Good afternoon everyone.

Thank you so much for being here.

I am now calling to order the City Council of Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Tuesday, November 18th.

Please join me.

We will have would you mind doing the Pledge of Allegiance?

Oh.

Pledge of Allegiance will be led by our vice chair.

Pledge of allegiance of the United States of America.

Would you like to do that?

By heads, please.

Life at Historant.

Thank you for granting us chaplin mercy.

Without accidental incident from point A to point B.

We ask that you be with this council family and all of those that are represented here today.

These words we ask in thy name Amen.

In October, Councilman Jeff Davis and I had the honor of visiting Wuxi China, which is a sister city of Chattanooga.

And so we're going uh Councilman Davis is going to do a presentation, and we have some gifts from our sister city to give to representatives of the administration.

All right, well, hello everyone, or Nihao, as they say in our sister city of Wuxi.

That's one of exactly two Chinese words or phrases that I knew in China.

The other one is she she, which means thank you.

Um and before we get too far into the presentation today, I want to give a big, a very big she to uh Melissa and our council office uh for all of her uh outstanding work preparing the trip and making sure all the arrangements were in place for us.

Um we certainly appreciate that very much.

So thank you.

Um so obviously chairwoman Hill is here with me, she was in our delegation, and then Karen Claypool, um, who's the president of our local sister cities association is here with us as well.

Um so we'll get into kind of a little picture show here.

Um the first half of our trip was spent in Whooshi, which is our actual sister city.

Um roughly seven million, which is um also about the population of Tennessee.

So if you can imagine putting the entire population of our great state into one city, that's Whooshi, and you kind of have an idea of the scope of the population and how it differs from what we're used to.

Um up in the um kind of going from the top left there, um, the picture in the top left and in the middle.

Um those were taken at a local uh automotive manufacturing plant, uh similar to to Volkswagen, like we have here.

Um this plant, however, they make um vehicles for any number of different automotive brands.

So on the day we were there, I believe they were making um compact pickup trucks to send to South America.

Um the next day they would be making something completely different.

And their assembly line is very highly automated and they switch very quickly from one product to the next.

So it was interesting uh to see that.

Um in the top right corner uh is a picture of our delegation with some officials from the Wuchi University of Technology.

Um there on the far left of that picture is Kim, who is one of the members of the local foreign affairs office in Wuxi, um, who helped guide us around.

Uh we're certainly very appreciative for her.

Down in the bottom uh left corner there.

Uh again, that's our delegation.

In that picture, we are with some local school officials from a local high school, which had, I believe, was it 2600 students?

I believe.

Yeah.

And it was interesting, it was kind of partial, partially boarding students and partially Dave students there at that school from around the Wuxi region.

In the middle there, you have yours truly, and also Chairwoman Hill.

We're actually in a classroom.

That's an English classroom.

And at that point in time, we were just interacting with the students as they were having small group discussion about a book that they were reading through as they worked to learn English.

And that was that was a great experience there.

In the bottom right, again are these are all official pictures.

We've got some more casual pictures coming, I promise.

But that is us with in the middle, beside Chairwoman Hill is the mayor of Wuxi.

Beside him is a vice mayor, and then on the end is the head of the local foreign affairs office.

Alright, so this is what I'm more interested in.

The food is kind of featured on this page.

So on the corners at the top there are kind of some samples of what we ate, just about every meal in Wuxi at least.

It was very the presentation, it was very ornate, elaborate.

Up in the top left corner is what you're looking at there is roasted duck, which when I saw that, I was like, that looks like a jewelry box.

So it's like roasted duck presented in a sort of a jewelry box presentation.

Again, very ornate.

We would have multiple courses for each meal.

Everything was served in the middle of the table family style, and you rotate the lazy Susan around until you find what you want.

And then I think next to the duck there is a steamer of dumplings, which was Chairwoman Hill's one of her favorite things we ate while over there.

And then in the opposite top corner there, it's kind of an imposing looking creature.

That's a local fish, head and all.

Don't worry, we do not eat the head.

But it's a sweet, it's in a sweet and sour sauce, is what you're seeing there.

So and that was one of Karen's favorites.

Any meal we had, the seafood was always a favorite for her.

So on the bottom left and in the middle there are pictures from the lake shore of Taihu Lake.

So Wuxi is on a located on a lake side.

It's the third largest lake in China, I believe, is what we learned.

And so we spent an afternoon in a park there on the lake side, and that was very beautiful.

We got some gorgeous pictures there.

At some point in the trip, we kind of just wanted to see after all these official trips and kind of scripted sight-seeing tours.

We said, you know, we kind of just want to see how everyday Chinese folks live.

And so they took us to a grocery store.

So that's what you're seeing in the bottom right there.

Um a picture from our trip to the grocery store, which is really pretty similar, at least I thought, to a lot of grocery stores you see here in terms of the layout.

In terms of the products, maybe not so much.

There's a lot of chickens feed and live turtles and things like that.

But uh, at least in terms of the layout, um, you can certainly find what you what you wanted pretty easily.

And so then for the second half of the trip, we took a high-speed train about an hour and a half south of Wuxi to Hangzhou.

Umzhou has a population of about 13 million, so even bigger still than Wuxi.

And that's where we had the actual US China Sister Cities Conference where we met local and state officials from across the US and also officials from across China.

Um it was you know, cities that have other cities that have sister city relationships with other cities in China all meeting together just to talk about cultural exchange, educational exchange, uh person-to-person diplomacy, as they call it a lot.

Um some pictures from Hangzhou here on the top row there, top left and middle picture.

On the top row there for top left and middle picture.

That's West Lake.

So Hangzhou, much like Wuxi is located on a lake side.

West Lake, I think though, is a good bit smaller than Taihu Lake.

We actually one afternoon took a boat tour, so it was nice to see the lake from that perspective.

And then in the top right corner is a tea plantation that was located next to the National Tea Museum that we got to tour.

On the bottom, bottom left there is an indoor market.

So as opposed to the grocery store that we saw in Wu Shi, this is more of a fresh produce, fresh meats and seafood type market.

Although that was very interesting also.

And then in the middle on the bottom, there is an outdoor market.

So there's a it's actually a market street, several city blocks worth, as I remember that are just different local shops and cafes, and it was uh it was packed.

That was really one of the main times I remember feeling just kind of the exactly how many people are in these cities that we're dealing with, because it was it was very close quarters in there as we made our way through that market.

And then in the bottom right corner, that's um our delegation uh with Ming Wei, uh, who is another one of our Wuxi uh foreign office representatives who served as a guide and a translator for us, um, and that is at a local Hangzhou university that has multiple campuses across the city.

Um this campus in particular was uh used at least currently as the law school.

So I found that interesting on a on a personal level.

So those are a few pictures from um Hangzhou, and then the last picture is from the conference itself.

So the last day was the only day that we were actually in a building all day having meetings and talks and and lectures and things of that nature.

Um and that's our delegation again with Ming Wei and with Kathy, another one of the the Wuxi officials who was so kind to to show us around and and to translate for us, which was of course very important.

So with that, we do have some gifts.

So when we were in Wuxi, uh we gave presented to the mayor of Wuxi uh uh a print of downtown Chattanooga for them to keep in their office, and then um on their end, they sent us back with several gifts that we will present, I believe, to Mr.

Roy on behalf of the administration.

So the first one is a um a teapot.

So we should stand in the official Chinese way.

Oh, we we should because the photos are very important.

We want to get these for our sister cities friends.

Okay, so you're gonna hold up and I'm gonna hold a may I add to that?

Yes.

This is made from purple sand, it's a very special um sand that they have in that area, and it's very prized, and these go for about a hundred bucks.

Um, but you can leave tea in there three or four days, and it won't get sour, it won't turn bad, but um they're very proud of their purple sand products.

They are just beautifully carved.

Okay, so we're gonna look at Brooke, and we're gonna smile.

We never did quite get the formal line.

No, amazing.

Okay.

So that's your present.

We've got a beautiful box for it to go in there.

We trade with you, Chief.

Yes, you don't break it with.

It's very beautiful.

That's nice.

Thank you.

Okay.

Is that from the high school?

Okay.

This lights up.

It's an LED display of the kind of the front building of the local high school.

We have a box shot.

Careful that's two pieces.

Thank you, Chiefs.

He doesn't know that he has anything they don't like today.

Thank you.

And crowd pleaser.

This being in the bears.

So this one is actually a special type of embroidery that's identical on the front and the back.

So perhaps there'll be a way in City Hall to display this for the people of Chattanooga so they can see both sides.

Absolutely.

Oh and this is from the University.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And we have a box.

Okay.

And that concludes the presentation.

So she she.

Thank you.

I'll I'll add one thing.

Our translators were imperative to our ability to enjoy China.

And the one time that I bought something without a translator with me, I thought I was buying little packets of green tea, which Councilman Davis loves their green tea.

And I got home and realized it was something sort of like chopped asparagus in little pouches.

So I put that in the snack bin in the council, and I'm not quite sure if people got a little punked by that or not.

Councilman Elliott.

Yes, thank you, uh Councilwoman.

Thank you all for this presentation.

I have a question.

Is this something that Sister Cities pays for?

Who actually pays for this trip?

So the government of China is committed to person-to-person diplomacy, person-to-person diplomacy is the concept of Sister Cities.

And is Karen which president founded Sister Cities?

Can you speak us just a little bit?

Which president founded Sister Cities?

He said we don't make friends.

People to people relationships.

And we need those protects.

We need that so that we might understand each other.

And so Councilman Davis and I paid our way with our individual city council funds.

And then the conference itself and the visit to Wuxi were sponsored by Wuxi, invited us in the same way that when we invite a delegation, we provide them, you know, trips to area attractions and things like that.

And then at the conference, that was all of the all of the sister cities in the United States that are sister cities with China were invited.

And so there were, gosh, about I think 200 different cities represented.

And it was really interesting to see there were multiple state representatives, like people who serve in the House, the state representatives, so representatives from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Oregon.

Actually, the president of the state senate in Oregon was there.

So it was a very interesting experience.

Excuse me, Cherwilla.

I'm battling these two ear infections.

So Karen, out of here, words you just said.

I can I can barely hear either.

Well, here, I'll repeat it.

Um in the mic.

But no, but you're fine.

But what I think I heard the point of the question, we paid a portion, the city paid a portion, then the Chinese government paid.

No, so yes, so each of us as city council people have a small six thousand dollar budget that we can use to.

Oh, use the council funds for.

Correct.

We have a travel, yeah.

We have a travel or something.

Okay.

And so councilman Davis and I purchased our tickets.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

And we and we helped pay for Karen's ticket as well.

Okay.

And will she pay for the well she's going to be able to do that?

We're good.

So we paid for hotels, meals, tourism, transportation, everything.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

May I add a little something here?

Well, I know I'm traveling.

Quick quickly at the podium, we can give you, we can give you a couple minutes.

Sorry, we have to maintain the decorum of the meeting.

Sorry, I thought my teacher voice might work.

Um if you have not noticed them, please.

The next time you're in front of City Hall, notice that we have three large rocks and a plaque on the lawn on the right-hand side.

Those were gifts from Wushi.

They are Taihu rocks, and they're very um beloved.

And there are parks and different places where these rocks are displayed in Wuxi.

They sent them to us at some point in time.

And we rediscovered them.

If you've not noticed them, please take a look next time you go to City Hall.

Thank you.

She shifts.

Okay, thank you, everyone.

Highly recommend if you have the opportunity to participate in a sister city's trip to do that.

It was it was wonderful.

So now, council, let's take a look at our three week agenda, please.

Or actually not three week agenda.

Let's take a look at today's agenda, shall we?

Let's start there.

That'd be a good place.

Okay, we don't have any ordinances on final reading.

Um first reading, please hit your light if you have any questions.

We have some items from the city attorney, we have public works items, and we have some planning items.

Councilman Elliott.

Yes.

Um Phil, can you talk to me a little bit about the purpose of this chunk amendment?

Yes.

Definition amendment.

Yes, sir.

We discovered in the process of looking at our section 11216 that McKay's and uh the uh secondhand Charles location, which is located in the city, might be in violation of our definition section.

We decided that there was a new entity that was coming in called value savers here in Chattanooga that was going to be offering secondhand goods that could be sold in that location, and that's why we've amended our code.

So McKay's is selling secondhand goods, and they may be a violation.

All those CDs that you get for McKay's, they belong to somebody usually before.

And but they don't fall under the the definition doesn't match their business.

That was the concern, and that was why we wanted to revise the provisions to our code.

And let me ask you this.

When I read this particular ordinance in the link, it also talked about junk cars and scrap metal and everything else.

Does this particular ordinance pertain to tow truck yards?

Well, I have a couple of those in my district tow truck yards.

I have this one scrap muddle place in my district.

I'm gonna be honest, as we are looking to clean up our district, they're eyesores, and I get uh complaints about them all the time.

Yes, sir.

Would this particular ordinance govern those?

I believe it currently governs them as well, because I did not make any changes to that section here.

It would apply to something that like a Baxman dealer here that does uh scrap metal.

Okay, here's something I want to do, council, if y'all would bear with me.

Since we're amending this particular ordinance, I would like to work with the city attorney's office to see if we can put some type of visual protections around some of these junkyards and scrap metal places, because currently they're not outlined in this ordinance unless I'm not seeing it.

Uh I would potentially like to add this as an amendment uh later on to say if you have a fence, you need to have some type of visual protections around it.

The fences need to be X high.

So if it is okay, and sorry if I'm screaming because I had changed it here.

Um I would like to push this off for a couple weeks if we could to give us some time to work with your office feel uh to make some additional amendments.

Is would that be councilman?

I wonder if you would be open to the possibility of moving forward with this incremental update to this and then working with the city attorney and bringing a new ordinance to us with that additional language once you've had the opportunity to look at the code together to see if if it's covered in zoning and land development.

I thought it's fine.

Uh I was thinking about trying to save the bureaucratical process much as possible, but we can do that as well.

Okay, both need to be addressed.

All right, just something to consider.

You're certainly welcome to to call for a delay if you would like.

And the only amendments that are included here are just the definition section.

There's several other sections in the code we need to look at and deal with the last things.

Okay, so I'll come back.

I'll work with Phil.

Okay, and we'll come back with a separate amendment.

Okay, so we can run that.

Yeah, we can run it through legislative saying it.

And we'll run that through legislative committee.

What's your committee once it?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, council.

Do we have any questions on public works items under first reading?

Okay.

We have planning items under yes, sir.

I have one on the public works.

Okay.

Uh this is for we're in abandoning, excuse me, we're abandoning a uh alleyway in Bridgedale, the 200 block of East 19th Street.

But somebody from Public Works had to talk about this.

What what item is this?

It is item D.

Item D.

Okay.

Hey Bill, can you give me a little bit of idea of the purpose of this abandonment?

And I know Chris, I know you have reached out and I had uh family stuff this weekend, so I hadn't had a chance to see it.

But um what are we looking to do with this particular amendment?

Uh so this is uh the applicant uh filed this request uh because it's adjacent to their property, and currently that's it it is actually an old uh trolley line that used to run through that portion um that previously was operated by the city, and so it's it that's that's the way that the that it it is um that it's proposed is as that trolley line.

So this the city is the one that would need to abandon that the the applicant's intended request is to be able to be able to combine that into their property for redevelopment.

Are there other properties that will be affected?

Not to my knowledge, I believe this one is on a corner.

Okay.

Can we this is this is only the section immediately adjacent to the applicant's property.

So if this trolley line, as we understand it, if it continues beyond that, this this action has no impact on that bill.

Can you and Chris and I connect before our agenda session so I can get a little bit better idea as to where this is going um before I approve this, Madam Chair?

Uh I may postpone this for a couple weeks, but if we're able to get an understanding before the agenda session, we can go through it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, council, we have planning items under first reading.

Hit your light if you have any questions or comments.

Councilman Elliott, sorry.

Sorry, um, is Karen here or somebody from RPA?

Karen, I know you guys presented on this last week, the Southern Spear project in Holland Park.

Yes.

Have we heard back from the developer on this?

Um I emailed the developer and encouraged them to watch the video um of planning and zoning committee and said that they were into um that you had comments at planning and zoning committee and I don't believe I heard back.

I'd heard back on some of the other cases from this agenda, but I don't believe I heard back from that one.

Okay, uh, madam chair, I'm gonna give this developer the courtesy I don't give a lot of people, but I'm gonna postpone this to December 16th, and after which had this developer not reached out to myself or the neighborhood association, it will be divided currently 16th.

Okay.

Vice Chairwoman Null.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I am going to defer item E and F as well on the planning for the same reason.

Lack of a conversation.

I did speak with um Curtis Street individual, but I have not spoken with anyone from the Willcox Boulevard.

So is anyone here from there?

Which one?

Will Cox?

Um I'd like to speak about Willcox, but I don't think I'm not from the okay.

Who's who's here for with the Willcox?

Okay, so I will see you, but I am going to defer.

Okay, we will have a public comment period during the voting portion of the meeting where you will have an opportunity to speak.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council, I wouldn't make like to make a note on item I that the staff have worked together to clarify the language on the floodway section.

You will see that reflected in the link in the agenda.

All right, movie.

What?

I helped on there.

And Phil helped.

Thank you, Phil.

Yes, ma'am.

Ball face where I helped.

There we go.

Okay.

Um resolutions, council.

We have um we have several resolutions.

I will um likely take some of these as a package.

We would like to discuss, um, we're gonna discuss items A and B in the economic development meeting.

Um or councilman Elliott, do you prefer to discuss them now?

Okay, they're on the economic development meeting.

Uh so let's let's wait on that.

Um, and then uh item C council, I believe we have Melissa Kevin.

Would you like to come and and tee this one out for us, please?

Um, this is the resolution that that the mayor and uh and I had worked on to bring um bring before council to bring 200,000 uh donation to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to provide critical support.

Um but situation has changed in the last two weeks.

Praise the Lord.

Kevin, would you go ahead and tell us what's happening?

I sure will.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So, as you mentioned, this is a resolution that the Kelly administration brought forward working with you.

Um at the time we were in the midst of the disruption of SNAP benefits because of the federal government shutdown.

Um, but through that experience, we had the opportunity to meet with Melissa of the the food bank and got to hear more about kind of the the pre-existing context for this exacerbation of food scarcity in our region.

And so we felt strongly at the time that the thing that we could do to support the the disruption would be to put forward some additional funding for uh to support their efforts, and we we stand by that even though those benefits have been thank you, sir.

Uh those benefits have been restored.

We do feel like that um the the food bank could still benefit from this additional support, and that's the reason that we asked Melissa to come today to help us understand a little bit more about that.

But fundamentally, we believe that it's critical that um that we're doing everything that we can as a city to meet the food scarcity needs that we know exist in our community in our city, and then in the full 20 county region that the uh that the food bank serves.

So Melissa, I will invite you up to the voting at this point to answer additional questions.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Hi.

Um Melissa, to get us started, could you please help us understand?

Um the governor has announced that as of yesterday, the 17th, that people who were set to receive SNAP benefits on the 17th moving forward would receive those benefits as scheduled, and that on the 17th, people who would have received between the early part of November and the 17th would be made whole on the 17th.

So can you help us understand where we stand now and what financial impact you have from the shutdown?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Um, Councilman Hill and all the members of council for letting us be here today.

You know, as as you all mentioned, we worked with the mayor's office several weeks ago to outline the impact of the SNAP disruption benefits and provided some updates to this council as well.

We were grateful to learn um that you all had some interest in supporting this work during that critical time.

Um as you as you mentioned, the benefits as of today um for current SNAP recipients are being restored in Tennessee.

Um, so we are we are absolutely thrilled that that's happened and that we are over that imminent crisis um in our community.

I'm here and happy today to provide a little bit of an update on what's happening since then.

So just in terms of overall impact, our city of Chattanooga, we saw almost overnight a 50% increase in requests for food assistance.

Um, and what that looks like just at one food pantry here off of Wilcox Boulevard, we served 4,319 households in our first um 15 days of the of the and compared to last year that was 3,100.

So you can imagine just the sheer volume of families turning to not just our Foxwood food pantry, but our uh a lot of our faith-based food pantries and other uh hunger relief organizations across Chattanooga.

Um so what we have been doing, as you know, is purchasing more food, and that has been critical to continue the supply chain during this crisis.

Um it's incredibly critical now as we continue to recover to restock the shelves and to replenish the pantries across our faith-based community.

Okay, let's see.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Yes, thank you so much, madam chair.

Uh Melissa, first I want to commend you and the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.

And you know, I love you all because outside of this, I work with y'all anyway, uh, with our faith banks food pantry.

Uh so I try not to be too biased up here, but this is one of those things where I see people all the time.

Um, and so I still am uh is as the chief of sales folk in support of us uh still allocating the 200,000 dollars to the Chinooga Area Food Bank because the reality is nobody's first choice is to go to food to the food bank.

Your first choice is to go to Food City or Publix or whatever your local grocery is, and whenever you're in need of supplemental food assistance is never being made whole.

If I need supplemental food diseases, that means there is something happening here.

Um and in my uh in over the last few weeks, I've uh people have come into our pantry um some not because they lost net benefits, but because they've been laid off because these other things are happening, things that we cannot control.

Uh so I commend you all for the work that you are doing.

I am in support of this because I know that though I am 100% not a fan of what is going on currently on the national level, but I know that as a city of Chattanooga, whenever we have the opportunity to feed people, by all means, we should do that because there's the opportunity here.

We find money to do all these other things, and so there's a reason why we can't take a little 200,000 dollars and give to our food and give to our food back to help those that are most vulnerable because that's not this is not food bank is not people's first choice.

This is a last I can't remember what was on the call, is that last you it is the last line of defense before you're starving.

And so this is not something to be played with that is food, shelter, clothing and water are basic right.

And so whenever we as a city can stand and say we stand with you to restock your shelves, or even if your shells were full, and you just need some reserves to help feed people, we should do that because that's the kind of city we are.

We are one Chattanooga, and that's what we should be doing.

So I just want to again commend you.

Of course, I always say Allie and Rick hello, and I just appreciate what you do.

So thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Yes.

Council, do we have any other questions?

Okay, I have one other, and it is for Kevin.

Um Kevin, for uh thank you, Melissa.

So thank you so much.

Kevin, for the purposes of getting on the record and for the community to be aware, can you please explain where uh within our funds this 200,000 is coming from?

That's a great question.

It's coming from our it's coming from our place.

We're gonna pull it from our contingency fund.

So we plan each uh thank you for that prompt, by the way, because for a moment I was like, you know where it's coming from, and you've told us, but I want it on the public.

Thank you.

All right, so it is coming from contingency.

So every year, as part of our annual budget, we do set aside uh funding for unexpected non-catastrophic things that will arise as a matter of course over that year.

So this money is is funded or budgeted for the funding is available, and contextually with regard to how much money we have in contingency, we will still have after this proposed expenditure contingency for the remainder of the year.

Thank you very much.

Which our remainder of our fiscal year is June 30th for the public.

Correct.

So the lots can happen between now and then.

That's right, yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you.

Okay, looks like everybody's good on that.

All right, council, we have some items under economic development.

These are resolutions.

We have finance resolutions related to our general obligation bond issuance, some appointments, and then parks and outdoors, public works, police hit your light if you have any questions or comments.

All right, looks like we're good with that.

We do not have a two-week agenda because council will not be meeting next week because of uh because of Thanksgiving.

Um consequently, tonight, council, if you will take a look at your purchases, there are many of them.

We had no purchases two weeks or two weeks ago, and now it looks like a Christmas list.

Um if you have children, you have seen the Christmas lists already, I imagine, and we have one here.

So, council, there are many items under purchasing.

Councilman Elliott.

Uh Debbie, this is a general question about purchasing.

Um I see we have quite a few folks ask for increases, and I know Councilman Clark has raised this question before.

When we're sending out RFPs or when we're finalizing contracts, do we specify, do we apply a percentage amount or a dollar amount that contractors can ask for increases when we lock them in?

We do not.

We do give contractors the option to submit a request for an increase annually, and we waive the right to either accept or deny the increase.

And we have been recently, since we're getting a lot of increases, we've been negotiating back with these contractors.

What uh basis are we applying where we're reviewing whether to accept or to not increase?

It depends on the percentage, what the usage is, and um what the good or service is.

Okay.

Are there other municipalities or procurement processes that apply increase uh limits?

Is that a norm in procurement in other places?

We do have some um like technology where we will put a cap on the percentage of increase, um, but we don't do all because we don't know what the the market's gonna do at any given time.

You know, we see a lot of these purchasings purchases that come up, and we oftentimes don't ask questions because they're just doing an increase, but fine from a fiscal perspective, like are we just is this a loophole for people to get more money, essentially, right?

Are these increases absolutely necessary?

And so I don't know that I'm not a procurement specialist, so I I do want to ask that, make sure there's good stewards of we are definitely um making sure that we're getting the best um good and service for our dollars.

Um that's our job, that's what we do every day.

Um I don't take these increases slightly.

Um, this is the first uh the first the past two a couple of years.

I've seen increases um come across.

Um it depends on what's happening with the market.

Yeah, um, it's a it's the driver if we're gonna have increases or not.

Uh we can definitely look into maybe putting a percentage um on each of the solicitations to make sure that um the contractors know that they can't go above this percentage and annually.

Um but we do get some to ask for no increase.

So um we have to be careful what we ask for.

Okay.

I appreciate you know, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay, Councilman Harvey.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I am curious.

Uh I see a lot of times when we're purchasing vehicles, uh, Ford of Dalton is on there, and I mean I love Dalton.

Um, I do business down there, but um, I mean I'd I would love to know what our local folks uh have been offering us.

Uh hopefully they have like in the city of Chattanooga.

Um they're probably more expensive, but I'd like to know that for sure.

We actually put this out for bid.

Um there were multiple bids received, and Fort of Dalton was the low bidder.

Okay, and that so that includes the city of Chattanooga.

That's correct.

Okay, all right.

That's all thank you.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Do you have any other questions about purchases?

Okay, council.

I have one that is concerning to me.

Um it's the new blanket agreement for security guard services.

It's uh up to a million dollars a year.

Um, and thank you very much, Debbie, for providing me with some of the uh requirements.

Um I and other council members have had some concerns about the quality of services we receive from our contracts for security guard services.

I know for many years um councilwoman Coonrod would talk about her concerns related to the service in parks.

Um I know that we we sometimes I I'm concerned about the actual capability of the security guard to do their job, like to actually patrol to actually hear something happening.

I mean, just the physical work of the job.

Um, in the in the RFP items that you gave us um that you that you provided to me, I see that we had requirements about the um qualifications, the professional qualifications for the job.

Are there qualif in what way are we going to be able to protect the interests of the people of Chattanooga if a security guard is hired as a contractor who is not physically capable of doing the work taken up on this one?

So uh sorry.

Um it's a great question.

Well, first let me just say that we we share the observations that you just um explained and it was part of the thinking throughout this RFP process.

I worked very closely with Chief Chambers to put it together in terms of physical qualifications.

I I don't know that we have the ability, it's it's really a legal question.

I would defer to Phil to be prescriptive about that.

However, we are clear about what we need the security contractor to perform.

And so if we encounter a situation where there is an individual who is serving in that capacity and unable to perform what we need them to perform with respect to what the contract requires, we would certainly lean on the contract to ensure that that gets remedied if that makes sense.

So if consistently you walk into a city facility where we're paying up to a million dollars a year for security guard services, and that security guard is a sleep.

That is not going to be acceptable.

That's right.

So it's content.

But because I don't see that in the cost, I see that we would want 24-7 coverage or film.

These are these are going to be security guards in our community centers with our children.

That's exactly right.

If someone can't like I get it that there's certain things you can and can't do with a job description, but you can say you have to be able to lift 40 pounds.

I mean, our police service is able to say you have to be able to perform these particular physical tasks.

I mean, if someone is supposed to handle a bomb threat to a god forbid, a community center, we need to we're we're paying for a security guard to be able to be aware and deliver on that.

So, in what way are we protecting it?

A park, a gun threat at a park.

If our security guard can't physically walk across that park, what is the point of having that service?

Sure.

No, so your point is well taken.

I share it, and I I'd be happy if we wanted to kick this one out and take a fresh look and make sure that we have taken full advantage of all of the language available to us.

Let's absolutely do that.

Okay, let's defer this one then until we're back on December 2nd, just a couple of weeks, so that we can make sure.

I I would just want some comfort in knowing that we have we have the ability to ensure that we have quality security guards in our locations where we do not have a police officer already.

Same.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, so yes, Councilman Harvey.

Um just a question of uh I'm not sure if we can even do this, but um instead of hiring a third-party security agency, are we able to uh offer that to some of our off-duty police officers?

Is that even a possibility for them, you know, and they know they're looking to make some extra money, they can help us out in the interim.

Yeah, so Chief, I might need some some help on this.

So I think the paying them is something that would have to get worked out.

Um whenever you're an employee, you're paid at a position, and that position equates to a specific salary.

Currently, there's not a technological solution that says you can make this salary during these hours, but if you're off or if you're on these hours, then you make a different salary.

So that would be a technical challenge to do that.

Um I think a staffing challenge would be there are more jobs out there than what we can feasibly work.

Um there's whether overtime opportunities or you know, opportunities for extra jobs.

There are there's more of a demand than we have a supply.

So then you would be competing in the private sector that may have you know more financial stability to say we'll we'll we'll just outpay the city and whatever of that payment is to make sure you choose us versus them kind of thing.

Gotcha.

Okay, thank you.

It's it's possible it'd be just challenging from a couple different perspectives.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

So um, council, if someone would be so kind as to make a motion to defer this item when it comes up until December 2nd, I would appreciate it.

Okay, let's move on to um future considerations, please.

Please hit your light if you have any questions or comments about our three-week and beyond future considerations document.

There are two things I think worth pointing out, counsel.

Uh Councilman Elliott.

Yes, uh, Richard, we you're not gonna talk about this later, but I may have some questions about the missionary ridge lease.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vem Chair.

Okay.

Um, two things worth pointing out under public works item three.

It's exciting to note that we will be releasing funds, uh, be asked to vote on releasing funds December 2nd to begin some work on the Alton Park Connector, uh, which is gonna be a really exciting project for our community, especially um the folks in Alton Park and in District 7.

And the other thing that was pretty interesting is um the items under wastewater.

Um item I is that the city is going to be uh the wastewater treatment plan is going to be um putting in a really neat generator system that will potentially have return on investment over three to four years.

I imagine we might hear about that at some point.

Actually, while we're while I'm talking about Bill, would you come and just tell everybody about that?

Or no, no, sorry, Mark.

My apologies.

Mark.

Public works wants to get in on it though, too.

Okay.

Thank you, madam chair.

Yeah, so these uh these generators or item one, excuse me.

So these are linear generators, which is a different generator technology than the combustion engine generators that we're used to.

They're more efficient, uh, they also less maintenance, and uh they run on a variety of fuels.

So uh with our digesters out at the wastewater plant, we can generate biofuel methane from those digesters, and we can run that through these in order to generate electricity.

Our electricity bill out there is on the order of $300,000 a month.

Uh these generators will knock off about a third of that.

So we look to save approximately 100,000 a month on our electric bill with this first phase of these generators.

Uh we will be installing six generators in this phase, but once our uh digester upgrades are complete, we will be able to actually fuel uh six additional generators for a total of twelve.

And so that is like the the longer term outlook is to have uh 12 generators running off of our biogas out there and knocking down nearly all of our electric bill.

Thank you very much.

And word on the street is that public works might want to look at it for landfill also.

Exciting stuff.

Okay.

Council, do I have any questions, final questions about future considerations?

Okay, we're gonna get in the way back machine.

Thank you very much, Vice Chairwoman.

And we're going to do uh I'd like to call for a motion to approve the minutes for um our last meeting, please.

So move.

Thank you.

It takes it, it takes a team.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to approve the minutes with the proper second minutes.

We'll stand without objection.

If you object, hit your line.

All right, we're good to go on that.

Okay, so we have finished that work.

I will go ahead and note that we will have an attorney client meeting this afternoon.

So after our uh department report and economic development committee, we will take a 45 minute recess to allow for that.

And I will now hand well.

No, we're gonna have the library come up first, please.

And give us a department report.

Thank you, Will.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh good evening, council.

Uh, my name is Will Lee.

I'm the executive director of the Chattanooga Public Library.

Um, I'm excited to give you our department update here.

Uh, before we go into it, it will be an interactive presentation.

What I mean is uh hopefully during the time of your break, you might have a little time to go out.

We've brought our van, our outreach van, it's poppy outside.

So we're hoping we can go and experience and see what our patrons are experienced as they uh go out and out to our outreaches.

We also have some of our beyond books collections, some of the new and unique offerings.

You might not expect the library to have to be out there, so you can kind of get a taste and flavor of what we have to provide.

A lot to get into and not a lot of time, so I'll keep moving here.

Um if I could define the Chattanooga Public Library with one word from this quarter as we compare this uh fiscal year quarter one to last fiscal year quarter one is growth.

Um we've seen actually exponential growth across the system in the time I've been here about the past two years.

To put this in context, we've seen numbers uh for attendance people coming into our building.

Um it's on track to go over 450,000 people this year to come to all five of our library locations.

Uh again, putting that in context, that's almost double those individuals who go to a Tennessee Titans game, and about two-thirds of all those who go to uh volunteer games.

So pretty good numbers right there.

Um the other thing to look at here, um, and what are those other numbers look like uh that are impressive uh are gonna be our program participants.

Uh we are almost at 40,000 program participants.

That's 23% increase from the previous quarter one.

Um and to put that into context, when I first got here, we had about 60,000 total participants for the whole year.

So we're already about two-thirds with one quarter of what we did about two years ago.

So you're seeing lots and lots of growth within the library system, a lot of demand for our programs in particular.

We're also seeing a lot of outreach interactions.

We really put our shoulder behind that.

Um outreach department was formed, it's was zero, now it's two, so it's a small but mighty department, and six thousand plus outreach interactions.

That's a total of 67% increase from last quarter, and to be clear, that's built on a 100% increase from the year previous.

So again, you're seeing compounding growth within the library.

Uh, we have almost 20,000 active digital users, individuals going online using our services and maybe not even coming to the library.

And then we have over a hundred thousand items borrowed.

Uh the good news is these program attendance, this is not just a library trend, this is a Chattanooga public library trend.

Um, a lot of libraries are seeing stagnant or dipping people coming to the library, lowering.

We're seeing actually higher, and then while they are seeing some numbers of growth of programming, not double digits, certainly.

So we're really excited about that.

And the reason for that, very frankly, is all of you.

Um, you invested in our facilities last year by approving the budget, and we thank you so much for your support for that.

Um, you were able to make a lot of that happen.

We were able to do more because we had more folks doing the good work of the Chattanooga Public Library.

So, for example, we had facility staff that were able to help put in a curb cut for the Northgate location, which made the library more accessible and literally reduced obstacles to using the library.

We had some tripping hazards out there.

Those outreach numbers are again, we put an outreach specialist within there, so we expect those numbers to continue to go up because we have more again horsepower behind that.

And then upcoming is a social worker role.

The library is seeing more and more folks needing social service support.

We've went from one UTC intern to three UTC interns.

And the what happens with them is they come for a semester or two, then leave.

We need someone to consistently be a contact for these individuals and build trust.

So we're really excited about that.

Many times people go to the library when they're in crisis.

We're able to help you with the job application or apply for LIHEAP, which we'll talk about later on.

But our staff is just not equipped to be able to help people with the social services that we're seeing an increase in.

So we're excited to see that role and the impact it could have.

So at the end of the day, it's not just the usage, but that investment in the Chattanooga Public Library is access, safety, and reach of the Chattanooga Public Library.

And we thank you for that.

So the rest of our presentation is going to be talking about our strategic plan.

We've given you a copy, a paper copy of that plan.

It's gonna be a website that's gonna go live here tomorrow.

Our board has approved that plan, but you are the first folks to be able to see it out in the public, out in the wild, so you're on the inner loop.

To be clear, this plan is a philosophical and visionary plan.

Um it's ironically a pretty quick read from the library for a strategic plan.

Uh but uh we will have one-year goals, at least two goals for every single one of the five focuses we have, and that's gonna allow us to be consistent in our values, what we care about, what we want to put our shoulder behind, but also nimble and agile enough to be able to pivot based off you know anything that happens.

So we think it's kind of the best of both worlds in that way.

I'll go through each of these five areas and tell you a little bit about where we're headed and what we're doing.

Uh, the first area of focus, and if if it looks familiar, it's actually the same uh five areas of focus that we talked about last time at the March 11th update.

First area of focus is gonna be lowering barriers to access.

The big thing we did here was actually going fine-free for all our materials.

Last year we went fine-free for use materials, and we haven't seen any statistical change within the return date or the number of items returned.

So it hasn't really impacted anything in that way.

People are still returning their items, no worries there.

Um if you ever want to believe in people, work at the library, people do what they you're supposed to do if you ask them very nicely.

Um the other thing is we think the resources of the Chattanooga Public Library are much more valuable in the hands of people rather than uh the small amount of fines and fees we collect from them.

So while $20 may not seem like a lot to you or I if you forget to check out those 20 kids' books, and I have more than that, and I've had fines in the past too.

Um that may just be a smile inconvenience, but for some folks that can literally box them out the library and keep them from using them.

And some of those folks need our library the most.

Two, we want new and improved facilities.

Um the good news is about 50 years ago, the uh our community put a lot of big investment within the library, building uh three different locations within about five years.

Um the downtown library, Northgate, and East Gate.

The bad news in about buildings last about 50-ish years.

Uh, the downtown library looks like a fort, it's also built like a fort, so it's doing pretty well, but our Northgate and Eastgate locations are charitably at the end of their life right now.

So we need to replace or renovate those.

Other thing we need is we know we need an expansion of our library system, uh, 37421, East Brainerd.

Uh, we definitely know we need one there.

We've heard time and time again, all our research has shown that we need a location out there.

Um, for the past 15, 10 years, that's all the studies have shown that's what we should have.

It's a growing area as well.

And literally, the community has asked that in our PA survey, it was the second most requested thing they wanted.

The first was a pickleball court.

Maybe we'll be able to do both.

How about that?

Um, and then we've also seen an increased use need for uh space in our virtual world.

People have gone away from offices, but they still need an occasional place to meet with a client, um, do an online interview, something like that.

So we are actually uh getting a meeting room for checkout for people to use.

They can use their library card to have a space they can check out.

Um, we're gonna see how that works.

I think we're doing like a four to six size one to kind of gauge the interest.

If there's more, we will continue to provide more based off the responsiveness of the community.

Third area of focus is gonna be outreach, and I'm gonna remind you again Poppy, closer to City Hall, didn't get the best parking spot, is gonna be down the road there.

There it's Poppy in the background.

Um, it's not a book mobile, but more of an outreach mobile.

It's a full small library that has programs, activities, um, of course, books at the back as well, too.

You can make cards.

Um it's really a great way for us to be geographically diverse in our outreach.

We really want to meet people where they're at.

The field of dreams days of if you build it, they will come or gone.

We have to actively go out and meet our community where they're at.

Um, so that's really critically important to us.

Um, while we'd love to have a library in every single district, uh, our budget may say otherwise, we'd be happy to talk to you guys about that if you'd like to.

Um, but uh we want to be good financial stewards and still ensure that every single part of Chattanooga has library services actively being delivered to it.

Um so with that in mind, we want three or more outreach events per district.

We're gonna hit that uh beginning of the calendar year, so we're gonna increase that going forward.

And the other area of focus is on senior engagement.

Seniors are often overlooked and have more trouble coming into the library, so we want to again meet them where they're at, and we want a 15% increase in those intentional um senior outreaches.

Partnerships and collaboration.

Uh this is one maybe me near and dearest to my heart.

I really think we all work better when we all work together.

Um, you may know about a read and ride program where we partner with Carter to offer uh no cost bus passes to any student in Hamilton County.

We're seeing about a little under 400 people a day use that.

Um we saw actually in the last two or three months, we've seen a 20% increase of number of people using that, and 40,000 total people using that uh in since the inception.

Um but we're also working with Carta to have a shuttle that connects Westside residents to library once a month.

We're getting a special charter bus to come out to the west side, and while it's not so physically far away from uh the library, it is under a bridge.

There's not great infrastructure as it goes there, and we want to be really intentional to the Westside residents that you belong here, and we want you in the library, and we hope you use it.

We've just had one.

We had about 20 individuals use that, and they were very excited, and they said they're gonna bring a friend next time.

So hopefully we continue that partnership with our great partner Carta.

Um, you may know about our YMCA partnership where we uh our summer we are every single library location was a summer feeding site.

Um, and then all year round our Avondal and downtown libraries are summer feeding sites, particularly important with again, not SNAP benefits, just coming back, but particularly important, uh highlighted recently.

But we also partnered with our great partner, the YMCA on a library fitness kit, which is basically a kind of workout in a bag for lack of a better term.

One of them has like bands, resistance bands, it has some dumbbells in it, so it's a little heavy.

It even has combat ropes, which are those crossfit ropes you see, and I learned a new word when we put these together combat ropes.

Um and we're really happy to check those out to our community so people can try that or decide they want to join the Y instead.

Um and then we just don't look outward for partnerships, we also look inward.

Uh the Office of Family Empowerment, uh, they took the lead on this, they were proactive.

Um, has seen LIHEAP, and if you don't know, Lightheap is essentially a program that helps folks with um funding for winter warming, keeps people's houses warm during the winter.

Um, has gone all digital this year.

So before in the past, it was on paper.

Um for many of the folks who use LIHEP, lower social economic status, older folks, they're not uh as digitally proficient.

Office of family empowerment was proactive, got on top of this, contacted community development in the library, and said, Hey, how can we work together on this?

They gave us training, they came to our all staff meeting, and they even send staff members to the library.

When we've had over 300 individuals since November 1st come to the library, and to be clear, this is about an hour and a half and two hour process for someone who knows how to work a computer well.

So we're really proud of that, and it makes a big difference to help support our community.

Um we see better outcomes when we all work better together, and I think you can see that from here.

I know I'm going long on time, so I'm gonna quick up go here.

Uh, expansion of Beyond Books.

Uh, you heard about our workout in a bag.

Uh we also have added a toy library to the mix, so enriching uh educational toys are now checkouttable, and they're very, very popular.

Um so we've added that, and we're gonna continue to add more uh unique things to the collection to surprise and delight people.

And we're also making it so those collections can go to each branch.

So we just don't want it our downtown library.

Every single library location is special and deserves those services at them, so we're working hard to make them more accessible by being portable.

In long and time, we always have lots going on, and I'd always love to invite you for a conversation about what we're doing in the future and how we can work together.

But the big thing I want to highlight from this slide is the downtown library's 50th year anniversary.

Save the date, October 17th is gonna be the big day, the birthday, turn the big five-zero.

So come on down, we'd love to see you then.

Lots of other stuff going on.

Um, but with that, I just want to say thank you so very much.

Again, Poppy's gonna be out over there.

I hope you get some time during that 45 minute break to come on down, check it out.

Otherwise, I just want to thank you for your investment in support of the Chattanooga Public Library, and I'd be happy to take any questions you may have.

Thank you very much.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Thank you so much, uh, Madam Chair.

Will as always I'm just so excited about the library and all the work that you do.

I just want to say good job.

I mean, because they said it all the game.

Thank you.

Regular of day, uh, get a chance to go out and be with your staff in the community.

So I'm excited to go.

Disty Sam.

You're gonna have a class with Sam.

Yeah.

And uh just thank you.

Because you can always a little touch and go a couple years ago.

But now you all are rocking and rolling, and I'm excited about the work that you're doing on a shoe string budget at that.

Thank you very much.

So we appreciate you, and your entire staff.

So, madam chair, thank you.

I have a great, great team.

Thank you.

Councilman Harvey.

Yeah, I just want to echo the same thing.

Will you're awesome.

Uh, appreciate everything you do for the library.

You're killing it.

I mean, it's just it's great.

Um, a proud library card holder.

My wife and myself, um, and we spent I spent a little bit too much time in the genealogy section.

Older I get, the more old people stuff I do.

Genealogy is one of those things.

So great genealogy section.

Yes.

Um, the floor there where you have the different exhibits is super neat.

Um, I mean, there's just awesome things going on at the library.

So thank you.

And uh I just wanted to uh say that you and I are working towards uh having a library branch in District 4, so thank you for your work and more will will come.

Um, but you know, I've just thank you for uh for helping us out and we'll get there.

Thank you, absolutely, and we're working on it, and my staff makes me look really good.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Looks like that's all our lights.

So I'll just add one thing with the travel that I did in October.

I got a Kindle for my birthday, and so I've been using some of the digital collections more and getting to appreciate those.

And also the audiobooks that you can get, like on the way on a car trip to be able to download those is pretty terrific.

So thanks so much for the appreciate y'all.

All right, now economics.

I will hand the chair over to Chairman Elliott to lead our economic development committee.

Thank you.

Appreciate all right.

Can I get a motion on minutes?

All right.

Welcome to our economic development committee.

Uh we have a couple things on the agenda today.

The first being we're going to hear a presentation from Ms.

Sharita Allen, Mayor Senior Advisor for Economic Development to discuss some of the updates revolving the Dwarfgate Mall in the Higson Infrastructure TIFF, as well, excuse me, and the um impact plan, as well as their sales tax solution.

So following that, we'll have some conversations about resolutions that were presented revolving around helping folks in the time of the government shutdown.

But Miss Allen, it is all yours.

Good afternoon, council.

Look forward to giving you an overview of infrastructure, not nearly as exciting as the library and all of its offerings, but but for economic developers, we love infrastructure.

So here we are.

Perfect.

And so I want to start by just revisiting how we got to the point we are right now.

As a reminder, the city of Chattanooga's TIFF policies provide for a multi-step process when it comes to evaluating TIFFs.

So we have been through the top five steps.

We added this particular overview just to provide an additional level of explanation as we head into the sales tax item, and then we have one more vote that's set for December 2nd.

And then the final sort of you know thing that happens when you put a TIFF in place is a development agreement.

That happens with the Industrial Development Board.

So once the city council decides to uh vote on the proposed TIFF, the TIFF district, the addition of the sales tax from then it goes to the IDB, and they have a development and finance agreement with that.

So let's go back to the problem.

What are we solving?

So we got here because we're looking at um tax increment financing.

Again, it's an economic development tool that's authorized by the state of Tennessee to provide funding for infrastructure that has a public benefit.

In this case, the developer approached the city with a request for funding to replace and upgrade uh 50-year-old sewer stormwater and water infrastructure that benefits both the mall, the core mall, and 13 private property owners that are on the perimeter of the mall.

If you look at this slide, the total projected project costs are $8,935, and 537 dollars.

You'll see the breakout here between the stormwater, the sanitary sewer, and then the waterline infrastructure.

And again, the purpose of replacing the infrastructure is the property currently is working on outdated systems.

They're not failing, but they're not in a position where additional highest and best use development can happen with the existing outdated infrastructure.

So again, limited in the type of economic development that could potentially happen.

And the goal is to replace the infrastructure to build a better product, better and higher best use towards the end.

And so this uh drawing here again, it's a preliminary drawing that was provided by CBL, and it looks towards what would highest or higher and better use development look like.

And again, it's taking core enclosed mall and breaking that out into walkable town center type development.

We're not the only city in the state that has done this.

There are five other cities across the state that have taken the TIFF tool and used it to redevelop enclosed malls.

What's our interest in it?

Again, we're looking at preserving public health because again, we have private sewer systems serving an owner and 13 other private developers that are tied to sewer systems, accessing private capital.

This is a TIFF that's proposed to be developer backed.

That means the developer developer secures the financing, puts the infrastructure in place, and at that point is reimbursed by the city using the particular tools we're talking about today, and we'll consider on December 2nd.

Accelerating project times timelines, obviously, private developers can work faster than city projects.

Economic development, that goes back to getting the property to a highest and best use.

Again, we've seen declining property taxes, we've seen declining sales taxes as it relates to the enclosed mall.

The goal again, put in infrastructure, build something better, and build and that results or leads to proposed higher taxes, sales taxes, and higher property taxes.

And then the last that relates to those future economic uh future revenue streams.

And again, this is also tied to it's easier to reinvest or redevelop in infrastructure and systems that are already in place versus doing greenfield development.

So for instance, you have mall that's already has roads that supply it, it's got public roads, it's got signaling, it's got all the infrastructure around it already.

That's in place and could be redeveloped versus building on greenfield development.

So let's go into, and I will go over both of the items.

Bless you.

I will go over both of the items individually.

So on December 2nd, um, staff is going to present to council two items for consideration.

The first is the tax increment financing incentive, and again, that's for an infrastructure project, which is very different from our previous TIFS.

So our previous TIFS were for vertical projects that had infrastructure associated with them.

This is straight infrastructure.

And again, it's it's looking at how do we remedy infrastructure that we know at some point will fail.

It's the developer's responsibility, it's not the city's responsibility.

But the developer is asking the city for assistance to replace this infrastructure because there are also 13 other private property owners that are tied to this particular particular system, which then feeds into our public storm sewer infrastructure.

And then the last piece, looking at the fact that there is a TIFF that's proposed, that's related to property tax, and because we are in uh working at an enclosed mall that's looking at declining property taxes over the years, there's not enough future property tax as it is with the existing outdated infrastructure to generate enough property tax increment to pay for the entire project.

And because of that, we're looking at adding on to it the sales tax element, which is new for this council.

Um, and so that would be looking at filling the gap between the cost of the project, the available property tax increment based on the little development that um has come online and is about to come online, and then the future sales taxes that could come in as a result of some of that future and existing development that's happening now.

This is what the items will look like.

Again, you're the the council is recessed tomorrow, so these are not on your your current look-ahead agenda.

And so there are two different documents that you will be looking at.

The first, the economic impact plan, that's a document that puts a TIFF in place.

It sets the boundaries, it sets the base year for taxes, and it sets the sets the maximum property tax increment that would be available for a project.

That would be one vote for consideration.

The second would be an interlope interlocal sales tax agreement.

Again, that one outlines the sales tax capture area and what the baseline sales taxes would be that would be preserved and continue to go into the general fund, and what future proposed future sales taxes would look like and the allocation of those with a cap on those to reimburse for the infrastructure project.

And so let's go back and we'll revisit the sales tax, the sales tax slide, the I'm sorry, the tax increment slide, and I'll talk a little bit about the numbers and then we'll explain those.

And so this is a graphic that we have been using to explain the green is the property tax, the baseline property taxes that are set in place.

And so if we're looking at a proposed tax-based year of 2024, 522,052 dollars is currently flowing into the general fund from this TIFF district, and that will continue to flow throughout the life of the TIFF.

So again, current taxes that are already being paid will continue to be paid.

Those will not flow in.

The incremental taxes, that orange, that's the discretionary.

That's what's at play here is the decision whether that discretionary tax should be used to reimburse for the infrastructure.

So again, if you're looking at these numbers based on a third party economic analysis, that 154,000, that's proposed to be an incremental tax would be available.

Keeping in mind that 154 is that I'm missing a zero there.

Is that final number that we're looking at?

The city has already taken out its debt service, 25% is always taken out for debt service, and there's additional fee that is always removed as well.

So again, incremental revenue comes in, but we make sure debt service is preserved, school taxes are preserved, administrative fees are preserved.

So again, that this is just sort of the graph we've been showing.

And then if you look at how that stair step, that stair step, because as we look at reassessments that happen and growth, additional increment will is proposed to grow if the developer's doing what they're supposed to be doing to grow to grow the area.

And so again, that orange piece, that's what's at play here, keeping in mind the base taxes remained in place.

And so let's just kind of dive into the economic impact plan.

So again, setting the district's priority tax base uh property tax base at 2024.

And again, that's that green number, that 522,000 currently receiving and will continue to receive.

And then if you look at the next one, the proposed 154,000, again, that's the first year increment that's based on the growth that we see happening at Northgate Mall now, the growth that's online and coming online in the next couple of months.

That's where that increment is generated.

And if you take those incremental, that incremental tax growth, again, minus the debt service minus the fees, and that gets calculated out 20 years, you're looking at roughly a $3.3 million TIFF.

Remember, it's an eight $8.9 million dollar project.

We're generating $3.3 million TIFF.

Staff propose this to be a conservative TIFF.

The TIFF district could have been expanded to include other areas, but we felt like it was important to keep it in a smaller district that was manageable.

And so that's where we're looking at that maximum three point that 3.3 that's generated.

Now keep in mind as other development happens within that property and those other properties come online, this number could go up.

That 3.3 could go up and should go up if the developer is actually developing as they say they're developing.

So again, put the infrastructure in place, get additional retailers, you get additional, you get a hotel, you get apartments, whatever you get, if they're generating additional property taxes, that number will grow, which is great for the city, because that means there's less property tax that has to be used if you're at less sales tax that's used if you're pulling from the property tax.

So again, that's sort of that piece.

There have been conversations around why the why the base year 2024 and why not 2025.

Two reasons for that.

We could easily move out the base year to 2025.

And what that would look like is we would have roughly an additional $89,000 on that $522,000 base.

So the base our base would grow up.

I mean, it would go up.

Their increment increment would go down, and it just means on the back end, we're adding another year.

So we're we're shifting it all, we're adding another year on the back end, which means there's more money that the increment, the developer is going to capture on the back end and less money and longer for us to get all of our money back into general fund.

The other piece is related to the reappraisal of the BJs.

So that for instance, the BJs is coming online soon, we know that.

It will be operational.

If it is, and and if we move the tax year to 2025, when it becomes operational, if it is assessed, reassessed in 2025, we lose that increment.

So you've basically lost your increment.

Again, if it's reassessed in 2026, we capture the increment, and it's like nothing has changed.

And so staff is recommending that we stick with the base year of 2024 because the key to this particular TIFF district is seeding the district with a couple of projects that we know will make it successful and generate some increment and generate some momentum to make some things happen.

So those are the two two reasons why we're still looking at and recommending 2024 as a base year for this particular district.

Um let me move on to the BUT 4.

Um Councilwoman Burst did ask for, did we did not waive the BUT 4 requirement?

And as a result of that, the third party reviewer came back and said, you know what?

Based on all the parameters and looking at all the information, the BUT four does exist.

Were it not for these particular public financing incentives, this project probably will not happen.

The developer would be in a negative position if the developer were to undertake the project, which means it's unlikely the developer would undertake replacing $9 million of infrastructure.

Having said that, the next recommendation from the third party reviewer was in order for this to be sort of a standard reasonable rate of return for a commercial real estate project, it should fall anywhere from 20, 12 to 20 percent.

So the third party reviewer recommended anywhere from public financing assistance in the range of 7.7 million to 8.7 million.

Again, recognizing it's an $8.9 million dollar project.

So staff is going to recommend when council considers this item for vote on December 2nd.

Staff is going to recommend that we amend the I EIP.

It currently reads it's 9.2.

And so again, when the developer applied for this particular incentive, all of the documents had 9.2 million in it.

Based on the recommendation coming back from the third party reviewer, we're going to ask that that be amended down to 8.7.

So that's on the EIP.

And again, this is just for the property tax piece.

And because the property tax piece does not provide enough funding, we now move into having a conversation around the local option sales tax piece.

And so I'm going to transition into that slide now.

So I'm going to give a quick overview on the local option sales tax.

And so high level sales tax rate in Hamilton County has two components.

There's a state component that's 7%, and then there's a local portion that's 2.25%.

Local option refers to the state law that provides an option to municipalities to collect up to 2.75% sales tax on top of the state sales tax.

And so the state of Tennessee website has this particular sort of interactive map on it.

And so if you look at it, you can see Hamilton County in at 2.7, 2.25%.

And then you can see two or three adjacent counties that are at 2.75.

And so what happens is businesses collect sales tax, they collect both portions, they remit it to the state, state sends it to the back to the counties, the county portion back to the county, county takes the school taxes out of it and then remits a remainder to the respective cities.

The city of Chattanooga, when they when we get our sales tax piece, our 1.125 remaining piece, that goes into our general fund.

Keeping in mind we've paid the school portions, the other piece goes into our general fund.

And so that's that's a sales tax, that's that's what it is, it's how it's captured, it's where it goes, it goes to our general fund.

For this particular project, we're looking at defining a sales tax area.

So if you've got the entire TIFF district here, and if you look at the items that are outlined in red, I'm calling that kind of the crescent that's at the very bottom of the TIFF district.

That's what the developer is proposing as a sales tax area.

And I and I'll stop here and say the core of the mall is not located in the sales tax area, because at some point, because of that's the enclosed mall, at some point there will be demolition that will take parts of that mall offline.

And because of that, and because of the associated leases, and we don't know the time frame on all of that, the next two to three to four years, that is not included in the sales tax area.

And so let's look at the interlocal sales tax agreement, and we're getting close.

We've got three more slides.

And so again, we're looking to mirror what we did with the EIP on the property tax, and we want to set the base year for 2024.

And so if you look at that, if we were to look at that red area, that sales tax area, the base year for 2024 was $560,000 in sales tax, the $1.125% that went into the general fund, keeping in mind debt services paid, additional fees are paid, this is what's left over, goes into the general fund.

That that will always stay in place, that will never be spent.

That's that baseline.

And then if you want to look at the orange, that's where we're saying the incremental growth is projected to be 540,000.

Again, that's taking out schools, taking out all of those other things.

That's looking at if we were to take the projected incremental growth, take the 1.125% of that based on the third party economic analysis.

This is probably the number we're looking at, a maximum up to.

Again, developer backed TIF, they're going to secure their own financing.

Promising or allocating or approving the use of these particular increments for reimbursement assist them in getting financing for the project.

That's what that but for foot.

Were it not for the pledging of these particular revenues, the developer potentially would not be able to get financing to do the infrastructure project on their own.

So that's kind of where that butt for it comes into place.

And so by the numbers, again, originally the the 9.2 million that was in the original document, that was construction cost plus closing expenses.

So again, we had a butt for analysis done.

It came back and said we're recommending 8.7, so we're going to ask that to come down.

You've got the estimated total cost of the projects, and then you've got limitations on the allocations.

And what that means is basically we're saying property taxes could outperform, sales taxes could outperform.

There's still a cap that we're putting on place that would be available for reimbursement of the particular project.

Project alignment.

So this goes back to just sort of how we got here.

Um and this came up when we were going through the application review process.

One of the application review committee members asked, what prevents any developer from coming to the table and just asking for an incentive, an incentive.

And so what happens is within the economic development sort of ecosystem, and I and it's the chamber and it's River City and it's it's Southeast Tennessee Development District, it's the city of Chattanooga, it's Hamilton County.

We look to these community informed plans when we are working on projects and working with incentives and economic development tools to help make these projects happen.

And so again, we're looking at the one Chattanooga plan related for infrastructure, updating all the outdated infrastructure that we have within the city.

We're looking at sort of the RPA plan.

There's one that was approved in 2003 by then city council, which was related to Northgate, and then we've got a draft plan in Chattanooga for Hicks and Red Bank, which specifically points to redevelopment of Northgate Mall into a walkable town center type format.

And again, I mentioned earlier some of the previous Tennessee enclosed mall projects.

This is what those TIFFs look like.

So Goodlitsville, Oak Ridge, Nashville, Kingsport, again, those TIFFs were used for a variety of things.

One of those malls was actually closed and shuttered for 12 years, and so the owner applied for a TIF, and that TIFF was for demolition.

One was building hotels, uh vertical construction, that TIFF was for again vertical construction.

We have others that were a combination of vertical construction and infrastructure.

So again, this is not a new tool as it relates to enclosed malls.

It's been used throughout the city throughout the state before.

Is here to answer questions?

I've got um Weston Brooks from my team who's been working closely with some of the council members today on answering questions, and so I'm open for questions and look forward to it.

It's been a busy morning with questions.

All right, we got uh quite a few on the board to start with Councilman Henderson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I do have a few questions, so when my time's up, you know, used to cut me off.

Uh does the does the base whether we use 24, 2024, 2025.

Will the base, and I want to make sure we get this on the record, will the base increase any time there is a tax, a property tax increase.

Do you understand my question?

And Mark shaking his no.

I so that base is frozen while everybody else's base is going up.

This is frozen.

Yeah, I want to make it fixed that.

I wanted to make sure I understood that.

Sir, can you stand at the public, please?

Our legal counsel is answering that question.

I'm sorry, that was rude, I didn't mean to be.

I was yeah, the state law freezes the base taxes.

They don't go up with a property tax increase.

Could we adapt the plan to do that or that do it in the development agreement?

Yes.

But legally, the answer is it's frozen based on the year.

And I think that I think that needs to happen.

If everybody else's base is going to go up, I think this base needs to go up with a tax increase.

That this that this or any council for 20 years, that's a pretty long time to have your base frozen.

Um Sharita, I noticed it looked to me like we've increased the size of our sales tax area.

We're we're capturing more sales tax.

I thought I thought we were basically talking about BJs and Culversons, and it looks like to me now we've enlarged that.

Um and you made the statement this is what the developer is proposing.

What are we proposing?

So we are proposing that larger crescent area.

Because state law prohibits prohibits us from pinpointing sales tax from particular retailers or parcels or properties.

And so we would need to grab from a larger district.

We can't just grab from one or two projects.

It would be the equivalent of saying I'm going to grab property taxes from your business.

Well, and then someone would be able to determine the sales from your business.

You or anything.

We create we create the area though for the sales tax, right?

We do create the area, yes, sir.

Which one, two, three, four, there look like there's four separate areas.

We could just pinpoint that one area that captures BJs and Culversons, correct?

Yes, we could.

Okay.

Uh the next thing I had mentioned to you about creating a C bid, because obviously everybody around this loop is going to benefit from this redevelopment.

I mean, from this infrastructure improvement from better infrastructure to hopefully at some point foot traffic because of the development.

Uh I think you had responded with an assessment district.

Is what makes what makes an assessment district in your opinion more beneficial or better than a C bid, and how do you how do you go about assessing who's going to pay what because everybody else's property values I think are going to be increased compared to CBL's properties?

And it would look like to me that the ballot it would be out of balance that CBL would wind up paying less of an amount than the people that are around the or in that loop and have higher property base.

And councilman, if I could to add on to this, Sharita, can you explain the difference between assessment district and a C bid for those who aren't familiar?

Yeah, I can do that.

Yeah, I'm okay.

I'm making that.

Thank you.

I'm bad about getting the weeds, so I'm sorry, but there's about five or six different state laws that allow you to do special assessments.

CBID is just one subcategory.

So when we talk about assessment, CBID is just one type of special assessment.

The more the new statute that you're all almost certainly are going to have somebody come in front of you asking for a special assessment is what everybody's talking about.

That's why probably Sharita mentioned the special assessment.

That likely would not work here because every single property owner would have to join in the petition has to be unanimous.

So off all of the property owners would have to come to you all and say, yes, please tax me.

And it's probably not real likely that for the special assessment district.

For it's actually called an infrastructure development district.

The legal term is that what we're calling those as opposed to C bid.

And yeah, approach that C bid, there's two ways to create a special C bid.

You have one downtown.

I worked on this years ago where we amended that law to basically you can have C you can have 20 C bids in Chattanooga now if you should show two.

So you put one every single sort of commercial area.

Um but that one too, the C bid law is a little bit antiquated.

You either 50% of the property owners based on assessed value have to ask for it, or basically you guys have to cram it down their throat.

So you have those two alternatives.

If you wish to create a C bid, that's certainly I I promise Shrida, and I'm sorry, uh Councilman Henderson, I don't have it to you yet, but I'm glad to I can walk you through this.

You okay here are the steps that you would if you want to create a C bid, but basically you all it's it'd be difficult for them to get the 50% threshold quickly to create a C bid.

You all would probably have to impose that upon them if you should show choose to be able to do that.

And if I can, sir so we're clearing finance for everybody.

Yeah.

A C bid, the process to put a fee or some type of financial levy over a particular geographical area is one that either 50% of the business owners will have to agree to, or that governing body been council would have to impose.

And a special assessment district is one that X amount of the owners would have to agree to participate in.

Is that correct?

Um that always a good summary, except a C bid is just one type of special assessment.

It's yeah, it is it is a special, it's not a fee.

It's basically that's the difference between the two things we're referring to, correct?

Yeah, okay.

I just want to make sure everybody's saying that we summarized it really well, but it's it's uh a C bid is just one type of special assessment.

You have to create a special assessment management corporation, a C bid, so you got to get people to serve on that, and then um and and there's two type more than again, there's two types of C bid.

There's also another antiquated statute that that you could we could possibly use again that but you for this purposes, those are for a special assessment for councilman Henderson, yeah.

You wanted to know the the uh the virtue of the one over the other, is that correct?

Yeah.

Well, I had proposed to Sharita a C bid, and she had responded with the special assessment district.

Okay, but it sounds like in this case a special assessment district.

Well, yeah, and I was gonna not be applicable or there's one last statute.

There is there's a pure special assessment district that could be applicable.

You all would have to agree unanimously to impose it on them.

It's uh very protective of the property owners.

So if any of you all decide you don't want to vote for it, it would not allow that to be imposed.

So it has to be a hundred percent on of this body.

This body.

Yes.

Okay.

It was intended to be very protective of property owners that you couldn't cram down special as it's not that it's the easiest fit for this because you don't have to create this special corporation to run it.

The C BID, we'd have to create a special corporation, but that one would be easier to impose if you so should choose to do that.

Well, when you say a special corporation, you're just basically meaning a committee.

No, it's actually they call it a corporation.

It is called a corporation.

Yes, yeah.

You could tell the IDS nicely, the IDB to do it.

I had some language that says you could the IDB can serve in that purpose, but they are separately incorporated.

Okay, okay.

And then the and then the last thing is uh the water infrastructure.

Um if I feel like that we haven't explored all the avenues with the water companies that we have in Chattanooga to say, yeah, we want to include that in this 9.8.

Well, I guess we're lowering that now to 8.7.

Um I would like to do a little bit more homework and research, uh, Shreita, for the administration to see if we can't uh have that funded separately or differently from the from the TF in the sales tax.

Um I I am looking into that.

I have one other council person that was concerned about the water lines as well.

Okay.

And and I do want to reiterate when when we talked about higher taxes, like if taxes go up, everyone's still paying, everyone's paying whatever the higher rate is you earlier when you when you when you were talking about the freezing of the taxes.

Well, I was referring to the to the base.

Okay, got it.

I mean, I'm assuming well, I no, I mean I'm assuming but from what Mark is saying that we would have to include the provision for that base to increase as property taxes increase.

Because basically what we're saying is this was the property tax for 2024, that's the base.

Correct.

But I don't, my opinion, I do not think it should be frozen there for 20 years.

They should be subject to the same increase in property taxes.

Everybody else in Chatter.

Mr.

Councilman, um, I think Phil just clarified this for me as well.

Yeah, according to Phil, I don't know if you want to say this, but if there is a property tax increase levied, uh, all of the owners will have to pay that new rate.

But we would receive everything from that base amount, that 521.

What is this, Rita?

522.

522.

The city will receive the 522, and any additional revenue would go to pay off the increment, if that makes sense.

So, Phil, you can clarify if I got to do that wrong.

One minor qualification of that, if you don't mind, is that 25% of the growth goes to the city.

So you will capture 25% of that growth through the under the plan, but 70 for 5% of the increase would go to the increment of 25% of the code.

But it would help us capture some growth.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, I didn't say that clearly the first time, but it will you would capture 25% of the growth through the plan because you're retaining 25%.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, and uh Srida.

Piggyback off on off that really quickly.

Is it possible to um if there's an increase in revenue for the increment, is it possible that this could be paid off quicker than a 20-year allotment?

That's the whole, that's the goal, yeah.

That's the goal.

Okay, so make sure.

All right.

Well, let me and let me follow up with that.

Go ahead, council.

So it's either uh I lost the screen there.

Um it's it's either 8.7 million.

Is that what is that what the EIP was?

Yeah, it's either 8.7 or 20 years, correct?

Mark shaking his head, yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

There's a county.

Because you made a statement.

You made a statement earlier.

If we use the 2025, it puts another year on the back end.

Well, that's if we're moving, if we're if we're if it's a 20-year TIFF and we're moving the start year, I got okay.

I see what you're saying.

Then we're ship, we're just moving.

We're not adding another year to the TIF.

We're just oh thank you for that correction.

Yeah, you were shifting the years of the start.

Okay, okay.

Uh next up, we have Councilman Davis.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So I have a statement, a couple questions, and another statement.

For sure, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so um glad Councilman Henderson mentioned about um kind of the water aspect of the project.

Um, so y'all will recall when we first had our uh initial discussion about this, um, that I serve also on the board of commissioners for Hickson Utility District.

So when we're talking about reaching out to water companies, that would be the one that's in their their service area.

Um, and at that point, we weren't looking at any sort of financial contribution from the water company.

Um, and so there was no conflict.

Um I'm not sure exactly what we're looking at now moving forward, uh, but just wanted to assure the council that if there's any deliberations about any involvement by Hickson Utility District, I'll certainly recuse myself from that.

And of course, if there's any vote um related to that as well, um I certainly don't want to do anything that would jeopardize any of the the work that the city's doing here.

So just wanted to give that legal disclaimer again here on the front end.

So um, Sharita, for those of us who are newer to council, can you give us an idea of how this TIFF compares to previous TIFS that the city has done in terms of the overall cost and the scope of it?

I I will say that of the of these six TIFS that we currently have in place, all of them are compliant and performing with the exception of one TIF.

Um that and that's the TIFN East Chattanooga rising.

That's that's staff's next area of focus.

We currently have an RFP out for those parcels.

We're currently talking to developers about future development.

I was in a community meeting last night, I was in one last week.

Um and that one honestly, it we just haven't had because it was a project that didn't have a developer leading the charge, it left City at the table running things, and honestly, step we dropped the ball on that one.

You know, we just we just didn't give it the attention that we needed to.

So that's that's our next focus.

We're heavy in on East Chattanooga Rising.

All of the other ones have performed to date, they're doing exactly what they're supposed to do.

So if there's a TIFF and the first two phases are supposed to be infrastructure, they're building infrastructure.

If it's a stiff, a TIFF and they're supposed to be doing vertical development that's funding the infrastructure, that has happened.

All of the we have five were increments coming in.

I'm sure you saw the county auditors report on TIFFS.

That came back.

There were one or two items that were not correct in that report, so we'll correct that.

But that basically said our TIFS are performing as they were designed to perform.

This one again is different in that it is straight infrastructure.

And so it's a different animal, and how we talk about it is a little different because we're basically saying we need to replace the stuff that's underground so we can build stuff above ground.

And we're not sure what the above ground stuff is going to be.

But first, we know we've got to do the below ground stuff.

And so that's very different from saying, here's this complex, or here's a community center, or here are these other things that we're building, and the infrastructure is part of that.

So we're comfortable with where we are with our existing TIFFs.

I think I did mention to council last time we are looking at economic development software to help us track all of that because we we have multi-millions of dollars tied up in TIFFs and we need to be managing that and managing those projects in a in a more proactive, a more proactive way.

That answered one of your questions.

I think you had three in there, and I forgot the other two.

Well, what I was really trying to get at is just in terms of guess the dollar amount of city tax funds that are going towards those other TIFFs, how this one will compare compared to you know the whether it be the stadium or the bend, where it kind of ranks in terms of that.

I I think that's a difficult question to answer because again, it's for infrastructure.

And we won't we won't know until until the developer starts to produce other projects that happen as a result of the infrastructure.

And then in your presentation, I think we got screenshots of the actual economic impact plan and the sales tax agreement.

When will we actually be getting those documents?

We we should be able to attach those today to send those to Nicole so she can distribute it.

Yes, Winston's going to email those to you.

My apologies.

I thought those were going to be attached to the hyperlinks that were on the economic development committee item today on the agenda, and they were not.

Okay, okay.

Um, and just kind of in closing, Mr.

Chairman, I just want to say there's um a lot of excitement in the Higson area for the prospects of this TIFF project.

Um, you know, for years the the Northgate area was kind of the center, not just for kind of commerce, but it was just a gathering place uh for folks in the Hickson community, a real point of community pride.

Um and it's um kind of like all enclosed malls, from what I understand has has fallen by the wayside.

Um and everyone I've talked to really wants to see it revitalized, redeveloped in some way.

And I know there's some question and maybe some concern about what might eventually be developed there, um, and and none of us can kind of predict what that might be.

Um, but for me, I think the bottom line is unless this infrastructure is fixed, nothing meaningful can be redeveloped there, right?

Um and so that's an important piece to me.

Another important piece is if you look at the history of the Northgate area.

So it was uh developed originally before Hickson was annexed into the city, and so typically that infrastructure that was built would have been turned over to the city to maintain all these decades since then, but it wasn't.

Um, and so the property owners have borne all of that expense while the city has you know reaped the property tax and the sales tax revenues from that property.

Um of the industrial development board members um kind of said it best, I think, when he said it only seems right at this point that the city um should get involved now and revitalize this infrastructure to make sure this area doesn't become run down or an eyesore so that it can once again kind of be the center of the Hickson community, whatever that exactly might look like.

Um so I'm just like many of the folks in Hickson.

I'm very excited about this project.

I know I see at least one face in the crowd, Greg Taylor, who is on the industrial development board.

Um Greg is um the president of the largest HOA in Hickson, also involved with Friends of Higson and Kawanis.

Um it was important when I was a selecting a member from our district to be on that um industrial development committee that looked at this project.

Uh I had someone like Greg who's very involved in the community to make sure we're getting the voice of the community, and I feel like we're getting that.

Um again, I would encourage all of you all to come out tomorrow morning to the Friends of Hickson meeting where we'll be talking about this.

Um and if you're not tired of talking about it by then, I'm also having a town hall meeting on Sunday from two to four at the North River Civic Center, which is just a stone's throw from the mall.

So um again, I'm excited about this project.

Um I'll be careful as I said on the front end to uh protect from any conflict of interest, not just on this side, but also on the Hickson Utility District side.

Um and um look forward to seeing this move forward.

You good, Councilman?

Thanks, sir.

Next up, we have Councilman Bellett.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so uh my question is just simple.

I just wanted some clarity because you know sometimes TIFS can get quite complicated.

So I just want to make sure I got all this right for simplicity for me.

The tilt costs eight point nine million dollars, right?

No, the cost of the project is eight point nine million dollars, all right.

And so you're gonna be asking to amend the EIP to 8.7 million dollars.

Is this right?

That is that is correct.

That's based on the third party reviewer, but this council could set the TIFF at 8.9 million.

Okay, you just threw that in there.

I used that's your job.

That's your job.

Okay, so at current though, and I think I heard you say this earlier.

At current, this TIF will only generate 3.3 million dollars.

That is correct.

Okay.

So because that's based on the current projections we have for the existing projects that have recently recently been completed and are currently under under construction and coming online.

Right.

And because of that, only generating $3.3 million, it need a little assistance.

Is this correct?

Okay.

I'm trying to talk talk it out so I can explain to people.

Need a little assistance, a little something.

So our assistance then that you're recommending is the local option sales tax, which is at 1.125%.

That's correct.

Okay.

And the tax base that will be that you're recommending using is the 2024 tax base.

This okay.

And this is a developer-backed TIF, meaning that they will get all the funds and do everything up front, and then we will reimburse them for the $8.7 million that's in, or whatever the council decides to do.

Correct.

Correct.

And then just listening to uh Councilman Davis, which he just made a wonderful uh uh I love I love what you got going on over there.

I love what he just said about um you know, North Gate has been paying taxes, uh, and we have benefited, even though they've decreased, they still have been paying it.

Um CBO has been paying taxes, and we have benefited from those things.

At some point, there needs to be some investments uh into uh the Hickson North Hate area.

So I agree with that.

And then also another point that Councilman Davis made was about the infrastructure itself, because Hickson was annexed into the city of Chattanooga, but the pri the infrastructure is still privately owned.

When this TIFF is done, will it go back, will it turn into public infrastructure at that point?

That is correct.

Well, and so the the portions that will become public will be dedicated, however, to the city.

Okay, well, that's easy for me to explain.

Thank you so much, Sharita.

I appreciate it.

And thank you, Councilman Davis, for the information you provided.

You good, councilman?

Yeah, oh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, thank you.

Chow meal.

Thank you.

Um got a couple housekeeping questions and then a bigger picture vision question.

Um I agree with Councilman Dotley that it's critical that all of our districts get investment in Hickson is is long overdue for investment uh economic development investment like this.

Um that said, it's gotta be the right one, and we've got to get a deal that works for the taxpayers and um that were that works for the taxpayers that works for the people of Hickson and that obviously pencils out fiscally um for the investors themselves.

Um couple couple of housekeeping items.

We talked about the fact that the city will capture 25% of the increment.

And as that increment goes up, we will capture that.

However, based on the projections, what I'm hearing you all say what Mark say and you say is that that 25% is anticipated to be the money to cover the debt and the fees.

With the projection for this economic development growth, do we anticipate any anything of any increment that actually would benefit the city that we would be able to invest in projects of our own?

So that that 25% is for city debt.

It just just to clarify, I want to make sure everyone understands it's not debt associated to this particular project.

It is city that we would use for our city bonds for other things.

And right now, sorry, that right now your city debt percentage is substantially below 25%.

So yes, there is a significant gap between your current debt service percentage and that 25% that could be used for other city needs.

I would be interested to know the projections for how much we would expect over 20 years to be created by that so that we could think about redeveloping the Northgate library.

Okay.

We we actually have those figures so we could we could pull that together.

Because that you know that's something we've allocated money for site search, right?

50 grand, I think for site search.

Um and I think there's been discussion about could a library live within this footprint in some way.

Um what might what what's the cash flow available for something like that within this TIFF district?

Because TIFF increment is typically spent in the TIFF district.

Like that's what it's for, right?

Um okay.

The other piece um just to do a little housekeeping related to the questions councilman Councilwoman Dotley was asking the cost is 8.7 million that we would reimburse plus interest.

Correct.

So the actual cost looks like listed here is expected to be 14.6 million dollars.

Correct, not 8.7 million dollars.

No, 8.7 is a project, and the other is the interest.

And we would be committing the way this is currently going to be proposed to us for a vote to actually pay up to $14.6 million toward this increment toward this investment.

That is correct.

Keeping in mind if it's paid off early, you're not going to the city would not hit that $14 million piece.

Right.

Okay.

Um, so those items aside and the clarity that and I appreciate that for my own decision making.

You know, the thing that's that's sticking with me, counsel and and councilman Davis, is um this is the first TIFF that's come across my desk that is infrastructure only.

And the difference that I see is that when we are looking at the proposal for a pro a TIFF project that's above ground, we set expectations within that economic development package for a certain type of development, right?

Um and if that's going to change, like it did recently with the other TIF that's in uh uh wasn't three and two and now is only in two, you know, they have to come back to us to say, well, we said we were gonna build XYZ, but now we want to build something different.

And the plan Chattanooga draft in 2024 for Hickson and Rick uh uh Sharita has mentioned this a couple times, is that the goal stated by the community is they'd like to see facilitate redevelopment of Northgate Mall and surrounding commercial areas into a compact walkable town center.

And so I can't come to your meeting tomorrow because I have a district two meeting in the morning, but I will be there on Sunday.

But councilman Davis, I would like to understand what does walkable town center look like for the people of Hickson?

What is their vision?

Because what I don't want is for us to move forward with an infrastructure deal and then be disappointed with what comes out of the ground.

Um to that end, you know, you may you I thought was beautiful what you said about how Northgate Mall was for many many years a point of community pride.

What would come out of the ground here that would be a point of community pride that would cause people from other districts to drive into Hickson to have people from municipalities like Saudi Daisy drive into Hickson to go to this area in the way that we have Cambridge Square in District 6 that is a destination, right?

Um maybe that's what Hickson wants, maybe it's not.

Maybe Nixon's like, please don't come.

I don't know.

Um but uh if you could if you could shed a little light on that, and then Rikita, uh not Rakita, I'm so sorry, y'all.

I'm I've had I've taken double migraine meds today.

Um, so I'm not thinking quite straight.

So then Sharita, if you could talk to us um and maybe Mark about what kind of accountability mechanisms we have at our disposal to speak to the vision of the people of Hickson about what they want to see here.

So, first, can you share with us what you're hearing from before we go into that?

I I would like to clarify this, and I want to flash back a little bit to uh something CBL said that I can think it helps set the tone for your question.

I think if I'm telling me if I'm wrong, if they're not able to get this increment or this infrastructure project, there may not be much opportunity for development.

I don't dispute.

And so one second, please.

Um, so I I respect and I'm looking forward to hearing Councilman Davis's response.

I also want to preference that, you know, for me anyway.

This is my perspective, trying to look and see how do we put the the main thing to maintain.

And uh so I just want to put that out there that you know that's something that the developer did set up on the front end.

But councilman Councilman Henderson, are you all right if I hop around?

Yeah, okay.

No, you're good.

I'm about to do this right here.

Okay.

Would you like to go ahead uh councilman?

Um yeah, so thank you for that and for the opportunity to kind of address it.

So, yeah, a development similar to Cambridge Square is something that several folks have um come to me and said that's that's what they'd like to see there.

Um certainly um nobody wants it to be all residential, particularly all you know, multifamily um housing.

Um that certainly wouldn't meet that goal of of having a walkable town center.

Um, but I think some of that in combination with um new retail um entertainment, um, some park space, I think is something that that folks would very much value some some sort of green space in that area.

Um the idea of having the library move from where it currently is on the perimeter um or outside the the ring road, I guess you call it, into that um space is a great idea, and something I've spoken with CBL and and uh Will at the library and others about um and and that would be phenomenal, I think.

Um and and that would be something that would be more like that that town center that folks are are looking to have.

Um does that answer.

Yeah, yeah.

So uh Sharita Um Councilman Davis said you know, Hickson would be looking for a development similar to Cambridge Square, not all multifamily housing, they would be expecting dreaming of a vision of new retail, new entertainment, park space, green space, library.

What accountability mechanisms, if any, do we have within because this is this is all zone CC, which is wide open, you can do just about anything with it.

Um talk to us about accountability mechanisms that we could potentially build into this to help district three achieve their vision.

This would be very similar to the previous tip that came back to this council for an amendment.

What was listed in their agreement, they were not able to meet, so they asked for an amendment.

When we get to the development and financing, the development plan that happens at the IDD, that's that's where that is set.

So the documents that we have would not have language related to um new retail entertainment parkspace, green space library, that would come at the IDB.

That could be included in the economic, the economic impact plan as well.

We could include it in the economic impact plan.

Okay.

And so if my attorney's saying no.

Because we're infrastructure.

Okay, yeah, let's go.

But yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but I was worried the economic impact plan is not a contract, so we can put all kind of stuff in it, but it doesn't bind the developer in the least.

It's just uh it's what authorizes the increment.

This is gonna be a very interesting development agreement because of the issues you're asking, um, or exactly where it's gonna be challenging, is this is a five to ten year build out of this mall into something else.

This and I've worked on all the other models that you saw.

I've seen some of them have their plan totally ready to go.

They don't have that yet, but they know what the dream is, and getting them to say this is our dream, working with Hickson to try to achieve it, and it'll certainly have some negative uses.

I mean, if if this is not approved, they really have the real incentive just to flip the remainder of the ball and just say, look, it's just not worth this.

And so you could end up with storage facilities and things like that, is just not gonna be good for Hickson, but they're not ready to commit that we'll move the library, things like that.

We're gonna have to try to reach a common ground like this is our aspiration.

Like this is our aspiration.

This is a it gives the city a seat at the table on what this will the redevelopment will look like.

And otherwise, they again CBL has been a great partner on this.

I mean, we butted heads pretty hard from time to time, but you're very lucky that you have a really national quality developer who's willing to try to make something here, I think.

And so um, but the development agreement will be where the accountability is, but will it be thou shalt build this, thou shalt build that.

I mean, I don't think we have a plan or they don't have a plan yet.

I don't think the city does, like, okay, we want greenways here, we want the library to go here.

It's gonna have to be something wider than that that will be revisited constantly, and we got to develop that mechanism for revisiting it for and constant reporting.

So, Mark, the development agreement will come out of which body?

IDB.

The development agreement will come out of the IDB.

Yes.

And the development agreement is a binding document that ties to this TIFF agreement.

Yes.

So frankly, I find what I have heard about the vision of the people of Hickson for this property to be much more exciting, livable, enjoyable, then the vision that I have thus far seen from the applicant for this site.

I find the applicant's vision for this site to be very practical.

And uh we have to balance those two things.

I think when we're making a 14.6 million dollar investment in public dollars or something.

Uh so and this right now, this land is zone C C.

So once the without language council in this development agreement, once this property is is rehabbed underground with these utilities, it can become feasibly a blank slate that that could be any number of things in CC.

And if you've got your uses in C C and would require no rezoning and no convers you said, you know, start a conversation with the people of Hickson.

No, not the way, not the way legally it is written right now, because they can do just about anything by right.

And that's fine with me if that's fine with the people of Hickson.

But I get an impression that the people of Hickson have a vision and want to maintain some level of ownership over the way the culture of their community continues to evolve.

Um so help me understand, Mark, what latitude we have within the development agreement for the type of conditions that we might typically put on a PUT or on a rezoning, or on uh a pilot with a community benefits agreement where you are required to have conversation with the community.

Tell me about that.

I definitely think we could include conversations with the community.

The person the process of developing the vision is something that could definitely be included.

Now, I'm not talking to the CBL folks about it.

They may say, Mark, you're crazy, we're not gonna agree to that, but I mean that would certainly be part of it.

We have talked about negative use.

I my sense from talking to them is that they would be glad to do that.

My um we've already talked about negative uses.

If you put this amount of public investment in there, as you just pointed out, the zoning is very broad.

There are certain things, but without an upgraded sewer and water system and stormwater system, there's just not adequate capacity to do things that require significant amounts of water and things like that.

More, you know, and so it it would the kind of uses that would likely end up there without this, you know.

But they are do we have a definite definite list yet?

No, but they are open to realizing that if there's this big public investment, they can't then turn around and no disrespect for storage, but it's just a good example that it uses no utilities to speak of.

And so I mean, you could have the biggest storage center complex in Hamilton County sitting out there in the in the where Northgate Mall is.

You absolutely could.

And I think you know, there's there's negative uses that we say these are the things that are not allowed.

And I think there were and I think what the what I'm hearing about the people of Hickson is they there are positive things, they they would like to talk about the vision, the what we would like in the same time that there's the what we don't want, right?

But I guess my dream what we hope for is I think a really important community conversation to have and have mechanisms to be able to protect them for that in this agreement.

I totally agree, and I'm kind of excited to try to draft something that can accomplish what you're talking about, their practicalities, but the need to, if we're putting this big public investment, how do we how do you facilitate the community having a seat at the table in exchange?

And so the development agreement, because it lives at the IDB, that then those conditions then become the work of the IDB to to get that document.

We certainly can make the city a third-party beneficiary if and into the document, but typically it would just be the the IDB would have the enforcement uh rights to um to be a default uh if they don't.

But the development agreement goes across their desk, not across our desk.

Right.

I mean, it's a public document though that you would have access to comment on and things like that, but they're the ones that are a party to it.

All right, thank you.

That's all I need, Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

All right.

Uh Council, we have two more folks.

Councilman Henderson can get your light, and then I have hold on, give me one second.

I had to tell my TIFF attorney, don't go anywhere.

Can you hit your light for me?

Uh Council Harvard.

Okay, Councilman Harvey, I'm gonna put us on the three-minute time limit.

I'm gonna I'm gonna be quick.

Okay.

Uh I I agree with what uh Chairwoman Hill has been saying.

Um, I I'd love to support this.

Um to see Northgate, you know, what it once was.

So let me let me uh start by saying that.

Um, but if the city of Chattanooga is going to potentially invest 14.6 million dollars, I want to make sure that we're not gonna get four multifamily buildings in a strip club.

I mean, I'm just you know, um no offense to any strip club owners in the building.

Um but uh so I I I don't I would like some more clarification on if there is some sort of limitations that we can put on this to ensure that it is something that meets the uh standards of not only the the citizens of Hickson but uh the the city of Chattanooga.

So um I I do want some more clarification on that, please.

Thank you.

You good, councilman?

I'm good.

And I'll say this, and then Councilman Henderson will go to you.

Uh council, I will say this, you know, while this project involves taxpayer dollars that we all need to be comfortable with in order to allow our vote.

I think the in my opinion, this is just me, the talks about what does a community look like to develop, that's a different conversation.

I tell my folks in my district all the time, development's not always uh something to be scared of as long as it makes sense to your community.

And this community is represented by a council person, and I think we have to heed his direction as to where he's trying to take his district as to far as what that looks like.

And I know at least for me, I will follow your lead because they represent they voted you in.

Uh, just like I'll ask others to allow our district of District 9 to be uh developed accordingly.

Councilman Henderson, and then we're gonna move on.

Thank you.

Uh to some of your newer council members, it's been my experience on this council that if it's not in writing, yeah, that's happening.

So that's just my two cents there.

I agree with what I agree with that.

Yeah.

Um speaking of things in writing, I think I had mentioned before about being in the development agreement that CBL would maintain ownership throughout the build out of the infrastructure.

I I know there's a transfer clause in there, but I would like to see them see out the build out of the infrastructure.

What's the difference um in revenue that we would receive uh between the 2024 base and a 2025 base?

The difference is roughly 89,000.

We we would receive another 89,000 a year.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Good.

Uh Ms.

Attorney.

Uh yes.

Um Sharita, in my spare time, I also represent the industrial development board as well as the city of Chattanooga.

And I thought I was promised a while back, Mark, a document, at least y'all were going to send us about sales taxing.

And we haven't seen that yet.

Okay.

Betsy said she was going to send it to me, but I have not seen it.

I mean, uh not embarrassed to it's in your email.

You have it.

It just came uh a couple of three hours before this meeting, just so that uh I sent you the draft of the sales tax agreement and uh our memo analyzing why it's legal.

So you you you you have it, but I knew it was a busy day, and I apologized in my email.

So I now can apologize to you in person.

That's wonderful.

I'm glad to have it today.

You've got Mr.

Justin.

Just in time.

All right, Sharita, Mark, thank you both for taking the time to connect with us.

Moving on for the sake of time, uh the last little bit for this committee.

We have two resolutions that are going to be on our agenda today.

Uh I pushed up both of them evolving our stop gaps to try to help families that have been effective from the federal shutoffs and typically SNAP benefits.

Council, I plan on making amendments to these resolutions tonight, starting the what with the one that um uh related to uh shutoffs, water shutoffs related to unpaid sewer bills.

I'll be removing the following, and I'll quote either a federal uh funding for snap benefits resumes or B any federal government shutdown ends, whichever comes first.

I will be replay removing those and replacing it uh with uh January fifteenth.

So I'll be looking to uh hold off our disconnects until January fifteenth.

The thought behind this, just because federal government funding is back on does not negate the hardships people have been put in, right?

You know, too many families have found themselves having to rob Peter to PayPal over these last forty-five, however many days while folks are watching and play politics with people's lives.

And with the holidays coming up and people trying to get back on their feet, that does not happen often.

And if you have ever been uh in a position where you've been broke and have a little paycheck to paycheck, you know, once you get a little influx of cash, life doesn't become normal immediately.

So I'm looking to put off uh disconnects until January fifteenth.

And for our uh resolution that involves EPB doing all they can to help our uh residents at this time.

I'm asking to remove the following, and I quote the snap uh suspension, and I'm looking to replace it with the following, the federal government reopening uh and the transitions to come in the coming weeks to follow.

I'll make sure the city attorney has that, but I'll be announcing those amendments from the floor for your consideration.

Anyone else?

All hearts and minds clear.

Any on breakdown?

All right, madam chair, when are we looking to return?

So forty-five minutes, so that would be six thirty.

We're recessed at six thirty.

Thank you.

All right, we've done the minutes.

We've done the attorney clock.

Good.

Okay, we are back in session.

Um before we move into our voting, I do want to remind everyone that we will be off next week for Thanksgiving, and we will be returning on the second of December.

Madam Clerk, will you please we have no ordinances on final reading?

Will you please read um item 8A?

An ordinance of Man and Channel City Code Chapter 11, Article 7, junk, and second hand dealers, section 11 to 16 definitions.

Thank you, Council.

Can I get a motion?

Sorry.

Thank you, Council.

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

Do you have any comments or questions?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item B.

In orderness closing and abandoning a portion of the unopened right away in the 7400 block of Sonya minus detail on the attachments sub certain conditions.

Thank you.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Hit your light if you've got any questions or comments.

Seeing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes.

Item C.

In ordinance closed again, abandoning the unused rail right away of a former narrow gauge rail road operated as part of the city's railway system in 200 block of North Ortonab as detailed on the attached maps.

Okay.

Councilwoman, Vice Chairwoman Null.

Thank you.

Just want to make note that this says railway system.

Okay.

So I make a motion to approve.

Okay, council.

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

Do you have any other questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item D.

An ordinance closing and abandoning a portion of unopened alley in the 2200 block of East 19th Street as detailed on the attachment map subserve conditions.

All right, council.

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

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item E.

In order to amend Chattanooga City Co.

Part 2, Chapter 38 zone Gordon is so as to resonate property located at 2802 Curtis Street from RN15 residential neighborhood zone to T R and 2 zone.

Thank you.

Is the applicant present?

Is there any opposition present?

Vice Chairwoman Noel, this is in your district.

How would you like to proceed?

I want to make a motion to defer until December the second.

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item F.

In order to amend Channel Chattanooga City Copart 2, Chapter 38 zone warness.

So let's to revone property located 2003.

Traditional neighborhood residential zone subject certain conditions.

Thank you.

Is the applicant present?

Is there any opposition present?

Vice Chairwoman Null, I see an applicant, but I do not.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see.

Thank you.

Good to know.

Okay.

Um, so we will give the applicant seven minutes to discuss the project.

And then we will allow the opposition nine minutes to share their feelings, and then you will have a two-minute rebuttal time, sir.

If you'd like to come up.

Hi there.

My name is DJ.

I work for the uh developers.

And um we're trying to get this rezoned to residential condos.

And prior to this, we were trying to get um men of valor, which is like a rehab type uh uh uh uh what do you call that uh place there?

But I think the council vote was opposed to that.

And then that didn't go through because they didn't get funding for it because they had to get funding for that.

Um now we're trying to build condos there because we are trying to save the building instead of getting it demolished.

Um I mean, it would help us if we can get it rezoned so that we can move along with the process of trying to build condos there.

Okay, thank you.

Do you have anything else to say right now?

No.

Okay.

All right.

Um, those of you who are here in opposition to this project, you can come up.

Um, and if it looks like we maybe only have one person, which means you will get a full nine minutes, ma'am.

Oh you don't have to use the full nine minutes, but you may.

Um so we've got nine minutes on the clock, and then after you speak, we will give the applicant two minutes rebuttal time.

So each person each group would have nine nine minutes total.

Um please state your name and your district for the record.

Uh my name is Marissa Schramm, and I'm in district six, but I'm here to talk about district eight.

Okay.

Am I available?

Yeah, you're allowed to speak.

We just have to have it for our records.

Okay, thank you.

Um good afternoon.

My name is Marissa Schramm.

Um my family has been a part of this city's growth in a myriad of ways.

My mother, uh, her name is Dorothy Lee Grisham.

She served the community, protecting homes and community assets for almost 50 years.

My grandfather um owned a shop on Fraser Avenue in the 50s.

My father helped open Eastgate Mall and Hamilton Place Mall with the Sears and Roebuck Company.

Uh my uncle is a rural builder around Rising Fawn in Trenton.

I feel like I'm a child of Chattanooga.

My very first job at 18 years old was with Moses Freeman in the Department of Neighborhood Services.

He was my very first employer and my very first mentor.

May he rest in power.

In the summer of 2000, it was my job to drive around Chattanooga around this beautiful city in a car with no air conditioning in a big old piece of paper, checking out uh learning zoning codes, checking appropriate land use, and learning the difference between development for a community and development that simply happens to a community.

Twenty-five years later, after Fight the Blight, I don't know if y'all remember that, I'm standing here because I'm both excited and cautious about the effects of the rezoning request for um the former Avondale Baptist Cathedral appraised property.

I want to be clear, I'm not against development.

I'm here with the hopes that development is done with the community, not around it.

I have some questions.

Um does the zoning change come with any plan or commitment for affordable, attainable, or mixed income housing.

Um confused about the demolishment, there was a notice about it being demolished.

Um the brutalist architecture is maybe not everybody's favorite.

It's um essentially was um a project of the from the 60s to 80s, the American government actually funded that kind of architecture to reflect an intention towards heritage, towards um they wanted these projects to be built to last.

And I think that Avondale Baptist, at least parts of it.

I'm not saying the whole like to demolish to not demolish.

I'm questioning if we can preserve parts of that brutalist architecture, because it really was um in it was an investment in things that were built to last.

And once we lose design like this in Chattanooga, we can't get it back.

And so I'm just hoping that maybe instead of saying yes or no, we maybe slow down and consider parts that could be saved or parts that do need to maybe go with the times and give it an upgrade for the community to reflect a future forward vision of the aesthetic of Avondale.

Um the TRN3 designation could impact property taxes for longtime residents, especially elders on fixed incomes.

Um currently the plan talks about uh studios, one beds, two beds.

I think for a family of four, even though we're talking about density, if we want people from the community to be able to live there, um I'd love to see three bedrooms as a commitment for this to be rezoned because if we want density, I think uh working families should at least have access to this property in this space.

When I think about studios, that's a really tight space.

And um I say this with a lot of admiration for the development community, but I think you know, as a Chattanoogan, I think it's important to guard against um template aesthetics, whether it's Brooklyn, San Diego, these tight cramped spaces, can we actually have an aesthetic that reflects or commitment to an aesthetic and design that really reflects um the needs of real working families, a family of four in a two bedroom just does not sound like feasible, comfortable, or um reflective of the culture of the city.

Can we actually have an aesthetic that reflects or commitment to an aesthetic and design that really reflects um the needs of real working families, a family of four in a two-bedroom, just does not sound like feasible, comfortable, or um reflective of the culture of the city?

Um number five.

Um actually, yes, this is to that point.

Is there a design scale square footage and style that reflects our local culture, any retail space or an explorer of food focused services for the community before any build moves forward?

Could we have a transparent community process where residents help shape the vision, the design direction, or even the cultural identity of this development?

And could this process include community input on naming, placemaking, and the broader story of how we are turning the cathedral of praise into something gorgeous for everyone who lives there, new, old, um, and for the future.

I think Avondale can grow through investment, but I think that investment should reflect true partnership.

And I just might be a little early, but as we're thinking about the rezoning request, I'm just wondering if there are commitments that can be made that really protect the residents and allow for inclusion and access, at least attainable housing for some of the people that live in that community to partake in this development.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I appreciate you all deeply.

Thank you.

This has been a beautiful first city council meeting as well.

Thank you.

A long one.

Thanks for being here.

Sir, you've got two minutes.

So this is just the initial, you know, pieces of trying to get this to a different direction than what it is right now.

So I mean, you know, we're not finalized on it being one bedrooms and two bedrooms, they can be two or three bedrooms, but again, it also depends on you know what we can do with the building.

So it's just a starting process.

Um rezoning would be the first thing, and then after that, we can you know change our plans uh on what exactly goes in there.

Uh, we did think about um mixed use at one point, but to keep it simple, this is what we did for um the rezoning purposes.

Um I think in your last meeting you said that nobody reached out to you previously.

Yeah, I sent you an email in July, a long, like detailed email.

I didn't I never got a response from that.

And then also um I believe Ken Smith tried to contact you or put you in contact with Sam Jess or who's the other partner in the development.

And um, we were not able to get a meeting together.

So I mean, we would literally like to get a meeting with you so that you can ask questions and you know see how we can preserve this, um, the structure as much as possible.

Again, like you said, we're not gonna be able to save everything, but we do want to uh keep um most of the building so and redevelop it to make that area a nicer place uh for the residents for the community because we do want it to like grow because um, who's the other developer um or the partner in the development, he does have other businesses in the area, and he's been in that you know, location since uh 2001, I believe.

Um so you know, we're not trying to just demolish it and make it a flat parking lot.

Okay, thank you very much.

Madam Vice Chair, this is in your district.

Would you like a presentation?

No, I don't I don't need a presentation.

Okay.

And I would like for you to rescind that email that you sent me in July.

Okay.

Because it's not an email that I received that I do not answer, nor a phone call, nor text.

No phone call, no text.

And I have met with Sam a couple of times.

Okay, and Sam has yet to follow through with what he was supposed to do.

So that's the issue.

Um, contacted me before this came back from the courts.

I have not received any correspondence in reference from Sam or anyone else.

So that's my issue with um rezoning this property is because there is never a follow-through on what is supposed to be done when it's supposed to be done.

So I'm gonna defer this for two weeks uh until December the second, until we can have a conversation, and I need to see some concrete plans in place, and I do need for you all to meet with the neighborhood association because that has not been done, period.

Okay.

So I make a motion to defer until December the second.

Okay, and I I see you, Councilman Elliott.

Once we get the motion on the floor, then I'll hit your light.

Okay, so we have a motion on the floor with a proper second.

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

Councilman Elliott.

This is in the Avondale neighborhood and sits in Councilman's district, but I share a slither of Avondale.

But I'm following her lead on whatever she says.

So brother, she ain't happy and the neighborhood ain't happy.

Y'all won't be either.

But I will say this, and I want to clarify this because I was in the the meetings where it was floated that you were guys, you guys are looking to bring halfway houses into that property.

Is that still your plan?

No, no, no.

Okay.

Because they moved on, they couldn't get funding.

Okay.

That was initial plan, um, because you know the city wanted it demolished.

All right.

So the city wanted it demolished, but we wanted to keep it.

So we're working with uh Southern Spear, and they brought Men of Valor because they have a uh a reputable um uh foundation based out of Nashville, and even uh Ken Smith from the community, he went there and visited it, and he was happy with what they did, came back, but apparently the councilwoman wouldn't like it and they didn't she didn't want you know I want to clarify the neighborhood didn't like it.

Yeah, it just wasn't her.

I've been in those meetings, the neighborhood didn't like it.

Okay, so it's not just her.

So let's let's make that clear.

Okay.

Um I also want to say this because this has been going on for some time.

Did I hear you properly that you said the plans for this site is still up in here, subject to change?

No, I mean, if if we want to do uh two-bedroom, three-bedroom, we can still do that.

I'm talking about those those minor changes, but we are still trying to build condos there, condominiums for sale.

Councilwoman, this is Madam Vice Chair, this is to you.

You know, this is something that um uh a previous member of this council did often, uh, councilman Ken Smith.

He was sometimes plugging the site plans into the rezoning to make sure that the community had a peace of mind knowing that they were gonna get what was promised.

That may be something we may want to consider for this site as long as the slow conditions.

Yeah, it's I'll let you recognize thank you.

So um men of valor.

Yes, uh reparable, you say company or entity, institution.

Uh, but the track record is that they only put these into low-income neighborhoods.

Okay, so that would be of no benefit to district eight in any shape, form, or fashion.

Yeah, and I would never ever agree to anything like that.

Now I offer Sam an opportunity to bring in housing, affordable housing for that area, and he said he did not have the funding in order to get that done.

Now I asked him my question was because I want all this on the record and make it perfectly clear.

My question was why did you buy the property?

And you know what his answer was to me, and this was at a meeting.

He said he bought it because he didn't want a family to purchase it because he had a business on the corner, and if they had purchased that property, they would have put in a service station and a store, and it would have put his business out of business.

And I told him that was not a good answer.

And he also said to me that the area was not a good area to develop, that it was high crime.

I said, Well, it's still high crime as far as you concerned.

Yeah, but I will never unless you all can show me that this is going to go forward in a positive light, then I will not.

So I will, like I said, make the deferment until December the second and have another meeting.

And now, I mean, I've never seen you before, nor had a conversation with you before.

I'm the closest one to it's it's been Sam.

Yeah, the one and uh another gentleman, Mr.

Morland and I think Ken Smith was the ones that I had the actual one-on-one meeting with, and then Sam has never, to my knowledge, been to Avondale Neighborhood Association meeting at all.

It was always Ken Smith, which is president of that brought forth whatever the decision was.

But you know, yeah, Sam lives in Detroit now.

So um tell Sam he's gonna need to come here if he wants to do what needs to be done.

Can I ask you if your email is correct?

Please do.

Mnoel at Chattanooga.gov.

That's it.

Okay.

That's the email that I sent it to, and I'll afford it.

Okay.

I would like to see a copy of it.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good.

I am good.

Okay.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

Council, it looks like we don't have any other questions or comments.

We have a motion on the floor with a proper second to defer item F until the second of December.

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item G, please.

In ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So as to live condition number one from ordinance number 13576, the previous case number 2019 0133 on property located at 1305 Anderson Avenue.

Tax map number 146 JD 012 only, subject to the following condition shall remain.

Thank you.

Do we have an applicant present for this?

No.

Do we have any opposition present?

All right.

Councilman Elliott, this is in your district.

We have no applicant or opposition present.

Would you like a presentation?

No, I don't.

Okay.

I'm gonna say this before I speed.

Um Park has been dealing with this uh property for years, long before I got in office, and they have been promised the sun and everything in between as to what this is gonna look like.

And you know, my thing with this, I understand things change, but as I try to be a person of my word, I expect people to do the same, especially to our community.

So I don't know this individual, and Karen and her staff have reached out to them, and uh I have asked him to reach out as well.

And uh I am going to look, I want to defer this until December 16th.

And if we don't have contact by that time, uh I will be looking to deny.

And I also want this property owner to understand and be prepared that this is also an eye sore.

So as we work to improve cleaning up our community in our city, I don't know what's gonna happen to this property, but it can't just keep sitting the way it is.

And so um you do with that as you wish, whoever you may be, and I hope to hear from you soon.

But I would like to move to the furthest of the December 16th, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

All right, council.

We have a motion on the floor to defer this item until December 16th with a proper second.

Do we have any other questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed motion passes.

Item H, please.

In ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2, chapter 38, the Chattanooga zoning ordinance as adopted by ordinance number 14137 on July 23, 2024, to add clarity, zoning map interpretations for right-of-way abandonments, and add as a permitted use one unit attached or detached dwelling in the CN and CNT zones.

Thank you.

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

Any questions or comments?

All in favor?

All right, opposed, motion passes.

Item I, please.

In ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part 2, Chapter 38, the Chattanooga Zoning Ordinance has adopted by ordinance number 14137 on July 23, 2024.

More specifically, Article 2 Definitions, Article A, Special Purpose Zones, Section 3838, FW Floodway Section 3839, FH Flood Hazard, and Article 18, nonconfirm nonconformities, section 3898, non-conforming structure.

Second.

Thank you.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to approve with the proper second.

Do you have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

All right, moving on to resolutions.

Item A, please.

The resolution directing the city of Chattanooga to suspend water shutoffs relating to the unpaid sewer fees until either a federal funding for SNAP benefits resumes or B any federal government shutdown ends, whichever comes first.

Councilman Elliott.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to uh move to approve this with uh amendments to follow.

Okay, council, we have a motion on the floor to approve with the proper second.

And um madam chair, I would like to make the following amendments to this one.

I would like to strike the following, and I quote either a federal funding for SNAP benefits resumes or B any federal government shutdown ends, whichever comes first and quote, and I would like to place replace that with January 15th.

Uh remember council, this is uh gonna uh push our shutoffs until January 15th, giving family some time to adjust and considering the holidays.

Could we make that January 15, 2026?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, please.

That's fine.

Okay, great.

Okay.

Um do we have a second on that motion?

Okay, council.

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

Do I have any questions or comments about the motion to amend?

All right.

All in favor of the amendment.

I opposed motion to amend pass, passes.

Can I get a motion to approve as amended?

So move.

All right, council.

We have a motion on the floor to approve as amended with a proper second.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor to approve as amended.

Opposed?

Motion to approve as amended passes.

Thank you, council.

Item B.

A resolution urging the electric power board EPB to take all steps possible to safeguard Chattanooga customers during the SNAP suspension, including but not limited to temporary pauses on disconnections for non-payment, expanded payment plans, flexible fee, late fee policies, and proactive outreach to at reach households.

Councilman Elliott.

Um the first amendment, madam chair, uh excuse me, this amendment.

I'll like to remove the following and I'll quote the SNAP suspension, and I would like to place it with the following language, and I quote the federal government reopening and transitions the coming uh in the coming following weeks.

Um so that's a change to the caption.

Do you have any amendments to the actual language of the resolution?

Yeah, that was to the actual resolution, madam chair.

Okay, so I looked at it.

Uh we click the link.

It is uh so whereas when the federal government pauses a lifeline like SNAP it's in the um bottom portion in Tennessee.

Okay, so you want to keep all of the top language about the government closure.

Yeah, because this is actually the actual meat and potatoes of the resolution.

Okay, so Phil, do you have that?

So remember, remove the SNAP suspension language and replace with what he's talking.

I'm sorry, I can't hear what you guys say.

Replace the replacement language on here, remove the SNAP suspension language.

We got that.

Oh, yes, sorry, I can pull this back up.

And replace it the federal government uh reopening transition and the coming weeks to follow.

Okay, got it.

You got it?

Okay.

Okay, so council, we have a motion to amend.

Okay.

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

Do we have any questions or comments about the amendment?

Councilman Henderson.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, Councilman, I guess the only thing, I mean, to me, it's a little vague and open-ended as when when we say in the coming weeks.

As opposed to ask uh explanation for this.

Um hit your light.

Oh, sorry.

APB is uh has items in place already to help people with hardships, but they're also looking at uh programs they're looking to announce in their future that could also help people in addition to some of the programs they have in place.

And so, you know, as I said before, EPB's always been partners when we needed them the most, and this is just urging them to continue that work as people are transitioning out of this this slump, and you know, like I said earlier, folks are not gonna be made hold instantly.

So ask them to do all they can in these next coming weeks to make sure that people can find some solid footing.

Well, I mean, really, I mean by no urging them.

And we and we have and that's the point because while EPB is an agency of ours, the only authority we have over them are bonds and their governing board, right?

We can't tell them what to do with their operations.

I guess I'll just do that.

I think I get your point.

Okay, you can talk to the yes.

I have I've talked to their leadership team.

Yep.

Okay.

All right.

Do we have any other questions?

All right.

I have to find my file again here.

Just a second.

I was looking at the okay.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to amend with a proper second.

All in favor of approving as amended?

Aye, aye.

Or approving the amendment, excuse me.

Okay, now can that amendment passes?

Now I need a motion on the floor to approve as amended, please.

So moved.

Second.

All right, council.

Any other conversation?

All right.

We have a motion on the floor to approve is amended with a proper second.

Do we have any other conversation?

Looks like none.

All in favor to approve is amended.

All right.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Item B, please.

This would be item.

Is this item?

I'm sorry.

Item C.

A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to contribute $200,000 to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to provide critical support and nutritional assistance to residents during the suspension of supplemental nutrition assistance program SNAP funds.

Thank you, Council.

Do we have any questions or comments?

I I have one for the attorney, and this did not occur to me earlier.

Um this language reads assistance to residents during the suspension of supplemental assistance program funds.

Yes.

Um following the suspension.

Yes.

Okay, so council, if we could get a motion to amend to change the word during to following, and let's look at the text within the resolution.

Okay.

Yes, thank you.

Second.

Okay, so the thank you.

So um council, we have a motion on the floor to amend um by switching the word during to following, and let's just give our attorney a second to look at the language in the resolution to see if we need to make any other changes.

Okay, I believe the language is okay because it says that the city authorizes a financial contribution of 200,000 to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to assist in providing food and essential nutritional support to residents affected by the temporary suspension of SNAP funds.

So I believe that language is okay.

Okay, just a caption.

Great, great, great.

Okay.

So council, we have a motion on the floor to amend with a proper second.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

All right, can I get uh that motion to amend passes?

Can I get a motion to approve as amended?

Second.

Thank you.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All right, council.

We have a motion on the floor to approve as amended.

All in favor, opposed.

Motion passes.

Whoo, three amendments in a row.

Crushing it, crushing it, crushing it.

Okay, uh item D, please.

A resolution confirming the appointment of Bob Geyer for the Board of Zoning Appeals for District One for a term beginning on November 19, 2025 and ending on November 18, 2028.

Councilman Henderson.

Move approval.

All right, council.

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

Any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

All right.

Madam Clerk, I would like to take resolutions E F and G as a package, please.

Item E.

A resolution authorizing the administrative for the Department of Economic Development to enter into an agreement with River City Company for a storefront improvement in retail recruitment initiative and the amount to $500,000.

Item F a resolution authorizing the administrative for the Department of Economic Development to accept emergency solutions grant ESG funds from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency THDA to be used for homelessness outreach and prevention activities for an amount not to exceed 134,375.

Item G.

A resolution authorizing mayor his design to submit such brownfield voluntary agreement application to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation TDEC and substantially the form attached.

And if approved to enter into such brown field voluntary agreement, VVA and notice and land use restrictions as it relates to the property located at Finley Stadium Park Campus 1620 1656 1785 1801 1826 1835 and 1905 Redgewatt Boulevard Tax map numbers 145 KF001 145 KF 001.01 145 KE 001.01 145 KE 001 145 KE002 145 K E 004145 K B006 and 500 West Main Street Tax Map number 145 KF003 and 519 West 19th Street Tax Map number 145 KC007.

Who has the best clerk?

We have the best clerk.

All right, council.

Can I get a motion?

Second.

Thank you, Council.

We have a motion on the floor to approve items E F and G as a package with a proper second.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

All right, let's take items H and I together as a package, please.

Item H initial resolution authorizing the issuance of a issuance of not to exceed 40,300,000 general obligation bonds of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Item I, a resolution authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee in the aggregate principal amount, not to exceed 400 million three hundred thousand dollars in one or more series, making provision for the issuing sale and payment of said bonds, establishing the terms thereof and the disposition of proceeds therefrom and providing for the levy of taxes for the payment of principal of principal premium, if any, and interest on the bonds.

Thank you.

And for the record, in case I heard it wrong, that is 40 million three hundred thousand.

Yes.

Okay.

Council, can I get a motion?

Second.

Thank you.

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

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes.

All right.

Let's take items J and K together, please, as a package.

Unless we want to give Karen a separate special.

Okay.

Separate special.

Yeah.

Okay.

Item J, please.

A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Greg Wisnat as risk officer of the risk department.

Thank you.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to approve with the proper second.

Any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Greg, you want to stand up and wait?

Right over there to the right.

All right.

Item K, please.

A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Karen Reinick as executive director of the regional planning agency.

Move to approve.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to approve with a couple proper seconds.

I'll let Nicole pick who got that officially.

Um do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Proposed.

Motion passes.

All right.

Uh parks and outdoors.

Item L, please.

A resolution authorizing the waiver of park rental fees in the amount of three thousand dollars for River City Company and Chattanooga presents in support of reindeer on the riverfront for the dates of November 28th, 29, and 30, 2025, to be held in Ross's Landing, Renaissance Park, and Chattanooga Green with a refundable refundable deposit in the amount of $3,000.

Responsibility of the applicant for a total amount of $6,000.

Thank you.

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

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Items M, N O and P, please, Madam Clerk.

Item M.

A resolution authorizing the appointment of Tristan McCroskey as a special police officer unarmed for the city of Chattanooga Department of Public Works, LDO COS Division to perform duties especially limited to the performance of duties in his position as co enforcement inspector one.

Item N, a resolution authorizing the 2025 annual inflation adjustment of the financial assurance for the city of Chattanooga Landfield permit numbers SNL 33000.

How many zeros is that?

You got them all 000.

That's SNL 33000273.

Original at Birch Birchwood Landfill as required by the regulations of the Division of Solid Waste Management for a decrease decrease of $48,846 for revised total amount of $1,436,359.19 cents.

Item O, a resolution authorizing a 2025 annual inflation adjustment of the financial assurance for the City of Chattanooga Landfield permit numbers SNL 330000273 lateral expansion area three at Birchwood Landfield as required by the regulations of the Division of Solid Waste Management for an increase of 226,188.92 cents for a rised amount of nine million six hundred fifty thousand seven hundred twenty-seven dollars and forty-four cents.

Item P Your resolution authorizing the 2025 annual inflation adjustment of the financial assurance for the city of Chattanooga Landfill permit numbers SNL 33000.

Looks like another zero three five phases one and two at sum in landfill as required by the regulations of the division of solid waste management for an increase of $35,129.80 for revised amount not to exceed $1,498,871 and 46 cents.

Thank you very much.

Council, can I get a motion?

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion on the floor to approve these public works items with a proper second.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed.

Motion passes.

Two police items, items Q and R.

Let's take those as a package, please, Madam Clerk.

Item Q.

A resolution authorized Chief of Police or Sesane E along with the Department of Community Safety and Gun Violence Prevention to apply for and if awarded accept the downtown public safety grant through the state of Tennessee to be used to enhance safety reduce crime and strengthen public confidence within the city's downtown core for a three-year grant period beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2028 for an amount not to exceed $2,947,215.

Item R, resolution authorizing Chief of Police to apply for and if rewarded, accept the violent crime intervention fund grant through the state of Tennessee to be used to implement programming based upon proven effective violent crime intervention models by creating evidence-based programs and purchasing technology and infrastructure for a three-year grant period beginning on July 1, 2025 and ending on June 30, 2028 for an amount not to exceed 2.9 million dollars.

Councilman Henderson.

Move approval.

Thank you.

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

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Moving on to purchases.

Council, we have, I believe, 17 purchases tonight.

Um if I uh can I'd like to ask someone to make a motion on um that's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna motion that one first.

Yeah, make that motion.

Yeah, um, the item for um security guard services that we discussed in agenda.

Um, if that is the pleasure of the council, I'd like to request that we uh go ahead and get a motion to defer that item for calling's protective services for Collins Protective Services.

Do we have a second?

Okay.

Um, so we have a motion on the floor to defer this item.

Um, Debbie, will you please read that into the record?

Sure.

It's item number 15.

It's for purchasing.

And that's to defer until December 2nd.

Okay.

Uh new blanket agreement for security guard services.

This will be a four-year agreement not to exceed one million dollars annually.

The award will be made to Collins Protective Services as the best bid.

Thank you.

Council, we have a motion on the floor to defer until 12 122 December 2nd.

Um, with a proper second.

Do we have any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Opposed.

Motion to defer this singular item for Collins Protective Services passes.

All right, Debbie, get a glass of water.

Okay.

Ready?

Take it away, friend.

She's gonna read our other purchases.

Okay, have um 16 purchases recommended for approval this evening.

The first one is for purchasing.

It's a new blanket agreement for newspaper ad and online advertising.

This will be a four-year agreement not to exceed 100,000 annually.

This sole source purchase will be awarded to Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Um fleet.

The Peter Belt store has requested a six percent increase for Peter Built OEM truck parts and service due to the cost of manufacturing.

The new estimated annual spend will be $397,500.

Fleet has approved this increase.

This is a two-year renewal.

Technology Services has requested $10,900 increase to agreement PA100728 for ARCA GIS Small Business Subscription.

The new estimated annual spend will be in the amount of 296,490 annually.

Fire is a new blanket for agreement for grounds maintenance for fire stations and Alton Park Connector.

This will be a four-year agreement not to exceed $55,000 annually.

The award will go to special touch lawn service as the best bid.

Technology services.

This is a three-month extension through January 31st of 2026 to include $250,000 increase to coincide with the state of Tennessee contract.

The new estimated annual spend will be $1,763,200.

Technology Services approved the extension and the increase.

Purchasing, this is a three-year renewal for interborough packaging is requesting a 10% increase due to the increased cost of a materials and labor, and Central Polybag is requesting a 2.3% increase due to the increased cost of materials and manufacturing.

The new estimated annual spend will be $68,000.

Purchasing has approved this increase.

Parks and Outdoors.

Council approval is requested to transfer ownership of agreement PA100067 for bulk mulch for from groundscapes concepts to Big Woody's Tree Service.

Fleet four-year renewal, truckers Lighthouse has requested an 8% increase due to the cost of parts and equipment.

The new annual spend will be $452,000.

Public Works has approved the increase.

Fleet three-year renewal.

The new annual spend will be $5,100,000.

Public Works has approved the increase.

This is a one-time purchase of raw salt for roadways.

This purchase from Morton Salt will be in the amount of $70,105 utilizing the state contract.

Public Works, new blanket agreement for front-end loaders and refused pickup services.

This will be a four-year agreement not to exceed $400,000 annually.

The award will be made to CWS Chattanooga hauling as the best bid.

Fleet, this is a one-time purchase of a bucket truck.

This purchase from Time Manufacturing will be in the amount of $170,916 utilizing source wheel contract.

Fleet, this is a one-time purchase of a new Holland tractor and boom mower.

This will be purchased from Chattanooga tractor and equipment in the amount of $178,400 utilizing the source wheel contract.

Wastewater wastewater is requesting an increase of $100,000 to agreement PA100740 for replacement of safety valves.

The new estimated annual spend will be $485,000 annually.

Purchasing new blanket agreement.

Oh excuse me.

I'm going to the next one.

This is from police.

Cleese has requested an increase of $10,200 to agreement PA100-624 for janitorial services through December of 2025.

The new estimated spend will be $100,200.

Technology Services, this is a one-time purchase of Axon Fuses Cloud-based crime center platform used by police department.

This purchase from Axon Enterprise will be in the amount of $149,983.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we have a motion on the floor to approve.

Can I get a second?

All right, with the proper second.

Any questions or comments, Council?

All in favor.

Opposed motion passes.

Okay.

I have one sole source to report.

This is early learning head start.

This is a sole source purchase of child plus learning subscription from child plus software in the amount of $30,000.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right, Council.

We have reached the time in the meeting where we will do some committee reports.

Also, if you have any legislation that you'd like to bring in front of the body or any other comments, now would be the time to do so.

Councilman Henderson.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, I I have no committee report, but I did submit uh an amendment to our carriage ordinance that I would like to have placed in legislative committee.

Okay.

Vice Chairwoman Noel, you are chairwoman of the legislative committee.

When would you like to set our next legislative committee meeting?

Well, who wants to put it in the uh councilman Henderson?

Not gonna let it.

No, I'm kidding.

Kim Smith never could find time to put the chicken ordinance in.

So this is a working women.

Okay, so um it doesn't matter.

Give me a thing.

All right.

Let's go forward.

And do you have um Madam Chair?

Did you follow uh forward the ordinance to um I have forwarded it to our Madam Vice Chair?

Our yes, I have, and it will be in our packets next week from our clerk, um, which next week is actually gonna be the second.

So um we do have a planning and zoning on the second um on the ninth, you want to do the ninth?

The ninth is fine.

Okay, sound good to you, councilman?

Sounds good to me.

Okay, madam clerk.

If you'll please make a note of that, that we will see the carriage horses.

Will you bring them in for your presentation?

Uh I can see if I can make that happen if you'd like.

Whatever's gonna help your cause.

All right, Councilman Davis.

No committee report, but there is um a statement from one of my district three constituents that he wanted to make during public comment, but he had to leave the meeting.

So if I could um read that.

Um my name is Greg Taylor, and I want to express my support for the Northgate TIFF project.

As a longtime resident of Hickson, I serve as president of Valley Brook, Winbrook, and Tuscany Place Homeowners Association.

This neighborhood with 278 homes and over 600 residents has been an integral part of the Hickson community for many years.

I'm also the president of Friends of Hickson, a 501c3 organization dedicated to improving the Hickson community is a great place to live and work.

This organization functions as a neighborhood association for Hickson.

Additionally, I'm the president of Hickson Kiwanis Club, which has served the community for over 75 years.

In these roles, I speak to many residents of Hickson, and many have expressed their support for this project.

As everyone knows, Northgate Mall has long been the center of the Higson community.

The private utilities serving the mall and nearby businesses need upgrades to meet current public standards.

The infrastructure urgently needs improvements.

We know that surrounding businesses are often affected by water outages.

They can last several days.

Many Hickson residents want Northgate to stay at the heart of the community with a bright future, and this project provides a clear path to that success.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilman Elliott.

Thank you, Madam.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We had an economic development committee hearing today where we're able to hear about the um North Gate TIFF and uh economic impact plan as well as a proposal to uh implement include sales tax um in that project.

We also took time to uh hear about the uh resolutions involving helping families after the SNAP um and federal government snap foo, no pun intended.

Um it's been a long day.

Um appreciate everybody's support with that.

Uh looking forward to seeing what comes next in our TIFF conversations.

Uh Councilman Davis, thank you for being your your due diligence with hosting those opportunities to talk to your community.

I look forward to being with you tomorrow as well as your town hall.

And other than that, Madam Chair, I think that's it.

Okay, great.

Councilwoman Dotley.

No report.

Thank you.

Vice Chairwoman Noel.

Uh I don't have a report, but I do want to say thank you to the Avendale staff that they did have a HBCU college fair on Wednesday, and it was absolutely amazing.

That was, I think 12 or 13 colleges was there, and um 12 or 13 high school with all seniors was I mean, they filled that application, they did a lot.

So I was very, very grateful for that.

So if you didn't come, you missed out.

You missed a treat.

So uh thankful for that, and also we had the annual um feed the seniors Thanksgiving dinner, which was on Saturday, and it was amazing.

A great turnout.

So shout out to the great district eight.

Y'all keep doing what you do.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, everyone.

We have now reached the point in our meeting where we are happy to recognize persons who are here who wish to address the council.

If you are here and would like to talk to the council, please line up behind the podium and listen while our attorney reads the rules.

Yes, ma'am.

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, provided for that purpose, can't have more than three minutes to speak, and you can address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi judicial authority and not on matters which are not under the authority of the council or regulated by other governmental bodies or agencies.

Don't engage in any vulgar or obscene language and are used the forward to personally attack or personally denigrate others and address your comments to the council as a whole and 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 a 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 and state your name, sir.

My name is Jacob Kinney.

I live in District 9 Minlo Park.

I'm here to talk about the aggressive stray dogs that are roaming my neighborhood.

Um I moved here in July, and there's several of them.

I've been leaving emails, phone calls, and texts with McCainie since September, um, repeatedly at least once a week, and have not been contacted by anyone, nor have I been able to get into contact with anyone that was able to meaningfully resolve this.

I believe that myself and neighbors deserve to have streets that are safe.

This includes safe from attacks from aggressive dogs.

Um I've had to use my pepper spray to defend myself and my dog several times in the past few months.

Um and why are we paying McCamie for animal control services that they don't offer?

Um if they're unwilling to pick up an aggressive stray that represents a risk to life and property, what are they there for?

Um if you think this is an isolated incident or I slip through the cracks, I invite you to Google McCamie Strays Chattanooga Reddit.

Here's the top three results.

McCainie is awful if you have strays one year ago.

McCayman is useless and we need help one month ago.

McCainie is worthless, need advice two years ago.

This is a pattern.

I adopted my dog from a cameie.

They say they're about compassion and animal welfare.

If that were true, they would keep myself and my animals safe by removing these aggressive animals.

Uh McCainy's incompetence is dangerous and it borders on negligence.

Uh seemingly it's going to take an attack resulting in the death of an animal, or worse yet, a child before they act.

Um when they don't show up for aggressive dogs chasing people in the street.

It's not a question of if but when that will occur.

And I implore this council to act before that occurs.

It was mentioned earlier.

Food, water, shelter, or rights in our city.

How about being able to safely walk down the street in your own neighborhood?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Elliott.

Sir, can you stay afterward so we can talk?

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Anthony Shaw, District 8.

I guess you'll get two conversations about being able to walk safely in our city.

Um I'm here to talk about the construction that started on UTC campus across the street from CSAS.

That construction started over the fall break and installed fencing and barricades that are blocking access to the crosswalk to get to CSAS and to get from CSAS for students that walk.

So I what I'm here to ask for is your help, guidance, advice on how to approach remediating that and restoring that safe tax access to the crosswalk.

I have issued a request to the city traffic department for assistance.

They have offered a solution that involves sending kids down busy 3rd Street towards Erlanger, outside of the marked school zone to a crosswalk with no crossing guard, and then to cross the street there and then to come back towards UTC and double back.

So I find that to be an unacceptable solution.

And I'm looking for help on how I can request or push for something more satisfactory.

And I think there's a couple options available.

Collins Street, obviously, is the road that's directly across from the crosswalk.

That's a very short distance that I think if they could create a pedestrian right of way on that street would be more appropriate for the kids using that area.

That I've seen in front of the Tivoli that they blocked off a whole lane on Broad Street and created a pedestrian right away.

I think that could be done on third.

And if you wanted to go to a more extreme route, I think you could put a traffic light in on Palmetto and Third Street with crosswalk there for kids to cross.

So I think there are other options that could be pursued.

So I'm looking for advice on how we could uh approach that.

Okay.

And he thanks for being here.

If you will stay after the meeting, and right behind you is a woman named Mandy Green, who is the chief operating officer for Chattanooga.

I think it'd be good for the two of you to talk.

Um also I'll let everybody know that a traffic light costs approximately a half a million dollars.

So we're gonna be looking for some other options.

I I agree with you.

Yeah, I think so.

Um second thing that I wanted to ask for help with.

I'm sorry, I interrupted you.

No, that's that's perfectly fine.

Maybe I'll get 10 more seconds.

Maybe so.

Uh second item.

Um, as many of you know, my wife and daughter came here a year and a half ago specifically for a very similar issue.

Um that cross there were actions taken, which we obviously appreciate.

Uh what's been done recently completely reverses all of those actions that were taken, has made it worse.

So I'm seeking your help from a process and culture perspective.

Obviously, there is a problem in the city department that approved this construction fencing and barricades that is not considering pedestrian impact.

So they did no assessment, they didn't have any conversation with the community, they implemented this process, and now we're trying to solve it after the fact.

And I think that's an unacceptable approach.

And there should have been a proactive solution and before that was approved to put up the barriers and fencing that were installable.

So still made it under three minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

So yes.

Um, I think I actually had the conversation with your wife in reference to the I'm sure a year and a half.

Yeah, I was the one to put that fixed, so allow me an opportunity to see what we can do in reference to thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Nathan Griffin, 5500, Hidden Oaks Lane.

Uh good evening, Council members.

I'm with the organization Save Enterprise South Nature Park.

I wanted to first share two uh uh brief but exciting updates with you today.

First, our organization has taken its next major step, and we've officially become a 501c nonprofit.

This exciting new chapter will bring us greater resources and visibility to educate, advocate, and also serve the community.

Our second uh second, our petition to protect Enterprise South Nature Park surpassed 10,000 signatures just a couple days ago, and uh we're actually really uh quickly approaching 11,000 signatures.

This level of engagement makes one thing clear.

Resident taxpayers care deeply about the future of our park.

Tonight I do want to focus on one key point that protecting Enterprise South Nature Park is smart economics.

We've heard claims that industrializing a portion of Enterprise South Nature Park is necessary for job growth, but modern advanced manufacturing relies heavily on automation and robotics.

Let's look at an example.

There's a synthetic graphite facility being built inside uh the industrial park, Enterprise Industrial Park.

It is expected to create two to three jobs per acre.

Now let's compare that to the park Enterprise South Nature Park itself.

Back in 2018, over seven years ago, previous county mayor Jim Koppinker said Enterprise South Nature Park saw over 150,000 visitors a year.

That was before our population boom.

That was before Chattanooga became uh the nation's first national park city.

Hundreds of people visit every day, spending money at restaurants, hotels, local retailers, and outdoor shops across Hamilton County.

Mountain biking alone contributes nearly seven million dollars a year to our local economy with riders spending an average of 342 dollars per trip.

And the forest land surrounding these trails provides nearly three million dollars annually in air and water quality benefits.

Savings the county would lose the moment the trees are replaced with pavement.

Most importantly, outdoor recreation is stable even during economic downturns.

Parks don't lay people off, but manufacturers do.

In fact, this is just last month in October, the U.S.

saw more than $153,000 manufacturing related job cuts alone.

A strong economy needs stability, and Enterprise South Nature Park helps deliver that.

It attracts professionals, supports small businesses, strengthens our tax base, and gives Chattanooga competitive advantage that industrial development simply cannot match.

Enterprise South Nature Park is just it is not just a natural asset.

It is part of a larger economic driver for Hamilton County.

As more conversations continue to happen, I just urge the city and council to remain committed to protect every acre of deed, protected restricted land and preserve this park for the long-term economic health of our community.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening, Council.

Anna Galladay, District 8.

I'm here once again to chat with you about the cold weather and our unhoused and poor population.

As many of you know, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has changed its policy around how regional coalitions can spend their funding.

Currently, our regional area regarding housing spends 84% of its $4.9 million budget on permanent housing programs for those that can't afford it otherwise.

So just to spell out the numbers again, our regional agencies spend $4.2 million on permanent housing solutions.

And as of early 2026, they will only be able to spend around $1.5 million.

As I shared with you two weeks ago, emergency shelter capacity here in the city only meets 22% of the need.

As we lose an additional $2.7 million in usable permanent housing solutions, we need temporary and transitional housing more than ever.

We are only serving 22% of the need now, and that percentage is about to plummet.

Councilwoman Dotley named it earlier in this very meeting.

Food, shelter, clothing, and water are a basic right.

We rightly shifted $200,000 to the community food bank, and every one of you voted affirmatively and unanimously to do that.

Next ask must fill the shelter portion of the basic right.

Which one of you is gonna go to bat in your district to help make that happen for the least of these?

Thank you.

Do we have anyone else who would like to address the council?

Council, I see no one else who would like to address the council.

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

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

We are adjourned.