Good evening.

It's six o'clock.

Happy New Year.

I'd like to call this meeting to order.

We'll begin with an invocation led by Councilmember Adams, followed by the pledge led by Councilmember Honeycut.

Please rise as you're able.

Let us join together in a moment of reflection.

Tonight, with this first meeting of the year, and a first meeting of new voices.

Let us be together in community for its immense possibilities.

In community for its needs and for its understandings.

In community for the many ways we can hear and see one another.

In community with broad perspectives and thoughtful wisdoms.

Let us make sound decisions and round our awareness with the past, ground ourselves in the present, and keep our focus on the future.

We can make together.

I pledge allegiance to the fly of the United States of America.

Indivisible.

Liberty, justice for all.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Johnson, would you please call roll?

Councilwoman Adams.

Here.

Councilwonder Bartelaban.

Here.

Voss Mayor Fugates.

Here.

Councilman Grant.

Here.

Councilman Helsley.

Here.

Councilman Honeycutt.

Here.

Councilman Lloyd.

Here.

Councilwoman Parker.

Here.

And Councilman Thomas.

All members present, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion on the minutes of the December 9th meeting?

Mr.

Pray.

Okay.

Second.

Is there a second?

Okay.

Motion made and seconded.

Any questions or discussions?

See and you guys lights on for questions and discussion on the minutes.

Okay.

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

The minutes.

So moved.

Second.

Any questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Next, uh, our announcements and extraordinary matters adoption of tonight's agenda.

Are there any items to be withdrawn?

Are there any items to be postponed?

Councilmember Adams.

Um I would like to make a motion to postpone items 13U and 13 V for two weeks until our January 20th meeting.

Second.

Okay.

Motion's been made to postpone for two weeks items 13U and V.

That's good.

Okay.

It's been made and seconded.

Any questions or discussion on this postponement?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion to postpone carries.

Are there any other items to be postponed?

Councilmember Hesley?

No.

Okay.

That's all right.

Uh are there any items to be added by motion?

Okay.

There are no memorials.

No, ma'am.

Um, is there a motion on the consent items?

Councilmember Parker.

Uh yes, may I like to remove items 12R and 13W from the consent?

Okay.

Items 12R and 13W.

Uh will be removed from consent at the request of Councilmember Parker.

That doesn't require a vote.

Any other items to be removed from the consent agenda.

Councilmember Parker, anything else?

No, it's just gonna make a motion to approve the remaining items.

Okay.

Motion uh to approve the consent item items as adjusted just now.

It's been made.

Is there a second?

Okay.

Uh any further questions or discussions seeing none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

The consent agenda is approved.

Okay, time now for my mayor's report.

Um first it's great to see you all uh up here.

Um, those returning council members and the new members.

Um happy new year to you all.

And uh it's just a little, I'm just still getting used to new faces and some new locations of returning council members, or no, maybe no, Charlie has moved sides.

Lynn moved one seat down.

So anyhow, well, um it's great to uh great to be here working for the city together in this room.

Happy New Year.

Um, I hope that you all were able to uh get some time away, uh away from work or uh some of the stresses of of whether it's campaigns or just everyday uh activities.

I hope you were able to enjoy a little break over the holidays and uh are feeling refreshed and ready to tackle um the issues and challenges and opportunities coming before us here in 2026.

So I know you are all those of you returning and those of you new to council are ready to hit the ground running.

And I just want to encourage you all to you know continue to work the way you have been or the way you campaigned on, and and I look and I look forward to working with each and every one of you.

Um and as you have questions, particularly those of you who are new to council, please don't hesitate to contact me or anyone on my staff to answer questions or um help get acclimated to your role on council or just questions as we have them as they come before us, whether it's on the agenda or things that just happen, constituent concerns and so forth.

So speaking of constituent concerns, one ongoing concern that people have is uh the need for more housing.

So I want to invite you all to another celebration of the completion of more affordable housing in our city next week, Wednesday the 14th.

We will have uh we will cut the ribbon on the overlook at Beaumont.

This is uh project is phase one of transforming Western.

Uh Western Heights has at one time was Knoxville's biggest uh public housing community and um is not right now because it's in the in being in the in the middle of being transformed.

So this phase includes 76 new homes, including 31 subsidized replacements, 30 affordable, and 15 market rate.

And we, the city have invested 26 and a half million dollars in the Transforming Western project, um and that helped leverage a 40 million dollar HUD choice program grant.

So we put in 26 and a half million, HUD put in 40, and the whole project uh public and private investments is over 200 million dollars.

And I'm um very familiar with this neighborhood because my kids went to Beaumont and I lived not too far away, and uh the transformation um has been amazing to see.

And this is just one phase, uh, but I'm really uh proud of the progress, and I hope you all can join us for the ribbon cutting.

10:30 a.m.

next Wednesday, uh please join us.

Um another invitation is that is to the celebration of life for former mayor Randy Tyree.

That's gonna be Saturday the 17th at 10 a.m.

And at the family's request, it's gonna be at the Sun Sphere.

And you probably know why, because Randy Tyree was uh leader of our city to help bring the uh World's Fair to Knoxville in 1982, and his family felt it was fitting to honor and celebrate his life there.

So this is open uh to the public, and it will be live streamed for those who we can't if there if the number of people who come exceed the capacity of the building per Chief Sharp's uh rules, uh though it'll be live streamed uh and available for the public to watch as well.

So that is next Saturday, January 17th at 10 a.m.

at the SunSphere.

Um also another thing that uh I'm sure many of you hear from your constituents is uh the need to, as we need more housing and investment in our city, we want to make sure our development services are efficient, transparent, predictable, and just getting the job done.

So I we've made a tremendous strides on that front, and I just want to update council that we are in the process of compiling all of our 2025 stats, but and and we'll share that as soon as they're ready, but you know, between the holidays and this just January 6th, we haven't had time to compile all that yet.

But just in the third quarter of 2025, we processed building permits valued at more than 150 million dollars, did nearly 10,000 next day inspections, and processed almost 800 new projects.

And we continue to work look for ways to improve, and as part of that, we have rolled out um new uh improvements to our software to make it easier for our customers to go through the system.

Um, this is not a surprise to the development community.

We do this hand in hand, um, communicating regularly with them to know what the needs are and how we can continue to make our processes more streamlined.

So I'm told that the rollout seems to be going smoothly, right?

Um, Mr.

Rosenberg.

Uh so if you have any questions or if you hear questions from your constituents about this, uh please reach out to plans, reviews and inspections director Peter Ahrens.

Finally, a quick reminder, and this is something I announce at all council meetings.

Um, we are here to do the city's official business.

Those who wish to speak either to a specific agenda item or during public forum, need to sign up with the city recorder before 4 p.m.

Do not use profanity, and when speaking to specific agenda items, you must stay on topic.

Remarks must be germane to the question ahead of the assembly.

That is statements must have bearing on whether the pending motion should be adopted.

Those who fail to adhere to these rules will be ruled out of order.

For those who are listening, please note if you disrupt a public meeting, you will be asked to leave or escorted out.

Thanks in advance for everyone's respect for these rules.

That concludes my mayor's report.

So are there any reports of committees or council members serving on committees or boards?

Okay.

Are there any general council member announcements?

Um Vice Mayor Fugit.

Thank you.

Um, first of all, I want to publicly thank my colleagues on City Council for electing me to be your vice mayor.

It is a real honor and uh a privilege to serve you and the citizens as um our cattle herder.

Um as what the vice mayor does for council.

Um, also want to say that in keeping with tradition, it is time to wish Mr.

Grant a happy birthday.

His birthday is so we could have been early or a day late.

His birthday is actually the 19th, so you've got plenty of time to remember to text him on the actual 19th.

But um, welcome to council and happy birthday.

Thank you.

All right, speaking of birthdays, we'll go to Mr.

Grant.

You have an announcement to share.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, for that.

And um, just want to uh make the audience aware of my constituent constituents aware of the uh Dr.

Martin Luther King uh commemorative commission.

Uh they have a uh a number of events scheduled next week, starting with the MLK basketball classic.

Uh that's going to be Austin East and Fulton High School alumni that's going to kick off uh Saturday, the 10th, followed by a number of events.

Uh you have the Thomas Tank Strickland Leadership Awards luncheon uh at the UTK Student Union uh and it's going to finish on Monday, uh my birthday, uh, and um Martin Luther King Day is going to be the memorial tribute at Overcomer Believers Church.

And so just wanted to put the community and my constituents on radar for those events next week.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Adams.

Thank you.

Um, I am bringing news from a project that started along before me, uh, but I'm really excited to be able to um share that the Giffin School Project, the historic Giffin Square project, actually is under construction now as of January 5th.

So uh I got the news from the case enterprises development uh today, and they are working on stormwater runoff mediation, um, site prep sort of stuff.

So it's not the really exciting sort of things, but it's the really important stuff that the community has been waiting on to have this project really happen.

Um they are anticipating having that completed uh summer 27 with actually some people being able to move in even even earlier than that.

Um so we all know that you know buildings can take a little bit longer, but this group has been exceptionally committed to this project and is incredibly thankful to the city and all the numerous organizations and groups and departments in the city that have helped make this possible.

Um I got to send a note to the South Haven um neighborhood president to let them know that this is happening.

So there will be 77 units of affordable housing being added with the South Haven and broader Knoxville community.

That's great, thank you.

Uh, Councilmember Honeycutt.

Thank you.

Uh just wanted to report some good news and give credit to those that don't always give get credit.

Uh thank you to City Engineering, Thomas Claybow and his team uh for their quick response on fixing the traffic light at Kingston Pike and Scenic.

Uh they were able to do it just a few hours after residents called 311.

So it's a great success story on uh on 311 working successfully and and city engineering working uh in a very quickly quick manner.

So thank you guys and thank you for for that.

Uh the residents noticed.

Uh the other important thing is the neighborhood street traffic safety program application portal is now open.

Uh so if a neighborhood is interested in traffic calming, they need to do it now during the month of January, I believe.

Uh now that it's this is the new system, uh, so you need to need to be aware of that because there's a limited window to apply within this year, and it's happening now between now and the end of January.

Uh, just real quick also, I'd like to thank uh City Councilman Grant for your leadership and coordinating uh a work session yesterday for City Council at the Beck Cultural Exchange.

It was really informative, uh and I thought it was uh it was great to learn more about their mission and their role in our community.

Okay.

Thank you, Councilmember Honeycutt.

Seeing no other lights on, uh, we'll move on to the next item on our agenda.

9C is the resolution confirming the reappointment of Louis Urea to serve as a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Move to approve.

Motion made to approve.

Sir second.

Seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Councilmember Grant?

Oh, okay.

Any opposed?

Okay, motion carries.

Next item, please.

9D is a resolution confirming the appointment of Jackie Robinson to the police advisory and review committee.

Move to approve.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Uh Councilmember Grant.

Yes, I just wanted to take this time and go on record to call Miss Jackie Robison up for a second.

Um just to be able to, yeah, if you don't mind coming to the podium.

Yeah.

Ms.

Robinson, if you could come to the podium and uh thank you for being here and uh thank you for volunteering your time to serve on this committee.

If you could uh put the uh light up the microphone so you're there, you go.

Thank you, Mayor.

And if you could state your name and address for the record, and then Mr.

Grant has a uh My name is Jackie L.

Robinson.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Jackie, uh, for making the sacrifice.

Um, you know, I'm a firm believer in giving people their flowers.

And so I just want to thank you for you know everything you've done uh for the East Knoxville community.

For those who don't know, Miss Jackie Robison has helped uh hundreds, possibly even thousands of individuals in our community uh navigate the court system.

Um she's help uh get plenty of people that I know personally, uh get their driver's license restored and things like that.

And so um I look forward to you serving on park.

Um I know you'll be an asset, and uh I'm sure Jared is is happy to have you as well.

Uh but I just wanted to you know say thank you tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you, Al.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Robinson.

Uh any further questions or comments on uh Ms.

Robinson's candidacy nomination?

Okay, saying none, all those in favor please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Congratulations and thank you.

Next item, please.

9E is a resolution confirming the appointment of Lisa Sorensen to the design review board.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Council no.

Oh, Councilmember Honeycutt.

Just real quick.

I just want to say that I'm excited to see Miss Sorison be part of this board.

Uh you know, I think having the local business community represented on any e-board is important, and I think she'll bring a great perspective from the business side uh to that.

And uh, I just wanted to say I'm in favor.

Okay.

Wonderful, thanks.

Any further questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any oppos any opposed?

Um motion carries.

Thank you.

12 M is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Link Live Incorporated to provide VOIP communication services for the Center of For Service Innovation 311-211 at an initial cost of 31,000 and an ongoing annual cost of 24,000.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Um council members, particularly those uh new to council, just so you know there are dollar figures in these resolutions, uh, but that they're already all budgeted.

You know, you approve the budget, and then when we execute you know, negotiate contracts, we bring it back to you for uh approval, review and approval of the contract.

So just wanted to clarify that.

Any further questions or discussions?

Seeing none, all those in favor please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

12 N is a resolution authorizing the mayor to amend the agreement with Progression Electric LLC for the citywide traffic signal maintenance project, increasing the annual amount by 25,000 for a new total annual amount of 150,000.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Any further questions or discussions?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

120 is the resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Henley Roofing Company Incorporated in an amount not to exceed $779,200 for the LT Ross Building Reroof Project.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

12 P is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with PFM Financial Advisors LLC to serve as the city's financial advisor and to develop and assist the with implementation of the city's financial strategies to meet its current and long-term operations, financial obligations, and financing needs, and to render assistance concerning potential debt transactions in an amounts not to exceed $375,000 for a three-year term with two optional one-year extensions.

Motion made to approve and seconded, Councilmember Parker.

Thank you, Mayor.

I had um a question that came in from a constituent about this agenda item uh that I couldn't answer, so I wanted to bring it up here and didn't get a chance to email you ahead of time.

So um but a constituent was asking um how much of the um 375,000 is transaction-based versus planning based.

Um meaning transaction-based, meaning when you it's triggered when the bond is issued, uh planning based, meaning it's for fees and I mean it's for uh administrative costs to administer the program.

Do you have a sense of that?

Mr.

Evans?

Yes, ma'am.

The uh first off, the uh 375K is a uh not to exceed amount uh for the whole term of the contract, also 125 K.

And really that would be a combination of the two if you had them doing projects, or it was uh by the uh transaction of if you went out to uh issue bond, you you wouldn't be able to exceed uh between the two, even uh 375 K for the uh entire three-year term.

So it's really both.

Truly both, combines both.

Okay, and so who internally authorizes um uh um uh work that's eligible under this for uh uh for a bond issue.

Is it something that we would be you all as city council to authorize us to uh go out for debt on on anything?

And uh we just have them on retainer in case we need them to help us structure the bonds, figure out you know the right way to handle it, how to get the best interest rate, that type thing, man.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um any further questions or discussion.

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Okay.

12 Q is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with event approvals incorporated to provide the city with an e-permitting software system to facilitate the issuance of special event permits for a period of three years with a total annual cost not to exceed $50,000.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

12 R is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute any and all documents necessary to apply for and accept a grant award of $631,577 with no local match from the U.S.

Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for continued funding of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Councilmember Parker.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Chief, if you don't mind, I have a few questions about um this uh program and investigations and wondering if you could give us a sense of um the types of internet threats that we're seeing against children uh through this task force and and what's the caseload looking like for this task force.

Sure.

Um thank you much, and I uh really appreciate this opportunity to um brief counseling this.

I know the the um four council members that have been with us for a while have seen these grants a lot, but we have five new members, and this is a great opportunity to get everybody up on up to speed on I think you know, really first class program we have at the Knoxville Police Department.

So ICAC Task Force Um has been in place in Knoxville since 2001.

The City of Knoxville is the lead agency for the entire state of Tennessee for internet crimes against children.

So the cases we deal with, the mostly what we deal with is creating and um distributing child sexual sexual abuse material, but we also deal with online grooming, solicitation for sex, sextortion, sex trafficking, live streaming abuse, and even now um AI exploitation, which is coming um really coming on hand now.

Um we have in Knoxville, we have seven, a staff of seven that deals with this, but we have a statewide task force that has 61 um, there's 61 different task forces across the country, and within the state of Tennessee, there are 75 state and local um agencies that are working on this.

In 2025 alone, we received over 38,000 tips.

38,000 tips.

And just to give you an example of how much that's increased, just last year in 2024, um 2024, we finished a year with right under 19,000 tips.

So the tips have about doubled that we've received across the state.

Um so we conduct these investigations across the state.

Um we have arrested 230 people, identified 124 new victims, and rescued 36 kids from abuse locally here in Knoxville.

Um we have investigated 450 TIFS just locally within the city and prosecuted 41 individuals in 2025.

Wow, and wow, do you have a sense of what has caused the tips to double over the past year?

Social media has um just just from Instagram alone in two weeks, we got received 6,500 tips just from Instagram.

Oh wow.

And that's statewide.

And is that a tool that KPD is using more often, you would say in the last year?

The the tips.

So we we've been doing this work since 2001.

So we receive, we we receive these tips from national organizations, from social media companies, they send those tips to us, they send them to the federal task forces, and they they send them to the local agencies.

So a lot of these new tips are being done from social media.

So Instagram, for example, if they see something that's suspect, they send that in and then we investigate it.

And then um I saw a video that KPD released today about um KPD's work with um um uh um missing children and and um some of the um procedure that you all follow um in those cases, and I appreciated that uh video being out there.

And one reason that we may be seeing more um you know information about missing children coming across our social media feeds is because uh law enforcement and other agencies seem to be relying on it.

So that's really helpful to know.

In those situations, would you say that uh crime stoppers that KPD really lanes on crime stoppers to do a lot of the communications around missing children and the follow-up and letting the community know when uh a missing person is found, or um is that also a priority for KPD to also provide those notifications when someone is found?

Yeah, great question.

So what we do is all runaways, missing children, all of that goes through Crime Stoppers.

If we have a case where we believe the person potentially is in danger, or if there's some other escalating factors, then we'll put that on our social media um page as well.

But everything, everything goes on crop stoppers, and if there's some other behavior that um leads us to to feel it it needs more attention, we'll put it on our social media page as well.

We just last year alone, we had 284 reports of missing children.

We we deal with about 24 a month is our average.

We're not seeing a spike in that at all.

Um it's it's pretty consistent.

Um, but we do have a lot of we do deal with a lot of habitual runaways.

So some people have run away, you know, eight or ten more times in a year.

It's something that we deal with frequently.

But at KPD, we have one detective that that's that their full-time job.

So what you saw in that video was Detective Grantham talking about what he does, and that's his full-time job.

Is he he deals with all those missing kid cases?

And I know I'm out of time, so I will pause uh to see if there are any other questions, but I did have one final question.

Any other council members uh have a question or comment?

Okay, Ms.

Parker, did you want to have one final?

Yeah, one case that um caught my attention over the uh you know past few months was uh missing team missing from children's hospital Janine morning.

And I was wondering if there was anything that you could share with us about that case.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you know what when when we were made aware of that, you know, we had officers out canvassing, we had detective grant that was on the scene.

We had our we had our drone team um out at the location.

There's only so much details that I want to I obviously give out publicly because it is uh it is a minor.

I don't want to you know share that all the information publicly, but I will say that um she was not from the Knoxville area, nor do we have any information that she is in the Knoxville area at this time.

Um but we we have um a team initially when we're made aware of that.

Um we we did a lot of work on that case, and we continue to investigate that case and talk to the relevant authorities to hopefully um have her um you know located.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate you answering my question.

Could I add one thing as well?

We're gonna be giving a presentation at the park meeting on January 20th about our um a response to missing children as well.

Thank you.

Good to hear.

And that is uh park is meeting January 20th.

That usually is a Thursday, I think.

I don't know what day is that.

Oh, it's the same night as a council meeting?

I think it's a project.

Jared, if you could yeah, you're present.

If you could just uh remind us when your next meeting is, please.

If you could come to the podium since since you happen to be here.

If you could turn the microphone on and just this is Jared Kroom, our uh direct executive director of the police advisory review committee.

Okay, I'm all right.

Just bear with me one second, please.

Or maybe Miss Middlebrook.

Um I don't think the next meeting is January 22nd at 6 p.m., which is a Thursday at the South Knoxville Community Center.

Yes, wonderful.

Yeah, and uh just to add to uh that uh first my name's Jared Crum, executive director of the police advisory review committee.

If anyone wants to sign up for to uh to speak, they're welcome to do that online in our website on the city's website.

Uh and also we always welcome any complaints or any other issues involving uh the work that we do.

So thank you.

And did that answer your question?

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Adams.

I just I didn't catch the time.

Is it 6 p.m.?

Six o'clock p.m.

Yes.

6 p.m.

And those are quarterly.

Uh any other questions or comments on item R 12 are seeing none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

13 T is an ordinance to close a portion of Reed Street adjacent to city blocks two 1163 and 2164 running south from West Baxter Avenue and terminating at the north side of an unnamed alley and on and authorizing the mayor to execute quit claim deeds to the adjacent property owners.

Motion made to approve and seconded.

Any questions or discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

I think that takes us to 13W.

Oh W.

Okay.

13W is an ordinance to amend the zoning map to add the PD designation for probably located at 406 Willow Avenue.

Brad Salisbury applicant sixth district.

Okay.

Uh council member Parker, did you have a question?

Comment.

I did, yes.

Um and I believe uh director Brooks, if not Director Brooks, hopefully someone else uh would be able to um give us an overview of some of the plans for this planned development.

Um Director Brooks, if you could give an overview, and I the applicant is here as well.

Yes, Amy Brooks, Knox Marks County Planning.

Yes, I can give you some um high-level information, but encourage you maybe to ask the applicant for more specific details of their plan.

So this is the second phase of the plan development.

So this is associated with um the uh what's commonly referred to as the multi-use stadium and mixed use development that was approved in 2021.

Um so this is the final plan.

This is uh considered a uh second phase.

So there were some additional parcels that were identified as part of that um plan development that would also fall under the exceptions that were approved by this body, and so that's the premise of this particular application.

And so that's the premise of this particular application.

So it's a three-story 20,000 square foot eating and drinking establishment.

It was found to be in compliance with that 2021 approval.

So essentially the action before you all tonight, the planning commission has approved this, and the next step is to add the actual final PD to the zoning map.

Okay, gotcha.

If the applicant could come up, that would be wonderful.

Mr.

Salisbury, if you could just state your name and address for the record, please.

Your microphone's not on.

Thank you.

Try it now.

Brad Salisbury, uh 42 South Gate Street.

And so we've heard two three-story um eatery drinkery.

Drinkery, yes, a three-story restaurant.

And I um kind of struggling to wrap my head around where this is.

Um across the street from the stadium.

It's on the other side of Willow from the stadium, right behind the shell station.

Right behind the shell station, gotcha.

Okay.

Um I guess this will be all the development, any development that comes onto this property will uh have access to the parking there under the bridge.

Is that the thinking behind it?

Um there'll there'll be some parking on the site, but yes, the rest of the parking would be publicly available parking.

Yeah, gotcha.

And do you have a sense of what businesses or anything going in there yet?

Um, yeah, it's a it's a Jonathan's grill.

It's a restaurant and and sports bar and family dining establishment.

So okay, so three-story establishment.

Cool.

All right.

Thank you for sharing the details.

I appreciate it.

Not a problem.

That's all I have.

Okay.

Any further questions on this item?

Oh, I need a motion.

Move to approve.

Okay.

Motion made to approve and second it.

Mr.

Thomas, do you have some questions?

No, just a comment.

I mean, this looks uh to be an area that's underutilized, and I think this would be a good use for it.

So um can completely agree with this one.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any further questions or comments?

Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Uh now that concludes the regular agenda.

We'll move to public forum.

First uh person signed up for public forum is Jeff Tallman.

He just left the room.

So we'll go to the second person if he comes back in time.

We'll go back to him.

So Ms.

Scheip, you're the next person up to speak at public forum.

You'll have up to three minutes to address counsel.

Uh, if you could approach the podium, turn the microphone on and state your name and address for the record, and you'll have up to three minutes.

Nope.

Um, there's a little button.

There you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vivian Scheipe, 3615 MLK.

It is a new year.

We are now six days into 2026.

Right now it's in the 60s, but that will change.

This is January, and the days of 20 degrees will soon be upon us again.

The question before you was this.

We we once again see requests and threats from the city.

The announcement during the last cold snap that warming centers would not open without supplies donated from the community, came as a shock and was disappointing.

The budget should have already had a line item dealing with the needs of the most vulnerable.

The housing needs of the homeless are just one of the areas that the community is asking this council to address head on in this new year.

Targeted planning is needed for the homeless.

For years we've been talking about these needs, only to have them pushed aside or barely funded.

Meanwhile, our city has flourished in other areas, so much so that we are now the top destination for people who want to move here.

Those who live here in so many areas are hurting.

I ask that this new council takes the helm.

Let the needs of the people be the priority for the next few years.

People are hurting.

The 2026 health care losses will mean choices between housing, food, and medication.

In Knoxville, 161 people died on the street of Knoxville in 2025.

We can prevent that by acting intentionally.

We're asking you, plan for other housing locations besides downtown.

The homeless are in every part of this city.

Consider building tiny homes in the city as they are doing in the county.

For the elderly, create financial incentives to build those new residential care homes that are coming on board.

We ask you to be intentional, to be focused and effective when dealing with all of our vulnerable.

We invite you to come into all of the districts and see the needs of the people.

Let this next budget speak of actionable dollars and no more empty promises.

Thank you.

Mr.

Tomman.

Jeff Talman, 616 Luttrill Street, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37917.

Good to see you, Mayor and staff, all these bright eyed and bushy-tailed newly minute city council people.

It's good to see you.

Raised good issues, one of which was trying to keep money in people's pockets.

Affordability here is maybe the Time magazine word of the year.

And you can only achieve affordability by two different uh means.

You can help people make more money, and you can help people keep more of it in their pocket.

So I was proud to work on behalf of the citizens to help keep more money in their pocket.

Now the flip side of that is my day job, which I work to help people uh achieve financial prosperity through my banking career through my lending in complicated housing, complicated neighborhoods, which I've done for the last 25 years.

Grant can attest to that.

Can't you, Brother Grant?

There we go.

So uh uh there is huge opportunity in Knoxville, and I think one of the things that I I observed about the sales tax uh measure is that the if you look at the voter tally, the people who voted for it are effectively the wealthiest people in Knoxville.

So you've got this curiosity of the people of the greatest means were effectively working to make poor people in Knoxville poorer.

I got a problem with that.

When I went to a restaurant the other day on Market Square, the waitress came back having seen my charge card, and she came back and said, Thank you.

I voted for you because you helped me keep more money in my pocket.

So in that from that standpoint, it wasn't even a political issue, it was a moral issue to keep people's money in their pocket.

There's a lot of opportunity in Knoxville to unlock revenue.

I'm not against revenue.

Um Mayor, you mentioned the the Western Avenue or the Western Heights project.

It's a big deal.

Uh, Brother Grant, you and I have spoken about the importance of the the uh the sixth district uh last week fitch ratings uh downgraded higher education, higher education financing across the board.

There is no future for Knoxville College.

It's time we be honest with ourselves that we've got an enormous opportunity to generate revenue from a 50-acre uh development opportunity that's an engine for employment, for tax revenue, for city pride, for civic pride, for the hard the equity for the hardworking neighbors across the street from uh Knoxville College for uh McMaynard School is about to be redone uh and on and on and on.

Thank you, Mr.

Tomman.

That's your time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

We're we're paying attention.

Okay.

Council members, that concludes people signed up at public forum, and without objection, this meeting is adjourned.