(light music playing) (light music playing) - [Announcer] You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting.

A production of WTCI PBS.

(light music playing) - Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to our Tuesday, May the 11th, City Council meeting.

I'll now call this meeting to order.

Now moving to public works.

Six E, please.

- An ordinance amending Chattanooga city code part two, chapter 31, sewers mains and drains.

Article A, storm water management division seven fees, Section 31.356.1.12, adjustments in quality fee, related to water quality fee reductions.

- Counsel, what is your pleasure?

We have a motion to approve item six E with a proper second.

Questions or comments before we vote.

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

Motion carries.

Now we move into resolutions.

Madam Clark, if there are no objections from the council, would you please read seven A, C, D, and E as a package.

- A, C, D and E. - Yes, ma'am - Item A, a resolution authorizing the administrator for the department of economic and community development, to enter into an agreement with Cecilia Losa, in substantially the form attached for the MLK underpass, artwork activation project at the six hundred through eight hundred block of Martin Luther King Boulevard at an amount not to exceed $90,000.

Item C, a resolution authorizing the mayor or his designee, to accept if awarded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Brownfield's revolving loan fund (RLF), supplemental funding for an amount up to $500,000 requiring a 20% match from the city.

Item D, a resolution authorizing the activation of the open spaces partnership in animation and community enhancement program OS PACE to be available for use in our city of Chattanooga parks and open spaces for the cost of park runners for organizations and individuals that meet the criteria set forth by open spaces for an amount not to exceed $50,000.

Item E, a resolution authorizing the interim city treasurer to remain by extending purchase or purchase order number 526211 to Harris computer systems for four month renewal period of July one 2021 through October 31, 2021.

For the purpose of billing and collections or property tax for an amount not to exceed $58,501.

- Councilman Ledford followed by councilwoman Berz.

- I defer to council members - Second.

- Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to approve items Seven, A, C, D, and E with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

Councilman Ledford.

Councilman Hester.

Councilwoman Berz.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Councilman Byrd.

Councilman Conrad.

Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

Yes.

- Motion to approve carries eight zero.

Now, Madam Clark, if you would please read seven B.

- A resolution approving the acceptance and distribution of fiscal year 2021 through 2022 community development block grant CDBG and home improvement partnership act funds home from the U S department of housing and urban development hood and program income.

All totally are approximately 3 million, $255,472 as shown more fully here in below.

- Councilwoman Berz followed by Councilman Ledford.

- Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I make a motion to divide the topic bifurcated and that we accept the approval and defer the disbursement.

I'd have to ask the city attorney how to do that best or is that sufficient?

- Yes.

Ma'am, it'll be split up into those specific disbursements later on here.

- All right.

So the first motion then is that we divide the, the issue and then I'll make the sec, second motion to accept.

- Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to divide the question with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments before we vote on dividing the question?

All right.

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

Councilman Byrd.

Councilwoman Dotley.

Councilwoman Berz.

Councilman Hester.

Councilman last, last.

Sorry.

Councilwoman Hill.

Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes, yes.

- The question is divided now.

Madam or council members?

- Yes.

(indistinct) (indistinct) (indistinct) - Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to approve the acceptance of the funds with a proper second.

Any questions or comments on approving the acceptance?

Roll call, please?

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes.

That's it.

- So move.

Council members.

- Yes, sir.

I make the motion that until further disbursement, until further discussion needed date, sir.

- That would be, that would probably be best in a deferral man.

- Well, I'm not sure all the inflammation gets to it.

(indistinct) - Why don't we, why don't we defer until may the 25th?

That gives us two weeks.

And if we need to, we can defer again.

Okay.

- Yeah.

Let's defer to the 25th.

- Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to defer the distribution until may the 25th with a proper second.

Are there any questions or comments on the deferral?

Roll call please?

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Byrz.

- Yes - Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes.

This.

- Motion to defer to us carry.

- Yes.

Item J, a resolution authorizing the chief of police to apply for and if awarded except the fame of fiscal year 2021 port security grant program funds to be used by CPD ELD unit to purchase two x-ray machines to flat panel imagery, to computer kits with tablets to tripods and to robotic x-ray frames with a twenty-five percent city match from the ELD and NRC fund and the amount of $34,356.83 for an amount not to exceed $137,427.35.

Item K, a resolution authorizing the chief of police to enter into an agreement with the U.S. nuclear regulatory commission NRC for use of the Chattanooga police department facilities to provide training courses for the NRC personnel and contract was for a one year period and for twelve month optional periods for the life of the five-year contract for an amount payable for one year of $55,000 in the next four years of $50,000 to the city of Chattanooga for contract period beginning, April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2026 for total estimated amount not to exceed $255,000.

- Councilwoman Berz.

(indistinct) - Chair moved for we defer for one week.

- Okay.

- That would be to the 18th.

- Yep.

- Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to defer until the 18th of May with a proper second Items 7, J and K. Any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes, yes.

- Motion to defer until the 18th carries eight to zero.

Now moving into public works.

Madam Clark.

If there are no objections from the council, let's take items L through Q, please.

- Item L, a resolution authorized an administrator for the department of public works or approve change order.

Number three, final for Hazen and Sawyer relative to contract number W-14006101 moccasin Ben WWTP secondary clarifier upgrades a consent decree project for a decreased amount of $9,340 for a vice contract amount not to exceed $2,024,513.50.

Item M, a resolution to rescind resolution number 30604 for the award of contract number R-20017210.

Some of the softball complex improvements from, from the Easter tornado, 2020 shade structures replacement to the near plans, Inc DBA core cat of Carrollton, Georgia and rebates it project.

Item N, a resolution authorizing the administrator for the department of public works through approved change or number one final for Navajo electric company inc. for contract number W-20004201 storm station one replacement on motor control center EMCC for an increase amount of $11,712 and 95 cents to release the remaining contingency amount of $41,937 and 5 cents for a revised contract amount of $548,122 and 95 cents.

- Item O, a resolution authorized an administrative for the department of public works to award contract number R-20017216 roofing repairs for summit a softball ball fields rebate to tri-state roofing contractors, LLC or Chattanooga Tennessee for a contract amount of $83,360.

Plus accountancy amount of $8,500 for an amount not to exceed $91,860.

Item P, a resolution authorized administrator for the department of public works of contract number E-19011202 blanket contract for roof inspections, repairs, and maintenance to both vendors.

One Potter Roofing Contractors, Inc. or chatting to the sea and to try say, roofing contractors, LLC.

I chatted in Tennessee for year one of a three-year term and the amount of $150,000 annually, annually for use by all departments.

Item Q, a resolution authorizing the administrator for the department of public works to enter into a contract number CMA 2035 with the Tennessee department of transportation T dock for the maintenance of state highways within the city limits of Chattanooga for reimbursement to the city for an amount not to exceed $424,275 and 30 cents.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Thank you, Mr. Chairman, to provide a little qualifying on item M which is a resolution to resend a previous contract in regards to helping restructure the summit softball complex.

And I want to express my gratitude to public works for not only keeping me informed but for all of their hard work.

And I've noticed that we have a lot of public works employees in here right now from everybody in the tornado stricken area in district four.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts we love every each and every one of you.

And thank you for what you do for us out there and for our city in general, I just wanted to offer that motion because this did result to item M from a tornado related and items, and um, so thank you Mr. Chairman and nobody has anything else I will move to approve.

- Okay.

We have a motion on the floor to approve items seven L through Q with a proper second.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Roll call please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes, yes.

- So moved.

So at this time, I, I'm going to ask the council.

Is there anyone that would desire to resend our deferral of the 25th?

Councilwoman Conrad.

- Got it.

One question and share if you don't mind.

- Sure.

- Is it the agency day?

Same question.

Could we just put that on the two week out and just approve for the rest of them to be funded instead of holding it out, up in the process?

- Well, I think, and so my response to that would be thinking back to when we dispersed funds to agencies before Christmas, we waited until we had a complete package and voted on a complete package.

So I would, my request would either be that we were sent a deferral maybe to the 18th so that we could have a committee meeting next week or we just remained with the 25th.

- I'll make the motion to over stand it to the 18th.

- Okay.

So, so the first thing would have to do is make a motion to resend the, uh, vote of the twin, the deferral of the 25th.

- Let's resend the deferral on the 25th.

- Okay.

So we have a motion on the floor to resend a deferral to the 25th.

Okay.

With a proper second.

Councilman Ledford.

- I'm good, chairman Henderson.

- Okay.

Madam Clark.

The question on the floor is to resend the deferral of the 25th.

Roll call vote, please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes, yes.

- Okay.

The motion to defer to the 25th has been rescinded.

Now, do we have a motion on the floor for the distribution of the funds?

Councilman Ledford?

- Moved to disperse the funds on the 18th?

Is that what we're looking for, chairman?

- Well, we would defer the motion until the 18th.

- Would defer the motion to the 18th.

- Yes.

- On disbursement, - On the disbursement of the funds.

Okay.

So now we have a motion on the floor to defer the disbursement of the distribution of the funds until the 18th.

Is there any questions or comments before we vote?

- Madam Clark, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Conrad.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dotley.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Yes, yes.

- Okay, the motion on the distribution of the funds will be heard on the 18th.

Ooh, anyone in the public or in the audience with us present to that.

Would you like to address the council?

Come on, sir.

- My name is Sam Cavasso beach.

I live at 1337 village green drive, Hexion, Tennessee and I'm here to represent us.

Our public works employees.

I've just got about three quick things to go over with y'all and I'd like to address them.

And my first one is, you know, at public works we've got a lot of different departments and a lot of them are fully staffed and a lot of them are fully funded.

And then you get to our department.

And right now we're at public works.

We've got, we're down, pop crews, we're down, uh concrete crews, paving crews, drivers, operators, crew workers.

And in the garbage department, we're always down three or four employees there.

And all of this has occurred because of low wages and people are going to private sector where they can make more money.

And my second thing I'd like to discuss about is, uh, we've been on the front lines since last March and we've been working close with the fire and police department during pandemics, tornadoes, uh, floods.

And we, we would like to be acknowledged as first responders.

And, and, and that being said, um, you know there was money that was funded to the city of Chattanooga.

And, and once it was funded, we don't know where it went and it was received here, but city-wide services.

We didn't receive any of it.

And the third thing is, um right when COVID hit, we were in the middle of a study.

And once that study was completed there has been nothing implemented for us employees or any.

And at that time there was money that was set aside for that reason also.

And with all that said with inflation going on and insurance is going up and we feel that the council should take a close look at our situation down here at public works and make sure that the steps are made to get us back to where we need to be in public works.

And I appreciate y'all's time.

And thank you for letting us come down here.

And if there's any questions I'll be glad to try to answer them.

- Mr. Sam, I am not seeing any questions at this time but I can assure you that, that those on this council, are, are seriously taking a look at the pay.

And I'm assuming the study that you're talking about is the pay study.

- Yes, sir.

- Okay.

And we appreciate it very much again and thank you for the kind words Mr. Ledford about the tornadoes and everything.

You know, we're just short handed all the time and it's a, it's a hard thing to do.

- All right, anyone else in the audience that would like to address the council this afternoon?

Mr. T put about 30 seconds up on the clock.

(laughing) - I didn't want to talk about it to Goldberg.

- Go ahead.

- My name is Steven West.

I live at 5280 rotary drive 10 who didn't see but what I want to say is Mr. Sam, I appreciate you.

I really do, because usually if y'all know the old council I'm the only one that used to come up here.

So I'm getting somebody else's finally stepping up to the plate because I know y'all getting tired of seeing my face.

I know Mr. Goldberg does, but to make a long story short all of these ladies, ladies and gentlemen here, you know, we work hard, you know very hard to try to keep this city safe like the police and everybody else.

I'll use some of us.

Sometimes we see a wreck.

We off duty until the police get there.

We have to try and flag traffic just trying to make sure everybody stays safe.

But most of all is, you know when the pandemic, pandemic first hit, you know we were first responders but then when the money came, we went first responders.

We didn't get, we didn't get hazard pay that we asked the old administration about and I've asked the new administration about it.

So, you know, I'm just saying, if it comes to y'all this where we can get Headspace, PLS, hazard pay because we deserve it.

The police deserve it.

The fire people deserve it because they got all they got millions of dollars for that.

Millions but like you said, we don't know where it went.

It didn't come to us.

It didn't come to the fire department.

Didn't go to the police department.

So you know, that money could have been allocated for that but they decided to do something else.

And I'm gonna tell you the same thing.

The old council y'all heard me say it.

If we don't hear ripping up our pay y'all gonna be putting us in homeless shelters too because we can't make it either.

Everything else is going up around us as y'all see gas going up, groceries going up, but our pay is not going up.

And, and I'm not just talking about public works.

I'm talking about everybody in this city.

Because as y'all noticed, I used to call it this the millionaires club over here, because they were they the ones who used to make all the money they make it over 60, $70,000 a year.

None of us make none of that.

So I'm just saying it.

I hope y'all look at the budget real closely.

And I hope that this mayor does what he says he's going to do.

And I think he will.

So I'm just saying let's hold people to the fire.

No, take care of city workers first because I can honestly say in Nashville and I've told the old council, this if you look at it, they pay their employees first.

Pay the employees first and whatever's left.

They given to all of these other organizations because if you don't take care of employees first, what what did you have?

We don't have anything.

Thank y'all.

Thank y'all all the new council people.

I'm glad to see y'all hopefully I'll do a great job.

- Thank you.

Council members.

- Yeah.

Steve, wait just a minute.

- By the way, you used your whole three minutes.

- I tried to use it, man.

(laughing) - So we've been good friends for a long time .

- And it's going to stay that way.

- Yeah.

It's always going to be that way.

Let me tell you, this is, this is a council.

I don't know if you know, but I have already scheduled a review of the pay plan in front of this council.

It'll be at a committee meeting here at, at 3:30 for the new council people to see that pay plan and talk about ways that it can be implemented.

That's number one.

Um, umber two, I can speak for this council.

And we've asked for a full report of what happened to the COVID funds and, and some of the, and that's, that's the reason, not that anybody's done anything wrong.

The questions tonight had to do with CV, DG and COVID funds and the fact that they shouldn't go to agencies that should go to the people first.

That's the reason for that and our employees above all.

So this is a council that is asking very serious questions about just the things you're talking about and is very much committed to doing the right thing.

And I wanted to know you heard that because we've worked together for a very long time.

And I have a fiduciary responsibility even though it may sound like the wicked witch of the West, to make sure that our tax dollars are used in the best way possible.

- I'm not saying that the money was spent crazily or whatever.

I'm just saying that let's take care of city workers.

- You're right.

- Because if we don't, like you said, they live in, they live in the city.

Right now, every department is short.

We got like three knuckle booms I think four or four knuckle boom.

They sit on that yard every day.

Nobody's driving them.

We need to get people in these trucks.

- You're right.

And you've heard, I've heard Councilman Ledford and Councilman Henderson.

Let's make us whole first and get the money back to our people and our departments.

- Right?

- So I don't know if anybody's been glued to the screen at 3:30 in the afternoon, but I can tell you that this is a council that's committed and is asking the tough questions now, and that we need to stop, um, the no bled so, bleed sort of thing, and get back to the people that make our city run and use the money here for our people.

So you need to know that I've heard that from my colleagues and thank you so much for being here.

Keeping us honest - Anytime, but y'all know my thing is get rid of contracts, less contracts.

We got enough people to do the work instead of giving all this money to other people.

Thank you, sir.

- Anyone else in our audience like to address the council this afternoon?

All right.

So move.

(light music playing) - [Announcer] You've been watching highlights of the Chattanooga city council meeting.

A production of WTC PBS.

(light music playing) (light music playing) For a copy of this program please call 423-702-7800.