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

(gentle music) - Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to our Tuesday, May 31st City Council Agenda Meeting.

I will now call the meeting to order.

We do have a special presentation this evening, so I will now turn the chair over to Dr. Carol Berz.

- So, good evening, everyone.

Tonight is our public hearing relative to the budget, and we are here to listen to whatever the audience wants to say about the budget.

The chair has set aside an hour, two minutes each, and if we have to go longer, we can.

But right now we're gonna try to keep it in an hour.

We've been spending several weeks now, getting educated ourselves on the budget and now it's time for us to hear from the public.

So what I'd like you to do, if you want to speak, this is the only public hearing we're having.

If you wanna speak, please come up to the podium, identify yourself, the district you live in, and let's hear what you have to say.

So, whoever wants to speak, please stand up and come to the podium.

- My name's Joshua Kapellusch.

I'm an advocate for unsheltered citizens of this community in Chattanooga.

What we do with our time is very important, and if we share a light and our love with people, we can change lives and save them, right?

If I have 10 years on this earth and I, we do good work and change lives, how many lives can we affect with little dollars?

I'm not a rich man, but we can affect a lot of people in a very big way.

You know what I'm saying, with very little water, we have Tennessee River right here.

You know what I'm saying?

It's 91 degrees out there.

The black tops, 145, roughly, and people are in tents out there.

And I don't want to have a CASEVAC situation going on over there.

That's a military term, I'm a veteran, and it's called a dust off you know, operation and in the Army or Air Force that's what you do when you get out of a bad situation, you dust off, and it also says that in the Bible.

I don't want to dust off my feet here.

I want to help people, okay?

And we need to help those people.

They're hot down there, okay?

We need to work together.

- My name is Audrey Ramsey and I live in District 2.

And I don't need to repeat the tragedies of recent gun violence over the past weekend, here and around this country, and my heart breaks for the victims.

But when I returned home about three and a half years ago, it was obvious to me that the African American Community here in Chattanooga is living in fear, lack, separation, hatred, and hopelessness.

Hopelessness is a dangerous mindset.

Children have no respect for life, they don't fear death, most parents are not parenting and teachers are leaving the schools in droves.

If you'll recall, I came here back in March 2022, regarding the implementation of a Chatanooga Aquatic Project and Personal Development nonprofit, as a small measure to providing innovative projects through our community centers programs that endeavor to meet the basic needs of our children and families in our underserved communities.

CAP will continue to persevere in a collaborative manner to build and provide children with skills and purpose.

This concept is based on the facts that the state of Black America in Hamilton County and the city of Chattanooga is in dismal array, to say the least.

Over half of the Black population lives below the poverty level.

African American students, who make up the majority minority population in our public school systems, are attending crumbling school infrastructures.

In other words, let's invest in our children, let's invest in our parents, and let's invest in our teachers now.

- [Carol] Thanks Audrey.

(council applauding) - My name is Alice Williams, I'm District 5, and I did told what Ms. Jackie just said.

Back in the seventies, when I first came to Chatanooga, I worked at the Boys Club.

Then I moved into the recreation centers, and we kept the centers open at least nine o'clock.

Then on the weekends, sometimes we had special occasions or tournaments that went on to keep the kids busy.

Back then, we treated the kids as though they were ours.

They were our brothers, our sisters, our nieces, our nephews.

But we need to have that love to work with the kids.

If you're gonna have somebody, they need to have at least wanting to work with the kids, and have some kind of, just closeness to the kids like we used to.

And if you have to have the centers, if you have to hire part-time people, maybe to close the centers out at night, that would be good.

Another thing is, kids will rebel, that's normal; but if you show 'em love and consideration, they will turn around, most of the times.

You always have that few.

And I mean, I know many of you have had parents back then that, like I said, we gonna put some of the blame on the parents.

But we still need money to work, and we can do it.

And I know we got the money.

Thank you.

- [Carol] Thank you.

- My name is Cantus Griffith.

I am a member of SEIU.

I'm also a family service advocate for Head Start.

- [Carol] And where do you live, ma'am?

- I live in Brainerd area.

- [Carol] Ooh, good choice.

(chuckling) - I'm here to speak with you about the budget for Head Start.

And as you know, and the young lady before me spoke, Head Start is a very extremely important program for our city and for our communities, for the nation, basically.

Without Head Start, we wouldn't be able to have places for our children to go, so that their parents would be able to work.

So a lot of those workers are city workers.

A lot of us are not making very much money.

We have gotten an increase, but as you know, the cost of living has gone up, the cost of gas, the cost of food, and that has affected all of us, in all areas of Head Start.

Also, it has made it more difficult for us to recruit people to come and work for our program, which has put more strain on those who work for the program itself.

Creating a program with steps that allows people to have a direction to go in order to move forward in the program, and be able to continue to make more money.

Making sure that people who have been in the program for a long period of time are able to show that justification in their income as well.

The other thing is, we need to make sure that we are taking care of our families that work for Head Start, so that they can take care of the families in this city.

Make sure that our healthcare costs don't go up.

Making sure that we're able to get those services that we need, mentally and physically and emotionally, for ourselves and our children, so that we can show up to work, and give our best at work, and give our best to the city.

- Thank you so much, appreciate the input.

- Thank you, Dr.Berz for hosting our public hearing session this evening, and for the work you've done in leading us through our budget education sessions, and for your leadership over the continued years, in helping us understand the budget and its impacts.

Thank you very much.

At this time, I will ask for a minute approval.

We have a motion for the minutes as approved.

That motion will stand without objection.

We start with ordinances on final reading, Madam clerk, item five A, please.

- An ordinance to amend, Chattanooga City Code, Part II, chapter 38 Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone property located at 702 Manufacturers Road, from M-1 Manufacturing Zone to R-RV-6 River View Zone, and R-RF-6 River Front Zone, subject to certain conditions.

- Councilman Henderson.

- [Councilman Henderson] Motion to approve planning, version two.

- Have a motion to approve planning version number two.

I do have a second, questions, comments before we vote.

All those in favor, say aye.

- [Council] Aye, aye.

- Opposed?

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk, items five B, please.

- And ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, so as to rezone part of a property located at 1115 North Moore Road, from R-1 Residential Zone to R-3 Residential Zone, subject to certain conditions.

- Councilman Hester, followed by Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Let me say this.

I want to thank Pastor Hathaway to Isray Harris and all those on committee for your efforts.

I pray that you continue to be your brothers' keeper and to be good stewards.

And after having a powerful talk with those in the Brainerd midtown area, I want a motion to approve this with the revised version.

Thank you.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- [Councilwoman Coonrod] I second.

- I do have a motion to approve the amended version from last week with a second, and I will ask for a roll call vote.

Madam clerk.

- Councilman Henderson?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill?

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Berz?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Noel?

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod?

- Yes.

- Vice Chair Dotley?

- No.

- Chairman Ledford?

- Yes.

- [Madam Clerk] Seven yes.

- Item carries.

Madam clerk, will you read item five C please.

- An ordinance to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part II, Chapter 38, Zoning Ordinance, by adding article 17, Accessory Dwelling Units, section 38-764 through 38-771.

- Councilman Hill?

- [Councilwoman Hill] Move to approve.

- I have a motion to approve.

I do hear a second.

Questions, comments before we vote?

All in favor, say aye.

- [Council] Aye.

- Opposed?

Motion carries.

We do not have any ordinances on first readings, Madam Clerk, we will move into resolutions under human resources, item A please.

- A resolution authorizing revisions and additional policies to the Employee Information Guide, EIG, to be effective May 31st, 2022, by adding a new social media policy; revisions to the telework, grievance and benefits policies, and spelling and grammatical corrections throughout the entire document.

- Council, what is your pleasure?

- [Councilman Henderson] Aye.

- I do have a motion to approve.

- [Councilwoman] I second.

- I do have a second.

Questions, comments before we vote?

All those in favor, say aye.

- [Council] Aye.

- Opposed?

Motion carries.

Under Mayor's Office, Madam Clerk.

We're gonna take these as a group.

Would you please read items B, C, D, and E, and we'll vote on those as a package.

- Item B, A resolution confirmed Mayor Kelly's appointment of Nathan Bird to the Historic Zoning Commission, with a term expiration of June 19th, 2023.

Item C. A resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Shawanna Kendrick to the Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corporation, with the term expiration of May 31st, 2025.

Item D, a resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Jackie Dowell to the Hamilton County Board of Equalization, with the term expiration of June 9th, 2024.

Item E, a resolution confirming Mayor Kelly's appointment of Marcus Jones to the Hamilton County Board of Equalization, with the term expiration of June 9th, 2024.

- [Councilman Henderson] Approve.

- I do have a motion to approve.

I do have a second, questions, comments before we vote?

All those in favors say I.

- [Council] Aye.

- Opposed?

Items carry.

Madam Clerk, under Public Works, will you read items F and G?

We'll take those as a package.

- Item F, a resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to award contract number Y-21-024-201, to Wilder Contracting, LLC, of Harrison, Tennessee, for Warner Park Pool shower improvements, and softball field restroom improvements, in the amount of $139,788, with a contingency amount of $14,000, for a total amount of $153,788.

Item G, a resolution authorizing the administrator for the Department of Public Works to renew On-Call Blanket Contract number E-19-011-202, for year two of four, for the roof inspections, repairs, and maintenance, with the following two vendors: One , Porter Roofing Contractors, Inc of Morrison Tennessee, and two, Tri-State Roofing Contractors, LLC, of Chatanooga Tennessee, for the annual amount $250,000 total, for use by all departments.

- Thank you, Madam clerk, F and G have been read into the record, - [Councilwoman Hill] Approve.

- I have a motion to approve.

- I do hear a second, questions, comments before we vote?

All in favor, say aye.

- [Council] Aye.

- Opposed?

Items carry.

We now move into purchases for this evening.

Mr. Goldberg, are you presenting?

- Thank you, Mr.

Chair, we have four purchases recommended for approval tonight.

The first is from early learning.

Second, renewal of contract for diapers and wipes.

Diapers for Less submitted a 5% price increase at the time of renewal, for an annual amount, not to exceed $57,750.

Second, from human resources, we have a contract renewal for Stop Loss Insurance.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, submitted a 21.8% price increase at the time of renewal, for an annual amount, not to exceed $664,119.

From the Waste Resources Division in Public Works, we have a new blanket contract for Programmable Logic Controller PLC Services.

Two bids were received, and the award goes to RMJ consulting, LLC, as the best bid meeting specifications.

This will be a four year contract, with an annual amount not to exceed $2,300,000.

And finally, from Fleet Management Division of Public Works, we have the purchase of one 2024 International HV607 4x2 Chassis, with a dempster dumpster attachment.

This purchase utilizes Sourcewell Contract 060920-NVS.

The vendor is Lee-Smith, Inc., and the amount is $200,711.96.

- Thank you, Mr.Goldberg.

- Goldberg I do hear a motion to approve.

- [Vice Chair Dotley] Second.

- I do have a second.

Questions, comments before we vote?

These items have been sent to us early in the week.

We've had opportunities to address or ask questions.

All in favor, say aye?

- [Several Councilman] Aye.

- Opposed?

Purchases are approved.

We now move into- - [Mr. Goldberg] Thank you.

- Committee reports.

Thank you, Mr. Goldberg.

We have no RFPs, right?

- No.

- Thank you.

We're now moving to Committee Reports.

Let's start at this, Councilman Henderson.

- Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

We will be having an Ad Hoc short term vacation rental committee meeting next Tuesday, January the 7th, at 12:30, in the council conference room, and the public is invited.

Thank you.

- That's June 7th?

- [Councilman Henderson] June the 7th.

- Thank you sir.

Very good.

Councilwoman Hill, we have 30.

- Oh, thank you tonight, we had our public hearing for the 2023 budget.

We completed that, and we begin deliberation next week at two o'clock in this room.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

Thank you for your leadership on that.

Vice Chairwoman Dotley.

- [Vice Chairwoman Dotley] No report.

- No report.

- Thank you very much.

We are now at the time in our meeting where recognitions of persons wishing to address the council.

- Good evening, and thank you for having me.

And I wanna thank everyone that came tonight.

I've listened to a lot of the comments and reference to this weekend, so I'd like to address it.

And it's nothing that was said tonight that hasn't already been said by a number of us, including myself.

And I just want everybody to know that we've gotta work together.

I can't do this alone.

It's not about victim blaming, but, if we can get some help from the parents.

It's not about victim blaming, but if we can get people to make sure that they don't leave guns unattended in their cars or in their homes.

It's not victim blaming, but if you could just make sure you work with us, and know the, if you have any type of firearms or anything like that, that could be stolen from, you know, the serial numbers to those things so that we can try to trace it.

It's not victim blaming, but if you could just work with us, and know where your kids are at night.

It's not victim blaming, but if you could just work with us, and make sure your kids get to school.

So there's a lot of things I can go down, the list, and none of it is victim blaming.

I do not want to at all further frustrate the financial situation that a lot of our community is in.

That's not it at all, what I'm trying to do.

But what I am trying to do, is all of the programs that reach out to me, and the little part that they can play, let's just put it all together.

And let's just be one big entity and really try to make a dent in every aspect of a youth's life.

Not just, Head Start is very important, but I got kids now that are hanging out downtown and already got guns in their hands.

So let's also have an entity that could work on that piece as well.

Let's work on beyond the child.

It's not about just housing the child and having events for them as well.

Let's see what's going on.

When we drop that child back off at home, what's going on in the house.

How can we assist with those parents once we drop them off home?

So there's a lot of things that we can do collectively, and we've all been talking about it.

It's been going on for a long time.

So let's just be about it.

Anytime a person is shot, a young person, it's extremely devastating, and that violence has an impact on those families and the children for years.

Those young children, especially from this weekend, have no earthly idea how devastating their actions are on these families forever.

Even the children that were there, or the teens that were there, or the young adults that were there, had nothing to do with it at all, but witnessed it.

It's something that they'll never forget.

So, what I like to just say is that, we're working on having someone mention having a spot, to have kids sit, until whether we can either reach the parents, have the parents come.

I'm even willing if I can, and if I have the resources, to help get parents to the kids, or get the kids back to the parents.

That all could be worked out, that's an easy thing.

But there's some parents who drop their kids off, and then come and pick 'em back up.

So it's not all about, parents who are in dire straits all the time, And I get that.

I like that idea of the parent university.

I'm all for that.

Please put me on the board of that.

(council applauding) But right now, another issue is that I have to make sure that we get these guns off the street.

And so, work with me on that as well.

If you know about guns, then report it.

We're doing everything.

I have one of the best gun units.

I promise you they're training people in other departments with the work that they do, to trace where these guns are coming from, and holding people accountable, that no longer have those guns, and they ended up in the wrong hands.

This past weekend, I had a couple of cars broken into, and there were several guns in those cars.

And because of the work of my people, they were able to actually retrieve two of those guns from two stolen cars.

And they were able to track it to one person who's 17 or 18 years old.

So this is what I'm working up against.

So, I'm just asking for help.

I'm not victim blaming.

If there's any ideas that you guys have and you know, I'm reachable, and we can work on this together.

Thank you.

- Thank you, chief Murphy.

(council applauding) Yes, sir.

Good evening.

- Good evening.

I'm going to introduce.

Good evening to the citizens of the Chattanooga, good evening to the council.

I'm Sergeant Jason Holmes with the Chattanooga Police Department, also with Sergeant Stokes and Officer Adams.

I think I echo everybody here about what happened this past weekend.

And we know there was a tragedy.

Some of us was out there when it happened.

The event that I want to bring to the council is an event that we actually already had planned before the tragedy did occur Saturday.

We as a Chatanooga Black Police Association, decided that we wanted to put boots to the ground.

And what we decided to do was, we came together and said, well, how about we start implementing safe environments for our kids, that we also are part of, and out in the community.

Speaking of that, I think last year was adopted that Juneteenth, is one of the important months and holidays that's gonna be celebrated across America.

We, as an organization, decided that what we wanted to do was provide something in the city for our youth for Juneteenth.

So what we came up with was June 26th, which is a Sunday, from 12 noon to 6:00 PM, we decided that we was gonna host a three on three basketball tournament, for fourth and fifth graders, from sixth through eighth, and from ninth through 12th, at Avondale Rec Center.

We've been working alongside Mr. Perry over at the rec center, and as of right now, everything's all systems go.

We wanted to present this to the Council because it's a great opportunity for everybody in here who has decided that they want to be a part of doing something to change the community, to come out and be amongst the kids and the youth.

And also the parents that will be available, also present to share what experiences you have, whatever services that you have, whatever resources that you have.

But we also, like I said, wanted to provide to the community, that we are gonna provide this safe environment for them by having law enforcement present, and also for the kids to have fun.

We'll have food present, we'll have prizes.

We got a DJ that will be there.

So it's a lot of entities that's involved in this, and it's something that we want to continue every year going forward, that we want to provide this in the month of June with school being out, that these kids can enjoy they self in a safe environment.

That's all.

(council applauding) - Yes ma'am, good evening.

- Hi, I didn't plan to speak, but I've been so moved.

My name is Judith Patterson, Ben, and I'm in District 9.

I think all the things that have been talked about tonight are good things.

I support them.

And I think the one thing that hasn't been talked about is that there are too many guns in our city.

We need to regulate guns, so that the citizens are safe.

We've had gun regulation in the past that's worked.

Other countries have laws about it, and they don't have the same kind of shootings that we have.

Now we currently live in a state that has mandated that a city can't do anything to protect itself.

However, I think it's time to challenge that.

We all live in cities and counties.

And while I believe that states have rights, I don't think they have the rights to put us in the kind of positions that we're in now, where we have so many guns, that are so accessible to so many people, that we are all endangered.

Thank you.

(council applauding) - My name is Judy Gallagher.

I actually live in East Ridge, but work at UTC in Chattanooga.

And I wanted to just invite you all to the Mom's Demand Action.

We're Orange event that we're having on June 4th, at Tacoa Park, to honor the survivors of gun violence.

So, and we know it's an increasing problem in Chattanooga and across the country.

And each year Moms Demand Actions enfolds those survivors locally and within us and listens to their stories.

So I'd invite you all to come.

You want more information, it's 11:30 to 1:00 at Tacoa Park.

We think it's open.

Was it Yelp or something, was saying it was still closed, but the city took our money for reserving the space, So we're hoping it's open.

(laughing) - [Council Chairman Darrin Ledford] Is there a website or a place we could go?

- I can leave you some information.

I don't think it's actually on a website.

Jill, do we have it online anywhere?

- It'd be helpful if it was, but would you please leave that information also with our clerk before you leave?

- Sure, we can do it.

- Thank you ma'am.

Anyone else wish to address the Council this evening?

Council, I'm seeing no other person's wishing to address the Council.

I have a motion to adjourn.

We are adjourned.

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