(light upbeat music) - [Announcer] You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting, a production of WTCI PBS.

- Okay.

(gavel knocks) All right, we call our Tuesday, April 11th City Council business meeting to order.

All right, now, we will have a special presentation, a Proclamation for World Autism Awareness Month, by Chairman Ledford.

- Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

Madam Vice Chair, members of Council, Mayor Kelly, and honored guests, thank you.

Would the members for this proclamation here today please join me at the podium?

We have Dave Buck, the executive director of the Chattanooga Autism Center, and we have former City Council Chairman Erskine Oglesby, no stranger to this body.

So thank you gentlemen, both, for joining us today.

This is a Chattanooga City Proclamation.

"Whereas World Autism Day is an internationally recognized day on April 2nd every year, happening since 2008, and is a way to celebrate the autism community, and whereas the CDC estimates the rate of autism diagnosis is now one in 36 people, 2.8%, and whereas the Chattanooga Autism Center now estimates that there are 15,000 autistic individuals in the Greater Metro Chattanooga area, and whereas autistic individuals should be given access to care, supports and services included into the community, and the opportunity to live happy and meaningful lives, and whereas the Chattanooga Autism Celebration Walk is an event where citizens work together to share commitment, encourage inclusion, and build a stronger community, and whereas it is fitting and proper to declare April World Autism Awareness Month in the city of Chattanooga, now therefore, on this 11th day of April, 2023, the Chattanooga City Council hereby proclaims April 2023 World Autism Awareness Month, in the city of Chattanooga, and encourages all citizens to join together to create acceptance, inclusion and understanding of autistic people in our community and around the world.

Signed this day, every member of this city council.

(attendees applauding) Thank you Madam Vice Chair.

We will now have on our agenda the election of officers for chair and vice chair.

I will now open the nominations for chair of the Chattanooga City Council.

Councilman Smith.

- Thank you Mr.

Chair.

It is my honor and privilege to nominate Vice Chair Raquetta Dotley for chair.

- Dr. Berz, I see your light.

- Absolutely, and I wanna follow with what's my absolute honor, to second that, Councilman.

- Council, I have a nomination for chair of this council, being Raquetta Dotley.

Any other nominations?

Councilman Hester?

- Move to close nominations and elect by acclimation.

- Councilman Hester, I see your light.

We do have a motion to close nominations and move by acclimation.

- I want to follow my fellow councilpersons, and say Raquetta Dotley too.

- Very good, nominations are closed.

We will move this by acclimation.

Congratulations, Madam Chair- - Well, thank you.

- Raquetta Dotley.

(attendees applauding) (council members conversing faintly) Before Madam Chair takes the center chair, if you'll allow me a one last point of privilege as your chair.

The honor to serve this body in the chair position has been, to say the least, quite an experience.

Working very closely with our council staff, Nicole, Kyana, Karen, and now Melissa, gave me insight and perspective on how seamlessly our council office operates, and the skill each staff member brings daily.

A special note to Nicole, I see you down there.

Thank you for keeping me on track.

You are a lifesaver.

You are a true professional.

I leaned heavily on you.

You are a pillar, and the pillar of our council office, and I appreciate you very much.

To the mayor's senior staff and department heads, I will miss our frequent updates, kind of.

(people laughing) But I am grateful for the conversation and openness of thought and collaboration.

We have very talented folks working in these positions, and our city is better for that.

Thank you for being so supportive as well, over the past year.

Mayor Kelly, thank you for the open door policy.

I cannot think of a time Mayor Kelly didn't pick up the phone when I called, with a thought or concern regarding council business.

You remain approachable, willing to engage, and always looking for compromise, to achieve best practices or results.

Thank you, Mayor.

To my right is a gentleman and a scholar, our city attorney Phil Noblett.

Phil, thank you for the guide rails, and for being a strong legal sounding board for this council.

I've learned so much from you in this position, not only from a legal perspective, but from a procedural perspective.

Over my years on council, you have been a tremendous influence on me.

Thank you for your continued support, and service to our city.

To my colleagues who serve this city with passion, commitment, and conviction, Demetrus, Marvene, Carol, Raquetta, Chip, Jenny, Isiah, and Ken, the confidence you've shown me over the past year has been heartfelt and heartwarming.

Thank you for the lessons you have left with me while serving you as chair.

I am grateful to each and every one of you for allowing me the privilege to serve you in this role.

Madam Chair Dotley, it has been a pleasure to work alongside of you.

Your dedication and leadership to this council have prepared you to take us forward, and I sincerely wish you success as you lead us in the challenges that face us over the next year.

Thank you for being such a great partner, and it is with great pleasure, I now turn the gavel- - Oh, thank you.

- Over to you.

(attendees applauding) - Thank you so much.

It has been my pleasure to serve as vice chair for this council, and I thank you all for entrusting me to be the new chair of City Council.

Thank you, Chairman Ledford, for being a great leader, a great mentor.

I really appreciate it so much.

And I serve as the first African American woman as chair of this council.

So I'm excited about that.

(attendees cheering) Excited about that, and so, thank you all so much.

And I do wanna give a special thanks to Councilwoman Coonrod, who when I first decided I wanted to run, she was the first person I reached out to.

So I appreciate you for your leadership and mentorship as well.

And I wanna thank my best friend Achille, who's out in the audience, as well as my pastor, which most of y'all done met by now, Pastor George Maize, out there as well.

My little sister and niecy poo that just walked in.

- Hi.

- Hey, y'all.

(attendees laughing) They just came in as well.

So I'm excited and nervous to serve.

So y'all bear with us tonight, okay?

- And I have Councilman Smith, you are active.

- Thank you Madam Chair.

Before we move on, let me be the first to say congratulations.

- Thank you, thank you.

- I'm looking very much forward to the next year, but in looking back over the past year, I also wanted to make sure to tell Chairman, and now Councilman Ledford, thank you for your leadership over the last year.

- Mm, thank you, yes.

- There are very few people, that even those of us that serve, that understand the amount of time and dedication it takes to do that job well.

And I would like to say that you have done an extraordinary job as chair.

I've seen the time you've put in, I've heard about the time you've put in, by your wife, and others.

(everyone laughs) So I'm very familiar- - She's happy.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - With the amount of dedication, yes.

I understand, it was her term limit, not yours.

- [Darrin] Yes.

(people laughing) - But with that, thank you so much for everything over the last year.

It actually made at least my job on council way easier, with how well you ran the meetings, how well you kept things in line.

And I know that was because of Nicole, but- - [Darrin] Absolutely.

- Mm-hmm.

- Thank you in that leadership role, and I would just also like to say, welcome to the Chattanooga City Council Chairman Alumni Association.

- Oh, okay, okay.

- Thank you, glad to be there.

- Yes, and we have Councilwoman Coonrod next.

But before I do that, I do wanna say thank you for coming to some of my favorite constituents.

I see Susan Gilmore and Tom out there.

I just wanna say thank y'all.

They have supported me from the beginning, from way, way in the beginning, before I thought about city council.

So I thank them so much for coming.

Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to nominate Jenny Hill, Councilwoman Jenny Hill, for vice chair.

- All right.

- I second.

- A second, all right.

I have a nomination for vice chair for Councilwoman Jenny Hill, and a proper second.

Any questions or comments?

- [Ken] I'll move that we close nominations and elect by acclimation.

- All right, elected by acclimation, Councilwoman Jenny Hill as our new vice chair of City Council.

(everyone applauds) (people cheering) (council members conversing faintly) (council members laughing) - All righty, Councilwoman Berz.

(council members conversing faintly) Okay.

- Come on in.

- Well, welcome, Madam Vice Chair Hill.

- Thank you- - Welcome, did you have anything you wanted to say?

- I think that a good vice chair supports her Madam Chair, so let's get it going.

- Let's get it going then, all right.

And we do have Mayor Kelly here today, if you wanna come up and say a few words.

- Well, I won't belabor the proceedings too much more, but I just wanted to take a brief moment to acknowledge this historic passing of the gavel.

Wow, I'm not sure I'm okay with this, but- - [Raquetta] Mm-hmm, you'll see, you'll see.

(laughs) - We'll talk about that later.

To Councilman Ledford, I just wanna say, I hope we kept it interesting for you, Mr. Former Chairman, from packed-out public hearings about sustainability plans and hotels and baseball stadiums, my administration threw you a curve ball or two during your time as chair, but you always called balls and strikes fairly.

And more importantly, you always made sure everyone had an opportunity to have their voices heard.

So thank you for that.

That's not to say that everyone always agreed, but you've always prioritized a process that was inclusive, and which I hope will always continue, of course.

This council has always made decisions together, even if you reach different conclusions.

So, I know you took calls from me at all strange times, as well as Joda and my team, at all hours of the day and night.

- Yes.

- Whether it was good news or bad news, and you did all of this while getting quite a lot done for East Brainerd, including the Batters Place pickleball courts, the Harvest inclusion playground in Heritage Park.

You led the efforts to dedicate the Heritage House Arts and Civic Center to the late Don Eaves, and East Brainerd owes you a huge debt of gratitude for that.

You also championed the modernization of our zoning code, which will open up more housing options for every Chattanoogan, and helped shepherd the city's first parks and outdoors planning effort in over 25 years.

You have indeed shown our entire community what our legislative and executive branches of government can do together.

We're on the same page, and they share the same values.

And those examples of civility are all too rare, as we well know, both locally, at the state level and nationally.

And you are to be commended as a body, for your sense of civility and our relationship, which I treasure deeply.

So thank you for that.

On behalf of the City of Chattanooga, also, again, thank you again for the turn of the gavel.

I know that isn't easy.

To Chairwoman Dotley and Vice Chair Hill, congratulations.

I'm very much looking forward to working with both of you to get some big things done.

This is of course the first time that our council's top leadership roles have been filled by two women.

And it's also the first time that a Black woman has ever served as chair, which is historic in its own right, and deserves another round of applause.

(attendees applauding) Yeah, I'm very proud, I'm very proud of our relationship, and I look forward to continuing the work to build One Chattanooga together.

And I know we're gonna accomplish a lot in the next year, so thank you, and again, congratulations.

- All right, thank you Mayor Kelly.

(attendees applauding) The minutes will stand without objection.

We have no ordinances on final reading.

We have ordinances on first reading.

Madam Clerk, could you read Council Office Item A?

- [Nicole] "An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part II, Chapter 25, Article 3, by adding section 25-79 relative to enumeration of prohibited noises in all residential zones outside the Downtown Amplified Music District."

- All right, Councilwoman Berz.

- Move approval.

- Second.

- Okay, I have a, it's been moved and properly second.

Any questions or comments?

I have Councilwoman Coonrod.

- I'd like to make an amendment.

- Okay.

- I'd like to make the amendment to several of 'em.

On number three, the yelling and hawkin' in the streets, to add the time from 8:30 at night until seven o'clock in the morning.

And then also, number five, the operations of vehicle at a time, 8:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., and also to number nine, change the time at 8:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. And I believe we had a, or overlooked a error in the time on number two, that it says 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., but it should be changed to a.m., on 10 o'clock a.m. - [Raquetta] Okay, all right.

- [Council Member] I'll second that amendment.

- All right, the amendment has been- - [Demetrus] Oh, and one more.

- [Raquetta] Mm-hmm?

- I'm sorry, number 10, like it says with the fireworks, "It shall be unlawful to set off fireworks after the hour of 11:30 p.m., except for July the 4th and New Year's Eve."

I'd like to add Juneteenth in that, as well.

- Okay, all right.

Any additional amendments, Councilwoman Coonrod?

- [Demetrus] That's it.

- That's it, all right.

And that's in form of a motion?

- [Demetrus] Yes.

All right, do I have that second?

- [Council Member] Second.

- Okay, all right, the amendment has been a motion and properly second.

Any comment or question before we vote on the amendment?

All right.

- [Staff Member] Roll call.

- Roll call vote, all right.

Madam Clerk, will you do a roll call vote for the amendment?

- [Nicole] Councilman Henderson?

- [Chip] Yes.

- [Nicole] Councilman Smith?

- [Ken] No.

- [Nicole] Councilman Ledford?

- [Darrin] Yes.

- [Nicole] Councilman Hester?

- [Isiah] Yes.

- [Nicole] Councilwoman Berz?

- [Carol] No.

- [Nicole] Councilwoman Noel?

- [Marvene] Yes.

- [Nicole] Councilwoman Coonrod?

- [Demetrus] Yes.

- [Nicole] Vice Chair Hill?

- [Jenny] Yes.

- [Nicole] Chair Dotley?

- [Raquetta] Yes.

- [Nicole] Seven yeses.

- Seven yeses, okay, amendment passes.

All right, with the amendment we wanna vote on the ordinance as amended.

Any comments or questions?

All right, all in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- Okay, all opposed?

All right, ordinance passes.

- [Council Member] (indistinct) We do.

(laughs) - Now we move on to Resolutions.

With no objection from the Council, I would like to take items A through E as a group.

Okay, Madam Clerk, could you read items A through E on the Council Office?

- [Nicole] Item A, "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to allocate $5,000 from the American Rescue Plan, Coronavirus, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, to the Miracle League of Chattanooga for the purposes of providing access to adaptive sports programming for special needs individuals who experienced negative financial impact as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Item B, "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to allocate $10,000 from the American Rescue Plan, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to the New United Missionary Baptist Church for the purposes of continuing to provide tours of historical Black colleges and universities to Chattanooga High School students with a qualifying grade point average."

Item C, "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to allocate $15,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, to the Pathway Young Adult Program, Inc., for the purposes of continuing to provide transitional wraparound services to young adults and teenagers who are exiting the Tennessee Foster Care program."

Item D, "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to allocate $5,000 from the American Rescue Plan, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery funds to Partnership for Families, Children, and Adults, Inc., for the purposes of encouraging and assisting children who have experienced trauma due to violence by expanding access to partnerships, Camp Hope."

Item E, "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to allocate $10,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to the I AM Foundation for the purposes of continuing to provide wraparound supportive services to home LGBTQ+ youth in Chattanooga."

- All right, I have Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Move to approve.

- Second.

- Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All opposed?

Motion passes.

Under Economic Development, Item F. - [Nicole] "A resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a quit claim deed to convey the City of Chattanooga 50% interest in the delinquent tax parcel at 1806 South Hawthorne Street, further identified as Tax Map Number 156BN016 to Hamilton County, Tennessee."

- Okay, that is in District Eight.

- Move to approve.

- Second.

- Okay, we have a motion and proper second.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All opposed?

Motion passes.

Legal Item G. - [Nicole] "A resolution authorizing the City of Chattanooga to join the State of Tennessee and other local governments, in amending the Tennessee State Subdivision Opioid Abatement Agreement and approving the related settlement agreements."

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Move to approve.

- Second.

- Okay, we have a motion and proper second.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All opposed?

- Okay, motion passes.

On the Mayor's Office, I would like to take items, with no objection from Council, items H, I, and J as a group, Madam Clerk?

- [Nicole] Item H, "A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's reappointment of Marco Salenda to the Stormwater Regulations Board for a term beginning on April 12th, 2023 and ending on April 11th, 2026."

Item I, "A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's reappointment of Mark Miller to the Stormwater Regulations Board for a term beginning on April 12th, 2023 and ending on April 11th, 2026."

Item J, "A resolution affirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Ross Pitcairn as the administrator for the Department of Public Works."

- Okay.

- Move to approve.

- Second.

- Okay, got a motion and proper second.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All opposed?

Motion passes.

Next, we will have a public hearing on Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency, or the C-PACER program ordinance.

But before we start, I wanna have Joda come up and explain what all of that is.

- Yep, thank you Chairwoman.

If there's a presentation I think that I can run through really quickly.

I'm not going to go through it in extraordinarily detail, as you all have seen this presentation before.

But there are a couple of points I wanna highlight.

Like I said, we did review this in strategic planning, but the C-PACER ordinance provides a voluntary tax assessment that is between a property owner and a lender, both voluntary.

And this provides a new financing mechanism for energy efficiency improvements and resiliency improvements, a new tool in the toolbox, if you will, for Chattanoogans.

So this is authorized by the Tennessee General Assembly in Title 68, Chapter 205, and it is property-based financing for energy and water efficiency improvements as well as resiliency improvements, so everything from improving the thickness of windows to adding solar panels, which can help improve the resiliency of a building.

These can be considered qualified projects, and it acts like an assessment.

The bill would come around annually, timed along with the assessment.

But the funds and the way that we have designed the program would be paid directly to the lender.

Again, this is a voluntary program that we anticipate maybe one to three of every year, and the assessment lien would be placed on the property, and the, in exchange for that, the property owner from a lender would receive the funds to do long-term deep energy efficiency improvements.

A couple of things I wanna flag.

There are zero, there have been zero foreclosures on C-PACE properties nationwide.

There are only a handful of C-PACE lenders.

And again, the city of Chattanooga, as part of this program, would certify that these are eligible projects, and then would sign off on that.

And then from there on, it is between the property owner and a lender.

The statute provides very limited situations in which there's any liability to local government.

It's explicitly in the situation of gross negligence that the city would be liable.

And we have put in place a measure and program that would ensure that all projects are eligible and reviewed by our staff.

Again, the repayment terms are built and collected and enforced directly by the C-PACER capital provider.

These projects are currently enabled in Memphis, Davidson County, or Nashville and Robertson County in Tennessee.

And its currently enabling legislation is in process in four other municipalities and counties throughout the state.

Again, this adds a valuable tool to the toolbox for developers of affordable housing, or multi-family housing or commercial properties to again deepen the affordability and efficiency of their projects.

This is the one thing I noticed didn't translate.

The C-PACER provisions can be used in everything except for single family residential.

So there should be an X there, but it is enabled for offices, multi-family housing, industrial retail, hotel, agricultural.

They can all be used, this process can all be used for everything other than single-family housing.

And again, this is 100% financing.

It allows deep retrofits, and increases property values, which ultimately increase our local tax base.

And I want to underscore once again, this is a voluntary lending agreement that a property owner and a lender would both voluntarily agree to enter.

And the loan value cannot exceed the overall value of the property.

Again, no local financial resources are at risk.

The City generally has no liability for non-payment by a property owner.

That would be the lender's responsibility.

And then finally, there is no provision, and in fact, it is explicitly prohibited by state legislation that allows the local government to use public funds to repay any of the C-PACER loan terms by any property owner.

So no city dollars can go into these loans.

This is again, explicitly an agreement between a property owner and a lender.

I will point out that there is an administrative fee that would come back to the city of 1%, but it is capped at $50,000.

For most of these loan terms, you would see somewhere in that 50,000 range is an application fee for processing this.

So this has an opportunity to provide revenue back to the city.

And again, the City of Chattanooga has chosen to delegate the billing responsibilities directly to the capital provider.

And that, you know, there are more details and we cover those in strategic planning.

But I wanted to see if there's any questions from Council before I turn this over to the public hearing.

And back to you, Madam Vice Chair, or sorry, Madam Chair.

- All right, Madam Clerk, would you read Item L under Mayor's Office?

- [Nicole] "A resolution demonstrating the City of Chattanooga's intent to adopt C-PACER-enabling legislation following a public hearing."

- [Council Member] Move to approve.

- [Council Member] Second.

- Okay, I have a motion and proper second.

Any comments or questions?

All in favor?

- [Council Members] Aye.

- All opposed?

Motion carries.

Anyone else wishing to address the Council, what's your pleasure?

- Move to adjourn.

- Meeting adjourned.

(gavel knocks) Amen, amen.

(light upbeat music) - [Announcer] You've been watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting, a production of WTCI PBS.

(light upbeat music fades)