All right.

We're going to get started.

Please take your seats.

Please take your seats.

Councilmember Morr.

Councilmember McCarran.

Councilmember Harris.

Councilmember Green.

Councilmember Hughes.

We have four members.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

First, we have the approval of minutes for the June eleventh meeting.

Second about myself, all any opposed.

So if you are here to speak on Miss Carlisle, it is no longer on the agenda.

Her name has been withdrawn from consideration.

So we'll start with the most unfortunately named Commission in New Orleans, the Delgado Albania Plantation Commission.

Yes, the most unfortunately named commission in New Orleans.

Second.

Second by Councilmore Willard.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none is moved forward.

Next we have Michael Kerrigan.

Come on down, Michael.

We're going to ask you the question why do you want to serve on this commission?

It's pretty straightforward.

I've been citizens of New Orleans since 66.

Um involved with the sugar industry for the last 30 years.

I'm on the supply side, but I frequent all the mills.

There used to be 22 when I started.

There's 11 now.

I visit them regularly.

I know all the guys on the mechanical side, the mill side, some of the agricultural guys, and some of the academic guys.

So we uh we appreciate your service.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So I will move.

Next second, second by council member McCarron.

All in favor?

All right.

Any opposed?

Jerry Nunn, you're forward to full council.

Thank you.

Next up we have uh Charlie Richard Richard.

You're restarter or Richard.

Reshort.

All right.

New Louisiana, Richard.

All right, Mr.

Richard.

Why do you want to serve on this commission?

Actually, I've been on the commission since 1990.

So I just like to stay on it and continue my work.

Uh on behalf of the city.

Uh I will quick question.

Uh Mr.

Reshaw, just 30 seconds or less.

Uh I'm new here.

What what does this commission do?

I'm sorry.

What is it about?

What does the commission do?

Yeah, what is what is this commission?

Our commission or the commission really just sort of oversees the money.

So the rent from the property in St.

Mary Parish.

There are two farmers that are there now.

They pay the rent.

That goes into the city's account.

It's earmarked for the Delgado Albania Plantation Commission.

And the university from time to time will come to the commission and say we'd like to redo the student union or like to add on classrooms.

Got it.

Fair enough.

And so we'll make a request.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

We've already moved, seconded and approved.

So that's all we have for you guys.

You guys are free to go whenever you're ready.

Next up we have the industrial development board.

We have Calvin Lawrence.

One down, Mr.

Lawrence.

Why do you want to be on the IBB?

Yeah, I want I want to put in anything that it has to do with better in this city, man.

I've been fortunate to make it out growing up here and doing good for myself.

So anything to develop this city, I'm you know that can help people like me out, man.

I'm I won't in on it.

All right.

Uh move Councilman Hughes will move out second.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Hearing none, you're approved.

Full council.

Thank you.

Mr.

Lawrence.

Next up, we have uh fairground citizen advisory committee.

Mr.

Kahn is deferred to August.

Mr.

Ryan, you're here, correct?

Come on down, Mr.

Ryan.

Good seeing you, man.

All right.

Why do you want to be on the Fairground Citizen Advisory Committee?

Fairground.

Um I'm a first time off a resident right near the fairgrounds.

Um also I serve as the president of Farberg St.

John Neighborhood Association.

Uh so it's just natural that uh you know I'd be involved with uh you know things regarding uh fairgrounds uh being a neighbor and um that's that's about it.

That is fantastic.

All right, I will well should Councilman McCarron will move.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Hughes will second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, thank you for being here, Andrew.

Appreciate you.

Good seeing you.

Uh Mr.

Nesbitt has a waiver that is properly received.

Uh I will move on.

Mr.

Nesbitt.

Second by Councilmember Hughes.

All in favor?

Aye.

Uh any opposed?

Hearing none.

Uh Mr.

Deswe folded forward to the full council.

Next we have the French Quarter Management District.

Uh Michael Lowethal.

I pronounced that correctly.

Okay.

Why do you want to be on the French Quarter Management District?

Um, I'm just excited to serve my community in any way and also represent my neighborhood.

Oh, that's very good reasons.

Uh I will move.

Okay.

Second by Council Bray Hughes.

Uh any questions?

Any all right.

Hearing none, you'll be forward to full council.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Lowerthal for being here.

All right.

Uh Alcohol Beverage Control Board.

First, we have Craig Mitchell.

And Craig, I've been seeing you in a minute.

You're back.

Uh uh.

So why why do you want to be on the ABC board?

Uh I consider myself a policy person.

I consider myself one who likes to serve.

I previously served on the library board.

I served on the Nord Commission and I was on the City Planning Commission, but I had to resign from that because I had a personal situation, had to relocate temporarily to support my son and his endeavors out in Los Angeles, and he is off the college, and I'm back full time.

All right.

Uh so move move by Council Brahes, second by Councilmember McCarron.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, full board.

Thank you.

Uh next up we have Nissan Patel.

Come on down, Mr.

Patel.

Good seeing you, man.

Yes, sir.

Uh why do you want to be on the ABC board?

I think it's important to uh serve my community as well and uh make sure that we uh we listen to the voices of our residents, our constituents, our neighbors, our friends, and make sure that uh the oversight of our hospitality partners and the industry is fair and just and uh we make sure that everyone is doing what's best for the city.

All right.

Uh I will move.

Take it a second.

Okay.

Second council McCarron.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Molly Pond.

Come on down, Miss Pond.

Hello.

How are you doing today?

I'm good, Mr.

President.

Man, I think that when I watch those ABC meetings, the most consistent person who's always heading those means is Miss Molly Ponds.

That is true.

So this is us putting you back on the board, right?

Yes, I'm thinking reappointments.

Reappointment.

I mean, Mr.

Chair, I have a number of questions.

Number of questions.

All right.

Sorry.

Mr.

Green.

I recognize Mr.

Green question.

Thank you for your previous service and for willingness to continue to serve.

Absolutely.

Uh, Mr.

Chairman, I will say for the public, um, if if the public thinks that this council is thorough in their line of questioning, uh, they should really look at uh Chair Lady Pons, but you you've done a great job overseeing ABO and thank you for your commitment in your service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do you want to add anything, Amy?

I just was saying earlier that Molly is the toughest cookie there is on the board, so she is a welcome asset to this.

I'm trying to figure out there's any way I could drag this out any longer, but I don't really have a reasonable way to do it.

So I guess I guess I'll move to keep her on the board.

Second by Mr.

Hughes.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, you're reappointed.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh next up, uh downtown development district, Mr.

Murray, is he here?

He's not here.

We will defer him to the next meeting.

Uh New Orleans Recreation Development Commission.

We have Kevin Kimbrough Sr.

He has a waiver that was properly received.

Mr.

Hughes moves.

I will second to put Mr.

Kevin Kimbrough Sr.

on the North Sea Commission.

Is any opposed?

Hearing none, it is done.

Um City Planning Commission, we have a waiver timely received for Anthony Jackson.

Uh Mr.

Hughes will move.

Uh Miss McCarron will second.

All in favor?

Uh any opposed, hearing none.

Full counsel.

As I said, the Board of Zoning Adjustments, Miss Carlisle's uh appointment has been withdrawn.

So next up, we have a legislative grouping regarding the Mardi Gras ordinance.

Julia.

You're up.

Who's coming on down?

Who's doing it?

Buddy.

Oh, yeah, Buddy go on first.

Thank you.

Buddy, whenever you you're ready.

I just want to, for the record, I know that I am renowned as being the Grinch of Mardi Gras.

I would like to say that I co-hold that title with Buddy.

Yeah.

So just want to make sure everybody knows he's the other Grinch of Mardi Gras.

I'm probably the biggest chief.

You are the biggest, but you're much low-key.

But yeah, I mean a lot of my a lot of my Grinch-like suggestions originate with Buddy.

So if you don't like what I'm trying to do, it's mostly Buddy's fault.

All right, buddy, whenever you're ready.

Alright, so um a direction by the superintendent and of course the council to make sure that we get the most production out of our events and venues that we do across the city, as well as the manpower and the overtime, the public safety component.

It must always change as a result of what we're seeing.

So with this being said, we have a few of the a few things like the Intel PD experience difficulty shifting manpower and assignments from various routes during the same evening.

This is especially difficult during Sparter, moving from Jefferson and Pointers all the way to the convention center to get pignalion to its final destination.

Things that we agreed upon to try to make it better in cooperation with these crews to try to make Mardi Gras more efficient, cost effective, and the public safety component seems to be that we need to actually move some times up, which we have discussed with all the crew members, making sure everybody's on board, understanding that we have to make some changes to simplify for public safety, as well as making sure we're not doubling back after one, two o'clock in the morning with parade still being on the street.

We do have an accountability to our citizens to let the streets be reopened sooner than later.

So if you're looking at it, we get we usually get done by one o'clock, and instead with sanitation coming through and the cleanup portion of it, it it gives us a little bit more leeway to get the night done earlier and everything into its den simplified.

Day to be starting now on magazine at Napoleon via uh Jefferson.

So what that does is since they're gonna go first on that particular day, Hermes will follow shortly thereafter, and then Morpheus, where we've seen our parades getting off the street on that Friday at one, two o'clock in the morning after sanitation's done.

We won't see that any longer because we moved some parades up, manipulated some particular routes, and now we'll see at least sanitation coming through in the uh police department getting off at a reasonable hour to be doubling back at five and six o'clock the next day on a big Saturday.

Another thing was Sparta starting at Jefferson and Magazine.

Well, in the past we had several parades that's uh started at Jefferson Magazine, as you knew, but now all five parades were over on Napoleon and Choppatous.

Moving everything to Napoleon and Chopper Tourists is going to benefit and strengthen our manpower on the streets with that route, so instead of extending it all the way to Jefferson and Magazine.

That's one of the big key components to it.

So data will now start at Magazine Napoleon, as as does Babylon, right?

And then, of course, you saw last year, uh Councilman, that we moved uh Muses Day, Thursday, we moved everything up.

4 30 was the start time for chaos, and then we got to Muses and we were off the streets before 11.

I think everybody was excited about the way those parades went on that day instead of one, two o'clock in the morning, and it paid significant dividends to give people back their streets earlier.

And so what happened was we seen the success.

It also was a very big morale boost because the officers wasn't out there all day coming back the next day early with these long days going into the big weekend.

Um if you see the schedule now, the only difference is data is gonna move to be the first parade on that Friday.

It won't move to 5 30 or move to five, which means that Hermes will start around six o'clock from Jefferson and Magazine, and they'll butt up against uh our day to parade, which will be starting at Napoleon and Magazine right behind.

And then, of course, Morpheus follows sometime around seven or thereafter the completion of uh Hermes.

Talks Parade is always being stuck at St.

Charles and uh Napoleon.

They make the right turn while Iris makes the left turn, if you understand that area right there.

So what we did was instead of just starting them at the time that that's currently started and just sit there and wait for an hour.

We pushed it back a half hour until we can get Iris out of formation.

That way it's just a constant move instead of a stop and go, Councilman.

So that's one of the other things we're looking to do.

And of course, the biggest and most important thing, and we will be messaging this out for months on end, and I'm hoping that we continuously do this uh throughout the Mardi Gras season.

Our request is definitely in the formation areas, and the ones you see on your screen, Councilman, this is important that we instead of the two hours, we move it to four.

As you know, our formation starts earlier in the day.

So we need to have that clear so we can place floats safely and effectively without blocking in residents, their homes, and also uh vehicles getting stuck or damaged as a result of putting them furthest to the right as possible.

We want to minimize that and then open up one lane at least during that time frame, as we always do.

So some of the formation areas include Chopper Tours from Louisiana to Jefferson, Jefferson from Magazine to Choppatours, Napoleon from Magazine to Choppatus, and then on the specific parades, Marconi and Orleans from Florida to South Carolton for Endymion on the Namtop Parade, Holiday Drive from Friesta to MacArthur, and then of course on Iris, it's Napoleon and Santa to Saratoga.

Now, where we see Mardi Grad Day, everybody understands where those parades.

Zulu will have to have you know a formation area on the pole on Clayborn from Jackson to Earhart because of the floats coming from their formation area, and then of course Rex from Clayborne and Napoleon as they come out their den.

We need safe streets, and we need to make sure that no parkings are still four hours before the parade.

And then lastly, Clayborn from Napoleon to South Carolton, the Crescent City Alps.

What we've seen is these 18-wheelers all aligned up, and of course, the shoulders being taken up by constituents, and we can't get them safely over.

Well, I think, buddy, just to your point.

Once people realize this coming year, when you start towing, it'll be a tremendous deterrent and a kind of will it will be at the forefront of their thinking on these days to not park there.

So I mean I think that we will all do what is required of us.

Um I'm happy to work with NOPD.

I know that Lamar advertising has been a tremendous partner with PSAs.

I think anything we can do going into Mardi Gras season to remind people that no parking will be strictly enforced and that we have more so than ever.

For those of you who don't aren't aware, we have more tow trucks and more tow drivers and capacity than we've ever had before.

So where it used to be, well, I'll park here illegally, I'll get back before they told me.

You will walk into a business and your car will be gone.

So we have to take the towing seriously.

I agree with you that two to four hours is going to be a bit of a a learning curve, and we're gonna have to work diligently with mayors comms, NOPD comms and the council to just tell people it's gonna be a much, much larger window.

Well, councilman, without y'all's help and assistance to these ordinance to help public safety, we wouldn't be able to maximize the effort.

Our PIO unit for the New Orleans Police Quart does a great job.

Nova ready is going to do a great job.

We'll be putting commercials out for the forefront.

So I think that all this and the assistance with y'all helping us make it be a safe Mardi Gras as it was in in 2026.

I want 2027 to be better.

And I know that it's going to be a little bit colder, but we just need to make sure we pay close attention to the rules and the ordinances that you guys have assisted us with making sure for safe Mardi Gras.

Are there any other questions for Mr.

Michu?

No, I just want to say I can also help.

I I know that a lot of the floats line up in my district and district A, and we had major meltdowns about parking.

So any um, you know, neighborhood associations that I can get that information to out early, very early, I'm happy to assist with that too.

Oh, yes, ma'am.

I appreciate that.

And I know I worked with you last year on getting that messaging out, and I'm hopeful that last year it's going to be very similar to this year.

So there was a little learning curve from 2026 to into 2027.

But we're just going to reiterate it.

You know, that's some of the things we find along those routes that when we're moving those floats and staging them, it's not safe if we have cars parked that may get damaged or if somebody walks between them in a car.

Okay.

Alright, well, I think that's it for you, buddy.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julia, are you up now?

All right.

Absolutely.

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Julio Zuckerman from my staff will be handling the overview of the ordinance as a whole.

Whenever you're a Julia.

All right.

So our office has worked with the NOPD, a subcommittee of the mayor's Mardi Gras advisory committee, and individual crews to come up with these legislative changes to Chapter 34.

So the first one, riding on a float.

Riders need to keep both feet on the float at all times, and they have to wear a safety harness.

Crew captains are concerned about rider safety.

Riders are climbing up on the floats, they're standing on uneven surfaces, and they're taking other risks when throwing items.

So for the safety of the riders, they have to keep their feet on the float.

And the code currently only requires harnesses for children, so we're updating this for all riders.

As we can see in the picture here, um dangerous things can happen, so it's important that we have safety measures in place to protect people.

All right.

So for throws.

Anything that is thrown from a float has to be pre-approved by the carnival organization.

There's been an explosion of inappropriate and dangerous throws over the past few years, heavy, expensive throws like televisions and small kitchen appliances.

It might seem like a dream catch, but the weight of these items and the frenzy they create are a significant public safety issue.

So moving forward to solve this, carnival crews have to approve anything that is thrown off the float, and there are going to be weight limits.

So glass necklaces can't exceed 220 grams in weight, and a throw as a whole cannot exceed three and a half pounds.

And we worked with throw manufacturers to come up with these weight limits.

Next we have marching bands.

So bands cannot stop along the parade when the route when the parade is moving.

This doesn't mean that when let's pause for a second because I think that there was kind of a uh I want to say a mischaracterization in some of the coverage in the paper today on this.

The goal is not to say bands can't stop.

The goal is to say bands can't stop by themselves.

As you know, during the course of a parade, floats stop frequently.

That is the opportunity for a band to do whatever performance that they want to do.

The problem that we've had that's trying to be addressed by the crews by NOPD and the like is that when the floats are moving, then the band stops to engage in a performance.

It slows down the whole parade, absent in addition to the float stopping.

So go ahead, Julie.

I'm sorry for interrupting you.

No, that is absolutely correct.

Um the next we have is support vehicles.

We need support vehicles to travel with their elements.

NOPD has noticed that sometimes support vehicles will stop along the route, perhaps to chat or to otherwise become separated from their element or their band, and we need them to remain tightly together.

Uh finally, car clubs.

So car club elements often ride the route single file.

This creates a significant issue with parade formation and unnecessarily increases the length of a parade.

So car clubs now need to ride two abreast.

Um and there's also a limit of no more than three vehicular-based um car club elements per parade.

The next we have uh branded throws.

So food throws are becoming increasingly popular, uh, but it's almost impossible to get a food throw that doesn't have a manufacturer logo or trademark.

So carnival crews can now approve riders to throw branded stacks, candy, and other food products, similar to those pictured here, like Cubic's prize, Oreo cookies, moon highs.

And in addition to food, are also our office also has an amendment to allow crews to approve the throwing of small personal items with manufacturer logos or trademarks.

This might include things like locally made soaps, eco-friendly glitter, candles, or other small items.

These small personal items can't exceed 12 inches in size, and they have to weigh less than one half of a pound.

Next, this came from the mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Committee to a expand the smoking ban on floats.

In addition to cigarettes, riders cannot use any tobacco products, no cigars, vapes, hookahs, or electronic smoking devices.

And violators are to be immediately removed from the parade.

Next is another suggestion that came directly from the mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Subcommittee.

Uh we all love a good party, but the dispensing of alcohol from a float is getting out of hand.

So riders can drink alcohol and they can share alcohol among themselves.

Uh the prohibition is specific to throwing or otherwise dispensing of alcohol from a float to someone in the crowd, like you see in the picture here with the beer being funneled off of the parade float.

Now there will be a prohibition of glass on floats, with an exception for bead necklaces.

So no glass beer bottles, no glass wine bottles, no glass cups, no glass liquor bottles.

You can continue to drink alcohol.

You just need to make sure that when you're loading the float, it's canned beverages and plastic bottled beverages only.

So we all know the crew of Chad continues to be an issue, uh, and enforcement is a concern, so to aid in enforcement violations of section 3433.

That's the section that prohibits ladders being tied together, it prohibits tents, the enclosing of public spaces, having open flames on the parade route.

These will all now be misdemeanor criminal offenses.

In addition to adding the misdemeanor criminal offense, the civil fines for Monty Raw will be raised to meet state maximum levels, a thousand dollars for the first offense and two thousand dollars for the second and subsequent offenses.

And that is the entire ordinance.

And just more clarification.

When we talk about, for example, ladders, it's not a prohibition of ladders on the route, it's a prohibition of how some of the ladders have been structured.

One thing that's been a consistent concern with NOPD and a safety concern is people who are roping walls of ladders together, because when one ladder falls, they all fall.

It prevents egress and ingress to the route itself, as well as gaining emergency services to the route if something occurs.

These are all the things that we're trying to prevent.

We have tried for this point years to have people just do the right thing because it's a logical do the right thing.

I think that having the ability to have a summons to have real fines enables NOPD when they see unsafe situations to provide some remediation because to be candid, verbal warnings weren't doing it.

People would kind of laugh it off and go back to what they were doing.

Um there are any comments right now?

I just want to, Mr.

Chairman, ask a question to just understand um like how do we enforce, I understand we're raising the fine, right?

So we could potentially have two situations.

Sometimes we could have the ladders tied and nobody's there.

But if if people are there and on the ladders, walk me through how NOPD and maybe NLPD needs to come up.

Walk me through how you enforce that.

If you if you walk up to somebody, I guess the first thing you're gonna ask for in order to find them is their identification.

So the first thing we're gonna try to do is identify who the property owners are, right?

If nobody comes through with the particular property that that's theirs and responsible for putting that up, at that point we will remove that property as we've had in the past, loaded it into a truck and take it away.

If somebody identifies that as being their scaffolding or whatever the case may be, that may be in violation, we'll identify that individual, write them a summons, and then at that point, if they don't dispark, then it will increase to escalate to whatever it may be at the next level.

So we just identify the responsible ownership of it and then handle it accordingly.

Identify it, document, and give them a citation for the fines of what their violations are, city ordinance-wise.

Okay.

So if you write them a summons for the latter, the violation of the penalty, walk me through the next steps.

I guess they would still have to go to municipal court.

Yes, sir.

And then ultimately the judge will decide whether to uphold or dispose of the penalty.

Yes, sir.

So we're not we're not the one that's gonna make the definition of whether you're innocent or guilty, other than the observations based on what we see, the violation documented, and the person that we spoke to and what was been said.

Yeah.

All right.

We'll just say look, you all do a great job.

Let me let me just say, and I I guess you know, a lot of times the most demeaning part of your jobs is when you when you you do your following the city cold, but then when you get to the next step, everything is just being tossed out or disposed of.

So we're gonna have to kind of track, you know.

The only way you're gonna change behavior is if the message gets out that you know, New Orleans is really cracking down on this because it really is a public safety issue.

Yes, sir.

So in order to curtail bad habits, we have to cite and document, but we're not the judge to make the decisions on the fines and fees.

Right.

So what our main goal will be is to identify a problem, document the problem, and solidify those particular statistics as to what the end result will be in case.

Right.

That will be a determination for the courts.

But again, we are doing other things, and it does make it challenging, as the councilman said, for the police to keep on cracking down on these things when we're trying to make sure the public safety component is at large, barriers, vehicle placement, people inside the route, people outside the route.

It's challenging.

We love that the community works with us.

Hopefully that continues and they listen to what we're trying to advise them of prior to the parade so that we can have another safe, efficient Mardi Gras.

But then again, there'll be times where we'll have to deliver some kind of enforcement to make sure we stop the bad behavior.

Yeah, no, I agree.

And uh I'm just saying for the tracking purposes, you know, we're gonna have to kind of track as you all issue the summons that you know, once it gets to that next step, how many are being uh upheld, how many are being disposed of.

And then I guess you know, my my second thing that we're gonna have to kind of watch is uh how many people are actually gonna raise their hands and say, hey, this is my ladder.

Um when they know if if I don't raise my hand, you'll just toss it out, right?

Do I do I pay a thousand dollar fine or do I go pay a hundred dollars for a new ladder, right?

Yes, sir.

So to be honest with you, too.

Sometimes we just confiscate the property, put in the back of a sanitation truck and move on.

However, that being said, there's sometimes where an officer gets called as a complaint, and that person will complain on another complaint complaint uh person, and then we'll have to deal with deliver that blow, and then we'll identify the person at that point.

I'm just trying to make y'all job easy.

Maybe we just maybe we just skip the summons and just get rid of the ladders, but I'm gonna leave that to y'all.

Thank you all for your service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh we have any other comments from the dias?

All right, we have two public comments.

First up, we have Brett Davis.

Brett Davis, come on down.

Hey, greetings everyone.

My name is Brett Davis.

I'm the founding director of the nonprofit grounds crew, which is a mission that's focused on preventing waste and promoting local products uh as parade throws.

Um since 2019, we've sold about 890,000 throws to crews like Iris, Rex, Tucks, Hermes, that are all local products that have basically been private labeled for these crews to use so that we are promoting local goods, but also being sensitive to the prohibiting the commercial advertisement and promotion of products.

Um I'm just very interested in the conversation today.

It hinges a lot on the work that we do for the crews in New Orleans and around the state.

We definitely want functional products to be thrown in parades because they do come from local businesses.

They can be caught and used things like soap and jambly mix and coffee.

You have a reason to catch it again day to day parade year to parade year because you've used it.

It's not like beads and foam footballs and other foreign imported products that are cheap, disposable and you already have a closet full of them.

So definitely we want to use local products in parades but we also want to be very careful about them being used as promotional products, advertisements.

That is something we definitely do not want in Mardi Gras.

We have parades like in Halloween, St.

Patrick's Day, where there's a monster energy float, there's branded floats with commercial logos on them.

That in my opinion would ruin sort of a sacrosanct thing that we all appreciate about parades.

So I'm just uh here to today to talk to you about our method which is using QR codes where you can optionally scan in and see which brands are behind these throws and learn about the mission of a low-waist Mardi Gras.

Realize I'm almost out of time to speak but anyway I'm here uh to help you guys work through any sort of nuances that you may have what we'll do is uh Julia Zuckerman office will come give you your card and we certainly want to continue to work with you because obviously if we if there wasn't a commerce cause I would actually just say definitively local products but we can't but I hear what you're saying and we agree with you.

So Julia can you Julia can you get contact button?

Thank you.

Next up Morgan Clevinger Hey Morgan Clevinger I'm really glad that you guys are talking about this as a person who's experienced Carnival as a rider with Zulu and FemmeFitel as a member um this is really a good move.

And I have to really shout out to the NLPD and everything that they do and their ability to manage the chaos the grounds crew effort is is outstanding because as a rider we know that you know you're there to please the public you're there to make the people happy especially especially the children.

And so you spend a lot of money on throws right but we also know in recent years when you're tossing these grosses of plastic beads off the float one thing we notice a lot of people let them fall now.

They're waiting for the special thing.

And if that special thing can be a local product that can be a product that doesn't affect our environment and clog up our storm drains that's awesome.

So the latter issue the public safety issue the roping off you know carnival is for everybody and we have to make sure that people have access to to experience carnival and in in the public setting that it's supposed to be one concern I would have about the ordinance or the idea of finding people and how do you identify you know a lot of folks we've lost a lot of population and a lot of folks come from other places now and they set up those ladders and rope off the neutral ground for three days four days camping out.

So that would be the time to maybe identify some of those folks but will they come back and pay a fine I don't know.

But this effort is appreciated and thank you very much.

Thank you Morgan.

Yeah I mean I think I will say just to respond to that comment because she's right when you have those people who are transient and not from here is always the possibility that they will not pay the fine but as Buddy will tell you and I'll tell you as a former public defender they find out very quickly when they are somewhere else in the country and they realized we got a bench warrant from New Orleans and then they're being extraded in New Orleans over a ladder fine they didn't pay they figure out fairly quickly that that's the part of the reason why I think both the Mayor's Mardi Grad Basery could be NOPD want to move to the criminal offense is that having a simple civil civil fine there is no trail on that.

In order to recapture someone on a civil fine you'd have to catch them years later in the act look in our local files and maybe link them to it.

When you have a criminal offense it follows you everywhere.

So with criminal offenses, now this is like you know, lawyer 101 free, not legal advice, but never ignore a criminal offense, no matter how minor, whether it's a excessive speeding ticket or anything that hits that criminal metric, because if you don't show up or you miss a date and they issue a bench warrant, you could literally be from Rhode Island, get pulled over for a broken tail light and end up in the worst week of your life, waiting to get either extradited to New Orleans over your ladder fine, or paying the fine remotely, having to have hired a lawyer in New Orleans, it's just not a pleasant experience.

And I mean, before I get to this last speaker, just because I'm now kind of on a roll with this, I think the reality is that obviously what we'd love to do, and what I think we're gonna do this year more often than ever is try to educate people and have robust enforcement with getting rid of illegal items on the route timely.

We tried to work with the past administration to address that, they really didn't want to do it.

We're hoping to work with an OPD, with DPW, with all parties to contract with the appropriate amount of entities so that if people are putting their ladders and tents out one day early, there just will be a ladder intent that joins the dump with everything else.

That being said, there are a variety of people, particularly Morgan, as you said, and as Buddy said, not from New Orleans, that kind of descend in to do their own thing, kinda at the expense of local residents.

I think you would be surprised how many people would rather argue with a cop over a ladder saying you can't find me than just be smart enough to walk away.

I think it's more likely that New Orleans will go, oh crap, that ladder.

Not mine.

I think that that person from uh Tuscaloosa or from uh New York would be like, I know my rights, and then there it's a free thousand dollars of the city of New Orleans.

So we hear you?

No, I I don't want to do I'll come talk to you out in the audience, but but the police to the point where people are not.

Uh as long as people follow the law, they don't have to worry about the police.

So, all right, Mr.

Ken Beck, come on now.

You are our last speaker.

Speak before the council.

Um I'm here to speak on the proposed change of the Sparta route, uh, which eliminates the portion of our route that is on Magazine Street.

Um it is often the favorite part of our route by a lot of our members who have already paid their dues expecting that that would be a part of the route because there was no proposed change until now.

We read about it last night in Nola.com, although I had some heads up before that that have talked with our board about.

Um, just from a historic perspective, the reason why we started parading on Magazine Street, and Sparta's been parading in New Orleans since 1972.

Um we typically had the traditional route at that point, which would go from Napoleon to St.

Charles, St.

Charles to Canal Street, we'd make a loop and canal street to basin, back up, and then towards um the end of the route in the convention center area.

Um when the changes were made on the Canal Street portion of the route, which eliminated that portion of our route, we were compensated, if you will, by putting it to the beginning of the route and giving us magazine streets.

Um members have really really enjoyed that.

That's their favorite part of the route.

Um to eliminate those miles in magazine street and simply cut us short, it doesn't seem equitable.

Um, especially when there are other crews who have portions of their route that nobody else covers either.

Now, I don't know whether it's accurate or not, but what I read yesterday in the Nola.com article was that's a reason for this was because it was difficult to move the police from the beginning of our route to the end of the route of the parade that rides behind us.

I don't understand that.

If it was a it was a financial issue, if it was a security issue, you know, we'd have some things to talk about, and I'd like to have an open discussion with you all about this before a final decision is made.

Um we've got again, we've got people who have already paid their dues, expecting to purchase their throws, expecting to be riding a magazine street.

And there's a different culture in the magazine street portion of the road as you ride a Mardi Gar parade, you find one culture there, you find another culture in the beginning of the St.

Charles portion, Napoleon Avenue is a different culture, Canal Street is a different culture, and they're all fabulous.

And and we don't want to lose that portion of our route.

And if there's anything that we can do to work with the city so that we can maintain that, we're willing to do that.

Councilmember Hughes.

Uh thank you, um, Council President and Ms.

Is it Mr.

Beck?

Mr.

Beck, that thank you.

Um let me just say your your comments uh are not lost on me, and there's somebody who was born and raised in New Orleans.

Uh I know how special Mardi Gray is to just everybody here, and most certainly the crews.

But I'm gonna say, you know, look, from a and this is just one council member speaking.

Um I know everybody thinks that we uh as council members just are responsible for 20 to 30 to 50 to 60 different things, but the charter really uh gives us the responsibility for three things.

Um land use and zoning, the regulation of public utilities, and the most important in my opinion, the budget.

Uh some of our decisions, the bottom line is as you look at this budget situation in the city.

Uh we're gonna have to make decisions um that are budget conscious.

And the bottom line is to a Mardi Gras, uh, unless NOPD can correct me.

Uh number one, those offices don't work for free, uh, and and overtime is enormous.

And so everybody's gonna have to either give some give and take, or if the crews want to put some substantial financial skin in the game, uh we can certainly have that conversation.

But we can have a conversation where crews are gonna be able to say we're not gonna give any give and take, and we're not gonna put any additional substantial financial skin in the game.

I'm gonna just be honest, that's just not gonna work.

That's not what I said.

I'm I'm not gonna go back and forth.

But so to my to my point, some of these decisions for me are going to be informed by the budget.

And all of the crews are just gonna have to work with us as we navigate rising cost and a very precarious budget situation.

But I hear you loud and clear, and I agree with you.

Uh we should uh continue to have open dialogue and I look forward to that.

That's all we're asking for.

You know, I understand budgetary concerns.

Thank you, Mr.

Bet.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Um just an uh uh buddy uh I might call you look at on this.

First off, the route change was required and mandated by the superintendent of the police, as I understand it.

So as far as a negotiation, there's not really a negotiation with the council, you're negotiating with N L P D.

I asked to number two.

The bigger problem you have is that with all of these routes, working with the mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Committee is to make consistency among the crews.

Once Pygmillion changed their route, we would be paying for cops just to keep your route at its current location.

That not only is financially unfeasible, it is stretching the bounds of how many officers we have and how we can provide services to give you a route that no longer is enjoyed by other parades on the same night.

You under the current routes, based upon what Sparta wants, you would be the only one with magazine.

You understand that?

I understand that, but there are other crews that have portions of their routes that are not shared by anyone else as well.

Including Pygmalion.

When you funded the end of their route.

Igmalion has aligned themselves with what is being requested.

You would be the only crew that night that would be on magazine.

Am I correct, buddy?

Yes, sir.

So part of the issue is when we're redoing these routes along with the times, is to provide consistency among the parades rolling that specific day to make it all the same to make it easier for coordination, not just with NOPD, but also with sanitation, because sanitation would have to pick up just your portion and then the rest.

It would require everything to be realigned.

So what I would tell you is that the opportunity you had as a crew to voice your concern would have been through Mayor Mardi Gras Advisory Committee, which your crew captain is a member of, correct?

I am the crew captain that you explain.

I have, and I will again also sent a letter to but you expressed it at Mayor Mardi Gras Advisory, correct?

Which is the appropriate forum.

We haven't had the opportunity yet.

It's not meeting until tomorrow.

Okay.

Well, certainly you can express it there.

And if the entire mayor Mardi Gras Advisory Committee believes that your issue has merit, they can reach out to the superintendent, appeal to the superintendent to change the superintendent's position because right now the alignment of the parades is being driven largely, not just expenditure of funding, but also to Mr.

Mishu's point earlier, it deals with how long officers are on the route, it deals with the morale, deals with a variety of different issues.

So I would encourage you at Mardi Gras Advisory, make your case.

If the entire advisory committee agrees with you, they can make the case to the superintendent, and she can judge if whether or not that's something they can accommodate.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Thank you for being here, Dad.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Is there any other commentary?

Hearing none, I will move this item to the full council, seconded by Council Brahews.

Uh all in favor?

Any opposed?

Hearing none, we move to the full council for consideration.

Are we uh voting on the amendment?

Are we voting on there's uh an amendment?

I'm sorry.

Yeah, I don't I don't are you are you intending to uh vote and get this on consent?

Why don't we send it if we have an amendment to it?

We can't approve okay on the amendment.

So all right.

With that, I think that clears all of our items.

I will move to adjourn.

Oh I'm sorry.

I apologize.

We need to go back to item uh right, F one, Edwin Murray.

I was in error.

He does have a waiver, it was timely to receive.

I will move for him to be appointed.

Second by Councilmember Hughes.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, that's five four yes, no nays.

Um Mr.

Murray forward to full council for consideration.

With that, Councilman Hughes moves that we adjourn.

Councilman McCarron seconds.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right, any nays?

Hearing none, we're adjourned.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.