All right.

Thank you all for your patience.

I'll now call to order our June second meeting of the Chattanooga City Council and recognize Councilman Clark to give our invocation and pledge.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you with grateful hearts.

Thank you for the blessings that you have bestowed upon our city and our community and our nation.

Help us to make decisions with integrity, compassion, and a genuine desire to serve the people entrusted to our care.

Give us the courage to do what is right even when it is difficult.

We pray for our nation during a time when unity is needed more than ever.

Help us to see one another, not as opponents, but as neighbors, and give us the wisdom to work together for the common good.

Father, we lift up our homeless neighbors and all those facing hardships, provide them with shelter, hope, opportunity, and caring people who will work alongside them, remind us that every person has dignity, value, and worth.

Welcome again, everyone, and thank you for being with us this afternoon.

Um, as we get started, I'll give just a brief overview of how our meeting runs.

Um before I do that, just a reminder to everyone to please silence your your cell phones so that we don't have any unnecessary distractions as we go through the meeting today.

Um we do have at the very beginning of our meeting today uh a special presentation in the form of our public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2027 uh city budget.

Um so that will be the very first thing that we do after I get through just explaining the flow of our meeting and our budget chairman uh councilman Henderson will give kind of the outline for that session when the time comes for that in just a minute.

Um after that, we'll then um approve our minutes from our last meeting, and from there we'll get into a discussion of our agenda for this week, next week, and three or more weeks out.

So we're a council who likes to be uh well prepared um for the things that come before us, and so um starting with this week, we'll look at our agenda going several weeks into the future, and council will have uh time to ask any questions or make any comments that they might have about those items.

After that, we'll look at the purchases that are before us this evening for approval and then the future consideration items, which are those items I mentioned a minute ago, the items three weeks or more out on our agenda.

Um, the council will have any discussion that we need to have about those items amongst ourselves up here on the dais.

And after that, we will have a meeting of our planning and zoning committee, which I will be chairing this this evening in the absence of councilwoman burrs.

And from that point, we will take uh a brief recess as we normally do, and we do need a brief attorney-client meeting during that recess to for the council to confer with our city attorney.

Um, and we will uh so we'll we'll break for a period of time and then come back and vote on everything that's on our agenda for this evening.

Um so without further ado, I will yield the chair to councilman Henderson for our public hearing.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Call to order the budget and finance committee for the sole purpose of conducting a public hearing on the proposed FY27 budget ordinance.

Uh could I get a motion on the minutes of the last meeting?

Probably without objections, the minutes will stand as recorded.

Before I open the floor uh for public comment, uh the council has decided to allot a total of one hour for this public hearing and allow two minutes per speaker.

Uh I would remind uh each speaker uh to please keep your uh input and your concerns regarding the FY27 budget ordinance only at this time.

Uh council, I have uh three 37, so we will say 437 for the one hour at this time.

I will open up the floor for our public hearing.

So if you would like to address the council uh on matters of our FY27 budget, if you would uh make your way to the podium and make your comments from there.

Say it again.

Uh and we for those that are standing in the back, if you would like, we do have an overflow room and our conference room that does have a screen set up so that you can see the meeting.

Uh I'm not sure how many of you are here for the actual public hearing, or if you've got another matter that you just like to wait in our conference room, you're more than welcome to wait there.

If you would give us your name uh and um maybe the organization or district that you live in, and uh go ahead, and you'll have two minutes.

I will do.

Good afternoon, Chairman Davis, Chairman, uh, Vice Chairman Elliott and Council members.

My name is Charles Frazier.

I am the CEO of the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority, fondly known as Carta.

I happen to live in District One.

Uh, but first of all, I would like to sincerely thank the City Council for including Carta's funding request in the proposed fiscal year 27 budget.

Um, we are grateful for your partnership and continued confidence in the work that we're doing here in Chattanooga.

Over the last year, Carta has continued to demonstrate that our work is not simply about buses and parking.

It's about economic opportunity, affordability, workforce access, quality of life, and ultimately city building.

Ridership continues to grow across our system because people see value in mobility, reliable mobility.

We are also seeing strongly stronger community engagement than ever before with residents, businesses, and neighborhood stakeholders becoming active partners in shaping Chattanooga's future.

At the same time, CART is evolving into something larger than just a transit operator.

Through initiatives like the Connect the Corridor on Brainerd Road, downtown mobility improvements and parking modernization.

We are helping reduce transportation costs for family while supporting housing, economic development, and access to opportunity.

For many Chattanooga households, transportation is one of the largest monthly expenses after housing.

Every time we provide a safe, reliable alternative to driving anywhere, we are reducing that burden.

Importantly, this uh proposed budget includes support for Carta's capital match request.

The capital funding allows Carta to compete for additional state and federal grants.

The city's contribution will allow Carta to pursue approximately $25 million in additional state and federal grants for transit, mobility, and infrastructure improvements throughout Chattanooga.

On behalf of the entire Carta team, thank you again for your support, your leadership and partnership as we continue to build the transit system that best serves a growing Chattanooga.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Brian McSween, and I have the great pleasure of serving as the CEO and artistic director for Chattanooga Ballet, where our mission is to serve through the power of dance.

I'm here today to ask that you reinstate the $35,000 currently cut from the funding for Arts Build, which is critical to the operation of organizations like ours.

The general operating support that we receive allows our staff to pursue support from local businesses and individuals, along with regional and national foundations.

The funds distributed by Arts Build are, for most organizations, a foundation that allows them to grow their support and increase their impact within the community.

Ultimately, I believe this may be a question of value and how you, the leaders of the city of Chattanooga, choose to demonstrate the value of art to this city.

While I recognize that the artists of our community are not putting out fires, collecting waste or arresting criminals, all necessary and vital aspects of living in a healthy and enriching society.

I also recognize that these things are the underlying structure of a great community, but not to be the culmination of our potential.

Our students come from all parts of the city with various backgrounds and goals.

However, in the studio, our students work and train in a form of art that demands consistency, effort, and tenacity, but not for self-glorification.

They work together, sacrifice, suffer injury, get back up, reapply, focus in, and come together to offer the gift of art to their audience.

While yes, there is applause, that is not the goal.

The point of the or the heart of why they do it.

They serve their audience in a moment in time, bound to the now and real, believing that their act of service is food for the soul and nourishment for the spirit.

Our students learn that the riches of being an artist are not found in what they get out of it, but what they put into it.

Is this not the type of society we want to build?

One where differences are not separators, where tolerance is practice, not just pre, where time, process, work ethic, reliability, perseverance, and camaraderie are celebrated virtues.

This is what art teaches.

Art matters because it engages the imagination and holds high the responsibility of serving our audience.

Art speaks to the spirit of the market.

No, your time has expired.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, Council.

My name is Jason Brown.

I'm the union organizer for SEIU Local 205, represents the non-sworn employees in the city of Chattanooga.

First, I want to start by saying I appreciate the hard work that you all have put into the budget along with the mayor's staff.

I heard last night the budget referred to as sort of a vehicle where sometimes you have to pop the hood and take another look or take a closer look.

And that's what I'm here to ask you to do is to take a closer look to see if there's more that you can put in the pockets of the hardworking employees in the city.

Not only sworn, but the non-sworn as well.

While our brothers and sisters uh in the police department and fire department well deserve what they received last year, uh we're simply asking for the same diligence to be applied on the non-sworn side.

Uh they're facing the same concerns of attrition turnover and lack of ability to recruit.

And a lot of those things are directly tied to wages and benefits.

And so I'm here.

Many of you know that we've been advocating for a 5% increase in pay in a $40,000 floor, which is fairly similar to what Moccus and Bend has right now as far as a floor for entry-level pay.

Um so I'm asking that you show the same diligence that was shown last year during the budget amendment process for sworn fire and police for our brothers and sisters over there, well deserved and apply that here and consider popping the hood as it was ascribed to last night.

So I appreciate your time.

Have a good evening.

All right, good um good afternoon.

First, I want to thank you all uh for your continued investment in Arts Building.

I'm James McKizick, and as you know, Arts Build is all about the nonprofit arts and culture sector.

We recognize that every budget decision involves this difficult choices, and we are grateful for your partnership.

I'm here this afternoon to respectfully ask that the city council work with the mayor's office to restore Arts Builds funding to the same level as last year, $270,000.

Our constituency represents an often overlooked sector which generates almost 200 million to our local economy, and to many sectors, $35,000 is not a lot of money, but to us it is.

It means 13 artists will not get grants next year.

It means a reduction in operational funds to arts organizations.

26 neighborhood projects won't be funded through our community cultural grants, and a few thousand field trips will not happen without this funding.

Each year we receive almost three million dollars in requests, and we're able to, with your support and leveraging your support, be able to um fund about one million to 1.5 million of those.

So I am just respectfully asking for help and restoring the funding to 270,000, and we've brought a few people with us to share stories about what this funding means to them too.

Um thank you for your consideration, your leadership, and your continued support of the arts.

Good afternoon, City Council.

Thank you so much for letting us be here.

My name is Shelley Armstrong, and this is Kelly Cruz.

I'm the executive director of the launch pad.

We're a sober living community for women.

We have 55 residents in five homes, and we are here to speak on behalf of CARTA's funding.

Thank you.

Hello, I just wanted to speak uh about the partnership that Carta um has had with us for the past couple years.

So they provide our residents with bus passes so that they can um when as soon as they get to our program, they can look for jobs, and they can get to meetings that they need to get to, they can get to probation officers and court appearances.

Um the the impact that it's had on our residents uh is has just been amazing because it's removed the biggest barrier that they have, and that's transportation.

And so I'm here just to to speak about they can you know they can get to work, maintain employment.

Um so it's just watching them like gain confidence as they get as they gain independence.

Um has just been really impactful.

So we're here to speak on behalf of Carta.

Without the support of Carter's bus passes for the past year and a half, our 55 women would have um a barrier of transportation to become more sustainable members of our community.

Right now, all 55 of our women have jobs and are actively supporting the income and the the economy of Tanooga and Hamilton County.

We would not be able to do what we're doing right now with them.

Um, when they come out of incarceration or from treatment centers, most of them have nothing.

They don't have um the ability to get to go out and find a job without Carter support, we would not be having the success we're having right now with our residents.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Swanda Tucker.

I'm a truck driver down here at the Paul Clark Builder.

I'm the boots on the ground down there.

I have a whole lot of reasons why we deserve this 5% raise of $40,000 minimum.

But one reason I'm gonna bring today is because the city wants this to be our primary job.

They make us sign a paper saying that this is our primary job, we take this job first.

So I mean, why we can't get the primary money, a lot of us are working two jobs to make ends meet.

So I'm looking at if this is our primary job, and we're looking at what other people are making, and we are struggling.

We are struggling.

Without forestry, without water quality, without all these people, you can't keep this city together.

So I mean, y'all need us.

So I mean, please consider to give us what we need and what we deserve.

Hi, I'm Stephen Russell.

I'm a resident of District 3.

I'm a city employee at the wastewater department.

I'm proud to be a member of the SEIU Local 205.

And I'd like to echo what our our organizer Jason Brown said regarding the hard work that the city council has uh done regarding the budget.

It's very thankless job sometimes, and but it's very important work.

And uh, you guys have worked hard uh to help our brothers and sisters in the police and fire, and uh with with and they well deserve it.

Uh they keep us safe and without them our our city couldn't run.

As well, we have city employees that do general work behind the scenes that keep the lights on, pay the bills, do that kind of thing, and uh so regarding a 3% raise, that's a nice starting point, but uh the cost of living over the last uh few years has uh been going up and up, and in the last year, I think it was reported uh cost of living, the inflation was 3.8 percent.

Uh those proposed raises don't even don't keep up with inflation, obviously.

And uh a lot of our employees can't afford to live in the city in which they work.

Uh many of our employees are getting second and third jobs or just having to leave the city altogether.

So uh I'd like to uh uh support our of our uh ask of a 40 percent of 40,000 uh minimum wage across the city and a 5% for all those others, and uh hopefully we can come with uh to an agreement with this new budget.

And I like I said, I appreciate everyone's work and uh we'll uh look forward to working with you.

Thank you very much.

Hello, my name's Stephen West.

I live in District 5.

Um I have a lot to say, and but I'm gonna try to break it all down.

Last year y'all gave them gave fire police the money that they got.

They deserved it.

But on that, what price?

Oh, raising private property taxes.

And most of us have to pay.

But our salaries are not going up to pay those taxes.

So let's look at as Mr.

Brown said, get up under the hood a little bit more and try to find some more money.

Because we can put money everywhere else.

But we can't put money behind our own employees.

I work at I work at out there at the Wood Recycle Center.

You let that brush and the garbage don't get picked up around the city and see what happens.

You have other people moving in and they ain't got two legs.

So I'm just saying to try to keep the decent employees that we have.

Let's look up under that hood a little bit closer.

Because a 5% raise to me is nothing.

Consider what some of the other people make in the city.

Take care of us because of garbage, brush, and we ain't even talking about if a tornado comes through here, and then what happened?

The recreation centers gotta open.

They have to leave their families and keep those things open to try to take care of our citizens.

Now we all we all want a decent raise, but we did 3% for so long.

And I've been here 40 something years, and 3% only merely went up above that.

It was Kinsey.

So I'm just saying, let's try to look up under the hood a little bit more.

We're trying to find the money to give up a 5% raise, and people that's coming in the door, let them make 40,000.

We can spend money on everything else in this city, but we can't invest in our employees.

That's a problem.

And if y'all don't see that, and I hope y'all do, and thank y'all for looking at the budget where y'all are looking.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Vincent Oates, and I've just completed my 23rd season as artistic director of the Chattanooga Boys Square and as a proud resident of District 1.

Uh, first I want to thank you all for the many ways that you have over many generations supported the arts, recognizing their importance to our city's identity, making Chattanooga a place that people want to visit, invest, work, and raise families in because of the intentional leadership, which understands that quality of life matters.

Today I wish to underscore how the arts are a key component to that quality of life and ask you therefore to reconsider the proposed production in support of arts build and to fully restore its funding.

Uh the numbers you've heard many times, the millions of economic activity, job supported, and municipal revenue, but the value of the arts cannot be measured by numbers alone.

The arts are one of the primary reasons that Chattanooga feels like Chattanooga, and they are therefore deserving of civic investment.

The arts are present when families gather for festivals, when murals transform blank walls into landmarks, when musicians fill public spaces, when local theaters inspire all of us, and when children discover confidence through singing.

Our city rightly speaks about being a special place to live, work, and play.

The arts are not separate from that vision.

Indeed, they are an integral part of what makes this vision possible.

Simply put, the arts are not an extravagant luxury.

They are an essential public necessity.

Therefore, Chattanooga's supportive arts build is not funding a fringe benefit.

It is an intentional and proven investment in the health, welfare, and future of our city.

Take the Chattanooga Boys Choir, which is preparing to celebrate its 73rd season.

Well known for our performances, our work extends far beyond the stage, providing in-school programming, hosting community scenes, offering instructional coaching and festivals which benefit hundreds of students and teachers, and offering program in our community and neighborhood centers throughout the region.

For over seven decades, our work has been woven into the fabric of Chattanooga itself.

But we are just one example.

Arts build support organizations, strengthen neighborhoods, support schools, engage families, build communities, and contribute generously to what it means to be part of Chattanooga.

I therefore respectfully ask you to fully restore funding and thank you for your time.

Good afternoon.

My name is Danny Perez.

I am an alumni at the Chattanooga Boys Choir and an alumni of the Chattanooga Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak as I stand before you today, not as a resident of Chattanooga, but as someone whose life was directly impacted by these programs sponsored by Arts Build.

As a child, I had participated in the Boys Choir Youth Symphony and other after school activities that made possible through Arts Build.

Those experiences were not simply just extracurricular activities.

They were informative experiences that helped determine the path my life would take.

As a first generation child of immigrants, I've often found myself navigating through cultures and searching for where I belonged.

The arts gave me that place.

They provided more than music education.

They provided a community, connection, and a sense of pride in being a part of Chattanooga.

Through the arts, I've learned lessons that continue to guide me today.

I learned discipline from rehearsing when I would rather be doing something else.

I learned responsibility because other others depended on me to show up prepared.

I learned teamwork because of a choir or orchestra only succeeds when every individual contributes to something greater than themselves.

And I also gained confidence by standing on stages and sharing something meaningful with an audience.

Without these programs, I would not be the same citizen I am today.

I am here productive, civic, civically engaged, and adult because this city once invested in programs I saw potential in children like me, regardless of background or circumstance.

Someone believed that every child deserve access to opportunities to help them grow, discover their talents, and imagine a future of themselves.

Reducing the sports for arts bills is not simply reduced funding for organization.

It reduces access for futures generation of children who are waiting for the same opportunity I was given the opportunity to belong, grow, and to discover who they can become.

Those are experience shape people as they shaped me.

Today I respectfully urge you to reconsider the project reduction of funding for arts bills, and thank you for your time.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kathleen Nulty, and I'm the program director for arts and culture at the Lindhurst Foundation.

First, I would like to thank you for the investments you've made in this city, um, arts citywide for decades, as a result of Chattanooga's commitment to creating excellent public spaces for people.

We have beautiful parks, a world-class public art program, and hundreds of arts organizations creating new works, partnering with the school system, community centers, detention centers, and more to ensure that all of the people in our community have access to the arts.

Every piece of this puzzle is critical to maintaining Chattanooga as the great destination it is known for.

We aren't just an outdoor city, we're an art city, and our visitors know that.

In the interest of time, I will skip to the punchline.

I stand before you as a person who has benefited deeply from arts participation in my own life.

Likely each of you have your own connection to the arts.

I also represent the Lindhurst Foundation, which has a very long history of financial investment in the arts across our region.

And I'm here to tell you we cannot do this alone.

We need the arts to be supported in a true public-private partnership so that all people in our community have access to enriching experiences.

Lyndhurst has committed a three-year operating support grant to Artsbuild for 225,000 per year, representing an annual increase of 55,000.

Respectfully, I ask the city council to restore Arts Builds allocation to last year's level of 270,000 so that they can continue to serve our community, creating a more fulfilling life for all of us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council, for the good hard work and for this time.

My name is Kim Jackson.

I have the distinct privilege of serving as the executive director at the Chattanooga Theater Center, your community theater for over 100 years, no small feat.

Speaking of small feat, I recently found myself sitting back home in Atlanta in the audience at the Alliance Theater.

I was there for a theater symposium, we were seeing a new musical, it was amazing.

But as the lights went down, I was transported back.

I was no longer an arts administrator, I was a kid.

I was a kid that had ridden a bus from Woodstock, Georgia to Atlanta in elementary school to see my very first theatrical experience, and it was amazing.

It was Edgar Allan Poe's Telltale Heart.

I can still hear the sound design.

So as I was sitting in the Alliance Theater this past weekend as an arts administrator, I realized that as a kid, even though I was in Georgia, I had an Arts Build type mothership that loved us and gave us experiences that changed our lives.

The Chattanooga Theater Center is a recipient of Arts Build Love every single year.

Thousands of kids come to our theater to see shows.

For the very first time, they go on a field trip, they have an arts experience.

I'm a firm believer that we all are still here because we learned how to share our stories.

We did.

We found shelter, then food, water.

After that, we told stories.

On a cave wall, we painted Follow the Buffalo, right?

We sat on somebody's lap, we heard our family stories.

The arts are the place where we continue to tell our stories so that we're not just surviving, but we're thriving.

Chattanooga has an amazing arts community.

Thank you for supporting it.

Please restore ArtsBuild's funding.

Thank you for your time.

Hello, Council.

My name is Lynn Rutherford.

I live in District 7, and I am a natural resource supervisor for the Parks and Outdoors Department.

I have worked at the city for 10 years managing rain gardens and green roofs, wetlands, riparian buffers, grassland restorations.

These are these are all really specialized, fascinating landscapes that help the city protect its waterways, make our parks more enjoyable places, habitat for wildlife, these landscapes keep us in compliance with our stormwater permit, and they also protect our citizens from water pollution and urban flooding problems.

So all that is to say that I have a really cool job that I really love.

They actually, my staff ask me how we can do more prescribed burns, right?

They want to go and work in the smoke and carry a 70-pound water pack.

They want to crawl around in briars, they want to dig holes and plant trees.

They actually like weeding.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find people that like weeding?

So I'm begging you as a supervisor to please help me keep my staff, help make these jobs sustainable in the city.

Like I said, I'm I'm just so grateful that I've found people that love this work.

And my staff deserve good wages.

They deserve to be able to live in city limits.

They shouldn't have to get a second job.

I really don't want to lose any more staff.

So please, please, please help me keep them around.

When we don't keep up with inflation, we're just digging a deeper and deeper hole each year that is harder and harder to catch up with.

So let's let's go back for that five percent for our for our staff.

It's all we have is our is our workers.

So thank you.

Hello, council.

I'm Katie Harbison here on behalf of Chambless Center for Children, and want to talk to you today about our history in the community and what we are doing for families in every district.

We are located, of course, in District 5, but we are serving children in a variety of centers throughout the community.

And we are touching hundreds of children and families every day.

We are providing a service that is is not provided by anyone else in the community because we are providing high-quality, low-cost child care, um, primarily serving low-income families.

So our fees that we charge our families are covering about 25% of our costs, and we rely on outside support.

We do a ton of fundraising, but we have relied on local government support since before any of us were born.

Um, and so we are super grateful.

So let me say that.

We are so grateful that we have uh received yearly support from the city for a very long time.

I would ask that you consider keeping our funding flat.

We are currently slated to lose about 55,000 in this budget, and that is going to be very difficult for us.

Um we lost about 150,000 in the city budget about four years ago, and that was very difficult.

And if you know anything about what's happening in the world of child care throughout the nation and the state, it is becoming very difficult to serve families.

We've had seven early childhood education programs closed in our city since October, due to some of the other funding streams that are happening throughout the state.

So I would urge you to please help us keep these centers open.

Please help us keep families able to go to work every day, dropping their children off, being educated every day.

It is essential for us to maintain that support to continue doing the services at the level we are doing right now.

So thank you very much for your consideration.

My name is Erica Roberts.

I am an artist.

What happens to a city when the art goes quiet?

What does that feel like?

Empty, gone, lonely.

When the people who helped us dream are told there is no room in the budget for dreaming.

We must wake up because this is not just numbers moving quietly across a meeting table.

This is possibility being interrupted.

I know this swelled.

Arts build believed in me before the rooms got full, before the poems had microphones.

Before I knew my work could stretch across zip codes and area codes and reach children who never thought poetry belonged to them.

Because art is not decoration, art is intervention, art is memory, art is the hand reaching across difference, saying you belong here too.

What happens to a city when the art goes quiet?

We lose more than murals, more than performances, more than grants.

We lose the soft places where healing gathers, the brave places where truth gets spoken out loud in Chattanooga city still learning how to hold all of its people together tightly.

We cannot afford to grow quieter.

Let the arts live.

So I didn't come here to plan to speak, but um, I think it really needs to be stated.

Um could you give your shoe nice?

Yes, my name is Latoya Smith.

I'm not one of the big fishes, I'm actually one of the small fishes.

Um, I'm part of the arts build community.

Um we have a lot of us out here, and we're trying to just basically beg at this point.

Um, just because I've been on the end, I'm a single mom.

I've done all of the things I've been part of Arts Build, and I've been trying to figure out like how to scale and how to do all of those things.

That's what Arts Build has helped us do.

But also I want to talk about the CARTA funding.

Um, as a single mom and you all or things just recently happened to where they changed all of the bus routes.

A lot of the single moms who don't have the transportation and aren't in some of the programs that are here, we have to put our children on the Carto bus in order to get them to school and to get them to decent schools.

And that's what I'm here for.

Really get under the hood and like think about where you're spending that money and where it's going.

I'm here on all of the parts.

I'm not just here for arts build or just for anything, even for the raises.

Whenever it comes to the people, I literally know the guy who was just standing up here just a moment ago about picking up the brush.

And if you live in the inner city and you see the brush and you see it pal up, you get frustrated as a community member.

And so to see whenever the time was going when they weren't picking anything up, how messy it can get, what it starts to bring in, and how the homeless population can build up very, very quickly whenever that happens.

That's what this is for.

I think people right now are fighting for you all to see that the money can go in other directions, but put it where it really matters, especially for all of us.

And that's all I have to say.

Hi everyone, my name is Monica Ellison.

I didn't plan on speaking, but I just wanted to say I just felt compelled to speak because I wanted to say that I directly have benefited from Arts Bill funding as a working artist, as a working teaching artist.

I have a small nonprofit myself, called Arts Empower.

I work for other arts organizations, and my life is transformed every day that I can share my art with other people, especially with kids.

I have worked with kids on the artism spectrum.

I work with kids, and I have seen them believe in themselves after I've done my best to instruct them and told them that they can do the things that I've challenged them to do.

And everyone has said it before, it's not a lot of money that's being cut from the Arts Bill's budget, but it is a lot to the people and the communities that it means a lot to, and to be perfectly honest that we need more.

Everybody that has asked for money is worthy.

Everybody in this room is worthy of the money that they are asking for.

Everyone is worthy.

It just it's we can't keep not funding people's lives.

We just can't keep not funding people's lives.

So most importantly for myself, I'm advocating for art school funding, but it's really for all of us.

And I just can't believe I'm overcome with the motion, but it's just like I'm coming from seasonal class.

I know that people, you know, the gentleman that talked about wanting stuff for their workers, the ladies talk about wanting for their staff.

Like nobody's asking for something that is a luxury.

Everything that we're asking for is a necessity, and it has to be looked at that way.

Thank you.

Hello, um, I'm Taylor Boggs, I'll be in District Six.

I work, I'm an opportunity fellow for Be They Change Youth Initiative through Arts Build.

Um I also wasn't planning on speaking, but I just felt compelled to partly because I'm not an artist.

I didn't used to think art was important to community until I found a job with Arts Build, and through my time working with them, I realized that even with my political science track that I'm on right now, art is crucial to civic duty, civic engagement, and building those search spaces that we need.

And another thing that I didn't know about before I came was the funding for our public works workers.

Um I feel like this is an issue of civic priority, and I feel like a city that doesn't prioritize its city workers and doesn't prioritize art and the joy that it brings to its residents is a city whose priority priorities need to be popped open and reevaluated, like one of my friends over here said.

So that's all I have to say.

I'll keep it short and sweet, but thank you.

Good evening, all my name is Sadiv Khan, and I'm an art educator and local artist here in Chattadoga.

I'm here tonight to support art bills uh of Chattanooga.

This organization builds community through art and bring peace to our youth and citizens of all ages here.

And connecting diverse cultures, uh, and through that we know each other better and take over the you know the barriers from each of us.

So I think we cannot afford to have this funding taken away from our community from art bills.

We need it.

Art bills bring vibrant colors, connection, and even therapeutic benefits, health benefits to our citizens, the uh community members.

So um I really feel that uh we should all support our bill to get this back.

Thank you so much.

All right, we still have a few minutes remaining uh in our hour.

Is there anyone else that would like to address the council this afternoon on the FY27 budget?

All right.

Go on once.

Go on twice.

At this time we will close the public hearing, and we will adjourn our uh budget and finance committee, uh Mr.

Chair, and I'll turn the floor back over to you.

Okay, and just as a note, um, so the public comment period we just had uh was for our uh budget in particular.

There will be a time at the end of our meeting as we normally do for members of the public to address us on any topic that you like.

So just keep that in mind as well for those who are staying with us.

Um council, can I get a motion on the minutes from our uh meeting last week?

And the minutes will stand as published.

Council look at what look with me if you would at our agenda um for this evening and hit your lights if you have any questions or comments.

Do have a couple of ordinances on final reading, one ordinance on first reading.

Any questions so far?

Vice Chairman Elliott.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

On this ordinance on first meeting reading council, this uh proposal is actually submitted by a local local um taxi owner, uh Jonathan Easter with NUVA Taxi.

We have not updated our fare rates in the last several years, and so I worked with Chris Anderson and the rest of the administration to make sure we were on uh the same page with this.

So essentially what this ordinance does, it allows us to uh increase those rates uh compatible to cities like Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville.

Nashville has a little bit wonky difference, but we're pretty much neck and neck with Memphis, and so just bumping up taxi rates.

Okay, this does not impact Uber.

So if y'all get a surcharge from Uber, it's not our fault.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman Doddley.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair of uh Chair Elliott.

Can we get a red line version of this one?

Because it's not a new ordinance, correct?

It's just uh it's update not a current minute uh one.

We can work on that.

Okay, can you go up the input?

Sure.

Okay, that's it.

That's all thank you so much, Mr.

Chairman.

I don't know if I'll get it by today though.

You need us to push it.

We can push it a week, that'd be good, just so we can review the the red line rate.

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay, okay.

Councilman Clark.

Uh thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

This is under resolutions under community development.

Are we there?

Yeah, sure.

Yep.

And uh Count Vice Chairman Elliott.

Uh if you could give some clarity from your agenda session, but what is the intent of this resolution as far as it moving forward after uh comments that we expressed last week?

Can someone provide an update, or maybe you could recognize Vice Chairman Elliott again.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Council McClark.

I um have been notified that I believe there's an attempt from the administration to withdraw this uh particular resolution.

What I have asked for, just so council knows, before I am comfortable moving forward with any additional, this is me.

I'm just one vote, but um any additional funds to this particular consultant or department.

I know I need an updated um presentation on what has their work looked like so far.

And so I'm just waiting for the for you guys to get back to us on what that looks like, but I'll turn over there for the chief left for any other comments.

Thank you, uh, councilman for the question.

Uh Vice Chair, it is our intent under community development item A to ask for a withdrawal this evening.

Okay, thank you.

All right, council.

Any other questions on resolutions or any other items on tonight's agenda?

Don't see any lights here, and so we will move on to next week's agenda.

Look at that with me if you would, council.

We'll have one well, potentially um one ordinance on final reading, several ordinances on first reading, including a fair number of planning items, which we'll be talking about during our planning and zoning committee here in just a little bit.

Any questions about ordinances on next week's agenda.

There's one lonely resolution.

Um the public works department.

All right, we will turn then to future considerations.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I had a couple conversations with the administration this week in regards to Sun of Public Works items four and five.

Y'all are probably tired of hearing me talk about this, but for context for those who cannot see this, this is in regards to our uh recycling pilot program that provides glass and composting for those who don't who aren't familiar with the program, it's a pilot program that Mayor Kelly administration rolled out that is quite popular.

And I'll say a good chunk of the program is in currently in my district.

Um my residents have loved this program.

Now, as we've been heard that, and I I will say this, I don't I don't compost, so if anybody in my district, don't vote for me again, because I don't compost.

That's that's on me.

But I will also say that the recycling vendor, they live in our district, they're in Ridgedale, excuse me, they're business in Riddale.

So we want to support this, we want to show up for our constituents.

But uh as we're coming into this budget cycle, you know, I was really looking to figure out how do we make sure this is sustainable, right?

How do we make sure that it's not only sustainable, but it's a great program that the mayor rolled out, and how can this something be extended?

Now for full transparency, uh I want folks to know that part of this, and Jay, correct me if I'm wrong, part of this the composting program will uh slowly sunset the curb side piece.

Is that correct, Jay?

Yes, Councilman, that is correct.

Okay, so I I had two calls yesterday, uh fact to back like within 20 minutes of each other about recycling.

Now, usually it's about litter or by lights out or something like that.

I don't ever get on calls by recycling.

So I knew something was up, and then that's when I was able to talk to Jay and realize that this was happening.

It was new to me, and I don't know uh how many of my other council colleagues um knew about this, but it was a little bit frustrating on my end, because this was not something that I had been notified about prior to, which is okay.

Uh the administration and I had some honest conversations, particularly about how do we improve our communications and transparency.

And so this is a little bit abnormal, but I'm saying this largely to some of those residents who I may have misspoke to yesterday, but also kind of peel back the veil of some of the intricacies that go along with government.

You know, I didn't know about this program, and they said it was in our budget book.

And if you don't, if y'all had seen our budget, this is our budget book.

It's thick.

I don't know if y'all can see this.

It's a lot of pages, and I even got some in it now that I haven't updated.

And um, you don't always catch everything, right?

And I didn't catch this.

It was not in our presentation, and I think it was highlighted under what is it, uh, solid waste fersion fund.

And if you don't know what that is, that you it will gloss right over your head.

And so it was some tough conversations we had to endure these last couple days, and I appreciate the administration being patient with me and me likewise with them and us trying to figure out how we get to a solution.

But um sometimes government misses each other, right?

And we don't always live up to what it means to be transparent and um showing up for people.

I have no doubt none of this was malicious, right?

I believe everybody who works for the city, at least most of them truly wake up every day trying to figure out how do we show up for Chattanooga.

But this was an op this was one of those things that was buried in a fine print that could really disappoint a lot of residents, right?

Uh me knowing what government looks like.

It starts with curbside for compost.

What does it look like?

Maybe it's we're removing curbside for glass.

Not saying we're doing that, but it can be a slippery slope.

So from this, these two items are here today, are looking to extend these contracts uh in some form of fashion.

The composting kiosk will still be available, but at some point, the composting curb side will cease.

So figure out how we can continue to serve our folks, right?

Um as you guys are all probably seen, you got a million and one different interest groups pooling funds a million different ways, right?

We try to show up for the arts, we try to show up for early learning, we try to show up for uh our employees.

So I just want that to be on the record and for folks to know uh why there may be a change, and also so you understand some of the intricacies that go behind the scenes and sometimes the missteps that we have in government, but that's okay, it's not the end of the world.

We pick it up, we work together and we figure out how to show up for Chattanooga.

So that is all on these two items, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Jay.

Absolutely.

Councilman Clark, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chairman Davis.

Um this is in regards to the Terra Nova uh extension of the memorandum.

So just for clarity purposes, when the pilot program was launched, it only covered five, six, and nine districts, is that right?

Yes, sir.

And one of, and I just want to be on the record that I asked that my district be excluded from this because it was in it in its pilot phase where we there was concerns for my district regarding putting glass, raw compost materials.

Um, and I just I wanted to see how the pilot program would work, but just to be clear, in this proposal, we're only extending this memorandum of understanding for curbside for three months because we are going to put it out for bid.

Yes.

Could you help me?

And we're trying to extend the services itself.

So instead of having just kiosks at the recycle or recycle centers where there are kiosks throughout the city that Dunterra owns, and we're trying to emphasize the use of those as well.

So after this three-month extension, which right now it's currently at about a thousand dollars per month for the kiosk collection and $777 per month for the administrative fees per month for district six, eight, and nine.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So what would the extension be like as far so will we be expanding these services just to what Terra Nova has?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And last but not least, have we had any conversation about charging a fee to individuals because we currently in my district?

One of the reasons I was okay with excluding us from this program because right off of Airport Road, we have a collection site that people could bring it to.

There's a another collection site off of Lee Highway.

And I am encouraging my residents to self-service and to use those because this becomes a cost that this is that only covers three districts.

Absolutely.

Um, and again, I asked for my district to be excluded from that.

So, what is what are the conversations about charging individuals who want to use this niche?

Because it is a niche market request, uh, because not everybody's doing composting.

I don't do composting, there's nothing wrong with not doing composting.

Um what are those conversations about if we can start charging for these type of niche services?

Well, councilman, we've had several internal conversations about it, so we're trying to build that layout on what it would look like and who it would affect.

Okay.

Um, from my perspective, I think the concentration area should be businesses first, because they have a more consistent recycling effort that they could have, and we could put restrictions on different things like that.

Uh, talking with the uh mayor's staff today, there is talk about just concentrating on these three services and how we could do fees for those.

Gotcha.

Uh so right now we don't have that path forward.

I was given uh six months to draw that plan, and we're gonna have a 30-day update for the team that was working today.

Gotcha.

And my last question is related to the bike charging stations for Port 2 Street, Greenway, and Erlinger Park.

Does that purchase for Erlinger Park includes?

I know it's a charging station, but how many bikes for each of those stations?

The charging station don't come with bikes.

So these are for individual people who have purchased their own like bikes will be charging.

These are the bikes that are across the city, the EV bikes.

So it would be an additional charging station located in that area so that bikes could come to that area and get charged.

It's an expansion of the footprint.

I'm reading the resolution.

It says a resolution authorizing the public works administrator to enter a purchase agreement with shift transit for two bike charging stations and 25 e-fit bikes.

Not to be added to the bike Chattanooga network at the Fourth Street Greenway in Erlanger Park.

So are we purchasing 25 bikes for this resolution?

Yes.

So will they be placed at 14th Street?

And the reason I'm asking, because in my district, I have the longest stretch of mileage for Greenway on the South Chickamauga Creek and to the improvements.

We are investing into the levy.

And I don't have any of these outdoor features and electronic bikes in my district.

Okay.

So my question again is that the 25 E fit bikes that were that's been purchased under this resolution.

How many of those are going to the 14th Street Greenway and the Erlinger part?

Honestly, I don't know how many would go to each one, but the bikes are interchangeable, so they could go to any charging station across the city.

But we are purchasing 25 additional according to this resolution.

And so the distribution, I guess the distribution of those bikes, in addition to what we already have in our inventory.

Would there be opportunity to add an additional charging station?

Absolutely.

Closer inward into North Brainerd, where we have the longest stretch of South Chickamauga Greenway in that area.

Okay.

There has been constant talk about the expansion of that, where they go, how they're going and when we're doing it.

Oh that is it for me.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jack.

Absolutely.

Councilwoman Dotley, you're recognized.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

And I think Councilman Clark pretty much hit.

I think the first part of my question, which was about the Terracompost.

So in District 7, I've been waiting.

I've been waiting for a while for this compost.

So I just wanted to see, you know, this is hoping to make it citywide.

So no.

Not to interrupt you, Councilwoman, but it all comes down to the dollar aspect at the end of the day.

And as the administrator, I have to make a decision on what we invest in and what we take away from, right?

Um from my own perspective, I chose to invest in the summer youth program for the youth of the city instead of continuing something that didn't add up in the end as we're considering the three different options.

We can combine the we can do the expansions for the drop-off service and the curbside service.

That is where we're getting the most bang for our buck right now.

So on the drop-off service, we're we've done 21,000 pounds of diversion.

That means that we did not send 20 21,000 pounds of trash to a landfill.

So at that that was at a cost of $16,000, $72 or 72 cents per pound for the curbside service for glass recycle.

We've done 25,000 pounds diverted from the trash.

Also $16,000 66 cents per pound.

When it comes to the curbside services, we did 59,000 pounds diverted, $53,000 is what it cost us, and that's at 91 cents per pound.

So it was a significant difference in in the other two, and that's where we selected.

Okay, we can do these two and expand them a little bit so that we can look at future operations to say, hey, now we can cover the entire city.

Right now I have my team working on a five-year plan on how we can see what a flat budget will bring us and how we can make that work because I've had three years of flat budget.

So you know, as as we move forward, that's the intent.

How can I make more with what we have?

Okay, well, when you decide to make more, just know in district seven, we want more.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you so much, Jay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Council, any other questions on future considerations?

All right, let's look at our purchase list for this evening.

Any questions about the proposed purchases?

I do just want to note the the second item from the bottom there.

Um, the three-year renewal for tires for heavy-duty vehicles.

Um there's uh a 1.7% increase.

Um, and if you'll note, uh, originally the vendor wanted a 5.5% increase, so just wanted to give a shout out to our purchasing department.

Um we notice this more and more on our purchasing sheets, and it certainly does not go unnoticed.

Uh, you all are negotiating the best deals possible uh for the city.

So thank you for that.

Okay.

Any other questions, council, before we move on to our planning and zoning committee.

Okay.

Well, with that, I will put on my planning and zoning committee chair person at uh in the absence of councilwoman burrs, who is our chairman of that particular committee, but out of town this evening.

Um, and I'd like to first of all ask for a motion on the minutes from the last planning and zoning committee.

Thank you.

All right, do have a motion properly seconded, and those minutes will stand as published.

And we'll now turn to Karen.

Yes, there's Karen to take us through our agenda for this evening.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, there are ones uh you should have the rundown, it was a little bit like getting that to you today.

My apologies.

Um we have one zoning text amendment, which we'll start with today, and then there are three additional items to discuss.

Um, one was mentioned that had opposition.

I re-listened to planning commission today, and the person said he didn't have opposition per se, so I'll probably move quickly through that.

The zoning text amendment um we have had um in our we our land use or excuse me, our use matrix table and a zoning ordinance has a list of all the uses and all the zones.

You can kind of run down and see the zone and the use.

Um the the table had risk lists residential care facility, um, but elsewhere in the ordinance we note that it's a residential home for the um persons with disability or aged persons, assisted living, medically assisted living, nursing homes.

And so those uses are bundled under residential care facility, so we are just listing those out so anyone looking for a nursing home, assisted living facility knows that that's listed under residential care facility.

And I circled hospitals because the ordinance we uh amendment we drafted that went to planning commission listed hospitals that in preparation for today's meeting.

Hospitals already has uh use listed on the table, so I did ask that to be removed and is not in the ordinance in front of you.

So this is a cleanup to make the table and uses more um usable, and it's not a policy change.

And I'll keep moving unless there's any questions.

Any questions, council?

Okay, please proceed.

Okay.

The next item with opposition was case 56.

And this is a um a case at uh case 56 is at 2836 Anderson Terrace, and that's in the Tiner area.

There was opposition at Planning Commission.

The applicant was not present at Planning Commission.

In this case, what comes with a recommendation to deny by both staff and planning commission.

Um, the applicant after planning commission does get sent a letter saying what happened.

Um we called the applicant's number on file that was not accepting calls.

We found another number and we emailed the applicant today.

So um just to alert the person to the meeting next week, um, but we haven't heard back yet.

But the requester is rezoned from the RN16 zone to the TRN3 traditional residential neighborhood zone for a multi-unit residential.

I believe it's a triplex.

Um, and Ayrs and Terrace is just north of the Tyner uh Middle High Academy.

So there's not a um it's primarily single unit residential in the area with relatively larger lots, kind of a suburban residential pattern, and the requested TRN3 zone allows a higher intensity form, tall buildings and pretty high density.

This is a site plan.

And so staff found the request is not compatible with adopted land use plan, adjacent land uses and development form.

It introduces a multi-unit residential zone, higher density to the area.

Given the narrowness of the lot frontage along Anderson Terrace, and then we'll go back to uh graphic.

Um there are concerns with providing adequate fire and EMS service to multi-unit residential development.

Staff noted the applicant can construct a single unit detached dwelling and attached or detached ADU by right, which is more compatible with the plan adjacent land uses and development form.

Um staff and planning commission had similar findings and both recommended to deny for this case.

Any questions on that one, Council?

Okay.

Um60, and this is the one I mentioned.

There was opposite um that our notes and planning commission um resolution notes opposition.

There's just a question.

This is a rezoning across Jack Benson Park near the intersection of East Braidard and Jenkins, a rezoning from CMU1 to C C so one commercial zone to another commercial zone type.

And the property owner to the north had just asked about a buffer, had noted that previously site plans for this had shown a 20-foot buffer and was just um just interested or concerned or expressed a desire to have a 20-foot buffer during planning commission.

We looked that up and did confirm to that neighboring property owner that there is a 20-foot buffer, and the applicant made a comment about just that it just hadn't been shown on the plan, but they understood a buffer would be required.

Okay.

Any questions, council, on this item?

Okay.

Okay.

Um the last one is um also comes to you with a recommendation for both staff and planning commission to deny.

This is at 1601 and 1603 East 49th Street.

The applicant is requesting rezoning to the um from the RN15 and CC commercial quarter zone to the IH industrial heavy zone.

I apologize that slide has the incorrect text.

Um the caption and ordinance is correct.

It's the IH heavy zone for outdoor storage for vehicles.

So a portion of the site was rezoned from R1 to C2 in 1981, and then equivalency map to CC.

There is no IL zoning surrounding the site, no IH zoning.

You see it south of 50th Street, it's shown there in purple, but no um no industrial zoning immediately surrounding the site.

So the site surrounded by single unit detached residential land uses, and there are no commercial or industrial land uses nearing this near the site.

Um, because we are interested in kind of um we have an illegal non-conforming use.

So I'm gonna spend a little time talking about the history.

A portion of the site has been used for commercial business since 2007, and that business has changed over time and expanded into the um residentially zoned property.

And so this property is currently being used to store it's kind of a junkyard um outdoor storage.

You've seen kind of that single unit residential vacant land use pattern.

The applicant owns both of the properties requested for rezoning and both the site visit and aerial photographs show that rezoning for inoperable vehicles.

So staff determined the use as a legal non-conforming use in both the CC and the RN15 zone.

Um and the applicants applied to bring basically the existing use into compliance.

So the use of the junkyard salvage yard was not permitted in the prior zoning, and um they previously were allowed in the more intense M4 outdoor industrial zone and have to be located more than a thousand feet away from any residential or commercial zone.

So just to give some history, this is 2017.

So remember the property there is the one property zone commercial that would allow a range of commercial uses, um, but not um storage of inoperable vehicles.

The residentially zone property is to the right, 2017.

Um I believe that's 20 uh 2007, my apologies.

2011, 2019, 2023, and then present site.

Um, so staff is recommending to deny this is an illegal um junkyard in the in the zoning.

It um it has to be screened, it's not meeting any of those requirements.

And given the small size of the lot, it would be likely be difficult to bring the site into zoning compliance in regards to necessary landscape buffers for the landscaping regulations.

A 30-foot-wide landscape buffer would be required.

We're abutting any other zone.

And so you've got um residential zoning both to the north and east of the property.

Um, the lots are 45 to 50 feet wide, and a uh landscape buffer is 30 feet wide.

So just a reminder of the IH zone as I wrap up.

It's intended to accommodate industrial activities with moderate nuisances or hazard.

They're um incompatible with non-industrial development, and also allows an 80-foot um tall height and a wide range of uses.

So staff recommended deny there was no opposition present.

The applicant was present at planning commission.

Planning commission had similar findings and recommends deny also.

Okay.

We do have a question from Councilwoman Dotley.

Okay, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

So, of course, this is in District 7.

And so I do plan to deny it as well.

And I thank you for the the presentation.

I just did want to put on a record that I did receive phone calls from a couple of the neighbors in opposition of the rezoning.

So I wanted to make sure that was they wanted to remain anonymous, but I wanted to make sure I put it on the record.

And as we work to revitalize or improve the Rossville Gateway Corridor, right?

Um, you know, zone is gonna be a big big issue.

We have a lot of these lots going up and down Rossville, unmanaged, unmanned, and all type of things are happening.

So uh this is just this will be the first of many that'll be denied when it comes to these type of salvage yards uh around Rossell Boulevard, especially since we just got it paved.

Uh so we are super excited about the potential of it.

Uh and with Thrive Regional Partnership coming this morning to talk about you know some of the implications of of a regional economy.

I mean, this is the prime hook for that.

So I do plan to deny it, and I again just wanted to note that there was opposition that wants to remain another day call in.

Thank you.

And then um LDO is aware of this property, and depending on council's action, we will um I'll let them know action so they can enforce the zoning, the current zoning if that's the way it goes.

Yeah, thank you so much, Karen, and uh thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Councilman Harvey, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um Karen, if you don't mind, I would like to hear about uh case number 0069.

Yes, Stanford Gap.

Yes, um this is on Stanford Gap Road across from um the jail.

Um that portion of Stanford Gap Road that's just east of the interstate.

And so the um properties were zoned um in two a series of two zonings.

Let me get to my notes.

So property um was there's two series of zonings, a rezoning in um 2022 to RTZ with conditions and then 2024 to RTZ with conditions, and those zones both had the same conditions in place, and so now the applicant's seeking to um amend the conditions for both of those zoning sets.

And so um the property is TRN three with those conditions in place.

And um the there's no so this is but as I mentioned, both ordinance have the same condition.

This is an example of one, it's titled the same, but the other one um has the same.

The applicant is not proposing any changes to the condition relating to building massing and height.

The two conditions the applicants requested to change to are changing a um 30-foot type A landscape buffer to a um class M buffer, and that is very robust language shown in red about the applicant's requested language for the buffer, and then the other change is previously a seven-foot high fence was required, and they're requesting to amend that to a six-foot high fence.

Um so this is the proposed development, and one of the no the first conditional notices no more than four units per mass building, and they do show that on the site plan.

And so um staff found the request is compatible with the plan adjacent land uses and development forms.

They're not pro the applicant's not proposing to make any changes to the land use or massing of the building, and the proposed fence and landscape buffer, while different will still provide that buffering from adjacent properties, um, particularly uh Twinbrook subdivision, which runs along that southern property line.

So staff recommended approval, there's no opposition, and planning commission recommended approval for the amended conditions.

So this isn't a rezoning, it's just asking to amend those conditions that are already in place.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay.

Council, are there any other questions on items that were not highlighted but that are on um the planning and zoning agenda?

Councilman Henderson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I will not be in attendance next week when these cases will be heard, and I have uh one item uh 0054 in my district, uh, which I'm in support of.

So if um one of my fellow council members could make a motion to approve this item next week, I would appreciate that.

Okay, Vice Chair Elliott, you're recognized.

Um Mr.

Chair, if this are we done with all the planning items.

Are there any other questions or comments for the planning and zoning committee meeting?

Okay, and then uh yes, I'll adjourn our planning and zoning committee meeting.

Thank you, Karen, as always, for your expertise.

Um and you're recognized, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, council, I am gonna be sending you guys an email today this afternoon.

Uh I am gonna be pushing for a uh proposal change to some of our committee structures, and the chairman has agreed for us to discuss this further on our um June 16th strategic plan.

So we're gonna look out for that, and uh we'll take the item up on the 16th and go from there.

Okay, it's almost sure.

All right, thank you.

Um and council, we do need an attorney client meeting, and so we will be in recess until 5 30.

So

Council, we are back in session.

Um Madam Clerk, if you would please read item 7A, please.

In ordinance to amend the operations budget ordinance number 14239 and thereafter amended by ordinance number 14271.

No, and that's the fiscal year 2025 2026 operations budget to amend estimated general fund revenue by 3,500,000 dollars.

Amend sections five and five A.

So it's appropriate the same amount from general fund to capital projects.

Councilman Henderson, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

This has been a long time coming.

I'll move approval of 7A.

Second.

Council, we do have a motion properly seconded.

Are there any questions or comments on this item?

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you would please take a roll call vote.

Councilman Henderson.

Yes.

Councilman Harvey.

Yes.

Councilman Clark?

Yes.

Councilwoman Dotley.

No.

Councilwoman No.

No.

Vice Chair Elliott.

Yes.

Chairman Davis.

Yes.

That's five yeses.

All right.

Um by a five-two vote.

Madam Clerk, please read item 7B, please.

In ordinance to amend the Capitol Budget Ordinance number 14272, known as the amended fiscal year 2025-2026 capital budget appropriating, authorizing or allocating funds to the capital improvements budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 to increase the capital budget by $3 million,000 from general fund operations for Raccoon Mountain Water Service Project.

Councilman Henderson.

Move approval.

Second.

Council, we do have a motion properly seconded on this ordinance.

Are there any questions or comments?

Seeing none, Madam Clerk, if you would please take a roll call vote.

Councilwoman.

No.

Councilwoman Dolly.

No.

Councilman Clark.

Uh yes.

Councilman Harvey?

Yes.

Councilman Henderson.

Yes.

Vice Chair Elliott.

Yes.

Chairman Davis.

Yes.

That's five yeses.

And this ordinance also passes on second and final reading by a five to two vote.

Item 7C, please, Madam Clerk.

In order to amend Chattanooga City Code, part two, chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So it's a reason parts of properties located at 6210, 6212, 6214, 6216, and 6218 Vance Road from RN16 residential neighborhood zone, IH industrial heavy zone and I L industrial light zone to RN16 residential neighborhood zone and I L industrial light zone sub in certain conditions.

This is in district six.

Councilwoman Burns' district, and she is in favor of this, so I'll move to approve.

Council we do have a motion properly seconded.

Um on this ordinance.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Any opposed?

And the ordinance passes and item 7D, please, Madam Clerk.

In ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, part two, chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So it's reasonable property located at 1128 East 13th Street from RN3 residential neighborhood zone to TRN1 traditional residential neighborhood zone subject to certain conditions.

Oh I'm sorry.

Councilwoman Noel, you're recognized.

Thank you.

I move to approve.

Council, we do have a motion properly seconded on this item.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And this ordinance passes.

One second and final reading.

Item 8A, please, Madam Clerk.

In order to mend the Chatteringa City Call Part 2, Chapter 35, Section 3526, rates affairs scheduled.

Vice Chairman Early, you're recognized.

Um council, for the sake of getting one more week so the rail line version to Councilwoman Dotley and everyone else who needs it.

I like to make a motion to defer this one week to June 9th.

Council, we do have a motion properly seconded to defer this item one week until June 9th.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And this item be deferred one week until June 9th.

Item 9A, please, Madam Clerk.

A resolution authorizing the director of office of community health to execute an independent contractor services agreement with trajectory changing solutions effective January 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, and the amount of 150,000 dollars.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Any opposed?

And this item is withdrawn.

Item nine B, please, Madam Clerk.

A resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into and execute an option extension agreement relative to the Volkswagen option property.

Second council have a motion properly seconded on this resolution.

And Vice You good?

Okay.

Any questions or comments from anybody other than Vice Chairman Ellie?

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And the resolution passes.

Okay.

Um item nine C, please.

Resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of David Johnson as administrator for the parks and outdoors department.

Recognize Vice Chairman Elliott.

I was gonna move to approve.

Uh David's a great friend.

Um great for this position.

I didn't say this last time.

We had a parks person, but great for this position.

And he's also our neighborhood association for old town burning.

So I just I'll move approved again just because we have multiple motions and multiple seconds.

Um are there any other questions or comments?

Councilwoman Dotley.

Yes, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to say I've worked with David for a long time at this point, and I'm just so happy that you're coming over to the city.

I was excited to serve on the first uh interview panel and just proud of the work you've done uh to make sure that Alton Park gets the things that they need when it comes to our trailheads and things of that nature.

So I appreciate you.

Glad to work with you on this side and congratulations.

And I missed the event today, but I won't miss the Thursday.

All right, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

All right, and Councilman Clark, you are recognized.

This isn't uh for D.

Are we taking as a package?

Are you still in?

Oh no, no, we're still on.

Okay, this is in reference to D.

Okay.

I'll clear our queue.

Um any other questions or comments, Council?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And the resolution passes, and welcome, David.

Item nine D, please, Madam Clerk.

A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Erica Collins as Chief Human Resources Officer for the Human Resources Department.

And Councilman Clerk, you're recognized.

I'd like to make a motion to approve.

All right, council, we do have a motion properly seconded.

Um, are there any questions or comments?

I would like comment.

Uh I lost uh Erica Collins is here with her family.

If you could stand to be recognized.

After today's vote, Erica will serve as our chief human resources officer for the human resources department.

She brings several years.

Uh I had the uh ability to uh serve on her interviewing panel and unanimously when she left her interview.

We all said we feel smarter and human resources.

So thank you for going through that process and for your willingness to serve to see your chat room.

Thank you, Ms.

Collins.

All right.

Council, are there any other no?

Are there any other questions or comments?

Council?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And the resolution passes and welcome.

Thank you, Erica.

All right.

Item nine E, please, Madam Clerk.

A resolution approving a new special exceptions permit for a new liquor store located at 7703 Lee Highway.

We'll need to at least uh recognize this item here.

Uh that uh there has been uh I guess a request for additional information from the Dream Liquor folks.

This application for a liquor store has to have all of the information provided to us, and it's not been provided to this point.

We would just request a deferral for one week on this item here, and we have to act before June the 23rd on this case.

Okay, that's what it was for.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, council.

We do have a motion properly seconded to defer this item one week until June 9th.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And this item will be deferred one week until June 9th.

Yes.

Okay.

Item 9F, please, Madam Clerk.

Resolution approving a new special exceptions permit for a new liquor store located at 2409 East Main Street.

Mode to approve.

Thank you.

Council, we have a motion properly seconded on this resolution.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

No.

No.

All right.

And so item passes uh with five yeses and two no's.

Yes.

What was that for?

For liquor store.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Sorry, I didn't mean to blur that or item 9G, please, Madam Clerk.

Resolution.

A resolution authorizing the appointment of Elaine Polyum as a special police officer unarmed for the city of Chattanooga, Department of Public Works, Stormwater Division to perform duties expressly limited to the performance of the duties as a water quality technician in the Department of Public Works.

Moves approved.

Council do have a motion and a second on this resolution.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed.

And the resolution passes.

Item 9H, please.

A resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to execute a contract modification to the Tennessee Youth Employment Program Contract Agreement with Southeast Tennessee Development Workforce Development Division, known as SETWorks, to increase the contract in the amount of 25,816 and 96 cents for a revised contract amount of $63,316.96 cents.

Mode's approved.

Okay.

Yes.

Councilman Clerk, you're recognized.

Probably from your seat.

To employ young people.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

It's part of the summer youth program.

Gotcha.

So is this in our community centers?

The set like what is set works?

Setworks is the company that we've gone through that's giving us the donation.

So we're receiving these dollars so that we can put these uh young men and women to work in public works.

Wow.

And how many how many of those individuals?

Uh we just started 19 of them on Friday.

It's amazing.

I don't know how I missed that on the agenda.

I was like, oh, I remember I was one of those kids who was in the we used to call it PIC, the PIC program, and uh this looks like something I didn't want us to skip over and to acknowledge.

I think that's amazing that we're doing this and employing, especially during the summertime when our young people are out.

So this is great.

So thank you.

A lot of them are uh children that tried that did it last year as well.

So it's a continuation.

They're building a report within the community and within the Department of Public Works, so there's a possibility that we can hire them long term on the on the back side.

So if people are interested in signing up some of their young, I'm sorry, uh Chairman Davis.

If people are interested in signing up some of the young people, who do they can they contact you?

Uh Jackson.

Who's Jackson?

I forget his last name.

Rogers.

Yes, Jackson Roger.

Jackson is in here.

I went blank.

Jackson is the the kind of overseer of the entire project.

So use him as a point of contact.

Yes, sir.

Thank you so much for the opening up the applications.

Like we'll send out the verbiage for application times and all that because we conduct interviews and everything.

Yeah, I think this is amazing.

I'm so sorry I skipped it, but thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, sir.

Council, we do have a motion properly seconded.

Are there any other questions or comments on this item?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed.

And the resolution passes.

Council, let's look at purchases.

Weston, welcome.

Good evening, Council.

We have seven purchases recommended for approval this evening.

The first is with wastewater.

This is a one-time purchase to cover past due invoices for biosolids handling services for wastewater.

This purchase from Senegro South will be in the amount of $902,435.15 cents.

Item number two is with wastewater.

It is year four renewal.

Sweeping Corp of America is requesting a 5% increase due to ongoing marketing conditions with oil and fuel costs.

The new estimated annual spend limit will be $735,000.

Item number three is with wastewater.

They're requesting an increase of $55,000 to agreements PA 10052 and PA 10053 to cover unexpected projects for Hurt and Stour's equipment rental.

The new annual estimated spin limit will be 155,000.

Item number four is with early learning.

This is a one-time purchase for classroom materials and supplies for James A.

Henry Head Start.

This purchase from Kaplan Early Learning Company will be in the amount of $52,979 and 25 cents, utilizing the Byboard Cooperative.

Item number five is a with public works.

This is a one-time purchase of three Polaris Ranger 1000 utility terrain vehicles to be used by the Public Works Department or by the police department.

This purchase from PowerX Power Sports will be in the amount of $97,211 and 37 cents utilizing the Sourceville Cooperative.

Year three renewal uh with public works.

This is with Best One has requested a 1.7% increase due to the increased cost of petroleum-based products.

The new estimated spin limit will be 422,100.

And item number seven is with the fire department.

This is a new agreement for firefighter protective leather boots.

This will be a four-year agreement with an estimated annual spin limit of 125,000.

The award will go to North America Fire Equipment as the best bid.

Councilman of a motion properly seconded to approve these purchases.

Are there any questions or comments?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

And the purchases are approved.

Thank you, Weston.

We'll go around the dais now for committee reports, and we'll start with Councilwoman Noel.

No report.

Yes, I don't have uh formal report as of yet, but I have visited all Yalls Community Centers, and we shall be coming with a uh report after the budget season, so just be rated for that.

And it's been a it's been a fun task.

So yeah, so thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Yes.

Councilman Henderson.

Chair, uh, we did have budget finance committee meeting today for the purpose of a uh public hearing on the FY27 budget ordinance.

The first reading for our budget ordinance will be June the 16th, with a second reading on June the 23rd.

Thank you.

Councilman Harvey.

We are uh interrupted.

We are excited to welcome our new parks uh director and appreciate all the work uh you're gonna do for us and look forward to working with you.

So um, other than that, no report.

Okay, and councilman clerk.

Thank you, uh Chairman Davis.

I have two report outs.

One um as the vice chair of the budget finance.

We conducted our first budget town hall at the downtown public library.

Thank you to Councilman Elliott, Vice Chairman Elliott and budget chairman Henderson.

Um had a decent moderate crowd.

We have three more budget town hall meetings.

I encourage you to come.

The next one will be this Thursday at the uh Dr.

Carroll Burr's family justice center at six o'clock.

Uh we had members of the mayor's team there.

Thank you to Kevin.

Uh there he is.

Kevin Rorick, our chief of staff and Weston Porter, our chief financial officer for being in attendance.

And uh there were I would say they were great robust conversations for us to take back as we're deliberating and uh discussing your budget concerns.

The last one would be in uh Chairman Davis's district um on June the 14th at 2 o'clock at the Hickson um Civic Community Center.

It's the Hickson Community Center.

He will have ice cream at his we will have ice cream, yes.

So uh be sure that before we vote, if you would like more public engagement with your elected officials and the mayor's office, please come there on the fourth and the uh 14th.

Uh so that's it on that.

Oh, and then tomorrow uh we will have the historic preservation town hall meeting that's hosted by uh Councilman Harvey and Councilman Elliott and myself will be here in these chambers at six o'clock.

We'll be discussing um our historic landmarks and including historic African American neighborhoods such as Lincoln Park, Turkey Foot Hollow, and Bushtown, along with some other historical landmarks that have been built by um internationally known architects like R.

H.

Hunt and whatnot.

So please, please take advantage of all these town hall opportunities this week.

Uh, we are a council that likes to engage our public, and we like to engage you.

And then finally, uh congratulations again to Erica Collins, who will serve as our chief human resources officer and Mandy Green and our deputy of Darren Leppard, who also served on that hiring panel.

Again, I think we are in great hands as you look to put the human back in resources for our uh department.

So it's a lot of a lot of readout, but I just want the public to be informed.

But uh that's all I have.

Thank you, Chair Davidson.

Vice Chairman Elliott.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I don't have a report, but we do have a colleague of ours or a Sunaby colleague.

You snuck in and out lash it last week, so I didn't catch you.

We have school board member Alex uh Tesla White here joining us today.

I also want to congratulate you on your win.

And we look forward to several of you.

That's all, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Um, and for myself, I'll just note at that town hall that councilman clerk mentioned we will have ice cream.

Um, but it's uh it's also my regular town hall meeting, and so we'll be hearing um during the first part of that meeting from uh officials from CBL about the North Gate redevelopment, um, and that'll be a time designed to hear input from the community about their vision for the Northgate Mall property in the expectation that CBO will take that information and include it in their redevelopment plans.

So please mark your calendars for that.

Again, that's June 14th from 2 to 4 at Hickson Community Center.

Ice cream, Mr.

Member.

Uh we're now to that portion of our meeting where we're happy to recognize members of the public who are here to do the other business.

Oh, sorry, skipped over other business.

Yes, sir.

And uh, based upon the action of the council tonight on the special exceptions permit for Dream Liquor Inc., uh, we would uh just defer that certificate of compliance as well for one week until June the 9th here.

Hopefully, we'll have all the information on that location, which is 7703 Lee Highway in District 6.

Uh, we do have at this point in time information for the certificate of compliance for Townsend Street, LLC, DBA, Townsend Street, wine at 2409 East Main Street, District 9.

And that particular establishment has complied with all of the requirements of the zoning ordinance and the applicants here in connection with the location, and the applicants do not have any disqualifications.

So that uh certificate of compliance and background investigation has been approved.

Likewise, there is a certificate of good moral character for alcohol beverage in a private club for the council fire club, uh, which is now been approved as well by five members of the board for the uh holder of that is Franklin H.

Proctor.

And that has been approved this evening.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Attorney.

Yes, sir.

And we are now properly to that portion of our meeting where we're happy to hear from members of the public who would like to address the council.

Um, and if you're here for that purpose, please line up at the podium down front while our attorney reads the rules.

Yes, sir.

And 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 the rules.

Each speaker wishing to address the council can only be recognized at the microphone provided up front for that purpose.

You can't have more than three minutes to speak at this time, and you can address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi judicial authority and not on matters which are not under their authority or regulated by other governmental bodies or agencies.

Do not engage in any vulgar or obscene language and our use to Florida personally attack or personally denigrate others and address the council as a whole and not make comments directed towards individual council members.

And lastly, do not engage in disorderly conduct or disrupting a public meeting, which is prohibited by Tennessee law, and someone commits that offense if a person substantially obstructs or interferes with the meeting by physical action or verbal utterance with the intent to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting or gathering.

Having stated those rules, please go ahead and give us your name and your district, ma'am, please.

Good evening, council.

I've missed you.

My name is Anna Galladay, and I live in District 8 and serve as the vice president of the Park Central Neighborhood Association.

I have stood at this podium before on this issue because this administration has yet to do what it needs to do.

The CHAPT Foundation has done its homework.

Baron King and his team have identified four potential locations for a large low barrier shelter.

Sites near their downtown campus where the infrastructure and expertise already exist, and they have submitted those proposals to the mayor's office.

There is a word for what we are being asked to do here.

And it's not a policy word.

It's a moral one.

Covenant.

A covenant community does not look away from its most vulnerable members and call that fiscal responsibility.

It does not let the anxiety of some residents drown out the survival needs of others.

Every major faith tradition in this city, everyone teaches that how we treat the least among us is the truest measure of who we are.

Roughly 70% of Chattanoogans experiencing homelessness have no shelter at all.

Our unsheltered rate is two to three times higher than any other region in this state.

This is not an abstract policy problem.

These are our neighbors, and they are dying.

They have the CHAT Foundation and they have you.

What is needed now is political will and the moral courage to act.

As Councilman Elliott said, this requires political courage in this moment.

Be courageous.

Thank you.

I'll go first.

Good evening.

We have an exciting announcement, and uh, I thought I'd call somebody who uh who knows more stuff than I do, Mr.

Jackson here, to read that announcement for us.

Ready?

All right.

Grow Chattanooga Realtors excited to announce that the application for a next placemaking project are being accepted through July 31st.

This program helps transform underutilized or blighted spaces into safer, more vibrant, and more active public places throughout our community.

Selected projects may receive up to 25,000 dollars in funding, and they are looking for creative community-supported ideas that are accessible to the public and can make a meaningful impact.

Since GCAR launched this program in 2020, they have award 150,000 in place making grant funding throughout the Greater China area.

We encourage community organizations, neighborhood groups, and local partners to review that application and submit ideas that can help strengthen and beautify public spaces are across our community.

Thank you.

Um as Mr.

Jackson so eloquently put it, uh, our association has awarded 150,000 worth of community grants uh since 2020, which is something we're very proud of.

Um this most recent year, um, our association, which represents all nearly 3,000 realtors in the greater Chattanooga area.

Uh we have uh five counties, and uh this past year uh we uh received an application from Walker County and the Walker Rocks playground, and our association was able to fund the fencing that goes around this playground, which is something we're very proud of.

And um, this very week uh uh in District 2 uh our uh it's the National Realtor Volunteer Week, and we spent um part of our Saturday cleaning up the Pollinator Garden, which was one of our uh placemaking projects back uh a few years ago.

So if you have uh any questions, uh talk to Mr.

Jackson or talk to me, um, and we'll be glad to uh to help with that, and thank you all very much.

Thanks, Jackson.

Hey council, my name is Tyler Golson, District 1, and um again, just want to say thank you.

I know we're not supposed to single people out, but I am going to for just a second, just to break the rules, I'm sorry.

Um but councilwoman Noel, I've been frustrated with you the last couple weeks, and then my youngest started saying I and voting with you a second ago, so I've got to do some discipleship when we leave here because he's all face.

But listen, we we uh uh I know that this has been complex and it's been uh multifaceted.

Um, but I just want you to know over the last couple weeks there's been a lot of comments um about a lot of money going towards a small amount of parcels, and I just want to go on the record and just and state for both you and for my neighbors, um we're not we're not parcels for people, and you guys have um you've advocated for us and you've made a decision that it's literally gonna it's gonna provide um safety for for my kids.

It's it's literally going to provide safety for my kids, and it's gonna provide water for um for a group of people that have been in desperate, desperate need for quite a long time, and so just thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

I know there's a diversity of opinions, but you have no idea what this has meant to us, and I want you to know how grateful we are.

I appreciate it.

I'm Eric Atkins, officially from District 8.

I'm the co-chair person of the other unity group, and that means we represent a broad section of not only minorities, but people in labor and in uh education and many uh social justice areas across this city.

And I was reminded when I came down here of the words of the poet Paul Lauren Thunbach.

We wear the mask that grins and lies.

It has our cheeks and shaves our eyes.

This debt we paid to human guy with torn and bleeding hearts we smile and mouth would mirror subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise and counting all our tears and size while we wear the mask?

We sing, but oh great Christ, I cries to deep and tortured souls arise.

We walk but all the clay is by beneath our feet in long the mile.

They let the world dream otherwise while we wear the mask.

And I followed the words of Paul Long Dunbar when I bought a Juneteenth.

I haven't been happy a lot of data I seen in Juneteenth this year.

And if you look at the Juneteenth flag, the star in the middle represents the long star state of Texas.

The bird, the birth is a new birth of freedom for the slaves.

The art is a new beginning.

And the red, white, and blue represents the American flag.

That we are all united as one people.

And Gentle Team should be getting the same level of respect as Independence Day because they are leaked.

It was the Fourth of July that freed the land, but it was Juneteenth that freed the people.

And they are all one.

And if you look at the level of respect for General Team that's opposed to other holidays, I tell you, words came to my mind disrespectful, insulted.

And when I thought of all the people that we have came before us, especially in the planning of things like parades, we were already this year earlier told at the MLK parade that the city didn't no longer consider it grandpa.

That they were no longer considered that they will have a partnership with the community.

And now we're having problems with the Juneteenth Parade.

And we can't understand why this is.

I didn't know what an agenda was.

I didn't know half of the things on the pages.

I didn't know the people who were on the dais.

But one of the most beautiful things that came out of coming down here was meeting my black elders, Tiffany Rankins, Mr.

Green, Miss Pierre, Dr.

Brown, Eric Atkins.

And walking alongside these elders, I have learned more than I learned in high school and in college.

I have learned about history that our local school system doesn't teach about African Americans.

But it was perplexing when I thought about it because when I went through public school here, I went to civil rights museums in Atlanta through Hamilton County, but didn't learn much of anything about Chattanooga.

We spent 30% over budget for the Walnut Street Bridge, where y'all lynched Negroes.

White people lynched one Negro from the first rung and enjoyed it so much, they got them another a couple of years later and lynched him from the second rung.

Think about you paid to take blood stained steel from our ancestors that we paid taxes for to be hung and underrepresented.

At the same time, the Constitution said we were three-fifths of human beings, but yet numerated us so that we could be counted for white power in the South.

We couldn't be represented, we couldn't be free.

But then we get free.

We pay city and county taxes.

We don't need any more excuses because our flag is that flag.

Our history is that history.

And we wouldn't have to see bust all over the south of the people who enslaved us while y'all won't give us any funding to remember our own freedom.

Good evening.

My name is Reverend Ann Jones Pierre.

I'm a member of a resident in District 9.

And I came today just to frame an issue so that we'll have something to look at.

We can't ever change things or decide we're going to do something different if we don't frame it.

You know, people pay a lot of money for frames.

Juneteenth is called the National Independence Day because it marks the realization of freedom and independence for all people in the United States.

While July 4th is called Independence Day and celebrates the nation's independence from Great Britain in 1776.

The majority of enslaved black Americans were not actually free in 1776.

Yet this country, state and city, are spending millions of dollars on the 250th anniversary of Independence Day, which will be noted on July 4.

The local news media has listed a calendar of events, and none of those events include the Juneteenth holiday.

Millions are being spent on various events in the city.

For example, the recent soccer team event that carried a price tag of almost a million dollars.

There are four people on this council that are assumed to be African Americans.

I use this term for a reason.

I am 81 years old, and I remember visiting my grandmother who worked on her land and was born one year after the ride into Galveston, Texas.

Her 11 other brothers and sisters were born into slavery.

Why do I say this?

The four of you are here to level the playing field.

I am a part of the group that met to determine the best way to have equal rights in the city.

After all the meetings, a person was chosen to leave the plane as the plaintiff.

This is why you are here.

Do you not know you and those who look like you are being omitted by tax 25% increase in taxes?

You can spend my hard-earned money, but I can get no benefits or recognition.

This is the hole that continues to get deeper and deeper.

We need to talk about this.

We need to meet.

We need to sit down at the table and talk about how people in this city are treated and how you look at them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Colleagues and everybody who is tuning in to provide some context to some of the lighter comments.

And so I was able to find out about this from Eric because I just didn't know.

Then, thanks to Mandy Green and administration, they were able to help shine some light on this issue.

And just all transparency, our risk department has deemed it necessary as we are starting to have parades with vehicles that to protect the liability of the city and whatnot, that we should have insurance to cover some of those vehicles.

The argument I made is, you know, we have certain events that we know occur every single year.

And so the argument I made is, you know, we should be doing our due diligence to notify people ahead of time of internal policies, right?

And it's not necessarily fair for to be springing updated costs on folks last minute.

You know, these costs for these permits and everything, they they it call it's the same thing every year, and they already know what to pay for when they plan it.

But when we spring an extra five, six hundred dollars on somebody, that's a lot for somebody to absorb last minute.

But we were able to get around that to make sure that those additional costs won't be applied.

Uh Manny has worked diligently with the administration to make sure we are notifying every organization who we know has annual parades about any changes, but we're not gonna make uh Unity Group or anybody else pay unnecessary fees, so we have a communicated prior to this event.

So I am um I appreciate Eric, you trust me to help figure this out.

And everybody who has come today, whether you are coming from Artsville, Chamberlain Center, whether it's Raccoon Mountain or the Unity Group, whatever you come from, or whatever brings you here today, please don't stop your advocacy, right?

Because when you when you step up and you speak up, you're able to make a difference.

You know, you have folks here who have been just trying to get water for years, and you had a councilman who didn't stop.

And Reverend Pierre, you're right.

There's a reason you have uh black folks here to represent the committee to make sure that we are not swept under the rug.

And so this is why we're here to represent our people.

So thank y'all for being here, and please do not stop showing up because um we need it more, and I would as somebody who represents one of the three majority black districts.

Y'all keep coming because I need y'all more times than just uh every so often.

So that's all Mr.

Chairman.

Okay, councilwoman No.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mine's just not in reference to, and I understand Mr.

Atkins' um concerns and Reverend PR concern.

But my concern is what just happened a minute ago that you as chair of this council and feel you as attorney of this council allowed the gentleman to call my name out, and you did not stop it when Monty comes up and calls anyone name.

You jump on it like a duck on a June book, but you sit here and you allow that to happen.

Now I take offense to it, whether it was not intentional or nothing bad meant by it, you still the rules were broken, and you allowed it to happen, and the only difference between this gentleman and Monty is the obvious.

Okay.

So what I'm saying, you all failed me miserably in here this evening, as well as my colleagues sit here and did not hit their button to say you cannot do that.

So I don't appreciate it.

I have a problem with it, and I will not allow it to happen.

So what's your course of action?

Well, I do I don't want to hear that.

What's your course of action?

Well, what I was going to say is I apologize.

It was certainly not intentional.

Yes, it was.

It won't happen again.

Yes, it was.

It was intentional.

You can't stop anything else.

You stop anything else, don't tell me.

You stop anything else.

It was intentional.

I've not stopped anything.

That's what I'm saying.

If it had been Monty or anyone else off up in here that did that, then you definitely would have stopped it.

Jumped up, hit the gavel, closed the meeting, and said dismiss.

Okay, I'm just letting you know.

Yes, ma'am.

Y'all need to get it right and tight.

Because you bore the line.

You bore the line.

Thank you.

Okay.

Motion adjourned.