Welcome to this meeting of the Huntsville City Council.

It is Thursday, February 26, 2026, 5 30 p.m.

And we are met in the council chambers in the City of Huntsville, Alabama.

We extend a special welcome to those we have a lot of people here in the chambers tonight, and it looks like it's Huntsville City Schools Night in the City Council chambers.

We welcome Superintendent Dr.

Clarence Sutton, Council President or Board President Carlos Matthews and board members Holly McCarty and Chandra Jones who are joining us tonight.

We're going to hear a presentation from uh Dr.

Sutton later on in the meeting.

We also have a lot of other uh athletes and and uh cyber patriots here that we're going to be honoring tonight, so we look forward to kicking off our meeting in a really great way.

We will begin with an invitation that will be offered by one of our Huntsville, Alabama police safety chaplains, Dr.

Lori McCauley, who also is a former member of the Huntsville City School's Board of Education, followed by a Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr.

William Hampton.

All those who are uh willing and able, please stand for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance.

To the great architect of the universe, to the one who said the stars in the sky told the ocean where the star and the land where the stop.

We pray for clarity of mind and integrity of heart for our mayor and city council members.

They have done their research.

Let them experience your revelation.

They have studied the issues before them, allowed your spirit to guide their deliberations.

May the decisions be rooted in what is just sustainable and beneficiary for all residents, from the most prominent to the most vulnerable, which you call the least of these.

Let us stay mindful of those who serve our community daily, our first responders, our educators, and city staff.

We all will dedicate our efforts tonight for the betterment of our neighbors and the future of our city.

Being Black History Month, I will close you with a proverb, African proverb.

And it is simple but profane.

And it says the old pot still makes good suit.

Meaning respect of the will respect your elders and the wisdom that they bring in the value of tradition in modern times.

Amen.

Thank you, Dr.

McCaulay.

Mr.

Hampton.

Will you join me in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Please be seen.

Thank you, Dr.

McCaulay.

Thank you, Mr.

Hampton, for opening our meeting in such a special way.

Council members, uh, you have the agenda before you please note that we have three items that have been removed.

Items 10A, 17A, and 20 N have all been removed by the spot by the sponsors.

So when we get to that point in the agenda, we will uh skip over those will be deleted.

Are there any other items on the agenda?

Any other changes?

It was 10A, 17A, and 20 N.

Any other items that anyone wishes to hold.

Any other items that anyone is aware of?

Any changes?

All in favor of approving the agenda?

Say aye.

Any opposed?

Um the agenda is approved, and we should also, it has been brought to my attention.

We should note that uh Councilmember Michelle Watkins is not with us.

We assume she will be joining us later in the meeting.

But let the record show that right now, Council members Meredith, Kling, uh Little, and Robinson are here, and we do have a quorum.

We will move on to the approval of minutes.

Council members, you have the minutes of the regular meeting of the City Council held on February 12, 2026.

Are there any changes or additions to be made to the minutes?

All in favor of approving minutes, please indicate.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Minutes are approved.

We will now move on to several recognitions.

We have a chamber full of of uh a number of great folks who who deserve recognition.

We will start with the mayor's recognition.

5A is a recognition of local high school state wrestling champions.

5B is recognition of Cyber Patriot State High School champions, and we will let the mayor take care of those recognition.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh and if I could ask uh to come to come up to the dais, uh Dr.

Sutton, Mark Russell, Abigail Meyer of St.

John Paul II, Jesslyn Allen of Grissom High School, uh Devon Miller of Columbia High School, and Bo Reynolds of Huntsville High School.

Come on up.

Come on up.

Hello, Dr.

Sutton.

Good to see you.

As many of you realize uh this past weekend uh or uh the weekend before there was uh the state wrestling uh tournament was held here.

And you know, we take a lot of pride in hosting the state high school athletic wrestling championships every year.

Uh this event brings students, athletes from all over the state to compete at the VBC.

And tonight we have some of the winners uh who are state champions from our area high schools, and we wish to recognize them for their outstanding achievements.

First, we have Abigail Myers.

Raise your hand.

There we go.

Uh Abigail.

Uh John Paul II.

She's a champion of the 15A 126 pound division.

Congratulations.

We have Jesselyn Allen of Grissom High School.

Congratulations.

She is champion of the 67A, 114-pound division.

We have Devon Miller of Columbia High School.

Devon is the champion of the 6A 106-pound division.

Congratulations.

And the heaviest champion that we have tonight is Bo Reynolds of Huntsville High School.

He is a champion of the 7A 165-pound division.

Congratulations.

All these have been provided a certificate of honor and recognition that reads your dedication, perseverance, discipline, and teamwork have brought great pride and distinction to your school and to the city of Huntsville.

Your championship performance reflects exceptional academic excellence and exemplary character serving as an inspiration to our entire community.

We commend your commitment, your competitive spirit, and your remarkable accomplishments.

And we want to say congratulations to each of you.

Dr.

Sutton, would you like to say something?

I just want to congratulate them, represent our city, and your schools will.

We're so proud of you, and that you are a model for other students.

So congratulations.

Congratulations, all right.

We got to get a picture here.

Come on.

Hey, will all y'all still make weight right now?

All right, here we go.

Perfect.

They smile.

Thank y'all so much.

And in addition to that, Dr.

Sutton, hang in here now.

In addition to that, we have another group of students to recognize tonight.

Can we have uh Lieutenant Colonel David Murphy and Jim Maurice?

Is it Maurice?

And their students to come to the dice, please.

Bring all the students who are the winners of the cyber contest.

Good, good, good.

Colonel Murphy.

I'm going to hand it over to you in just a minute.

You come on in here.

But these students have also brought state championships to Huntsville, among other achievements.

They have won cyber competition, and there's somebody very, very special to be in our group.

Tell us a little bit about your group.

Yes, sir.

So Cyber Patriots, I'll try to give a quick explanation of it.

That's a computer network defense.

Like they're a small company, and they are given a challenge to secure their networks from attackers.

And so within the team, and on my team, I've got Lydia Gifford as the captain herself and Chatfield, they also worked on the Linux system securing those.

Then we have Cadet Mignano and Mosby, and they worked on securing windows and server systems.

And then we have Cadet Lopez, he worked on the networking to make sure the network is set up in the proper manner.

And so they compete against that virtually against teams, not only here in Alabama, but they compete against teams nationwide.

And this team finished first in the state of Alabama, beat all the other JRTC teams throughout the state to take first place as the Alabama State Champions for GRTC.

And Ms.

Riggs, would you introduce your your crew and tell a little bit about their championship?

Sure.

This is first of all, this team is a a couple new members, but they're two time state champs.

They won last year also.

They competed with around 3,000 teams around the world on bases in foreign countries and Canada and the United States.

And they finished nationally qualifying for the national semifinals, which made them out of that 3,000 teams in the top 8%.

And after the round, the national semifinals, we were around 5%, top 5%.

So they really persisted and worked hard all year long to gradually get to that level.

And so I'm real proud of them.

Yes.

To my right, Zion, Khan, raise your hand.

There you go.

He was our forensics and all-around troubleshooter.

And you need that in IT.

Then we have Sam McMillan.

He was one of our Windows specialists.

And then we have Astel Baker.

She was one of our Linux specialists.

And then we have our network specialists, Walker Williams.

And our other Linux specialists, Andrew Buckholz.

And we have one other that's missing, who is also a Windows specialist.

Fantastic.

Let's give them all a big round of applause.

And Dr.

Sutton, even though we probably bring down the intelligent quotient of this group a whole lot, we'll still stand here in the picture anyway.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you and congratulations to all.

Congratulations.

Special thanks to the coaches who make all this possible.

We will uh before we move on, let the record show that Ms.

Watkins has joined us on the dais, and we have our full contingent of council members here.

We are also joined tonight by another Huntsville City Schools board member Ryan Renaud.

Um we appreciate you being here, Mr.

Mr.

Renan.

We will move on to Council Special Recognitions and Resolutions 6A is a resolution recognizing the impact of male mentorship and the men of change initiative.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion from Mr.

Kling, second by the chair.

All in favor, please indicate.

And Ms.

Watkins, would you like to make that present?

Good evening, everyone.

Excuse my uh tardiness.

Um I am going to ask the men of change if they will all come and join me up on stage, please.

They include you.

So while they're coming up, and and I know I said men of change, but they have some phenomenal women with them as well.

Um thank you.

One of the things um the men of change do is they go out and they mentor in um MacNair, Jemison, I think they expanded to signing her for Columbia.

Any more?

Okay.

So what they do, what happened is a couple of years ago, Carlos and I were in a meeting together, and I was telling them about how I wanted to start a program for males and have males only go and talk, no females in the room.

So Carlos said, Well, let's do it.

I think that's what you said, right?

So henceforth, men of change um begun.

And I'm gonna give the microphone to whoever the spokesperson is and let you speak on it real quick.

Yeah, the program was set up so that we can work with uh our young men in uh two different schools in the element and the middle school and the high school to give them the opportunity to learn how to speak in front of crowds, be able to open up and talk about issues that they have and bring resources to them uh for their academics.

Uh a lot of times when we talk to the kids initially, they don't want to talk about their grades.

They say the grades are not this, that I'm doing a great job, but then we look at them and they're not doing a great job.

So we we try to work with them to make sure that we get them the resources, but we also open up to talk about some of the social issues that they may run into.

Uh we have men from all backgrounds to come in.

We have no leadership.

That's right.

There is no head to this organization.

It's just a bunch of men of the like-minded that are coming in to work with our students.

We also have added our women.

These young these ladies here work with the women at Columbia.

So they take the time to come in once a week and they work with them to do the exact same thing.

There is no head in that organization either.

If one's out, the other two take over.

Same thing with our organization here.

If one's out, the others take over, and we continue the program to move forward.

So this is about part of Black History Program.

I wanted to recognize individuals who are having a positive impact in the community.

And Travis and Maurice, instead of me reading a resolution, I want both of you to give a few words so people know exactly what you do.

Hey, good evening, everybody.

Um, what we do is as men, we come together and try to pour our experiences and our heart into these kids.

And a word that I a phrase that I use is planting seeds inside of seeds.

And a lot of these kids want a way out, they want to do better in life, they want to be great, but you know, how can they be great if they don't have anybody to guide them or show them that?

And so that's what we try to capitalize in doing is showing them that they're loved, they're cared about, and that there is a blueprint to greatness.

How everybody doing?

You put me on the spot, but that's all right.

But nevertheless, uh, yeah, we go up there and we just try to give these kids role model because growing up I didn't have a role model.

And to be where I am at today, to the things that I went through, we try to keep these kids from going through what we went through to be positive in their role in their lives because a lot of them come from single parent homes.

So we want to be that influence in their life to be positive.

So if they if you would like to be a part of men of change, if you know any of these gentlemen up here, contact one of them or show up at the school on what days and what times.

On Monday at uh nine o'clock for McNair, 10 o'clock for Jemison, and then uh is that right on the okay, and then 10 o'clock at Columbia on Wednesday.

On Wednesday.

And I think these men should get a round of applause because they're done a phenomenal job.

Perfect.

We'll squeeze in the time as you have.

Thank you all for your contribution to our community.

Six B is a resolution honoring the Gristow High School cheerleading team for bringing home a national title at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National Cheerleading Championship held in Orlando, Florida.

The chair moves for approval.

Second.

Second by Mr.

Kling.

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose motion carries.

If we could please have the Grissom cheerleaders with their coaches, Chloe Kluka, Tia Lang, and Principal David Coperton.

Well, I'm just so proud to be able to present this resolution.

I need to read this so I don't miss anything.

Whereas the City Council and mayor of the City of Huntsville, Alabama, wish to recognize the Grissom High School cheerleading team for bringing home a national title at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National Cheerleading Championship held in Orlando, Florida, and whereas competing against some of the country's top cheerleading programs, the Grissom Tigers competed February 6th through 8th in the division varsity co-ed non-tumbling division, earning an impressive score of 88.5 with zero deductions.

And whereas this outstanding performance resulted in a national championship title, making the first national championship victory in the history of Grissom High School's cheerleading program.

And whereas this achievement reflects the dedicated and steadfast leadership of coaches.

Chloe Kluka and Tia Lang, whose guidance instill hard work, integrity, and discipline in Grissom's junior varsity and varsity cheerleading teams.

And in addition to being led by committed and devoted coaches, the Grissom cheerleaders are responsible for leading students, teachers, administration administration parents, and fans in school spirit at athletic events throughout the school year, as well as committing countless hours to rigorous practice in preparation for both local and national competitions.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city council and mayor of the city of Huntsville, Alabama, do hereby recognize and commend the Grissom High School cheerleading team for their extraordinary accomplishment in securing a national title and extended their sincere congratulations to the athletes, the coaches, school leadership, families, and supporters who have contributed to this achievement.

Join me in congratulating them.

And Dr.

Sutton, if you Dr.

Sutton, if you'd like to come up and join us too, you need to be up here as well.

Now I think we have something special in store here to show why they are such champions.

So, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, but we but we need to get out of the way, don't we?

So hey, Codes, works, great.

Here we go.

Here's Gellett!

Come on, kill it!

You've got it, brother.

Here's words, great.

Here is words, great.

Now let's let their let's let their coaches have a minute to cheer on the cheerleaders.

Good.

How's their getting settled?

Um, we're just super proud of these kids and all the work that they put in uh all year long.

We are a year-round program, and so they don't have a whole lot of time to um get rest and get ready for the next season.

We're already starting up preparations for next season and getting ready for tryouts again, but they work so hard day in and day out, and we're just um so proud of everything that they've accomplished, and we couldn't be prouder of this achievement that they've gotten for the first time for Grissom High School.

So we don't get down first.

Thank you.

And one final congratulation.

Six six C is a resolution in recognition of the women's expo Huntsville and founder Tiffany Draper.

Is there a motion to approve?

Vote to approve.

Motion by Ms.

Watkins, second by Mr.

Little, all in favor, please indicate proposed motion carries the resolution is approved.

Ms.

Watkins.

So this gives me great honor to recognize Ms.

Draper.

And if I could get you and all of your supporters, come on up.

I was trying to figure out I was like, I didn't see you.

I was like, what is the orange?

Yeah, I couldn't figure it out.

But I like it.

So I need one.

Okay.

So a lot of people here.

Tiffany is very well known.

She brings the women expo to Huntsville every year in March.

And I was going to recognize her during Wim Women's History Month, but unfortunately, my schedule and her schedule is off track.

So we're celebrating her a little early, but that's okay because we can get the message out.

So whereas the City Council and Mayor of Huntsville, Alabama, desire to commend the Women's Expo Huntsville and its founder, Tiffany Draper, for outstanding contributions to the community and to acknowledge their meaningful efforts in equipping and inspiring women while enriching the cultural vitality and economic growth of the city of Huntsville through innovative leadership and dedicated service.

Whereas the Women Expo was founded in 2021 by entrepreneur and community leader, Tiffany Draper, with the mission to empower, uplift, encourage, and connect women of all backgrounds through an annual multi-day experience.

Whereas now it is entering its sixth year.

The Women's Expo Huntsville has welcomed thousands of attendees and has grown to be the largest women's centered conference and marketplace in North Alabama.

Whereas the Expo has provided a dynamic platform for more than 500 women-owned and community-based businesses, generating valuable economic impact through vendor sales, event tourism, and partnerships with hotels and local businesses throughout the city of Huntsville.

Whereas the event futures educational workshops, financial literacy, coaching, health and wellness programming, entertainment, and networking opportunities designed to support personal and professional growth amongst women and girls.

Whereas the Women Expo reflects a strong commitment to collaboration with local businesses, nonprofit organizations, and corporate partners, further positioning Huntsville as a destination for innovation, culture, and economic development.

Whereas through her leadership and service, Tiffany Draper has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to her community development, entrepreneurship, and mentorship, particularly for underserved women at Huntsville and belong and beyond.

So I want us all to give her a loud hand clap.

And I'm gonna let Tiffany give us a few words, tell us about the women's expo next month.

Thank you so much.

Also, thank you to the city of Huntsville for always being a place where we feel like we can belong.

And so I appreciate that.

Um I want to remind everyone that women's history month is more than just coming out in bright orange shirts for us.

We're always trying to be bold and we're always trying to strengthen the community.

But I also want you guys to come out and um experience what this truly is.

It is truly a place where we, when you walk in the room, I say that the women's expo is a uh the Chick-fil-A of expos because we're all we're gonna my pleasure you to death, I promise.

It is a pleasure for you to be here and with us because we know that you could be anywhere, but you decided to be with us.

And my thing is we're very diverse.

We are very diverse.

Uh, my panel, I have uh vendors, speakers who are coming from all over the world.

Um what I have realized too in this effort is that people are finding out about this place.

I got a phone call today from the Tennessee Titans.

That's big for us.

That's really good.

And so from there, um, we're catching eyes like UPS, Amazon, and and IBM and places like that.

So thank you so much for continuing to support us.

Thank you so much, Michelle.

Tell us.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Um it's happening one day.

Uh March the 27th through the 29th at the Weston at Bridge Street.

Um, we picked that place because it was everything's there.

You can eat, you can take your kids down to the Lego store while the moms are in classes all day long.

The dads can take their kids over to the uh movies to watch a movie or whatever the case may be, but please come out and support us.

Tickets are sold out for Friday for the gala and on Sunday for the brunch, but the big day is where you can come and shop with us and other vendors from around the world on Saturday, March the 28th.

Those tickets are $25, and we would love to partner with anybody in the room who's looking to make an effort to support women during Women's History Month.

Can men attend?

Yes.

Mayor Battle, you heard that.

Men can attend.

Men.

Yes, I'm sorry, left it out.

Phil and I are gonna get some t-shirts inside.

All right, everybody.

There we go.

Right, right.

Oh, you can put it on here.

Everybody leaning is a little bit just toward me, just one here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies.

Thank you, ladies, and thank you, Miss Watkins, for sharing um that with us.

We will move on to now to our presentation.

We are honored tonight to have Dr.

Clarence Sutton, the superintendent of Huntsville City Schools with us.

Dr.

Sutton, if you'd like to come up.

Um Dr.

Sutton is going to share with us the Capitol Plan for Huntsville City Schools.

He will be followed by the Huntsville City Schools Finance Director, uh, Mr.

Dun Dustin Dane uh and Mr.

Dane will be followed by our city finance director, Penny Smith.

Um, and they so they will be sharing what the Capitol Plan is and how it's going to be financed and how we're working together as good partners, and we will proceed to that point.

Dr.

Sutton, welcome.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Dr.

Robinson.

Mayor Bowdon, City Council and to your team.

Thank you for making this Huntsville City Schools Night uh very eventful and we're excited.

Tonight I'm proud to provide an update for the Huntsville City Schools Capital Plan.

This plan is not separate from our strategic plan.

It's the core of it.

It represents our vision, discipline, and long-term commitment to the future of our city and for our students.

Forgive us because we're very excited to present what we're doing because we're excited about the progress.

And I want to represent that by our team here tonight.

So I do want our Huntsville City Schools family to stand to see how many people are supporting this plan and coming out tonight to the city council meeting.

And I see half this um half of the room didn't stand, but they are on our team also.

But we're very excited.

I know you want to update on the Capitol plan, but if you don't mind, I do want to set it up with context of why we're going into this plan.

Because we're very proud of the progress that we're making.

And your screen is not touch screen like we have in the district in all this.

We are proud of the offerings we have, and we do that through excellence.

It is the purpose of the Huntsman City Schools to inspire to engage and empower all students to assess the future.

We do this with our Board of Education, and we do this with the partnership with you.

So I want to thank you for the collaboration because you see our progress of working together, and this is why we're growing and striving.

So currently we have 23,759 students.

I want to say that because at the beginning of the year it was reported that we have 200 students down.

I want to say that number is actually an increase of where we were at this time last year.

And that's because our city is growing, and I and they are choosing the Huntsman City Schools as a vehicle for the education experience.

We have about 3,000 employees.

We have over 50 pre-K classes.

That's big because every school in our district, elementary school, has a pre-K program in their school.

We have we have maintained exceeded 96% graduation rate.

We are one of the few districts that have over 40 AP offerings in our schools.

We have over 800 high school seniors and juniors right now taking dual enrollment courses.

But our partnerships with every institution in our city.

We're very proud of that.

And they have exceeded over 2,0500 credit hours because of that partnership.

We are a national leader of Green Power, and you just saw the National Championship Cheerleader team right before you.

We are a leader in cybersecurity.

And also we started the Artemis Virtual Academy, where right now we serve over 340 students virtually learning from COVID and how we need to adapt education experience.

We are proud of our innovation and growth, and thank you for the opportunity to tell you about it tonight.

We're excited about our report card grade.

Last year we scored a federal score of 88 and a state score of 89.

And actually, if I could, Brad, it was 89.4, and the state went round up for us.

But we are exceeding that right now as we speak today, so we expect a higher score next year.

We're very proud of it.

This is a 13-point increase in the report card era.

Also, we have a record number of schools who receive a grade of A this past year, and a record number of schools who have A or B last year.

So you see that academic achievement is our top priority.

And our capital plan matches that priority.

And so we're very excited about that.

Of course, we were charged to deal with our wonderful consent order, and we are making progress.

Earlier this school year, we filed for three more green factors.

Our hope is by this time next year to file for another one.

So there will be four, possibly five of those.

We want our community and city and you to be assured that we are doing everything we can to make sure our students are receiving what they need.

And I hope this reflects what we do.

Tonight we're going to talk about our capital plan.

I'm going to give you a quick summary before Mr.

Dane comes.

It's approximately $600 million.

It covers all five of our feeder patterns.

It's a 10-year plan where we know that 10 years won't cover all the growth that we have, so our boards will come every year and talk about the next five years, then the next five years.

But this plan is just for the first 10 years.

It is covering our facilities and our structural environments.

It aligns to our mission to provide safe and supportive high-quality learning environment for all our students.

It's more about buildings.

It's more about opportunity for our students.

We did go through an extensive process for this plan.

It did not happen overnight.

We worked closely with a lot of people.

We thank Mayor Bowdo and his team to share their growth data with us, the demographic data.

We used that to inform our decision making.

In spring of 2024, we hosted community meetings, all feeder patterns.

We received feedback in person online.

We met with the District Advisory Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP, the PTA, city leaders, retired educator, and any other group who had initials, we met with them to receive feedback.

In May 2024, our Board of Education approved this Capital Plan.

And in September of that same year, we sent it to the Department of Justice and they approved this plan.

So we collaborated as much as we could.

We got a plan together that fit our needs, and also the DOJ approved it along with the court.

Part of celebration, let me give you good stuff, is that of course you were there in 2025 when we opened up our new central office and career tech center.

And you are very instrumental for us getting in that there.

It currently serves over 600 students each semester across 10 career pathways.

This year received a record number of career tech applications for next school year.

We did apply to add a new program, hopefully for next year, with fire and rescue management.

So thank you for your support, and I hope you're proud of what we're doing with your advancement and your collaboration with the leadership of our board.

We did upgrade our athletic facilities to listen to our coaches.

We do have turf fields for all our high schools, baseball and softball fields, trying to match the growth you have in with your stadium.

Now we don't um stop playing because it's raining.

And we are playing every day.

So we did have our ribbon cuttings for those fields, and you're welcome to come out to celebrate with us with the school pride that we have in throughout the districts.

I know some of you are going to be excited by this because you were former school board building members.

We did eliminate all pod gyms across our district.

Over six elementary schools had those gyms, and now you can see uh some of the work already doing for those schools there as we remove the pod gyms.

It's a safer environment for the growth that we have in those schools, but it's something better for our students.

So we did do that.

Uh, and we want to celebrate that.

You were there when we had our groundbreaking for the new month view and the new STEM elementary school, which was formally a or is currently ASFAR elementary school.

On December 4th, we had this groundbreaking.

And if you ride by, you see the work we are doing there already.

And tonight, since we're here with you, we did want to show you a rendering of that beautiful facility there.

It's over 110,000 square feet.

Uh, we have dedicated STEM labs, interactive teaching walls, uh multi-age outdoor learning space, a full-size gymnasium, and multiple media and activity spaces.

And this is the future of elementary schools, not only for Huntsville and Madison, for actually the nation.

Also, that's in January of the same year.

We broke ground on the new Chapman and STEM Magnet Elementary School.

It will also host our virtual school Artemis Academy on that campus.

And tonight we did want to bring the rendering of that facility there.

That's 160,000 square feet.

It has advanced STEM labs, it has e-gaming labs, and it's the one of the first middle schools, not only in state, then in the nation, that we have an e-gaming robotics arena inside the building to host competitions, not only for middle schools but high schools across our state.

So we're very proud to be cutting the edge with our building and the facility and the thoughtful of our team.

I know Ms.

Watkins and Ms.

Jones are going to be excited by this.

This is the McNair sixth grade wing.

We had two feeder patterns that had sixth graders still in elementary school.

This would be the first attempt to move in sixth graders into a middle school and get the full middle school experience.

So uh in District 1, our sixth graders will go to McNair Middle School in August.

And when we finish the Huntsville Middle School, um the sixth graders in that feeder will be going to the new Huntsville Middle School and a brand new campus.

So we're very excited by this.

In this facility, we have a extended library and a new band room on that campus.

So we're very excited by the movement there.

Also, at the Columbia High School, we created what we call our innovation center.

In the middle of Columbia, we have repurposed the center, the media center, to party to an innovation lab.

There you see the stage where we can record TED talks.

So you are welcome to come out and record your TED Talk for the city.

Uh we would do it at no cost.

Thank you for your collaboration for us, do what we do.

We also have two podcasting rooms and also some entrepreneur spaces for our students to work with the community and learn collaborative project-based learning.

And on my right, your left prospect, you see our new JRTC Center on there.

Also, we have a cross-fit course on outside, so now our students can be really in better shape than I am, but also our community can have another place in the area to go and work out.

Columbia High School is our fastest growing high school in the area.

And of course, you know, um which we'll be dealing with the growth of the city, and we this will help us uh work with capacity there and host all of our students.

And then lastly, we did add additional classroom for Hampton Cove Middle and Elementary School and Goldsmith Shiftman Elementary School.

This added 200 seats to the Hampton Cove campus and 160 seats to the Goldsmith campus.

Um Goldsmith Shiftman now can have over a hundred a thousand and ten students if necessary.

They're not there yet, not close, but it can hold that for the additional work that we did there.

And that will really just give you a context for the beat of the presentation, our capital plan.

And since I don't control the numbers of the Capital Plan, I did ask Mr.

Dane to come to work through the figures with you.

So this is our school financial officer, Mr.

Dane, and he will go through the timeline of our Capital Plan.

Thank you, Dr.

Sutton.

Welcome, Mr.

Dane.

All right.

Thank you, Council, Mayor, Dr.

Sutton for the lead into this.

I am going to give you a little bit of a list, kind of a status update of where we are by feeder pattern of where we are with some of the projects.

You have seen photos for a lot of them.

But it's kind of nice to see some of the events by themselves when you see them grouped together.

So we'll go forward that way.

As Dr.

Sutton stated, this is a $600 million plus capital plan over 10 years, what does cover all five feeder patterns, and of course, the object of this is to modernize fit facilities and strengthen instruction environments, which also aligns with our HCS mission to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for our students.

So we'll start with projects that are either completed or currently under construction.

We will start with the district wide projects.

As Dr.

Sutton stated previously, we have the Central Office as well as the CTE Center, our Huntsville Center for Technology, which was completed over the summer last year.

We saw a photo of that.

We also saw photos of TERS for our baseball and softball fields for all five of our high schools that have a baseball and softball.

I think we are about to wrap that up.

If we're not completed with it yet, we're about to wrap that up.

So if not right now, certainly by the beginning of school, all five campuses will have new turf.

And of course, a primary objective is to cover a lot of the deferred maintenance, a lot of the maintenance that have been pushed forward for whatever reason, budget, whatever, uh, that we couldn't get to in the history.

We have taken the opportunity at the beginning of this 10-year capital plan to get a lot of that caught up.

So a lot of this you'll see as we go forward is finished up in the first year of our plan in 2024, 2025, and then we get into some of our uh planned major new buildings as well as major renovations and a continued eye on deferred maintenance and keeping all of our buildings uh up to speed.

We will start with the Columbia High School feeder pattern.

At Ridgecrest, we have installed a new playground of half a million dollar playground as well as a renovation that was completed in 23-24.

By the way, these are school years that they are completed.

They're either completed in preparation for those years or during those years.

Uh for Williams Elementary, we have a renovation that was completed in 25, Columbia High School, as Dr.

Sutton mentioned earlier, the innovation center, as well as a front office remodel.

Uh Columbia High School, we just finished the cafeteria expansion, adding about 150 seats to the current uh to current high school uh in time for the school year, this school year.

Uh we're also working on the JROTC facility.

I think the mayor likes to mention that when he's riding through uh research park, beautiful facility right up front in front of our high school.

It will be a training facility for ROTC students, hopefully, will be ready to go for this upcoming school year.

And of course, we have the Limestone County P8 new building uh planned for the growth of Huntsville, as we all know, is headed out that way.

That building should be completed and ready to go for the school year 2029.

And our Grissom High School feeder pattern, we have uh completed the cafeteria and classroom expansion for Grissom High School.

If you haven't seen that cafeteria, it's it's much different with uh with the extension that we have added to it.

Um added some glass across the front to be able to uh control some of the noise from the hallway between the hallway and the cafeteria at Chaffee Elementary, but we've uh we are adding a new gym currently, should be ready to go or completed by the time uh we start the 2027 school year.

At Farley Elementary, we are adding a new gym.

We have just started this project, new gym and renovations uh to be completed by uh 2027.

McDonnell Elementary School, of course, a new gym and renovation as well.

You see the pattern here, new gym.

We're getting rid of the old pod gyms or renovating the gyms that were there, but at least giving them uh new gyms, if not renovations uh in those gyms.

Huntsville High School feeder pattern, we have completed the baseball softball press box and concession stand a couple of years ago.

Hampton Cove Middle School as well as Goldsmith Elementary.

We have classroom additions, a 10-classroom addition to Hampton Cove and eight classroom addition to Goldsmith, both completed last summer.

And then uh upcoming, we are ready to bid in the springtime, April-May time frame to do Huntsville Middle School.

So we are excited about that to be completed for the 29 school year.

And the Jemison High School feeder pattern, we completed the athletics complex a few years ago, Dawson Elementary, Highlands Elementary, both receiving gym renovations or complete school renovations in the 24 timeframe.

As Dr.

Sutton said, we're currently working on the McNair Middle School, 6th grade edition, as well as a cafeteria serving area expansion.

So that's something new that was kind of added on to it.

We realized as the sixth grade came out of elementary schools, went into middle schools.

We probably needed to increase the capacity for serving for our child nutrition program.

So we'll take away and take care of that too.

All of this will be ready pretty soon, certainly in time for uh upcoming school year.

Highlands Elementary School New Gym has been completed in 26.

Rolling Hills Elementary School renovation and new gym uh to be completed by 27.

And the Lee High School New Century Technology, New Century Tech High School feeder.

We have uh completed renovations to the Media Center, the theater lobby, as well as the softball press box renovation a couple of years ago.

And Dr.

Sutton touched on the Montview Elementary as well as the reimagined magnets elementary school on that site.

If you haven't seen it, it's uh it looks quite different, even just with the land cleared, but the construction will start soon.

Same with Chapman uh Chapman Middle School as well as its reimagined magnet middle school, both scheduled to be completed during the school year of 28.

And then we have our upcoming projects.

So as of as of this fall.

Well, let me back up a little bit.

A couple of months ago we bid Montview and the Magnet School there.

We've bidden awarded Chapman Middle School and its magnet school.

We have we will bid an award Huntsville Middle School in the spring, and we will bid an award Limestone County in the fall.

So that'll be four projects within 12 months.

At the end of whenever we bid an award the Limestone County P8, we will be about 63% either completed or under construction contracts of our capital plan, which leaves about 37% to go, which means that is represented here in this upcoming project slide.

So remaining in the Grissom High School feeder, we will uh renovate the school extensively with a new gym to be completed by the 28th school year.

Challenger Middle School, we're planning for a new building to be completed by the 2032 school year, and related to the Challenger Middle School, we'll renovate the Challenger Elementary School to be completed by the 2020 2033 school year.

It's kind of odd to say 2033.

Columbia High School feeder pattern, Ridgecrest Elementary, we'll get a new gym and a renovation to be completed by the 28th school year.

In the Huntsville High School feeder, we'll have uh a renovation for Monteceno Elementary and um a Hampton Cove School new building to be completed by 2033.

And Jemison High School, of course, we'll have Dawson Elementary a full renovation to that building.

Remember, we touched on the gym before.

Uh but we'll have a complete renovation for that building as well as a brand new school for Lakewood Elementary to be completed for the 2031 school year.

So talking about capital funding structure, we this is a very diversified structure for us.

We have about 20 percent of our general fund contributing to the capital plan.

Another 20 percent of state allocated capital funds will go towards these this capital plan, leaving about 60 percent or so that we will uh turn to the city to help us with public financing going out to the bond market to help finance this, uh the remainder of this.

The beauty of it is that we Penny will get into it more.

The beauty of it is is that we can I can work with Penny.

I can I can say this is when we plan on needing these funds.

We don't borrow it all up front, burdening both us and the city.

The plan is to borrow as we need it, uh, as we realize these plans coming to fruition or not, uh, adjust, be flexible so that way we can be conservative.

But the beauty of this is also that we're using a predictable six and a half mills of ad valorum to pay that debt service.

So uh that makes us feel comfortable, certainly think it makes the city feel comfortable, and then I will continue to work with Penny and the administration on monitoring the how we go forward into the capital plan.

So with that being said, I think I will turn it over to Penny for a little bit more in-depth uh of the funding piece of this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Dane.

And council members, following Penny's presentation, we'll open it to you for questions.

Good evening, Penny Smith, uh Director of Finance.

So as Justin said, we work well together and we have been excited about the plans that are coming.

And so this is just the first phase.

Um introduced to y'all last the last council meeting, the upcoming borough that we are that we are currently involved with.

Part of that is for new new funding for the city schools, and part of that is refunding.

And so I'll get into kind of how we how we structure this for the city schools.

Well sorry.

Damien, we name may need some help.

Damien to the rescue, Ms.

Smith.

He's coming.

Okay.

That's not what I usually say.

There we go.

Okay.

Thank you, Damien.

Now we go.

Okay.

So for the city allocation, y'all know there are kind of two larger buckets amongst many other things that we collaborate with for the schools.

The sales and use tax, which we deliver which which we give to the schools for operating purposes, and then the city administers the 6.5 mills of ad valorum taxes.

This is a dedicated fund.

And so I am no longer going to talk about anything about the schools funds, those sales and use tax funds tonight.

They are fully and separated.

I want to be sure that you understand that that that does not cross lines and um and that those are that what we're talking about this in this evening do not overlap in any measure.

So I'm just going to kind of cover that up, because the rest of the evening will be the 6.5 mills.

But tonight I'm going to focus on this.

So our property taxes, the counties that are involved, and remember we're in four, so Madison Limestone, Marshall, and Morgan counties all assess and collect 6.5 mills of property taxes.

This is remitted monthly or semi-monthly back to the city and set aside in this fund.

The the chart that you see tonight are before you is property tax collections since 2017.

As you can see, that fund started out a little slower, but it has just taken off year over year as the property values of assessed values in the in the city of Huntsville has risen, so has the property tax collection within this fund.

To date, that brown column to the far right is 39.5.

That is our budgeted amount.7 million.

And um, and so just remember that property taxes are collected towards the front of our fiscal year.

So November, December, and January being the largest months in which we collect.

So pretty much we're kind of done for the fiscal year as we move through that.

But we fully expect to probably exceed that 39.5 million dollar mark.

So this is the debt that is within this fund.

So this is wholly debt for uh for the education for the furtherance of the city.

You will see as you have approved debt throughout the years that we we divide those up into series.

So you'll see an A and a B and a C and one of those series, each of those different colors in that bar chart represents a different series that is still outstanding for the city school system.

So the schools benefit by the city issuing this debt because of our triple A rating, which equals lower interest rates, refunding the refunding that happened earlier in last year, and produces savings, and the one that's fixing to happen produces savings, which helps the overall capacity and the ability to fund the capital needs of the schools.

So you can see in the chart where different different um debt drops off.

We usually issue on a 20-year debt.

Um that is tip very typical for our schools, and that's what we model on, and that is so beneficial to the different um to the different funding models as we move forward, so you can see that capacity continues to increase.

So here I've actually I started to combine the revenue and the actual capacity model, the actual debt service per year.

As you can see, that $39 million mark is is off the scale of this chart.

But pulling the two together, the funding is just really benefited and we have been able to build up because those last five years really the trajectory kind of took off.

The last funding in this in our debt service is from 2023.

It was for about 45 million dollars.

And so you can see that this fund, and as we model this fund, it has capacity in order to enable us to do all the wonderful capital projects that you saw earlier this evening.

So this is just a snippet of of an Excel spread that we model from.

This is we have three different people three different groups that contribute to this model.

PFM helps us run this model.

There are our financial advisors to the city.

The cities, the city, my team and Dustin's team also contribute information into this model in order to make it work.

We are pushing the model or maybe pulling pulling cash funding out of the model for different capital plans.

Obviously, as we move through through time, we will definitely tweak and mold this model to meet the needs of the city schools.

So it's conservative revenue growth at 2 percent, no budgeted earnings on investments, and the future debt is modeled at a full cost.

So they are modeled actually for higher interest rates than we normally typically get and a full premium.

So there is no premium in these modelings either.

The last thing I kind of want to introduce you to is investment earnings.

So we do have quite a bit of cash in in the 6.5 mil fund, but we don't let it sit idle.

We have earnings on the reserve and the idle cash, liquidity is modeled and investments are staggered to allow us to access that cash if we need to.

They both they follow both the City of Huntsville internal policy and the State Codes.

And Dustin is well aware of the of the earnings that we have over time, and that has benefited the school system.

All of those earnings go back into the fund to benefit the schools.

The other side to this is construction earnings, and you have heard me talk about this.

So it is earnings on tax exempt borrowing proceeds as the spending occurs.

So this allows the allows the city and really the school system to contain all this all the spending that for the IRS requirements.

As long as we meet those requirements and those spin-down requirements of the borrowing that we make, it enables us to retain all the investment earnings.

So for the borrowing that we are fixing to make, it is for $75 million.

You the City Council passed a reimbursement resolution, which was adopted on 1024, and that allowed the school system to go ahead and start spending on that $75 million.

So right off the bat, whenever we borrow the money, we will reimburse the school system for $10 to $15 million.

That is about what we spent to date.

And then you can see there to the right are estimated spin downs.

Even with us spending down that debt so quickly, the expected earnings is going to be about a half a million dollars.

So and that pulls back in.

We can either reduce the borrowing itself up front or we may use utilize that on the other on something else as we move through the model, depending on how we decide to utilize that cash.

The other thing is I just want to re remind you of the team that we have.

PFM, our financial advisors is a large part of this team and helping us move through the markets, when to enter the markets, how to structure some of the deals and give us ideas as we continue to work this model over time.

And then also Rod Cantor with Bradley, LLC is also a large part of our team.

He is our bond attorney.

He does that for the for all of our debt borrowings across the city.

And um and he helps us with any kind of unique, unique structures that we have, and also just to keep keep our uh different documents and stuff timely in front of you and make sure that they are they are correct.

Um we do continue to monitor um through over time and look for refundings or or different as they move as moving parts happen throughout this time, and um and then the new debt will be out to investors next week.

So um so we'll be working towards that.

That's it.

Thank you, Ms.

Smith.

Thank you, Dr.

Sutton.

Thank you, Mr.

Dane.

Council members, do you have questions for our presenters?

Mr.

Kleen.

I'm not sure if this would go to Dr.

Sutton as a policy question or not.

Make sure you get close to your microphone.

I'm assuming this would be more of a policy decision instead of a financial decision.

Eli Lilly, I think you have heard of it.

It looks like what we have heard it's going to be bringing in approximately, I think it's up to $10 million a year into the school system.

With this extra money coming in, have you uh come up with any type of plan of action about how it's going to be used, operation capital or where it would go once it starts kicking in?

Yes, sir.

Or I listen to us my CFSO.

So he can actually give the financial and I did the policy.

But he he has already mapped out some ideas for us.

So like Penny stated earlier, there is an operations component to the advalorum tax that comes in whenever it comes in.

There is also a capital component to it.

We do try our best to keep that very much separated.

But as we grow west, we do we're going to grow into that 10 million dollars.

That's not going to happen immediately.

It's going to grow and grow and eventually come to us.

So we not knowing what it looks like in several years, five, ten, fifteen years.

We just want to keep the excellence up.

We want to make sure to have as many teachers as we possibly can.

We want to make sure to have the updated facilities as much as we possibly can.

Technology is going to take over education.

We want to be prepared for that.

All of those things cost money, and all of those things are more and more expensive.

So we look forward to using utilizing those out of loan revenues when they come in accordingly.

Any other questions, Councilmembers?

Ms.

Watkins.

Ms.

Watkins, I think she's going to do something just a minute after we finish questions.

Okay.

So I just want to thank you, Dr.

Sutton, Mr.

Dane, as well as the board members.

House City Schools has come a long ways.

When I first got on the board, we had schools in disrepair.

We needed new facilities.

And now we are getting all those things.

And I'm really excited about the future of House City Schools.

I remember when we were in debt, we had $30 million in the bank.

And look now, we're doing so much better.

And it's because of the leadership that's at the head of the rim.

Won't leave Ms.

Finley out.

Ms.

Finley, then Dr.

Sutton, you took the reins and you ran with it.

I know you still remember when I called past Struggs on you right.

That's how we kept you here.

So we're glad to have all of you and looking forward to some great things coming.

And thank you for being a year every time I talked about sixth grade.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Madam President, I just want to echo my colleague uh Ms.

Watkins on that.

Um it's it's a pleasure to see Huntsville City Schools do so well, and I look forward to the very near future when folks in Madison are starting to move into Huntsville for the schools.

Well said.

I wish you all could have been at the State of the Schools this week.

Um after Dr.

Sutton finished his presentation, someone suggested that we might want to pass around an offering.

Because it was like hearing the preacher preach.

And uh I'm grateful for your leadership.

And Mr.

Dane, thank you as well for your financial leadership and for your partnership uh with Ms.

Smith.

I think that that's part of what we are seeing here and why we wanted this presentation to be made publicly.

And now I believe, Mayor Bowdle, that you have a presentation to make.

Well, if if I could ask uh the full council to come up front and uh Dr.

Sutton, if you would come and Mr.

Dane and um if we could get the school board to come up too.

We have this is called a faux check presentation because you can't take this up a check to the bank.

I'll try.

We can have our school board members come up and thank them for all their hard work and all that they have done for our hostful city schools, and we owe them a round of applause.

Thank you for all that you've done.

Now, Superintendent Sutton, this is a check for $5,552,689.85 cents.

Uh but this rep uh this represents the money that was that came to the school systems at the end of the TIFF where we built Mazda Toyota, where we built Polaris, where we built a number of projects.

We closed out three TIFS all at once, and when those TIFS close out, the money reverts back to where it should go.

It goes to the schools.

And after that money goes to the schools, year after year after year, there is an amount that will come back to the schools in the millions here because this community supported industry and opportunity and the industry pays back.

So we wanted to present this check to you.

You've already got the real check, so you don't have to try to put this one through the bank teller window.

But this one is for you to remind you of our great partnership that we are all very proud to have.

Thank you.

And now I but we're going to have clo one closing comments, I believe, from the board president.

It's a nice chick there.

All right.

So the capital plan that you just heard and the financial information you just heard shows you that the City Council and the Board of Education are working together.

There's been a lot of misconception that we don't work together.

And there have been some communication issues over the years.

But we have been working to correct those issues so that we could have these things for our city.

While we're two different bodies, we serve the same constituents.

So that's very important for you all to recognize.

And one of the things I want to harp on is I had a meeting with uh councilwoman President uh Jenny Robinson and the mayor to have a discussion on how as the city expands, how can the school system try to get ahead of it?

So how could we have more information to make sure that we're doing our jobs?

The articles come out of the newspaper.

The first question we get is what is the school system going to do?

Well, we we work on that.

But uh the communication that we had and things that we worked on are going to give us the ability to have more information, accurate information, so that when homes are being built, the land is being brought into the city.

We know exactly how many homes are being permitted that are going to be built in a particular year that gives us the ability for our CFO and superintendent to make good decisions on whether we need to expand schools, do we need to build a new school, or what are the things that we need to do to make sure that we accommodate that?

So I want to commend the city council for their communication and the mayor and my board members as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carlos.

We've had a lot of celebrating tonight.

I feel like we could just end here and go home, but we actually have business to take care of.

So now we're gonna go on with the boring stuff.

Thank you to everybody who has been involved in our celebrations tonight.

We look forward to great things to come.

So we'll move on to public hearings.

9A is a public hearing in order to here consider and act upon all objections or protests if any for removal of a public nuisance at 3607 Princess Street Northwest, Huntsville, Alabama, and consideration of a resolution ordering abatement of a nuisance located at the same property.

The public hearing is now open.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Councilmembers Mayor Battle, Scott Irwin, Community Development Department.

This item tonight regarding 3607 Princess Street Northwest with a junk public nuisance.

Uh notice to remove the public nuisance was posted on the property, and all owners of record were notified.

We're notified that tonight would be time and place which the public may present any objections regarding the abatement of this nuisance.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Is there anyone here wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Move to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Any questions from Mr.

Irwin or comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose.

Motion carries.

9B is a public hearing in order to hear consider an act upon all objections or protests, if any, for removal of a public nuisance at 4906 Clarky Road, Northwest Huntsville, Alabama, in consideration of a resolution ordering abatement of a nuisance located at the same property.

The public hearing is now open.

Mr.

Irwin.

Yes, Council members.

Again, this property, this public hearing is in reference to the property located at 4906 Clarity Street.

The property was posted with a notice that the conditions of a public junk junk public nuisance exist.

And it is not going to be the time and place where the public may present any objections to the abatement.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment regarding this item?

Anyone wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Any questions or comments from Mr.

Irwin?

All in favor, please indicate.

I opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you, Council Members.

Thank you, Mr.

Irwin.

9C is a public hearing on authorizing the Finance Director to issue a luxury vehicle license to Raj Kumar doing business as AAA car service for the operation of two luxury vehicles and the consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

The public hearing is now open.

Ms.

Bryant.

Good evening.

Keisha Bryant, Director of Parking and Public Transit.

We are here for a public hearing for Raj Kumar doing business as AAA car service.

He would looks to operate two luxury town car type vehicles to provide transportation to citizens throughout the City of Huntsville.

He has completed his application for his business license and passed his background check and is looking to move forward with the business license process.

Is there anyone here?

Public hearing is open.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this?

Seeing none, public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Kling?

Any questions or comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed, motion carries.

9D is a public hearing on authorizing the Finance Director to issue a luxury vehicle license to Anthony Fisher doing business as Southern Comfort Luxury Transportation LLC for the operation of one luxury vehicle and the consideration of a resolution pertaining to the same.

The public hearing is now open.

Ms.

Bryant.

Yes.

This is a public hearing on the application of Anthony Fisher doing business as Southern Comfort Luxury Transportation LLC for the operation of one luxury vehicle.

This vehicle will be a sprinter van that will be used to transport citizens throughout the City of Huntsville.

Mr.

Fisher has completed his application to the clerk's office and passed his background check and is now due for his public hearing so he can move forward with his business license.

Thank you, Ms.

Bryant.

Is there anyone who wishes to comment on this item?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Comments or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Bryant.

9E is a public hearing on the zoning of 36.54 acres of land lying on the south side of Martin Road, east of electronics boulevard to residence two district, and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

The public hearing is now open.

Good evening, Council Members.

Mayor, this is for the public hearing and the consideration of an ordinance for the zoning of 36.54 acres of land lying on the south side of Martin Road and east of Electronics Boulevard to residents to district.

This property was annexed December 2025.

Let me just Damien State there.

There we go.

Yes, there you go.

So again, this property was annexed December 2025.

Residents do district will be consistent with within the vicinity.

Residence to district is this yellow area close to the property.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion to approve the money.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Questions or comments?

Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

I was wondering, do we know what this is?

It is a residential zone, but do we know how many homes or if they're going to be single family homes?

Will there be this will be for single-family detached homes?

So approximately about 100 dwelling units.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

9F is a public hearing on the rezoning of 73.44 acres of land lying on the east of Greenborough Road, north of I-565 from residence 2 and Highway Business C4 districts to commercial industrial park district, and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

The public hearing is now open.

This is for the public hearing in consideration of an ordinance to rezone 73.44 acres of land lying on the east of Greenbrier Road and north of I-565 from residence 2 in Highway Business C4 District to Commercial Industrial Park District.

So as you can see, commercial industrial park district is this pink area over here.

Again, this area over here is from residence two to CIP.

This area over here is from Highway Business C4 to CIP.

It is always prudent to for uh properties within a uh one parcel of land or within one development to be zoned uh consistent to avoid any kind of inconsistency or conflict conflicting enforcement of our regulations in our standards.

Thank you.

Is there anyone here who wishes to comment on this item?

Anyone wishing to comment?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve motion from Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Questions for for Lady for Ms.

Cassama.

Um it's a little unrelated.

Thank you, Madam President.

The large thing that's in your screen, that's that's outlined for the public's consumption.

What is that?

Sir, this will be um part of the site of uh the that development that's coming in here.

Um that's what I will wanted to hear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's fine.

That's all I think.

It's the Eli Lilly site.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Yes.

Sorry.

Any other questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

9G is a public hearing on the rezoning of 90.51 acres of land lying on the various existing single family neighborhoods within the city limits from residence two, residence two A, residence two B and light industry districts to residence 1A and residence two districts, and consideration of an ordinance pertaining to the same.

The public hearing is now open.

This is for the public hearing and the consideration of an ordinance to rezone approximately 90.51 acres of land lying on various existing single family neighborhoods within the city limits from residence 2, residence 2A, residence 2B, and light industry districts to residence 1A and residence 2 districts.

So as you might recall, around April last year, uh we also uh did um some cleaning up of our neighborhoods, and this is really part of ensuring that we are preserving and protecting the integrity and character of our existing neighborhoods.

Um this is also part of our big picture plan, comprehensive plan where we would have to look into the zoning designations and to ensure that they are consistent and like what I mentioned.

Um, this is cleaning up to ensure that there are no conflicting issues with regards to enforcing our standards and regulations.

Um again, as you can see with this one, um the entire neighborhood is actually zone residence 1A district, and so this is just a portion of that neighborhood that's zone residence two, and so this is um proposed to be rezoned from residence two to residence one A district, again having that consistency in the entire neighborhood.

Another one over here by Hogan and Superior.

Um this is what we will consider dual zoning as the front of the properties are all currently zone residence 1A, and that's that green area over here, and to the back of the properties are our residence two district, and so there would be difficulty uh in enforcing our regulations because the lots are dual zoned.

Another one over here towards um the west side of the city, as you can see, um all of the area has developed really into single family lots, and so um residence to district would be more appropriate rather than your residence to B district.

So residence two district will again match this yellow area over here.

Um and then lastly, again, cleaning up, making sure that we are preserving and protecting the integrity and character of the neighborhood.

This area over here outlined in green is actually part of this neighborhood to the north.

Um that is residence 1A district, and so ensuring that they are within one neighborhood consistently zoned residence 1A district.

This area will be rezoned from residents to the residence 1A district.

Thank you.

The public hearing is open.

Is there anyone who wishes to comment on this item?

Seeing none, the public hearing is closed.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion to approve.

Motion from Mr.

Merritt, the second from Mr.

Little.

Any questions, Councilmembers?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

The motion carries.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

We will move on now to public hearings to be set.

As was noted earlier in the approval of the agenda.

Item 10A has been removed by the sponsor because the property was brought into compliance.

So that's a good thing.

10B is a resolution to set a public hearing on an ordinance amending zoning ordinance, Article 75 Alcoholic Beverage to modify the title to Article 75 Alcoholic Beverage and Consumable Hemp Product Establishment Regulations.

Article 75, Section 75.1, definitions 75.3, permitted establishments by districts, and 75.7 severability to modify and add regulations related to consumable hemp products and Article 92, Board of Adjustment, Section 92.5.3 permitted uses as special exceptions to modify subsection 92.5.3, paragraph 2.

Is there a motion to set this hearing for March 26, 2026?

Motion from Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

The hearing is set for March 26th.

And 10 C is a resolution to set a public hearing on a vacation of apportioned right of way at 608 Church Street and the introduction of a resolution consenting to and the introduction of norms vacating the right of way pertaining there to.

Is there a motion to set the hearing for the March 26, 2026 regular meeting?

So moved.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Kling.

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

The motion uh carries.

Uh we will uh the next item is agenda-related public comment, but we have no one who has signed up.

So we were move on now to the mayor's comments.

Thank you, Council.

Um just a few events that everybody needs to be watching for.

Museum of Art has their gala set for tonight and Saturday night.

Uh this is the main uh fundraiser for the Museum of Art each year, and uh we we ask everyone to support it.

Uh Councilman Meredith and myself were out at uh IKEA as I had the grand opening uh yesterday.

Yeah, yesterday morning, and uh I quite frankly went through and found a lot of things I needed to buy, but uh it's uh it's a really neat store.

It's the first IKEA in Alabama, and uh we're real proud that they have invested in Huntsville and invested in our area.

Um Broadway Theater League has a full week of Anne Juliet uh was part of the Broadway Theater uh program.

Uh we suggest that everybody go and enjoy and have a have a good time.

We've heard it's a great program, and um and it's happening over this weekend.

Also, Alabama AM plays uh um AUM Saturday at 4 p.m.

is uh um is for the pride of the of the state and uh it will be a great game if you want to see a good basketball game Saturday.

Uh the women's play it too, and the women's uh I think they've got only one one loss this year.

They've done really well.

Uh the men's team uh has more losses than that, but uh they will be playing to their uh to the best best of their ability as they play uh their rival across state uh ASU.

Uh also Sunday is the 60th anniversary of Mountain Gap School.

Uh if you go by Sunday afternoon, there's gonna be a lot of people there who have attended Mountain Gap.

Uh that would mean that many of the people who attended Mountain Gap are getting some of them, some of the first classes are getting close to 70 now.

Uh and then there's classes today that are in there that are uh 10, 12, 14 years old.

So uh there will be a lot of people down there and uh I would suggest that you go down and enjoy.

Also Sunday, uh the uh the library uh and south of South Hustle Library uh at the old Grisham High School site.

Uh we'll have author James Rowland.

And if you ever read any of James Rowland's books, they're uh a lot of action in them and everything.

And he'll be down there uh from two to four uh with his books and talking about how how he uh wrote those those books.

It's kind of neat to have uh the authors in town and the literary uh groups that we have that come together.

So that's all I have, Madam President.

Thank you, Mayor Battle.

We'll go on to Councilmember Comments and we'll begin with Ms.

Watkins.

Good evening, everyone.

Um District 1 had a town hall this past Monday.

I want to thank uh Captain Wagner, Mr.

Chris McNeese, Mr.

Thomas Nunes, Mr.

Scott Irwin, Miss Sarah Powell, and all the Huntsville City employees who assisted with the town hall.

Thank you so much.

I sincerely appreciate you coming out, supporting, asking questions, and addressing concerns.

Um today I attended dressed for Destiny at MLK Elementary School, and I was just amazed at how many people showed up and greeted the kids as they were coming into school, but some of the kids look like what are what is going on?

All of y'all speaking at one time, have you lost your minds?

So next time I think they need to tone it down a little bit.

It was just too many.

I think they were overwhelmed, but I was excited to see the public out.

Um Mayor, the big game is AAMU and that school calls state, not A UM.

They get you confused.

It's that school state.

You know, Dr.

Sutton graduated from there.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I'm not going to give them any credit by saying the beginning.

Just AAMU versus State, and uh it's sold out.

So if you don't have your ticket, you're gonna miss the treat.

I want to congratulate Coach Thornton, who is the AAMU girls basketball coach.

She is on the school's longest winning streak, which is 13 games, and so we're gonna try to make it 14 on Saturday night.

But she is up for a award in the SWAC, and it's a distinguished award that the SWAT gives that says she's a game change her H E R awards.

So she's gonna receive that award.

So I just want to say congratulations to her.

If you don't follow her on social media, you should.

You would be in for a treat.

She really gets our girls uh excited.

They really feed off her energy in every game, everyone goes to see what is she gonna wear.

She has very unique outfits.

So go Bulldogs, and thank you so much.

Thank you, Ms.

Watkins.

Uh Councilmember Bill Clean.

Thank you, Madam President.

Well, the weather has somewhat settled down, and I've uh got my uh neighborhood walking shoes on, and I've been walking around numerous neighborhoods, again contacting uh department heads, the ITS help desk, uh public works, community development, HPD, and other departments, and they've been real great on helping to spruce up neighborhoods.

Uh kept up my little log, and since the last meeting I've been to Sherwood Park, Steeple Chase, Holiday Homes, Triana Village, College Hill, Bailey Patton Estates, May Fair, and Lower Piedmont.

And uh a lot of good work had been done by our department heads.

Uh it's uh a little sprucing up here, dangling cable TV wires on the ground get cut, a clogged sewer inlet gets opened up, a street gets uh repaired, all sorts of these little small things to help make our neighborhoods just a little bit better and uh appreciate being part of the team.

And one of the most important things I think that personally I've been involved in in a long time took place, and it was a neighborhood issue, and it was brought to my attention by uh Mrs.

Phyllis Villarall at my uh town meeting that I had last week, talking about the uh danger situation where kids who were going to Morris School would cross over Bob Wallace or from um uh Crestwood, sometimes running across into traffic to get to the school, and then in the afternoon coming back to where their parents had parked.

And to make that situation even worse, there were cars that literally were just parked on Bob Wallace waiting to get in, which narrowed two lanes of traffic to one, which sometimes encouraged drivers to go faster.

Little kids are running, and there's a potential situation that could have been very catastrophic.

And uh I contacted uh Chief Giles, he, Captain Anderson, and others from the West Precinct worked on the situation, and just a real good report that I received uh from one of the people in the neighborhood.

Um there were two police cars that were out there.

There was a bilingual police officer who was there.

Uh they were giving warnings to people, English and in Spanish to let people know that they're not supposed to be parking there.

They were given warnings next time.

It's gonna be ticketing.

And uh all of this was done because we wanted to be safe for those kids to get across the street and uh maybe to see if there's a different way for parents to park instead of blocking off a lane of Bob Wallace and going into uh Cresswood.

But anyway, all of this is being looked into, but I appreciate very much the presence of the police department because, Madam President, we don't know what could have happened.

And we're just glad nothing had happened, and we don't certainly don't want anything catastrophic to happen.

So any HPD folks, please pass along my appreciation for myself and from the neighborhood people to those people over at the West Precinct that were involved.

And again, that was a great thing.

Also, last Sunday, uh I went to uh participate with a celebration of a lot of good folks and to talk to them concerning a proper city recognition that we could do for microwave day.

And I understand uh there's going to be a celebration uh service for him uh this Saturday, two o'clock at the Church of Nativity.

And I think we all know what he means to our community, and uh I think we're looking at some good options, and we'll uh get some input from uh the microwave day foundation, his family members, and I think uh we'll come together to find something that would be uh very fitting for a lot of things have been said about him.

He's a great man.

I had a chance to know him back uh when I was a news reporter of WLRH Public Radio, he used to come in and uh they would set up and play uh in the studios uh on Friday nights.

And again, just a wonderful treasure that we have in our community.

And Madam President, that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Kling.

We will move on to Mr.

Little.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm gonna give my time back to the meeting.

Thank you.

Bless your heart.

And then Mr.

Meredith.

I will be almost as brief as Mr.

Little.

Um I just want to bring to everyone's attention that tomorrow there is going to be a work session here in Council Chambers beginning at 1130 a.m.

on the issue of Huntsville utilities.

So I encourage everyone to come on out.

Um it is a work session.

Public is not going to be invited to come speak.

I may regret this, but email me with your questions, and I will try my best to make sure that they are addressed.

Thank you.

And Madam President.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Meredith.

I was going to mention that as well.

And I will follow up on the mayor's announcement regarding Mountain Gap 60th anniversary celebration.

I don't think we mentioned a time.

It will be from 3 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

Bounce houses, all kinds of fun stuff.

So please come celebrate at Mountain Gap this Sunday, March 1st.

And Mayor Battle, I think you have a couple of things you wanted to add.

Um last one is Saturday is Paper Chase, which is free to teach as uh fundraiser uh race, uh running race that will happen in the downtown area, starts at uh Early Works Museum.

And uh we encourage everybody to come out that wants to.

It's supposed to be a beautiful day.

It will be a good day to run a 5K, 10K, and also support a good cause, which uh provides uh classroom materials for teachers uh throughout the Madison County area.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Battle.

We'll move on to the Finance Committee report.

Resolution uh 14A is a resolution authorizing expenditures for payment.

Is there a motion, Mr.

Mayor?

Yes, Madam President.

I move that we uh um it being it's authorizing the expenditures of 21,595,297.

There is a second.

Second second from Mr.

Little.

Um all in favor, please indicate.

I oppose the motion carries.

Is there a report after what we had?

I think that was pretty much the report, right?

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

14B is an ordinance approving approach appropriations, goods or services for District 2 Council Improvement Funds.

Move to approve.

Motion for Mr.

Little, second from the Chair.

Mr.

Little, would you like to share with us your plans here?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh these are two different uh two $5,000 appropriations.

The first one is the free to teach to provide funding and supplies for our school local school teachers.

And then the other 5,000 is an appropriation to the Liberty Learning Foundation to provide funding for civics and character education programs in our K through 12 classrooms across Huntsville.

Thank you.

Any questions for Mr.

Little?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed, motion carries.

14 C is an ordinance approving appropriations, goods and services for District 5.

Council Improvement Funds.

Their motion to approve.

Mr.

Meredith, second from the Chair.

Would you like to share with us your appropriation?

Yes, Madam President.

This would go, the $5,000 contribution would go to Huntsville City Schools to provide supplies and equipment for the Columbia High School Girls Outdoor Track Team.

Thank you.

Any questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any posed motion carries.

Before we go any further, I just received a note that yes, the work session tomorrow will be televised.

So that's good for everybody to know as well.

We will go on with board appointments to be voted on.

We have two.

15A is a resolution to appoint Deputy Chief Michael Johnson to the alternative sentencing and release commission due to the resignation of Rex Reynolds for the remainder of the vacant term.

The Chair moves to approve.

Second.

Second from Mr.

Meredith.

Any questions, comments?

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

And we thank Representative Reynolds for his many years of service on that commission.

15B is a resolution to appoint Brandon Tucker to the Huntsville Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors to fill a vacancy due to the resignation of Ernest Young for the remainder of a four-year term to expire April 12, 2028.

Chair moves for approval.

Second.

Second by Mr.

Meredith.

Any questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

Aye.

We have no board appointment nominations.

Are there any nominations from the floor?

And we will move on.

Item 17A has been removed at the request of the sponsor.

We move on to legal department items 18A is a resolution authorizing the acceptance of attractive land from Randolph School for the Garth Road Connector Project.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion.

Second.

Motion from Mr.

Meredith.

Second from Mr.

Kling.

Do we have any questions or comments about this?

Yes, I'd like someone to come in.

Ms.

Watkins.

Mr.

Davis.

Good evening, Councilmember Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development.

So both our engineering and traffic engineering department has been working in that area around Garth and Randolph, and then what could happen in the future with the Jones family farm?

And through that, just for future traffic management.

They recognize the need at some point of a connector road, and knowing that Randolph is undergoing some campus master planning with the Joneses donating some property and selling some property.

We reached out to see if they would dedicate pizza property for future right away.

Don't plan to do anything with it.

I am both the Randolph uh board said absolutely will help the city help with our traffic situation down the road.

Uh so this is at no cost to the city.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Questions for Mr.

Davis?

Ms.

Watkins.

How much land are they donating?

So it's a it's a right away.

I think it it totals it's less than an acre.

It's just wide enough for a two-lane, uh three-lane road to come off Garth Drive in the future.

Thank you.

Are there any questions?

Mr.

Any other questions?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Uh moves now to unfinished business items for action 19A is an ordinance declaring certain property surplus to be disposed of per agreement with managed asset recycling solutions, LLC.

Is there a motion to approve the ordinance?

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Any questions regarding this?

All in favor, please indicate.

Any opposed?

The motion carries.

And that is it, and it brings us to 20.

Council members, I have received from Council members' requests to hold items 20B, 20 G, 20O, 20Z, and 20 AB.

Is that correct?

Are there any other items?

Anyone?

B, G, O, Z, and AB.

Are there any other items anyone wishes to hold?

Second until last.

Z.

I really need to learn that phonetic alphabet.

I should have Mr.

Little translate for me.

Bravo, Charlie, don't do that.

B Gamma.

Uh O Omega.

Z Zulu.

And AB alpha beta.

How's that?

It's close enough.

Okay.

Anyhow, I made a sum up.

Anybody have anything else they wish to hold?

Then we will ask the question about the phonetic alphabet.

Good.

Do that while I figure that out.

Zulu would have done it by itself.

But it had the extra to it.

Well, whoever came up with it a hundred years ago.

We need to take that up with him.

Fair enough or her.

Okay.

So the chair moves for consolidation and approval of that was really good, you guys doing that.

You should need to do that every time.

Chair moves for consolidation and approval of items 20A, 20C to F, 20H, to N, 20 P to Y.

20 AA.

And 20 AC.

Is there a second?

Second from Mr.

Little.

All in favor, please indicate.

Opposed.

The motion carries.

So we will now take item 20B.

20B is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into agreements with the low bidders meeting specifications as outlined in the attached summary of bids for acceptance.

Is there a motion?

Motion to motion from Mr.

Mayor to second from Mr.

Little.

Is there a question or comment that you would like to mayor?

Mine was simple.

Didn't really have any concern about it.

I just wanted the opportunity to say I think this is great.

I think traffic engineering is one of those departments that relief punches some of what they are entitled to for the better good of the entire city budget.

And it's nice to see that they are picking up some of that uh some of the funds they have left on the table in the past.

So I look forward to this being spent on the hardware and really would like to see them get some additional money for signal maintenance in the future.

Right.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Uh any other comments or questions?

All in favor, please indicate.

I oppose.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

20 G is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement between the City of Huntsville, Alabama, and Volker, Inc.

for Engineering Design and Construction Administration Services for the Holmes Avenue Complete Streets project number 71-26-RD01.

Is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion from Mr.

Kling, second from Mr.

Meredith.

Mr.

Davis.

Thank you, Madam President.

Excuse me.

Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development.

So this is a road project that started as a city funded project.

We started some preliminary design work.

It would actually go from our downtown district actually into research park to Sparkman.

So it's a very long project.

Staff, engineering and planning staff worked on submitting a federal grant opportunity called a Safe Streets for All Grant, and we were successful in receiving that grant in the amount of 21,640,000 for this project.

What you have before you is a design contract because now that we receive Federal funds that will help build and construct this street, we must uh do plans to Federal standards.

So we're we're starting over a little bit uh from a design standpoint, but we didn't get very far because due to the cost, we were more in a planning cross-section stage of what the road could look like going forward.

Uh but now with the grant funds uh we will not only design but complete this project.

So uh the contract amount is 1, uh 102,494 dollars.

The project includes sidewalks, multi-use paths, cycle lanes, transit shelters, uh certainly streetscape uh amenities along both sides of Homes Avenue, which would include decorative landscape, uh street furniture like park benches and and track our trash cans that match our downtown standard.

Again, it's three and a half miles.

And uh as we start to move forward, should you approve this?

Uh, we'll be using grant funds to do so, and we'll give you updates as we progress.

Um it will take a little while to get this project to construction.

I think there's almost 80 tracks of acquisition.

Uh the good news is they're very, very thin slivers.

The the existing Radaway in some locations is actually wide enough to construct this project.

Uh, but there will be locations where we've got to get temporary construction easements that will take a little while to go through and get those appraised and to acquire those.

And mainly that temporary construction easement is we're not taking anyone's property, but to do work on private property, top people's front lawns back into the new homes avenue.

Uh, we will be required to get those TCEs as we like to call it.

But uh we will be going just as quick as we can to to deliver this project to the community.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Questions for Mr.

Davis.

Mr.

Clay.

Uh just for benefit of the public who may be watching, or what I can tell people, you know, as I run into them.

Is this going to be on the north side or the south side of uh Holmes Avenue?

And is there a ballpark?

Very rough ballpark estimate as far as when the project will be complete, people will be able to use it.

Yeah, both are good questions.

So it's a complete rebuild of Holmes Avenue.

So it's both the north and south side sections of Holmes Avenue that will essentially start just outside the door here at Church Street and go to Sparkman uh into research park, just west of UAH is where we'll uh terminate the project.

Um currently we are tracking that we we believe that we can get to construction in the next uh 12 to 18 months.

We will see how Ritaway goes.

Uh but within 30 to 36 months, we will be done with the project.

You know, the traveling public and and the pedestrians be able to access the uh the results of this project.

So uh we'll keep you posted.

Things may accelerate.

Uh certainly as we start knocking on doors when we get the project about 30 percent design and start explaining.

We hope that most people will be amenable to this temporary construction.

They're not giving up any of their property, just they're actually giving us access to do work on their property to restore front yards and stuff.

So if that goes quicker, certainly we can accelerate the project.

And your folks, of course, they're gonna clean up any mess, they'll be able to do that.

Oh, 100%, absolutely.

That's right.

That's what the TCEs will be to reside front yards and things like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Did I see another question from someone?

All in favor, please indicate.

Motion carries.

20 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a cooperative service agreement between City of Puncil and United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHIS, Wildlife Services WS.

Is there a motion to approve the resolution?

Motion from Mr.

Merritt, second from Mr.

Little, um Mr.

Hamilton.

Good evening, Councilmember.

John Hamplett and City Administrator.

Uh what's before you is uh a renewal of a long setting agreement that we have uh really with the landscape management department um with uh Department of Agriculture and to focus specifically on their partnership and dealing with uh nuisance wildlife or invasive species and things.

So uh oftentimes we have uh have issues where we need to get wildlife relocated to a place that is safer for them and and not invasive to neighborhoods and things, and so they assist us with that.

In some cases, they actually have the jurisdiction over some of those kind of species and things.

Questions for Mr.

Hamilton?

Mr.

Yes, Mr.

Hamilton.

So what this does essentially is it helps um endangered species for us to remove them and get them to another place?

Certainly.

There's times where you know obviously as as cities have grown into places where wildlife wasn't.

In some cases, we were there, the wildlife moved in.

Uh but uh you know they have they have solutions to help kind of deal with that in many cases uh they just kind of reload them to a different place.

We have examples where you know beavers might move into an area and begin damming up you know drainage ditches, which uh obviously creates flooding problems, and so we've got to get them to a different location.

Thank you so much.

And they also work with our friends, the alligators.

Um other comments, questions?

All in favor, please indicate motion carry.

Uh, any opposed motion carries.

Uh 2.

Is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a memorandum of understanding between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the City of Huntsville on behalf of the Huntsville Police Department regarding the child exploitation and human trafficking task force.

Motion to approve.

Motion for Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Hamilton.

Councilman Rules, before you is uh MOU with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, uh as you know, and we've obviously talked quite a bit about.

We have a number of different uh agreements with uh with various partner agencies, both local, state, and uh and at the federal level.

Uh generally those are focused on uh particular sets of crimes or types of crimes.

Uh in this particular case, headquartered out of the Birmingham Field Office.

The FBI has an active task force that looks specifically uh at uh at sexual crimes, particularly those that are that are uh focused on children.

Uh we also have uh a group of officers that are trained and focused on that particular crime here in Huntsville.

Uh we have been working with the FBI and feel it's it's now time really to uh have those two task forces partner uh on cases that may occur in and around the Huntsville area.

And so this MOA would allow us to partner with the FBI uh in this active task force and focus on that particular crime area.

Questions for Mr.

Hamilton.

All in favor, please indicate opposed.

Motion carries.

And finally, 20 AB is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a parking agreement with front row Huntsville owner LLC for the city to lease property in support of creating additional public parking in the central business district.

Is there a motion to approve?

Mr.

Meredith, second from Mr.

Little.

Mr.

Davis.

Yes, ma'am, Shane Davis, Director of Urban Economic Development.

Excuse me.

So council members, you may recall it's probably been almost two years ago.

We entered into a development agreement for the development on the north side of the Von Braun Center that you see getting well underway called front row.

As part of that negotiations of doing that development agreement, we asked for the right to lease a future phase along Holmes Avenue that would not be constructed for several years as overall master planning of that project.

What we're bringing before you is the execution of that parking uh lease.

It's about three acres of property that would be under city control.

We would put a surface lot and the reason we looked at this two years ago is we knew the park project was coming.

Uh so lot K will be impacted due to that project.

Uh and and we don't want to uh cause a negative impact to the Bon Braun Center or businesses downtown.

So we we saw this as a temporary option.

Uh so this lease would be for five years.

Uh the lease amount is very favorable to the city.

It's 125,000 to do that.

Should you approve this, we will be bringing you a surface contract for construction to create this surface lot as we are starting to break ground on the park project.

So the uh contractors should uh be starting to mobilize along Pinhook Creek and start the flood mitigation project first and some retaining walls.

As I said, that will uh eat into the existing lot K, and we wanted to have an alternate solution for that.

So this this will provide that solution.

Questions for Mr.

Davis?

I have one.

Mr.

Mayor.

The dollar figure that you mentioned.

Uh you up you mentioned a five-year thing, and then you you mentioned the dollar figure.

Is that per year?

Is that for the whole five?

Thank you.

It is per year.

Thank you.

Which comes out to just under a dollar square foot.

So it is very, very nominal lease, uh, especially for a central business district type.

So the front row development team said, look, we we see the need for this.

We want to help the city through this this transition of getting this park project built, and uh so they have very good partnership in that.

So uh we do have it secured for five years.

We have the opportunity, that's something we would bring back to council uh after that five-year period in this lease allows us to renew that as well so long as they are not developing the property for an additional two terms so we could control this up to 15 years.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Thank you, Madam President.

Is it possible to give panels in the parking lot?

So we did we did look at that, and if it was a permanent surface lot that the city and the taxpayer was going to actually own, say for 20 plus years of use, that investment would be worth it.

But the since this is seen as a temporary solution, five years, the cost to put that and try to recoup those, uh, it just didn't want warranted.

But in a permanent situation where we were going to buy the property, we were going to own it, and it was going to be downtown surface parking for you know decades and decades.

We would have looked at that from just a solar and and charging stations, but also just from a shade standpoint.

Because front row is such a good partner with the City of Huntsville, do you think that's a conversation you could possibly have with them and see if that's something that they would be interested in doing?

I can check.

So we are taking the corner of Monroe and Homes is where our our lot will be.

They are doing a surface lot on the west side of their property.

And I certainly can ask if if they are going to entertain something like that.

Uh I do know that both of those buildings are uh LEED certified as far as being very echo-friendly, water research uh recirculation and things, but they are they will be LEED certified uh facilities when they are finished.

You get back with me on that if you don't mind.

Yes, ma'am, absolutely.

Okay, now I'm sorry.

Mr.

Mr.

Meredith.

Thank you, Madam President.

Now, my curiosity has peaked a little bit in terms of the use of the solar panels.

Um I agree in and support Ms.

Watkins' thought about utilizing structures and putting panels in so that we can reduce the burden, uh not have to get so much power from TVA and that sort of thing.

Um is that something we are going to look at moving forward?

So we do have a couple of facilities that have done that.

So the multifamily mixed use building that just opened behind Dave and Buster's at mid-city.

So that has rooftop solar panels.

They had to do a purchase power contract through Hunts for Utilities TVA under their bylaws for commercial properties.

They can't generate their own power.

So what the way that way that occurs is you can go install that power source, and then uh it goes through a meter and is actually purchased for Hunts for Utilities, put on the grid and redistributed throughout our community.

Uh, the new building at Mid-City uh actually took advantage of that.

To me, uh it's zero something, I forget the terminology.

Net zero.

You mentioned something that the front row folks have.

Um lead certified, very similar to the where are we in that if if uh meaning how close to zero are they?

Um, you know, LEED is more of a very energy efficient type building standard, so you are doing it at an elevated standard higher than what our building codes would be.

Net zero is where you are really trying to have a hundred percent reuse of water or getting that water back into the system that you are using, same thing with power.

Uh so they're a little different, but they are both you know, trying to be good stewards of the environment and the and the resources that they're they are using or or you know taking up.

So I I'll see you an email on the two differences.

There's they have got some overlap, but a lot of them are really in building standards versus the operation of a building.

Thank you, sir.

You are welcome.

Thank you, Madam President.

Anything that brings more public parking across from the B B C is a good thing.

We agree.

Thank you for that.

All in favor, please indicate motion carries.

Motion carries.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

That concludes new business items for consideration.

We will finish with new business items for introduction, and we have quite a few.

21A is introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 2.

Oh, I should say that these items are introduction only and will be considered at the March 12th meeting.

21A is introduction of a Nordinance amending Chapter 2, Article 4, Division 1 of Ordnance 96-864 to add Section 2-160, thereby establishing a formal vendor gratuity policy to provide clear guidance for the authorization and disbursement of gratuity payments related to the provision of goods and or services.

21B is an introduction of an ordinance amending Chapter 2, Article 4, Division 1 of Ordinance 96-864 to revise Sections 2-181, 2-184, and 2-188, updating the provisions governing small dollar purchases and establishing a purchase threshold that automatically aligns with the competitive bid threshold set forth in the State of Alabama's competitive bid law.

21C is the introduction of an ordinance declaring certain property surplus to be disposed of by trade-in allowance toward replacement equipment.

21D is introduction of an ordinance declaring certain equipment sub surplus and to be sold at public auction.

21E is introduction of an ordinance to declare certain real property previously used for a pump station as surplus and authorizing its conveyance to Chimney Creek Owners Association.

And 21F is introduction of an ordinance to declare certain real property as surplus and to negotiate the terms and conditions of its sale.

That concludes the business portion of our meeting.

Our second roster public comments are up next before we do that.

It is 7 30.

May I suggest we take a 10-minute break until 7 40, and we will resume with second roster public comments.

Whether or not such items are on the agenda.

Those who have signed up on the second public roster comments prior to our meeting will now be heard.

When called, approach the microphone, state your name, home address, and city of residence.

I will also call the next speaker up so that you can kind of be gearing up for that to make the proceedings move a little bit more smoothly.

Each speaker may address the council for three minutes.

Speakers will refrain from entering into a dialogue with council members or city staff and from making comments regarding the good name and character of any individual.

The first person to speak will be Russ Dunford.

If Mr.

Dunsford will come forward, and Mr.

Dunford will be followed by Jacob Morrison.

Okay.

Russell Dunford 211 Taylor Road, uh Owens Crossroads, Hampton Cove.

Thank you.

Are we ready now?

We're good.

And go.

So I'm here to say thank you for the I came to you in December to talk about the Taylor Road, Taylor Lane intersection down there.

And a bloody traffic folks showed up.

They've got the uh monitor on the pavement.

They were out there about a week ago manually doing traffic counts because I actually thought their vehicles broke down.

They were there for so long.

And uh and so I don't know what's become of it, but I didn't need AI.

But in the month of February alone, I sent David the photos.

We have had three accidents there within a two-week time period.

So uh I like I said, I don't need AI, but it there is some danger going on there, and I appreciate the consideration of that because I know I'm nobody, but to think that someone can come and make that recommendation and y'all take action on it is greatly appreciated.

Uh the other one is I sent an email to David, I ask him to share with the others.

There's a phone number in there, the VA advocate for the VA clinic up here.

Uh I think everybody here has veterans that live in your areas.

My point is I generally think that VA Clinic tries to do a bloody good job.

You show up, they work hard to get you in time on the appointments, the pharmacies quick.

Uh the doctors, I know they worked hard.

And usually only time I talk to the patient advocate and I ask him how said how many good comments do you get in a day?

And he said, Do you mean in a month?

So my point is, again, if your schedule permits, I gave you the phone number.

If you can give them a call, I generally think they try to do a good thing.

I know uh Congressman Strong and uh Katie Britt, Senator are working to get a hospital up here.

And again, I those are two good shout outs, and I greatly appreciate it.

Last one is Huntsville City Schools.

I appreciate everything Huntsville City Schools do.

It is foundational for my daughters.

Annie flies in the Air Force today, and Abby's down at UAB in the medical field because one of them had to be able to write prescriptions for me when I got older.

So I greatly appreciate what Huntsville City Schools does, not only for my children, but for all the others behind them.

So Godspeed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Dunford.

The next person to speak will be Jacob Morrison.

Mr.

Morrison will be followed by Reverend Will Ennis.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jacob Morrison.

I reside at 2001 Mylam Avenue Northeast.

Thank you.

Huntsville, Alabama.

I'm the President of the North Alabama Area Labor Council, that is the Regional Federation of Unions, and our members, like many people in the community, have expressed concerns about Huntsville Hospital's planned acquisition of crestwood.

Nationwide communities have seen trends when health care is consolidated.

Prices increase, wages decrease, and care quality suffers.

Our members' concern has been further inflamed by the response we've gotten from the hospital itself.

In response to concerns about wages, they say that the wages of crestwood workers who are paid higher than Huntsville hospital workers will stay the same today, as if our concerns were that the wages of workers would be cut before the sale even goes through.

In response to concerns about costs rising, they note that they haven't risen in the last three years.

And that's all well and good, but that is not a commitment to not raise them once they acquire Crestwood.

In response to concerns about care quality, they recite corporate buzzwords like minimizing duplication and managing capacity effectively.

Again, there are no commitments, nothing measurable and nothing objective.

And I think that the hospital should see why this is simply not enough in a city of engineers.

In response to concerns about the opaqueness of this process, they tell us that we are simply wrong, that they are, quote, committed to transparency.

This commitment is, of course, difficult to believe from an organization that has for years refused to divulge the salary of its executives.

We believe that the City Council has some power here.

Most of the board that governs the hospital is appointed directly by the City Council.

And maybe you will call me simple, but I believe that the folks who appoint the body that runs the hospital have power over the hospital.

I think that most of us in this room, even if we knew that we could not be fired except for cause for a number of years, would react if the person who hired us and who had the authority to decide whether or not to extend our position told us they were unhappy with the job we were doing.

Our unions believe that the City Council should use the power that it has to advocate for and defend the people of Huntsville.

As a first step, we would like to see the hospital answer questions before this body and the public in good faith.

Ultimately, if this deal really is good for the people of Huntsville, and that is a proposition that I could be convinced of, and that our unions could be convinced of, then we would like to see objective and measurable commitments made by the hospital in a legally binding contract.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir.

We will now hear from Reverend Will Ennis.

Reverend Ennis will be followed by Jennifer Morana.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Will Ennis, Oldwood Road, Huntsville.

Thank you.

Please let the record show that this week I sent an email to members of the City Council, Mr.

Kling and Ms.

Watkins, the City Attorney, the mayor's office, and the Chief of Police notifying them of sworn testimony by one Ryan Schwank before a congressional panel.

He is an attorney who resigned from ICE in protest of what he calls a deficient, defective, and broken training system at ICE.

I have also sent a link to the above of this testimony.

Please let that also be entered into the record as well.

In his remarks, Mr.

Schwank stated that he was given secretive orders to train ICE cadets to disregard the Constitution, that they could enter homes without a judicial warrant.

He stated that their training was reduced by nearly half.

And I quote: classes that teach our Constitution, the legal our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention, and the limits of officers' authority.

They ceased all of the legal training regarding the use of force.

All of it.

The minimum standard with regard to the use of deadly force.

The point is that we have could have dangerously untrained agencies, agents, in this state and in this city.

We c I don't see how we can allow that here.

This should scare the hell out of every one of us.

But I'm not here to fearmonger.

I'm here to ask the city to do something.

We must have oversight of these officers in this jurisdiction at every step.

But I'm asking for more.

That any ICE officers in this city sign in with the HPD and show evidence of their training when they completed it and a review of their understanding of their constitutional limits.

If not, then they must be removed from the city.

If we do not, then the city is legally at risk.

If, God forbid, an incident happens where illegal use of force is used to kill yet another person.

It is our duty to address this here to insist that all law enforcement is trained and follows the Constitution that we all swore an oath to uphold and defend.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Jennifer Morana.

Jennifer Morana will be followed by David Snyder.

Thank you.

You had my name correct the first time, Mirana.

My name is Jennifer Morana.

I'm an Air Force veteran and I live at 711 West Arbor Drive.

And I wanted to say thank you for the Rasta lights over there.

I very much appreciate that.

And that's in Huntsville, is that correct?

Huntsville, yes.

I just want to use this opportunity to give thanks to some peeps in our town and who also help with our town if that's okay.

They help keep our city stafe and stabilized.

I'd like to thank Huntsville PD and the Sheriff's Department.

I would also like to thank all of the homeschool families and the micro schools, specifically educational solutions helping our children.

I'd like to thank the Birmingham Veterans Affairs.

I'd like to thank Governor K.

IV.

I'd also like to thank our sister cities, Nashville, Chicago, and Hemet.

I would also like to thank the ICE protesters.

I'd like to thank all of District One.

I'd like to thank the homeless of Huntsville.

I don't think they get enough recognition.

I personally see them on the front lines, and I know that they are rocking it out there.

The programs that's been implemented at the slab and everything are working.

They're helping.

We're getting people off the streets and off drugs.

They're very motivated out there to do it.

I'd like to thank the living room at 2820 governors.

If it wasn't for them, our homeless people would be struggling.

They open their doors a lot to help them out.

I'd like to thank the Pickens Police Department of South Carolina.

And last but not least, I'd like to thank Melinda Jackson of Huntsville.

And I'm going to end with a quick little joke.

A couple months back, someone mentioned during the shutdown that people were just not buying washers and dryers.

And I just wanted you to know that we out here were still buying couches and such, still keeping the uh revenue flowing.

Um if possible, I'd like to give you each a sticker that I had made up.

If that's okay.

We can have someone pick that up, please.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much, Ms.

Moran.

We will now hear from David Snyder.

Mr.

Snyder will be followed by Kristen Jones.

Or Austin Jones, I'm sorry.

Hello, my name is David Snyder.

My information is written correctly in the sheet on the sheet.

City of residence.

I live in Huntsville, Alabama.

Uh there's a couple things I'd like to get out of the way.

First of all, my uh honorific is mixed.

It's a neutral, gender-neutral honorific.

I'm non-binary.

Uh also I'd like to bring up the sign-up sheet itself.

I think that uh we need to do something about how every person uh has to sign and put their address on the sheet, and it is we have electronic sign-ins at the front.

There should be a way where people can anonymously submit that information if it's required without having to say it at the stand.

It would be maybe a little awkward if I pointed out every council members and Trey's and Tommy's address when I got up here.

People would feel weird about that.

Um, I'd like to talk about a letter I got back from uh my council member.

This is a letter that basically uh says that there is no agreement that uh uh Huntsville has with ICE and I Huntsville does not participate in a 287 G relationship, which flies in the face of the resolution that Indivisible has put forward.

It's a thing about the future, not about what's happening now.

Also, that's a flat out lie.

I've been lied to repeatedly.

We have a memorandum of understanding between the city of Huntsville and U.S.

immigration and customs enforcement, homeland security investigations.

HSI is a division of ICE.

Um it's just a flat out lie to deny that.

So this is absolutely uh useless.

Um I can't for the life of me understand how many times I can't uh wrap my brain around how many times I've had council members flat out look me in the eye and just deny reality right in front of me without also critically engaging in what I have to say or what any member from Indivisible or any other group or any other person that is a member of our city has come with very real concerns, and it just is a flat out denial without even remotely engaging in what the actual material is whatsoever.

Um it's astounding.

It's astounding to watch.

And um I would like to also bring up, I've noticed uh nearby where I live, off of uh Triana and uh Ninth Avenue.

There was a complete uh uh uh you know uh infrastructure uh uh redone where at that intersection we have put new cameras up, we put new street lights up, and these street lights have uh they're about four foot tall, they look like turrets.

I was riding my bicycle and I came up to them and I thought, am I gonna get shot?

You know, what is this?

Turns out they're it's a company called No Traffic.

This is a company that's based out of Tel Aviv.

This is an Israeli-based monitoring traffic monitoring system.

I went up to governors and Triana.

I didn't find any cameras like that.

I went to Bob Wallace and Triana.

I didn't find any cameras like that.

Right?

Those are two major intersections.

In between them is this tiny little intersection, 9th Avenue.

You know, we have a Hispanic church right there, and I cannot for the life of me see any other way that what this is is a targeting to create a hostile landscape for members of our society, and I think it's disgusting.

And this is in Bill Kling's district.

So uh I would be uh very interested to get an answer on what's happening.

Thank you, Mr.

Schneider.

We will now go on and hear from Austin Jones.

Austin Jones will be followed by Alyssa Eckelberger.

Hi there.

I'm Austin Jones out of Owen's Crossroads, the address on the sheet.

And uh I'm a 21-year army vet with four deployments across Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'm also an officer for the last five years of the North Alabama Democratic Socialists of America.

And I'm here to talk about freedom.

Is the free market freedom?

Or is being able to go to the market freedom?

Maybe being able to walk around where you will is freedom.

Or maybe freedom is being able to eat good food, drink, clean water, breathe, fresh air.

What is freedom?

What does it look like?

What does it taste like?

What does freedom talk like?

Can freedom be run off into a ditch to burn and rust?

Can we pull it out and rebuild it?

Maybe it ain't never been built.

Maybe that's what we're doing here tonight.

Building a little bit of freedom.

Today, up in Kansas government just told a whole lot of people who they are.

Is that freedom?

Or are they getting tread on and trampled and slowly ground to dust?

Do you tell me who I am or am I free to tell you who I am?

Over in Meridianville, a mess of three-letter agencies went around yesterday, snatching folks up over and a quote, labor concerns.

Are we free to even work?

Does work make us free?

Are we free?

Why are we here if not to be free?

If we keep idling down the road as we've been doing, I can see the day when we have to rent the sun from them rich boys.

You think I'm being funny?

I'm not.

You don't think if they could control the sun, they wouldn't?

You ain't paying attention.

If you don't wake up now, when you do wake up, it'll be in one of those million square foot constant crit concentration camps they building.

So, you know, maybe I am free.

Maybe my kids will get to vote.

Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.

Maybe this is all in my head, but maybe, maybe, maybe not.

So are we free?

Have we ever been free?

Or have my eyes been playing tricks on me?

Freedom begins and ends with us.

And freedom starts with education.

It's our duty to fight.

It's our duty to win.

Solidarity forever.

Thank you.

The next person to speak is Alyssa Eckelberger, and uh who will be followed by Dr.

Marissa Allison.

My name is Alyssa Eckleberger.

I'm a resident of Huntsville.

And my address is correct on the form.

One of you stopped my friend as we were leaving the last council meeting and said we're listening.

So you're listening to our pleas to stop HPD from helping ICE kidnap our citizens.

You're hearing our letters from children sleeping on the ground and eating MAGA-infested food.

And by the way, teenage girls are now going missing in these dissension centers.

They're disappearing to what are apparently called blue butterfly zones.

The symbol for Virginia Goofre's organization for sex trafficking survivors is a blue butterfly.

So you did just decide to work with the FBI to stop child trafficking, yeah?

Does that include these girls?

We're not here because we're bored.

Maybe you're bored.

We have places to be.

There's somewhere else I'm supposed to be right now, but I'm skipping it to remind you that while we go out of our way.

Um while you go out of your way to silence ascent under the guise of not wanting little ears at home to hear bad words.

You're complicit in ripping children from their families to be sent to these torture prisons where they get sick, they get raped by guards, and sometimes they die.

Why do you need to tell us you're listening in private?

Why can't you say it here?

What's keeping you from stopping HPD from working with ICE?

Is it fear?

Is it money?

People often ask you how you sleep at night.

We know you sleep comfortably in warm beds.

While the people you help send away, including small children, sleep on floors full of human waste, sometimes 50 or more to a cell.

They're dying in there.

Do better.

Do something.

Do something.

These facilities aren't going away.

They're ramping up every day.

My immigrant neighbors are being thrown into vans and sent away, and that's not normal.

That's not normal.

Authoritarians don't stop until they are stopped.

They're already shooting U.S.

citizens in cold blood in front of us all.

And if we're not already, soon we'll all be on a list.

Just for speaking out.

No one is safe until we're all safe.

So please, for the love of God, quit being cowards and do your jobs.

Do your jobs.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Eckleberger.

We'll now hear from Dr.

Marissa Allison.

Dr.

Allison will be followed by Taylor Adams.

Good evening.

My name is Marissa Allison.

I live in District 2 here in Huntsville.

My address is on file.

Good evening.

I'm here again with my fellow community members to ask that you end all partnerships and cooperation between our city and ICE.

As I noted two weeks ago, ICE is one of the most violent arms of policing, incarceration, and surveillance in the U.S., making our city complicit and tearing families apart, detaining people in inhumane conditions, murdering them and criminalizing migration.

As I have noted on multiple occasions here, criminalizing migration criminalizes movement, criminalizing movement, criminalizes a fundamental part of human existence.

Again, every single one of us has migration in our histories and lineages, and we and all of our descendants are poised to have it in our futures given the climate collapse that we are in.

After receiving an email from Dr.

Robinson stating that no tax local tax dollars are being used to fund ice and that the city has no power to control ice, I brought up the city's agreement with flock cameras at the last city council meeting.

And I wanted to go into that a bit further tonight.

From what I have gathered, we have over a hundred flock cameras within the city, costing taxpayers between 2500 and $3,000 per camera annually, which does not include installation.

And while you might say the city doesn't have any agreements with ICE, which is interesting, um, given that HPD was spotted with ICE and several other federal agencies in Meridianville yesterday, as can be seen in the news piece that was featured on WAF.

Neighboring jurisdictions we do know have agreements with ICE, and since HPD is part of the North Alabama Multi-agency Crime Center, the flock data that we collect here is used by those agencies and therefore accessible to ICE.

Thousands of such cases of side door access have been reported in cities like Denver are terminating their agreements with Flock for these specific reasons after finding out that Flock violated their agreement by sharing Denver's data on a national network that was accessible to ICE.

If my calculations are correct, that would mean that the city has already spent around a million dollars on these cameras since the agreements began in 2022.

I would much rather have seen that money go to something like the cost of living wage increases that we've been asking for for our library workers instead of creating a growing surveillance state.

So please consider following in the footsteps of cities like Denver, Flagstaff, Cambridge, Eugene, and Santa Cruz, and the growing localities that have either deactivated or terminated their agreements with flock cameras.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Allison.

We'll now hear from Taylor Adams.

Taylor Adams will be followed by Kasha Benton.

Hello, my name is Taylor Adams.

I'm from Florence.

Thank you.

What is it going to take for the members of this council not to cooperate with ICE?

In my last speech I gave here, I do accurate accurate comparisons between ICE concentration camps and the ones Nazi Germany used to exterminate upwards of two million people as part of their campaign of genocide against political distance and those deemed racially unclean.

Do the members of this council care about ICE murdering people and extraditionally extrajudicially extrajudiciously condemning them to death.

A few of the council members have backgrounds in education.

Did you know that ICE has profiled schools before?

They've been documented, detaining parents at bus stops and tackling people and beating them on school grounds.

However, I don't think that you really care.

I don't think that you care about the documented sexual abuse, assault, and torture, and outright murder ICE commits in public and at the concentration camps, or else you would have done something by now.

Your actions have shown your constituents that you think we're your enemies.

You have trespassed my neighbors for speaking their minds.

There's an increased police presence designed to intimidate and steal instill fear in us.

And you have had us all thrown out simply for a lack of decorum.

And one of the first protests I came to, a Huntsville police department drone followed myself and two other friends down the street in a clear case of profiling.

And another police slowly surrounded us on the street and threatened to arrest us because we were using a bullhorn.

Do your constituents look like criminals to you?

Am I a human being to the members of this council?

Do you view my neighbors who have brown or black skin as human beings?

Why are we being treated like your enemies?

Why are we being treated like your enemies for our concern for human life and the preservation of our own lives?

If you respect us as your constituents and concern members of the public, you will take action against ICE, or else I will have no choice to believe that you endorse our campaign of ethnic cleansing and that you are either too callous or too cowardly to stop it.

Thank you, Mr.

Adams.

We'll now hear from Kasha Benton.

Kasha Benton will be followed by Carl Landers.

Hello again, everybody.

Thank you.

So Huntsville is such a lovely home, and I really want it to be welcoming to all of us, not just to some of us.

I think that the 287G agreement that our police and our local police and our police in Huntsville in particular is jeopardizing the sense of safety.

So especially for our brown and black neighbors.

My husband happens to have brown skin.

Yes, this is like an arbitrary trait that we've chosen in the United States to stigmatize people kind of based on the color of their skin, right?

Could have chosen height, eye color.

In the U.S.

we chose skin color.

Well, how things, you know, change, they also stay the same.

We're back to racial profile filing.

We're headed back to Jim Crow.

ICE is accelerating this, and it needs to be stopped and monitored and policed in the ways that some of our friends mentioned.

So, you know, please do something to help my husband not feel like he's being targeted and not have to bring his birth certificate everywhere.

I'm also very concerned for the well-being of my brown children.

And I know I'm not the only parent who feels that way, who has brown children.

A lot of us are really struggling right now.

And I would like to feel that I'm supported by our leadership.

So thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Fenton.

We'll hear from Carl Landers.

Mr.

Landers will be followed by Joy Johnson.

Carl March Landers, Decatur resident.

Thank you, sir.

I'm really not surprised by y'all's lack of care for what ICE is doing or preventing it.

Um, does anyone know who London Harkey is or what happened to him?

Huntsville PD got him on the ground, knees on top of him, and beat him over the head with a metal flashlight about this big.

Hitler himself was inspired by American fascism.

You can look up how he felt about eugenics.

This is not new.

The fascists are changing uniforms and you're doing nothing.

Stand up.

Don't be on the wrong side of history.

Don't be a coward.

Thank you, sir.

We'll now hear from Joy Johnson, who will be our final speaker.

Good evening.

I'm Joey Johnson.

I live on West Arbor Drive in Huntsville, District 1.

Thank you.

Um I want to read a couple of poems for you.

This first one is called Winter's Stars by Sarah Teesdale.

I went out at night alone.

The young blood flowing beyond the sea seemed to have drenched my spirit's wings.

I bore my sorrow heavily.

But when I lifted up my head from shadows shaken on the snow, I saw Orion in the East burn steadily as long ago.

From windows in my father's house, dreaming my dreams on winter nights.

Years ago, dreams go and youth goes too.

The world's heart breaks beneath its wars.

All things are changed, save in the East, the faithful beauty of the stars.

And I would like to read a poem that I wrote as a sort of based on that poem and uh maybe a little bit of an answer to it.

It's called Rock the Boat, Change Direction.

All things are changed, save in town hall.

We're making war machines as heralded as a tax source.

No need to heed the wound the world so far has settled with.

I wish the word revolution were not a need to call at all, henceforth.

But this status quo reasoning at council time marks such a dearth of understanding that non-ending of civilization, of life on earth, requires a sea change of heart, requires necessity now to enable the birth of social worth of each man and the land, to rock the boat of capitalism, to remember money is not God before too late to change direction.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Johnson.

That concludes our meeting.

We will meet again on March 12th.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Move to adjourn.

Motion from Mr.

Little, second from Mr.

Clint, we are adjourned.