Yes, thank you, everyone, for allowing combo for you.

Um, this is our first time in twelve years since a clerk has addressed the council in such a presentation.

So I am extremely nervous.

I am extremely grateful.

I am uh grateful that um I presented an executive summary to the chairman, and he said bring this before the council.

And uh because he felt like this was strong enough.

Um for you all to hear the things that I will I do have an ask.

It is coming at the end.

Um but I again I just want to say how grateful I am to be here.

Uh this presents the 5D strategic modernization plan.

Umernization.

We're still using paper around here.

And we're still scanning things behaviorally, but um this presentation marks the total uh turning point.

Um the early statutory role of the clerk, which did not exist until the 1900s, even though the city itself existed.

Um but we have become a fully modern technical and able government institution.

So if you see my beautiful slide there, apparently departments use this, and I didn't know that.

So everything beyond this looks nothing like that.

Okay.

I'm going to start with uh going over from the uh 1900s to 2026, and uh it's important to know where we were to where we are today in order to know where we need to go in the future, and the past is extremely important, and the only person who was here to actually, and I should thank you, uh Councilman Henderson because you were here during the restructure of this office.

I was just quite a different way.

I'm like oh history in Teddy Roosevelt's administration.

Okay, restructure of 2014.

Okay, all right.

Sorry, I had to work that with the yeah, I set myself up for that one.

Uh so I should thank you because there were things that uh took place that I don't know if you necessarily saw it back then, but it has come full full term.

It is it is you set up something that I don't think you even realize.

Oh uh, you were one of the people who were uh a part of the restructure of the office, and I'm I'm thank you right now for that.

And I hopefully you all understand what I'm talking about.

Um the uh 1900s.

I'm starting at the 1900s, even though the city was founded, charter long uh in the 1800s after the civil war, but I'm starting with the 1900s just because that's the first time you will start seeing references.

1911, for instance, when the city uh became a commission.

Um, you start seeing references to a clerk.

You never see a reference to a council clerk, clerk to council.

You don't even see anything secretary to the uh administrative office.

You see, no reference, the only references at that point you see to a clerk were all for the from my research.

Um, and I did send a historical preface to the uh attorney to perhaps he could find uh some information about this.

My only references were that I found were for the city uh court clerk.

Whenever you see clerk, it's always in reference to the court and the person who's handling the judicial documents, and for the most part, definitely through the 1800s through the early and maybe possibly 1930s.

The auditor did a lot of what you consider to be the work of a clerk, and then but but it started uh after the Chattanooga became uh commission form of government.

Yes, you did start seeing the duties filtering out more towards what we now call the clerk to council.

Um it was um called City Call, it was 813 formally established the duty to preserve the legislative records, major city reorganizations during the era that is 1900s through 2002, and that's a lot of that's a century right there, where there's no reference to the clerk, and that's why it looks strange, but that's true, all the way through 2002, and then when City Code eight uh section 813 formally established the duties, um uh I'm sorry, major city reorganizations had happened during that time.

Um, it left the office, the council office administratively undefined.

So uh there was somebody groups of somebody that were working, but there was not an official clerk technically, and I shouldn't say there was not a code, there was a clerk.

I I make it was here in the 1990s or whatever.

I knew, but actually represented in the city code, that as far as I can tell did not exist.

And that's actual charter provision.

So the charter was amended to include that.

So that 8.13 is a charter section.

It gives you charter official author.

Thank you.

So that's from 2002, though.

And the city was started in 91.

Well, the charter was actually in 89, I believe was the first year of the first elections were in 1990.

And uh they were at that point in time, there was a charter that was in effect at that point, and it was amended in 2002.

I believe it's the last amendments to the full charter.

I apologize, Mr.

Chair.

I was not shut out.

I apologize.

Councilman Henderson was a part of the restructure that took place during this time.