(Music) - (Narrator) You're watching highlights of the Chattanooga City Council meeting.

A production of WTCI PBS.

(Music ends) - (Speaker) Now we move into your order of business for city council agenda under ordinances file reading, Madam clerk.

If there are no objections from the council, I would like to take 5A and B together please.

- Item A, an ordinance to amend Chattanooga city code, part two chapter 38 zoning ordinance.

So it's the rezone property located at 4,200 Willard lane from our three MD moderate density zone and our four specials zone to our three residential zones.

Subject to certain conditions.

Item B, an ordinance closing and abandoning an unopen sewer easement located in 300 block of Treemont street as detailed on the attached map.

Subject to certain conditions.

- Councilmen Hester.

- I move that we approve it.

- Second.

- Okay.

We have a motion to approve with a proper second, items 5A and B.

Questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burs.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilman Burr.

- Yes.

- Counselwomen Counrod.

- Yes.

- West Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses - Motion to approve items 5A and B carries, 9-0.

Now move into ordinances on first reading public works and transportation.

Madam clerk, 6A, please.

- An ordinance closing and abandoned in an unopened alley and the 200 block of West 25th street.

As detailed on the attached map.

- Councilwomen Dottly.

- Move to deny.

- Second.

- We have a motion on the floor to deny with a proper second.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Councilwoman Dottly, was at just a late hand?

- Oh, yeah it was.

- Okay, okay.

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Ms. Chairman point of order.

Do we need a public hearing on that?

- This is an abandonment for right away.

Normally we - normally just under zoning.

we do a public hearing.

That correct, Mr. Turner?

- Yes.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- 9 yeses.

- Motion to deny is approved.

- Moving now to resolutions under economic and community development, 7A and B. Madam clerk.

Would you please read together if there's no objection from the council?

- Yes.

Item A.

A resolution authorizing the mayor or his designee to enter into a second amendment to resolution number 3,0,3,3,1 known as the collaborative agreement between the city of Chattanooga and the community foundation of greater Chattanooga.

As the fiscal agent for the Ed Johnson Committee to commission an artist to design, fabricate and install a sculpture artwork known as the Ed Johnson Memorial and Walnut Plaza to reduce the funds, the community foundation owes to the city by $27,305, for a revised total amount of $262,790.

Item B.

A resolution authorized the administrator for the department of economic and community development to enter into an agreement with design workshop for the development of a city-wide parks and Greenways master plan and the amount of $220,000.

- Councilman Coonrod.

We have a motion to approve item 7A and B with a proper second.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilmen Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilwomen Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Coonrod.

Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- Motion to approve item 7A and B carries 9-0.

Now Madam clerk under public works and transportation.

7C, please - At resolution authorizing the administrator for the department of transportation to enter into an agreement with Uribe Concrete Construction, Inc. relative to the contract number T-20003201 for construction services associated with the six, 13 broad street sidewalk repair in the amount of $83,264 with a contingency amount of $8,326 and 40 cents for a total amount of $91,590 and 40 cents - Councilwomen Dottly.

- Move to approve.

- We have a motion on the floor to approve 7C with a proper second.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes - Councilwomen Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Letford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- So moved.

Counsel, if you would pull your purchases out for this afternoon and Madam clerk if you would bring in Mr. Tony Sammans or Mr. Vice Chair.

It looks like your host.

- Good evening, Mr. Sammans.

- Good evening, Mr.

Chair and members of council.

We have a few new purchases and an RFP recommendation for your approval and to bring to your attention a couple of emergency purchases.

- All right.

The first four purchases for this evening are from the waste resource division of public works.

The first item, mixer gear reducer repair services being awarded to SPX Flow US LLC.

for an estimated annual cost of $150,000.

Next street and parking lot cleaning services.

This is an approval that's needed for reassignment of blanket purchase order 551092 with Clean Sweeping Corporation of America due to a name change.

Next we have a motion polymer being awarded to Polydyne Incorporated for an increase of $200,000 for a total estimated annual cost of $450,000.

Next we have wet weather polymer being awarded to Polydyne Incorporated for an estimated annual cost of $476,500.

The last item coming from the citywide services division of public works.

We have tree removal, storm cleanup and trimming services being awarded to Big Woody's Tree Service.

It's an increase of $100,000 for a total estimated annual spend of $220,000.

And that concludes your purchases for this evening.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Thank you, Mr. Chairman, can I bring in Bill Payne?

I just want to clarify something on the last purchase item 5,5,8,9,0,2.

Sure.

Mr. Vice Chair.

Would you bring in Mr. Payne?

- Good evening, Mr. Payne.

- Evening, Council.

- Councilman Ledford has a question for you, sir.

Good evening, Bill.

Bill, still getting a lot of requests as you know, funneling through your office for streams and debris clean up from trees and right of ways due to the tornado.

Will this increase help us to continue that service that we're providing to the tornado stricken area?

- Yes, sir.

To an extent, this this will help us where we have a tree issues that are recognized in the right of way.

Many of the stream buffer areas though are separate from that area and would have to utilize a different Avenue for being able to address that.

Which we know is something that the T-Deck is interested in but this would primarily be for the right of way.

We also do have this particular increases needed.

The Waste Resources Division has about 80 or 90 properties all around, all of which are needing some, some tree services performance.

So that's the primary reason for this increase.

- Very good.

And this effort, I know it was increased dramatically with the tornado from last year.

So this helps to cover some of the, I guess backlog work and other parts of the city as well.

- Yes, it would be part of this increase is also because because of some of that higher utilization throughout the year earlier in the contract, we've we've needed to increase it, to get us through the remainder of this PO, which is in place until September.

- Okay.

Thank you.

And appreciate the work you're doing out in the district for cleanup, for the tornado step.

Thank you, chairman.

- Thank you.

- What's the pledge of the council?

We have a motion on the floor to approve tonight's purchases with a proper second.

Any other questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford - Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilman Burr.

- Yes.

- Councilwomen Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- So moved.

Mr. Samman is we do have some emergency purchases that we need to cover tonight.

- Yes.

Before getting to that, we do have one RFP recommendation for approval as a competitive seal proposal instead of a competitive seal bid.

And that item comes from the fleet management division of public works and it is for fuel management and operation fuel car program.

- Okay.

- And that's the only item for this evening.

- Is that something you need council action on, sir?

- Yes.

Those items, as we mentioned before for us to be in compliance with city code we need to, before departments, after it's being vetted if they cannot be competitively sealed bid it then has to come before council to get - Okay.

council's approval for an RFP process to move forward.

- What's the pledge of the council?

Okay.

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

Any questions or comments?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Letford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- Motion carries.

- We have three emergency purchases under the mayor's emergency declaration.

The first two items are coming from the department of economic and community development.

One is for extended emergency purchase of food for our displaced residents and patent towers.

It's the supplier is Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Incorporated an extension of the emergency purchase of food for those displaced residents for an additional 21 days.

Ending May 14th, 2021.

The total additional cost is $36,000 to feed approximately 170 individuals at a cost of $10 per meal.

The next item is a resident coordinator to assist in the coordination care for the displaced persons that patent tower and that cost, excuse me that supplier is Salvation Army.

It is for, to provide one individual who will be managing that process for us.

And that cost is at $12,000.

The last item is from the mayor's office and the additional invoices for housing positive COVID cases for the homeless also from Salvation Army.

And that's from purchase order number 5,5,9,5,1,5 It's an added amount of $38,500.

And those again are invoices to be satisfied for those individual cases.

And that concludes the emergency purchases for this evening.

- Thank you, Mr. Sammas.

Any questions for Mr. Sammans under the emergency purchases?

All right.

Thank you, sir.

- Thank you.

- Mr. Vice Chair you can excuse our guest.

Moving now to committee reports.

We did have a couple of committees meet this afternoon.

Public works and transportation met and covered all items on this week and next week's agenda Councilwoman Burrs.

- Thank you Chair.

Budget and finance did meet today.

We did.

We covered a bunch of housekeeping things that council needed to know about disbursements, et cetera, went over COVID related expenses and income talked about a contract that we want to work with.

And I think that's it.

It was mostly housekeeping and getting a particularly the new members up to par.

Thank you Mr.

Chair.

- Thank you.

Also planning and zoning.

- Thank you Mr.

Chair.

And public safety did meet where we received our quarterly park report.

Right now under other business we do have a couple of IDB appointments or nominees for this afternoon.

Mr. Vice Chair.

- Thank you Mr.

Chair.

The first individual that we have listed here is Ray Adkins.

Adkins is a reappointment, sir, in your district I'd like to move approval.

- We have a motion on the floor to reappoint Ray Atkins to the IDB with a proper second.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Councilman Letford.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilman Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- Motion to approve Ray Adkins to the IDB board carries 9-0.

Mr. Vice chair.

- Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

At the last meeting of the IDB, Mr. Miller has resigned his position and I would just like to thank you very much for all his years of service.

He's been an integral member of this board for, for a very very long time, and we really appreciate all his service to the city of Chattanooga and to replace Mr. Miller.

I am nominating James Floyd, as a motion placer.

- We do have a motion on the floor with a proper second, to nominate James Floyd to the IDB board.

Any questions or comments before we vote?

Madam clerk, roll call please.

- Councilwoman Coonrod.

- Yes.

- Councilman Byrd.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Dottly.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Burrs.

- Yes.

- Councilman Hester.

- Yes.

- Councilman Ledford.

- Yes.

- Councilwoman Hill.

- Yes.

- Vice Chairman Smith.

- Yes.

- Chairman Henderson.

- Yes.

- Nine yeses.

- Motion to place James Floyd on the IDB board carries 9-0.

And that will be for the remainder of Mr. Miller's term.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of the terming on that because it's normally a six year term that this is for all the rest of Mr. Miller's term and then you will have to reappoint him.

- Okay.

- Yes, sir.

- Thank you, sir.

All right.

That covers our other business.

We now come to recognitions of persons wishing to address the council at this time.

Okay.

If you give us your name and district please.

- Yes.

Thank you.

Mike Price.

Map engineers, district four.

I was here this evening to talk about items 6A which was the request to abandon a portion of right-of-way having addressed this council many times over the years.

That was the first time I was not afforded the ability to be able to address during the public comment period.

Has it related to a right-of-way abandonment?

I've done that many, many times before this council.

What I would ask for consideration is that possibly that that action be rescinded.

There's actually a alternative version that has been discussed with the church previously during a meeting that I believe would be acceptable to both the church and to the developer.

It would not be abandoning the entire right-of-way.

At this point, negotiations and discussions are still taking place with the church and rather than turning the entire request down, if the council would so consider to rescind possibly next week that motion and reconsider an alternative and understand I need to obviously get together with the councilwoman for that district and make sure that that fits what she believes but certainly wanted to bring that to the attention of the council this evening.

And then make sure that I understand also moving forward that I do or, or other individuals do have the ability to address the council as it relates to abandonments because that's certainly been the process that I've understood and have done for the last countless years.

So appreciate that.

And hopefully I'll get up with you council woman maybe after the meeting, if you've got time.

Thank you.

- And Mr. Price, this is a deferred hearing.

This is not the first hearing.

This is the deferred hearing and that's the reason the council had already looked at that issue before.

- Okay.

I understand.

Thank you - Hey.

My name is Thomas Bass.

I represent Hem The Chapel CME Church.

That missile price.

He just spoke about.

He referred to the church.

I'm the chairman boat of SU with, for that church.

I just like to say that like Mr. Price say it, we have been in communication with the developer.

We reached out to them no later than I think about seven days ago because we have a sad issue that that I'm not going to bring up here, but we have a sad issue that we've been trying to resolve with a developer.

But having said that we want the alleyway to remain open.

We've been using that alleyway at least the 26th street side of the alleyway the 25th street side of the alway that I believe Mr. Price is referring to open it up, close it.

I mean, it's fine with us, but with all the development that's getting ready to take place.

And the South side where the church has been located for 89 years we've been at that location for 62 years.

Quite naturally, we had no, no parking problem nothing there but us.

But having said that we already envision an enormous amount of traffic coming in that area.

We don't want to park on the street.

We want to park on our property and that alleyway on the 26th street side, give us access to our own property.

We're not asking for anything special.

And with regards to working with the developer we are more than willing to do that.

I spoke to a CME, the nomination in Memphis, Tennessee, and they wanted me to express to the developer and to anyone else that's coming to that area that we want to be a good neighbor.

We don't want to deny anybody their rights.

For whatever reason.

We are a church.

We serve God people.

So that's what we want to convey to the developer and anyone else coming into the community.

So I want to thank the council member for denying that request at this time.

Thank you.

- Anyone else like to address the council?

Please come on.

- Hello, ladies and gentlemen of the council.

My name is Nicholas Quain.

I live in St. Elmo.

I am a resident I'm staying at home though.

I moved to Chattanooga in 2019.

I am here tonight before you and combined voice of the neighbors of St. Elmo.

Within the last three months we have had a substantial rise in crime and I know my neighbors and I are very concerned of what's being done to the neighborhood and I'm new to the area.

And I understand the last two years it has been substantially risen.

And I just would like to know the procedures of what we are doing as a city.

If you guys are aware of it and what we can do to change it if there's things in the works, that's really all I have - Sir.

I see Chief Vaughn in the back making some notes.

If you'd like to get with her after the council meeting - I appreciate that, sir.

- Have a conversation with her.

- Thank you very much.

- Good evening, Council.

Imani Bell, the homeless journalist, the gray haired Fox and before I get started, I think I received some information today that you have either lifted the 30 day period that I'm allowed to speak tonight.

Has I - I think I got information pertaining to that today.

Thank you.

The 11th street encampment site since I can address an individual on the council and obviously I can't address the party or parties who left a flyer at our encampment on yesterday.

It has the city seal on it.

Which is one thing but it doesn't have any contact information on it.

And that's what disturbs me.

I can't contact anyone.

I haven't received any contact from anyone in reference to the 11th street encampment.

We still don't have the proper bags.

We were told that we would receive $4 per bag.

This writing says that there's up to one large trash... Trash of what?

Trash of the dumpster?

Trash of the people?

Trash of the laws that does not apply to us.

Did this come from the office of the city mayor?

Now, even though I don't have technical equipment there I've been crying for it.

I could produce this.

I've been producing billboards and flyers.

Since the age of 13, I could have done this.

I don't want to think that I've been in this encampment for nearly six months.

And this is what I get from the city's office.

I ran for the office of the mayor.

The city tried to disqualify me and this is what I get on my tent door.

After struggling, after dealing with liars at the top liars at the bottom Which group of liars do I side with?

Because the encampment is still there and we're struggling.

You're talking about bedbugs at Chattan.

Well, we're not bringing bed bugs in because local people don't go to the hotels to resort for any reason.

So maybe it's your tourist we don't want bed bugs keeping us in this encampment.

So can the city council as a whole tell me if the city mayor's office or anyone involved is responsible for this?

- Sir, I can't tell you for sure, Jonah, you back there?

I can't see you.

Not now but get with Mr. Bell after the meeting Bell after the meeting, please.

- Thank you.

After the meeting and just get with Jonah please.

Thank you very much.

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