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

(upbeat music) - Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Tuesday, March 15th council meeting.

I now call this meeting to order.

We have no special presentations this afternoon, could I have a motion on the minutes?

We have a motion to approve with a proper second, are there any questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor aye.

- [Council members] Aye.

- Any opposed no.

The ayes have it.

Ordinances on final reading this afternoon are all planning items.

Madam clerk if there's no objection from the council would you please take A through F together as a package please.

- [Nicole] Item A: An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone properties located in the 800 block of Signal Mountain Road, and the O-1 portion of a property located in the 100 block of Rosa Avenue from R-1 residential zone, R-2 residential zone, and O-1 office zone to R-4 special zone.

Item B, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 7503 Igou Gap Road from R-1 residential zone to RTZ residential townhouse zero lot line zone.

Item C, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to lift conditions 1 through 7 from ordinance number 9735 on the property located at 7610 Goodwin Road, and an unaddressed property located in the 7600 block of Goodwin Road subject to certain conditions.

Item D, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 4000 Tennessee Avenue from R-4 special zone to M-1 manufacturing zone to UGC, Urban General Commercial Zone, subject to certain conditions.

Item E, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 2378 Chestnut Street from M-1 manufacturing zone to UGC, Urban General Commercial Zone with a condition.

Item F, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance so as to rezone property located at 3619 Fifth Avenue from R-1 residential zone to C-5 neighborhood commercial zone.

- Councilman Ledford.

- [Ledford] Thank you Mr.

Chair, I wanna thank the council for the diligence through final reading and without objection move to approve.

- [Council Member] Second.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve items 5-A through F with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council Members] Aye.

- Any opposed, no.

So ordered.

We have no ordinances on the first reading this evening.

Madam clerk, with no objections from the council would you please read 7-A, B, and C, together as a package please?

- [Nicole] Yes.

Item A, a resolution authorized the mayor as designee to execute a lease with OBC Properties Delaware LLC, and substantially the form attached for the lease of approximately 9,084 square feet a space for operation of the public library in 5900 Building, Suite 1500, 5705 Marlin road for the term of five years for the annual rent of $94,980.

Item B, a resolution authorized the mayor as designee to enter into amendment number two and a fourth agreement to exercise option to renew with Friends of the Zoo Inc and substantially the forms attached to extend the term for an additional period of 60 days to the date of May 14th, 2022.

Item C, a resolution authorized the mayor as designee to apply for and if awarded to accept environmental protection agency, EPA Brownfield Revolving Loan Fund, RLF, supplemental funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bipartisan infrastructure law for an amount of 2 to 5 million dollars.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- [Berz] Need approval.

- [Council Member] Seconded.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve item 7-A B and C with a proper second, any questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council members] Aye - Any opposed, no.

So moved.

Madam clerk under human resources let's read 7-D and E please.

- [Nicole] Item D, a resolution authorized the appointment of Gabriela Gray as special police officer unarmed for the McKamey Animal Center to do special duty as prescribed herein subject to certain conditions.

Item E, a resolution authorizing appointment of Seth Watson as special police officer unarmed for the McKamey Animal Center to do special duty as prescribed herein, subject to certain conditions.

- What's pleasure to the council?

(indistinct) - [Council Member] Second.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve item 7-D and E with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council members] Aye.

- Any opposed, no.

So moved.

Madam clerk moving now to 7-F. - [Nicole] A resolution confirmed Mayor Kelly's appointment of Celeste Murphy as the chief of police.

- Councilwoman Noel.

- [Noel] I make a motion to approve.

- [Chip] Councilwoman Berz?

- [Berz] Well I have to second to know (indistinct) (Chip laughs) (indistinct) - [Chip] Well we have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council members] Aye.

- Any opposed, no.

Chief Murphy congratulations.

(crowd applauds) - Thank you everybody thank you.

(crowd applauds) - [Chip] Now you've gotta, since you were up there you've gotta say-- (crowd laughs) Come on now.

(Chip laughs) - Is it working?

Okay.

You know, I'm at a loss for words which is rare, but this is really a proud moment for me and I thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to be able to share the passion that I have for this profession and to be able to, and I also wanna thank those in here for support as well.

The city, the council, and the police department have all welcomed me and I'm ready to do my best for you.

I'll give you 150%.

So thank you so much.

- [Chip] Congratulations.

- Thank you.

(crowd applauds) - Moving now to purchases, Mr. Goldberg.

- Thank you Mr.

Chair.

Tonight we have nine purchases.

The first is from the waste resources division and public works.

This is a price increase for land application of bio solids.

Denali Water Solutions LLC submitted a price increase of 10% for the fuel components on the contract.

This is due to the change in U.S. Department of Energy fuel prices for the Gulf Coast, no additional funds are being requested and the annual amount remains at 2.6 million.

Approval is required to apply the increase to the fuel line items on the purchase order.

Item two, also waste resources division, new blanket contract for special line tank cleaning services.

Two bids are received and the award goes to Tradebe Environmental Services and Performance Contracting, Inc. as the best bids meeting specifications.

This will be a four year contract with an annual amount not to exceed $2,500,000.

Item three, public works purchase a bike share station system E-kiosk and hardware equipment for Bike Chattanooga.

This is a sole source procurement with PBSC Urban Solutions Inc in the amount of $199,932 half of which is covered by the Lyndhurst Foundation Grant.

Item four, fleet management division public works.

Second final renewal of contract for automotive filters.

Lee-Smith Inc submitted a price increase of 2.3% at the time of renewal with an annual amount not to exceed $25,000.

Fifth, parks maintenance division, parks and outdoors.

New blanket contract for grounds maintenance of downtown city parks.

Two bids were received and the award goes to CityGreen Services as the best bid meeting specifications.

This will be a four year contract with an annual amount not to exceed $75,000.

Sixth, parks maintenance division, parks and outdoors.

Purchase replacement of the lighting system at Hickson Youth Athletic Association Ball Fields.

This purchase utilizes Sourcewell contract 07169-MSL.

The vendor is Musco Sports Lighting LLC, and the amount is 174,270.

Also with the parks maintenance division, purchase replacement of lighting system at Lookout Valley Youth Athletic Association Ball Fields.

This purchase utilizes Sourcewell contract 07169-MSL.

The vendor is Musco Sports Lighting LLC, and the amount is 265,769.

Eighth, from the facilities division, payment of an invoice against a previous purchase order for lease of mail room equipment with Pitney Bowes, council approved a new blanket contract for lease of mail order equipment and postage that was approved by city council last week actually, but we require approval for a new invoice of $9,720 on the previous purchase order because it brings the total amount above 29,160.

And then finally with information technology, new blanket contract purchase agreement for reporting in Oracle Cloud.

SplashBI is a business intelligence application that replaces the GL connect application used with the previous version of Oracle.

This is a sole source procurement from Splash Business Intelligence Inc.

The amount for the first year includes implementation and is $174,278.

The annual amount for years two through five is $89,687.50 per year.

- [Chip] Counsel you've heard the request for tonight's purchases, what's pleasure?

- [Council Member] Second.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve tonight's purchases with a proper second, questions or comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council members] Aye.

- Any opposer no.

So moved.

Chief.

- [Chief] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, we do have one RFP format tonight.

This is we're requesting approval to issue this RFP not approval to award any contracts at this time.

The RFP is for a complete redesign of the City of Chattanooga website and related dot.gov applications.

We have an outline of what type of delivery is needed, but there are multiple vendors, platforms, and approaches therefore an RFP is needed to evaluate the best vendor based on the criteria other than price alone.

- Council Ledford.

- [Ledford] Thank you Mr.

Chair, move the RFP for IT.

- [Council Member] Seconds.

- Okay, we have a motion on the floor to approve with a proper second, questions and comments before we vote?

All in favor, aye.

- [Council members] Aye.

- Any opposer, no.

So moved.

- [Chief] Thank you.

- That takes us now to committee reports, Councilwoman Berz.

- Thank you Mr.

Chair.

Budget and Finance Committee have no report.

However, Redistricting Committee does have a report and that is to announce that there will be a public input session on March 29th at six o'clock here.

Each person will have as usual with our public input sessions, two minutes to speak and we have an hour time limit.

That's the last piece of input other than among the districts, and so I just wanted to make that announcement.

- [Chip] Thank you.

Under other business this afternoon Mr. Attorney I think we have a certificate of compliance?

- [Phillip] Yes, sir.

It's for Imbibe LLC DBA Imbibe Wine Spirits & Beer it's at 1616 Broad Street.

This is simply a change in the ownership.

All of the criteria for distance and the folks that are involved have been met.

- [Chip] All right, I think you need five signatures on a piece of paper?

- Yes sir, I'll pass it around.

- [Chip] Okay.

- [Phillip] Yes ma'am.

- As that is going around Madam Clerk, I'd like to announce an appointment this afternoon of Mr. Ray Adkins to the board of zoning appeals.

That's Ray Adkins to the board of zoning appeals.

And that takes care of all of our agenda items this afternoon.

And it brings us to the time that we recognize those of you in the audience that would like to address the council this afternoon.

I think we probably have a few that would like to address the council.

So I'm gonna ask the attorney if he were to read the rules to address the council and you can begin to make your way to the podium.

- [Phillip] Okay at the end of every council meeting the chair will recognize members of the public.

- [Chip] Sorry there we go.

- [Phillip] At the end of each council meeting the chair will recognize members of the public that wish to address the council.

Here are your rules.

Each person needs to come forward to be recognized at the microphone.

No person can have more than three minutes to speak.

Then you can address the council only upon matters within their legislative and quasi judicial authority and not upon matters which are not under their authority or regulated by other governmental bodies.

You can't use any vulgar obscene language nor use the floor to personally attack or personally denigrate others and address your comments to the council as a whole and not make comments towards individual council members.

Having stated that please go ahead sir.

- [Chip] Hold on one second.

Before you do we need three minutes on the clock, give us your name and you can begin.

- Yeah so I'm Brett Sterns.

I don't have a district here in Chattanooga, I just was homeless here in Chattanooga and I'm just trying to speak on that today.

Well I come here to give support to friends I made while I was living in Chattanooga and also voice my support of the idea of tiny homes.

I wanna express the importance of getting this done immediately.

Accomplished, finished, stop making plans, just get it done.

Take action.

And, I see at the community kitchen that there's a type of shelter that has been built, but it was put behind a locked fence and it's all nice and good a nice shelter, but like it was like 17 and snowing the other day and you have this beautiful fancy shelter that's been built in front of all these homeless people behind a locked fence.

And it's like how do you, that's the most heartless thing I've seen since I've been here in Chattanooga and I really wanted to just show my support for getting that...

I mean, it's a nice shelter, but just getting more built and getting them done so people like Jessica, Dustin, Ralph can have a place that's secure and dry to sleep at night.

You know, it's just, it's one of them things that makes me really upset to see happening.

There's a lot of good people out there on the streets that have made either a bad decision or just hard times fall on them because of COVID.

And they're trying to figure out a way to, there's some more friends right here also, you know I've met while my time of being homeless.

They're good people and they just need the city's support and getting this idea of tiny homes finished, accomplished.

Not tomorrow, not the next day, but now.

So yeah thank you.

And I have 60 seconds left I'll stand here so y'all can think on what I just said please.

(crowd applauds) - [Man] He's a veteran.

- And none of the things.

(crowd applauds) I'm not a public speaker and this is my biggest fear, and without the support of my buddy, Joshua Capellas, I would not be right here right now.

I got a job, I have a stable place to live because of him.

And I tried to go through all the programs that y'all put forth in front of me but it's pretty much impossible without transportation, phone and just the hardships of being homeless in general.

And then somebody sends all these links to these phone numbers and all that, but it's just, it's hard to do when you don't have support or a home.

So thank you.

(crowd applauds) - [Chip] Go ahead.

- Hello, I'm Sarah Harwood.

- [Chip] I'm sorry.

- I'm Sarah Harwood.

- [Chip] Okay.

- I am coming to you guys today to talk to you about a personal matter.

Me and my fiance just started working and we put in we called the housing authority and put in a application for the housing authority and they said that we should definitely be able to get approved and that it shouldn't take longer than two to three weeks for us to be able to get housing.

But while we're working right now we have food stamps and we've been buying food.

I'm pregnant and I've been buying food and I've been having really bad nausea.

So it's, there's just certain food I can eat.

And while we're at work we come back and all our food's gone.

So we've gone through all our months of food stamps and we have no food.

And right now, this is my third day without eating.

I was just able to get some Ensures today, but I was wondering since it's only gonna take like two weeks to three weeks to get into a house, if there was like any type of government assistance program that could possibly get us into a hotel or a motel or some type of temporary housing, just for like a week or two weeks.

At least just a week so I can have a week of, you know eating properly.

But that was pretty much.

- [Chip] Joda where are you?

Is Sam here?

- [Council Member] Yeah, she can talk to her afterwards.

- [Chip] Okay, ma'am if you would get with Joda after the meeting and see if we can find a way to help you thank you.

- Thank you.

- [Chip] You can go ahead and reset the time to three minutes please.

Go ahead.

- My name is Dustin Lambus.

I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Just to elaborate more with my fiance said, you know, we're living in a tent.

You know some females out there are even scared to come out their tents because of what people do to them.

I've seen firsthand of the drugs on 11th street and the drug dealers that are on there.

And I don't believe that the Chatt PD is doing their best to prevent these things from happening.

I've seen most of people, women who's got raped and beat up they're out there living in fear.

And there's nothing that Chatt PD has done to help that.

Now I can't speak for myself 'cause of the charges I've committed and the crimes I committed, but as a man who's changing his ways not only for hisself, but for his unborn child who is on the way and a little bit what she said that we're looking for just a motel room for two weeks until we could be approved for housing.

And right now she's scared to even come out her tent because of her being pregnant, somebody might return on her.

Our food's been stolen and you know, there's just a lot been going on, the trash in our area and that's not healthy for a pregnant woman to be in.

The tent where we sleeping at is trash everywhere.

They have a couple back there with dogs, who beat their dogs.

Don't clean up after their animals and they're fighting every day.

It's causing stress upon her and upon me because when I tell him something, he wants to get all courageous and ready to fight and for me to put my hands on somebody will be illegal.

So instead of me speaking I gotta walk away.

So I'm asking if there's any way a council can help us get a motel room for at least two weeks until we're approved for housing.

That'll be grateful.

- [Chip] I think the chief is gonna, the chief of staff is going to get with you.

- I would also like to speak to the chief of police too, if you don't mind.

- [Chip] She's sitting right behind you.

(crowd laughs) - Okay, thank you.

(crowd laughs) - Boy, good afternoon everyone.

- [Chip] Good afternoon.

- I'm not a public speaker I'm very nervous right now, but I'm stepping out on behalf of the tiny homes too, because as a female it's more privacy.

You changing clothes in the tent even with the window zipped up and the rain fly on somebody's gawking.

Like this young lady I'm scared to come out too.

But being behind a locked door is yeah somebody could tear the door off true enough, but they're less likely to do that than to cut your stuff up or to steal your stuff.

We've been in the one that Josh has built since January and nobody has messed with our stuff.

So it's been a great source of comfort and being able to go to work and come back and my stuff be there.

Or, you know get up and go to work and have a dry place to sleep.

Because a lot of places that the tents are set in there are floods and water comes up to the floor and your stuff's just soaked and it's wintertime.

It's great.

It's 10 times better than a tent.

At least we're not gonna burn up or somebody's not gonna come by and cut our home up.

- Hey.

I'll go ahead and start.

I'm Megan Godfrey.

I've been helping Josh Cappellas with the tiny home project or just building tiny homes for our people that are out there.

I know it's getting some backlash, but I just wanted to stand up here today and tell you guys the good news that I've seen.

A lot of times we come up here and we give you know what needs to be done.

What we wish we could do with you guys, but I just wanted to come and tell you guys like, all of the growth that I've seen.

Miss Jessica has a job now that way she can provide for herself.

She's moving up now that she's been in a tiny home.

I'm getting shaky now that I'm at two, one minute in.

So the other day we were able to build two more tiny homes in front of your gate.

And two women were able to move into those homes.

One was in the snow without a shell on top of her tent, the other one was going through a traumatic experience that I've also experienced and it was nice to be able to see her get some rest.

People like this you know people like us are out there waiting on you guys, us guys, anybody to help.

And I'll just keep building until something happens.

And that's all I have thank you.

And I love Chattanooga.

(crowd applauds) - Hello, I'm Joshua Cappellas.

I'm an advocate for homeless people in the city, unsheltered citizens of this community.

This community, this City of Chattanooga is full of great people.

Some of them, a lot of you are sitting up here.

It takes a lot of courage to stand up for other people, whether it's a representative official manner or in other ways.

We all work together and it's important that we pick up people when they fall down.

There's so much work that's been done out there.

And that silence we experienced is an amount of work that the City of Chattanooga has done.

Brett was in the first house we built and he helped build four more.

He makes more money than I do now I'm not kidding (chuckles) I wish anyway, he's a good man.

He's out by me now taking care of him and back where he was he got attacked by dogs.

His hand was infected and I brought him out of there I couldn't leave him.

It's a wing man concept in the military.

There's another Marine right there.

We got two veterans right here.

We can do better Chattanooga and I know that we can become the first city to solve homelessness, but we can't do it alone we work together.

And I will not stand by while my friends sit out there in the cold, okay.

They're not freezing to death they're just chilling according to my son who's 14 years old who comes here as well.

They're just chilling, they're waiting.

But the time's up.

Y'all already emailed you at 4:50 with her information.

Y'all called me back too for the first time, okay.

So we got an elderly lady out there on a dock in wheelchair who I couldn't find to build a house for 'cause she was probably inside, I'm not sure, but there's nobody to push Miss Joe.

Y'all have that information too.

So Saturday when y'all had four inches of snow, I already put 80 miles on, checked in at nine o'clock and checked out at 4:50.

We had 13 volunteers, We built two homes in four hours for $400.

Megan went out and found two people we had never met, excuse me, three people.

'Cause at some point we were finishing the work and I said we gotta find somebody to put in this home.

So we found the people at the worst tents.

There were tents blown over, caved in by snow.

And we got three more people off of 11th street, the same street that we're on right here.

And we got more folks stepping up and I thank you for that.

And 'cause I've only got three minutes.

I served my country for four and a half years.

I drive a long way to get here.

The other day we've missed the meeting, you know, but we gotta make more time.

We gotta make time for these folks.

We gotta free up resources and we gotta love people.

We gotta show our support.

We gotta care, but there's a lot of work to be done out there and it's just a matter of getting it done.

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

(upbeat music)