Good afternoon, everyone.

I now call this agenda meeting of the Chattanooga City Council Tuesday, October the 28th, 2025 to order.

Thank you for being with us, whether you are here in person or joining online.

The Pledge of Allegiance and Invotion would be led by Councilman Clark.

Let us stand.

Under God, individual with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, please.

Yes.

Hold on.

Go ahead.

Uh uh thank you, uh, Chairwoman Noah.

I like to at this time recognize Minister Janice Shereen Smith, who over the weekend was recently appointed as the official chaplain for the District Five community, and today she will be leading us with our invocation.

Minister Smith.

Good evening, everyone.

I have been asked to stand with encouragement and vision as I stand to bless you in prayer.

I want to say to each and everyone, as a word of envisionment, to stay vigilant, to stay vigilant during these hard and rough times.

Keep the vigilance of God and his love in your heart as you make decisions for the lives of those who so much respect you and trust you.

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we come to you, God, this afternoon, thanking you, God, for this meeting.

Now, God, we just ask you, God, to just help us to search ourselves to make sure that we're in place, about the place, and make sure that we're doing your will in every deed that we set forth to do.

Touch the hearts of those that we must approach, touch them and soften their minds, God, to have mercy upon the poor, to have mercy for those in this city that can't do anything for themselves.

Right now, that good decisions will be made.

Okay, we do not have a special presentation today, but if the council family will accommodate me for a minute or two, if Chief Chambers here and Chief Hewitt and Lieutenant Morrison.

I have yet to see anything as professional, as graceful, as kind and respectful as I saw that day.

We left from the church, turned left onto ML King, and from the time we hit ML King and went all the way down left on market, every street, every entrance and exit of ramp from the uh expressway was blocked off with CPD and uniform, the the motorcycle, um CPD officers, the cars, the lights.

It was the most amazing actual uh leading of a service that I think I have ever seen.

Um nothing was moving except for the possession of carrying the body to the grave site.

And I want to say that you all um did an amazing job and it was right and tight and respectful, and thank you for doing that.

So he served 19 years on city council.

Thank thank you for pointing that out.

I'm so grateful for that.

Thank you.

All right, Council Family.

Thank you for allowing me that minute to do that.

Okay, Council Family, you have received your minutes from the last meeting.

If you have any questions or concerns or comments, then please hit your light.

Council McClark, is that your light?

No, I'm sorry.

It's from the previous.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, so seeing none.

May I have a motion uh for approval of the minutes?

Okay, I have a motion with the proper second.

All those in favor say aye.

Uh opposed.

All right, then the minutes are approved as submitted.

So let's take a look at today's agenda.

If you have any questions or comments, please hit your light on the ordinances on the final reading.

We have one from the office of city attorney.

Ordinance on this first reading, we have none.

Resolutions.

Take a look at economic development.

Okay.

Councilman Elliott.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have a question for the public works uh resolution.

I don't know who's best to take this one.

I will do my best.

All right.

Can you tell us a little bit about what this resolution is hoping to achieve?

Give me that item number, please, sir.

I was it is item E.

It is 9E.

The Patrick Mithia traffic signal systems engineer.

Yes.

So this is a contract with uh Phil fill me, help me to make sure I get this completely straight.

But this is for traffic signaling engineering project.

And the hopes is is to incorporate this individual in hopes that we can actually hire them later into our department.

Is this a temporal?

Are we going through a temp agency for this one?

Phil, I'm gonna have to lean into Phil to see.

Believe it's directly through him, and he is going to be doing it from October of 2025 through October of 2026.

So it is a one-year contract with a professional engineer who will be providing those services to the city.

Yes, and I think the point I'm trying to make, I believe we're also spending 145,000 in a year for this individual.

Is that correct?

Uh the total amount over the term looks like.

Uh I'm trying to make sure what the amount is.

Is it an hourly rate on him or not?

The statement of work does not indicate that, but it does indicate the whole amount is 145.6.

Okay.

I think the point I want to make on this issue, and uh, this is something largely going for not only this department, but I think many other departments are having issues with staffing.

I'm curious to know, and I don't want to put you on the spot because you probably don't know this.

How much are we paying these employees in-house for these roles?

Uh, because this gives me the same familiar energy as what we had to do several years ago with wastewater.

When we were in wastewater, we were contracting all of our industrial electricians out, and we were paying them hand over fists a lot more for contractor services because we weren't not paying enough in-house.

And in a time where we got our uh quarterly report from CPD.

I look at my district alone.

Without seeing the data, I know I desperately need more traffic calming measures in my district and help with my roads.

But the data also shows that I've had a significant upkick in traffic related incidents for cars, right?

And a lot of that's also correlated.

We just have had a very tough time keeping and maintaining these positions.

And I'm not knocking this action, what you guys are doing.

I think what you guys are doing is trying to figure out how can we best serve the people.

I I think the question I would like to put out on the table, the issue I'm putting out on the table, but something I would like for us as a council to look at.

When we go into this next budget cycle, how do we look at some of these positions that we've been struggling to keep?

Um, and how can we make sure they're fairly compensated so we can be competitive in the market?

And honestly, we're probably paying significantly higher than we would in-house for this temp service.

But if we just bump that up even this that much more in-house, how could we actually make sure we have somebody that's gonna stay behind just a year term?

You see what I'm saying?

Makes sense.

So a wage comparison.

Say again a wage comparison study.

Absolutely.

And I'm quite certain it's probably there.

Uh Melody and her team, they do a very good job of keeping up with um oh, what are they called?

Um pay studies and whatnot.

We just may need to look at some of these specialized roles, not just in public works, but I'm sure there are other departments that have these issues as well to make sure we're properly paying people, or we may find ourselves in positions where we're having to pay more on the back end because we're not properly at the pay grades they need, just like we did when we're in public uh wastewater.

I think that's an excellent suggestion, councilman.

Um, and hopefully you'll help us with that uh identifying those specific roles.

Absolutely.

Well, y'all know the roles.

What I can help with is making sure you get the support from council when the budget process comes.

Like that's and I'm intentional.

You guys run the operations, y'all come with us at the dollars.

And this is what I want to highlight.

I'm not telling you how to do your job, but as we're spending this money, how can we make sure we're better stewards of it, but also make sure we're delivering for the people?

Appreciate that.

All right, that's all, Madam Chair.

Okay, Councilman Clark.

Uh thank you, uh Madam Chair.

I kind of like to echo um some sentiment from Councilman Elliott.

Uh, is there no one from Public Works here to address this?

Wastewater here this afternoon, they may be out on assignment, councilman.

On Tuesday night?

They may be out on assignment.

I think uh I think he brings up some valid question, and there might be the will of the council to put this off for a couple weeks.

Um so I'll be prepared to make a motion to do that, madam chair, and I think it will be properly second.

Okay.

Thank you.

Are you good?

I am thank you.

Okay.

All right, Council Family.

Still on today's agenda.

Any questions, any other concerns, comments?

Please hit your like, Councilman Elliott.

All right, I have one more permission to talk much.

This is for wastewater.

Hey Mark, how are you?

Good, how are you?

Um, I see we have a um item here where we're pushing some of our biosolids to a couple different landfills.

This is ignorance, and I think this may be a good refresher for the public as well.

Weren't we looking to inject some technology that allowed us to use some of our biosolids or some of our byproducts as fuel for the plant?

And with this ball under that, this is a is part of that program, but we're we don't have that in operation yet.

That's in the design phase right now, and you will be getting an update on that in the next uh um committee meeting for public works and wastewater.

Okay.

And with this one, um, these bio solids that we're sending out will be they'll fall under that program.

Yes, yeah.

And last question.

I'm also in an assumption we had some of these off byproducts could be used for fertilizer from farms.

Correct.

What what is the process with that?

And so when the when the biosolids come out of our digesters, which the digesters break it down and basically get rid of the volatile solids, which is like the odorous part of it, right?

Uh so we've got about a capacity for about 40% of our biosolids to go through that process to get broken down.

Uh and then the remaining 60% gets mixed with that, and we stabilize it with lime.

And what the lime does is it raises the pH to such a high level that bacteria can't grow.

So it kills all any any potential bacteria and creates basically an inert uh material that is highly organic that can be used for um agricultural uh you know spreading on agricultural fields, and it's uh very useful to the farmers, and we have we have a pretty long list of farmers who want this material, uh, but it does have a little bit of an odor, but and there's a lot of there's a lot of material to move, it's a lot of tonnage.

So what we're trying to do is we're trying to reduce the amount that we generate um and reduce the odors that are present with it, and uh in doing that, we will also generate more methane, which can be used to generate electricity at the plant.

So there's a project that's gonna that's gonna do all that.

But right now, what we're doing is we're land applying uh those biosolids to farm fields uh in surrounding counties uh around the Chattanooga area.

What can happen is sometimes we get a batch that is not fit for land application, and it might be because they're the pollutant levels are too high or the pH is not balanced right for land application.

There could be a variety of reasons, and so though that portion will then get taken to a landfill.

And so uh the the original resolution that we had for these for the landfill uh uh the the landfills that are identified in this upcoming resolution, we had uh you know anticipated about 200,000 dollars worth of capacity to take biosolids uh to those landfills uh when needed.

And so that was two years ago.

What we found is we've actually used those landfills more than we anticipated, not just for the biosolids, though, was what also is in there that that is not part of the biosolids uh process is the uh cleaning of the sewer pipes.

So right now, what we're doing with the consent decree is we're doing uh an accelerated uh cleaning and uh surveying of all of our sewer pipes in the city.

And what we had to do recently was what we call large diameter sewer cleaning project.

So we looked at one of our large diameter interceptor sewers that passes beneath the aquarium plaza that had been silted up uh because it's in the combined sewer area, it gets a lot of grit, dirt, trash from the street.

And so we had to do a large cleaning there, which resulted in a fair amount of material that had to be taken to the landfill.

And we also did a cleaning of the siphons that go into the Tennessee River from the kind of the MLK uh end of the MOK that that west end of uh Martin Luther King Boulevard there.

That area, there's there's a siphon that goes under the river there, another large diameter, uh a double barrel siphon, 54-inch double barrel siphon that goes under there, and we did a cleaning of that as well in order to make sure that that is functioning properly because we were seeing some elevated levels and these biosolids came from those clinics.

Yes, and we don't call those biosolids, that's just trash and grit that we pull out of our system.

Correct.

Yes, that so that material went and we didn't anticipate the volume uh as well.

So in this one, um all of the we're shipping off now, these are the ones that don't qualify for agricultural use, correct?

Correct, yeah.

We wouldn't we would try not to send anything that we could land up if we can land apply it, we will.

Okay, that's exactly what I need to do.

Thanks, sir.

Thank you.

That's thank you, madam chair.

Okay.

Councilman Harvey.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, I want to go back to uh the public works resolution, just get some more uh information on that if we can.

Um, Darren, I don't know if that's you or maybe Bill.

Yes, sir.

Um so I I guess my question is so so we're looking to hire this person, correct?

Yes, sir.

He's got a 70 dollar an hour billing rate that they would be trying to hire him for, and it's up to 2,080 hours over a year.

Okay.

So is Insight Global are they like a talent acquisition?

They they are a group that can provide uh I guess I guess you would call them a headhunter here that would be engineering service and engineering group.

Okay, do that all over the country.

Okay, okay.

All right, so we're we're going through them, and so this person will be a employee of the city of Chattanooga.

Um I wouldn't go that far.

I think you'd go that far.

Councilman, but we certainly hope that will be the end result.

That would be okay, all right.

We would gain an incredible talent.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, that's all.

Thank you.

Okay, you good, council?

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

Okay.

Anyone else with any questions or comments or concerns?

For today's agenda.

Or for all of today's interest.

Yeah, this one.

So if you would take a look at purchasing what today, you have something yet?

Just for today's agenda.

Yes.

For purchases, yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

If you would take a look at purchases, and if you have any questions or concerns, then please hit your light.

Okay, Councilman Clark.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

I do have a question about the uh emergency purchase uh from public works.

Um the explanation says, and this is not my district, this is Chairwoman Hills' district.

Uh, but it's 1.3 million dollars for the width of the pavement, but it said it was as a result of the August 12th flooding.

But could you give me some historic?

If I'm not mistaken, Heritage Drive has been shut down previous before August 12th, or the access to that, or is there something in addition to that?

This is to address a sinkhole.

I'm Brian Smart re reading into the record for the purchasing division.

Uh it's the sinkhole that was created on Heritage Landing Drive that will keep this road closed until it's repaired.

And it was initially thought it might cost as much as one as two million dollars, but the the bids came in at a little over 1.3.

It says August 12th, that this issue was caused because of August 12th.

So it was something additional.

The the sinkhole opened up during the flooding we had in August 12.

If you'll recall the interstate flooded the uh trouble over town, so um that's what this is from August.

Is it has heritage land?

Has that thing that street not been closed before August 12?

I'm not aware if it has or it hasn't.

That would be a uh public works might be able to address it, but I mean I believe it has possibly closed.

Councilman, you may be thinking of a smaller road that connected two neighborhoods that had been closed and had to be reopened as a transportation?

To heritage landing.

Yes, sir.

Okay, so what might be what you're doing?

That might be.

Similarity to that because I'm thinking August 12th, that issue predated this and may or may not be connected to this.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

That small road was closed.

Thank you.

Uh I obviously the August 12th rain event caused this sinkhole, and we are public works is moving very quickly, and we're able to move through to the uh contract with Wright Brothers.

Gotcha.

Thank you, Dan.

Yes, sir.

Anything else?

That's it, thank you.

All right, you're welcome.

Good, councilman Clark.

Um yeah, you sure do you want me to uh I can keep going?

But I will not.

I think I'll yield some other colleagues if they have any other purchasing questions.

I don't want you to be satisfied.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Council family, any other questions or concerns or comments for purchases?

If not, please take a look at next week's proposed agenda.

Take a couple of minutes if you have any questions or concern.

Please, you know the drill, hit your light.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Yes, thank you so much, madam chair.

Uh, this is for uh item I under Office of the City Attorney.

Uh I just had a question about this one.

Feel do we have to have a public hearing for this?

This is simply authorizing the advertisement for the public hearing.

There will have to be a public hearing on the de-annexation request.

But this is just the initial uh resolution directing the clerk to advertise for that.

Okay, and it'll be on our agenda be on December the 9th.

Okay, right.

Thank you so much, Phil.

I appreciate it.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, that's it.

Thank you, madam chair.

You are so welcome, Councilwoman Dotley.

Anyone else?

Any questions or concern over next week's proposed agenda?

All right, seeing none, let's take a look at future considerations.

If you have any questions or comments, then please hit your light.

Okay.

Seeing none.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Clark, go ahead.

You're about to be too slow.

Oh, I do have a question for the item under public safety.

Uh perhaps Toby could address this.

I noticed in this resolution.

Uh, there's a footprint that specifically mentions the public downtown safety grant.

Is that what we're calling it internally?

Is that I think is this a state grant?

Hold on, I gotta forgot if it's a state or fed.

Is it from the state?

Yes, sir.

It is okay.

So is it that 2.9 million that we're accepting from the state?

Is it only cover the downtown footprint?

There are two separate grants that we're making application for that are provided for grant opportunities from the state.

Um specifically is a downtown specific development security infrastructure thing like that, and the other grant is predicated on zip codes and and how public safety and and crime are affected by those.

The one listed here for future consideration of 2.9 is the second grant included in that amount that that's focused on specific zip codes.

I'm sorry, what was the question?

The 2.947 million.

Is that does that contribute to the specific zip codes or is this just for the downtown?

You mentioned a second grant.

Well, there are two that we're making application for, yes, that are coming from the state.

Let me pull that information.

I'm sorry, I just don't see the second one for future considerations.

I don't see the second.

This grant specifically does mention, Phil, that it is in relation to the city's downtown court.

Downtown public safety this one.

And the question I believe from Councilman Clark is is this one grant for 2,947,215 that covers both downtown and the surrounding area.

Councilman Clark, I do not want to put words.

No, it's a set it would be a separate grant that we're making applications.

The grant application deadline was actually fried at last Friday.

Gotcha.

So we've not yet been awarded those or know that it's for certain.

Gotcha.

And also to note, Councilman, that this is one of the grants that has no match required.

Oh God.

I know, right?

That makes me very happy.

It's usually an 8020, right?

Yeah.

Uh I'm interested in the second grant, uh, Toby, as to what other area codes it might cover, so I could probably talk to you offline with that.

Oh, absolutely.

Um yeah, I'm I'm happy to provide that for you.

And specifically, just in case you're wondering why, it's because you know, my district is not downtown.

And there are other safety concerns outside of the downtown footprint, as you know, and that's quite a bit of money uh for a grant for that square footage.

But I'm okay with that.

It's just that I'd be interested in knowing how we're what else we're applying for that equally distributes funding to public safety and other zip codes.

Certainly.

I'm glad you actually mentioned that.

Okay, that's my question for police.

Okay.

I'm not done.

Uh well, that for police.

I've got a question for economic development as it relates to um the uh riverfront uh storefront improvements in the explanatory note, Darren, maybe or okay.

I see Richard getting up.

We when we approved this in the budget earlier this year, it was for a blanket amount that wasn't specified for half a million dollars, but here it specifically talks about downtown retail and compliments to the citywide retail corridor.

We were never presented with a plan or any specs of that, so will we have a strategic plan or rendering similar to what we've seen with the waterfront about what they're gonna use that money for?

Yes, so that'll be included in the agreement that we will go into with them, and there'll be a presentation next week going over both of those.

Okay, is that a presentation to the general public?

It's here in count economic development committee meeting.

Um I'll yield to Council Hilliard.

We have a uh development committee hearing next week where we're gonna be discussing River City's gonna be presenting this particular project as well.

We're gonna be reviewing reviewing the neighborhood corridors plan.

Is the neighborhood corridors plan associated with River City?

I'm not sure.

There are gonna be two separate presentations.

Okay, and they're two separate things.

Yep, two separate things, corner.

Actually, I'm asking about River City.

So I didn't know if they were expanding to neighborhoods.

I was like, okay, but two separate presentations next week.

Uh it's on your agenda for next week, and uh we'll discuss it more next next week.

Thank you.

That's it, thank you, Richard.

Appreciate you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll back.

I'm so welcome.

Councilman Elliott, are you good?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so council family, anyone else with course of comments up and satisfy consideration.

Okay, attorney not we do not have an attorney client.

Do not today, no ma'am.

Praise God.

Amen.

So we do have a budget and finance committee report.

And with that being said, I will turn it over to Councilwoman Dotley.

Thank you, madam.

You are so welcome.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Oh, good afternoon.

Oh, okay.

Okay, y'all gotta be good too.

All right.

All right.

So this is our budget and finance committee meeting.

Can I get approval on the minutes?

All right, many stand without objection.

So council, we are uh this is a follow-up meeting to our meeting from last week um regarding the research initiative proposal.

Uh so today we are coming back to discuss that and potentially vote on um if we want to move forward with this research proposal just as a recap, uh Ricky, if you can bring it bring up the slides, and thank you for asking me about that earlier.

Um bring up the slides for this.

Um this proposal was brought to us by councilman Henderson.

Um to use UTC's uh Dr.

Chris A.

Cuff uh to do this research for us.

The purpose of this in gate, uh purpose of this research project uh was to provide revenue, both revenue and expenditure projections, benchmarks, and measures of physical health, identification of trends in peer cities, potential policy recommendations relevant to Chattanooga's long-term growth and future financial needs for council to consider in the coming years, uh, in essence to create a framework for us as we uh get ready to.

I know the administration is gearing up to start working on our budget for FY27, I guess.

Uh so want to make sure that we have some research research pieces in place.

Um, so that was generally what this was about.

We went over the scope of work uh last week, which is up here on your screen.

And so with that, um Dr.

Acup, if you will come over.

Uh, I'm sure I have a few questions.

And uh Councilman Henderson, did you have anything right now?

Nothing.

Okay, thank you so much.

Okay, so with that, we'll open it up for questions, and as a reminder, went over the purpose, the scope of work is here, and then um hopefully by the end of this, we will uh be voting on if we want to move forward with that proposal.

So any comments or questions, uh please go ahead and hit your light.

All right, all right, Councilman Elliott.

I just have one.

Um this kind of councilman Henderson.

Are we expected to also see recommendations?

Um for us to implement um to kind of help us avoid these massive increases like we had the last time.

Are we I think you answered this last week?

I just want to clear.

I routinely can't remember.

Okay, all right.

Okay, councilman Henderson.

Well, okay, okay, we're loud.

Um so I think that will be determined by us.

In other words, when we receive this all this information, uh and like I've said this is more of a forward-looking projections, obviously.

You uh using uh you know back uh projections as well, but I think that's up to this council when we take this information what we do with it.

And my hope is that we would develop some policies that would keep us at least keep this council from being sort of in the same situation that we found ourselves in this past budget year, but also hopefully with some recommendations and some policy uh updates that would also benefit future councils so that we don't hand off something to another council uh that we should have taken care of four years prior.

So I think that that will be determined by this council what we actually do with the research paper when Dr.

Acuff brings it to us.

Well, just to clear up, will there be any recommendations?

I don't know if that's a so and if you want to if you want to speak to that.

I I know what the I know what we talked about what's in the proposal, but go ahead and sure.

I'm I'm I mean the the intent was to provide recommendations, obviously a menu of them, which obviously is up to to council's discretion what they want to consider or not uh going forward.

Okay, that's that's perfect.

That's that's important.

Thank you, madam chair.

All right, thank you so much, Councilman Elliott.

Thank you so much, Councilman Henderson.

Any other comments or questions?

All right, okay.

Okay, we have councilman.

Let me see.

Okay, we got councilman Clark followed by council members.

Go ahead.

Oh so are we we're this is cards for question food.

Oh, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Um, so do we have the authority to amend the scope of this the uh work statement?

Is that what it's called?

So uh amend the scope.

Uh yeah, we have the remember we last when you talked about the amendment of regarding the ceiling.

Does that have to be amended?

Do we have to amend the scope or do we just accept the scope of work and it's automatically amend amended?

Are you saying amend the scope of work or amend the for the the amount in the scope of work or whatever we can approve it up to a certain amount?

That's correct.

Correct.

Yeah, up to 20 that so we could approve it up to 20,000.

That way, if it's other things that we need research or whatever, you know, whatever we can.

We would have to do that in this setting.

Okay, so it's not necessarily an amendment.

Actually, it would just we will approve it up into a certain amount.

Yes, and promotion to approve up to 20,000.

Because I think Mr.

Attorney don't we have to get bids or 20,000 and above so 1999.

Oh 20,000 and above, yes, sir.

So the amendment so the motion needs to be 1999.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, councilman Clark.

Oh one last question uh regarding the um the five-year financial outlook.

Is that something that we can also ask in his scope of work to be amended uh not to carry over to the next mayoral administration or is there a purpose?

Dr.

Ancuff as to why you felt like a five-year financial outlook would benefit this council and the impending count council or mayor coming in after we're done.

Yeah, I mean, I think I think spanning multiple councils and and multiple mayor administrations again kind of sets a you know more of a strategic planning framework, I guess, for for going forward.

Um I mean, certainly year to year, there are multiple budget amendments in any given fiscal year, you know, et cetera.

Y'all you'll amend them as as things happen as needed.

But again, I think I think setting goals, you know, longer term, you know, for for future councils to consider cool.

Okay, thank you, Dr.

Eckham.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, can I make a comment to that?

It's not that we're even we're not and legislatively we cannot bind another council.

It's not that we're binding another council, we're just looking out five years and saying what does that look like.

So it just gives us a maybe a little bit better understanding of what we need to plan for in order not to hand off some ticking time bomb gotcha to us to us to the future councils.

Thank you, Chairwoman Down.

One more question.

Okay, thank you so much, Councilman Clerk.

Thank you, Councilman Henderson.

Uh councilwall members.

Thank you, uh Chairwoman.

I um I would like to to see I I see this as a good opportunity for us to have a guide for how we discuss the budget going forward next year, three years from now.

But I would like to ask um that we use this as a guide to also make a list of things that we would like to see from administration because I think they they're a resource for us as well.

I mean, I think this serves as a guide for us to to figure out what we want in advance of being presented the the budget, what sorts of presentations we'd like to see.

Presentations are important, but I think it's important for us to present to the administration, these are the things we want to hear more about.

Right.

On top of that.

And then I'd also kind of going on along the same lines of the the new people that are on the council.

I know that MTAS, I've looked at MTAS, and I think they have some training that we could possibly get right after the first of the year on um understanding governmental budgeting, at least so that some of the newer people, I know for myself I think it would be helpful.

I don't want to speak to the other members on the council that are newer, but so that we can all be on a more of a level playing field going into budget discussions next spring.

And then the the third thing that I would like to propose as part of this, because I think once we get this report, then what are we gonna do with it?

Right.

So I would like to propose that we look at uh whether it's through Dr.

ACUF or somebody else that we look at someone that can guide us through some strategic planning to use this information to the best to the best we can to prepare us, not again as Councilman Henderson said, not just for the next three years, but how we prepare councils after the you know in the next term.

Acuff or somebody else that we look at someone that can guide us through some strategic planning to use this information to the best to the best we can um to prepare us not again as councilman Henderson said not just for the next three years but how we prepare councils after the you know in the next term so uh I know that doesn't really have anything to do with what we're voting on today other just other than to say that I think it's more than just this I think it's I think for us to um to take advantage of the information that he will be providing for us if we vote to accept this proposal that we need the okay then what to follow and that those were my suggestions is some additional training that's available for us through mTAS and then either through mTAS or Dr.

ACUF somebody that can serve as a facilitator for some discussion from us or with us.

Okay that works councilwoman burrs and I think that's definitely something we could work on I like the idea of uh kind of early on gathering information getting it to the administration to see like what do we want more information on you know because every year is different every year you know we want information on different things I think that'd be great to be able to do for MTAs I know Nicole is listening and crystal is right there so if y'all could gather those dates for us um so and get it out to the council for those who will be in interested in the it's a budget I think it's uh it's like understanding governmental budgeting okay maybe they name it something along those lines okay on the code if I anything yeah so we there may be some and there may be some other resources that are higher level as well and I think that we should look at a full package we've got this report now what do we now what do we do with it right and I can see all kinds of ways that we can use the information so that we can feed back to the administration this is what we need um versus them coming to us and dumping all this information no offense to the administration because you need to we need full disclosure on everything but I think we all might have specific areas that are hot topics to us what what I might see as an area that either um could use some cuts or use some enhancements maybe different for councilman Clark or for councilman Henderson but I think if we're given the opportunity to spend some time at it on the front end where we can then say administration Councilman Burrs I would like a uh additional presentation on this particular topic to better understand why their budget is so high or where we might be able to cut so thank you.

That works thank you so much councilwoman burrs and then we will plan on having um some type of budget strategic plan and session and maybe out of that session comes that guide uh for the administration or something to that effect but we'll work on that as we kind of as we move through uh through this process I think that was some great recommendations and absolutely doable recommendations uh so with that anything else councilwoman burrs uh no that's all thank you for the time yeah thank you so much councilman Henderson it sounded like to me you you were getting ready to ask for a motion yeah it was I was getting so close anybody else any questions anything if we're there are we there are we ready to vote I need some knots or something I'm gonna go with Cody's knives not no yeah ready to vote thank you yes okay ready to vote okay yes councilman handerson move that we appropriate up to 1999 dollars for the financial research proposal by Dr.

Acuff okay it's been properly motioned and second any comments or questions all in favor opposed motion carries thank you so much thank you council for bearing with us with this thank you councilman Henderson again for bringing this to us and we look forward to working with Dr.

Acuff to pull all this together um and moving forward so with that that concludes um this budget and finance committee meeting madam chair what are we and um 445 yeah we'll come back at 445 we'll recess to 445 all right thank you so much everybody

We're back in session.

Madam Clerk, will you read ordinance on the final reading 7-8?

In order to submit and channel city code, part two, chapter 35, section 35160, building and charges for district records.

We have a motion to approve with the proper second.

Any questions or comments?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

That's a joke there, yeah.

Okay.

Madam Clerk, um this is uh the first reading we have none, but resolution nine A, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrative for the Department of Economic Development to enter into a first agreement to exercise option to renew with Brian M.

Cotter and substantially the form attached for the lease of a house located at 324 Bass Road on tax map number 158.

IC0 to 1.01 and further identified as the Brown Acres Rental House for an additional term of three years through January 31, 2029.

We have a motion on the code to approve with the proper second.

Any questions or concerns?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk, if you will be B.

A resolution approving a second amendment to the economic impact plan for the development of the North River Commerce Center, Industrial Park, and the redevelopment of North Access Road.

We have a motion on the floor with the proper second.

Any questions or comments?

Please hit your light.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk 9 C.

A resolution authorizing revisions to the employee information guide EIG policy 9.0 compensation section 9.10 on call pay to double on call pay to comply with budget amendment passed by city council on September 9, 2025 for immediate implementation and to be applied retroactively to July 1, 2025.

We have a motion to approve of the proper second.

Any questions or comments?

Please hit your light.

All those in favor say aye.

Opposed motion carries.

Madam Clerk 9D.

A resolution authorizing administrator for the Department of Parks and Outdoors to apply for and if rewarded accept a life floor sixth annual make a splash grant for the donation and installation of 2,000 square feet of life floor tiles for the splash pad at Warner Park with a value of $65,000.

Have a motion to approve of the proper second questions or comments.

All in favor say aye.

Opposed motion carries.

Madam Clerk 9E.

A resolution to approve the Insight Global LLC statement of work and contract with Patrick Bethia for traffic signal since system engineer for a period of October 31, 2025 through October 30, 2026.

Council McClaw.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I'd like a little bit more information on this before we proceed with the vote.

And I know that our chief of staff is here that might be able to give us a little bit more insight.

Uh if not, I'd like to probably entertain a motion, Madam Chair, to uh defer for a week, uh, depending on some other insight that you can give us in regards to what this exactly it is.

Sure, thank you, Councilman Clark, Kevin Roy, Chief of Staff.

So uh you guys will recall we've mentioned it at various times in the recent past that we have had a hard time filling our traffic engineer position in public works.

We've got this vacancy for um two years, and so we hired this company with whom this contract is to basically they're a boutique recruiting company in this space, and they went out and they found this individual with whom we would like to enter into a contract on a one-year basis with the option to hire them permanently as a city employee on a go forward, and so as I appreciate it before I was in the room.

There was conversation about well, what is the relative cost of doing it this way versus doing it in-house?

It it's it's not a ton.

The the incremental difference between the cost with benefits to do it this way versus the cost of benefits to do it all in-house is about sixteen thousand, which is compensation for this company to go out and find this individual that we could not find ourselves for about two years.

And uh Mr.

Chief, what so what is this worth for this year?

Like what is the dollar amounts for Patrick Bathia?

So he I think through the contract is going to be compensated um eighty-five thousand no seventy-five seventy dollars an hour for 1456 is the dollar.

Well, I think that that's the full cost that that includes the benefits, um, and I think also includes the compensation to the company for going to find that person, but this person's pay is gonna be comparable to what it would what it would cost us if we just hired him in-house.

The reason that it is higher is because we went out and found this recruiting firm to help us identify this individual.

And to be clear, will Patrick be a city employee or an employee of Insight Global LLC?

So for this year, he will be an employee with the he will be a contracted employee through this agency, and then at the end of the one-year term, hopefully things have gone well, will have gone well, and we will hire him as a city employee and no longer have to utilize this contract for him for a position we've had trouble hiring that is for a very long time, yes, sir.

Okay, all right, madam chair.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chief.

Um, I'm ready to vote.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you.

Um have you entertained a motion?

Yes, okay.

Um, I'd like to make a motion to approve public works item E.

So we have a motion with the proper second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk 9 F.

Your resolution amending resolution number 3164A to allow payment to capital waste services for Ray County Landfill and to public services for Bradley County Landfill for three years, years through November 11, 2026 for Bradley County or Ray County landfill disposal by a solid sludge and other special waste for a total amount not to exceed 400,000 dollars.

We have a motion to approve with the proper second.

Any questions or comments?

All in favor say aye.

Aye oppose motion carries purchases.

Brian Smart reading into the record for the purchasing division.

Uh we've got four purchases tonight, one for general banking services, lockbox services, and merchant card services.

It's a four-year contract with an estimated annual spend of 350,000.

Uh it's a blanket, so that's an up to amount.

Uh then we've got a one-time purchase for playground uh at Providence uh Province Park with Compaq Inc.

for 131,990 and 94 cents, a blanket contract with uh Tennessee Guard Rail Incorporated for an annual estimated cost of $80,000 for guard rail installation and repair, uh blanket agreement with NAFCO for firefighter protective gear uh firefighter protective gear uh estimated annual cost of about 500,000.

We've also got the emergency uh purchase to uh repair heritage landing drive.

It's with Wright Brothers for one million three hundred thirty-one thousand dollars.

We've got two sole source items, one with Audacity Operations for Advertising.

This is for the library, 25,000, and another one for Lucid Software Inc.

Uh for the Department of DTS for 27,756 19.

Okay, thank you.

Mrs.

Tally, I I guess you're watching.

Hello.

Okay.

We have a motion to approve with the proper second.

Any questions or comment?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

We've come to what?

Yes.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman.

Go ahead.

I don't remember going over the um emergency purchases in the social source into the records.

Did he not?

I did.

You didn't read the bottom.

Yeah, he's a good one.

You include the men.

Okay.

Okay.

Are you just following?

Thank you.

Okay.

Are we good now?

We're good.

Okay.

Well, I'm just told.

All right.

All right.

It can't hear.

That's okay.

So we will move into committee report.

Councilman Henderson.

No report at this time.

All right.

Councilman Harvey.

No, Councilman Clark.

No report, Madam Chair.

Councilman Elliott.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Yes.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

We did have a budget and finance committee meeting today to discuss the research initiative proposal.

Thank you all for a great discussion.

We did pass uh this proposal for an amount up to 1999.

For Dr.

A.

Cup to do the research or research for us in the coming months.

So we look forward to a report from him, a preliminary report in January.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or anything, council, feel free to send them to Councilman Henderson or Nicole.

Send them to Nicole for any questions.

And then we also discuss the follow-up items to include MTAS training that Nicole who does everything is gonna look up for us.

Nicole is our clerk if nobody knows.

She's fantastic.

And also following that, uh, we'll have a budget strategic planning to work on this guide as well as uh and from that hopefully produce uh information that we can share with the administration as we move into budget season.

That's it.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, madam chairs.

Councilman Henderson.

Okay, Council Woman Burns.

Thank you, madam chair.

We have a planning and zoning committee meeting next week, and you all were sent uh through Nicole, the um and through RPA what was approved at the October Planning Commission meeting.

So we'll be going over all of those matters.

If there's anything that stands out to you that you know that you're gonna want uh special presentation on, please let me know.

Um otherwise we'll highlight the ones that did have some opposition for you next week.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilman Elliott.

Yes, ma'am.

I'm Phil to mention that we will have an economic development committee meeting next week where we're gonna discuss the up uh an update on the North Gate Mall public hearing that would have happened before that meeting.

We'll uh have a presentation on our neighborhood retail corridor plans, and then we'll also be hearing from River City on their storefront and retail improvement initiatives.

Thank you, Councilmember Burris.

Uh yeah, are we at the end of our committee reports?

I'm not on that, but yeah.

You want to go ahead and okay.

Um is Sharina here?

Okay.

Uh I I just uh I had asked her for some dates of the upcoming meetings relative to the Northgate property um proposals, and there was there's some public meetings and public hearings, I think coming up, and I just wanted to get a reminder.

Okay, because I haven't seen anything.

I have a hands.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, that's all right.

So it comes to me, last but definitely not least in any shape, form, or fashion.

So I don't have a report, but I just want to say I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as chair of the Chattanooga City Council for the month of October.

Um, we had teamwork, we had respect, we had collaboration, and even though our council family may have different voices, but together we create um what's the adjective I'm looking for?

One harmonious sound.

Um, so working side by side and uh and making things happen for the city as a whole.

Uh it has been my prayer that I have made you proud and have served you well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Do we have we come now to the recognition of personal wishing to address the council?

Do we have anyone that wishes to address?

Please line up in front of the podium here and attorney Navy, if you will please read our voice.

Yes, ma'am.

My rules are on screen this time.

At the end of each council business meeting, the chair will recognize members of the public who wish to address the council.

And here's your rules.

Each speaker wishing to address the council can only be recognized at the microphone up front for that purpose, can't have more than three minutes to speak and address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi judicial authority and not under issues that are regulated by other governmental bodies or agencies.

Do not engage in any vulgar or obscene language, nor use the for to personally attack or personally denigrate others and address your comments to the council as a whole, not towards individual council members.

And lastly, do not engage in disorderly conduct or disrupting a public meeting, which is prohibited by Tennessee law.

And someone commits that offense if a person substantially obstructs or interferes with the meeting by physical action or verbal utterance with the intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting or gathering.

Having stated those rules, please go ahead, sir, and stage nine.

Excellent.

Good afternoon, Council.

Nathan Griffin, uh, 5500 Hidden Noaks.

Um I want to thank everybody for your time and your service to our city.

I understand it's not on the agenda for the time being, but I want to introduce myself as one of the co-founders of the grassroots organization, Save Enterprise South Nature Park, as well as a regular park user and a resident who actually backs up to the park to the park.

I'm here today on behalf of thousands of residents who share a deep concern about the proposal to sell off a large portion of Enterprise South Nature Park for industrial development.

In just over two weeks, nearly 9,000 citizens have signed our petition opposing this plan's concept, and that number continues to grow every day.

I've personally spoken with hundreds of residents and community members who use it daily, and their message is clear.

Enterprise South Nature Park should remain protected.

As you know, earlier this year, Chattanooga is recognized as North America's first national park city, honoring our community's commitment to preserving nature and sustainable living.

Yet during that same period, discussions were already underway considered dismantling part of our largest public park, the very space that helped us earn that recognition.

As these discussions continue, we'll hear that this proposal adds net acreage to the county.

But acreage alone isn't the whole story.

We also have to consider access for city residents and taxpayers.

As part of our research, we conducted a drive-time accessibility study using U.S.

Census and GSI data to understand who can easily reach the parklands in question, and the results were pretty eye-opening.

Approximately 182,000 residents live within a 20-minute drive of Enterprise South Nature Park.

By contrast, only about 5,000 residents live within the same drive time as the land proposed in the deed exchange.

These findings show that these two parklands are very different natural spaces.

Very they serve very different communities.

One's metropolitan and one is rural.

Moving recreation 33 miles north would dramatically reduce uh residents who can reach and enjoy it.

We don't have to sacrifice one to protect the other.

McDonald Farm could become a state park without compromising Enterprise South Nature Park.

As the nation's first national park city, we deserve both.

This isn't about opposing growth.

We want we all want Chattanooga to prosper, but we're asking for growth that is responsible and consistent with our city's brand of being America's first national park city.

We're here to uphold the charter's principles that define our identity, including unrivaled access to nature and environmental stewardship to protect nature for future generations.

We want to work together to protect Enterprise South Nature Park and hold uphold our promise that our city made to its residents.

As Mayor Tim Kelly said, let's keep Chattanooga a city in a park.

Thank you again for your time and your continued service to our community.

Good afternoon.

My name is Elspeth Hare, and my address is 5500 Hidden Oaks.

I live in Hamilton County, and I am also a co-founder of Save Enterprise South Nature Park.

Our goal is to protect a beloved recreational and community resource that should be preserved in its current state for future generations.

This issue affects citizens, tourists, parkgoers, and the four neighborhoods who all back up to advanced manufacturing if this proposal was to go through.

This proposal has been framed as a choice to save Enterprise or the McDonald property.

This is a false choice.

Enterprise South Nature Park is already protected land, and Hamilton County already owns and has complete power to protect McDonald Farm.

One has nothing to do with the other.

I'm coming to you today to ask for each of your help to provide the same leadership you showed when you worked to make Chattanooga the first National Park City, a title that citizens have welcomed and frankly done a lot of bragging about.

A body who works to preserve and celebrate its national parks designation as a body who listens and understands what its citizens want.

All your hard work getting the National Park City designation is a badge of honor in exactly what citizens want to see.

We are an outdoor city, and Enterprise South Nature Park is the largest jewel in that crown.

Right now, our organization is closing in on 9,000 signatures from constituents who vehemently oppose selling off our largest nature park.

And we got those signatures in two weeks.

You have an incredibly engaged group here, ready to save our park from industrial development.

We are fielding more emails and engagement than we expected or thought was possible.

And although our work has just begun, we have already achieved amazing results.

We believe with your help, we can stop this plot and show the rest of the country that we are serious about our parks, our community, and the health of both.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Um Charles Tanner.

And I live on Hunter Village Drive, which is one of the neighborhoods that skirt the edge of Enterprise South Nature Park.

And I have no planned, uh no prepared remarks like the other two that came before me.

I come just to help you guys.

I I'm so impressed.

I've never been to a city council meeting, but I just to see the respect and the harmony and the way that business was conducted today, which you've pointed out.

And uh I was a little surprised.

I don't know why, but I'm a pastor.

I've been a pastor in Chattanooga for 36 years.

So my job is people, and so I know when I see something that doesn't isn't right, and is extremely questionable.

And so the way that this has all taken place, the land swap agreement, and uh without it being made public at first, it's discussion being sought out, and that concerns me just as a citizen and a person who lives in Chattanooga.

I love I love Chattanooga.

I love my city.

I'm a volunteer chaplain with the Chattanooga Police Department.

There's at least two gentlemen here that have seen me do this for nine years now, nine plus years.

I do that because I'm a I love my city.

I don't want to give back to my city.

And it it pains me deeply, grieves me deeply to see what's taking place.

And uh I don't know what else to say, but please give consideration to what's being done.

And if some kind of deal has already been made, uh, let's go back and see what we can do to correct that.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Steve Patterson.

Um we moved to this area about two years ago from Virginia Beach because uh what we saw was the vision of Chattanooga.

Um how you've made this place a good place to live, all the outdoor activities, and how you embrace that.

And I was reading here on your national park, and you know this, but this is this title, you know, National Park City recognizes a city's extensive green spaces, access to outdoor activities like hiking, rock climbing, and community-driven efforts to improve the natural environment.

This designation is based on shared vision of treating city like a park and is supported by community-led campaign endorsements from thousands of residents.

Those are the kind of things that would make people want to come to this area.

Just you can't judge success by how many industrial areas or how crowded you can make, you know, uh residential areas or whatever.

It's really the green space.

To me, it should uh Enterprise South should be how we New York would view Central Park.

Would you what would happen in York if you try to go in and carve out 20% of Central Park for industrial area?

How would that go over?

Or you want to put industrial area in Yosemite National Park?

It's just counterintuitive to today's environment, you know, and Dave's leadership.

I think Chattanooga is counting on your vision.

You talk about five years down the road.

You talk about five years down the road later, I think you will never get that part, whatever part of Enterprise South gets taken away, you'll never get back once it's gone.

And I imagine probably more of it will be taken in the future down the road.

So it's really you got to draw the line and say this is not a negotiable situation.

I think with all the players involved in this and I'm sure there's developers and people that make money out of this and everything else but I kind of see you guys as maybe our one last hope in all this because you have a vote in this and I hope at the end of the day you guys will protect Enterprise South Parks and and I have confidence and thank you very much.

Thank you.

Do we have anyone else that wishes to address the council this evening okay seeing none I forgot this thing thank you for my flowers.

They are absolutely beautiful so seeing none may I have a motion to adjourn second I have a motion to adjourn with the proper second all in favor say aye.

Opposed wouldn't matter anyway we all adjourn.