This is the regular meeting of the Mobile City Council Tuesday, October the 14th.

Please stand for our invocation led by Reverend Tony Legier, Public Safety Chaplain, and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning.

Let's pray together.

Our Father God, in the name of your son, Jesus, we humble ourselves here at the gates of our city.

Nothing is more important to us this morning than to know that your presence is welcome here.

Would you favor us today?

As we give pause through the darkness of domestic violence in thought today, we pray for victims, even in our community and our nation.

And then, Lord, we humbly pray the prayer.

Father, forgive us.

We hear your word, tell us if we would just those of us call by your name.

We would pray, seek your face, turn from our well, our wicked ways.

You would hear from heaven.

And you would heal our land.

We welcome your hand in our city.

Would you bless our leaders today, Father, as they lead us in the ways of righteousness?

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Our pledge leaders to the flag of the United States of America.

To the republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Liberty and justice.

Roll call, President Small.

Here.

Vice President Gregory.

Here.

Councilmember Penn.

Here.

Councilmember Carroll.

Here.

Councilmember Reynolds.

Here.

Council Member Daves.

Councilmember Woods.

Here.

Statement of rules.

And good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

It's good to see you everyone this morning.

Welcome to our October 14th, 2025 meeting.

At this meeting, we do have rules.

At this time, I ask if anyone have any type of electronic device, including cell phones, please at this time put on the offer to vibrate position, the offer the vibrate position.

Any person that is desiring to address the Mobile City Council must sign an indicating the resolution, the ordinance, or public hearing agenda item before entering the meeting.

When addressing the council, the speaker must give his or her name.

The Thursday prior to the council meeting.

The subject that he or she wishes to express that the Mobile City Council must be identified, pertaining to the city of Mobile business.

Anyone who has not given a proper note to the city clerk office and wish to speak on a non-agenda item would not be allowed to address this council.

Each speaker is allowed three minutes to address this council.

A bell will indicate the end of two minutes.

One minute remain for summarizing.

The second bell indicates that your time has expired.

When addressing the council, there'd be no personal address to any individual council members.

All statements are to be made to the chair who recognize any council member who wishes to respond.

To maintain the corner, there will be known to applause or public acquire allowed.

Approval of minutes of September the 9th and 16th.

So move.

Thank you.

Probably move the second in discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Minutes approved.

Communications from Mayor Stimson.

Good morning.

Great crowd.

Certainly appreciate everybody being here today.

Yesterday was a big day in the city of Mobile.

For those that saw information on the news having to do with the deepening and widening of the channel, which is now 50 feet deep.

They all recognize that now.

And so they have a keen interest of what's going on.

We are now the deepest uh port along the Gulf Coast.

We continue to say from a promotional standpoint that Mobile will be the gateway to America on the Gulf Coast.

Huge, huge game changer from an economic development standpoint.

The visionary for that was uh Senator Richard Shelby, uh who realized when he was on a trip to Singapore that they were deepening their channel, and he thought, why should why can't we do that in Mobile?

And it was with that seed being planted and recognizing what it would mean to the entire state of Alabama.

He started the wheels in motion to secure part of the funding.

At some point it became incumbent upon the state to match some of those funds.

That's about the time when Governor Ivey proposed the rebuild Alabama gas tax.

So that gas tax increase, uh, some of that money goes for our matching fund for the federal funds to pay for the deepening of the channel.

Again, a huge game changer.

So many people were involved, but yesterday, big celebration for that.

Um also following that celebration was the third what they call the the FOL final assembly line for Airbus.

Uh Airbus will be doubling its production for the A320.

Um when you look at air um aircraft, um, commercial aircraft production.

The leading cities are Toulouse, France, Hamburg, Germany, and Seattle, Washington, Mobile B number four.

Uh in Seattle, they've been building planes for a hundred years.

Uh in Toulouse, I think about 70, and Hamburg 60, I may have those two numbers reversed.

But we've only been building planes for 10 years.

And all the dignitaries that were here from Europe and other places were saying that this has never happened before.

Uh, that you've gone to building no airplanes, and 10 years later, uh, you're in the process of going to be building 20 airplanes a month.

Huge, huge compliment to our workforce, to the men and women that are working at Airbus, they're working with their hands, working with their minds, you know, to make it work.

But it's a huge reflection upon the city of Mobile and everybody that's come together to improve our workforce and give them opportunities that they wouldn't have.

So great to hear all the compliments that were being uh given to the uh to everybody involved in all those projects.

And from people uh ask me about from time to time about some of the economic development projects that we have going on.

One perspective would be that Airbus choose a mob built build airplanes in Mobile, and what they're doing with that today changes the image of what we can do.

And by that I mean other companies are trying to decide whether to come here or not, and they say, why did Airbus go to Mobile?

So they call Airbus and Airbus says, you know, we have had a wonderful experience in Mobile.

And that's the kind of collaboration that you want.

You know, that's the kind of reputation that you want to have that's out there because at the end of the day, it's men and women that are working that are living all over this city and in this region that are putting those planes together.

So big, big day yesterday.

Appreciate everything that the city council has done, the county commission, the governor, uh the state delegation.

So the best is yet to come for the city of Mobile.

Um got back from Ireland last week.

The Chamber of Commerce uh had a sponsored ship, a sponsored trip.

Every year they sponsor trips.

Uh, typically it's across the United States.

We try to go somewhere with this a port city, where there's uh housing opportunities, it could be workforce development, and so you go to see different sites while you're there.

Uh you travel to kind of gather in a group, so you get to interact with people that you would not otherwise interact with, and through those relationships, we can start building on some of these projects, capturing ideas where somebody's had success in a place where we're trying to do something that maybe they've already done.

On a personal note and point of personal privilege, uh my wife and I decided that we were going to take a couple of days after that to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, uh, which I appreciated our organizing all that.

And so I was at an event, and um uh somebody tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around and the money by there, and then I turned the other way, and my four children and all their spouses were there standing there.

Huge surprise.

The motions that first off I was confused about where was I?

Um then you know I almost cried, and then um they I said, Well, how long y'all gonna be there?

And they said, Well, we're gonna be here all week with y'all, and that's when I did cry because I knew I'd be paying for it.

But anyway, great memory, uh, lots of lots of fun.

So um, anyway, we have an employee of the month, and I'm not sure who's gonna be given the employee of the month uh recognition.

Yep.

Carleen, yes, Carlene.

So Sean Meeks is the employee of the month for public works.

Um today we celebrate not just an achievement, but the spirit that makes our team thrive.

Sean embodies the attributes of a successful colleague and has a positive impact on everyone around him.

When facing a challenge, he responds not with frustration, but determination and usually a little humor at the end of it.

Building services is the property management division of Ream, and Sean works daily to solve the city's problems on behalf of the city.

He can be found out in the streets during Marty Raw, ensuring that each portalette is placed in the exact spot it belongs, as well as uh testing generators before hurricane season starts on city facilities.

Sean is a great ambassador for the department and for the city of Mobile.

He loves his job and it shows.

At this time, uh Vice President of Governmental Affairs for USA, Nick Lawkis, uh will introduce uh his guest.

Thank you, Mayor Stimson, President Small members of the council, just take a quick moment to introduce and thank you, Mayor, for spending some time with us this morning.

And again, congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary.

Looking back at the university is 62 years young and the largest employer in the region in what we try to do, much like leadership mobile, we have our own leadership class called Leadership South, which we take individuals from departments across the entire division, the university of 12,000 employees to help them better understand the community that we work in and engage with, such as the city council and bring them down here to meet you all today.

So, with that, my leadership south class, if you will please stand up and be introduced, they're here with you today.

So give them a round of applause for joining you.

We will see you afterwards for lunch in the commission chambers.

Uh, Councilman Carroll, I understand your chief timekeeper today, so please make sure we're done by noon if you can.

Thank you, sir.

And that and to tonight is game day, so I hope to see all of you there, all the guests.

We play Arkansas State at 6:30.

Mayor elect, we made sure the announcers, for those that don't know, mayor elect will be tossing the coin in tonight's game.

And we have made sure, and a cather, wave your hand where you at.

She has personally coached the announcing staff to make sure that it is chair of goddess.

So we've got it, you're covered tonight, all right.

With that being said, we thank you so much for the opportunity to speak and introduce our leadership south class, and we'll see y'all later.

Thank you.

And I have a uh one proclamation to read, and it's uh for the uh domestic violence awareness month.

Is anyone here to receive this?

Okay, okay, yes, come on down.

Yeah, Tani, good to see you.

So Tiny represents Penelope House.

So whereas once a secret kept in families, domestic violence is now recognized as a serious crime, one that has severe consequences for the survivors, their children, employers, and community.

And whereas the problems of domestic violence are not confined to any group or groups of people, but cut across all economic, racial, and societal barriers, and are supported by societal indifferences.

And whereas the impact of domestic violence is wide-ranging, directly affecting individuals and society, where in this community throughout the United States and the world, and whereas one in four women and one in seven men, ages 18 and older in the United States, have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

And where stopping this cycle of this vicious crime requires not only the resolve and courage of survivors, but also the support and involvement of all.

Stimson, the 108th mayor of the City of Mobile, and the members of the Mobile City Council in recognition of Penelope Alistair hereby proclaimed the month of October 2025 as National Domestic Violence Awareness in the Month, done in the City of Mobile on this 14th day of October 2025.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Mayor, and City Council.

And I have to say, you know, domestic violence was not talked about a lot.

And for it to hear it mentioned in the prayer to see all y'all in your purple.

Um we've come a long way, but unfortunately, domestic violence is still a huge issue in Mobile and around the U.S., it's it's everywhere.

And it's sad that it's everywhere.

Um, a lot of what we do is provide emergency services, um, but what we try to do is prevention.

And so my request to everyone here today is to talk to your children about healthy relationships because we have to break the cycle.

So the theme this year is awareness is key, but awareness is the first step.

Action is the second step.

So thank you all for being here.

Thank you for wearing your purple in the proclamation.

Uh thank you for all that you do.

That concludes my remarks.

All right.

Councilman Carroll.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Is uh Miss Toki Dunn here this morning?

Would you please come down to the podium, please?

Uh this as she approaches the podium this morning.

Uh the council has a proclamation and resolution on behalf of National Lead Free Month, and the council would like to read to you uh this proclamation that we have.

So uh whereas the Mobile County Health Department and the Alabama Childhood Led Poisoning Prevention Program strive to support efforts to ensure that all children who live in Mobile County and in the state of Alabama are lead-free, and whereas lead is a naturally occurring metal that can cause negative health outcomes, and this observance highlight the many ways parents and guardians can reduce children's exposure to their environment.

And whereas there is no safe blood-led level in children, which has been identified and even at low levels can cause permanent disabling conditions, developmental delays, and behavioral issues.

And whereas National LED poisoning prevention week is a call to bring together communities, health providers, organizations, industries, and local, tribal, and state governments to increase poison prevention and awareness.

And whereas the goal of recognizing this week is to increase public knowledge about the dangers of lead to promote testing and reporting, as well as encourage increased awareness to help reduce exposure and poisoning.

And now, therefore, I, William Carroll of District 2, and the members of the Mobile City Council, in support of the efforts to advance health and safety of all do hereby proclaim October 19th through the 25th, 2025 as National LED Poison Prevention Week, done this day in the City of Mobile, Alabama.

To the mayor, city council president, city council members, staff, and public.

Good morning.

My name is Toki Dunn, and I am the director of community prevention programs at the Mobile County Health Department, where the lead poison and prevention program is under the Bureau of Community and Nutrition Services, under the leadership of Pebbles King, under the executive director of prevention and wellness, Dr.

Stephanie Woods Crawford, and the leadership of Mobile County Health Officer, Dr.

Kevin Michaels.

There is no safe levels of lead for children.

Exposure and poisoning can cause a host of issues, including including developmental delays, behavioral issues, lifelong problems, and even more devastating effects.

Lead poison and prevention, National Lead Poison Prevention Week starts next week, October 19th through the 25th, and we would like everyone to become lead aware in an effort to keep Alabama's and especially Mobile County's children lead free.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Adoption of the agenda.

So move second.

The move is second in discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Agenda's adopted.

Appeals.

We have requests for a waiver the noise ordinance on October the 25th and Fry Park.

October the 18th and sharing on Shearingham Drive.

And October 31st, Creekwood Drive.

So moved.

Second.

Opposite move and second in discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Appeal passes.

Public hearing today is the public hearing to consider the proposed modification of a previously approved plan unit development for property located at 4350 Moffat Road.

This opened at the public hearing for this particular said item.

Is anyone present that would like to address the council on this particular said item?

If not, this particular public hearing is closed.

Public hearing to consider rezoning property located at 2602, 2610, 2612, 2614, and 2616 OCL Road and 1057 and 107 Item Avenue from R1 and B2 to B2.

This opened up the public hearing for this particular said item.

Is anyone present that would like to address the council on this item?

If not, this particular public hearing is closed.

Public hearing to consider an amendment to the downtown development district regulating plan to rezone property located at 250 St.

Francis Street from T 5.1 to T 5.2.

This opened the public hearing for this particular set item.

Is there one president that would like to address the council on this item?

If not, this particular public hearing is closed.

Public hearing to revoke the business license at 1608 St.

Stephen's Road.

This opened up the public hearing for this particular side item.

Is there one president would like to address the council on this item?

If so, if I come down and stating your name.

Good morning.

My name is Robert Laskin of the Public Safety Director for the City Mobile.

Um I don't know if if the council were calls about six months ago, we had a few people come down from the neighborhood around 1608.

Uh and voice several complaints, including one uh woman very with a very impassioned plea, and was tear-eyed when she do it.

I spent about about a half hour to 45 minutes with her out in the atrium after the meeting.

Um, and she described what her life was like and what what this club was doing to her neighborhood uh and the things that were that she witnessed going on.

Based upon that information, uh we had the Mobile PD look into uh the club and its operations and what it was what was going on in the neighborhood.

So at this time I'd like to turn it over to uh Charlina from a legal apartment and she will walk you through uh what we found.

Yeah, yeah, right now it's just on a one party at the um podem.

Yeah.

Okay.

Good morning.

On the city's behalf, we're here to um speak a little bit closer to the mic, please.

I'm sorry, yeah, a little bit closer to the mic.

Can you hear me?

Uh, we're here to present the recommendation for the business license of Fat Tuesdays located at 1608 St.

Stephen's Road to be revoked, which obviously the city council has the authority under 3464 of our city ordinance.

The purpose is to demonstrate that they have operated.

Get a little bit closer to the mic, sir.

Get a little bit closer to the mic.

A little bit closer.

Okay, we'll get right on that.

But just like that, you have to speak right into it.

It's it's loud on my side.

So under 3464, there's a determination.

There we go.

We got it.

There we go.

Did you turn over the Fat Tuesdays has operated in a way that endangers the public safety and disrupts the community?

Since 2022, the MPD has responded to over 270 calls for services at this address.

And these calls include shootings, assaults, weapons violations, narcotics activity, disorderly conduct, and overcrowding incidents and illegal alcohol sales.

The at least two search warrants have been issued for this location, one dating back to 2022, and most recently in August of 2025.

This resulted in the arrest of the business owner for a weapon in possession of a person forbidden to have a weapon.

The repeated incidences that have required substantial MPD resources have disrupted the nearby neighborhoods and placed patrons in the communities at risk.

So the commute the excuse me, the cumulative record shows that the business has created conditions detrimental to the public safety and welfare.

We have two officers here to testify today, uh Lieutenant Rusty Hardeman and Lieutenant Tilford Saunders of the Mobile Police Department, and they will testify to the frequency of police responses and the nature of those incidents and the ongoing community impact.

The evidence will show that these are not isolated incidents, but a continuing pattern of disorder and law enforcement involvement.

The city has provided due notice to an opportunity for this hearing, and the business owner is here today.

So based on this record, and after the testimony, we will be asking you to revoke the business license of Fat Tuesdays at 1608 St.

Stephen's Road.

First, I'd like to call Mr.

Rusty Hardeman.

Mr.

Hardeman?

Officer Alton.

My name is Mac Russell Hardeman.

Everyone calls me Rusty.

I'm a lieutenant with Mobile Police Department.

And what is your current assignment?

I'm currently assigned to the third precinct.

And how long have you been with Mobile Police Department?

I graduated the Academy 30 years ago yesterday.

What are your condition?

What are your current duties and your area of patrol?

I'm a shift commander, which means that I'm responsible for the patrol shift that's on duty.

My current responsibility is third precinct, which is pretty much everything north of Airport Boulevard and Government Street that is east of Interstate 65, which would be the northeast corner of the city.

Are you familiar with the business known as Fat Tuesdays located at 1608 St.

Stephen's Road?

I am.

And how did you become familiar with this location?

I've been familiar with it the most of my career, but recently it is uh it's drawn a lot of attention, uh requiring a lot of my officers' presence there.

How many times have you or your units responded to incidents at Fat Tuesdays?

In the six or seven years I've been in third precinct, I've probably been there 50 times.

And this year alone, how many calls would you anticipate?

This year alone, there have been close to a hundred since October of last year.

There have been close to a call, a hundred incidents at that location.

Okay, now when we say incidents, give us some idea what you're talking about.

These aren't all weapons related or by any means.

No.

Well, I went through, I had the uh operator pull the call history for that address, and then for the the intersection of St.

Stephen's and Dunbar, which is where the club is, and then St.

Stephen's and Lambert, which is the intersection across the street from the club.

And there were over a hundred or right at a hundred, and I eliminated traffic stops, traffic accidents, and stuff that was obviously in the roadway that would not be a result of the club itself.

So we're talking about disorderly calls, loud calls, uh domestic calls, uh shootings, uh assaults, illegal parking, drug violations.

I mean, the list goes on and on.

Let's start with these things.

Let's talk about some of that illegal parking.

Is that parking get out into the roadway?

Yes, it does.

Does it block where emergency responders can get through or can fail to be able to get through?

Yes, I I myself, as a lieutenant, I've written over a dozen uh parking tickets there for people parking on the sidewalk, uh blocking fire hydrants on Dunbar Street.

They would park on both sides of the street and prevent it.

Along Lambert Street, both sides of the road, they park on the grass across the street, they park in the city right away.

Uh, I've even seen them park on the bridge over Three Mile Creek just down from the club.

Have you ever personally interacted with any individuals there?

Oh, yes.

Tell us about that.

Um, are you talking about patrons or both?

Yeah.

I have had issues with several patrons.

You know, we've been parking here for years, you haven't done anything about it.

Well, I I haven't seen it before, so now I'm I'm gonna write these tickets.

Uh I've made arrest just on September the 14th.

I had my vehicle parked in the parking lot across the street about 1 30 in the morning when an individual came from the club, came over, spoke to me in my vehicle, and after speaking to me, proceeded to urinate on the side of my vehicle.

Uh and of course I placed him under arrest for that, but I mean that this was just three weeks ago or right at a month ago now, with me sitting in the vehicle.

So what kind of resources does this take to monitor this one location?

Pretty much every weekend, my entire squad is there from about two o'clock in the morning until we get off at five.

And sometimes when we come on at five, we have to go up there because it's still going at five or six o'clock in the morning on Sunday mornings.

And when you say that you're talking on Sunday mornings after it's no longer legal to have alcohol or sale alcohol.

Yes, what we've seen is usually about 1 30 or 2 o'clock when the rest of the bars and mobile shut down.

That's when his crowd picks up.

I've gone by there at 1 30, and there will be 20 cars in the parking lot and go by back by there at 2 30, and it literally looks like Broad Street on Joe Kane Day.

Now, what is the occupancy of this business location?

Uh 65.

And so tell us from this room.

How big an area is the interior of this business?

The interior is about from here to the back wall, maybe a little more squared.

Are they habitually overcrowded?

Yes.

Have you had an occasion to contact either the ABC order the fire marshal, either one for this overcrowding situation?

I've called the fire marshal myself twice.

The first time he arrived and he went inside and shut the business down for being overcrowded.

The second time when we got there, it was overcrowded, but by the time the fire marshal got there and he went inside, many of the patrons had been uh escorted out and told not to be in the in the business because they knew what was coming that time.

You personally made any efforts to approach the owner to try to deal with the situation and correct it.

He approached me uh after I contacted the ABC board to get them to go up there and check to make sure he was within his legal rights of selling when he was selling alcohol.

Uh the ABC board made a visit, a cursory visit, and basically gave him a warning that this was still going on.

The following weekend at four in the morning, I was there.

The crowd was still, you know, just overflowing.

And I said, Aren't you supposed to be closed just after two o'clock?

And his response was, I'm not selling alcohol, I'm selling food.

And if I if I wasn't open, I couldn't eat.

This was when you visited at four in the morning.

Yes, this was about four o'clock in the morning.

Okay.

On a Sunday morning.

Have you personally responded to incidents or do you have any personal knowledge of incidents involving firearms or weapons at this location?

My squad has recovered several firearms from the location.

Usually when they make arrests for other things when they're towing the cars, the or people will have firearms on them in the parking lot.

Um I have personally responded to one of the shootings up there, and the shooting on August the 31st, one of my officers was almost shot.

Uh that shooting occurred.

Officers were already there trying to handle the overcrowded situation.

Someone left the club, went across the street, got a weapon out of their car, and started shooting, and one of my officers said he heard the bullet go by his ear.

Your professional opinion officer have repeated police responses to this establishment strained the NPD resources that are available or affected public safety in this area.

Yes.

Tell us about that.

Could you repeat that question?

Yes.

My question was in his professional opinion, have the repeated police responses to this establishment strained the mobile police department resources available or affected the public safety in this area.

And yes, they have.

Either to try to clear the parking lots, get the streets open so emergency vehicles can go down the side streets.

When that occurs, there's no one else to answer calls in the third precinct.

If another call comes out, I either have to make the decision to let someone leave here, which is a volatile situation, or have someone come from another precinct to answer calls in my precinct, which deliver makes the other precincts run short at that time.

So it doesn't just create a problem around the club, it creates a problem citywide.

So you have personally witnessed these type issues.

Have you noticed the same individuals or groups frequently involved in these incidents at this location?

It's always the same people.

I've written people tickets today and the and or last week and are writing them another ticket.

So you just gave me one last week.

Well, you then you shouldn't park there again.

So it's the same people every weekend.

It's the same problem.

Are the businesses in close proximity to Fat Tuesdays?

Yes, there are other businesses.

Adversely.

The other businesses aren't open, but we get complaints from the other businesses about the trash and their parking lots and the things that happen at their businesses when they're not open.

Okay.

Oh, and what one more thing?

Uh when I spoke about the close to a hundred calls at that business just since October of last year, I went through over 80 of those calls have been between 1 a.m.

and 6 30 a.m.

in the morning.

And the other businesses there are not open during that time.

That it's just it shows the the frequency of calls there at night when this club is open.

We are always there.

How many staff members or management have you interacted with with any of your investigations or responding on these calls?

Just the owner.

Just the owner.

Yes, ma'am.

And the efforts you have made to persuade him to rectify the situation.

I I told him that he he was responsible.

All of this is going on because of your club.

And his response was, I can't control if they're having a block party over there.

I can't control what's happening across the street.

Well, the people coming from there, they're walking from across the street to your club.

If your club wasn't open right now at 4 a.m.

on a Sunday morning, these people wouldn't be here.

And like I said, his response was if I wasn't open, I couldn't eat.

Officer, based on your experience.

30 years.

Does Fat Tuesday pose a continuing threat to public safety?

It does.

Do they contribute to ongoing criminal activity in that area?

Yes, they do.

Do you believe additional police intervention or monitoring would be necessary to business remains open?

Absolutely.

Is there anything else the city council should know about your experiences at this establishment?

That there are uh other establishments of that type in the third precinct, and we do not spend nearly the same amount of time answering calls at those establishments that we do at this one.

The owner has demonstrated no willingness to do anything about this.

No, he uh he he he accused me of targeting his business, and I if if I wasn't called here, if we didn't have the problems here, I wouldn't be here.

I don't want to be there.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

Thank you.

State your name for the council.

Tilford Saunders.

Saunders, all right, Lieutenant Saunders.

How are you in place?

I'm a lieutenant uh mobile police department, and I'm the narcotics vice commander.

How long have you been in that capacity?

Since April of two uh this year.

April of this year.

Correct.

Okay.

Um often have you been dispatched to Pat Tuesday?

Uh, between my whole entire career, many times.

How does it work now that you're just with the drug activity?

How do you get called out to this location?

Normally we get um a complaint and then we respond to the complaints as they are written.

Um, this particular uh establishment had been complained about um illegal sales of narcotics and also um alcohol sales on Sundays.

Okay, so the trouble in the parking lot, the other disorderly type thing is gonna be Lieutenant Hardeman, you're gonna get called out for drug activity.

Correct.

All right.

Well, when you have been called out, what did you personally observe?

So the first thing we do is we try to see if anybody's in compliance.

We work in an undercover capacity, so I send various entities into the establishment, the parking lots and around surrounding areas just to see if they're in violation.

Um during this time, we was able to uh witness uh openly inside the club marijuana just being passed around openly, being rolled blunts and uh in the establishment or in the wide open.

We was also able to purchase narcotics from behind the bar from a bartender.

So we were also able to but purchase alcohols between the hours of two to ten on Sundays, which is um in violation.

Um I was able to reach out to the ABC board who advised me that um they have spoken early July to Lieutenant Hardeman in reference to his complaints of um the sales.

They uh advised me that they had spoken to Mr.

Johnson in reference to Sunday sales.

Well, I was didn't know that it took uh occurred because we work in an undercover capacity, but after they spoke to him three consecutive Sundays afterwards, he was still in violation of selling uh alcohol during those times.

So I got with the ABC board and we responded out there early August, and he was cited for uh violation of buying selling on Sundays, and also he was given a warning for persons uh charged uh sign.

Basically, what happens to happen is every bar has to have a person in charge.

They write their name up and that person has to match.

So he was given a warning at that time.

Have you interacted with anyone other than Mr.

Johnson, Mr.

Richard Johnson at this location?

Personally, myself, I only spoke to Mr.

Johnson.

Okay.

Um what substances have you seized from this location?

Um we've actually uh was purchased as I said, we purchased marijuana behind the bar.

We also executed a search warrant on around uh August the 14th, where we seized a firearm and was um charged to the owner.

Did the owner specifically receive a criminal charge?

He did.

And what was that charge?

Um certain person forbidden.

Were any of the patrons or employees suspects in selling drugs?

They were can you tell us a little bit?

We don't want you to tell us about ongoing cases that are still pending.

Can you tell us a little bit that doesn't interfere with your we have we have purchased uh illegal substance from an individual that is a bartender that works at 1608?

So they're aware of this activity.

They are.

Have you had any conversations with the owner regarding stopping this activity?

Yes, um, I did briefly, and he explained to me that um he asked me why didn't I arrest the female at this time?

Anything else from him?

Um no, not at the time.

Okay.

And your personal opinion and your professional opinion have um repeated responses here and made any dent in the activity here.

Uh no.

Um, as I'm um evaluating this establishment, what I see is uh the alcohol sales and it allows those entities when they have nothing else to do, they come to this establishment, and those same individuals that I see inside of the club are our are problems outside the club.

They're drug dealers that actually come to that establishment that do alcohol and do what they do, sell drugs.

We have met numerous individuals inside the club that we are you know expected drug dealers, so in our fashion, we can actually tell you who those entities are, but it'd be we got ongoing investigations.

You heard Lieutenant Harderman testified based on your experience, dispatch Tuesdays pose a continuing threat to public safety?

It does.

Does it contribute to the ongoing criminal activity in the area?

It does.

Do you believe additional police intervention or monitoring would be necessary if that business remains open?

Oh, I was seen it myself where I've seen the uh patrol officers take whole squads to that area and they're seat meeting in there for hours.

Um, and we can actually see that because we're actually surveillance that property at the same time they're still there, and we notice that that opens up a big problem not only for that establishment itself with our officers there, but also for the city in general because the calls come out around, and if they if somebody else needs help somewhere else, we're we're semen at that property.

So, yes.

Is it your professional opinion that nothing short of revoking this license will resolve the situation?

We've been explained to him since 2022 on this, and we're here in 2025.

Is there anything else the council should know about your experiences with this establishment?

There's more upcry now.

We have done everything.

We have arrested everybody, we charge, you know, it's um the alcohol sales, the continuous problems and issues, they're still there.

What should mean that you arrested everybody?

Well, we arrested individuals in reference to off this property as a police officers when they're in violation.

Our Croll officers have arrested people with drugs on the property.

We have open cases that we had um investigation, but we also had shootings there as well.

So as the city of Mobile, we have arrested individuals there at that property.

So patrons and correct employees.

Yes.

Are these arrests over and over?

Are these individuals being arrested over and over, or is it a one-time thing in your recollection?

In my recollection, there's a lot of one-time things.

So they're not the same people that you're arresting over and over.

No.

No.

Okay.

Anything else, President Sanders?

No.

Okay.

Have y'all looked into those businesses to see if they're really the problem instead of fact 50s?

I actually um I actually took Mr.

Johnson and actually looked into the property next to him and see if there was in violation of sorts.

We monitor that property after I speak to Mr.

Johnson.

I noticed that they closed down their establishment around two-ish, and whereas his clientele actually picks up around that time frame.

But I did take the ABC board to that establishment too as well.

And there was probably like three patrons inside the establishment, and they were cited because they were still in violation because they were still drinking alcohol.

So the ABC board actually cited them, uh, but it was roughly around about 215, 230, and it was about three patrons inside their property on that time.

Although you were there for drug related activity, and you would have seen more inside where the tenant particular would have seen more of what was going on outside.

Are you seeing the same thing with your research that calls the service, the search warrants, the controlled buys, the ABC board?

Are you seeing this same thing?

Are you seeing overcrowded situations?

I do see overcrowded situations, but the patrol aspect gets way more than I do.

But as we work as an undercover capacity, we can actually go in and actually see and we see open violations.

We see open state charges that are actually being violated openly, and it's caused concerns.

Yes, I do.

You ever welcome to that establishment not smelled marijuana burning?

I have not.

Thank you.

I have a question.

Um you mentioned um the bartender selling was was that person arrested then?

Has not at this time.

Okay.

Is it a reason why that arrest wasn't taken?

Yes, and I can explain to you why.

We have open other we have an open investigation somewhere else, and the disclosure of that confidential informant would be displayed, and I have the bigger situation going on than this one right now.

So I need to handle that before I can handle this.

Does the ABC board have the right to um suspend the liquor license?

Do they have the right?

That would be a question for the ABC board.

Okay.

Um, when it comes to the capacity of the building, uh, when you go inside and you notice because you have undercover people and they see that as over capacity.

Um do they have a right to not go call and say, hey, they're overcapacity, call the fire marshal for from my units and whatnot.

When we do investigations, we we tend to come and go and we allow the establishment.

We don't want to be noticed that we're there.

So any time that we come when we call or whatnot, now if there's a danger inside, yes, I can call uh the patrol officers and come and so forth.

Um, but we want to make sure that we're in and out undercoverable.

Thank you.

Mr.

President.

Uh gonna be uh Ms.

Gregory, then uh Mr.

Woods.

Oh, oh I'm sorry.

No, yeah, go ahead, attorney.

Well, we'll let him go.

Oh, yeah, attorney, yeah.

Thank you.

Uh I I think for the record, since we've clearly gone over our time limits that the uh council needs to vote to waive the time limits on this particular uh public hearing because of uh everything that's involved in it.

Just on the record, since we have gone over uh the established time limits by rules.

So move second property moving second, uh, in a discussion, and it's just the time limits on this particular party, correct?

All right, all right, all in favor, uh all opposed.

Um, Mr.

President, yes.

While you are still at the podium, both of our witnesses have said that they have been making calls and arrests and going to this particular establishment for years.

So I think with everyone here listening, the question probably is why has this taken so long to come about and come to us to revoke the business license?

And I and I know there's a process, but I think we need an explanation of why it has taken so long.

Madam Vice President.

And this is a culmination of that investigation and what we found out we're looking at it.

So it's in my point of view, I first heard about it about six months ago.

Okay.

So you all have just been dealing with this for years, and business as usual dealing with what you saw as issues at the establishment.

Until now.

For my for myself, I just got back to you know SIS or special investigations and dispatched.

So it's of course Lieutenant Hardeman as well has been dealing with this for many years.

Correct?

Yeah.

Correct.

And all the council members.

I've just got one question.

Normally establishment owners hire security.

And a lot of times in clubs like this, the security that's hired are off-duty police officers.

The question is, do we know if any of the security that was provided here were off-duty secure off-duty police officers?

Yes.

And Officer Hartman can have him come back down.

Officer Hartman has explained to me that he has found uh off duty police officers that were a little bit closer to the mic.

Can you get it a little bit closer to the mic?

The off-duty police officers aren't allowed to go into the business, they're not bouncers or anything of that nature.

So they would be more along the line of crowd control outside.

Well go ahead.

Yes, sir, Mr.

Carroll.

So there were off-duty police officers outside.

Yes, sir.

Sometimes there are, sometimes there aren't.

Uh most nights, the off-duty officers, when they show up, don't show up until after the liquor sales have supposed to have stopped.

I've spoken to the off-duty officers that are there, and I've tried to explain to them, and their response is we're responsible for this parking lot.

We're not responsible for that parking lot or that parking lot or that parking down the street.

And my response to them is if you're working here and this place is creating those problems, you're absolutely responsible for those problems.

But the agreement that they have with the owner is they are responsible for their property.

And again, like she said, the off-duty officers, when we're employed in an off-duty capacity at a bar, we are not allowed to be inside the bar unless a situation occurs that necessitates a police response, shooting, stabbing, and assault, something like that.

We handle the outside.

We're not allowed to act as bouncers, check IDs, wind people, pat people down before they go in, that kind of stuff.

We are there as a presence and as a deterrent.

Presence only deterrent.

So there's no police authority to regulate any type of visualized problems that were in the parking lot.

Yes, sir.

They they do have that authority to do that, but they're the officers are looking at it because they're directed by the owner, that it's a limited scope.

Again, as a duly sworn officer, that officer has the responsibility.

I agree with you, sir.

Anything behind that parking lot that presents a problem.

Yes, sir.

So my question is did we do anything to cure the problem?

The people who those officers work for, they have been made aware of it.

What has happened with that?

I do not know.

Okay.

Does the off-duty, when they off-duty, are they in uniform?

Yes, sir.

In a um police vehicle.

Yes, sir.

Uh as a matter of fact, on October on August 31st, the shooting that occurred at there, one of the vehicles that was struck was a police car.

My last question is if they were duly sworn and responsible for curing the situation, then why didn't we do it if they saw it?

If they saw it.

Because like I said, a lot of times they when they get there, it's already out of hand.

And the one or two officers, they're not supposed to be there one at a time.

I've seen that.

They're supposed to always be two at minimum, but there's not enough officers there to handle the situation.

So, in essence, the owner did not provide enough security for the problems that he had.

No, sir, he has not.

I one last question.

Um, and I don't know if you all can answer this one actually, but uh, if we were to vote to uh revoke the business license, what happens to the property?

Um, because what we have seen in many instances around the city, one club closes, another one opens, and we have the same issues going on because of the location.

So I don't know if the current uh establishment owner owns the actual ground itself, or if they are leasing property or or what the issue is.

But I would just be curious to know what happens in the future.

And Ms.

Gregory, I've I have seen that issue at other clubs.

Uh the ownership is the one that has to take responsibility.

Like Lieutenant Saunders said, there isn't there's another establishment that actually shares like it's like a duplex.

We don't have problems at the one next door.

So the management and the owners, they're not doing things they're not supposed to do, so the problems aren't there.

It's at the same almost the same location, they share a parking lot.

We don't have the problems there that we have here.

It's the management and the owners.

That's what creates the problem.

When you allow the element to hang out there when they're not supposed to be there, that's when you have these issues.

Another thing, the bouncers that are hired or supposed to check for the legal substance coming into the businesses.

The contraband, the legal contraband comes into the businesses.

So there's if they are stopping them at the door, then we're coming in undercover, we should see these items openly out.

And if the manager is there and he's present and he's walking around seeing these items out, they're responsible for it.

Are they not?

Yeah, but at least uh another question.

If the security is hired as mobile police department and they're at the door, then we're not at the door.

The bouncers are out the door.

Okay, so we're just in the parking lot.

That's it.

So we we control the parking lot, and I did surveillance over the parking lot.

The cars that are surrounding the police vehicles, they're in compliance.

Now, how they're instructed or what jobs they have to do or protect or whatnot, I'm not sure because I don't know their contract, I don't know what they're hired to do or what they're done or for.

But and that's what we're trying to say is regardless of their situation or how they're hired and how they're paid, we have no nothing to do with that portion.

And Mr.

Carroll, if you remember uh you were out there speaking to one of the complaints, uh the cars that are parked across the street, they're down the street, they're in front of people's houses, driveways, uh, and parked everywhere anywhere they can find a place within that area within like a two-block radius.

Yeah, I appreciate that com that comment.

I'm just trying to make sure that there's a clear understanding of all the elements that are at play here.

So if you would have purchased or had an officer sit across the street and paid an officer that make sure nobody parks over there, the officer would have done that job.

If you would have paid somebody to go up Dunbar Street and not allow people to park on Dunbar Street in front of residents, that officer would have did his job.

But those the contracts and agreements and things, he's been told that over three years.

Those possibilities of things do we're as city or workers are in patrol is having to do this because of the club.

I I just uh my one question was is that with his contract in place with the MPD officers that were on site, does that alleviate them of their sworn duty be on their contract?

So your statement was if he had to put that in his contract, they would have been up the street or on the other street or across the street.

But in my mind, because we're duly sworn, just because we have a contract for that parking lot, it doesn't alleviate us of that other responsibility, also, or does it not?

It at times it does not.

It's just like if I'm hired to work, um if I'm hired to work at the establishment next door, and my and I'm designated to that manager of that establishment.

If there's a shooting next door, yes, I'm going to go next door because it's a shooting.

But because he is a person that is over here at this establishment that is violating or something, I'm still tied to this particular person for safety.

And I have to make sure that I stay with my establishment for safety and control.

I can't just wander off.

I'd be leaving my assignment, if that makes any sense.

If I'm a it's like if I'm hired to work security at Walmart, and someone comes in and says, hey, they're parking illegally at Lowe's.

I'm gonna call and have an on-duty officer respond to Lowe's because Lowe's is not my area of responsibility.

If I'm working at Walmart and someone comes out and says, hey, there's a vehicle parked out here in a handicapped parking place, and they don't have a handicap placard.

I can go out there and issue that citation because I'm a sworn law enforcement officer, and I can write that ticket.

I can take enforcement action where I'm assigned.

I can take enforcement action if I'm outside of that area, but it's a smaller, limited area, and it depends on the severity of the crime in which I'm being told about any further questions for the officers.

All right.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Josh Brisman.

I'm a practicing lawyer here in Mobile, Alabama.

I have the great honor and privilege to represent Mr.

Johnson, Mr.

King, and the bar known as Fat Tuesdays that's an issue today.

The first thing I want the council to be aware of is that this bar has been in active business and a contributing member to this community for over 15 years.

And only recently have we run into problems that we've heard about today.

I respect the officers that testified greatly.

I know one of them from my work previously.

There are some things that they mentioned that I think you need to listen to, and that is that a lot of the things they said were a little vague in terms of time, place, and how they actually occurred.

What you heard was that many of these incidents occur off-site from the bar.

My client is a private business person.

We cannot control what people do off-site.

You heard about at various times a hundred calls, two hundred calls, three hundred calls.

I haven't seen a record of any of those today.

I haven't seen any video of this marijuana smoking allegedly going on in the bar.

I will tell you, there is no criminal charge pending against this woman that the officer mentioned.

And I think there's a very good reason for that.

I don't think the charge would be merited.

We emphatically deny drug use and drug sale at this business.

It has not occurred.

And you have seen no evidence of that other than hearsay allegations from officers.

No charges to sustain same, and I think that that is quite a message to the council, if in fact that is the case.

One time.

One time.

We do not allow that.

However, it isn't after hours establishment.

And there are mostly underage people who gather around the area off our property.

We have contacted public safety director, had a meeting with him to express our concern about this.

This is why we've hired the security we've hired.

This is why we have off-duty MPD officers there.

Our property is secure.

But we have had problems with people off-site.

We have called MPD, yes, literally hundreds of times to try to disperse them or get them to come down.

Oftentimes Fat Tuesday's calls go unanswered.

The off-duty police officers could act, but their job is to secure the club, and they're on private duty at that time.

We would love them to do more, but it's an awkward situation for them.

That's why MPD has been called when off-site incidents have occurred.

I think you heard the police officer say he's out there at 1 30 in the morning before anything happens, apparently.

And that that's when an incident happened across the street.

Where are they really coming from and where the incidents actually occurring?

My client's bar holds a maximum of 65 people.

That does not explain the parking situation, except for the fact that these people are not actually in the bar, but are in an adjacent location where a food truck operates late at night.

I have here two petitions.

One from immediate neighbors of the bar.

These people all live directly behind the bar.

They're asking you to keep the bar in place.

These are friends and customers of the bar.

They're asking you to keep the bar in place.

These people are there.

They live there, and they're asking you not to revoke the license.

All we're asking is for a fair hearing and for you to consider all the evidence that you've really heard.

How much evidence has really been presented to show, other than what people have said, that there's actually a criminal action.

Council, can I get a vote to uh stand this attorney uh time?

So move second.

Probably move and second in discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed.

Thank you for your time.

No, just no, no, just go ahead.

Josh, go ahead.

Oh, I appreciate it.

So I prefer.

Thank you.

You voted for me.

I apologize.

I was confused.

But my point I think has been well made at this point, and I do appreciate the additional time.

My client wants to operate legitimately and lawfully, like they have for 15 years, a contributing revenue source to the city of Mobile.

If we could get the city's help in alleviating the crowd problem, which is off-site, there would not be any problems.

And we've tried to work with police about that, and there just seems to be a very big communication issue in that regard.

So we ask you to not suspend the license.

Thank you.

Is anyone as president would like to address the council on this particular said item?

If so, you might come down to the podium by stating your name.

Good morning.

My name is Belinda Perriman, and I live directly behind the club.

So I had no idea that the policemen and undercover police, I had no idea about none of that.

And if his club stay open, it's going to continue to be a myth.

That's all I have to say.

I guess who knows.

As most of you know, as a representative for that district, uh, I get quite a few text messages, phone calls, and notices about the things that happen in our district, especially when it's bothering people.

Uh I just took a minute to open up uh my cell phone and take a look back over the last three years of just texts that I've saved from very complaint.

Uh I've reached out to the owner of the establishment myself and had various conversations about what he could do in order to be a great community partner over the over time.

Have made suggestions myself.

Uh, but I just want the citizens of this district to know uh that there are several text messages, videos, and other things that have been sent to me at uh this one's at 217 a.m.

There's another one at uh 313 a.m.

Uh non-24 in the morning Sunday.

And there are countless others that uh that have come in over the last year, year and a half, where uh I had the the responsibility affording those over to the administration for the administration to take action on and to reach out and try to have the administration and the mayor's office resolve whatever issues that they were with between the community and the club.

Now I have to say this is that uh Rich, as we call him, has been a good community partner in so many ways.

He's got a lot of uh uh uh give back in a lot of places that are kind of unusual to everybody else.

So many people in the community, Norm is a two-dollar man.

I don't know if you know him by that word.

He comes in and he graciously puts two dollars all over the place and gives money to people and supports people everywhere else.

Uh and he does a lot of other things, and he owns not just this establishment, but other establishment and wings, another wing place in the in the in the city, and he tries to be a community partner.

But we have to remember that in being a community partner, that just doesn't mean that you're a community partner in one spot, but in all spots, and that you have to be wholeheartedly invested in the community and also with the citizens and neighbors that about you.

Uh so uh I don't know where the council's gonna go on this right now.

Uh you know, I'm uh I'm curious uh legally if there's other measures that can be taken, partial measures that can be done to ask for cure over time, or if we just need to just totally uh clean this up.

Uh I remember back in time when this club was called 1608, we had to deal with this once before.

Uh and at that time the club was closed down.

It was under a different management, a different manager and a different owner at that time who bought the old place and renovated and turned it into 1608.

Uh, but now it seems that we've almost made the same full circle and have to go about the same things that we did all those years ago.

So I'm curious as if if there's uh uh multiple things that we could possibly do to be maybe beneficial to both parties, or if this is one of those incidents where we just have to change it all.

Come back to the mic.

Well, for me, I still work, and I don't want it in my neighborhood.

Where he got the petitions from is the people's across the street from me.

They are young, and that's what they like.

I've been there all my life, and yes, it has been closed down once before.

And I live in a it used to be a respectable neighborhood.

And I intend for it to stay that way.

Would you want it in your neighborhood?

Would you want it in yours?

Would you want it in yours?

No.

I don't like all of that kind of stuff.

I have nothing against club going.

I do not, but it's the delivery that makes it bad.

And I get it.

Maybe he is a nice guy.

I don't know him.

Yes, ma'am.

I don't all I know is that the club is really bad.

That's all I know.

No.

All right.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Mr.

President.

Uh Mr.

Runnels, I'd ask that we uh ask each party to place those written sort of documents.

I think the gentleman had some petitions.

I think the PD and uh city attorneys have some items and ask that both parties introduce those to the clerks that can be considered for the record.

Is NYS President would like to address the council on this particular item?

Good morning, Sabrina Mass.

I too will um like to say something.

I know Rick as well.

Um, if I'm not mistaken, um, I believe if I may ask him a question, Rick, don't you own the club on uh Hosmills Road?

Okay, because I live um near Hosmills Road, and um I'm not sure the name of it.

I think it was called the New Spot.

Is it still the new spot?

Okay, so there's something going on over there at this fat Tuesday, what have you?

I'm not sure, but he he's on that spot on Hosmills Road for two, what, three or four years?

And and and it's very and it's thank and it's it gets crowded over there on the weekends, and it's it's not ever a problem in that area in that, you know, right there on Pleasant Valley and Horseman's Road.

So I'm not sure about what's going on at that establishment.

But my next thing, so Rick does do a lot for the community.

I will say that.

And he's always been very cordial, even when I went to get wings at his spot.

So I want to say this.

Do they have any uh um no trespassing signs posted?

Anything that's alerting the crowd that you can't be on our um location, our spot, our uh uh you know, our property.

Are there any signs by the business owners stating uh no trespassing?

Um, because it seems like if they if it's not happening at his club directly, um the shootings, the assaults or what what have you, because it seemed like that's the whole that's the concern that I have as a citizen shooting and assaults, but if it's not happening directly at his location and it's happening across the street or if the other businesses, then the business owners seem like they need to post something as well, saying no trespassing.

And if there is trespassing, once they post these signs in the windows, the the the something's showing visible, and then the police can then have a right to arrest people at that point.

But that's like saying if something happens across the street at my neighbors and I have a party, but they're acting a fool over there at my neighbor's gathering, it's my fault.

So I I'm not I'm not really quite sure as a citizen about shutting a business down when if they're not directly um at fault of what's happening around them or across from them.

That that that's not no, that's not that's not what it is again.

Uh Mr.

President, uh Vice President.

I do recall, I think Lieutenant Hardeman possibly saying that uh business owners were complaining about patrons parking in their parking lot.

I don't know whether they have no parking signs or or not.

Ma'am, the there's a business, like I said, that's next door, it's like a duplex, the two businesses across the street.

Yeah, there's uh Tony's gas station or Tony's quick stop is across the street.

That business has complained about the trash in the parking lot.

It it's it's a gas station.

Uh it's a convenience store.

It it's they they go, they park over there.

You once they start parking in there, you can't get another car in there.

Uh sometimes the the driveways blocked, people in there can't get out.

Uh I want to say there are no laundering signs in there.

It's not that they hang out in that parking lot, but that's where they park, go to the club.

And they park as far down as the bridge right by women's and children's hospital.

They park all the way down Lambert Street, they park all through the neighborhood on Dunbar Street.

They park all the way up, not quite to Catherine Street going up uh St.

Stephen's Road.

So it's like a spider web.

This is the middle of the spider web, but things get caught in the edges too.

But if the spider wasn't there, the web wouldn't be there.

Okay.

So they're parking on the rights of ways, all down the streets, and then in a private business parking lot, whether or not there's a no parking sign or not, it is a private business, correct?

Correct.

Yes, ma'am.

Gregory to your no parking signs.

I requested no parking signs around Miss Perryman's house.

Uh the city put the signs up, but somehow they disappeared.

Uh they're no longer there.

Uh I drove over last week, uh, over the last couple weeks just to take around and see what was happening back there, but the signs no longer there.

And if I could address real quick, please.

Uh the attorney that came up here said a bunch of underage kids.

Uh in my experience up there, I have not seen anyone underage out there.

These are all people who are legal to be there.

Uh if it was an underage issue, we would be dealing with that as well.

As far as the drug arrest at the location, my officers have made drug arrest in the parking lot of that location.

When I'm there, you almost get a contact high just being there from the smell of the burning marijuana.

Uh you you don't see it because they're they're obviously smart enough, but with it, it's just the what the obama is overwhelming.

Uh also, like I said, the people park in the businesses across the street, they park down the street, they're always walking back and forth.

That is where they're going.

Usually on a Sunday morning, late Saturday night, there is a line of people waiting to get inside.

And you'll see them go, one will come in, one will go out, want to come in, want to go out.

When I called the fire department marshal up there, there were probably 150 people inside the business that night.

So like I said, it's like a spider web, and without the spider in the middle of the web, the web wouldn't be there.

All right, thank you.

Is anyone as person that would like to address the council on this particular said item?

It's all about coming down and stating your name.

Good morning, Council President Small, other council.

My name is Chandra Ledue.

I am a retiree from the Wilbur County Metro Jail after 21 plus years.

What I'd like to say is I can't sit here and listen at all the stuff that has been said because I once bartendered there.

I understand there are some problems, but I pray that we can alleviate them because we don't need our business closed.

When I say our because he's a community person, he does for the community.

When the young lady behind said that, you know, they want it closed.

I'm 67 years old.

I've been going there all my life.

Never had a problem.

Yeah, things may happen after hours, but if it's something that can be rectified, or he has a certain time to close up, I can understand that.

But from 2022, I've worked there and still go there.

And I know for a fact that everything that happened with him has happened in the parking lot where there's really no control.

I've gone through there.

Am I there that late?

No.

But as a retiree, I can attend any type situation that I like or whatever, but I am anti-drug, always have been, because I don't like the way it kills and it steals and destroys people's lives.

I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother.

And if I'm comfortable going there in the afternoons when we have little gatherings or whatever, I don't partake in drug activity.

None of it.

I consider myself to be an upstanding citizen.

I serve as superintendent of my Sunday school at my church where I attend Emmanuel AME, and I am very proud of that.

But to just say that these incidents are all happening in the club, that's not true.

Because most of them that happened are down the street.

The last incident that happened back in August, my understanding, the patron, the whoever it was was down the street.

There's Brandies right next door to the club.

The shooting was at almost at the health department, and they shot back.

That's when the vehicle was shot.

But do I condone violence?

No.

But the fact of it is I would just like to see him given a chance to rectify some of the problems that we're having.

Because as I say, I look forward to our Easter egg giveaway for the children.

I look forward to serving the kids in the neighborhood or the people that cannot afford a meal for themselves.

And I just wanted to get up and just speak on that behalf.

Because although I've worked in at the jail for 21, 22 years, I don't forget where I came from.

And this young man here has helped me watch my children grow up as well as all his nieces and nephews.

So that is all I would like to ask is that can we please rectify this?

And don't close another one of our businesses in our area.

Thank you.

All right.

If not, um, this public hearing is closed.

Public hearing to declare the structures at 610 Pettit Avenue, 507 Booker Street, 962 Government Street, and 1551 Kellark Street.

Public nuisance isn't ordering them demolished or secured.

This opened up the public hearing for these particular said items.

Is anyone present that would like to address the council on these items?

And again, it is only the housing for a public nuisance and order it on Petty, Booker Street, Government Street, and Kellogg Street.

It's all come down to the poll and deal as your name and the address that you're coming down for.

Keisha Burks, 1312 Dauphin Street.

I'd like to address the council on 962 Government Street.

Okay.

I was told that this was to be demolished, and so I was coming initially to discuss to just give some information about the property.

But I see now that it's on the agenda just to secure the property.

So I just wanted you to be aware, I guess, that I have a letter from an inspector, an outside inspector that we had come in and do an inspection of the property and engineer.

And the engineer has declared the property that it is secure, that it is stable, and gave us instructions on what would need to be done to repair the property to keep it in a stable condition.

And so we're in the process of getting a permit for that right now.

I have to have a survey done to get a certificate of elevation to get that permit.

I have a permit through the historic department, but the building department says they need this other survey done.

So I'm working on that.

And the um the property is actually up for sale right now.

So if we're when we're able to secure that permit, it will be able to be transferred to the new owner.

We do have the property secured as far as the entire property itself.

It has a construction fence that is around and a chain link fence with locks as well.

Mr.

Carabin, do you have anything to say?

Do you represent Jesse Burks and QPSI?

Um, I am actually the owner of the property.

So you've you bought it from uh it's my understanding that Jesse Burks owns the property.

I'm Keisha Burks, I actually own the property.

So you represent Jesse Burks and QPSI then?

Yes.

You No, I represent myself.

I actually own the property.

Keisha Burks is who owns the property.

I own the property myself, yes.

Well, so you're telling us that you're gonna stabilize the property and that you're gonna secure it, and the city has does not have the uh responsibility of doing that now, and you guys are gonna go through the process and handle everything.

Yeah, we have the permits in place, and we're we're working on, like I said, I am working on the permit right now, getting that permit.

I have um an email that says your permit will be approved as soon as you have your certificate of elevation.

I just don't see David in here to confirm all that, but that's fine.

Um there's another concern.

You said that your your construction fence is secure.

Uh I pass that property four times a day, sometimes twice at night.

Yes, uh, there's constantly someone behind that fence.

You've seen people I've never I've seen people behind the fence.

I've never seen anyone behind that that fence, so we do check it daily.

Especially when your dumpster was was at the butt end of the fence, they could lift that fence up at the latch and then put it back down and sleep next to that dumpster and then come right out in the morning.

You guys might want to check that as you go by.

Uh those temporary construction fences are not locked at the edges and they're easily put up and get inside and get back out.

Uh, we all know that as contractors I'd ask that you guys check that if you're gonna leave it that way.

Uh if you're gonna take care of it and make sure that it's secure and make sure it's finished and gonna make sure it's restored, that's fine.

I was happy to see if for sale sign go up on the property, it's been derelict now for almost a year or longer.

Uh it's uh uh a nice piece, a nice place to have on government street.

It's unfortunate that it's been sitting in this condition for so long.

So as long as we're gonna restore it, not tear it down.

I'm fine with that.

Absolutely.

Uh, like I said, we you know, we do we do check that property, we do maintain the yard and that kind of thing, and we haven't had any reports of anyone being within the building or on that property, and so that's that's new to me that I know of anyone being on the property at all.

Yeah, I've just seen them sleep beside that dumpster.

Uh like I said, I go by there quite a bit.

Right, right.

As as yes, we live right nearby, and so we do we do.

Yeah, yeah.

No, right where you are, no right where you were in Senator Oakley.

Uh Jesse used to work for, so I know him personally.

Right, right.

So and I know what he's capable of too.

So I'd like to see you guys get this done.

Yes, absolutely.

Uh no, we'll lay it over 60 days to give them enough time to get it together.

And uh, if at the end of 60 days that it's not done, then I won't be here, but by record today, at the end of 60 days, if it's not done, then I ask the city to immediately take action, secure it and then force lien on the property.

Um, I just have one question, I guess, about that as far as securing because you're saying like the construction fence is not enough to be secure.

We have been for me.

I think that needs to be uh a legal answer, but secure for me means to secure the property itself to prevent harm and danger.

Construction offenses.

Uh a lot of times people, like I told you, it's easy to get in and out.

It's just to prevent people from coming in and out doing the process of construction.

When I say secure and stabilized, I'm talking about the structure itself.

All right.

And Mr.

David Docker Barr is right behind you, and he can finish and um answering the question that you need that you have to ask and everything.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone as president would like to address the council on these items?

My name is Catherine Flowers.

I live at 922 Contai Street, right behind the property.

And one problem I have is there seems to be a disconnect between some people that own property and are allowed to sit for nine years next to me, the conti street houses, never got fined, never anything done, and they have been fined, and they have answered the camps, the city's you know, problems with them and done what they did, and now they're trying to sell it.

And we don't need another place on government street to put in probably because I'm sure I hadn't looked at the zoning, I'm sure it's um commercial.

We don't need a gas station, we don't need a um bank with a drive-thru.

We need government to have living more and more people are moving downtown.

The Antoinette was fixed up.

We've been in our house for 18 years.

When I moved in, it was derelict.

Somebody can fix this up.

The structure is sound, it's made of wood that is you don't build houses like that.

I just I'd hate to see most of the commercial on government was probably put in in the 70s.

It's time for the city council to look at the zoning too, to get this property and and others like the CVS rezoned because we want living downtown.

It's a gateway to the downtown.

So I ask you that you give them time to sell it.

Um I sat for nine years with Derelic property, and then they were allowed after they finally lost with the ARB and told not to move the houses.

Y'all allowed them another year and a half before they even started work on it.

So I think you ought to allow more than 60 days.

Well, Miss Fire.

Also, one other thing.

I live there and I'm Gladys Kravitz of the neighborhood, and I've never seen anybody inside it once they owned it.

I I mean it's it really quit when they put that fits around.

People were not in it before that, it was a mess.

Oh, Miss Flowers, this must be some misunderstanding uh on your part as to how the system works and your understanding and how government works.

The government, or in this case, the city is allowing 60 days for them to secure it and stabilize the project.

That means that they have to do that.

If they don't do that, then we will do that, and then we will force lean against it if they don't, but they still will be allowed to sell the property.

But they need to do something to make sure that the facility is secured and stabilized.

I understand that, but I sat next to Derelict probably for nine years.

Is anyone as present that would like to address the council on these particular state items?

If not, these public hearings are close.

Presentation of petitions and other communications to the council, mobile youth council.

Good afternoon.

I'm Vandalin Pierre.

I'm representing the Drug Education Council on behalf of the Mobile City County Youth Council.

We're here today to say thank you to each of you for supporting us 100%.

Our youth are very busy in the communities now.

They're working with our Red Ribbon coming up next month, and they also are planning a youth summit to be held on January the 22nd.

And this is going to be on youth activities that go on in our communities.

So I wanted them to come and that you could see them today and to say thank you, but they will I will let them introduce themselves and I will leave this flyer with Miss Carroll so that you all can come.

We would love for you all to be a part of our youth summit.

So if you all would come and introduce yourself, I would appreciate it.

Hi, my name is Morgan Carroll.

I'm a senior at McGill Toulin, and I'm representing Councilman William Carroll.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sam Hecker.

I'm a senior at McGill Toulin, and I represent Joel Davis.

Good afternoon.

I'm Braden Seidler, a junior from Davidson High School.

And I'm representing Commissioner Connie Hudson.

Good afternoon.

I'm Will Graham.

I'm a sophomore at McGill, and I'm representing Councilman Ben Reynolds.

Good afternoon.

My name is Conor Benefield.

I'm a junior at Baker High School and I represent Commissioner Randall Dutton.

Good morning.

My name is Maggie Brains.

I'm a sophomore at UMS Ray, and I represent Councilman Josh Woods.

Good evening.

I'm Casey Killam.

I'm a junior at Mary G.

Montgomery, and I represent Connie Hudson.

Also, we have many more, but a lot of them today are in school taking the practice for the ACT.

But again, I want to just say thank you and want you to support our youth council.

Thank you so much.

Good morning again, y'all.

But hey, I guess y'all got one heck of an education this morning on drug education, right?

And how the city actually works.

Glad to see y'all down here today.

Uh very great, very big experience today in how things work and how the public hearing works, and especially with what you guys are doing with uh drug education in our city.

So look forward to a lot of you being youthful providers to our city for a long time to come.

Uh uh, that's again that's my daughter Morgan.

Y'all, I have to say that.

Uh happy 18th birthday to you too.

Uh by the way, I expect you two singers to go back to school.

It's only 1230.

All right.

She's trying to get out of school, by the way.

I wanted to say that.

Will you all miss uh Miss Walsh, Miss Carroll?

Go back to school.

All right.

Thank y'all so much for coming down.

Ms.

President, uh, Mr.

Penn.

Congratulations to everyone on the youth council.

Um, I had a senior that just graduated um and they're in college, so I do have an opening slide.

So anybody in here that knows a ninth or tenth grader that uh would like to represent District One, they can send me an email at Council1 at the City of Mobile dot org.

And I'm gonna piggyback on that.

We have sent information out on my newsletter and in my Facebook post asking for anybody who was interested.

And Sam, I can't believe you're Joel Daves representative.

You live in my district, but it's like you've got to Yeah, well, since Joel won't be here very long, um I just want to transfer.

We're gonna redistrict you to your correct district, but at any rate, uh, I do have an opening if anybody is interested.

Thank you.

Danny Corti.

Good morning, Mr.

President, City Council, Mayor Stimson and his staff, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm Danny Corti.

I'm the executive director of the Mobile Sports Authority, and it's another beautiful day in the city of Mobile.

And as your sports tourism arm for the city and county mobile, we at the MSA are proud to represent you as we continue to work to bring visiting sporting events to the Mobile area.

We could not have achieved our recent successes without both your investment and your blessing.

And for that, we want to thank you for the confidence you've shown in us.

As for our annual scoreboard results for the recently completed fiscal 25, which of course ended September 30th, the MSA attracted support and/or hosted 41 sports events, which generated an estimated 37.6 million dollars to the mobile area economy.

37.6 million dollars.

So basically, in essence, for every dollar of public funds invested in what we do, 46 dollars in local spending was generated.

Those 41 events spanned 21 different sports involving all age brackets, which included everything from cross-country and gymnastic meets to volleyball, basketball, football, baseball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, and yes, our annual turkey calling championships and pole vaulting competition down Dolphin Street, plus many more.

Of those 41 total events, 15 were either first or second-time events for mobile, with 28 of the 41 being youth oriented defined as participants under 20 years old.

And as I mentioned before, these youth youth events are sort of the gold standard of the sports event industry, is they typically bring more visitors to town when when those when those events happen.

Also, as a brief recap from last week's eighth annual Gulf Coast Challenge powered by the Mobile Sports Authority, which featured the Alabama AM Bulldogs hosting the Jackson State Tigers at Lad People Stadium.

We drew about 14,000 at Lab.

Fans enjoyed a full week of fun Mardi Grad style game day parade, tailgating, and the game itself won by Jackson State.

In the previous seven Gulf Coast Challenge games, we estimate that 60,000 visitors have come through Mobile, which generated an estimated economic impact of about 39 million dollars to our local economy by this single event.

And as for 26, we have at least 29 more sports events planned.

And of course, we're very excited to be hosting for the first time next year the AHSAA Super Seven Football Championships in the first week of December 26 and 28.

And again, your investment in us has made it possible as we market our unique area to those visiting regional and national event owners as well as helping to create, grow, and support our own homegrown events.

So we'd like to thank you again for all your support.

Please feel free to visit our website, Mobilsports Authority.com or contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.

Again, thank you for your time and thank you for your support.

And of course, there's a comments from this council.

Thank you, Danny, and to the board.

I know you all work hard.

I I've had this idea on my mind.

Just maybe we should talk about it offline.

But the city has a golf course, that is A City Golf Course, and the county is going to have a golf course at Cypress Creek.

I think there's a competitive opportunity that maybe we could work out between maybe county golfers versus city golfers and come up with something.

So I'd love to talk to you about that.

With prize money and everything, right?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Not necessarily I'm maybe the youth of each, you know, work something.

No, we'd love to do competition is always great.

That's right.

Also, I'd like to say uh one of my board members, Donnie Brown, is here, so I wanted to say thank you for Donnie coming down.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for all you that you're doing, Mr.

Courtney.

Madam Clerk.

Maxine Walters.

Hello, good afternoon.

My name is Maxine Walters and I am an attorney here at Mobile, and I'm also founder of Reaching the Bar, which is a legal pipeline program and nonprofit here in Mobile.

And so one thing I wanted to tell you about is our program and then read to you some things that some of my students wrote.

So we this is the fifth year of the program, and we meet weekly in the fall.

So I go to Blunt and Williamson High Schools, and we have different legal topics.

We have guest speakers, and then about a month or so into it, we start working on our mock trial, which we have annually at the government plaza here in the ceremonial courtroom.

So this year it's gonna be December 5th, and it'll be pretty much up until like one o'clock.

So one of the lessons that we had this year was talking about the Zogvi Act, the mayor and the city council, and they got to watch part of a city council meeting and see how people come up to the podium and they get to um address you as members of the community.

And so I had them write letters to you all that I will um hand over at the end, but I wanted to read a few of them during the time that I have.

So Miss Jasmine Jones from Blunt High School.

Um, one of her biggest concerns is the lack of affordable housing and shelters.

And um, she um, and I I did tell them that um you all can't fix all of these problems, but it's important for you all to be aware of their concerns.

So she would um love to see some homes be renovated to be turned into affordable housing or shelters.

Um Jade Petway Petaway from Williamson High School.

Um, she is a new driver, and she feels like the roads around where she lives are messed up, um, and that it's it would help her be a safer driver if she felt that the roads were safe.

Natalie Gibson from Maddie T.

Blunt High School talked about the lack of sidewalks and how she often sees people walking home from school on the side of the road.

Um, and she would like to see more sidewalks that connect neighborhoods to schools specifically, so that's safer for children to get home.

Khalecia Curtis from Blunt High School talked about how a lot of people are scared to take their kids to the parks anymore because of public safety issues.

Um, and several students noted in their letters that they would like to see more police presence.

Umari Petway from Blunt High School would like to see gun safety programs be introduced to our youth.

If youth are going to have guns, at least they can be informed on how to have them safely.

Um, Emmanuel Mack from Blunt High School would like to see um campus beautification projects at the local schools.

Um, Nylah Kiles from Blunt High School would like to see more training for use and jobs, um, especially um the age range of 13 to 15 because they feel like once they're able to get a job legally, they don't have the experience and they're competing with other people who have a lot more on their resume.

And the last one is Cassius Priest, um, who said he would like to be able to walk to the store and not have to hug the curb.

Um, he would like a bike lane so he can feel safe riding down the road.

And his last request that he is he would like to ask the community, he'd like to ask you to grant his community the luxury of a sidewalk.

So I just wanted to share those letters, and I will have the rest for you here, and thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Ms.

President, uh Mr.

Pan.

Thank you, Maxine for coming down and sharing that.

Um, I had an opportunity actually this past um Saturday to speak at Blunt High School for their Ali conference, and they shared similar concerns.

Um, so being engaged with young people is very important and hearing their concerns.

Um, I actually have convo with Corey on Tuesday.

Um, so if you have any young people that would like to come down, meet um they're welcome to do that.

I will thank you so much.

Rodney Tilmer get my auction voice ready.

Come on at the name of the good news.

Good afternoon.

My name is Rodney Toomer, 1202 Navico Road.

Everybody knows me as DJ Roski.

I'd say good morning to the president, vice president, city councilman, outgoing mayor, incoming mayor.

Uh, my name is Rodney Toomer.

Uh, and for more than 25 years, I've dedicated my life to working with your youth of this city.

I've mentored at-risk teens in our schools and recreation centers.

I've organized community concerts and turned violence into unity.

I partnered with churches, nonprofits, small businesses to build programs that teach life skills, entrepreneurship, and creative arts.

I've walked the same streets as the kids we talk about, not to judge them, but to guide them.

I didn't read about Mobile's youth from the report.

I lived it with them.

But today we have to speak truth.

It's no secret that the state of Alabama is building mega prisons scheduled to open up this May, a project costing over one billion dollars.

In 2023, the governor also signed a permitless cart carry law, even after law enforcement and community leaders warned against it.

Those two decisions are connected.

When you make it easier to flood our streets with guns and then build a billion-dollar prison, you're planning for incarceration, not prevention.

And we all know who will fill those sales.

Young black men from cities like Mobile.

That's not speculation.

That's history repeating itself.

The University of South Alabama 2021 study proved that our neighborhoods already knew racial disparity and mobile are deep and measurable in education, employment, housing, and in criminal justice system.

Black teens here are more likely to be suspended, arrested, and locked out of opportunities than any other group.

Those are facts.

So the question before us is simple.

Will we keep funding the problem or will we finally invest in the solution?

The solution that me, and I'm not saying by myself because I work with children 12 days, 12 hours out of each day from first grade to 12th grade.

And then I'm a uh detention officer at Strickland Youth Center.

I went there and wanted to be there intentionally, so I could understand the psyche of our children, understand what's going on in our communities, these underserved communities.

My solution is a plan is a two-year commitment to empower, educate, and employ our youth, especially those system have failed.

It's not charity, it's justice.

So the core objectives is invest our youth development, expand after school mentorship, creative art programs in every district, create economic pathways, provide paid internships, trade certification, certification, excuse me, and entrepreneurship training to support mental health, place counselors and trauma informed staff.

I got one more minute.

Wow.

To place counselors and trauma informed staff and schools and violence.

Since I got to go through I'm gonna run through real fast because I don't have much time.

A 25% increase in youth employment and training participation, full access to after school programs in every district.

Higher school attendance and graduation rates, transparency will be public and constant because trust is earned through proof.

In closing, council members, we can't build billion dollar prisons and then claim we can't afford a seven million dollar investment in our youth.

We can't keep saying our children are the future of our budgeting as if they are expendable.

The streets of mobile show us the cost.

Yeah, it's council uh Mr.

Tumer, your time is up.

Um but um I have a question for you.

You're about to share something.

Um can you um tell me what that was you about to share?

Can you finish that?

There you go.

Response.

That statement that you was the University of South Alabama.

Yeah, can you give me those?

Yeah, what about is already studied, it was a uh a study approved by the University of South Alabama that proved that our neighborhoods already knew racial disparity and mobile are deep and measurable.

But other than that, I just want to say that I work with children every day.

I drive through mobile because I work in all the communities.

There are opportunity deserts.

Our children, when they come home from school, don't have nowhere to go.

And when they go somewhere, when they go somewhere, it's underfunded, all they have is basketballs in the gym.

And even if that Taylor Park, thank God this man is been working for three years, they'll got to tear Taylor Park down, and they're about to build something beautiful there.

But we have no contingency plan there for where these children are gonna go until this place is gets built.

Our children have nowhere to go in my community, under served communities.

They have nowhere to go when they get out of school, where do they go?

Go out and play, go out and play where our children don't have time to titulate their minds to get excited about anything.

You know, I've been coming here for the last five years, and I appreciate you all because you always are there for me.

You always are there for us.

So you know the plight.

You know what my loyalty is first to these children and these young people first.

They have nothing.

I'm asking that for this city council and this new man that's coming in to commit, to commit, and I talk commit, and I don't have meetings because we have meetings, you have other meetings, they have other meetings, and it gets drawn out to the fire that we have when we first initiated this meeting is gone out.

We have tangibles here.

I gave you tangibles.

I didn't sit up there and play with nothing.

I sat there for three weeks going over this.

This is research, this is study, this is in life experiences.

I don't have no certificate, I don't have no master's degree in anything.

I got a master's degree in real life with these children that I'm with every day.

When the young men that are stricken, you still say when they get out and they see me, can you get me a job?

I don't have nothing else to tell them.

When them first and second and third graders over at Taylor Park, but I'm going to leave here and go over there and be with them.

They don't have nothing.

We have to invest in these people.

These are children.

These are our children.

How dare we do this?

When we sit up, I see us when we sent them and we pledge allegiance for liberty and justice for all.

Not a few.

Yeah, thank you so much, Mr.

Tome.

And you know, I do agree with you at Taylor Park and also parking recreation.

Also do agree with you, uh, semi by Taylor Park.

But the thing about it is the city owns the building at Taylor Park, but the inner city mission runs Taylor Park.

So the city of hand is very tired at Taylor Park.

Now, what the city would like to do at Taylor Park is um implement some programs not only for the children but also for the seniors.

But at the same time, they don't want to step on no toes over there, as you know that you know that's the city standpoint is tied up right now.

Also, if you look into the agenda, um, and it's over 2.5 million dollars that's gonna go for a new community center, uh, especially off a parkway.

That area have been a desert for recreation for those kids down there for for years.

Um, we've got BC Rain Pillins and Gear Yard down there.

The kids don't have nowhere to go.

Um, if you look at the city budget, uh you can put it online.

Uh the city has millions of dollars that they're putting towards you know, youth programs between boys and girls clubs and et cetera.

Now the question is, you know, is the city throwing good money at the bad things.

We are putting a million dollars.

We don't have anything to do with the prisons.

That's the state.

The state are building the billions of dollars.

I wish they would take the billions of dollars and invest into the programs, but they're not.

I understand.

And that's one thing that I do encourage you and others to do is really contact the state legislators and the senators and even the governor, and it's telling them, hey, y'all need to put more money towards you know, you program because the city of Mobile is doing it.

Now I say something real quick.

Yes, sir.

You know, I understand that.

I understand how government works, but it's gonna become a point that we all have to realize we are in a state of emergency in Mobile.

There's a war on these young people, and if they they can put them all bunched together and they call them savages.

But nobody knows the backstory.

Why is that child acting like that?

Where did this child, what did the background, where did the backstory come from when this child was in the abuse of a home, a dysfunctional home with no love.

I mean, we have to understand.

The last time I came up here, I showed you a video of a young man.

Three years ago, I came up here with 30 letters from 30 from 30 children at at Taylor Park that say what they wanted, what they needed.

I understand where the money's gonna have, but if they can get a if they can put uh middle school and high school children in Winston, and because they could find a way that they can build us a school, but they come out with a world school and from private funds.

I'm pretty sure if we don't want to invest, get these private partners and everybody to come in and assume a responsibility for us, for this city.

We have to do better, man.

I'm telling you, we are at war, and it's gonna be a whole generation of children that are gonna be going to prison because some of them are just trying to be somewhere where they can feel like they belong.

And that's on a city level.

And I do agree with you, and that's why I was stated earlier.

If we throw in good money at the bad things, we need to know.

Yes, like I said, and one, you know, Ms.

Um Keisha Brown, she's over um community affairs.

I mean, I asked you all just to work together because again, we don't know everything.

You know, only thing I know is that the city is putting millions of dollars, you know, into the youth program.

But of course, is we throwing good money at the bad things, and if so, we need to know because again, we are spending money, but I don't want to keep putting money at the bad things.

So it's so we need to really just sit down and say, hey, this is bad for our youth, but this is more functional for the new youth and everything where y'all spending the money at.

But again, we're gonna ask you to give with Miss Keisha Brown.

We really just sit down, we really need to know, especially before the next year budget comes.

And that's why I asked that we should have an oversight committee from the community.

And in this oversight community that we deal in each district, anything that happens in our district, whether it's police and whether it's anything that's happening, we need people in set in place that can make sure that that's for us by us.

You know, we have to have young, you have to have young, you cannot do anything without young people at the table.

These are the children, these is the future.

You can't do nothing.

It'll be impossible because we as adults, we don't know everything.

So we need to have an oversight committee for every community that's considered with youth leaders, clergy, advocates, and those people that in that community that know that community well, so when things happen in that community and they'll know what's going on, and they can be able to set in place what they want.

And they can say, no, we don't need that.

Yes, we do, but it's no oversight, and there's no checks and balances, Mr.

Tom.

And if there's no check and balances, then that's where we get what we had now.

Are they effective?

Are they not effective?

They're not effective.

Mr.

Tom, I want to thank you so much for coming down.

Whether I can tell you what's gonna happen in this one, you have my fullest support with the committee.

Anybody with district one, you core pin, we can have a meeting next week.

You can be on that committee.

But youth, let's start, let's start working, let's start putting together.

Um, I also commit not just talking, you I'm putting discretionary funds.

Um, I have just uh I read you have you want to have this opportunity hub.

I'm gonna put discretionary funds to go towards that right now.

Um, we get a letter, let's make it happen.

Um, let's meet how we're gonna use that discretionary funds.

We have um buildings in Tumbleville, we can start exactly library, we can start at we don't have to build a new building.

We can start we have buildings in our community that have not been utilized that we can transform.

That's what it's about.

Transforming lives, transforming buildings for us, and it's that gonna cost that much.

So let's start, let's let's pilot the program and let's move forward to stop talking and let's show that we can do it in one place and we can move and do it other places.

Thank you.

So if anybody here in this community is ready to do it, let's start together and we can make it happen.

Thank you.

And I think that's how that's how we have to show it.

Absolutely.

So um uh I'm ready.

Thank you, and I appreciate each and every one of you all up there.

I really do because I've come up here, and every time I come here, you're always been supportive.

So let's do this.

Let's stop talking, let's act before it's too late.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Advice.

Oh, I thank you for coming.

I sure appreciate it.

Uh you have certainly given us a lot of information here, and I appreciate it.

Um, just a few thoughts.

Um, one is a triage plan.

Yes, we need triage.

Yes.

Uh, you don't move furniture when the house is burning.

Yes.

Also, we had a resiliency program a while back that was all about literary education, that kind of thing.

That's the hub for youth violence.

All the different spokes have talked about.

I think that's something that you're pretty much your plan works on that, so that's where we need to be.

Okay.

But I will also tell you that last week I met another meeting, but I met with a pastor at a church in my district.

It was very his church, is very involved in the community.

And he asked me, what can we do?

Where are the problems?

What can we do?

And I said, I would really love it if you all would open your doors in the afternoons to have kids in the community who have no place to go after school to come in and be mentored for their homework and keep them for two to three hours before they go home because kids need somewhere to go in between so that they're not out on the streets.

And if you're agreeable to do this, we can pilot that and show other churches in every neighborhood that you too can do it.

It takes volunteers to step up in each church because there are churches on every other corner in our city who should be opening their doors to these kids who need a place to go and who need mentors to help them.

And that's you don't if you don't have youth sports or some other after school, they need a place to go.

And especially those churches that have gyms and other facilities, you know, for things like that.

So he said he was very interested in doing it, and we'll be following back up with him to do this in my district.

So that's just it's an idea to throw out that I would really like to see my colleagues uh embracing other districts.

I'm with you if you need me.

I I just I just want I just don't want to just talk and then we walk out of here.

And then it just goes on and goes on and then goes on.

I just want to tell you this real quick.

I know it's time to go, everybody's ready to go.

But I fell in that trap when the crack law came out, conspiracy.

I never sold dope in my life, but I was at a cousin house, and my decision to make this, I dropped some drugs off, just dropped them off.

I ain't gonna get no trouble.

I just did it.

It was out and it said I didn't think the re was the ramifications of it.

I did it, and he got caught.

And he told on 33 people, and guess who else he told on?

Me.

And I did seven years and four months in federal prison.

Ain't never been in trouble in my life.

So I'm telling you, there's no safety net no more.

If you carry a gun and you brandish guns, this is all the new laws, and I've been trying to educate these young people.

I just want to educate them about the new laws.

If they do it, if they decide I'm gonna do it, that's on them.

But they won't say that.

I didn't tell them.

We didn't just we didn't educate them about what's happening because in May, this new this new place, this new mega prison opens up in Elmo County.

4,000 beds, which is simply really 8,000 because it's two men per sale.

We need help.

We need to educate these young people.

If we need to have a forum, we need to go in.

If our city councilman, we need to have a uh town hall in the meeting so they can know what's going on because it's about to happen.

Thank you.

Uh I I no club talker, Madame Clerk.

Nina Dorch.

I have one for the mayor too.

Maybe can we get that too?

Hello, everyone.

My name is Nina Dorch.

Um, I'm coming to you today because I spoke to you all before in June about workforce development.

And today I'm here again because urgency for this has not changed.

Violence hasn't stopped, and opportunities for our citizens remain out of reach.

Just last week, the Salvation Army, their angel tree program for Mobile County field in less than 24 hours.

Yet Baldwin County, they're still open and accepting applications.

This should tell us something.

Our citizens right here in our area are struggling months before a holiday.

This isn't just about low-wage workers either because I've heard from people working two or three jobs who still can't make ends meet.

I've spoken to residents with a PhD, someone with a JD, years of experience in HR, logistics backgrounds, hospitality leadership experience, all searching for stable work right here in our city.

At first, I proposed to you having a workforce development department.

Then I reduced it to a committee and said, can we at least have a job fair?

Nothing.

And to me, that just shows when we do things like that that we want our citizens to thrive.

We want them to know about all of the industries that are here that we talked about and we celebrate and we incentivize so much.

Hosting a city-led job fair matters because it addresses multiple gaps in our community.

First, it bridges the access gap.

Many citizens don't know who's hiring, how to connect.

The city can create a centralized hub linking residents directly with employers.

We have countless facilities and companies that mobilians pass by every day, not knowing what they do or how the jobs are available.

We need to educate our citizens by showing industries that the city of Mobile is their partner in building a strong workforce.

When they grow, we all grow.

I have a few more points here, but I know I'm not gonna make it.

So I'm just gonna tell you this.

When our citizens earn, they spend locally.

That means more dollars going through our small businesses, our schools, our housing market, and stronger tax base for the city.

It strengthens the city's branding and retention.

Working class citizens are the best ambassadors for the city of Mobile.

When they thrive, they tell their friends, they tell their relatives, they tell their family.

Not only do you want to come here and play, you want to come here and work, you want to come here and live, and you want to come here and invest.

A city led job fair will align recent economic growth.

The mayor just talked about the port becoming one of the largest in the city and aerospace in a new family.

Council, can I stand hard one more minute?

One more minute, Mr.

I'm sorry, this bothers you all, but it bothers me to have phone calls and I don't even work locally.

But if we don't connect mobilience to these roles, we miss the chance for our citizens to benefit from the growth that we've helped fund.

This is not a massive undertaking.

Cities like Birmingham, Savannah, New Orleans, Charlotte all host biannual or even annual job fairs, connecting thousands of representatives and citizens to opportunities.

All I'm saying is that we need to make sure that our citizens understand the opportunities that are right here for them.

Thank you.

Yeah, Mr.

Penn.

You know, I agree that we have, you know, you have a Portomobile, which is a billion dollar industry.

Um we have also we have Airbus.

Um we have all these different types of companies here, and how many young people know about these different jobs?

Um I grew up in Mobile.

Um I didn't know nothing about no tubboat.

Right.

And how much money a tub boat driver makes.

Y'all know how much toilboat driver makes?

Six figures.

That's a lot of money.

I might would have been a toolboat driver.

Like, seriously, like we don't know about these opportunities.

Um and I think we need to start holding the people who the business is here accountable.

Um, and I think going back to your statement, we should have an annual or biannual or whatever is needed.

I suggest we do that.

Um, I'm requesting our administration um to host um to request these companies that we come and celebrate and we do all these different things, but we need to make sure our residents know about these opportunities.

Um Paul, I asked also asked you about the committee.

Um, did any information you get about about that business committee?

We have to start with uh getting the different groups because it they're right.

There are a number of groups here that that do these uh activities that present uh opportunities for the students, but uh yes, somebody has to gather them together.

It needs a sparking.

But not just to do that.

We need opportunities for adults as well.

People are trying to revamp themselves, change careers.

We have underemployed, not employed.

So it wasn't just for students, it was for adults as well.

So the the what we need to look at is ways that we can keep people engaged.

Um, and sometimes when you have adults involved, they can go and spread that message.

They're connected to the community.

If we could just look and see exactly how that, I know we have the chamber, and that's something that I asked the chamber.

A lot of people are not coming downtown.

And so people don't know about all the guidelines.

So that's something we need to figure out as well.

How can we get people engaged in our district?

Um, and I don't know how that look, but it needs to be a conversation, it need to be a piece, it needs to be discussed.

Um, and we need to bring people at the table to understand how that looks.

So I'm grateful that you're coming down sharing, but that's something that I'm requesting.

We need to figure out how to create that engagement.

Um, and of course, they don't have any authority, but they need to know so they can share it with their community.

Um, and so um I'm requesting that we we have a uh a job fair and hold these companies accountable and find some way that we can have some people involved.

I don't know if that's from a committee or that's from a conversation.

If we already got a committee with the chamber, getting those people a part of that committee, whatever that is, we need to make it happen.

So I want to thank you so much for coming down.

I did request for that information.

Um, but going forward, I want to make sure that we can move Mobile forward for everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you for this.

Thank you uh so much, Ms.

Darch for uh coming down.

And uh I do agree with you and uh for councilman Penn Point, uh, Councilman Penn before the pandemic.

Um I know that myself and councilman Richardson, we had held several job fairs within our district, and even Public Works had held a uh job fair once before.

The issue that we was running into that a lot of times the grandparents and the parents will come and get the application and then they'll take it back to the kids, you know, and the people that work.

But um, you do have my commitment that I mean we we can do that on our own.

So my thing about it, I know that the holidays are coming up, and matter of fact, we was at the um Port Authority on yesterday and then talking about more jobs are coming in, you know, and I was thinking that we would it's really time for us to really gear that back up.

But right before you took counsel, I know that District One and District Three, we have had several job fairs within our district and community meetings, but that's something that we can do together, and um, and we can sit down and do a date and we can get with Ms.

Darch and you can work with us, and you do have my commitment and everything that would uh you'll hear from us on real soon, but we can do that within ourselves.

All right, madam clerk, Reggie Hill.

Ms.

Darch, if you can also leave your information with um with our assistant, and uh we'll get together this week on that.

Thank you, uh Madam City Clerk to the citizens and stakeholders of my bill greetings.

Reggie Hill is my name.

I rise today to continue these pertinent conversations uh pertaining to city business, as we've seen throughout today's uh meeting and what we've been seeing going uh just throughout this year.

There's a lack of trust that kind of needs to be addressed here.

Uh there are some matters that I wanted to touch base on um as I was signed up for uh dealing with vehicles, OPR, these third party form, excuse me, these third party firms, um, the budget amendments that are possible in the coming future and uh the investigatory powers, particularly as it relates to uh the elections.

But because of the time restraints and knowing that anyone who comes up here actually challenging things is not gonna be afforded that amount of time to to speak.

I'm gonna keep it brief and have to continue these in the coming days.

Uh let's look at this vehicle component here.

Uh we claimed that we were going to uh cut back on purchases in the past three weeks, and uh we've seen in the past three, excuse me, we're gonna cut back on the purchases this year, but we've seen in the past three weeks where we spent nearly six million dollars on vehicles.

And we saw this morning that officers saying that they're strained because of things that are going on in particular spaces.

So it seems that we're not prioritizing the resources probably because we're spending four million dollars specifically on public safety vehicles, but the officers are strained to go handle real matters in the community.

That's a concern.

We need to prioritize the money better.

I think there's ways we can look into that.

Uh the OPR piece, we're talking about getting a consultant before we think about what happened to Judge Gradett with the issues that happened with OPR.

We know that there are individuals who've uh made claims against the city.

OPR has investigated, said one thing, and then you went to court, and then the judge reversed what it was the OPR saying that happened.

And we're talking about giving them additional money to keep this department going that's not being beneficial for the city.

These are things that we need to look at.

There's money that's going into it, I think that's being wasted.

And I was glad to see uh I can't think of our name.

She's an attorney nice officer and M.

But at least there was somebody within the city actually challenging the city matter.

We're bringing all these third-party law firms on that don't really know what's going on, and then we end up with these issues coming before you seem that we don't know how to handle them.

So let's just get to this last piece about the uh elections component.

Uh, we know that the is there's a necessity.

Let me be very clear with the the clerk's office.

The the results are sponsored by the administration, and then you all pass it.

All right, so this is nothing to the clerk's officer, the chief election officer.

We've already went through this debate.

We're gonna need the time to actually really review what's going on.

But there's tape that's printed uh each year, and they put this tape on the buildings to post the results.

So if we look at uh new shallow, um they have one woman voting machine, but they had two tape suits with the results, and there was duplicated numbers, the same numbers repeated.

And so what happened was while that was saying that it was a second for you.

Did you sign up about investigatory?

Those are the piles that you have is in chapter 11.

Uh 46, might be excuse me, 44, that's 26.

The things you can do to look into these things.

There's lots of stuff going on.

May I please um reclaim my time?

I don't know how much.

I I stopped the clock, but you say that there's time.

Madam Clerk, please make sure that they specifically put out exactly what they're gonna talk about.

Going to start this minutes back up.

As any other time before, I always say exactly what I signed up for.

If y'all give me the opportunity to actually say that, and so what what we need to look at is the idea that there were 793 additional numbers against what was reported from that precinct.

This was reported at the precinct, some 600, something there.

You get the numbers that are officially made, and there's 793 additional points.

Now, people don't just go around every week and we're gonna take pictures of this tape everywhere.

We just so happen that somebody took time to do it this time.

All right, I believe he's beered off his subject.

All right, thank you.

Well, we we we know that he would believe that.

I stated before as well.

When you're challenging what's going on, you're not gonna be afforded at the same time.

Thank you, Feeling.

Uh Tom Tom Townsend regarding 52046.

Appreciate uh I think it's three minutes.

I'm gonna clock it.

I'm gonna make sure.

Uh and I'm here.

I understand it's maybe tabled the ordinance.

Your name name, please.

Oh, I'm sorry, Tom Townsend.

Uh let's see, I'm in uh William Street Mobile, Alabama is where the Alabama Red uh residency.

You're talking about what now?

Uh this is for the uh the Blight Ordinance 525 people.

The the registry registration for the vacant and sorry, we keep calling it the blight ordinance.

All right, I'm not starting my time yet.

I'm just kidding.

Okay, so uh and I understand it's it's kind of been put aside.

I had a project manager here, and if I'm not here the week that you all take it up again, I asked him to do it.

He said it's not in his uh area of responsibility, so I want to jump up and just say it.

So but um the I've been a building owner in downtown mobile for over two decades, uh building owner and co-owner.

And the overall the the ordinance is gonna be great, I think.

It's uh it'll put some motivation in building owners to make a decision.

We've got a lot of empty building inventory downtown.

Uh that'll add some motivation.

You know, people have to take some costs into account on uh holding on to the building versus either developing it or uh or selling it.

So that part I love, you know.

Um the part that's difficult is one of the buildings that we have is large.

It uh the the way the zoning code works, it uh it makes it difficult to develop larger buildings.

There's technical reasons, I'll be happy to get into it, but what ends up coming out at the at the end of the zoning code for downtown mobile is a restaurant or a small bar or uh residential use.

Now, this building we have, and a lot of the old buildings in downtown don't have parking, they didn't have cars in 1850, so you you can't really use utilize residential as much as you'd like if you can't give people a parking spot where they don't have to walk three blocks with groceries.

So that makes uh and this is not everybody, but it's just uh it the regulations.

I like this regulation.

The regulations that are on the books, it would help tremendously if the city council could tweak them.

It would help the owners uh to develop some of these properties for more uses than than just residential and uh small bar or restaurant.

Uh one of the issues with restaurants is uh our population, and and I'll share these numbers with you, but from 2000 to 2020, uh we have 11,874 less mobile residents.

We have the same building inventory, so you end up with uh with less commerce.

When you do the quick math, 11,000, the average uh mobile per capita median income is 34,000 times 11,800 by the way.

Council doesn't want to grant him an extra minute.

One more minute.

Uh 58 million dollars in commerce leaves the city uh with that population.

34,000 in uh in uh median income, which we're pretty sure the people moving over there are higher income than 34, but let's just use that.

34,000 discretionary income, which is what you spend at restaurants and uh concerts, whatever.

Uh that that out of the 34,000, you get about $5,000.

So take $11,800 times it by $5,000.

It's $58 million in economics that's 10 miles, 12 miles away.

Uh we when we develop, you use a rule of thumb that people spend 80% of their discretionary income 10 miles from their house.

We get some of that by the people that work here, but you lose a pretty good amount of 58 million dollars, and we have the same building inventory in downtown mobile.

So that makes restaurants a little risky.

If you if you watch, which we do, track restaurants and of course the comments from the council.

I've got a question, Mr.

Reynolds.

So you're you're making uh an argument that it doesn't make sense for your business or others in many respects to to build a restaurant.

And there is some issue with the zoning code in downtown mobile that could maybe provide some relief in that respect.

How does that relate to the real property maintenance and enforcement?

If you could close the circle on that, thanks.

Yes.

Make that relation.

Yeah, so uh so we want to motivate building owners to put money into their buildings.

It's and it's an investment.

A lot of times, if you're the property owner, you have tenants that'll that'll sign in with an LLC, they don't have much risk when they do.

You want their business to work out.

And if if you're building, and a lot of times you're pre-developing it.

So you you make an agreement, I'll put $500,000 in my empty property, and uh you're gonna sign a 10-year lease and you're gonna make those payments.

So we have to ride with the tenant uh in really a partnership to make sure that the development works economically.

Did that close the loop at all?

Or I guess.

I mean, uh not well, no, not really.

What do you want changed in this?

Uh there's a there's an okay, and I this will get in the technical details, but there's a rule that says if you have a 99, well, real quick, the the the this ordinance on the books has a graduated scale based on building size.

It says if you're this many square feet, you're 500.

Well, the the zoning ordinance says 99, no matter what your building size.

If you if you want to put more than a 99 occupancy in your building, you go before the planning commission.

If there was a graduated uh we have a 10,000 square foot building, we're treated this on one of them, you know.

Most of them were fine.

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Uh again, uh in regards to the real property maintenance and enforcement article.

I I understand what you're saying, that there's some modification that may be necessary within the zoning code that could you know help redevelopment outside of this particular ordinance.

But what I am interested hearing about is what in this ordinance do you not like, or would you suggest that it be changed too?

Okay.

Yeah, and I'll and I'll wrap that up.

That's that's the one side of it that's not totally relevant to this.

Uh I like I like most of it.

I mean, the uh the I I still like we we talked previously with the council.

I s there it's gonna be burdensome in the beginning with the tying in fire monitoring into it.

I forgot to mention previously and uh previous discussions.

It's not just electrical, which that looks better, the temporary electrical that's that's uh you no longer have to bring your old building up to complete electrical code, that's a huge plus.

But uh you you still have to get a phone line in.

So you've got a little bit of infrastructure you need to spend.

That's a little bit of burden.

I I think it's still gonna be in the ten thousand dollar range or so.

The insurance is another three to four thousand.

Not everybody does insurance.

Uh my dad's a lawyer, he says don't buy insurance because then they will sue.

So, and I think the city actually uses that sometimes that that thinking.

Ms.

President, uh Ms.

Townsend, uh hello, Mr.

Carr.

You got Mr.

Reynolds.

I I think this hello, Ms.

Moranz.

I might ask that or is to please these are talking by hit this galonna be 30 days.

Ms.

Reynolds.

Yeah, I've asked for this ordinance to be held over one week.

And I think there's some room for some modification to it, in my opinion.

I think there's some subjectivity that could be removed for it where it's more clear uh to a property owner.

Uh I would like to have a conversation with you to better understand exactly the issues that you have and see if maybe there is some you know commonality that can be found that resolves the vacancy issue.

I think that's the objective of the ordinance to begin with, but also you know, does it in uh in a way that's not too punitive to any one person or any one property owner?

So I'd I'd I'd welcome that conversation, you know, after this meeting or sometime this week.

Yeah, that'd be great.

That's all I had.

So appreciate it.

Uh Mr.

Carroll.

Uh just two quick things.

One on the phone line.

Uh most systems now, the phone lines are wireless, so you don't have to hardwire them.

Uh your hard wiring would only be done when you come in to do complete development for your business.

So don't even you you're way overthinking it.

Uh and then two, on a 99-person rule per development.

I understand that having to go back to the planning commission and design and plan pushes your development back and cost you more time as far as you having to pay the fee with the with the empty building.

Uh, but you knowing knowing if for you it's a different situation because you already own the building, but for a developer coming in or builder or an owner coming in to purchase, they know that coming in that's a cost they have to carry in a development, so it's planned with in their performance.

So you you gotta look at it both ways.

It's gonna be a little burdensome on the people that already are established downtown who already have a system in place.

I understand that.

But in order to change the 99 person rule, then this council has to re-evaluate what goes and how it goes to the planning commission and when, and then we can take that up.

And you need to ask uh this next council when it comes in to help you address that with Shale B co and coming in administration.

I think there'll be open ears because that's gonna help develop downtown.

So, but that's not an issue that's gonna be covered under the uh I keep wanting to say section 4052, but it won't be covered under this.

That's something we have to cover somewhere else.

And I understand your concern because it it deters what happens in in this, and it slows down what you're trying to do, but we can't have lead in this section, it has to be handled somewhere else.

Okay.

I appreciate you coming as always.

Appreciate y'all saying the question comments from this council.

Um, Mr.

President, I'd ask the gentleman to uh provide your telephone number to the the clerk's office so that I can call you.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you for coming down.

Clerk.

Mr.

President, uh, we have a citizen that did not get an opportunity to speak on the public hearing for structures at 1551 Kellogg Street.

Okay.

Uh counseling this opened up the public hearing um for 1551 Kellogg Street.

Um come on down.

I guess my name is Glenn Thornton.

And I'm really apologetic, uh Councilman.

Uh I miss Ryan didn't understand what you were saying.

I could left my hearing A's at home.

I'm sorry.

But uh I had uh surgery on my knees, and uh I've been about uh four years behind on my property the reading it went down like it did.

I have pictures of it, uh how it used to look here, and uh and uh also I look even worse now.

But I have a uh architect and uh the engineers they working on the the blueprints.

If y'all want to look at those, and uh he didn't get chance to finish up everything yesterday, like you thought.

He told me that's right.

And let uh you know that uh they are working on it.

But I'm really sorry that I misunderstood president.

I mean, I just when you said three people, I thought it would after the first person came up.

I had another person in between.

Next thing we was in or something yet, but I appreciate that.

Uh the only thing I know is that uh you know, I'm just doing the best I can.

I'm on medication and uh uh I just got behind on things with this COVID went on back in 21.

That's when I first had the problem that y'all, you know, uh work with me on the building, but uh right after that just had total leaf surgery on my right leg, and then about a month later it came apart and had to go right back in it again, and I still got to have the left uh leg done and I I just read red going through that one, but um but I got all the information here though on that and I'll ask the uh the council if you would if you just give me time to get these things in place where I can get the permit where we can go ahead and uh uh fix it back.

And I'm hoping that once I get it back open up, I can hire veterans and other people there in this body shop that I got and uh really appreciate it if y'all could uh give me more time to see if I can get in the uh billing permit, and uh try to get that as soon as they get through with the rest of the architecture work.

Okay, mr.

Mr.

David, what's the match we can give them 90 days or 60 days?

Yeah, we're gonna give you 60 days to go ahead and get that permit pool.

I know you say you have to get with the architect and everything.

If you have any additional portions, just talk contact the gentleman right there and everything, but we'll give you 60 days to go ahead and get that permit pool.

I think present okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, all the councilman.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for coming down.

On this public hearing, anyone else would like to speak on this public hearing.

If not, this public hearing is closed.

Ordinance is held over 52046, adopt chapter 52 real property maintenance and enforcement article, a vacant structure registry for Henry Aaron Luke.

No delay over one week.

Second, proper move and second in discussion.

All in favor, aye.

All opposed, I'm laid over one week.

64048.

Consider rezoning property located at 813 Lakeside Drive from B3 and I1 to B3.

Somewhere second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed, I don't pass.

Consent resolutions held over 40 1044.

Declare the structure at 265 Cuba Street, a public nuisance and order it demolished.

Motion of the table.

Second.

The move is second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed, item stable.

Resolutions held over.

21 1245 authorized contract with Bill Smith for emergency generator.

01 1246 authorized franchise agreement with fiber fiber utility network doing business as Alabama Fiber Network 081248, approved purchase order to Bob Cat of Mobile for compact loader.

Approved purchase order to dozers, compaction roller.

Approved purchase order to Thompson Tractor Company for emergency generator.

21 1258 authorized contract with all red architectural group.

21 1259 authorized contract with George Glasser to provide professional services.

Authorized contract with PL Russell LLC for upgrades to the Mobile Riverfront Redevelopment, Cooper Riverside Park and Great Lawn.

21 1262 authorized contract of Thompson Engineering for Access Management and Signal Upgrades on Dauphin Street.

211263 Authority Contract Engine Russell Electric Company.

251264 except temporary construction easements for miscellaneous drainage repairs.

21 1266 authorized contract with Macalania Construction Company for construction of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Avenue Complete Streets Project.

So moved.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

I don't pass.

091256.

Authorized revision of the DECA community development block grant.

Motion lay over one week.

Second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

I don't laid over one week.

Ordinances being introduced for the first time.

64049 through 88053.

By council rules, these will be laid over for one week.

Consent resolutions being introduced.

Move to waive the rules for immediate consideration of these resolutions as read.

Second, proper move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

Rules waive, Madam Clerk.

031268 and 1269.

And reappointing Lewis Golden to the Board of Adjustment and appointing Crystal Taylor to the History Museum of Mobile Board.

091270 transfer funds from District 2 Discretionary Account to Parks and Recreation.

James Seal Center.

Recommend approved to the ABC Board for issuance of a lounge retail liquor class two license to quick pack package store on St.

Stephen's Road.

40127273 are declaring the structures at 610 Pit Avenue and 507 Booker Street Public Nuisances and ordering them demolished.

58 1276 and 1277 are authorizing removal of weeds and assessing costs for removal of weeds.

Groups 1668 and 1666.

601278 and 1279 approval water special bonus to the real estate asset management employee of the month and the officer of the month.

60 1280 through 6 1296 are determining appropriations to March and Couver's Band Maynard 4 Foundation O Shell Road Magnet School PTO.

The Grinds Young Entrepreneur Academy Alabama Pecan Festival, the Child Advocacy Center, Theodore High School, Ridgeville Property Owners Association, Wimmil Place, Homeowners Association, Dedicated Dentists Inc.

Hands Up Charity, Hillsdale Booster Club, Mobile Municipal 50 Boys Raiders, Mobile Bay Area Veterans Commission, National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico, Inc.

Mobile Council Navy League, serve a public purpose and approved payment.

So moved.

Prophet move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

I don't pass.

031350.

Reappoint Adam Metcalf to the board of adjustment.

So moved.

Second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

I don't pass.

40 1274 and 1275 are declaring the structures at 962 Government Street.

Um public nuisance in order is secured.

And declaring the structure at 1551 Calog Street, a public nuisance in order it demolished.

Motion lay over 60 days.

Second.

Second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

I'm laid over 60 days.

CIP resolutions being introduced.

211297 through 21129.

Move to waive the rules for immediate consideration of 21-1299 with the rest of the resolutions being laid over for one week.

Second.

Prop the move and second and discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

Rule wave.

Madam Clerk.

211299.

Authorized contract with Neil Schaefer for construction engineering and inspection services for Dolphin Island Parkway Sidewalks.

So moved.

Second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

Item passed.

Resolutions being introduced for the first time.

081300 through 601348.

Move to waive the rules for resolutions 0813 1302 1303 04060708 13 15 17 1821 0813 1334 and 1343 with the rest of the resolutions being laid over for one week.

Second.

Prop the move and second in discussion.

All in favor.

All opposed, rule waive, Madam Clerk.

081300 approved purchase order to Alamo Group Texas.

Approved purchase order to ATFM.

Network cameras.

081306 approved purchase order custom concepts.

081307 approved purchase order custom concepts.

081308 approved purchase order to Dana Safety Supply Inc.

0813 13.

Approved purchase order to Image Trend 0813 15 approved purchase order to Meltwater News U.S.

Inc.

0813 17 approved purchase order to knit sum promotional manufacturing corporation 081318 approved purchase order to nominate networks 08 1321 approved purchase orders to port city trailers 08 1333 approved purchase order to truck equipment sales 08 1334 approved purchase order to truck equipment sales and yes and 2143 as well 21 oh okay i'm sorry 2143 authorized contract with friends of magnolia cemetery for maintenance and operation of the cemetery so moved second proper move and second in discussion all in favor aye all opposed pass call for public hearings call for public hearing 41 1341 49 call for public hearing to consider vacation of all rights of way located within lot one of mAA a cdc subdivision scheduled november the 18th 2025 so moved second proper move and second and discussion all in favor aye all opposed public hearing is called announcements district one no announcements thank you district two council carroll no announcements district four councilman rundles very briefly the crest motel has been torn down and I want to give a shout out to Hagen Fence there I've uh name them Hagen's heroes now because they have bought the uh the property that the old crest motel was on and they brought a bulldozer in and tore it down last week so congratulations district uh seven president Gregory Vice President no announcements uh district six councilman woods no sir appreciate it anything from administration motion to adjourn second proper move and second in discussion all in favor aye all opposed means adjourned