I'm really glad to be a new resident of it.

So thank you.

Thank you, sir.

And I hope uh it's a those stats, it's a little higher in Biloxi than that national average.

But thank you.

Thank you for that.

I also want to dedicate this uh picture of the world's nose flag.

All right, give it a chance to just give it to the mayor.

Yeah, farmer self declared.

Thank you.

Chrissy Noel.

Thank you, sir.

My left, your right, if you raise your hand, lady in the back.

So Mayor Fufu, my name is Santana Dickens.

Is it okay, Sand?

Yeah, you need to speak into the microphone so we can get it recorded duly.

And state your name and your address as well.

Okay.

So my name is Santana Dickens, and my address is 530 D Bise Road, E66, Alexi, Mississippi, 39531.

Thank you.

So I'm here today because there is a summer literacy program that will be taking place in the city of Alexi.

And so this is why I'm reaching out to every city, every city council member.

If you are interested in the summer literacy, there are two languages that will be taught for young African-American men from the ages of seven to fourteen.

Um, the program, it's you look at the program, it's outlined with very distinguished universities.

So there's one university prairie and prairie AM university.

There's four interns that will be interning for the Spanish program.

And then also there's an ASL teacher here with Deaf Center, and they also will be doing the ASL portion as well.

So the summer literacy program is June 1st to June 20th.

And this is why I asked all of you, if any of you are interested, uh, Mayor Peepho, we had the conversation.

We'll for the city of Alexi, it would be most important for work for workforce readiness, a pilot program for the summer.

And the program, it's only 200 per week.

So the only thing that I'm asking for, if there's any city council that wants to partner with City of Biloxi and with any of the young youth of African American culture, um, it would be 24 dollars a day, which that means you would only put 120 for 60 boys.

And so we're living in it to 60 boys because we want them to actually engage with the learning for the six-week program.

And um, I believe that this will be a great partnership, as well as if even it's not a partnership.

I believe that this is very important.

Why is it important?

This inclusion.

Why also it's important, they will learn um to two different languages early on from seven to fourteen.

Um, why you should be needed in this because we are all here at City of Belexi to rebuild, transform, and also transform voice lies.

So that's normally what I wanted to ask.

I I wanted to ask, is there anyone that had any questions about the program?

I'll have a few more moments.

You would you would have to leave your contact information for us to get back in touch with you.

This section is not question and answer.

Okay.

Well, other than that, that is the program, the summer literacy.

If you had any questions, again, my name is Santana Dickens, and I gave you my address as well.

Yeah, perhaps you can leave your contact information with the clerk.

Okay, I will.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, sir.

Name's Alper Husley.

Um speaking for my dad, really.

Lives right out there in Walmarket.

And y'all are uh getting ready to party and plan or approved by your planning commission, how to re uh to rezone a section out there.

And I've been in touch with David Shoemaker.

And uh each one of y'all got a thumb drive yesterday or just this afternoon.

And there's been a flooding issue out there for years.

When I say years, I say 14 years.

Nathan Barrett, David Fayard, Mr.

Gildage, Mayor Holloway, everybody been told about it.

And no one seems to do anything about it.

I'm reaching out to Mr.

Shoemaker right now.

He's trying to arrange so we can walk that property.

Because half of y'all don't know nothing about Walmart.

Got a piece of property out there, and you know nothing of.

I talked to one of your councilmen, and he told me point blank.

If you get dropped off out there, get lost.

And that's a shame.

And you know, you want to talk about things, you know.

Let's talk about that drainage issue that's been going on for all these years.

Why haven't y'all addressed it?

It flooded my dad's property.

I hope you look you look at that thumb drive.

And I hope uh oh, Mr.

Shoemaker, I hope you come come out and get with me and walk that property.

And when you do, bring a pair of boots.

And Mr.

Marshall.

Thumbs up on the library.

Thank you, Mr.

Hustle.

What else on my left or right?

Gentlemen in the back, I'll get to you next.

Yep.

The assistance and help you have given us in the past and hopefully uh moving forth in the future.

Uh I am James George.

Um Mississippi address is 115 St.

John Avenue.

And uh as we've been told or my legal representation that uh uh you will be soon reading the proposal um to uh hopefully move forward and grant short-term rental status to that uh aforementioned address.

Um and uh I would like, if I may, mayor, you look really good in brown.

That's a great outfit.

But um I do appreciate again all that you men do, and I understand the uh gravity of the decisions that you have to make.

Uh I am a former pastor, uh a global missionary and evangelist.

Uh that is my primary vocation.

Uh, I do own a number of businesses, one of which is a preschool in Hammond, Louisiana, a Christian preschool that my wife and I run.

She also teaches at the college.

She's over the Department of Childhood Development.

And uh we try and stay busy.

We work a lot with children.

I founded a number of programs overseas.

And uh it was mentioned that a lot of our proceeds, Zydeco Properties is actually the far-profit side of our corporate ministry.

And uh we do give and yield a great deal of uh the profits and income into areas of mis uh ministry, especially uh we have an orphanage.

Uh we found it in India, and we co-sponsor that, and we also were involved in helping other missionaries in the field on and off.

And part of this project, and we've already engaged in doing this is helping men ministry as they come in off the field to get a little respite.

We give them, we donate time in our units uh and let them just have a week or so of stay if they need it.

But uh I do appreciate your consideration.

My wife and I are well vested in this area, and I know this is not a large sum.

I'm not boasting, but just in five years, we have spent just shy of 1.3 million dollars on properties and homes.

It would have been easily double that if I have not met with some of the obstacles that I have had to face.

Uh our goals are much greater than what we have done thus far, and we do intend to move forward and see much of that manifested.

But uh I do appreciate your full consideration uh and just consideration of uh what we're doing.

We are, as was already said, the property is already in, it is zoned or short-term rental.

It is something I support.

I'm a little shocked that America is one of the only countries that does not offer physical reward or awards to short-term rental.

You go anywhere else in the world, and they use that to help build communities back up, especially short-term over long-term rental, because it does bring a greater manifestation of improvement, a reduction of crime, and uh it's uh something we want to see happens.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Oh, I do have a list of supporting neighbors and names here, if I might leave that.

Presented to the clerk.

Thank you.

Uh the lady I recognize, yes, ma'am.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Maria Barbery, and um I am rehabbing a property on the corner of St.

George Avenue and 1499 Miller Street is my property.

Um, I have put a lot of money into this property in order to move into it.

And um I'm addressing the property that's across the street because it is continuously in decline, unfortunately, and um, it has been sitting empty for quite a long time, and it's not a very great site to look at uh of the money that I put into my property of the fence and whatnot that's going on across the street.

So I would like to kind of you know bring that to your attention.

I'd really appreciate it.

I've put a lot into my property.

And that's where you reside, the address you can see.

I'm gonna be moving into.

I am a Gulfport girl.

That's right.

But I'm moving here, so we're okay with Gulfport.

You're you're safe here.

Thank you, Mr.

You're welcome.

What was that?

What was that addressing?

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

My name is Susie Hathaway.

I live at 150 St.

George Avenue for almost 72 years now.

The house at 168 St.

George Avenue used to be a neighborhood grocery store called Weir's Grocery Store.

The front door address was on Miller.

It was a simple wooden building.

And over the years, someone bricked around it, leading to significant weight to the structure, creating it to sink.

It also has been said there is a collapsed septic tank underneath the house, too.

This house has been sitting vacant for approximately eight years with no visible signs or effort by the owner to maintain repair or improve the house, and it continues to deteriorate.

Code enforcement has been called out numerous times for the roof caving in to clean up the junk in the backyard, remove dangerous cactus along the sidewalk, and the fence that was falling over.

What concerns me is the prolonged neglect has led to significant infestation with rats, raccoons creating health and sanitation concerns.

This situation has had a negative impact on the quality of life in our neighborhood as well as property values.

I'm very proud of my neighborhood.

I strive to keep it beautiful, safe, and clean.

We truly live in the holy land.

I hope to designate it as a historical neighborhood one day, as it has over nine historical properties, including Van Hook Hall and the White House Hotel.

Many of the neighbors work hard and spend a large amount of money maintaining their house and property, and it's not fair to the residents to allow this house to continue in this shape.

It is essential that this house no longer be allowed to pose a threat to our community.

I am respectfully asking you to take action towards this demolition of this structure before conditions worsen further.

Now I would really appreciate if everyone would agree that agrees with this demolition.

Would they please stand?

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Hathaway.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yes, sir.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Donovan Scruggs.

I'm here representing uh Elliott land development.

They are um the next item on the agenda for the uh rezoning of the old elementary uh elementary school.

Uh this plan came before you last year as Bubour Villas, and it was not approved.

Now I say this plan it this plan has been modified significantly.

Previously, it was a 251 unit development that included uh primarily uh common area and park, common parking and such as that.

It's been revamped to a single family residential neighborhood, and I think it has uh been substantially improved, is now approximately 100 units, and uh we went through planning commission with uh approval, and we actually had uh I don't see this very often in my lot of work, but actually had residents stand up and speak in favor of the development.

So uh I think they were they're overall happy with what we've done, and uh I hope you will be also uh I'll be here throughout the item if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Thank you, Mr.

Scrubs.

Thank you.

Thank you for hanging in there.

Anyone else on my left your right?

Yes, ma'am.

Rosa Mikens, I'm the owner of 168 St.

George Avenue.

His neighbors that you see here come and complain today.

I've been for 20 years.

Okay, I own the property, and when we were living in in Rossetti, Mr.

Creole here didn't allow us to rebuild after Caterina.

Okay, did it turn down the house, 123 San George or 133 Rossetti?

We took the money and we bowed.

St.

George.

We came to San George, lucky me, Mr.

Creole's in the other corner.

Okay, San Paul and Miller, my neighbor.

That's great.

No problem.

I have no problem, Mr.

Creel at all.

All the years we live there for two years.

My husband, after 24 and a half years in the Air Force, says, honey, I'm retired now.

I'm going to New York to work for the post office.

I say, why don't you work for the post office here in Mississippi?

Mom and Dad, up of New York, the open age, they don't drive, I gotta go home.

I agree to it.

I say, but I like Mississippi.

I like Biloxi.

I'm original from Panama.

This is to me like Panama.

High people are friendly.

I love it.

The seafood, this is home for me.

Okay, I'm here since 1989.

When the invasion of Panama threw me over here with my husband.

Okay.

I was glad that I found home, finally.

And my husband says, no, we go to New York to take our mom and dad.

And then we come back when we are 50 uh 67 years old, we retire.

I'm like, oh my God, that's 20 years from now.

And he says, no, we're gonna let one of the kids live in the house.

So my daughter moved in the house next to our neighbor.

Start to install over the fence.

And my daughter called me and says, Mom, what is with this neighbor next door?

I said, Well, he she got your other car tore away.

She worked for the police department.

She's one of the answers, the lady that answered the dispatch.

And she had a power, obviously.

But you know what?

Just ignore it.

And he cheated.

She's a lesbian, my daughter's a lesbian, and I they don't.

Oh my god, they were up and out.

I said, I raise my kids to be self-sufficient, happy, independent.

No one says they have to be straight or gay or nothing.

That's how I raise my kids.

And guess what?

I I do thanks to God that my kids are all self-sufficient, independent, happy.

Just the way I raised them.

So, my daughter moved out, couldn't handle the pressure.

She says, I'm going to Washington.

I got a good job in Washington.

I'm going to Washington.

You stay in Baloxi.

I don't like that place.

I said, okay.

I kept the place.

My husband says, Oh, we only got them more years.

I'm like, great.

Mama dad passed away.

Time to go down to Biloxi.

Oh no, his brother who's watched 22 years on the service.

Come on, he's paraplegic completely.

Okay.

I try to scat him up, and he don't want to come to the heat.

So we are upstill New York still with him.

So I told him, I said, When I'm 267, five more years.

I'm coming back down.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Your time is expired.

That was enables.

Thank you.

As enables, I'm allowed to do it.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah, I gotta go to that.

I'm sorry, your time has expired.

I'm sorry.

I am so sorry.

You gotta get to some others.

We got to get to some others.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh anyone else on my left, your right.

Raise your hand to be recognized.

All right, I'm moving to my right, your left.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening.

I'm Sarah Rusky, the director of the Harrison County Library System 12135 Old Highway 49 in Gulfport.

So I just wanted to respond to some of the conversation around the library and and just give you our point of view and our what we would like to prioritize.

Our number one desire is for the electricity to be fixed.

If the electricity is fixed, then we don't have to move the books and we can restore services, which is our main goal is to have services for the patrons.

If we don't get the electricity fixed, we have to move all the books.

There are 30,000 books in that building.

We did this two years ago when the carpet was replaced.

That's a lot of boxes.

It will cost close to probably what the electrical repairs would cost to hire a company to move the books and to store the books in an air conditioned facility.

We don't want to do that.

That is a waste of resources, in my opinion.

We understand the roof problem is is a huge expense and a huge challenge for you and for us.

However, if we fix the electricity, we're we're back where we were.

And so we want we would like to ask you to please let us know what's gonna happen so that we can plan, but we hope that you'll choose to fix the electricity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone on my right, your left?

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening.

Um, I think the best tonight to join us here.

Um the library conversation.

My name is Ashley Bush and all Bushalon, and I live at 429 Woodland Park Drive.

I'm a citizen in Ward 3.

Um, and I'm gonna pivot off my notes based off of some of the other other conversations today.

Um, and I think one of the broad views to remember with this library in particular with the CTA routes and the walking ability is the described problems that you guys are seating in other areas for our homeless population and other um sinkholes that kind of open up and what we can provide as a community.

Um job applications require internet, they require a computer, they require a resume, and the wonderful staff at the West Biloxi Library provide citizens with that service.

I personally go to our library to instill a love of reading and imagination in my children, and that library does provide incredible children's services there.

I do have several questions I would like to pose to this council to prepare an update to the community at the next six o'clock meeting, so I will leave my questions with the clerk.

But I do want to hit some highlights.

Um, as a citizen, $307,000 for a roof seems outrageous for that building.

Um some of my questions with the quotes is how many of the quotes were obtained and reviewed?

And is there any reason to suspect inflated quote cost compared to what the actual repair would be for that roof?

If city buildings are deteriorating and in need of substantial work, why were these repairs not included in the dollar bond request?

Why are buildings and services used directly by citizens not prioritized over other projects, such as the Pops Ferry Road extension and $84,000 budget for the George Orr Power Bill?

Several citizens noted, and it's been stated tonight that the roof has been reportedly leaking since 2015.

What is the maintenance routine for city-owned buildings?

Can maintenance logs and inspection reports be provided?

How are priority repairs determined?

If the roof has been leaking since 2015, why wasn't it addressed in the previous repairs made on the building that were described tonight?

What standards are used to address um city buildings after natural events?

Moving forward, we've talked a little bit about the 30,000 books that are in the building.

And in the meantime, could we offer a mobile library service for computers at that location to help the community?

Additionally, I did not see a fiscal year 25 financial audit on the city's website, and I was wondering when the citizens expect to have that available.

In the absence of that audit, can the council provide an itemized expenditure report for fiscal year 26 non-departmental funding to compare against the adopted budget.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else on my right, your left?

Yes.

I'm Stacey Nee Case.

I live up in the northern part of Biloxi, which is part of Walmart or Walmart now.

Like, but I am here to piggyback off of what Mr.

Marshall said about the library as well as the folks from the library.

I've grown up here on the coast.

My children have now, my oldest one's 25.

Library system is crucial.

The schools have finally gotten kids to learn go back into learning books and putting all these things down.

Yeah, a library needs to stay.

I don't care where y'all find the money.

Y'all need to do it.

As like Mr.

Marshall said, when we were looking at houses, that's the first thing we looked at.

What's in the schools, where the libraries are.

We had our child two children that have had to have early interventions.

Some of those services were also provided inside the library.

Nobody brought those up.

The summer reading program, absolutely critical.

Our little boy would have not gained all the momentum he did had he have not gone to that program.

The other thing in that I haven't heard anybody bring up the taxes.

You guys have a tax service that's offered through that library too every year for citizens that cannot afford their taxes.

So this is things that I think y'all need to think about.

If y'all remember when Katrina hit, y'all had closed a whole bunch of libraries, obviously from damage.

A lot of those books were stored from the time of Katrina until around 2010 or 11.

I don't remember exactly when.

They were given away at a building down in Biloxi.

Oh get it.

A lot of those books, because that they just couldn't keep funding storing all those books as we went through them with a bunch of people from Tulane University.

We went through all those boxes of books.

There were a lot of them that sustained damage just like they're talking to you about, had having to keep them in the air conditioner.

A lot of good quality books that were not replaceable got thrown away.

Several students at Tulane came and got truckloads of books and distributed them to the schools and anywhere that was willing to give out books to people.

So I think you guys need to work on this and then get that library figured out.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Anyone else, my right, your left?

Raise your hand to be recognized.

Anybody on the other side of the room change your mind, want to come up and talk?

Come on up.

How are you?

My name is Michael Collins.

Your address, sir.

Personal address or that.

Where you reside, where you resign.

All right.

6,000 eight shore drive, sorry.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um actually here to help uh Miss Rosa.

Um 168 St.

George Avenue.

Um, I'm a general contractor.

And uh she has asked me to go look at the property.

Uh, but I don't I don't know if there's a time restraint on me being able to go look at the property.

I don't know how long that the House has been sitting, how many letters have been sent out to her.

All I have is these two letters here.

So I guess what I'm asking is do we have more time to go look at the property and see if it's even repairable?

It'll be coming up on code enforcement, and you'll we'll have more discussion.

That's more of a question and answer in that section.

This is not question and answer.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Please raise your hand to be recognized.

All right.

Um public comments or annihilal citizen comments are now closed.

All right.

We'll move on to the policy agenda.

First reading.

Ordinance to approve a zoning map amendment to authorize a change in zoning from RS10 Low Density Single Family Residential to RS5 high density single family residential for 2003 Lawrence Street.

First reading, do I have a motion?

Move by Mr.

Nale.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Mr.

Tisdale.

Thank you.

Item B.

Ordinance to approve the zoning map amendment to authorize a change in zoning for four parcels of land from limited business, neighborhood business, and regional business to RS5 high density single family residential for parcels running upon War Market Road.

Do we have a motion to move this item for a first reading?

I'll move it.

Thank you, Mr.

Shoemaker.

Do I have a second?

I'll second.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Gray.

We're going to item C.

Ordinance to amend the amend the land development ordinance to add the definition of transitional living facility.

This was moved by Mr.

Tisdale, seconded by Mr.

Nale.

Mr.

Tisdale.

Mr.

Tisdale.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

This microphone was beating me up over here.

No worries.

Thank you.

This has come before the council a couple of times.

We've gone back, we've revised and tweaked the definition with input.

I'm in favor of the changes presented in this resolution.

Thank you.

Mr.

Neal.

I agree with him.

I think we need this in the area, and it's going to help out.

You know, a few people and uh support it.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Creel.

If I if you could bear with me, uh Ms.

Nobles, who's been very involved in this uh transition here with uh being a neighbor and uh living in Ward 4, she was unable to make the meeting, so she asked that I read something on her behalf.

So my name is Jennifer Noble, and I'm a resident of World 4.

I've spoken many times over the last several months about a proposal that was originally applied for as a halfway house adjacent of my property in Ward 5.

I want to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation.

Well, we'll move on for Councilman Jamie Creel for his support throughout the process as well as the entire city council for the timetable and attention given to this matter.

I would also like to thank City Attorney Peter Abod, Director of Community Development Jerry Creole, and senior planner uh Felicia Serpus for their collaboration and willingness to work together on redefining this definition of the past several months.

We have asked for productive and thoughtful conversations focused on strengthening the language in the land development ordinance.

I am grateful that we were able to finally have that conversation a couple of weeks ago, and for the openness and cooperation shown by everyone involved.

I want to be clear that I fully support this new definition.

It provides clarity for the applicants, confidence for the neighborhoods and a stronger framework for the city going forward.

This effort was never about opposing the proposal by discipleship 33.

It was about ensuring that the terminology used in our ordinances accurately reflects the purpose of these programs and is applied consistently and appropriately.

I believe this updated definition is a positive step for Bloxy.

It not only addresses the current application, but also establish clear guidance for similar uses in the future.

Thank you again to the council, the planning development, and the city attorney's office for your collaboration and commitment on getting this right.

Respectfully, Jennifer Noble.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you for reading that into the record.

Any other comments?

If there's none, we'll go ahead and call for the question.

All in favor?

Those opposed.

Motion carries unanimous.

Next item.

Ordinance to adopt the updated version of the National Electrical Code.

Chair, I entertain a motion.

Oh wait.

This is moved by Tuesdale and Mr.

Gray.

Mr.

Tisdale.

Jerry, if you don't mind.

And I know we adopt these uh national codes periodically, I think every four years or so, roughly three or four years.

Are there any significant changes in this version compared to the version we're currently using?

The main difference between this and the others is that the new technology that they address in the updated codes.

Codes come out every four years.

The international building codes that you adopted last year are just on a different four-year cycle in the electrical code.

That's why it's only the electrical code on here right now.

But no, sir, there are no significant changes.

Okay.

And how how do we notify contractors of this change that we're adopting?

We make them aware.

We'll we'll put it on the website to make them aware.

We also post signs in our department letting them know the date that it will actually go into effect, and then our inspectors let them know out in the field as they make inspections over the next 30 days.

And I would assume those that are experienced know these changes are coming periodically.

They do.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

Corey?

I have nothing.

Anyone else like to speak on this?

All right.

Call for the question.

All in favor?

Those opposed?

Motion carries unanimous.

Next item.

Resolution granting conditional use approval to authorize a short-term rental located at 115 St.

John Avenue.

Chair like to note that this was introduced.

Uh it was presented with a motion and it didn't get a second.

Uh so we would like to uh kind of debate this.

Uh I think it it went to a judge, and the judge is looking for us to take some action as uh counsel has uh explained to us earlier.

So the chair will entertain a motion.

Motion thank you, Mr.

Nale.

Is there a second?

I'll second it for discussion first.

Thank you, Mr.

Tisdale.

Second for discussion.

Mr.

Nail.

Um I mean, I I think we need this.

Uh I think that's where we're going forward.

And and Biloxi, what these little uh short-term rentals and BMBs.

Uh I support it.

Thank you, Mr.

Nale.

Mr.

Tisdale.

Yes, and those of you, if you follow my voting record, I've been consistent on this.

Uh the character of the neighborhood is not changed.

It's part of an old established neighborhood.

I've supported similar requests in this area.

If those properties funded Highway 90, a commercial corridor, and oppose similar requests in that area because they are not fronting in this case Highway 90.

They're an interior lateral street.

Um looking through Mr.

Hinge and I appreciate your handout.

Um there's uh a property that I think was approved, and you referenced in your handout that uh is adjacent to maybe the southwest corner.

I think that that short-term rental fronts, highway 90.

The two referenced east, which I would assume a block or two east.

I'm gonna make the assumption that they are both on Highway 90 as well.

I don't I don't know.

I don't have a map, I'm I'm not sure.

Okay.

Uh sure, please.

One block over St.

George.

One is on Highway 90, the other behind.

Right.

Okay, that that one was appealed, as I recall.

Uh otherwise, and I don't think I voted for that one, although I did vote for the one on Highway 90, I suspect, but the one behind that that went to court, I did not vote for that.

So for this reason, I can't support based on this location a short-term rental, because it in my opinion it's part of that established neighborhood.

I think is it is it Collins Street that runs behind it?

And uh and everything north of Collins Street is single family residential.

The other the other thing uh is that residential multifamily is residential in nature.

Short-term rentals are commercial in nature, and many folks in established neighborhoods don't care to have a business in their neighborhood.

That's my position.

I'm consistent on that position.

That's where I stand.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Tuesday.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Crewe.

Are there any other short-term rentals in this area that are not attached to Highway 90 or not fronting Highway 90?

Yes, sir.

The one that Mr.

Hingeon just talked about at the corner of St.

George and Highway 90.

Uh there was a house built right at the corner.

Uh the owner came and requested short-term rental on that.

It was approved.

There was a house behind it that almost looks like exactly the same house.

And initially uh that was turned down.

Uh and uh Mr.

Pastor George waited another year to come back and and file again.

I think it got turned down again.

Mr.

Hinge and appealed that to court, and the decision of the council was overturned in court and they were given approval.

So uh there are some on Highway 90, but that one on St.

George is uh actually at the corner of St.

George and Avalon.

Okay, and so if I heard him correctly, uh I believe the gentleman owns the house said that they are becoming in compliance with the additional stairwell that that is needed if it's elevated.

Is that they would they would have to, they would have to before we could give them a license.

They would have to meet the conditions of the ordinance, and that's one of the conditions.

I will tell you this.

When we told him that he had to have a second stairway on the front house that was approved for short-term rental, he built that stairway on the front.

We would expect the same thing on the house in the rear if this gets approved.

Okay, and I believe the only objection, actually, I don't think we've received any objection.

I think the only email that we've received as counsel is in favor of it.

So that's the only two questions I had.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Crowley.

Any other discussion?

I I do.

Mr.

Gray.

Mr.

Quirrell, is this a by-right use?

No, it's it's it's conditional use.

South of Collins Street is zoned to RM 30.

Right.

North of Collins Street is single family residential.

So if he were trying to do this on the north side of Collins, it's prohibited, it's just not allowed.

But on the south side, it's allowed as conditional use.

So I mean the RM 30s is designed for long-term uh long-term rentals, right?

As a use by right, long-term rental, yes, right.

But by right.

Yeah, it does provide uh short-term rental as a conditional use.

And do we have areas in Biloxi that is designed for short-term rentals?

You mean by right?

By right.

Yes, sir.

Uh just about all the business zonings allow almost all the business ownings allow it as a use by right.

Uh the there are some conditional uses like in LB and NB, and then the RM20 and RM30 use.

Right.

So that's just um, I mean, I'm like Mr.

Paul, um, you know, these are designed for intended for long-term occupancy, but short-term rentals is for lodging behavior fundamentally different from residential.

Compatible requires more physical, similar, but requires consistent use intensity, which is not in the not been demonstrated here, right?

Um that's your decision, whether it it has or not.

You know, uh the uh the the question is does the the property meet the nine conditions of conditional approval?

And I would remind the council that if if you make the decision that uh if you are gonna vote against it or to turn it down, you need to be specific about which of the nine conditions uh that it doesn't comply with.

Right.

But I I just don't think it's compatible with the surrounding properties.

Here.

I mean you have one side that's RM30.

This was RM30.

That's correct.

You know, and everything on Highway 90, and and which is the the previous the previous administration didn't draw a line.

And that's one of the problems what we keep having here on this.

And like I say, I want to move move all short-term rentals out of the RM 30s and 20s, because I mean we have designated areas for, but we keep putting them right back in here.

So I I would I would not uh approve this.

I I would I just can't do it.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

Mr.

Marshall, you have anything?

Mr.

Crew.

So with this in this current zoning, would it fall under the 75 or uh the total amount of as uh short-term rentals that we have?

It would, yes, sir.

And and where where are we on that number within the okay?

The jury is still kind of out.

That was one of the things that we were talking about, you know, that uh we needed to consider because what's happened is it uh had we met, did we meet the 75 number limit?

Yes, we did.

But then we've had 20 people that have said we don't want to renew our license anymore.

So that opened up 20 spaces in there.

They have not been issued a license, they cannot operate legally, and the position that we took, we actually put them on notice.

If you don't renew your conditional use license, then you'll have to start all over again.

If uh if we fill up these other 75, these the rest of these positions, you would have to come in and start all over again and wait until a vacancy occurred before we could issue you a license.

And those people did not come in by the way.

With those people rolling off, we're at about 55 right now.

So there is a vacancy now, even with the ones we did further, I believe further west or with no further east with the uh the 19 that we did by the uh by the upper.

Yes, sir.

We're still we're still good, still under the still under the cap.

That's correct, yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Tusner.

Yes, just again, for the record, um, I want to make it clear based on my comments earlier.

I don't believe it's compatible at this location with the character of the surrounding lands, the single family residential to the north.

And I understand that there was one uh I'm recalling that one was approved by way of a court appeal.

That's correct, yes, sir.

And was that also that was not for this property we're speaking about?

No, sir.

No, it was what was the advantage?

George.

That was on St.

George.

So there are no short-term rentals on the south side of Collins Street.

Uh no, sir.

Okay.

And again, it's an interior lateral street.

And I feel like it's part of that neighborhood to the north.

Thank you.

That's all I just want to clarify.

Thank you, Mr.

Susale.

Uh I got a couple of questions because it came up with some other short-term rentals.

Is there any crime in this area?

Or, you know, the the previous chief was asked that question before.

What about crime regarding short-term rentals?

And I remember Chief Miller said we have a lot more crime with long-term rentals than we do with short-term rentals.

But we don't have any problems in this area or we we've never received a complaint in code enforcement about short-term rentals.

How about trash?

Is it trashy or the streets all trashy?

We haven't we haven't received a complaint about that, no.

Okay.

I just want to know.

Mr.

Crew.

So also, and I apologize I'm asking this question, it's probably in the exhibit, but the website's down, so I can't get to it.

The um I I know in the Planning Commission there was there's a stipulation that they ask a question of how far does the owner of the short-term rental live and their they require within 20 minutes to be there in case of emergency.

I believe I heard the gentleman say he lives in Hammond.

I think it's I think it's 30 minutes, 30 minutes that they have to have someone with that can respond to any concerns that happen on the property within 30 minutes.

So do we know if that question was asked and addressed in planning?

I the only reason I'm saying is I don't have the exhibit exhibit, wasn't it?

I don't I don't recall that being asked or answered in the planning commission meeting, but uh is is there a way we could ask the gentleman if he has uh a manager within the 30-minute time frame?

I don't I don't recall that being asked or answered in the planning commission meeting, but uh is is there a way we could ask the gentleman if he has uh a manager within the 30-minute time frame as I somewhat stated, my temporary residence is one is the house that is in question.

I do intend on using it as often as I can.

I have also purchased my daughter a home on Miller Street, just a block behind.

She that is her permanent residence, and she is assisting us with the properties and uh helps go in with housekeeping and other elements that I need.

Uh so she would be able to attend within 30 minutes if something happened.

And this house does not face Collins.

We purposely turned it.

The drive is on uh St.

John Avenue, and actually the front of the house, the side of the house is on St.

John where the drive enters, the front of the house faces Beach Boulevard.

I also own the entire property in front of it.

So would it be would it be in his best?

Well, I guess it wouldn't matter if he if he vacated the Collins address to St.

John's address, it would still be the same.

Okay.

It is a St.

John address.

It is 115 St.

John.

Not Collins, so it doesn't face collins.

No, sir.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any other comments?

Yes.

We got another one.

Yeah.

All right, Mr.

D.

I I appreciate the pastor's point, but again, St.

John is a lateral street, and the structure does not front Highway 90, which is a commercial, which is a commercial corridor for that reason.

But I I I appreciate his argument in this position.

Thank you.

All right.

I I got a question for Jerry.

All right.

On a special use, the way it's set up, is this just set up for short-term rentals or this set up for any business, anybody trying to do a business in the RM30 or any other zoning?

Well, if we give him a license for short-term rental there, that's the only thing that he would be allowed to do there.

Um, you know, there are other conditional uses that are allowed in RM20 and RM30, but you know, they're mostly tied to residential type uses.

Right.

Uh but but this nine things that's gotta be that it's criteria.

Is it just for short-term rentals or is this carry over to any business anywhere?

That's for any conditional use.

Any anything that is a conditional use, it has to meet those nine criteria.

And let me just let me just remind the council that with a conditional use, if we receive complaints about the conditional use, we have to give them the opportunity to correct it.

If they don't correct it within a reasonable period of time, we can bring that uh property back to the planning commission and back to the council, and the conditional use can be revoked.

Right.

So this is if I want to put a garage in the same area, I have to come do the same nine criteria to do it.

Only if it's listed as a conditional use in the LDO.

Right.

Yeah.

All right.

That's all.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

All right.

Thank you, uh, gentlemen.

Uh, if we've had enough discussion on this, are you all ready to vote on it?

All right.

All in favor.

Those opposed.

One, two, three.

The motion passes 43.

All right.

Next item.

Resolution of intent to explore the creation of an East Bilexi development district.

The chair will entertain a motion.

Mr.

Marshall.

All right.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Uh second it.

Thank you, Mr.

Tisda.

Mr.

Marshall.

Uh one of the things that we have over in East Bilexi is uh on the developed area.

The um after after uh Katrina, uh all the streets were redone, all the sidewalks were redone.

Everything was done except for uh bringing back the housing.

Uh a lot of businesses are not there.

They were there before, they're not there anymore.

Uh we're gonna try to my uh fellow councilman.

We're gonna be trying to work on a lot of area areas of bringing it back in.

One of the things we work on is zoning, rezoning.

Um what this does is it goes beyond this city's capabilities of of um forming the right parameters to explore the possibilities of bringing back development into East Beluxie.

We can only go so far based on what we have, our knowledge and our staff.

Uh SMPD is designed to do just exactly that, to present a plan to bring back uh the development that we need in East Beloxie.

What this does is gives them the opportunity, what is going to say?

We're asking them to explore, not do a district, just explore what it would take to put a plan together and to bring back businesses, bring back housing, uh what are the options available as far as uh uh incentives for people to bill, what grants are available, everything that we would need to put together a neat package to say this is what it's gonna take for the future to bring back a rebuildable East Beloxy.

Once we start rebuilding East Beloxy, we're gonna be increasing the tax rolls.

We're gonna be bringing back jobs, we're gonna be back housing, all those things are sitting there not being developed, and that's that's all this is going to do.

Okay.

Mr.

Tisda.

I have nothing to add to that other than we're just exploring, we're discussing, trying to figure out uh what it takes, what what we need to do, as Mr.

uh Marshall said, to pull this together, and then at some point make a decision whether or not to come forward with a resolution resolution to act on that could be months from now.

But yeah, I'd look at doing anything to energize business development in these blocks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mr.

Cruell.

So one question is so to explore there's no financial obligation on the city to explore with SPDD, correct?

Correct.

Uh we haven't gotten a bill from them or anything like that yet, but I mean I think depending on the level we want to get them involved, they may quote us a price, but I mean that would sort of come out in a workshop.

We're So the But the price, we we wouldn't be obligated to the price until it came back in front of the council on what they would charge to to go further.

That's correct.

So it's my understanding we need this resolution in order for them to accept the invitation to explore.

I think it's just more to let's educate what this means.

The words urban renewal have mean different things to different people.

Uh Ocean Springs thought it meant one thing and didn't turn out so good for them, and they withdrew it all.

So I think we want to look at what are the levels that could be done, what are, you know, what are the levels of urban renewal?

Uh we have to have a map, we have to have plans.

SPDD can't just create one until they know cities' needs are and what they're capable of doing.

And so that's the whole there's a very large section of the code about what can and can't be done.

So uh they're just gonna they would take this on in the hopes that we would accept their proposal on what they say we need going forward, and that's where the cost would come.

Yeah, I think we just tell them uh the council's voted, they want to explore this, and where do we go from here?

And if they say we they want to check before they'll show up, I don't think they're gonna do that, but we're gonna kinda give them something a little more formal than just uh getting emails like where are we with.

Perfect.

Absolutely.

Yes, sir, I'm on board.

Thank you.

So I got a follow-up question, uh, Mr.

Bide.

So they're not going to bill us for exploring this with them.

Or they are going.

I know I'm asking the redundant question here.

I don't know if I got the answer listening to you.

I'm just saying they have not they have not billed us for any past work.

That isn't the yes or no answer I'm looking for.

Well, or they're going to bill us if we say we want to explore creating uh uh uh East Biloxi district.

We can't pay them for past work that was not authorized.

So I mean I think they were uh part of what they do, they take a lot of sort of investigate things sort of on spec to see, you know, they don't just walk in and and and bill anybody, build everybody.

So I mean, if it was a nominal fee, that's one thing, but I just don't want to extend ourselves out there.

We're gonna be talking budgets and all of a sudden they give us a $30,000 bill or something.

Uh you know, like that.

But this will allow me to get some ranges and quotes and things like that.

So before you obligate us for that, you would come back and say, in order to take we're researching in order to take a step forward, it may we may have to fund something or pay for something.

Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, I'm not gonna obligate the council to anything.

Okay.

You're gonna approve it.

Uh does this or do you know creating a district?

Because we've talked about this before.

Does it require some kind of board that oversees the district?

That's one of the things is to have a separate agency.

Explore.

And sometimes a director, it just depends on the level and who pays them.

How do they get paid?

That's that's part of what they're gonna explain to us or we could research it ourselves.

Well, these are some questions as we move.

I know I know we're I'm all for let's get some discovery and let's see.

I just don't want to all of a sudden sign a dotted law and they say you you know you you you you're obligated.

And then all of a sudden we get too far on something and we end up like Ocean Springs or or somebody like that.

Um in addition to salaries, does the district get its own budget?

Uh do they operate on a separate budget, or how do you know how that structure is?

Uh I think different cities do things differently.

I think uh Gulfport has a very aggressive sort of uh a separate district that also I mean they basically are running the aquarium.

They have their own sort of and again, I may be putting a cart before the horse.

I I just don't want to create a city within a city, and all of a sudden we create something that's you know that is not good.

But uh I do support your concept that hey, let's explore it.

Maybe it is good.

Let's let's get more details and definition.

A lot of unknowns, but maybe there's a lot of opportunities here too, right?

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions?

Call for the question.

All in favor.

Those opposed?

But to uh note that the motion passed unanimous.

Need a uh motion on the consent.

So moved.

All right, Mr.

Tuesday.

Second.

Seconded by Mr.

Creel, Mr.

Tisdale.

I'll see what I am here.

Mr.

Tisdale.

I'm I'm thinking.

I don't hear that fast.

Okay.

Um that's uh have exactly zero questions.

Thank you.

I'm coming back to you.

And I just have two.

So an item G.

I item G, 5G.

Um my only question is what's the the lease term on on this what we had before was uh, and I guess it was held over from the prior bait shop owner that the uh Mr.

Pat.

There was a about a $400 credit, and then the city was responsible for everything over that.

And what brought these two G and H, I think they're together, or G and F.

Uh their power bills have been running up into $1,500.

And it's costing us as much in electricity as it is in the rent.

So we've reached an agreement with the tenant of giving him a 250 credit electric credit off of the rent, and they will be responsible for all power after that.

So in the in the end, this will be uh the city will know what it's paying each month.

Uh I think we have 200 dollars a month net of the $500 credit.

And this is the bait shop, and then the business above the bait shop.

So it's just that that building as far as the power.

That's there's a meter just for that building uh which runs together, but they have similar ownership between the two tenants.

Right.

And so and this is just an amendment to the current lease.

This didn't extend the lease at all.

We're just amending the current lease to alleviate alleviate the city of some of these high power bills.

Okay.

And then uh let's see.

Item M, or which is uh we we we substituted with taking the language out the um to amend the the budget.

Uh I was just curious as to where the repairs is coming from.

Uh the the cost of the repairs where I know Christie was at last meeting was it was pretty dire, and I just want to see as designated and funded with some of the income from the stadium.

That account that is designated for repairs to that crosswalk and other expenses with it.

Okay.

It's available in there.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Thank hey, thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Anyone else have anything?

Yeah, I got one.

All right, Mr.

Nell.

On uh on E.

We we're we're doing this so maintenance, so nothing to happen to it later on, like the library.

Is that what we're doing right now?

No, we broke.

No, we're broke.

No, they fixed that.

Oh.

This is um yeah, this is one of the many um maintenance items that we have for the um for all city buildings.

So we found the money for that, but we can't find 10,000 to Well, I can find 10,000, but I mean, do I find this 10,000 or that 10,000 or this 10,000?

You know, it's there's a lots of ten thousand we need to make all these maintenance repairs.

Let me get my okay.

Speak up.

This actually was already in the budget for the uh seafood museum um maintenance budget.

And so this funding is already available, so we don't have to find this money because it was already budgeted in the previous budget.

We're just this is a one-source repair because we couldn't find there's a specific part that we can't get anywhere else.

We've asked multiple different vendors to see if they can find it, so we end up having to one source.

So this actually is not a budget amendment.

This is a one-source um approval.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Anyone else?

Have you anything on the consent?

I do, just a quick question.

Mr.

Shoemaker, if I may.

And going back to G, what uh Councilman Creel was saying, and I can't pull it up, and I read it, I just I don't recall the numbers.

I know we're giving them a credit, but and I know they're gonna now take on their own um electric bill, but do we know what the the monthly rent is?

I and I know you can't give me an exact, obviously, because of the the credit that for the their electric, but what uh what do we normally charge them?

Um two thousand for the lower, eleven hundred for the top.

And a lot of shrimp.

1,000 and minus 250 on each side.

Okay.

All right, that's what I needed.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

All right.

Anything else on the consent?

Uh we'll go ahead and vote on the consent.

I'll come back for exception.

All in favor.

Those opposed.

Motion carries.

Uh exceptions, Mr.

Gray.

I have none.

Mr.

Marshall.

None.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Nell.

None.

Mr.

Creel.

No exceptions.

Mr.

Tisdale.

Item C.

Item C from Mr.

Tisdale.

That's it.

Thank you.

Mr.

Shoemaker.

Item C.

Item C for Mr.

Shoemaker.

I have no exceptions.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Move on to code enforcements.

Item A on the agenda.

Timothy J.

Ackley and Rosa M.

Mickins.

Uh 168 St.

George Avenue.

This property is still in violation.

Is there anyone here to speak on behalf of this property?

Uh Timothy J.

Ackley and Rosa M.

Mikins.

168 St.

George Avenue.

Would you come up, sir?

This is your time to ask questions and engage.

There you go.

Um, I haven't had an opportunity to look at the property yet.

Uh I I actually just got called today to come help uh Miss Rosa.

Um matter of fact, that's the first time I've even seen pictures of the house.

I I guess what I'm asking is for time to go look at it to see if it's even fixable.

Jared.

Uh Mr.

Creel, can you comment on that?

I have some questions for you.

Okay.

Let me uh let me give you just a quick history of this.

We've received complaint calls from the neighbors about this house, at least for the last eight years, and we've had to address it over that period of time.

Uh in December of last year, I met with Miss Rosa in a building official hearing.

She said that uh her and her husband were living in New York, and that when they retire in five years, they'll come back and fix it.

I told her that was not acceptable because we were getting complaints about the rats and the raccoons and everything else.

The the foundation is failing.

You can go back to some of the pictures, Carrie.

Uh I don't know if you can see it, but the window there is coming apart from the house.

The floor inside is collapsing.

The foundation around the perimeter, it I don't think that uh when they break it up that they actually put in the right footings around the brick.

And so it's it's collapsing now.

That's why you can see in the one of the next pictures.

Before this one, you can see this around the house that this is happening uh because uh inadequate footing when they came back and break the house.

But we've had uh complaints.

We I gave her the opportunity in December.

I said, I'll give you 90 days to come back to us with a plan to do something.

She agreed to do it.

She never came back with anything.

She did not file an appeal.

We still don't have a plan here in May.

Um the uh I don't know if you can see it on the floor.

But uh I don't know if it's in this picture, but there's a there's rat infestation in there.

You can just see the feces all over the place.

Raccoons are getting in and out of it, and cats, and one of the things that we tend to forget about these kind of properties is you know, you look at the house itself, but you don't realize what kind of an impact it's having on the houses around there by drawing pests.

So it's not pest proof, it's not weatherproof, which are two of the code requirements.

And so I based on past experience, I don't have any confidence that it would be repaired.

Mr.

Tisdale has a question.

Jerry, if you would just briefly describe what happens today, either uh if if nothing is done, we conduct the hearing.

Boom.

Uh if there's no extension or anything, what happens next?

What what's the process?

Then what would happen is with Keith Stewart and Keith Stewart would advertise for someone to demolish the structure.

It usually takes uh 45 days to get that done.

Uh he'll he'll put an ad out and give them an opportunity to get it in.

Once the bids come back in, he'll open those and then he'll notify us about who uh actually got the bid on it, and we would issue a permit for the contractor to go out there, completely remove the structure and any other structures that are on the property, and we would add that back to the taxes as a special assessment.

So that's all I need.

So I have a question.

So that's what's required.

We're gonna have to remove a good portion of the base and around this house and all that kind of stuff.

We we just believe that it's not repairable the way it is.

Uh thank you for that.

I got a question for the contractor.

So now knowing that, because it sounds like you just been injected in this just recently.

Are uh I'll get I'll get you certainly.

Uh are you are you prepared knowing what you know now uh that that's the scope of work you you can take on and and you can cure in a fair amount of time?

I think the biggest question is is it financially worth Ms.

Rosa putting the money into that to do the repairs?

Yeah.

Okay.

So certainly tens of thousands of dollars just looking at the photos.

All right.

Are you prepared to spend that much money?

Okay.

Mr.

Gray.

Uh Jerry, question for you.

Have you had somebody go over here and inspect this house?

We had uh the uh previous building inspector Bob Stansbury go over there and do an assessment on the house, and he actually wrote up, you know, the things that were wrong with the house.

Um I've you know Ms.

Rosa saying that the money is available now, but we can't even get a plan from her.

We we've tried to get a plan since December, and we haven't received anything, so I just uh I don't know.

I have my doubts about whether anything would be done.

So this this house here is affecting the whole neighborhood with rodents, uh they go from one house to the other, no matter what you try to do.

That's typically where the uh the complaints come in from neighbors on a a code enforcement issue.

Yes.

We have uh we have a house next door across the street or whatever, and we can see the rats and raccoons going in and out of this place, and it has an effect on those other properties.

Yeah, I I've gotten multiple multiple calls on this same piece of property and you know, dealing with y'all.

Um I said you can't just abandon the house for 20 years then come back and it's it's just too far gone.

So I mean, but your recommendation is my recommendation is to demolish it.

Demolish the house.

Yeah.

And they'll still have the property if they want to rebuild there in five years when they retire, the property will be available to do that.

And they can hire their own their own contractor to demo it if they wanted to or no if they get it done before we go out there to do it.

So if they get it done within 45 days within whatever time advertising that's all I have thank you.

Any other comments Mr Marshall I see you raising your hand you're raising your hand what do you want to say you need to come up to the microphone ma'am city call me rub me up about how animals living in the house they gave me a name of a company a specific company that I had to call they came over put the traps and they didn't find nothing.

They didn't trap nothing they wanted to put it in the yard but the city inspector told the guy for the company and the company told him I cannot put a trap in the yard because the raccoons they're talking about are protected.

And if I cannot find them in the house I cannot remove them.

They have to be in the house to be removed.

So they took the traps and they didn't trap nothing so the guy say the the the guy that came over in the trap the stuff is supposed to have poop and stuff like that and there's no food or nothing in the house because nobody lived there.

So the animals gonna come in the house because nobody lived there is no food for them to eat.

There won't be they may use my yard to go across the neighborhood to eat the cat food that people put in the porches for the cat but they not eat nothing at my house because it's not he couldn't even find poop raccoon poop or anything.

So but I did call the company that told me I paid $325 to that company to come over and put a trial for a whole week they gave me it in the office there no I don't I've done everything they want me to do.

Thank you ma'am thank you I have a question excuse me go ahead Miss Mikins if I might Miss Mikins if I might ask a question Mr Cruz said that he had notified you and asked for a plan uh to deal with these issues but he's off just a moment please just but he said he never received a plan from you is that accurate is in Seattle my husband was supposed to take care of that plan because I'm in Seattle with my daughter that's dying in the hospital right now sorry to hear that and I left her that and the other just called me to come from her to California but my husband was working taking care of his brother he said I haven't had a time and I said I will do it when I come back but I'm still in Seattle with my daughter.

Right the the the other observation and I'm I'm sorry for your situation but the But I'm trying yes ma'am the other the other note I might make is that apparently this has been an issue for a number of years not just the past year or two but a number of years.

I just wanted to make that observation that's um I'm done but you know what is going on here is my fence sir.

Look at a 168 and look at a colorful beautiful fence and nobody asked me what I meant when they took me over to the office that lady that came here that she said she lived 62 years in the neighborhood she got a petition and she went the petition for the whole neighborhood to sign that petition for me to change my fence I remember that no what nobody only 20 people signed and you guys told them how to have a hundred signature couldn't get a hundred signature.

The lady that came over here and talked to the first lady she just bought a property in the corner that lady used to live there before her the owner she passed away a couple years ago she told me she won't sign that petition the lady next door miss Lucy she won't sign that petition because that fence signify my grandson is a statistic child and that's the artistic flat it's nothing to do with nothing else just the artistic yes ma'am I under I understand I I just was asking about the plan thank you.

Well it's the fence they don't that's why they uh I don't about tearing up my property my house absolutely okay um to finish it up my other time it's gonna be very clear that we're trying to build neighborhoods and this is not this is not conducive with building the neighborhood we have we have people that invest in keeping their house up we have people in the neighborhood that would like to have the enjoyment of the sanctity of their home and what they're saying to us and to this council they cannot do that because of this particular structure and I'm gonna stick with Mr Mr Wayne here we're gonna we're gonna support the neighborhood not just one person.

I saw that part of this mic.

Come up to the come on up.

Come on up to the microphone.

Yeah.

So again, I'm Stacy Nee Case.

Um I did own the property before Miss Mikins bought it.

We uh we left for two reasons.

One insurance got massively high because that was right after Katrina.

Number two, we had constant harassment from the neighbor.

Three two neighbors in particular.

One on me out here.

What street where?

Second or third house in.

No, second or third house on scene.

Harassment doesn't have anything to do with this code enforcement.

Well, we were having harassment by them.

But it doesn't have anything to do with the code enforcement.

I understand what you're saying, but I think we're just talking about building neighborhoods.

You can't build a neighborhood when people are throwing things at your children inside their own yard plate.

If you have something to say about the structure or it being uh, you know, remedied or something like that, that's what this is for.

That's what this code enforcement is for.

Well, I'm willing to help Miss Mikins fix the fix the property up too.

Okay.

We can talk about that.

If you want to talk about that, that's you know, we we're interested in that.

If you if you want to talk about fixing the property, I'm gonna talk to her about today too.

Okay.

Okay.

She goes back to us building up the neighborhood.

Because my family still owns properties in that neighborhood as well.

Sure.

Sure.

But we do want a nice community, but we also have to have neighbors that are not harassing each other.

Here we go.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

I got a question.

For who?

Just uh Jerry.

Yeah, Jerry.

All right.

Jerry is a question by Mr.

Nell.

They thought about uh maybe tearing it down and rebuilding it would be the same price as trying to fix something like that up.

I don't know what they they've calculated.

Like I said, we've had trouble getting her to communicate back with us.

I mean, she she showed up for the building official hearing.

We had a good discussion.

We both agreed that this is what we need in order to move forward.

I thought I gave her a very reasonable period of time just to give us a plan.

We've had no communication since.

She had the opportunity to file an appeal, she didn't file an appeal.

Uh and that's how we've gotten to where we are today, plus the constant complaints from the neighbors about the the pest problems there.

So thank you.

Let me be clear one more time.

Um I'm hearing that you've done everything you could to reach out and you got not gotten any response.

Everyone knows me, they know that I I'm the one that that's always fighting to make sure we don't tear houses down because we don't need any more empty lots.

But I I have to recognize that when you've gone as far as you can, you've gone as far as you can.

My goal is always to save the house.

And Mr.

Crew, you know that this whole council will know that.

I go out of my way to save the house because I don't want to get the I don't want to I got over a thousand empty lights already.

I don't need another one.

But we gotta watch out for that neighborhood too for right now.

And if you've done everything you can, you've coordinated best you can, you went bent over backwards in eight years is a long time.

And I don't I don't see I can help this one right here.

Thank you, Mr.

Marshall.

I just want uh the council to know that we're not voting on anything, we're not voting on an extension.

We just we just heard the uh pros and cons about it.

Uh any other disc there's no other discussion.

This case is closed.

Next item.

Item B.

Uh Nate Tran Estate 566 Jefferson Street Ward 2.

We would ask for 30 days on this.

They have cleaned up part of it, and we'd like to give them a chance to clean the rest of it up.

The structure is structurally sound, it's just cleaning up.

Chair, entertain a motion.

Chair entertain a motion on this uh for an extension.

Question.

Uh all right.

So I'll delay that.

Mr.

Crew has a question.

So how how long has it been in violation?

Uh actually, the only thing that we had there was uh uh overgrowth around there, and they did go in this week and cut the grass.

They just haven't finished the fence.

You can see that the fence is in really bad shape.

Okay, some other things we just have to do.

Director has requested an extension of 30 days.

The chair will entertain a motion.

I'll move it.

Thank you, Mr.

Shoemaker.

Mr.

Creel uh seconding it.

Uh all in favor.

Those opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Good.

Item C Amos Hamilton Jr., 217 Baptist Alley.

That case has been resolved.

Item D, Chantran, 173 Dory Street.

That case has been resolved.

Item E, John B.

Joyce the Third et al.

163 Begonia Street.

This property is still in violation.

Is there anyone here to speak on behalf of John B.

Joyce the third at all?

163 Begonia Street.

There being no one, this case is closed.

Thank you.

All right.

Need a uh motion on the routine.

So moved.

Thank you, Mr.

Tisdale.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Mr.

Creel.

Mr.

Tisdale?

Not a thing.

Mr.

Creel?

I concur.

Anyone else?

All in favor?

Those opposed?

Motion carries six-o.

Chair I attain a motion to move.

Adjourn.

Second.

All right.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Those opposed.

Motion carries six.

I see it.

Can you lose your hearts?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, there you go.

All right.

Uh