Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats.

We're going to get started shortly.

Please take your seats.

Go right ahead.

Roll call.

Councilmember Morrill.

Council Member McCarron.

Here.

Council Member Harris.

Councilmember Green.

Councilmember Hughes.

We have three members.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

We're going to start with the approval of the minutes for the February Fifth meeting.

Councilman Green moves favorably.

Seconded by Councilman McKin.

All of them say aye.

All right.

Three A's, no nays, the minutes are approved favorably.

Also, on the agenda items that I have sat through, it appears as though many of the communities share the same issues.

So being on this on this commission, I think I will be able to um see their point of view because I have seen where sometimes voting happens not the way the people want, and I think that is very important.

So I'm really excited, honestly, to be on this commission because I know it's very important.

And as a matter of fact, I will be leaving my position with Eno Knock as to not have any ethical or um any other problems, you know, being on the commission.

So I want to thank whoever um nominated me for this, and I'm really looking forward to it.

So do you all have any questions?

We don't have any for you.

I'll move to approve.

Take it a second.

Second by Councilmember Green.

Yes, no question, but I just want to say thank you.

I see you at so many meetings, and you're so interested in the community.

I know New Orleans.

Well, here's Mr.

Hughes to speak for the district that he represents, but he came in right in time.

But um, I appreciate your work that you do and your commitment to the community, especially New Orleans East.

Thank you, Mr.

Easy.

You want to add anything?

Diddle.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Anthony Jackson City Planning Commission.

His forms are in order and received on time.

Mr.

Jackson, why do you want to be on the city planning commission?

I'm sorry, good morning.

Good morning, City Council.

Excuse me, Councilmember, can we get the vote?

Yes.

Sorry, Mr.

Green, it was a yes.

As was Mr.

He.

Okay, there you go.

Thank you.

Good morning, City Council.

Close it out.

Why do you want to be on City Planning Commission?

Yes, sir.

The reason for me wanting to serve on the City Planning Commission is to help assist with shaping the development in the community of New Orleans East, but also use influence to serve the needs of the people and let their voices be heard, also to reduce blight and to enhance businesses coming to New Orleans East and new developments.

Thank you.

Thank you again for your willingness to serve, and you've been very involved at the community, especially New Orleans East.

These two appointments of the City Planning Commission could make a tremendous difference for the community that I'm just familiar with.

I don't necessarily represent it, but I do have a part of New Orleans East in my district.

But of course, to provide the vast majority of it is in Councilman Hughes' district.

All right.

All in favor vote your machines.

Four years, no nays.

You are approved.

Thank you.

I got you.

Next up we have Andy Plessis, Regional Transit Authority.

We got we got five.

Oh, sorry, she's there.

You got five.

All right, Mr.

Plessis, why do you want to be on the RTA?

Good morning, um, City Council.

Um, thank you for this opportunity to give you uh some insight as to why I think it's very important um that I serve on RTA's board.

As we know, you know, transportation is perhaps the most important mobility uh tool um that helps for with economic development.

Um I think that my background and uh banking uh finance um as well as the um the past my past service community service um gives me um insight uh to help uh create the economic development that the city needs with our most underserved.

Um I'm also very interested in bringing back regionalism and regional cooperation.

Um I think it's important that not only do we provide transportation, uh reliable transportation for individuals who are uh needing to get to work in other places, um, but to ensure that wherever they want to travel, um they have the uh reliable transportation.

And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Council Brees.

Thank you, um, Mr.

President.

Um I'm gonna talk specifically about RTA, but I just want to put this on the record.

Um, we have four residents from District E that's being confirmed today.

Um, you know, traditionally, as I look back at boards and commissions over the years, uh, rarely did District E get appointments across the board.

Once again, we have a mayor that's walking the talk when she said that she would be a mayor for this entire city.

So I want to publicly thank Madam Mayor for ensuring that the talent of District E is represented on these boards and commissions.

And the comments that I'm about to make applies to all of the uh very qualified uh nominees for RTA.

Thank you for pledging to return the R back to RTA and making it a regional transit authority because as we look to grow our city, we have to think more regionally.

You, Senator DuPlessis, as uh as a private sector banker, understands that we have to stop looking at transportation in this city as just through the lens of a low-income issue.

When you look at progressive cities across America, when you look at Atlanta and New York and Washington, DC in Chicago, the banker is sitting next to the bartender, the artist is sitting next to the architect, the electrician is sitting next to the engineer, the chemist is sitting next to the cosmetologist.

The list will go on and on and on and on and on.

You know, my residence in District E, the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East, on any given day could take an hour to get from New Orleans East to downtown, and God forbid you miss that bus.

Grossly unacceptable.

And I hope you all once and for all will look into the cluster that is this transfer on Lake Forest and read.

One day someone is gonna get killed as they're being dropped off from one side, dashing to the other side through speeding traffic, because they know if they miss that bus, they'll be waiting for quite some time.

And far too many shelters, finally, bus shelters in my community are missing, forcing residents to have to wait in the hot sun, wait in the rain, and all types of weather conditions.

So we have a lot of lot of work ahead of us at RTA, but I know that you and the qualified nominees are up to the task.

So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for for all of your willingness to serve.

Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you.

Senator Hughes moves to approve, second by councilmember Green.

There you go.

All in favor vote your machines.

Five years, no nays.

Uh beforewards to full council for approval.

Next up, we have Erica Mann, Regional Transit Authority.

Why do you want to be on the RTA, Erica?

Good morning.

Well, my life has been service, and right now I'm still working in service at the Drive YMCA, a retired school leader in Jefferson Orleans.

Transportation is not just a system of getting people to and from places on a bus or streetcar.

It's actually a means of equity.

It's how we get to work, which of course builds economic economic growth, how we get to medical appointments, school.

Too many times I've driven to work like this morning with no light.

And children are standing waiting to be picked up in the cold, dark rain, sometimes the heat, and some and when they get out of practice in the evening.

That type of thing, of course, moves me.

It's the work that I do.

Being able to see our members have opportunities to come to the facility to work out that are disabled, they're getting door-to-door service.

Those things are very important.

And there's space for us to improve, but we do have to consider what their needs are.

And the biggest part of why I want to serve is to fulfill the need that our people have, because those are the people that I work with on a day-to-day basis.

All right, Councilmember Green.

I just want to say thank you to you.

I know you well.

I know you're through your work with Dryad.

I know you as a resident of District D.

I also want to congratulate you on your daughter's successes leading their schools to championships such as Southern and UNO and LSU in soccer.

But most important is thank you for your service to Dryads and your commitment to our community.

And as the chair of transportation, the issues that Councilman Hughes referred to are very, very real.

And I think with these three folks who are going to be joining the RTA and the mayor's commitment, we will be able to make changes in those areas.

So thank you very much.

Looking forward to working with you.

Councilmember Harris.

Erica, I just want to say thank you for everything you do.

While you are a resident of District D, I do consider you also a resident of District B because you work so tirelessly at the Drides YMCA and for the entire district B community.

So I know that you know the transportation issues, including the lack of bus stops, um, sheltered bus stops.

So we do have children standing out in the rain and the sun, elders standing out in the rain in the sun, and this is something that I've tried to address with RTA since taking office and never got a good answer about how we can mitigate that.

So with this new leadership, uh Senator D Plessis, yourself, um, everybody else who's going to join RTA.

I know that we look forward to a good relationship moving forward that will move our people forward in public transportation.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you being here, Erica.

I will move.

Can I get a second?

Second by Council Member Harris.

All of the player, please vote your machines.

Five years, no nays.

You will be sent to the full council for approval.

Next up, we have Ms.

Miss Barbara Major.

The infamous Barbara Major.

V.

More than famous.

V, Barbara Major.

Good morning.

Why do you want to be on the RTA?

And I'm sure you got called late at night, someone said you gotta go fix something, so then you you're here today, right?

Sorta, kinda.

Um one of the reasons is I remember what RTA was.

I remember what it was after Katrina.

I know how dedicated the staff was there and what kind of transportation uh system we built.

I too believe in regionalism that we cannot continue to keep people locked in geographically because they can't get from point A to B to C.

The other thing is our most vulnerable population, our disabled, our elderly, and what has happened to parrot transit at RTA is um y'all think of the words.

I it's just I when I hear about people waiting two hours at dialysis or folk can't give from their son's funeral.

It's it's just it's unacceptable.

And the fact, and I I think I don't know who it was, maybe it was you, councilman.

It I've already talked to folk at RTA go like chairman, because no matter where I go, they still think of me as chair.

I'm not chairman of the RT, I'm on the board.

It's like there's no reason for folk it take that long for people to get from the east to downtown.

It makes no sense that we have folk that get to Jefferson Parish at 1030, but the Jefferson Parish bus leaves at 10 o'clock.

So one of the things is not only to protect those that ride um public transit.

I also understand because I've been a partner and I have chaired that board before, the economic impact is critical in terms of not only contracting, but the accessibility of folk getting from point A to B to get better jobs or to live wherever they want to live and get back to their community.

So I am uh I won't say I want to be on RT board, I'll say I have to be for a moment anyway, uh, just to clean up some of the allegedly foolishness over there.

But I'll wait till I get there to see if it is what they say it is, and if it is what they say it is, you know, I ain't got no problem telling people to leave.

You know, uh correctly and lawfully, but uh yeah, that's it.

Any questions?

I'll move to approve.

Second by council Bruhes, we vote your machines.

Five years, no nays.

Thank you, Miss Major.

Next up, we have Daphne Young with the New Orleans Recreation Department Commission.

Why do you want to be on Nordsee, Miss Young?

Good morning.

How can I follow that?

Um but um thank you.

Um the reason why I want to be um on Nord Commission is because I believe in fitness, but I believe that fitness is not only in your physical being, it's also in your mental being.

And I walk the parks every day.

I'm a three to four-time park walker, um, walking.

I see my seniors out there, I see my youth out there, and I see families out there.

And we have to have vibrant parks in not only New Orleans East, but across the city to make sure that our youth, that our families and our seniors are have a park to go to that are vibrant, connected to each of the organizations around them, and that they can get wellness and cultural activities there.

So I'm there because I want to make sure that every citizen in this city, especially in my district E, are vibrant and connected to the community with wellness and health and well-being for all families.

Any questions?

Council, Councilman Hughes.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'll be brief.

Ms.

Young, thank you uh too for answering the call to serve proud member of District E.

Yes.

But I just want to say on record, you know, when we think of Nord, we often think of our youth, which everyone knows is is at my heart.

But you and I both have mothers that are now up in age, but very vibrant.

And so as we think of Nord, we have to think of everyone holistically.

And so I'm glad that not only our youth, but our seniors are gonna be on your radar.

So thank you for that.

We're excited about it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Hughes moves.

I will second.

All fair, please vote your machines.

Five years, no nays.

You'll be sent to the full council for approval.

Thank you.

Uh, we're gonna go a little out of order on five.

First, we're skipping four.

Uh, we're gonna come go to five, uh, Anita, and we're gonna start with five B.

So downtown development, please come on down.

Oh, okay.

Why don't you go wrangle the show?

I think the guy just came in and Jeremy went out.

They're doing the musical chairs.

All right, whenever you're ready.

Morning.

Uh, thanks for giving me some time today to talk about some of the issues related to Mardi Gras cleanup in the downtown development district.

So the the primary issue that we've seen this year, and I believe it's been the case in prior years as well, uh, is a large accumulation of waste and debris under the bleachers along St.

Charles Avenue.

It also stretches onto Canal Street where there are bleachers present.

Uh but this year we really noticed that there's uh not a consistent schedule for either taking down the bleachers or uh removing the waste underneath, and so it's caused a bit of a challenge for us.

Sanitation department does a great job following the parades and cleaning up everything that they can get to, but uh generally these areas under the bleachers are inaccessible for good reason to uh to people, uh, and then when they come down, uh some of the property owners do a good job removing their own debris, but some clearly do not.

Uh and as we had some windy days uh at the end of Mardi Gras Week this year, uh, we had a lot of debris blowing around, frankly, uh not just on St.

Charles Avenue, but on some of the side streets as well.

And so, in sum, it takes us, I'd say between seven and ten days to really completely clean up uh after Mardi Gras.

That's due in no small part to the staggered schedule for bleacher removal and the sort of inconsistent removal of debris under the bleachers as well.

So, for us, I mean, we have regular cleaning crews that are downtown uh seven days a week.

Um we do uh invest in additional labor around Mardi Gras, but because we don't know when the bleachers are going to be coming down for any given property owner or or right-of-way, uh, it makes it difficult for us to schedule additional labor.

And so what we end up having to do is divert some of our daily labor that's otherwise would be deploys out elsewhere in the district.

Council Barris.

I I understand the issue, and uh you know I've certainly gotten all the emails about the bleachers being up, but uh let me just note that the Gallery Hall stands are still up too.

So I hate to be um hypocritical here when I say that we need a schedule for everybody to take the bleachers down.

So so to the city's credit, uh the bleachers in front of City Hall and on left, yet swear the cleaning is done underneath, and so we don't have the same debris issue uh with those bleachers.

But but my point is this taking down having a schedule and a set time or a set deadline for taking down the stands, not only public but also private, is something that I think we need to examine and get into place.

Yeah, that makes sense to me.

I think uh, you know, walking around, you know, Ash Wednesday.

I think it makes sense.

People see the sort of cleanup for Mardi Gras happening, but then when people are having to walk around bleachers like a week or two later, um, it's confusing, I think, for tourists and others.

Like, why is this here?

And you know, in the case of uh St.

Charles at Poidras, folks have to cross over to the other side of the street because it takes the full depth of the sidewalk up to the Federal Reserve.

And I would also note that there were um reports of encampments growing up underneath some of the bleachers, and so again, I think just having a set time or a set deadline for the removal of any privately erected stands needs to happen.

Yeah, I think that would be really helpful and would also uh encourage you all to consider whether the I guess existing permit structure uh is getting the results that we want relative to cleanup after.

Yeah, I do have a question about permits.

I do think we need to strengthen that as well as maybe increase the amount of fees that we charge for uh the permitting process for stands, not only in the DDD, but also um along St.

Charles will receive businesses erecting stands.

Again, that you know may or may not be there we for weeks after Mardi Gras.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

Before you get up, Seth, I appreciate you being here today, and and Matt's right behind you.

But before you get up, Seth, I appreciate you being here today, and Matt's right behind you, but I do think that something we might want to consider is that for stands that aren't going to show that they have an established sanitation contract with a private person, that maybe they pre-pay sanitation for cleanup, thereby the downtown development or sanitation could at least be a reimbursed for it because many of these private stands, people sometimes get charge money to go in the stands, and it is especially kind of egregious that someone can profit from utilizing the stands and the city and taxpayer dollars have to clean up the mess afterwards.

So I do think that working with Consumer Harris and other council members, changing that permit to include language saying this is how many days the stand can stay up, and then you get fined afterwards, and potentially saying either you have to show you have a sanitation contract or pre-pay sanitation do the work.

I think those might create better actors.

Because right now, I would imagine and Matt can speak to it, I guess when he comes up, there really is no incentive to move quickly or to clean up after yourself.

Yeah, I I think you've uh accurately diagnosed the situation.

Okay.

Thank you, Seth.

I think that's everyone.

Uh Matt, you're up.

Matt, I don't know if you caught the tail end of Seth's presentation, but basically he's talking about how uh all the stands are left up throughout downtown, and then when they move the stands, all the trash is still there waiting for you or downtown development.

Yes, very familiar with this.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, good morning, council.

Thank you so much for having us here.

Um it's always great to see you all once Mardi Gras over.

I think you know, uh, to keep it uh short and sweet, it was a very successful Mardi Gras 2026 from a cleanup perspective.

All things went smoothly.

We are extremely grateful to the efforts that were put in to ensure that uh parades rolled on time, which they did uh for the most part this year, which directly translated to an earlier end time for our parade cleanup, which means workers are out on the routes uh less time getting home to get some valuable sleep before they come back in the next day to clean up and all of the related city services that go along with that also um get off the roadway even earlier.

So we did see an increase in overall tonnage uh associated with Mardi Gras 2026, uh 20 a 24% increase from last year.

This uh to us was directly associated with the larger crowds.

Anybody who was uh out at Mardi Gras this year definitely took note.

There seemed to be more people enjoying in the carnival season, which is great for the city.

I know last year we were also coming out of the terrorist incident on Bourbon Street and had some other things that contributed to probably lower attendance at Mardi Gras Parade.

So certainly not unexpected this year, but we uh we always do like to take note, you know, around that to see where we're trending.

Uh I know Seth spoke about uh the issue with stands in the DDD and when they come down, the debris that's left.

Uh one of the the biggest challenges that our cleanup crews continue to deal with is the issue of uh plastic bags.

So plastic bags are used to contain individual throws as those bags throws are unwrapped, the bags are discarded over the side of a float.

And in wind situations and any normal situation, those bags blow all over the city.

So you have uh certain days where parades are rolling where the cleanup may not happen for hours after that parade rolls, you have individual bags that are blowing into neighborhoods and the person's uh personal pro private properties.

And when we're cleaning up, especially as the crew moves down St.

Charles to the downtown area, the wind will pick up and it and it will become quite a challenge to get those bags.

So I know on at least several days this year we had high winds, and uh it extended our cleanup time to chase down those bags, which we're doing, and I'll show a video um on that once we wrap up to kind of highlight some what we've seen is no one's ever been out there to see those bags getting caught up in the wind downtown.

Uh another another item potentially for review is obstruction of our cleaning crews along the parade route following the parade.

So this has been something that's been growing over years past.

We have uh parade goers who linger on the parade route following the conclusion of the parades to enjoy themselves, but it obstructs our cleaning crews.

So we're there, we have heavy equipment, we have uh high pressure blowers and people that need to rake and clear that neutral ground.

When you have persons that are present there, um it poses a safety uh issue for us.

Um in some instances, you know, are obviously we're not trying to use those high pressure blowers that kick up a lot of dust when you have persons present because it does make particulants airborne, um, which means that we potentially may have to rake more than we would like instead of using those blowers, which are incredibly helpful.

Um and it decreases the efficiency and the speed of which we can clean.

So we certainly want everybody to enjoy themselves at Mardi Gras, have a great time.

Um when we, the sanitation crew is coming down that parade route on the parade route, everyone should uh have vacated and and gone either to their homes or their vehicles at that point.

We're not immediately following the parade down the parade route.

There is always a gap on most days, that gap you know is significant, anywhere up to an hour or so.

So there's plenty of time for people to get their things together and exit.

But doing so will keep them safe and will keep our workers safe and allow us to efficiently move down that parade route.

So we would ask potentially, you know, looking at section 3420 and if there's changes that can be made to that to ensure people uh promptly vacate the parade route.

Last thing I wanted to do uh before I show the video in the bags is just uh give a special thank you to the American Red Cross of Louisiana.

This year, the American Red Cross provided uh sandwiches to the cleanup crews on multiple days uh throughout the carnival season.

Uh this was you know an extremely generous act uh that the American Red Cross did.

You see here some pictures of them giving out it went a long way with our workers, they appreciated it.

Um certainly they're out there working hard sometimes, 18 to 20 hours a day.

So to have that extra bit of food, that just means that's less money they're spending on the parade route to go and purchase uh food to keep them moving.

So we are extremely grateful to the American Red Cross of Louisiana for reaching out and coordinating and providing us with those sandwiches for this year.

So just wanted to make sure I made that that thank you.

Um as I mentioned before I wrap up, I'll just quickly show the video that uh I alluded to around bags again, so I think folks can just get a uh a view of kind of what we're talking about here.

So see here is a you know what happens with this is what happens with bags downtown.

I mean, this is what the wind does downtown.

It will spiral, it will kick bags up, they will move all across the uh St.

Charles Avenue into private property and down streets, and as you're trying to pick them up, you're you're fighting that wind as well, which is a uh challenge for workforce.

So again, I think uh certainly, you know, whatever efforts potentially can be looked at on crews to to limit or reduce the number of uh plastic bags would just go a long way to keeping Mardi Gras a cleaner event and reduce that cleanup time for our crews.

That's all for us.

Carl Spooper Hirsch.

Yeah, that looked like a scene from Bag NATO, um, you know, Shark NATO.

Um Matt, thank you for everything that you and your team do during Mardi Gras.

I do want to talk about the uh people and uh people obstructing the cleanup efforts.

Are you encountering also um tarps, structures, ladders, all the things?

Absolutely.

I think as the carnival season uh progresses and you and you get into the second weekend, you see a significant increase in personal property left behind on the parade route, tarps, ladders, tents, um, and so on.

Um it's it's almost its own enterprise now, a business where you have people that are paid to maintain maintain these things.

Uh for us, certainly it's it's a it's a challenge.

I mean, uh anybody who's been out there the second weekend, I mean, the neutral ground is quite consumed with those materials.

Uh so for us, our main objective is to clean, not to get that debris gone.

Um, but if you know, if we were on there was an ask to remove those items, that would be a whole nother undertaking that is quite significant and voluminous.

Yeah, that was going to be my question is have you um been asked, or do you remove any of the items that you encounter, like the tarps, like the ladders, etc.?

The only the only two days where the Department of Sanitation removes unattended items are uh the first Sunday, uh, because we'll have a gap between uh when parades resume on Wednesday and Mardi Gras Day.

Otherwise, unattended items that are not clearly trash, we're not removing.

Um, and it would take again more people, more equipment to remove that significant increase in volume.

When you encounter uh the people who are still lingering after the parade, do you have any law enforcement with you so that your folks aren't tasked with asking them to move?

Because I know people can get drunk in Raldi during Mardi Gras and feel very empowered and entitled, especially the Chads.

We have we have a limited amount of uh law enforcement that's with us.

So generally uh a Mardi Gras cleanup of the St.

Charles route is broken up into three zones.

Um so it's equally divided.

You may have two to three officers with each zone.

Um, and that zone is cleaning, so zone A would clean from you know, potentially Jefferson and magazine to Louisiana and St.

Charles, so we may have five blocks open that we're cleaning at one time.

So clearly um there's a lot of area.

But would it I I guess my question more directly is would it be helpful for your teams to have law enforcement sort of escorting them to help get these people know that they have to move and they can't just linger?

Yeah, and we and we do, I don't want to diminish that we do have an uh NOPD with us, but I think a dedicated force that that drove down the neutral ground and and instructed people to vacate maybe on the loudspeaker would certainly be helpful.

So this year it didn't seem like there was um coordinated enforcement of uh the Mardi Gras rules.

I know you said you don't really pick up the unattended ladders, the tarps, the ladders that are put out way before the parades, et cetera.

Do you know what agency was tasked to do that?

I just I do not.

Uh and we don't have parks and parkways here, we don't have uh NOPD here either to answer that.

I uh the point is we need more.

Why don't you come out for a second?

I think you can ask some of your questions.

Thanks.

Good morning.

Good morning, Austin.

Hey, who was tasked with enforcing the Mardi Grab rules this year?

What agency?

My understanding is that uh Chief Goodley and OPSO uh was supporting and um but that did not extend to all the routes as I understand it.

So also we had uh NOPD third district along the uh endyman route.

Um and I I also uh assisted with that effort as well, mainly because we were trying um to avoid overtime for some of our departments that had not done overtime projections in general, to the extent I can try to keep my departments off of overtime.

That's what I'm I'm trying to do.

Um so uh in that event I went out there with a couple with Carlos and uh Terry from Safety and Permanents who were kind enough to support.

Did you actually remove any uh items, tarps, ladders, things that were put up too soon or left too late?

Uh yes, ma'am, and um happy to share the the uh pictures um uh uh about uh a trucks worth or or dually's worth of materials.

For over the course of the case.

Um that was that was one of the days uh the I did it twice um and the the second day was more fruitful, let's say.

I mean, of course that's not our uh objective.

We'd we'd uh to try to take people's items, but the second day uh did yield more in terms of the quantity of items we removed.

Do you know what day that was?

What parade day?

I can certainly get that for you if you just give me one second.

Okay, yeah, look, I I live not far from the parade route.

I can tell you on Museus Thursday, for example, people were setting up overnight.

On the bigger parade days, people were setting up overnight.

This is a consistent issue because RTA needs to run so that people can get to and from work, school jobs, and they're not able to because they're being blocked by people who aren't necessarily respectful to our our Mardi Gras traditions and not necessarily from here.

Um I can tell you that I have these complaints about people being on the parade route, people blocking ladders being in front of people.

I mean, it's it just was the wild west, and so I don't quite understand what enforcement was happening uh during the entire Mardi Gras season, especially during the bigger parades.

I I I completely agree, and I definitely think there's room for improvement.

I think uh I don't want to take credit for this idea because it was actually Matt Matt's idea, but um do you want to talk a little bit about the private hallowers and FPSO?

I I mean I think what became clear this year was that city gu city agencies were constrained.

Um so that if the city is serious about enforcing it, we may need to look for uh third parties private private support for the actual removal efforts, right?

As long as they can have support from a law enforcement agency, and that doesn't necessarily have to be NOPD.

I think anybody who's out on a parade route understands that, and you alluded to it that people don't enjoy being told to do things that they don't want to do, and we can and can become confrontational, and when you have folks that are out on that parade route on a daily basis, they may encounter those same persons on a different day, not with whatever police contingency was with them, and that interaction can go poorly.

But it's a good thing.

Yeah, look, we certainly don't want to make Mardi Gras punitive, but at the same time we have families, citizens, folks from New Orleans who can't see a parade, who can't get home, who can't get to school or work because there's stuff on the neutral ground that hasn't been picked up.

So I think we need to look ahead to next year to figure out who specifically is going to play points when we get complaints.

Who are we sending those to so that there can be a strike team that goes out to tell Bob from Shalmet to move his tent and his giant ladders?

I mean, you know, there just have to be things put into place that we as district B need to know who we can complain to because much Mardi Gras rolls through District B, and we're getting all the complaints, and then we're sending them around the city to try to figure out who can address these, and we didn't really have a point person for that.

The other thing that I want to bring up while you're here, Austin, are complaints about the barricades that are still sitting out along St.

Charles Avenue.

We've gotten probably 15 complaints about those barricades.

They're still sitting out there.

Do we have a timeline on when they will be picked up?

Um I meet with uh uh Steve Nelson tomorrow at 9 a.m.

Um, and I will uh talk to Shannon and I believe Shannon's team uh deployed those barricades, if I'm not mistaken, so I'll get an update to you on that as well.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Council Brews.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I'll be brief.

Uh Matt, I just wanted to publicly uh thank your hard work and employees for the yeoman's effort that they put in uh throughout Mardi Gras.

The city just holds them a tremendous debt of gratitude, and I just wanted to put that on the record.

So thank you.

Appreciate that.

I'll be sure to share that with them as well.

A lot of ditto today.

Um before you guys go, a couple of things.

First off, I do think we're gonna have to clarify the law because right now we say four hours before parade route, and I can tell you in conversations with my office with OPSO, they interpret it as we go out exactly four hours before the route and do a sweep.

The problem you have on the endemion route, for example, is people are setting up on Wednesday for endemnium.

And what I will say, and I'll be as candid as possible, Mardi Gras takes place in more places than New Orleans.

But the behavior and the entitlement you see in this city, you do not see in other places.

No one sets up for parades in Jefferson three days in advance because JPSO would not stand for it, and neither would Jefferson Parish.

And the same residents from Jefferson Parish, St.

Bernard, St.

Tammu come here to enjoy Mardi Gras, they don't want ladders and trash in front of their houses, but they're happy to set up ladders and trash on our thoroughfares, and we're done with it.

Um to your point, Matt, and I think this was during God, maybe first term last mayor, there was one day where the mayor actually had a third party go down, go down uh St.

Charles and caught up all of this, all of the chairs, all the ladders, and the behavior changed almost immediately when there was a sense of enforcement.

But to your point, that only happened because a third party was hired to do it because you're your people can't be everywhere.

I mean, if they had to deal with the pre-parade cleanup and the post-parade cleanup, the overtime would be the overtime itself is an issue, but to your point with the parade starting earlier, you cannot have people working 16-hour days.

So to your point, I want to say that before Mardi Gras started, I made the comment publicly that enforcement would not be what it could be because of constraints with our budget.

And there were some people in the media who said, no, no, no, the sheriff says they're gonna do enforcement.

We all knew that was never gonna work.

Because a sheriff telling people four hours before a parade to move their stuff doesn't even put a debt in the problems that y'all are facing.

I do hope that as we dig ourselves out of this financial quagmire, we do have the wherewithal to have the funding available to have third party support you, Matt, because that's what it's gonna take to do enforcement.

I mean, we will have to pay a little bit overtime for NOPD or some other party to go out there with them, but once people see enforcement's gonna happen, then that may change their behavior.

The other thing I want to highlight, Matt, and you could talk about this.

People who complain about our enforcement do not realize that a large amount of those tarps and those ladders don't go home with people, they stay for your people to clean up, right?

Yes.

We speak to that for a second.

How much how much of the tons of trash are left over tents, tarps, ladders, debris furniture, or things that start Mardi Gras very pretty, but end up being trash we have to dispose.

I mean, on Mardi Grad Day, which is that primary day where things become disposable, they're an investment.

People buy them for this for the pure intent of using the near Mardi Gras, but they don't leave with it.

You're right.

So it's left there, and Mardi Grad Day is a major undertaking.

So we start cleaning up behind Zulu, 8 a.m.

on Mardi Grad Day.

We don't finish at broad in Orleans until 1 a.m.

It's a full day of cleaning uptown and downtown because everything that people have bought, tarps, ladders, tents, coolers, grills, are left because they're they're disposable things that were only intended to last that two weeks of Mardi Grad.

Right.

So I mean I I know that sometimes we get the Chad to call us up and go, you're impinging upon my right to party.

And there's an assumption the public has that when someone puts that nice chair out of that ladder, they're gonna gleefully pick it up and bring it home.

But the reality is they get their use out of it, and then it becomes a tremendous amount of debris that our workers have to deal with because these people had no intention of ever picking this stuff up.

And it's just it goes beyond just being unfair because uh in a lot of ways this is tremendously unfair to the people in the sanitation department.

It goes towards a sense of abject entitlement that our entire city exists to serve other people's whims.

And like I said, I mean, the law is the law, we need to give you more tools to enforce the law.

Um we're gonna look at our existing municipal offenses, our traffic offenses, um, to be able to give the NOPD more wherewithal to actually write tickets to people on the spot, because the reality is that's kind of where we're at this point.

It's not a point of it's not realistic for you, Matt, ever to be in a position between the parades, the last weekend of Mardi Gras, that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, to be able to go in between and have a third party pick up those trap pick up those tarps and those ladders because the parades are pretty much on top of each other.

I mean, that's Sunday after before Orpheus is about the only time you can actually clean up for that whole weekend.

So we're gonna get more aggressive, we're gonna figure out ways to enforce the law in ways that don't over talk over tax sanitation.

But we appreciate all your hard work and look forward to working with you as well.

All right, thank you guys.

Next up we have the the highlight of the meeting I guess, which will be the discussion of incidents and concerns regarding Mardi Gras Carnival crews, including the crews of Carolton, Toth, Tux, Ferret, Ocean, and Zulu was supposed to be on that list, but they were not, so I'll add them to the list verbally.

Why don't we just go in order?

Uh Carrollton, why don't you guys come up?

Come up to the table up front.

Representative Carrollton.

All right.

And just for the record, we have had some uh meetings with some of the crews beforehand, so we are aware of some of the what'll be disclosed today.

Go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Councilman.

Thank you, all the councilman.

My name is Wayne Lee.

I've been the captain of the crew of Carrollton for over 30 years.

Our president, Mr.

Youngblood has been president for over 25 years.

So you can see there's a consistent leadership in the crew.

Um it doesn't change.

I want the council to know that although we are a parade, we're not just a parade.

We do many, many things during the year.

Uh we do a lot of social work that we work with uh different organizations.

We actually started a fundraiser for a crew of Alex, which is MF1.

Uh we did a $10,000 donation to the children's hospital.

We do AUK of New Orleans, does our throws, uh boots for us every year.

They decorate the boots that are thrown.

And we did children's uh TV with WYES, just to name a few from this past year.

I also want you to know that in all my years as captain, this is the first time I've been called before the council.

Yes, we did have some issues in our parade, and we have addressed those issues.

We take them very seriously.

As soon as the parade was over, we talked with uh the police department.

We called Mr.

Morel's office and set up a meeting with him.

We weren't walking away from any of these issues.

We addressed them all independently, and all have been handled.

So we look forward to staying as a parading organization and uh moving forward for the next year.

Thank you.

I want to highlight a couple of things that I think are gonna lead to some changes going forward.

So one of the challenges Carlton had when we had our conversations was there was no police report generated from the incident, correct?

That is correct.

And there was no names, um, there was no uh presentation of any victims who could be questioned, and there was no video, correct?

That is correct.

So Carrollton is still to the best of their ability investigating the incident, but one of the things that we are gonna change going forward is working with NOPD to change policy of when an incident happens.

When an incident occurs, because one of the first things Carrollton did when this occurred was ask for all that information.

And as I recall, one of the things you guys told NOPD at the time was if somebody was doing that, you should arrest them.

Absolutely.

So we're gonna have to substantially change NOPD policy so that there is a track, uh a record of what occurred so that the parties who did the work can be held accountable and that there can be an investigation for which crews could actually handle what happened.

I mean, if nothing else, I think that what this has shown is that when you're dealing with enforcing the rules, there has to be a chain of evidence in order for us to do it, and because these rules and enforcement are new, there was a lack of communication with NOPD and maintaining that chain.

So I appreciate the fact y'all reached out to us.

I appreciate the fact that you've taken this very seriously, and I am a big proponent of dealing with things prospectively, so we're gonna change some of the policies going forward so that when something like this happens, both the city and the parade are held accountable so that we can figure out who did what so we can get to the bottom of it.

We appreciate that.

All right.

We don't want those kind of routers in our parade.

Right.

So just so everyone knows, we're gonna have all the crews come up first, and then we have a host of comments.

We're gonna take those comments up at the end.

So thank you very much, crew of Carrollton.

Next up, we'll have the crew of TOF.

Good morning.

My name is uh Pendleton Larson.

I've been uh captain of the crew of Toath for 37 years, and uh along me with me is uh Raven Carreras, who's been on the board of directors is now president, has been president for 10 years.

Uh our parade consists of 40 floats and 2400 members.

We uh have grown substantially from 175 to 2400.

Uh we we would we had we were in constant contact with our parade marshal, which we have three parade marshal cars or three parade marshal vehicles in the parade, and uh one being uh Paul Lehman, who's a parade marshal for quite a few parades.

Uh I was in constant contact with him.

Uh I did not find out about the incident on float 32 until after the parade was over.

Uh the uh float 32 had 48 riders on it.

The riders they have they have uh each float has a lieutenant and two sub lieutenants.

The sub lieutenants were not made, they were asked that would question well.

I questioned them, and some of my officers questioned each one of the riders on the float, and they were told uh we were told that uh the NLPD stopped the float, they said they were throwing aggressively, and they were all removed from the float.

Uh I questioned a few, my officers questioned a few, and they all said the same thing.

All the NFD did was say they were throwing hard and they took them off the float.

Uh that's the extent of it.

I I spoke with uh Captain Mishu after the parade, and he said he had uh uh some uh witnesses and some uh uh some film, but we have yet to see anything.

I've been out the country for the last few weeks, so uh since Mardi Gras I haven't been able to contact with him again, but I have not received any phone calls or any emails to that effect.

Um but you know, anyone that has ridden a parade knows that people throw things, and sometimes people are looking and they turn their head.

Uh I I myself have hit babies in the face, not intentionally, but uh sometimes the parents turn away, uh they're looking at the cell phones, et cetera, et cetera.

Uh but we're working with us and beat supplier for a way to eliminate some of the heavy throws because I feel that some of these things are getting really heavy, and uh it's it's it's become a problem.

Uh so we we're working with them to see if they can individually bag these things uh so that we have a much lighter load as far as throwing the beads.

Some of some of the beads are just too heavy.

And we're gonna eliminate some of the beads from uh from uh our floats.

Anything above a 12 millimeter will be eliminated.

Uh and uh that that's even you know the major league baseball has even put up uh nets on both sides of first base and third base after a hundred years because people are not paying attention.

They're just uh they're not aware of what's going on, and they're looking at mostly it's because of cell phones, they're looking at cell phones, and uh we will do whatever we have to do as far as the uh the with the city work with the city and the police department to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Uh but as far as float 32, I was not um made aware of this until after the Mardi Gros parade, the parade itself.

Well like I said previously, I did not have a meeting with you guys before this meeting today.

So I have to ask the questions that need to be asked.

So, first off, have you been in communication with NOPD to obtain those videos or any reports or anything else?

Uh I asked by uh Captain Ishu and he said he would get with me, but I have not heard anything yet.

Okay.

Um has any disciplinary action been taken with Float 32?

It will be.

Will be.

Yes.

Once you have the information that you need.

Yes.

Um I want to ask a very specific question, and it's gonna seem very this is not related to float 32, it's related to throws.

So as you know, the rules were changed in an effort, just so the public knows.

A lot of people complain about throws and don't like certain types of throws.

The reality is that, and the crews know this, we cannot restrict what types of throws are thrown because of First Amendment rights.

We cannot tell crews you can't throw this thing or you can't throw that thing.

The way we address it is we have an ordinance which says all throws are to be pre-approved by crews, correct?

Yes, sir.

My question today is I received numerous complaints about political throws being thrown from the crew of TOAF.

And I'm wondering, because I know when I met with crew of Carlton, they gave me a very, I think Julia may have it.

They gave me like a three-page contract, everyone has to sign saying that they know all the rules of Mardi Gras, and that is one of the rules.

Have you heard of any of any complaints about political throws being thrown?

No, sir.

No, not a word.

But we do the same thing.

We have a uh a list of bylaws and uh rules and regulations.

This is a throw that one of the kids from my kids' school got thrown to them.

Okay.

Not only is it offensive because this meme is like five years old, so no one even gives a crap about let's go brand anymore, but this is the stuff still being thrown by TOAF.

There has to be a mechanism.

The whole reason why crews have lieutenants on the float is their job is to make sure people are not breaking the rules, right?

Yes.

There has to be a more aggressive effort by your lieutenants to police throats.

We all know, very few crowds.

I point that one particular penny because I don't know.

Some crews throw out shirts.

I'm not aware of toe throwing to brand t-shirts.

We we throw only tote brand t-shirts that have a seal on it that says approved the crew of tote item.

There has to be a greater effort by you to educate your riders, because when they throw stuff like this, every single person that receives it stops thinking about the the crew of toath starts by children's hospital.

Yes.

Everyone who loves toath loves the fact that you guys focus on kids.

One of those throws ruins Mardi Gras for a child.

There has to be a greater effort, not just to educate your riders, but there has to be an effort by all crews that when riders do bad behavior, you need to call them out and kick them out.

Because it undermines well, I know, but like I said, beyond the fact it's a meme that's like super old and no one even paid interesting anymore.

It's just somebody felt comfortable pushing their own political messaging on a child in a family that sent me that shirt because they were so offended by it.

And a lot of us value the mission of TOTH.

You guys should be as angry as I am that somebody ruined Mardi Gras and TOF for a family.

And I need all the crews to be much more on the ball.

Now these lieutenants need to be watching what's going on like a hawk because had your lieutenant been watching, they would have known that one out.

And that's just one.

I don't know how many this guy threw that day.

Just one family reached out to me and said we want to give you this because it really ruined their experience because they're big fans of TOEF.

So like I said, we're gonna have a conversation with NOPD.

We're gonna change the policy of LPD because I will acknowledge first and foremost, you can't be expected after the fact to deal with something without the evidence being presented to you.

Because I can promise you, we've all been from grade school to college, everyone does the finger pointing in the circular, or they all say nothing.

And you can't enforce the rules without evidence, we're gonna do a better job of giving that evidence to you.

Yes, sir, we will.

All right, thank you, Peter.

And uh I promise you that uh anyone that does anything, we've already told Captain Mishu, if someone in our parade does something, arrest them.

I think that is the you say that's the consistent message.

I think that NOPD needs to err on the side of setting examples and not on the side of trying to get the parade going along.

And I will say also there needs to be an effort before we clear floats.

If we know who the bad actors are, we should be taking out the bad actors with specificity.

Because when you clear a whole float and we don't identify who the people are who are doing the bad act, it actually makes it harder to prosecute and deal with them afterwards.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Next up, Tuxtelling.

Good morning.

All right, floor is yours.

Good morning.

My name's Mark Frischert.

I'm on the board of directors of the crew of Tux, and I was tasked with primarily investigating the incident that happened during our parade where we had a rider throwing offensive throws to children in our, you know, in the community.

And to piggyback on something you just stated, councilman.

Our goal as a parade is to put on a show for everyone to enjoy, and secondarily to use some satire to poke fun at mostly the city of New Orleans, sometimes the government, but our number one goal is for people who come to see the crew of Tux to enjoy our parade.

And so when we have a rider engage in conduct that objectively is at least racial racial racially insensitive and at worst, overtly, you know, racist, it harms our organization, it harms us, and it's especially important, and I I've met with some of you.

Um, not only this country, but Mardi Gras has a history of racism.

Okay, overt racism, and not just five, you know, not just 50, 60, 100 years ago in the 1990s.

Parades said we're not parading anymore because the city council passed a law requiring integration.

And it's something we at the crew of talks are particularly harmed by because we are not that organization.

We have never been an exclusionary organization.

We were started from our inception in 1969 to the present.

We allow not only allow, we invite people of all backgrounds, men, women, black, white, gay, straight.

It has been our diversity has been our strength.

And so when we have an incident like this involving two of our riders, it harms the people, obviously, who were offended by the throw, but it also harms us, harms the city, and for that we are greatly sorry.

Um we have performed, as you, you know, to to kind of I guess preempt some of your questions, we performed an investigation of this incident, and everything I say now is part of our investigation.

It's not, I'm not trying to justify or defend anyone's conduct, or I'm just trying to present the facts to the council.

We were able to gather lots of photos and videos from both.

We have an area where our parade is officially videoed and photographed by someone associated with the crew.

We also scoured social media.

Um as a result of that gathering, and we issued a statement during Mardi Gras to this effect.

Our board met and we unanimously decided to permanently ban two of the riders that were on float 22.

Um we did that pursuant to the authority this council has indirectly given parades by stating that anything that's not a sanctioned throw by the crew of Tux, we have the authority to control what is thrown from our parades.

Now beyond that, we've gone through the process of reviewing what can we do to prevent things like this in the future.

And it's especially difficult, and in our case, it may involve more monitoring, more education by our captains, because in this case, unlike a Go Brandon shirt, which is directly political, offensive, we had dolls and beads, which separated, would have passed while neither the beads nor the dolls were you know throws that were purchased through the crew or talks.

Their beads and that if we would separate it, we would have allowed riders to throw from our flute.

And so what we need when we now reviewing how to prevent this from happening in the future, we need people who are more attuned to you can't get on a float and do things that objectively people will view as offensive, no matter what your intent is.

And I say no matter what your intent, because as part of our investigation, you know, people sent us photos of him dangling white dolls, him dangling black dolls, him hanging white dolls off the side of the float, him hanging black dolls off the side of the float.

And this wasn't part of our consideration in making the decision that we made to ban these riders.

We don't I can't get into someone's heart.

What I can do is say that type of throw is offensive and has no place in our parade, and that's the decision we made.

Furthermore, there was some additional discussion or feedback to us regarding our float to begin with.

And I can report to the council on that.

Our float was the sewage and waterboard flute.

It was supposed to be cracked pipe.

We've met with the float builder Kern.

It wasn't painted that way.

As some of you may know, Mardi Gar organizations, especially ours, and I can't speak for others, were put on by solely volunteers.

And there's really one primary float builder, float designer in the city.

A lot of those floats, the paint's still wet when they're going down the float.

And so while I can't defend, I can say our goal was to be critical of the sewage and waterboard's failing piping system.

And that was our sole goal.

And if you look at the design of the float and what we published in the paper, you know, that's what it was supposed to say.

We've taken actions and we're continuing to review our policies to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

And um obviously I'm here to answer any questions anyone has.

Council Brees.

Thank you very much, Mr.

President.

Uh good morning.

Um I'll begin by saying, you know, for me as a native of the city, um, I I have great memories in my heart of being a child.

I would look forward to going to Mardi Gras every year.

Um I have to admit that Mardi Gras this year was heavy for me.

It was heavy for a lot of people.

And it's getting a little bit out of control at this point.

I know we're using words like incident, and and I notice all the crews are not really speaking with specificity, so let's get a little specific.

The incident that you're talking about was exactly.

Oh, as I and I we had a rider who took a Mardi Gras bead, wrapped it around the neck of dolls, in this case an African American doll, and were handing them to children in this case.

Uh in the the particular case that um that was brought to our attention, the bee was handed to an African American child, and it was considered very offensive, and the parents of that child had to have a conversation with their child that they probably weren't wanting to have in that moment about that history and about why it was offensive.

And so, yeah, that's this particular incident that we're talking about.

Okay, you you used the term, you use two terms, and I appreciate it.

Um you you used the term racially insensitive, and then you used the term racist.

Right, two totally different things.

So I want to ask all three of you.

In this situation, do you feel that this incident was racist?

I I don't know.

Um, and the reason why I don't know is I don't know this rider's heart.

I think, and when I say that, um we have 2700 riders, this is not one of the riders.

Like many Mario organizations, we've grown drastically, and we no longer, you know, 20 years ago, I had at least maybe a one or two degree of separation from a lot of people that wrote in our parade.

I don't know this rider, and so it's hard for me to speak to his intent.

What I can what I can say is I view it as objectively racist imagery to have an African American doll hanging from a bead by the neck.

Yeah, and that and that's what I'm asking.

I'm not asking you to get in the rider's head.

I'm asking from your perspective and your perspective and your perspective, do you feel this was a racist act?

Yes, I think objectively it was, and that's what we put in our.

I mean, I drafted the original the we found this out at around 8 30 uh Saturday night, our parade rolled at noon on Saturday.

Yeah, and I put out a statement, you know, within minutes, and that's how we described it exactly how you're saying.

Okay.

I'm Lloyd Frischurts.

I am the captain of Tux.

I started Tux along with uh Bob Reichett, the father of the gentleman to my left.

Uh 58 years ago, I've been captain.

Uh we uh it's hard for me to see it is racist because I don't have anything like that in my heart, and uh for 58 years we've never presented anything like that.

So I don't know the definition.

I do, and I uh the action we took didn't have to uh come to that determination, it was racially insensitive.

Uh it was uh for somebody to say, well, I can do it, you know, because I had a white dog doing it and not a black.

Uh they had an article in the paper by some uh uh some of the uh uh well known uh religious leaders, and he said, if you don't understand that because you had it with a white and a black, that it's not that's okay.

They said, come talk to us and we'll explain it to you.

And I see that, and that's how I see it.

Uh uh does racism cause somebody to be motivated to do something that's racial racially insensitive.

I don't know.

Uh I do know that uh um our investigation showed that uh these people are not normally what you would call the a type of racist person, but I can't tell as clearly something that is insensitive, racially insensitive.

We won't tolerate that.

Haven't tolerated it in 58 years, uh, and we're not going to tolerate it in the future, and we have come together where we can we can scrutinize in the action of the parade, and that's in other words, like Mark said, you take the bead and you take the doll, there's nothing wrong with it.

All right.

We we didn't think we got to go further than that to monitor throughout throughout the parade.

All right, thank you.

But I guess we do.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Robert Ragert, son of uh Tuck's founder Bobby Rikard, pleasure to be here and address these things.

And I agree with everything Mark and Lloyd said as a board, we've gone through this countless days and hours, very troubling and very painful, but also very important to go over it.

One thing that I I just want to go back to my very direct question.

Do you feel this was a racist act as a whole, as a whole, objectively, we we don't know.

I don't think it was done on purpose.

What I want to say though, truthfully, is that appearance-wise, yes, it's racist.

Okay, however, one thing that's important is that what that little girl felt was racism.

And it's an unfortunate thing that they had to have that conversation.

So whether or not you ask our opinions of this or not, it's that they had to have that conversation.

Well, I have to have to ask your opinion.

I'm I'm gonna chime in here, and I'm I'm trying to be calm, and Mr.

President, I'm probably gonna excuse myself in a minute.

Um, so that I can maintain my temperament.

Let me just say a couple things.

It's a shame that in 2026, we're still having to have certain conversations.

And you talked about maybe the crew needing to do education.

The frightening part for me is that I don't think, given some of the responses today, that the crew is even equipped to properly do education on this issue.

You know, none of us can control the family we're born into the color of our skin, but we can't ignore the deep dark past of this great country we call America.

I can't ignore my 95-year-old grandmother who served at a counter at Woolsworth, the counter that she couldn't even eat at.

I can't ignore the fact that her grandparents were not born free in this great country that we call America.

And I can't ignore the fact that when I see beads tied around the necks of a black female doll, it reminds me of the people that was lynched in this country.

There was not a damn thing good about that incident.

Not a damn thing.

And we have to acknowledge that.

And we can't properly educate people if we're not gonna acknowledge it.

The act was racist, plain and simple.

And it has no place in Mardi Gras.

And it has no place in our city.

And it's a horrific reflection of everybody.

My family didn't have a 400-year head start, and I don't wear that on my sleeves.

But we've all got to take time, take a deep breath, and understand history, and understand why that was an act of racism.

And then and only then can we properly educate our crew and make sure that this doesn't happen again.

So if you want to come spend some time with me and have some direct heart-to-heart conversations where you can get to know me and I can get to know you, because I'm not accusing any of you at this table of being racist.

Let me be clear.

But the act was racist.

Period, point blank, end of discussion.

And we can't justify it in any shape, form, or fashion.

So my invitation remains open.

Anytime you want to take me up on it, I look forward to it.

With that, thank you, Mr.

President.

We look forward to meeting with you.

Council Barrish.

Yeah, I look, I'm I'm sitting up here shaking my head at things like don't know the definition of racism.

It seemed to be racist.

It's unfortunate that they had to have that conversation with their child.

When you all should have had a conversation with your crew and the people who sub, because my understanding is these were two subs, correct?

Or were they crew members?

But we don't have the they were riders in our parade.

We don't have a separate definition of crew member and rider.

If you're you you you if you sign up for our parade, you're a rider.

I either way, your riders need to understand what they can and cannot throw.

And as the only black woman sitting up here, and as one of two women sitting up here, the action was not only racist, it was sexist because they were stringing up white dolls that as well.

Black and white female dolls.

So your crew and your riders need to be educated about what they can and cannot throw, what is sexist and what is racist, which sitting here we all know, both sexists and racist, were those actions.

Yes, that's the riders had to actively go purchase Barbie dolls, unwrap them, string them up, and then throw them to people.

Correct?

Yes.

Do you know how many Barbie dolls they had with them?

We our investigation revealed they had 30 white dolls and 30 African American dolls.

At least that's what we were told.

And and none of the captains, none of the lieutenants of your on that particular float asked these people why they had Barbie dolls and what they were doing with them.

They did not.

I don't think they saw them before the the parade started.

Where were these two riders located on the float?

They were on the upper deck mid-float.

Mid-float.

So that means the two riders who were stringing up these dolls were punished, but not the people on either side of them who look.

I I ride, I know you see what other people are doing, and neither of the people next to them said anything to either the people who were throwing these racist and Texas dolls, or to the lieutenant.

That's my understanding.

What is your board composition look like?

Our board composition is made up of it rotates every couple of years.

Right now there are three women and five men.

Are any of those men or women African American?

They are not.

That's a problem, right?

And this is a problem with many of the crews that are out here doing these things.

You literally don't know if this is racist or sexist.

That's because your board members have no idea.

It's not in their heart to know whether or not this is racist or sexist.

It objectively is.

As council member Hughes do not interrupt me.

I'm sorry.

Councilmember Hughes said objectively racist, and I say objectively sexist.

And the fact that your board members board members could not clock this before it happened is a problem.

You need, and I say this to all the crews, you need to make sure that you have board members who look like New Orleans.

So that they can say this is objectively racist.

This is objectively sexist.

Now I know Councilmember Morrell is talking about a registry making sure that these two riders can't get on other crews and do the same thing.

And I support that because these two people, and you can probably interview them to ask what's in their hearts, but either way, stringing up female dolls and tossing them to the crowd.

Objectively racist, objectively sexist, they do not need to be on any other float ever.

Or Mardi Gras in the city of New Orleans.

You done, Leslie.

She's done multiple, multiple re multiple different ways she's done.

Um to the point that Councilman Harris said, so one thing that's come out of this, and I've really struggled with this because of the legal ramifications.

We are working on the possibility of putting together a registry of band riders.

Now the challenge is in this instance is that it is not legally permissible to make laws retroactive.

And the problem we have with this particular incident is because the registry will exist after the behavior occurred, it is problematic to deal with this incident retroactively.

But what this has taught me is that the existing penalties for bad behavior are not enough.

Whether you're lynching dolls, whether you're throwing beads at different people based upon their um political views or the color of their skin, riders need to know.

And this is part of the challenge we have riders ride in multiple parades.

For those of you who don't ride, I don't really ride, but many riders ride in three, four, five parades.

And so the way things stand, if you ban someone from one parade, that does not mean they're banned from the other parades.

So going forward, what we're working on, and we're navigating the legal ramifications of it to make sure we can do it in a legal manner, is that going forward, when a rider is banned from a crew for violating city ordinances, that rider goes into a registry saying they were banned from crew X.

Now, what that does is crew crew Y, Z, A and B can still have them, but at that point the liability is on that crew that if you have someone that committed a bad behavior and you publicly know who they are, do you take that risk?

And I will tell you, and these crews are here to tell you as well, they're not.

Because once you've done something that resulted in a ban, the liability that goes on that crew once that bad behavior is known, no one wants to take that.

So we are working on this redressary language.

It is going to be a challenge, but it's something that is necessary because riders need to know that just because you got into the cups and had a bad behavior, there's no way to wave a wand for everyone to forget it.

And the sanctity of Mardi Gras that is taxpayer funded and taxpayer supported is paramount.

So we as a city, Mardi Gras will continue to evolve as the city goes forward to address the bad behavior of people on the float and off the float.

And to that angle, you also know you had a confetti cannon situation.

Yes.

Yes.

Do you want to address that really quickly?

Yes, one of the elements, I mean, obviously minor compared to the issues that we have already discussed.

But one of the elements in our parade was uh fired off a myelon confetti cannon, which is banned by the council for good reason because if it can cause a power issue.

Um we understand uh we I mean it it wasn't a direct element, but we take responsibility for it.

Okay, so there'll be a fine incoming for that, as you know.

We know and we really educate our people about it, uh members, uh Rod is this was actually uh someone with uh French who rides in a parade and who paints throughout the parade, and this was that was the element, and apparently he didn't get the education that our members uh uh that's our fault we've corrected that.

Okay.

Um I know there'll be a slew of public comment on this, but this that's all I have for you guys right now.

Next up, we have let's see.

Ferret?

Yeah, Ferret's up.

Before you get started, Bobby, I do want to publicly state Ferret was really on top of this when the council brought all this to their attention.

They responded very, very quickly in addressing our concerns and trying to rectify the problem and trying to figure out a way forward.

So I just want to make sure because out of all the crews, when we m when we noticed a problem, you guys immediately reached out to us, and I want to commend you for that.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Bobby.

Um, first and foremost, I just want to thank uh you, Mr.

President, the council for uh giving us an opportunity to to speak today.

Um let me just address the confetti cannon incident.

Uh we take full responsibility for that.

I can sit here and and and tell you reasons why it happened, but this isn't a moment for uh excuses, it's in a moment for accountability.

Uh and we take full accountability for for that happening.

Um, you know, sometimes no matter how many times we tell people not to do things, some somehow they still manage to sneak their way into the parade.

Ummediately upon realizing this, we began to discuss additional measures that we can take to prevent this from happening in the future.

Uh there are several new measures that we will be taking this year uh to continue to work towards making sure that nothing even ends up on a float that could potentially be uh a violation.

Uh so that's what we're doing going forward, and we understand fines will be uh will be levied and we will pay those immediately.

Okay, and that also I guess uh deals with the issue with uh coozies as well, right?

Yes, sir.

And and so uh is as far as the coozies go, let me just say this, and I can say this with a with with complete honesty.

Um those koozies were not created by the crew of Ferret, they were not created for uh the crew of Ferret to throw.

Uh those koozies were created um as a giveaway that were handed out during our load-in process.

Um it is common for people to hand out free items um during that process.

Somehow a box of them managed to make it on a float.

Um, and I think uh, you know, the rest is history.

Um it let me say this, Councilman Morel.

I I agree with you completely in your sentiment about this.

Absolutely completely, 100%.

Um besides issues involving public safety, there are no more important rules in Mardi Gras than the rules that protect our cultures and tradition and prevent it from being corporate.

Mardi Gras must never become corporate, it would ruin it.

And I agree with you completely.

Uh one issue that occurred this year that I did know about, uh, we created some soaps, some boxes of soaps that we had had a small company in New Orleans create.

Uh and their name was on the side of those boxes.

Uh and and while we thought it might be uh borderline, uh, we took the measure of taking 6,000 stickers the week of the parade to put over the name of that company to ensure that we didn't even come close to violating this ordinance.

So I I want this council to know that we take this absolutely seriously and would never do anything uh that would be even construed uh as commercial.

We made a mistake, and and as you said, we took immediate accountability for it.

Um we you know swiftly took action and we have now put new procedures in place to ensure that this um doesn't happen again.

You know, this year alone, uh we or not this year alone, within the last two years, we've eliminated over a million plastic beads from this delicate ecosystem by banning the throw throwing of plastic beads completely in our parade.

Um with the help of Council Member Harris's office, we were able to clean out catch basins all the way from Tipatinas to uh Callio.

Um we spent over a million dollars putting on our parade and after party this year.

Eighty percent of that was spent on local businesses located right here in the city.

Uh I'm not saying this because we uh we're doing this for accolades uh or attention.

Uh we do these things because New Orleans deserves it.

And we believe in this city, and we hope that this council and this body can continue to believe in us.

So thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Thank you.

So anyone make questions for Ferrett.

All right, thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Uh Ocean, this is real simple.

Um come on up, Giasco.

You come up there, come to the table.

Ocean fired off some confetti cannons, and they know they're gonna be fined for the confetti cannons.

Do you want to say anything briefly on your confetti cannons?

Um, no, I'm I was mortified just like you when I saw the video.

I could just apologize and say that we are gonna make steps and you know put steps in place to make sure it doesn't happen this year.

Okay.

All right.

Uh that being said, we'll now go to public comment.

All right.

Ryan Rain Hancock.

Oh, sorry, Zulu.

Uh sorry, come on up, Zulu.

Almost forgot y'all.

As far as we know, the the the Zulu incident was there was a bottle thrown from a from a uh from a float or accidentally thrown from a float as I understand it that struck a child.

Y'all want to address that?

Good morning, Darren Meyer, director of public relations for the Zulu Associated Pleasure Club.

Uh, we're here uh at your request uh to address the alleged bottle uh incident and in our parade with float, I believe 26 U.S.

Zulu float.

Uh I have here President of Zulu, uh Oscar J.

Righty, and we also have two members of our safety committee who led the who are leading the investigation into that incident.

Thank you, Brother Mark.

Good morning, counsel, and first thank you all for affording us the opportunity as we know that this is an extremely serious matter.

And as I've been the Zulu president the last nine months, we hit the ground running and trying to ensure that we protect and maintain safety, integrity, and unity across the city of New Orleans.

And as some of you know, those of you that don't know, we host an election for our characters, which kicks off our Mardi Gras season the last Sunday in May.

So beginning in the last Sunday in May, once those characters and existing float captains that there's very little turnover, uh, we begin to meet with those to discuss the rules and the regs of the Zulu Associated and Pleasure Club as it relates to the Mardi Gras parade as it relates to do's and don'ts on floats, what you throw, where you throw, and what you don't throw uh example, we hand Zulu coconuts, those that ride on the first level.

On the second level, coconuts are extremely prohibited.

But we also follow the ordinance of the city of New Orleans because we know it's a privilege for Zulu to parade on Mardi Grad Day, being one of the most demanded attended parades in the city.

And as we do that, it's important that we ensure that safety is our first priority in what we do for Maddig Gras.

So when we got the information as it relates to the U.S.

Zulu Float 26, we definitely was extremely alarmed of the allegement of a minor being hit on Mardi Grad Day.

And obviously, after two weeks, three weeks of preparing for Mardi Gras, at that point, I left town.

I left town on Wednesday morning.

However, I'm grateful and publicly want to thank these gentlemen, the public safety piece as well as the PR piece for taking the lead as it relates to the allegement of the individual being uh hit.

But make no bones about it.

Anyone that's caught not following the rules as well as the regulations and the ordinance of the city of New Orleans will be indefinitely suspended from participating in any Zulu Madigry activities.

So what we're doing, we're going back to stand up to put some more stringent barrails around what we're doing as it relates to Maddigras, because at the end, as I mentioned, it's a privilege.

And when these sorts of things happen, they're come with a cost and a cost, but not only the cost, the safety of an individual of a human being, and we're here to protect as we contribute and do the things that we do in the community 365 days a year.

And with that being said, I want to punt to Brother Joe Bilal so that he can give some additional information.

Yes, my name is Joe B.

Lau, and I am the safety committee chair for the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, and I have with me my co-chair, Mr.

Mark Delpitt.

Um so basically, once we found out about the incident, which was the night of the parade or the next day, um, we basically started our investigation.

Um right now, the investigation is still ongoing because we're waiting for our final piece, which is the New Orleans Police Department police report.

Um it was just completed, I think last week.

Uh, it's going through the approval process.

I would I've put in my request to receive a copy of that because I and my understanding with that report is some video footage and things of that nature from the local businesses around the area, which where the incident supposedly occurred.

Um so once we get that, we'll be able to complete our investigation.

But one thing I did want to let the council know within this incident of supposedly the child getting hit, and one of our riders actually got hit on that same float um that had to go to the hospital after that incident.

So that's one of the things that the public doesn't know.

Um, but I'm letting the council know right now.

So um once we do finish our investigation, we'll be able to have all the answers that we can to this alleged incident that occurred.

I don't know if you want to add anything.

Yeah, I just want to mimic um we're aggressively pursuing this investigation internally with Zulu, but you know, our hands are tied because uh we're waiting on NOPD.

We don't have the liberty to go out and and interview people while this investigation is going on with NOPD.

So once that's concluded, we'll have a better understanding of what would happen and and and and have a better answer for you guys and the president.

I do want to put one other thing on the record.

I know this is something it seems frivolous, but I have gotten complaints about television's air fryers being handed off float.

And I say that because the rules also exclude those things as well, because unless Zulu pre-approved every air fryer and fridge or getting up afloat, I know that they're a great novelty, and I know even when I was a kid, they hung that kind of stuff out, but it's important as a council that we say this is not allowed because you could have someone well intentioned trying to hand an air fryer or TV off the side of a float, trip, fall, and it hit somebody.

And the liability, I know as an attorney, I know you have a lot of attorneys in Zulu.

The liability of you hand out something that's not legally prohibited and it injures someone, that is not worth the risk.

And I know Nam Talk does it too, and I'm gonna talk to them separately because we got video of that much later in the situation.

But though these things are very funny and they're novelty, and it's kind of like the joke of Mardi Gras Day, the fact that they have a risk of injury means we have to take them seriously.

So just as you're educating your rides, because I mean, as I said previously, I remember when you could get hit in the head with a coconut.

That was like a right of passage.

And I got a really big old head, so I got hit a lot of times the head with a coconut.

And Zulu made a very difficult decision in stopping the throwing of coconuts because though it was a Mardi Gras tradition, it wasn't worth the risk.

And I want to say that publicly because when Zulu did that, that was one of the first crews that took accountability for something that was a tradition to make it safer.

And as y'all led in that regard, I need y'all to lead and say, listen, guys, if you want to do a giveaway of TVs, do it before after the parade, don't do it in the parade.

Because it's just one of those things where it's not worth the risk.

So I appreciate y'all being here today.

I look forward to the outcome of your uh investigation.

I think a common thread we're seeing is a lot of the crewers are waiting for the NOPD reports to figure out what to do because you are waiting for them to complete their investigations to complete yours.

So thank you for coming here today.

I appreciate your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

All right.

Public comments.

First up, we have Rain Hancock.

Or Ryan Hancock, if I pronounce that correctly.

Rain Ryan Hancock.

All right.

Next up, we have Ballerie Jefferson.

Valerie Jefferson, come on down, Miss Jefferson.

Okay.

Uh good um morning, uh, city councilman.

Uh I'm here representing the NAACP.

The president is Dr.

Ronald Coleman.

He asked me to come down because notice that on your agenda, you have a discussion about this.

And we want everybody to know that the NAACP is at the table discussing this, because this is uncalled for.

That justice shall be heard, justice and righteousness shall be done.

And we want you all to know that we support the city councilman.

We support the mayor because you all stood up and showed up for us.

What was done was uncalled for.

Thank you for speaking up for us.

I am a female, a proud black female.

I represent the NAACP in New Orleans, and we stand with you.

Thank you.

Chris Williams.

Followed by Hagerson.

Good morning, City Council.

My name is Chris Williams.

I represent uh Louisiana Grassroots United Acorn.

I come here today because as we know, Mardi Gras has always been a racist event.

My grandfather was on Canal Street when he was told that Mardi Gras was not for him.

Just two years ago, I was uptown north of Jackson Avenue between Napoleon and Jackson, and where all of the the uh uh ladders and everything is.

I was told this isn't the part of town that I should be in, that I should be down the street down by Jackson.

So we've had this problem, right?

Uh the crews, it's specific to this issue.

The crews are not selecting who the riders are.

They are taking people in and just taking the money, and whoever wants to go can go ride.

And there's been a history here of racism, and now we've reached with the current government that we have a insurgence of racism throughout the country.

We need to hold these crews accountable.

Uh we are proposing that you all uh do a $5,000 fine for some of these groups for their first infraction, and after the third infraction, that they refuse to have a permit to be allowed to parade.

You all control who parades in the city.

So you all have the responsibility to make sure that these citizens are safe and that these parades are not being racist towards our people.

It has come to our conclusion that a lot of these parades continue to be racist, and we need to hold them accountable.

Is that correct?

Absolutely not.

Okay.

The name's Alden Haggard on councilman.

Thank you.

I uh I submitted a couple of emails right after Mardi Gras regarding an incident that happened in front of my condominium at 3915 St.

Charles Avenue, and I was encouraged by council to come and address it today.

First of all, I'm very familiar with Mardi Grove.

I've been a member of crew at Toll since 1978.

Last time I was in the council chambers was to get a permit for ancient druids, I was one of the original founders of that crew, so I'm very familiar with Mardi Gras.

I'm more familiar with the city of New Orleans.

I've been a lifelong resident of the uptown for 71 years.

Every year we have an incident.

We've had an incident in front of a condo with 93 people that live in.

I'm the president of the HOA in that building at 3915 St.

Charles Avenue.

This year, again, it was one night, it was a night of Hermes and Cru d'Etat.

There was a tent that was put up by students from LSU, all freshmen from the conversation we heard, which means they weren't 21, because I don't know any freshmen in school that's 21 years old.

The tent took up the whole width of the neutral ground.

They had gas power generators out there playing music, most which could not be played publicly over airwaves because of the language.

And they drowned out bands, and yet a policeman walked up to them an hour and a half before the parade, told them what they had was illegal, and they needed to take it down.

I thanked the officer and said, thank you for enforcing it.

And he said, I can enforce it.

Somebody will.

Thank you.

Janet Tobias, followed by Jim Goodwin.

Good morning.

I want to repeat a quote from Dr.

Martin Luther King.

He said our lives begin to end today that we do nothing about things that matter.

We are here today because some of our neighbors are community members, they can't be here, but they gave me a list.

What matters to us?

Dogs at parade.

We have an artist on the book that's saying dogs shouldn't be at parades.

Smoking around elderly and babies.

That shouldn't happen.

They can cross the street on the other side of St.

Charles Avenue to smoke.

Solfas, ladders, and tent, blocking the view at the parades.

Float riders aggressively throwing Bs.

But we are here today because of the crew of toll tucks.

This is not the first year for Tuck.

Last year they had the middle finger pointing to Mayor Contrera.

These are things that we see.

But we they ought they probably be doing things we don't know anything about.

And so we are saying that this must stop.

And it must start with a fine.

Tell us the name of the riders so that they can be banned from all parades.

Float riders who are throwing they should be bought for five years.

And if the crew of tuck continue with this pattern, they shouldn't be able to ride in any parades again.

And also there is a way to throw B's.

When you throw them, you can you should throw them, not aggressively throw bees at all babies or whatever.

Parades are a time when family and friends get together and we have a good time.

We shouldn't be coming to parade, experiencing the foolishness we are starting to experience at parade.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Bias.

Next up, Jim Goodwin, followed by uh Mr.

Fridgers already spoke.

For sure.

Go ahead, Mr.

Goodwin.

Jim Goodwin, I live at 537 Verrett.

I'm here on my own behalf today, though I belong to numerous civic organizations.

I just have a few items for popcorn for the council's consideration just to think about.

Don't have time to expound on them in the limited time that I have here.

One of my main gripes is I think TARPs are misapplied because there are I go to Napoleon Street.

People observe it, which I'm proud of them for being that uh civil about it, because I don't really approve.

I'm inclined to raid the TARPs.

But anyway, so there needs to be some sort of restrictions about TARPs and how they allocate the space to those people.

Um also in regards to stuff that's left on the route, especially before things like ladders and stuff.

If they're leaving stuff unoccupied, it ought to be regulated that they have to label it with their name and address and phone number.

And if they don't, get rid of them.

All right.

Um I would like to encourage the uh further use over the long term, set deadlines and goals and that kind of thing on uh recyclables, especially biodegradables.

Um do have problems with enforcement on ladder positions less than six feet from the curb, and we also have chairs that are infringing on the street, and that's a safety matter.

So I don't know whether you ought to say three feet from the curb for chairs and bump ladders back to nine feet or whatever, but I think all those are should be set.

Um the uh um develop uh strategies, of course, which is the crew's responsibility to mitigate uh excessive delays.

Again, some people complain about that, and another personal note.

A lot of these come from some of my neighbors who go further down St.

Charles around Jackson and Felicity.

Um, but uh regulate the number of bands and uh correlate it to the number of floats just to make it more uh expeditious and uh recycled.

So that's really all I had.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you.

Uh Miss Bornez.

There you go.

I cannot read your first name.

That's why I said Miss Bornez, uh, followed by Miss Deborah Campbell.

Okay, my name is Alpinetta Barnes.

Bar, there you go.

Okay, okay.

I'm gonna tell my age.

I just made 73, December 7th, Pearl Harbor, the 11th year of Pearl Harbor.

Now, I was born doing the parades when blacks and black schools were not allowed to march, and they didn't have they didn't have uh life, so the flambook is the symbol of what they used in a poach life.

And what it is is that what I'm saying is that even though it was racist during that time, it looked like whether they kept it undercover, whatever, today these people are can express their racism through their throws.

Now, Demian threw at me, this is a throw.

When you throw like this a target, whether the mama, your daddy, your grandma, the husband that messing up, the wife that's messing up, and they have these targets.

And these targets, people, even when you're not even looking, you understand?

People who know you don't know.

So what I'm saying is, what is it?

The uh masks and stuff and the hating should be addressed in a different way.

Maybe they could use a uh eye mask uh heading, well, you could change that dressing of the head so you can identify.

You can put cameras on the floors as well in front of the floor, so you can see if any harm coming from the people out there.

My mama used to say, because they used to uh do gauze, Roman gods and and Ramagos and all that on the floors.

And my mom used to say, if it's saying like that, it's like you're you're worshiping them.

And I used to say, Well, look, if you think you're gonna worship them, you need to stay home.

So now it's a family-friendly thing, but now people can express themselves more when rather than hide their racism.

So I advise that cameras be put on these floors mandatory and in front of the floor so you can see the people who who catch the beans as well, and their hairdressing should thank you.

Uh next up we have Deborah Campbell, followed by Ida Warfield.

Good morning.

Thanks for having us today.

Thanks to the city council and the attendees for coming out to support what's happening in our city.

We're asking you to end the racist incidents against blacks and other people of color by Montigrade crew members, which have been subsidized by our tax dollars.

Implement a fine for each incident starting at $5,000 for each crew.

If a crew has three incidents, they can no longer parade in Orleans Parish.

The other problems at Mardi Gras implement a quick contact method for the public to file information and obtain a solution.

Thank you.

Just so y'all know, the amount that we can find is actually set by the legislature, and it is maxed at $500 per incident.

There are two bills that are going through the legislative session right now that deal with the incidents happened in Mardi Gras.

In order for us to have more fine authority, those bills would have to give us more fine authority.

So I appreciate that's up on y'all.

We'd love to have $5,000 fines.

We don't currently have them, but the either of those bills that are currently pending could expand that authority and give us more larger fines.

Uh next up we have Miss Warfield, followed by Bobby spoke.

All right, Miss Warfield.

Yes, my name is Ida Warfield.

I'm a member of the community voice organization, the Lower Ninth Ward Association, and the National New Orleans Association of Black Social Workers.

I am here as a grandmother today and a community member.

I am here to say I am appalled that my granddaughter had to see the hanging doll and the other aggressive behavior that these carnival crews have shown.

I feel that it was very hurtful, very disrespectful, and racist.

I hope that something is done in this city to correct this grave injustice.

My oldest my daughter went away to college and she chose not to come back to New Orleans after leaving Indiana University.

My granddaughter's going off to college after graduating next year.

She probably will not come back to this city.

Something needs to be done to correct all these errors and to make our children want to come back here and be productive.

Children, because we are losing a lot of great children because of the way the city is uh performing.

I think I hope something is done about it, and I thank you.

Thank you.

Robert Morton, followed by Virginia Saucy.

Good morning.

Uh, my name is Robert Morton.

I'm the president of a condominium at 4007 St.

Charles Avenue, uh directly next door to Mr.

Hagadorn's building.

Um Councilmember Harris's offers encouraged us to be here today to talk about the events of Friday night the 13th.

Um as Mr.

Hagenor described, large tents, generators, loud music, offensive music that drove our 62 families that live in our building off of the parade route in front of the building where they pay property taxes.

Between our two buildings, it's about 400,000 in assessed value, and they lost the ability to have Mardi Gras in front of their own homes.

That's a problem.

I also want to share with you a story from that night later on.

At one point, sheriff officers entered our building because we have big glass windows overlooking the parade route to start to identify people from the crowd, college-age students under these tents that had flags that resembled Fred's bar from Baton Rouge.

They were throwing things at each other and at the parade.

So the sheriff's officers entered our building, went upstairs to start identifying who it was.

After they did that, and they left that evening, the crowd then threw things at our building thinking that we were the ones involved in that.

Something has to be done to enforce the basic safety rules.

Gas-powered generators.

It's one step away of a major incident.

There's no reason that can't be policed beforehand.

Large speaker systems that eliminate the ability to hear anything.

There's no reason that can't be enforced.

Tents with families, completely different area of gray that I can understand, a parent wanting to protect their child.

But these other things need to be addressed.

Thank you.

All right, Virginia, followed by Beldon Batiste.

I just wanted to make a comment as a citizen of the parade route, as a resident of Napoleon Avenue.

When I was growing up, there was standing room only in the intersections.

Now people put up tents in the intersections.

As a safety issue, when you live on the parade route, you literally spend the whole week out in fear that something's gonna happen and you're not gonna get a fire engine or an ambulance through.

And I have a number of senior citizens on my porch every parade.

I wanted to suggest that the city consider using the line of light posts on the neutral grounds on St.

Charles and on Napoleon as a barrier, and everything in front of it is standing room only, like they've done it jazz festival, so that the people can walk to the parade and go see it without having to climb over ladders or trip over chairs.

We need a standing room only zone, like we used to have.

And the police come out with measuring tapes and ask people to move them, and as soon as they turn their backs and are back in the crowd, the ladder is back on the curb.

Chairs lined up dozens of chairs.

Um it is an issue across the board.

So I just want you all to consider standing room only options that and using the portalettes to post the laws so that people from outside the parish see them in their faces.

The city puts their own Portalettes out, they could use that space so that the policemen have something to point to and say, you're breaking the law.

Because there are a lot of people from the parish bringing their dogs, bringing their pop-up toilet tents, um, and making life very difficult for those of us that are living there.

So thank you very much for considering this.

Councilmember, may I make a comment, please?

Uh, to Virginia's point.

We did ask the Department of Sanitation to post the rules, the new rules on the Port of Lettes.

I think that that happened, that consideration or suggestion came too late.

Hopefully, in the future, we can post those not only on the Port of Lettes, but just to round the route so people can see exactly what they can and cannot do.

That would be fabulous.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Beldon Batiste, followed by Renata Collins.

Good afternoon, Council.

How y'all doing?

I must remember Dirty May Taylor.

She stood right in the council, and when they wouldn't let black people parade in their parades.

But um, I want to start off with Jason comment, Jason Heels.

You made good comments, brother.

But I watched the three people are tucked, they refused to say it was racist.

So that comment you made, brother, you stuck to it, and then I appreciate that.

Leslie Harris, I appreciate what you said, because they refused to talk about sexism and racism.

JP, I appreciate when I saw the videos you shot right after they did it.

Amy, I heard you brought it to the mayor about the black child.

I appreciate that.

But the thing is, Tuck stood right here and refused to say it was racist.

Now, what I'm saying is, JP and the council, we need to send them to Ryan Chisholm with the People Institute, where they can get training about black people.

But with black children, seeing a baby hanging off the float with a noose on their neck.

It ain't no excuse for that.

At the end of the day, we must stand up to Tuft and call it what it is.

And look, much as I love the Zulu, I don't want to hear about investigation.

They should already know who hit that child in the head with the bottle.

But I want to commend y'all councilmen that stood up.

But this racism gotta stop, and it gotta stop now, and we gotta hold crews accountable with no excuse.

And with what that baby doll should be a hate crime because that black child will never forget that.

But if Tux was serious, they would have did what the mayor named did and told a black child, let's send you to Disney World.

Show her sorry you is.

That needs to be a continuous reminder to them that this is unacceptable, not in New Orleans, not on our watch, not doing Mardi Gras, and not doing the everyday living.

Thank you so much for your time.

Uh Councilmember Green.

I appreciate I appreciate this discussion today, and um, I just want to emphasize that there are hundreds of thousands of spectators of Mardi Gras who don't seal off areas for themselves, who recognize that the value of Mardi Gras is in everyone enjoying it.

I recognize that there are tens of thousands of riders on float who throw beads and the blooms and to have a and have a good time.

Don't spend a ton of a ton of time being political or promoting things that they know they're not to promote.

At the end of the day, this committee has a very important responsibility.

But there are a lot of people, in my opinion, who need to take on a responsibility of just doing the right thing.

You know that some of the things that you're doing, and we didn't even talk about the guys who guys and women, the people on those floats who take big bags of beads.

There were videos out there of big bags of beads being thrown at people.

Some people who use their opposition to the police to make a statement as they go by and they say crazy things from the floats.

At the end of the day, this committee, again, is gonna do its job, and I appreciate the public from being here, but I want to talk to the people who know that they're doing wrong.

Stop.

Enjoy this season.

Stop being so selfish, stop being so inner looking and look at everyone around you who is there to enjoy themselves.

There's a lot of things that I see.

I tell you, I talk to I have talked to people on floats who say that in this day and age, there are still float riders who direct their throws to people of certain ethnicities.

There are people who take bags of beads and throw them at the police because they have a statement to make.

There are people who speak out against ice but use Mardi Gras parades to do so.

Just do the right thing and have a good time and stop being selfish.

If you put a tent on St.

Charles Avenue and goes from one side to the other, you're doing the wrong thing.

I don't care if you're a student, I don't care about your spending tax dollars here in the city, you're doing the wrong thing.

All that I'm gonna say is on the issues of racism and of being selfish, stop it, do the right thing, and I look forward to working with the committee to introduce whatever we have to introduce to try to get common sense and unselfishness and some support support for others into the law.

But the main thing that can happen is that if you know you're doing wrong, stop it.

All right, uh, in closing on this topic, first off, tents are already prohibited.

So as far as like having to pass new laws, we got current laws, say tents are prohibited.

Let me say that again, tents are prohibited.

Now, what we are gonna have to do as a committee is look at how we're going to enforce the existing law.

The reality is that we're gonna have to look at our municipal laws to make it a fine that goes with a ticket.

Because the reality is that it is not feasible, as I said previously and publicly, once you're talking about the Friday, the Saturday, the Sunday of Mardi Gras, the likelihood that we have the resources in between parades to claw up all this nonsense is not a thing.

Enforcing the laws on underage drinking is against the law.

ATF should be on the route dealing with kids who are underage drinking on the route.

These are things that are just resources that have to be properly deployed, and we have to have a better plan on how to enforce Mardi Gras.

Um, some of the some of the uh suggestions that have already been made to our committee thus far, as some of you may have known, we moved the Mardi Gras todds up on certain crews.

For the first time, I think in history, muses finish before midnight.

Which is you think that is a minor thing.

What that does, it doesn't just help the riders be able to get off the float before midnight.

Sanitation police got off the road with enough time to go home and sleep.

So, in all likelihood, we'll be moving other parades up because giving respect to our sanitation workers and first responders is important.

Um we're gonna look at language strengthening prohibit prohibited items on floats.

Obviously, glasses already prohibited.

What allegedly happened at Zulu should not have happened.

G a glass is prohibited, drinking for the most part is prohibited on floats.

These are all things that are existing law.

We are gonna have to look at how we give additional resources to our first responders to deal with it, but also to put more accountability on crews for when they break the law.

We are gonna work with NOPD to significantly change policy on when floats are taken out of service or when incidents occur.

What would have been very helpful to both this committee and the crews is when something happens, you have to generate a report.

Generating that report lets us know who was injured, who the witnesses were, and lets everyone follow up on this.

It is not enough to pull the crew and the float out of service.

If we can't follow up, then that's an inconvenience, not a punishment.

Because the same people that were on that float that had to walk that day, if they can parade the next year next year, they were inconvenienced, but there was low no long-term repercussions for that behavior.

So when you pull people off floats, now that's gonna help us too because let's be very clear.

If you have people that are aggressively throwing at NOPD, at individuals, at different groups of people, when there's an incident report, listen to me, riders.

That incident report will have your name in it.

So if you are doing bad behavior, and NOPD draw draws up an incident report, that incident report is a public record.

So wearing that mask during Mardi Gras, which allows people to think they can do bad behavior, if NOPD is creating incident reports, you no longer have the ability to think wearing that mask and that costume covers up bad behavior.

It helps the crews figure out who the bad actors are, but let's the public know who the bad actors are.

We're gonna improve the enforcement of prohibited items along the route.

I think Virginia, your point's an excellent one.

It might come to a point, ladies and gentlemen, where the barricades aren't just on the street, the barricades might be back to the lamppost.

We may say you can't set up with you can't come across the first line of barricades with a tent or with a chair.

And that or with tarps.

We may have to create a standing room only zone because other than doing something like that's a clear bifurcation, you really can't stop the people setting up the tents on the route.

And it sucks that we have to come to that point where we have to be your parents to what Councilman Green said.

This is all common sense.

You don't want someone setting up a tent or ladders in front of where you stand.

You don't do that in your own parish.

Why are you doing that here?

Now that's gonna be a cost entail with that, but that's something that we're gonna revisit.

Because I'll tell you right now, very candidly, we're already already revisiting the cost of Mardi Gras.

Because right now the city bears tremendous costs for putting Mardi Gras on, and we're gonna have to pass that cost on a cruise.

Because improving Mardi Gras is gonna cost more money that we don't have.

The last thing, which is also very important, I appreciate DOTD downtown development being here.

If you set up stands and you think it's okay to leave your stands up and let Matt and his team pick up your trash, that's over.

Whether we have to charge you a sanitation fee on the front end, whether we have to find you on the back end, if you put up a stand and get that permit, we're gonna get our money out of you on the front end for cleaning up after you because you're not cleaning up after yourselves.

Now, this is not a end of the list, this is just the list of what we heard today.

I think that also it's important to note to the crews you heard from Matt Torre, we gotta do something about the bags.

Um I think that it's not too much to ask for crews to take your beef out the bags at the top of the route and throw them away, because you saw we don't need our sanitation workers at two, three in the morning chasing bags down the street.

That is some preemptive work you could do the top or your crew, just take all the bags, the beads out the bags, put the beads out in strands.

But anything we could do to make our sanitation workers' jobs easier and their lives easier, we should be doing.

So we're gonna continue to collect information, collect other other stuff we get from the public.

We appreciate everyone being here today.

Um, I do want to identify, I think of Mr.

Phillipson, are you still here today?

Okay, sorry, Miss Phillipson, you want to comment on cleanup.

And I'm sorry, I missed you can come up right now and give that comment if you still want to do it.

Miss Phillipson and actually filled out a car to speak on sanitation.

I missed the card earlier, I apologize.

I just wanted to talk about the Broadway area because um we're talking about clean up with Mardi Gras, and that's something that should have been done every day.

And I just, you know, it's Broadway between St.

Charles and Willow.

I mean, starting Saturday morning before Mardi Gras, and then Sunday morning, Monday morning, and then you have tequila sunrise, and the residents just that's it.

I mean, it's everywhere, and unfortunately, they're not getting the same pickup.

I mean, they have the crowds out there on Broadway, just like you do on the parade route, but they're not getting the daily pickup.

And it's just, I mean, I went out, you know, I got a call, went out there with a group of people, we started shooting video on Saturday morning, and it was just a mess in front of the houses, all along the street, and it doesn't go really past willow.

It's St.

Charles to like, and even Willow, I would say like maybe a block before, like I think there's the SAE house somewhere around there, but it's just like it's all right there, and it's just it's a mess.

And so I don't know.

I mean, it's just and the thing of it is is that we're talking about you know, people moving back.

You have young professionals that are gonna want to move back.

I hope my children get to move back.

Right now, that's where they would have to live, because that's where the rent, like that's where there's the most vacancy, that's where it's affordable rent.

There's no way that I mean, if you're in your mid-20s, late 20s, full-time job, you're not going to want to live around all that.

And it continues to be a problem with the doubles to norms and mainly it's Broadway during Mardi Grass.

So I mean, it would I would like it if there's any way that they can sanitation can make that part of, or even if they do commercial pickup next week, next year.

It needs to be on the same thing as the parade schedule.

Thank you.

Okay, those are the record.

Um item number four for discussion of vote ordinance to amend and reordain.

The code say no world to clarify when a carbon carbon monoxide detector is required for the healthy health program.

Otherwise, provide the respect here too.

Um this is an amendment to the healthy health ordinance to address when carbon monoxide detectors are available uh or required at certain facilities.

We are doing this amendment uh in concert with Healthy Homes and other groups to deal with making sure that affordable housing can remain affordable.

Um we have some people that like to call it Monique.

Blossom with Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center.

Oh, there we are.

Good morning.

Monique Blossom, the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, 1340 Hoydre Street.

We know the intended purpose of requiring carbon monoxide detectors is to prevent needless death from um happening, and that not all units may require them.

I'm just here to ask the full council, the health department, and the administration to continue to use your communication channels to promote safe usage of portable generators.

Um here in New Orleans, we lose power for a variety of reasons.

We talked about confetti canyons already.

Um, but between hurricane storms and now snow events and a the occasional bird squirrel incident, I think as well happens.

People do turn to portable generators for electricity more than they really should.

So I'd like to ask you to encourage folks that if they're using a portable generator, they are also using a carbon monoxide to deck detector, so um we can prevent that needless loss of life.

I checked on Lowe's, they're only 2398 currently.

So it's a cheap investment to save a life.

Thank you.

Thank you, Monique.

Next up, we have David Miller with RPG.

Uh good afternoon, uh members of the council.

Uh I'm David Miller.

Uh I'm here to uh simply uh add my my voice in support of the uh Healthy Homes uh ordinance amendment.

Um simply pointing out the obvious that um a uh uh carbon monoxide detector doesn't serve any purpose in a unit that doesn't have any natural gas fixtures or appliances.

It's a it's an expense that um that need not be incurred uh by a property owner uh in that it doesn't serve any uh health or safety purpose.

Uh so I think it's a a worthy amendment to the ordinance, and I encourage that it be adopted.

Thank you.

Are there any questions here or not?

I'll move to approve.

Can I get a second?

Second by Councilman Green, please vote your machines.

Four years old nays, it is adopted.

Uh councilman Green moves we adjourn.

Uh second among myself, all there say aye.

All right, four years ones, we're adjourned.