(upbeat music) - [Narrator] You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga city council meeting, a production of WTCI, PBS.

(upbeat music) - Tonight on ordinances on final reading, we have finance item A, Madam attorney will you please read A.

- An ordinance here and after known as the fiscal year 2022, 2023 operations budget providing revenue for the fiscal year beginning, July 1st, 2022 and ending June 30th, 2023.

Appropriating same to the payment of expenses of the municipal government.

Fixing the rate of taxation on all taxable property in the city and the time taxes and privileges are due.

How they shall be paid when they shall become delinquent, providing for interest in penalty on delinquent taxes and privileges, amending city code part two chapter two, section 2-267.

Relative to paid leave for active duty training and to amend Chattanooga city code part two chapter 31 sections 31-36, 31-37, 31-41 and 31-43, sections 31-322, and 31-354.

- Thank you, Madam attorney before I call on Dr. Burrs, will you be prepared to take a roll call vote on items A and B?

- Yes, sir.

- Dr. Burrs.

- I move approval and request a roll call vote, please.

- Thank you.

We do have a motion to approve.

We do have a second.

And we as predicted we do have a roll call vote.

Madam attorney.

- Yes.

And for the record, I would like to note that our clerk is taking minutes online tonight.

So minutes will be taken and distributed, but not by me.

I might get my order.

Incorrect.

Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Noel.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Councilman Smith.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Madam chair, vice chairwoman.

- Yes.

- And chairman.

- Yes.

- The yeses have it.

- Motion carries.

Will you please read item B.

- In ordinance appropriating, authorizing, or allocating funds to the capital improvements budget for the fiscal year 2022, 2023.

- Thank you.

We will request a roll call vote on item B as well and looking for a motion.

If you'll, there's your light Dr. Birrs.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

- Move approval.

And request a roll call vote.

- Very good.

Do you have a motion to approve?

I do hear a second.

Questions, comments before we vote?

Madam attorney, roll call vote.

Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Noel.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilman, I cannot stop saying chairman Henderson.

Councilman Henderson.

I'm sorry.

- Yes.

- Councilman Smith.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Vice chairwoman.

- Yes.

- Chair.

- Yes.

- The yeses have it.

- Thank you.

Item B does carried under legal madam attorney.

- A resolution authorizing the office of the city attorney to engage the following firms for legal and lobbying services.

Chambles, Bonner, and Stoful.

Geisinger, Peters, Elliot, and Cannon, Frost Brown Todd, Luther Anderson, Miller Martin, Tidwell and Associates, Patey Rymer and Yuen, Davis and Has, Evans, Harrison, and Hackett.

The law office of Autumn Whit Boyd, Bass Barry and Sims, Butler Snow, Hush Blackwell, Jelks Law, Catton Muchen Rosenmen, King and Spalding, Waller, Lanson, Dortch and Davis.

The title guarantee and trust of Company of Chattanooga Bradley Aaron Bolt Cummings, Rifer's, Homes and Peters, former Boyle Brasher, Bright Share Consulting, Tune Intrican and White, Bridge Public Affairs for the period of July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.

- Thank you.

Madam attorney, do I have a motion?

(audience mumbles) Have a motion to approve, I do hear a second.

Questions, comments before we vote?

All those in favor, say aye.

(audience says I) Opposed.

Motion carries.

Now move to committee reports.

Councilwoman Mc Coonrod.

- No - Councilwoman Noel.

- No.

- Dr. Burrs.

- Thank you chair.

- We are through with the budget process.

We did the second and final reading of the budget.

My sincere thanks to my colleagues who asked really good questions were really studious about the process and the city can be proud of their representatives with that the budget process is finished.

Thank you, sir.

- Thank you for a wonderful job ma'am, thank you.

We're now at the time where we recognize persons wishing to address the council.

If you'd like to address the council this evening, please state your name and your district.

- Elizabeth Adkins.

I'm in district eight.

I'm a family support specialist with the office of family empowerment.

And I am here to tell you a little bit about myself and the program I work for.

The people I work with at OFE have devoted their lives to helping the people of this city.

We speak to families in crisis who are struggling financially to support their homes, to find employment and especially to pay their rent and utility bills.

I am here before you today to ask that you now help me to pay my rent.

I've worked for this city with diligence and dedication.

I've turned down higher paying positions offered to me in the private sector.

And I have worked overtime almost every single week for over a year, especially throughout this pandemic.

As we have continued to lose irreplaceable employees who have left this work in search of better pay elsewhere throughout our struggles with under staffing, I myself have had to be personally accountable for answering to clients who were evicted while they were waiting for assistance from our agency.

This happened because we are so understaffed that the loss of even one employee is enough to directly affect numerous families in the community.

I'm here because I don't wanna leave my job.

Being able to support my community is the most important work I've ever been privileged to do.

It is what feeds my soul.

But unfortunately it does not feed my daughter.

You see, as a single mother with not enough money to pay my bills, I've been utilizing the same food pantry programs that I refer my clients to because our grant program was not included in the citywide raises implemented by the mayor's one Chattanooga campaign.

We have become second Chattanooga and we cannot wait for our pay to be prioritized in the next fiscal year.

We have already been waiting almost a year to even have our concerns properly acknowledged.

If we are not prioritized this grant year, myself and other hardworking, dedicated staff will be forced to leave OFE to support our own families.

Someone will have to be accountable to the people of Chattanooga when our agency fails to complete energy or rent assistance applications in a timely manner, because this agency simply will not have the staff.

I'm asking you to prioritize our pay now so that I and my colleagues are not forced to walk away.

I wanna leave you with a quote from Dr. King, who is credited with advocating for the start of the CSBG program in 1964, "There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen.

Whether he be a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day laborer."

Let's add our OFE workers to that list.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

Hi there.

- Good evening.

- Hi.

- I as well.

My name is Rasha Salib and I am as well employed by the office of family empowerment.

Try not to get emotional.

I've been employed for the city of Chattanooga since September of 2006.

I moved the office of family empowerment in 2021.

When the community centers closed due to COVID, we were at home for over a year, not working.

There was a mass email that was sent out to the recreation staff asking would go help the office of family empowerment, because they were overwhelmed with applications and not enough staff.

I decided to go when I showed up and I seen the purpose and the work that they do, I found my it.

After 15 years with the city, I found my purpose.

I decided to join the team.

However, our positions are grant funded and we are paid by that grant.

And if that grant is not in the budget for it, for us to get paid increases, we do not get paid increases.

We do not feel like we are included in mayor Kelly's one Chattanooga plan.

When Mr. Goldberg was asked in a previous council meeting, why was early head start the only grant funded position included in the pay increases?

Mr. Goldberg stated that because it is a high priority on mayor's Kelly's initiative as if none of the other grant funded positions were priority to hear about the raises and the retro pay that all city employees have received.

And the upcoming raises that are coming, and we have not been included and will not be included is very disappointing.

Mr. Goldberg also mentioned that bonuses that we will receive, those are not, will be covered by the city.

Those are covered by the grant.

If allowed.

The grant should not go a hundred percent to fund employee salaries, the grant should cover the needs of the community to provide those services.

We are city employees and we serve the city.

Yet, we have been forgotten about, and we have been left behind.

This is not just a job for me.

This is a passion that I love, but with great sadness, I would have to walk away if no changes are made.

And the office of family empowerment cannot stand to lose any more employees with the rising cost of everything.

We should not be at the mercy of a grant.

As Mr. Goldberg stated previously, the office of family empowerment needs the 11 full-time employees that still remain just because we have a passion and we're hopeful that we will be treated like the other city employees and taken in accountability for raises.

This job as well, feeds my soul.

But I am feared that I will have to make a decision in feeding my soul or feeding my family.

Thank you for your time.

(audience claps) - Thank you.

- Good evening, council.

My name's Kent Dixon.

I'm resident of district nine, hello councilwoman Coonrod.

I'm also the program coordinator for family support programs at OFE.

I work beside Liz and Rasha who you've heard from I unique in the other five people over here, and I'm here to fight for them.

These people work extremely hard every day.

They are without a doubt, some of the hardest working people in this city, and they work to support the people who most need your help and the help of this city government.

And they're now some of the least paid people in this city.

Last year, the city finally recognized that city wages had not kept up with city living standards.

That those of us who served this city were not being paid enough to live in this city.

And they raised 90% of city employees up to the wages they need.

But we were excluded from that.

We were cut out from that and we began to express concerns about that back in September and October of last year, we fought for it, we've asked to speak to numerous people.

Our leadership's met with our administrator, with the mayor's office, with the finance powers that be, and these concerns haven't been addressed to give you just a little bit of perspective, I'm here to fight for my staff, but as a supervisor, as someone with almost a decade of experience in this field, and as someone with a college degree, I'm one of the best compensated people in this department.

And my little two bedroom, one bath house rent in a very modest neighborhood was recently raised to more than my biweekly paycheck.

So we are all struggling really hard from the bottom to the top.

We aren't asking for much, we're just asking for quality.

We're asking for equity with the rest of the city.

We're not asking for a high wage.

We're asking to be able to feed Liz's daughter and to pay our rent and to continue to serve this city.

And we haven't been given that as we've met with several members of the city leadership, we keep being told that people didn't know about this.

Well, when the city I instituted these increases, they created a process to appeal anyone who's left outta these increases.

Several of us filed these appeals.

I myself wrote an email to the designated HR compensation manager, who was pointed to as the person we should appeal to.

He told me in October that they were discussing this issue about grant employees and they would give us an answer.

I've emailed him multiple times since then.

I haven't gotten that answer.

And we keep being told, eight months later that the powers to be don't know about it, but their designated spokesperson did know about it.

They had the right and responsibility to know about it and they've ignored it.

It's not that we haven't spoken up, it's that they've chosen to ignore us.

So now we're being asked for more time and more patience, but that's unacceptable because it's been eight months that we've been patient and our requests are still being ignored.

And at this point, the costs are getting so high that we are rapidly losing staff.

We are 50% staffed.

So if the city wants to continue to tell its citizens that it cares about those most in need, it needs to either staff the place that provides for their rent and their utilities, or stop telling those citizens that cares about them.

So please use your authority and power to help our wages become more equitable with basic living costs in this city.

Thank you very much.

(audience claps) - Thank you.

- Evening, miss Mont.

- Good evening.

Marie Mont, district eight.

You ask what is our aim?

I can answer it with one word.

It is victory.

Victory at all, costs.

Victory in spite of all terror.

Victory, however long and hard the road ahead for there is nothing outside of victory.

Certainly not even survival, Winston Churchill.

According to the expectations of the city council listed under the national league of cities, a portion of a city council's responsibilities is to regulate public health and safety and respond to constituents needs as well as complaints, to have councilmen and women in meetings with no solutions to increase gun violence and give us silence after we were told cameras, we pay for didn't work for weeks.

Is not only unacceptable, but a failure of you and others who are in leadership during times of uncertainty and crisis.

Maybe you think it won't ever happen to you or reach your doorstep, but you couldn't be anymore wrong.

On this past Sunday, just one week after Mary shooting, a 72 year old elder was shot in his home on Citico and killed.

Another woman injured in her car.

Keep in mind, this shooting and the one in Mary's were both less than two miles away from where mayor Kelly and first lady Jenny, both live, not even the mayor can escape the reality of what's going on.

And may I say, it would be nice to have him do more than talk on press conferences and make the effort of actually showing up in person.

Money, passionate, community members, brilliant activists and nonprofit heads are not lacking in the city.

Neither are solutions.

Simply and plainly put, we lack the political will for our council to have a beating heart and respond to our concerns with enthusiasm, with a message of hope.

Even in the midst of the storm, the people demand change.

Grieving mothers are here with me, demanding collaboration in a seat at a table that should be extended to them.

I have even spent a week researching a wide range of fresh and successful public health, public safety, business, and gun law approaches from all over the country that work, are scalable and can be used, right where we live.

A copy of this comprehensive plan, drafted and collaboration with surviving mothers has already been emailed to the mayor, Joda Tom Becknewa, each city council person, chief Celeste Murphy, Tamara Stewart, Yasef Hakeem, and Todd Goddenhire.

I also have physical copies of which I would like to hand to every person in leadership that I just named with the exception of Yasef and Todd and grieving mothers of Chattanooga politely request meetings with the mayor, chief of police, Dr. Lambert, Tamara Stewart, and Troy Rogers.

Thank you.

(audience claps) - And if you are here because you answered my call for community violence and supporting the mothers, please stand up so they can see that black people care about our communities and we love one another.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

(audience claps) - Good evening.

- Good evening commissioners.

My name is Betty Maddox Battle.

I am one of those grieving mothers.

I've stood before you time after time.

In reference to us collectively coming together, I have a 501C3 nonprofit that has been in effect since 2010.

I need the help.

These are our children that are being murdered.

We as grieving mothers will continue to occupy the frontline and speak on behalf of our murdered loved ones, gun violence disproportionately impacts community of color that have suffered from the longstanding base race redlining and disinvestment.

Community violence is a direct result of unmet social needs.

And we need to address these needs.

We need to continue to have an outcome.

We have that outcome.

Violence has become one of the nation's most endemic and now epidemic in the middle of a pandemic, grieving relatives, Chattanooga aquantic program and personal development and community Haven can provide those needs.

A comprehensive community approach recognizes that no single program is sufficient and there are many opportunities for effective programs within this community.

We ask that you will stand with us and implement these programs.

We talk about love, but we really do not know what love is.

First of all, we have to love ourself.

Secondly, we have to love what we want for somebody.

We have to love what we want for ourself for somebody else.

This cannot continue.

Don't anyone have moments of pure of, I'm sorry, of poor mental health.

Everybody don't have mental illness.

There is a difference.

What effects one directly affects us all indirectly.

These young people that are sitting here.

This is our future.

I humbly ask that these grieving mothers collectively come together with me and unify.

I can be reached at grievingrelatives.org, or you may email me at grieve-_families@epbfi.com.

Or you can call me at (470)-885-9524.

And I leave you with this quote, the late Jimmy Hendrix once said "When the power of love overcomes the love of power.

That's when you'll see a change."

Thank you for listening.

- Thank you.

(audience claps) - Evening, sir.

- Amen.

My name's Reverend Anthony Chapman and we at Wesley Chapel also stand behind the grieving mothers who have lost children with lost guns.

I'm just a little country boy, and I'm going to lead most of my time for y'all to respond because we usually don't get answers from the council members.

On legal, on legal, y'all pass the, to add more legal counsel to the city.

I have a question.

The attorneys that y'all add to y'all's roster once they work for y'all aren't they dedicated to y'all?

If a citizen tries to use an attorney, one of those attorneys can they actually fall against y'all without conflict of interest?

And I'll let y'all answer that question because I don't know.

It just seems like y'all keep adding more attorneys to y'all's list.

And I'm just kind of curious if those attorneys can actually file cases against the city.

If there are citizens who try to get 'em.

- Well, if the attorney has motion to me, she would like to answer your question, because that is actually a city attorney's office question, not a council question.

- We engage these firms on a contract basis for particular projects and a conflict of interest would only arise where that attorney has represented the city on some issue related to that client.

All lawyers have to deal with conflict inquiries on every single case.

And that's how we, they're not necessarily beholden to us.

They write contracts, they do paving and environmental research.

The gamut of things.

Does that help at all?

- Well, I was just curious, in case a citizen file a lawsuit against a city and try to get an attorney on their behalf, but they have, say they have a conflict of interest because they have done work for the city.

- That could happen.

But typically personal injury attorneys represent the citizens and they don't do other work most of the time.

- Okay.

- They have a pretty niche practice area.

- So to understand that, yes, it could be a conflict of interest and they couldn't file against the city.

In most cases.

- [Audience Member 1] He's he's leading.

- It could, don't worry.

We get sued plenty.

- Okay.

All right.

I just wanted to ask.

I'm just a country boy.

I don't know much.

- That's fair.

- Evening, Mr. Bell.

- Indeed.

It is a good evening.

Council, Monty bell, the homeless journalist, the gray herd fox.

I have a court order to hold court.

And since you've banned me from the circuit courts building, I'm going to hold it here.

I've got enough conscientious observers.

That's all it calls for.

This legal problem that you have now contracted with you all-- - Mr. Bell, I'm-- - Are the worse.

- I'm terribly sorry.

But-- - I am too because I have been here so many times.

Let me tell you who you are.

Let me, because I've had enough of you all too.

Recognitions of persons wishing to address the council.

This was November the 14th, 2014.

Chairman, Mr. Henderson, you were asked if there were any people here to address the council on agenda matters.

I was here, but because of a conflict of interest that you had with your attorneys and every one of these attorneys that are on your list, I've sued them and I've won.

That's why you're trying to stop me.

Let me let you go ahead and hear COVID 19 for all the people that are in here wondering about this disease.

This is COVID 19.

She's at UTC.

Let's see if we can get her up here.

This is COVID 19.

I want you to hear this because it all started here.

I'm going to hold court here because I cannot do it at the circuit courts on Hamilton county.

We can't do it anywhere else.

I didn't come here to discuss this.

I came to discuss the fact that we've got 38 million dollars of these black kids that you've been depriving them of.

You all are the worst landlords that I've seen since I was over in Germany.

And that's where I first seen this thing called a ghetto over there in Germany.

And it wasn't black people.

It was the same people that you all keep talking about Kill Jesus Christ.

And this is why Hitler was upset.

I'm sick of it.

You owe me money.

$100 billion for your fraud on the court.

And your challenge of keeping people in ghettos here in this city, you gotta stop it.

I'm pushing legislation to stop you from putting the budget into the same thing as the police officers.

Why are my black kids always in a budget with the police officers?

It's not defunding the police, not at all, but you all are under a responsibility to teach people and to give them a place to stay.

I've been the homeless journalist of gray herd fox for 30 years.

When am I going to get my place?

Do I have to do something violent to you all?

- Whoa, whoa, Mr. Bell, - This is, this is, this is-- - Mr. Bell.

- This is not that.

- Mr. Bell, we are done.

- I have-- - We are done.

- I have a court order.

- No, we are done.

- To hold court.

- [Audience Member 2] Stop it.

- We are done.

- [Audience Member 2] Stop it.

(audience murmurs) - Look, you are on my YouTube channel and you have to remove yourself from that.

(audience murmurs) You have to remove yourself, you and David Tulas.

- [Audience Member 3] No I don't want them to hear you.

- We're gonna come back next week and talk about COVID 19.

And we're going to, - No.

- There-- - Mr. Bell.

- I have a court order.

- Thank you Mr. Bell.

- To hold court.

- Thank you-- - And thank you very much.

You're gonna pay me my money.

- Thank you, Mr. Bell.

- And you're gonna get my kids out of these ghettos.

I promise you.

- [Audience Member 2] Come on.

- Thank Mr. Bell.

- I promise you.

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