COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY OF SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA

DECEMBER 11, 2001

The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Shreveport, State of Louisiana, was called to order by Chairman John David Stewart, at 3:05 p.m., Tuesday, December 11, 2001, in the Government Chambers in Government Plaza (505 Travis Street).

Invocation was given by Councilman Carmody.

On Roll Call, the following members were Present: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Absent: None.

Motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Burrell for approval of the Summary Minutes of the Administrative Conference of November 26, 2001 and the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of November 27, 2001. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

Awards and Recognitions of Distinguished Guests of the Mayor and the Council Which Are Required By Law.

Mayor Hightower: Sorry I am late, but I was preparing for our special guest. I think as most of us know, we had a representative once again in the 5-A Finals in New Orleans, the Evangel Eagles. I am glad to see they are here today, I thought a couple of them would come, but they’ve all come and look as good today as they did down on the field last weekend. What I would like to do, is first of all, congratulate each and every one of you on a great game, a great season and certainly super recognition for the City of Shreveport. You represented us well, you always have and I know with the staff out there, you always will; so, we want to congratulate each and everyone of you on your State Championship. You worked hard and well deserved, so congratulations to each and everyone of you. (The Mayor read a proclamation on behalf of the Mayor’s Office and the City Council).

Coach: On behalf of the Evangel Eagles and our Administration and all the people involved with our program, we just wanted to thank you Mr. Mayor for all your support this year for being contacted and (inaudible) and all that you’ve done. And members of the City Council, we appreciate all that you’ve done to support us. We are greatly honored that you would give us this award today and on behalf of all of these kids, we salute each and everyone of you and we have a game ball for you (presented to the Mayor).

Councilman Stewart: Obviously from the Council, we appreciate the special effort and depth and the distance that you went to bring this ball to the Mayor and to the City of Shreveport. I hope that you will keep it up. I don’t think there is a person here that wouldn’t like to see you next year with the same event, in this same place.

Councilman Burrell: I would like to congratulate Evangel. This is one of my treasures over in District G. I don’t get a chance to visit very often unless they need something and undoubtedly, they have been doing very well because they hadn’t called for anything, lately. But anyway, congratulate you guys on a win well done and you represent the City well.

Councilman Carmody: I’m curious, how many of you gentlemen have on a State Championship ring already? Could you raise your hands. The rest of you guys then I guess, are going to have to get use to wearing that weight on your hand, but congratulation.

Councilman Shyne: That’s kind of how Loyola used to be, Mr. Carmody, when you were there playing, huh? Councilman Carmody: I never went ti Loyola, but at Jesuit, we sure did.

Councilman Stewart: Thank you for coming. You are certainly welcome to stay if you want to hear the deliberations and the comments or you are welcome to leave.

Councilman Shyne: I have some, but I think Mr. Strong just left out of the Chamber and I’ll wait until he come back, I want to make my comments then.

Councilman Serio: I think it is incumbent on us to ask Stacy Brown to come forward at this time, she stayed for the whole Council meeting yesterday, to make some comments about the Shreveport Convention and Tourist Bureau. Since she waited 3 hours yesterday, I think it would nice to allow her to come, at least at this moment, and not have to wait 3 hours today, as well.

Councilman Stewart: With your permission, she’ll be up in two minutes. I have her down to speak under Public Comments. Will that be okay? Councilman Serio: That’ll be fine.

Public Hearing: None.

Confirmations and/or Appointments: None.

Public Comments. Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby to allow Stacy Brown to address the Council (motion unanimously approved.)

Councilman Stewart: Ms. Brown, thank you for your patience yesterday and I suspect you know you learned a valuable rule when you sit down and you want to come back, sit on this side. Ms. Brown: Okay.

Stacy Brown, Shreveport Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau: Chairman Stewart, Council, I appreciate you letting me come before you today, requesting approval of the 2002 Shreveport Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau budget. We’ve made great strides this year in fine tuning our staff and our focus and even further by tracking and evaluating our programs even better. Through our many changes in policies and procedures we’ve been able to obtain a clean audit this year and we are very proud of that.

During 2002, we’ve been presented with many new challenges. At the beginning of the year, more than 1,200 rooms were added to our market and even though we have increased the number of room nights sold, it has not been enough to offset the number of rooms added to the market. Therefore, a number of the hotels were already feeling a little crunched before September 11^th occurred. This was a nationwide trend, as well, with a reduction in corporate travel across the country. Then along came September 11^th. A tragedy we all feel deeply and are still struggling to deal with, personally as well as professionally. The tourism industry has been impacted significantly. However Americans believe in their right to travel. They may not travel as far, they may not stay as long or they may not spend as much, but they will travel.

This does bode well for Shreveport-Bossier as we are an excellent drive destination.

Realizing the trend toward more leisure travel, we had already been working on what we call a Travel Package Campaign, where we bring together hotels, restaurants and attractions, package them together with a local wholesaler so that you can to go your travel agent and it is one-stop shopping. As you know, we are all on very busy schedules and many people don’t have the time now to do the research, they want someone else to do it for them to know that they are getting a fair price and a very well put together package for them to purchase.

We were just about ready to launch this campaign when the attacks happened. We kind of backed off just a little bit, checked with the marketplace to make sure that they were ready to start traveling again, so we hold off on some of our advertising. We actually beefed that up and increased the budget for the package advertising and have started that promotion now. We are advertising the Dallas / Fort Worth area over in East Texas and up into Arkansas and Little Rock and Hot Springs. We’ve even advertised these a little bit locally, which is something we don’t normally do. We’ve done quite a bit of PR locally as well and some of you may remember magazine articles and newspaper articles that you saw earlier this year about fall in love again. We encourage people here locally to take some time out from their busy lives to regroup and spend the night here at home, take a limousine ride, have a nice dinner and we found a number of people have taken us up on that. Something we really hadn’t expected is, the number of businesses have purchased those packages as employee gifts and incentives; so that has been an extra added that we hadn’t really counted on.

This is a very positive trend, when we really need it. We are finding that a number of people are combining packages. Some people are coming from two different states to met up here in Shreveport-Bossier and enjoy the packages and many are adding extra nights to increase their stay.

Yesterday, I passed out an End Report and Marketing Summary, I don’t know if those are back with you today. I would just like to review that, just a little bit. On the inside you can see our Consumer Lead Sources and you can see that shifting a little bit from the traditional responses, such as writing or calling in for information to more Internet responses. Some of our top publications include: Southern Living, National Geographic Traveler, Midwest Living, Texas Monthly is one of our biggest, Essence and Ebony Magazine.

Our public relations value is something that we are really proud of this year. In our re-focusing and re-organizing of our staff, we now have one person specifically devoted to public relations. Working with travel editors and writers, bringing them into our community as well as traveling out. Earlier this year we did a special campaign in Dallas, where we went and traveled there. Because of that, we’ve been able to bring in some writers from the Dallas area, we’ve generated several articles in the Dallas Morning News as well as other publications there. We were able to attract Brandy Evans away from The Times here locally and she has done a significant job here. As you can see, the impact is over $5.8 million dollars this year in public relations value; that is part of our tracking as well. We subscribe to a special service that does clippings so that we get that response and know when and where and what information have been printed about our area.

Our group tour industry, we’ve seen some increases in that area, as well. We have landed Mayflower Tours and are doing several tours from starting in November of this year on through March, which will have an economic impact of approximately half a million dollars, just from that one tour company.

You can see some of this, top states requiring information. The economic impact of conventions held in the area, is of course very significant. We are seeing a little shift in this since September 11^th, as well. More miliary reunions, other reunions as well, a lot of social reunions. We are also seeing the added value of a number of meetings that used to be held in more exotic locations are now considering Shreveport-Bossier. We recently landed a very large pharmaceutical convention, so that is an excellent plus.

You can see, our walk-ins to our Visitor Center has continued to rise and of course the website has played a major part in that. We recently updated our website where it is database driven, and now any time we input some information, our database it is immediately updated on the website so you will have continuous information and correct information.

On the back page, you will see some of our objectives. Those are some of our goals and that’s really what we had based on our budget. The hotel community has really asked that you consider approving the budget today. They’d like me to get back to concentrating on bringing more visitors to Shreveport-Bossier and I think we’ve done an excellent plan here to put that into play. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Councilman Stewart: Thank you for your time and your patience, yesterday.

Councilman Shyne: I have a comment. We discussed it on yesterday, I would hope that you take it back to your Board and if they could see fit to work a little closer with the Administration in making sure that we do have enough funding and make sure that the new Convention Center that we are building, we can get some more conventions in. We can make sure that we utilize the facility and it will be money-making because that is what it is all about.

Ms. Brown: We are very committed to making sure that (inaudible) facility.

Councilman Shyne: I would hope that they would also look at for the Red River Classic. I mean it seems like every year, that we spend basically peanuts in order to promote that game. And I think it has been, how many years have we had the Red River Classic, maybe 8, 9, 10, Mr. Thompson or has it been longer than that? Mr. Thompson: It has been a while.

Councilman Shyne: And it seem like the budget has been almost the same and when they raise the budget it seems like it is no more than a thousand dollars that they will raise it, and events like that, are money-making events. Events like that, bring people into the area where they can get a chance to see the City of Shreveport. And who knows, they might want to come back for a family reunion and they might want to bring their organization back.

I can not understand why, every year, they will want to pinch off maybe $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 dollars and you have other activities that we spend $35,000, $40,000, $50,000 dollars on, that don’t nearly draw the kind of people that the Red River Classic draws and I been talking to some of the officials at Grambling and they would like for the Red River Classic to turn into almost an activity like the Bayou Classic where you generate $50 million dollars out of, but Ms. Brown, you can’t do that if you got people who are sitting on the Board that don’t want to spend no money, to make some money. Ms. Brown: We have put into play and we started it this past year, is a new funding application and a part of that is a follow-up, looking at how many rooms did the event generated, how effective was the marketing and advertising. I believe we did we work with the Sports Authority and I believe it is about $18,000 dollars this year and assistance from the Tourist Bureau for the marketing of that event; so, we will be looking at that again, next year.

Councilman Shyne: I would appreciate it because the Sports Authority has been complaining. Grambling has been complaining. I mean, their thing is, Joe, hey we can’t get no more cooperation from the City of Shreveport we can have it right here at home and draw and actually make more money. I mean they did that for Homecoming. I mean, Homecoming was just busting at the seams. We are missing a golden opportunity. We have got a golden egg right down the road that can go to New Orleans and Grambling and Southern can generate $50 million dollars or they can go to Indianapolis and they can generate $25 million dollars and right here at home, we don’t take advantage of what we have and I guess that is kind of true. A lot of times it seems like people in other places can appreciate what we have better than we do. So, I would hope that you and the Board, would look at it a little bit closer and see if we can’t work together a little bit closer with the Sports Authority, with the Administration here, and with Grambling and with any sports activities that is coming up because we spent a lot of money on the stadium and—Ms. Brown: And it’s a beautiful stadium. Councilman Shyne: Exactly right, and we need to make some of these dollars back. It is no use to having a beautiful facility and if we don’t utilize it, we don’t do what we need to do to utilize it. I appreciate the job that you are doing. God bless you. I love you. Ms. Brown: Thank you.

Councilman Serio: I know we are in the middle of December on the Red, we are getting to gi into Mardi Gras. Generally, December on the Red time period, which runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, how many people do we estimate come into the City? I know we have a lot to come in and stay, come in by bus and stay over night. How many people do you think we attract into the City during that time period? Ms. Brown: It is definitely one of our peaks times and you can tell when the middle of November kicks in and we pick up with the increase in overall visitors. It is very difficult to track the individual traveler. We are working on packages so that we can better track that We can track the buses, however, and the impact from that has been several million dollars, I don’t know the exact figure off the tip of my tongue but it is a very significant impact and we do have a number of groups that plan several years in advance to come to our Christmas event.

Also, because December on the Red is the organization that pays for the cities of Shreveport and Bossier to be members of the Holiday Trail of Lights. We also benefit from that promotion, as well since the other cities are really smaller cities, we often serve as the hub and spoke for that which makes it even better for us because they will come here, spend the night, some times two and three nights here in Shreveport-Bossier and travel out to Marshall and to Natchitoches and come back here to Shreveport-Bossier. We also offer them with a day activity that the other areas don’t, with the Life on Line and all the activities along Line Avenue, as well as the shopping opportunities at the malls.

Councilman Serio: But as far as a hardcore number, you have no hardcore number on the number of people we have coming in from those programs? Ms. Brown: The end part of November and the first of December is one of our peak months as far as visitation and obviously that would be due to the Christmas activity.

Councilman Serio: And then when Mardi Gras comes around, I know that that also attracts several thousand people? Ms. Brown: Yes, it does. Mardi Gras has been a great economic impact for us. We did a special survey with Susan Bealle this past year, to give us some good hard facts and I’ve got a copy fo that if anyone would like that, as well. It shows what are the dollars not only from out-of-town visitors, that spend the night, but what is the economic impact from non-residents of Shreveport and Bossier and it is a very significant impact. We are also already working with both of the Krewes of Gemini and Centaur to package those this year so that wholesalers can buy packages to those events.

Councilman Serio: And of course we’ve got the Independence Bowl coming up, I’ve asked for years with the Sports Authority, do you think it is every going to be a time when we could put a football package together with Louisiana Tech, Northeast, Northwestern, Grambling, Southern and Independence Bowl ticket all in one season pass or season ticket? Ms. Brown: That’s a possibility. We worked very closing with the Independence Bowl on the hotel rooms. The hotels have been wonderful about blocking rooms and we’ve got a larger fan box than we’ve ever had before. We bring on extra staff during Independence Bowl to help answer the phones. We also keep it up dated on our website. Everyday we check with the hotels to see what availability there is and the hotels know to call us as soon as the have room available so that we can keep those people here in Shreveport-Bossier. Often times the rooms appear to be sold out at first because there are a number of people that are anticipating their team might come so they block rooms. As it gets closer to the event, they let go of those rooms so we tell people that if they have to book a room outside of the area, call us back because more than likely we will be able to fit you into Shreveport-Bossier and we’ve been very successful with that.

Councilman Burrell: I commented yesterday on multi-cultural Tourism. Some of the information that we’ve gotten is that multi-cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of tourism to date. What are we doing to put in place to try to capture part of that market? I realize that in terms of individual cultures here in Shreveport, we don’t have that many–actually we have 17 different cultures that have been identified of different cultures that has been identified, but there are not a large market but we have adjoining states that’s is on the cuff, like East Texas and areas like that where we would probably be the closest area that would have a large venue to accommodate them. What are we doing to attract some of those dollars? Ms. Brown: That’s right, that segment is a very fast-growing segment and Shreveport-Bossier is second only to New Orleans in our attractions of these visitors.

We do work both on the convention side as well as on, what we call, the leisure side and the group business side to specifically attract these markets. On the convention side, we work on the national level as well as the local level to work with associations. We are members of the National Coalition of Black Meeting Planners and RCMA (Religious Conference Managers Association). Those are largely African-American multi-Cultural organizations that we’ve worked with and been a part of for a number of years to attract those meetings and conventions to our area. On the tourism side, there is the Heritage Tourism Conference that we attend. This is also directly mainly toward multi cultural tourism; so, those are some areas that we are working in, directly.

Councilman Stewart: Mayor Hightower, is there anything that you would like to add to the comments and concerns on behalf of the Administration?

Mayor Hightower: No, Mr. Chairman, as everyone is aware, we do have the Convention Center coming on. I think Mayor Councilman Shyne expressed to Stacy the same things that I have and she to the Board and I to the Board and it not far off and we have got to start booking conventions in there now. It takes money to do it and they have come up with $50,000 and we need five times that much and then hopefully the Board will take a look and help step up to the plate. But other than that, you are doing a great job. They are working hard over there and hopefully again, once we bring the Convention Center on line, it will make their job, I think a whole lot easier than it has been in the past. I think that is part of why you see in the numbers there, so many family reunions and she mentioned those and very few conventions. I don’t, Stacy do you know off the top of you heard how many conventions? Ms. Brown: Actually the family unions only account for 10% of the business. A lot of what our reunions that come here, the military reunions, the fraternal reunions, class reunions, those type of things. Though family reunions are a good business, and the hotels really appreciate that because they can book a number of rooms, but it is a small part of what we actually do.

Mayor Hightower: Just a question, I was looking at these number over here in this column where you show a number of conventions, reunions, and events booked. Ms. Brown: Yes. Mayor Hightower: 47,965. My little quick math, says that 131 events a day. Ms. Brown: Those are not for this next year. Those are events that we have managed to book this year for future. So some of them are as far out as 2008 because we do work several years in advance. So those are events that we’ve booked this year, for future. Mayor Hightower: Okay, alright.

Councilman Stewart: Ms. Stacy, thank you very much. Merry Christmas.

Mayor Hightower: Mr. Chairman, I am for passing the budget, though.

Councilman Stewart: Would you repeat that for the entire Council.

Mayor Hightower: I am concurrent with Ms. Brown that we should pass their budget, though. I don’t want any misunderstanding about that.

Motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Carmody to allow Richard King to address the Council (motion unanimously approved.)

Richard King, speaking on BAC-90-01 which is the 3^rd Item under Item 11with regard to 6200 Bert Kouns LLC is the applicant on a piece of property there at 6200 Bert Kouns. This is an appeal by the ZBA by someone else and I am here speaking in favor of the zoning variance which we’ve requested on the hours of operation and on site consumption there with regard to the operation of the lounge in a B-3 district, zoned there on that piece of property.

Specifically, very briefly, I don’t know if there any opposition here today, but with regard to this facility, it is a 2,450 square foot facility with 208 foot of road frontage . . . We have contacted the landowners which are directly 375 foot away from this facility who have made an objection and tried to tell them what we believe the use of this facility will be and assure them that it is not a dance facility or anything of that nature because the size isn’t there. This is a bar/lounge and it is going to be operated then as a sports bar. This was previously a convenience store with package liquor on site which was high volume in nature. The business that we are going to be going after will not change the traffic flow considerable, we do not believe. The ZBA voted 5-0 in favor of this. Their staff, in their wisdom, that it is compatible with the area in question. We believe that this will be a creation of a new business which has been vacant for some time, some six months, this facility has been vacant. I think there has been at least, two reported cases of vandalism at this site alone.

We believe and we have a commitment from the people that is going in that they are going to spend at least $40,000 on the upgrade of the facility, so the aesthetic value will certainly be increased in connection with the creation of this new business, new jobs, and tax revenues, we believe that there will be the creation of at least two new jobs.

There will be no outside patio or no outside music and that was one of the concerns that we told them that we would not have in connection with this. This is divided by five lanes of traffic from the opposition in connection with this. There is also an apartment complex that is less than a quarter of a mile away with no opposition from them. There is also an existing business which is less than a quarter of a mile away that operates the same type of business which the owners of this facility are wanting to put in at this property.

And basically that’s all the comments that I have and any question from the Council, I appreciate the opportunity to come before you, as always, with regards to our position.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Burrell, I believe that this is in your district. Is there any question that you would like to ask at this time or comments?

Councilman Burrell: No, sir we will address it when we get down to New Business.

Mr. King: Also I do have Mr Armstrong here with the 6200 Bert Kouns, LLC. Any questions of him, he needs to answer, he is also available.

Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby to allow Craig Lee to address the Council (motion unanimously approved.)

Craig B. Lee (3500 Milam Street): I am here today to speak on, other than the Fair Share issue, the most important issue that has faced this City since the 1973/74 B.U.L.L. lawsuit. Before I begin my talk, I want to give a quote from Alexis DeTouteville who was a Caucasian French Aristocrat who wrote the book in 1830, called "Democracy in America".

Mr. DeTocqueville said: If we reason from what passes in the world, we should almost say that the European is to other races of mankind what man himself is to lower animals. He makes them subservient to his use and when we can not subdue, he destroys them. Oppression has at one stroke deprived the descendants of Africans of almost all privileges of humanity. The Negro of the United States has lost even the remembrance of his country, the language which his forefathers spoke is never heard and around him and he abjured their religion and forgot their customs when he seize belonging to Africa without acquiring any claim to European privileges." This is basically where we at in 2001.

And I want you to know in terms of dealing with this issue of reapportionment and Mr. Herschel Brown’s contract, it is not about a category called "FFC", fair share certified. Mr. Brown’s contract is not about insurance requirements. Mr. Brown’s contract is not about setting up meetings as JaLi’Ve is being asked to do. Mr. Brown’s contract is about power and race. The power of one race attempting to prevent the potential power of another race from coming into fruition. The real issue is not even about Herschel Brown. It is about the distribution of power and wealth. This is the reality that Shreveport refuses to deal with.

I want to ask this Council a question, a few questions: Would you hire a plumber to do open heart surgery? I don’t think so. Would you hire a pastry chef to handle your accounting and your banking? I don’t think so. Would you hire a janitor to fly a commercial airline?

I don’t think so. The question now comes, why would you attempt to circumvent Mr. Brown’s contract by hiring a public relations firm to assist in re-drawing voting lines. The answer is very simple. Neither Gary Joiner nor the white community of Shreveport desires change in this City.

It was the 1973/’74 B.U.L.L. lawsuit that established the existence of this Council that I am addressing today and maybe it is time for another bull to come storming through Shreveport to force this City to move to recognize that the majority of this City is black and that you have to have a competent person helping Mr. Gary Joiner to re-draw the lines.

I think Mrs. Spigener asked the question and I want to make sure that I quote this right in yesterday’s meeting, whose going to determine the assistance Mr. Brown will be doing? That’s what the Council is suppose to do. The bottom line is he should be doing the same thing that Gary Joiner is doing, representing the interest of the African American community, that’s the bottom line.

We do not need meeting planners at this stage of the ball game. Let Lillian Priest and JaLi’Ve do that with the Tourism Bureau. The bottom line here is about distribution of power and wealth. Hershel Brown has the acrium to assist Mr. Gary Joiner on this particular contract. Gary Joiner, as a matter of fact, was the person that re-drew the last line, and messed them up. So, from that particular standpoint, I would like to know what qualifies Mr. Gary Joiner as the person to draw the line by himself allowing a meeting planner to simple set up meetings.

This seems to me, to be a very clear example that this City refuses to recognize the fact that 60% of the City or let me say what the Census data says, 53%, of the City happens to be black.

In 1973 and ‘74, Councilman Huckaby, your husband led the charge to create what is here now because the Caucasians of this City wanted this to be a commissioner form of government never recognizing any political representation for black folks whatsoever. Yet, we are sitting here in 2001 knowing that the majority of this City is black, and we refuse to allow the only demographer in Shreveport that represents the interests of black folk to work on a contract with a Caucasian demographer, who messed up the last re-drawing of the lines. Yet, we want JaLi’Ve to be on this contract simply to set up meetings.

Is she a Fair Share Certified firm? Yes. Is this about fair share certification? No. Because your good partner, Councilman Burrell, Dick Johnson is not a Fair Share Certified firm. He represented Port City Utilities, and I’m quite sure, Mayor, you know about him because he has a bogus $1. something million dollar contract with the City of Shreveport.

This is about politics. This is about politics. Today, I’m asking this Council to stop the politics and bring in change so that we can get to the business of making some positive things happen in the City of Shreveport.

Councilman Shyne: I would like to start off with some comments. I appreciate what you said. You hit the bottom line. I was extremely shocked on yesterday when one of my colleagues offered to hire JaLi’Ve. And, Lillian and her friend, are very good friends of mine and I don’t have anything against hiring JaLi’Ve, but it was kind of funny to me that we would substitute a PR firm for a technocrat. I mean, I couldn’t make the connections. I couldn’t make the connections.

In the beginning we were talking about Mr. Brown needed $3 million dollars worth of insurance. Mr. Brown would have been a fool to go get $3 million dollars worth of insurance knowing that there were persons on the Council who had planned to kill his contract anyway. I mean, why not be truthful. Why not come up and say earlier instead of coming out with a insurance knowing Mr. Brown couldn’t get $3 million dollars worth of insurance after we had worked out a solution saying that we could kind of go around that. Then, somebody reached in the hat and pull out JaLi’Ve. And generally when we award contracts to people, we usually put out RFPs. And like we said, we discussed insurance. But all of a sudden, we are going to substitute this technocrat, who would being in a wealth of knowledge to help Mr. Joiner who I thought we had an agreement earlier that this would be a joint venture. Between that juncture and this juncture, something happened.

Now, I don’t know how it smells to you but it doesn’t smell good to me. Here we are talking about unity, talking about bringing this City together and the Administration has done an excellent job. We started off disagreeing on a few issues and the Mayor and I now are in the same car. He’s driving it, I am just riding in the back seat with my legs crossed. But we enjoy riding together and I appreciate that. I mean, this is the first Administration that we’ve seen who understands what it is for all of the community to make some money, that is what America is all about, that is why people want to come to America and I appreciate the article that you read. But I want you to understand that, Mr. Brown’s contract will be killed since it was not killed with the insurance, it will be basically killed from the feelings that I got on yesterday, that Hershel Brown will be left out and if you want some black involvement, then let’s get a black PR firm and we can hire them without even putting out RFPs.

Mr. Lee: And that sets a very dangerous precedent.

Councilman Shyne: It does. And now, it does. And quoted to one of my, I think it was to Councilman Carmody on yesterday, about the article in the Shreveport Times. When I quoted the article where it said, a slick hand demographer, he almost jumped out of his chair. Now, when a lawyer came in and quoted him as using the term, we’ve got to get his nigger club out of this neighborhood, I didn’t jump out of my chair. I mean, I wasn’t all that excited. I was kind of appalled by it and I understood that it was a secondhand quote that he was making. Now, this was a secondhand quote that I was making.

Since we all represent Shreveport, and we probably all read the Shreveport Times, we need to read the Shreveport Sun too and the other newspapers. I try to read all of the newspapers that come out in the City of Shreveport whether they are black, white, blue or green because I at least want to know what is being said whether I agree with it or not.

What I was trying to get my colleagues to see, exactly what you are saying, we are developing a perception that we just going to do business the same ole way after we have worked and hustled and stride and fought and kicked and dipped snuff and everything else, to get to a point where, we can all look at ourselves in a unified manner and say now, we are going to move forward. We are going to make sure that the opportunities are opened up to everybody. But all of a sudden, we’ve been ambushed on the most important issue that has come before this Council, in the last four years and as a matter of fact even longer than that.

Mr. Lee: The last 28 years.

Councilman Shyne: Well, I can agree with you on that and you are right, it is about the distribution of power. You know it is kind of appalling and I know Mr. Joiner and matter of fact, he’s a friend of mine and I was very supportive in and I might have been kind of out front running interference and carrying the ball for him. And I kind of thought that we had a gentlemanly agreement and I kind of thought that he understood that, hey look even the Shreveport Times came out with an editorial saying this is good for Shreveport to project this kind of image. Some of my colleagues probably don’t read the Shreveport Sun and probably some of the blacks that you come in contact with might be their maids or chauffeurs or whatever, and they ain’t going to tell them the truth. Now, you will and I will. Its a perception out there in the community that, just like that’s in the editorial of the Shreveport Sun and we are playing right down that line. I don’t want to see us do that. We’ve come too far. We got too much at stake.

I don’t see no reasons why we could not come together and work out some kind of an agreement where both communities could have some input in the technical part of drawing up this. Now, if Mr. Joiner want to hire a public relations firm, I don’t have no problem with it and I don’t think that you could pick one any better than JaLi’Ve because if I had something that I wanted to advertise, as a matter of fact, I plan to run for re-election to the Council and I need a public relations firm, get ready ladies. I am building up my war chest now, because I think ya’ll do an excellent job. But now this is kind of like, well, Joe we are going to pacify the black community because we are going to take the technocrat out and we are going to give ya’ll a public relations firm. These ladies are good at what they do. They’ve never draw up any–they have never been a part of a reapportionment plan before. We are asking them to do something that they don’t know anything about and it is not their fault, it is our fault. It is our fault when I put somebody in a position that can not do what needs to be done. It is our fault. And I was shocked when their names rolled out. I hadn’t seen—we hadn’t even talked about putting out an RFP because that a part of what Mr. Joiner is suppose to do. It is money in his contract to make sure that the meetings are set up. That is not our job, if that is our job to do that then lets take a re-look at his contract and we are going to cut some money out of his contract and then we’ll get a public relations firm. But don’t give us a black public relations firm saying, you know Joe, you are suppose to be satisfied because you got a black public relations firm involved and they don’t know nothing about the technical part of it. They don’t know nothing about where the true meat, where the true power is going to be.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Shyne, you’ve passed your ten minutes by four. Could you close your remarks, please?

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman, I’ll try. I’ll try.

Councilman Stewart: Definitely would appreciate it.

Councilman Shyne: This is very important.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Shyne yesterday, you and I agreed.

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman, didn’t I answer you. I said that, I would try. I’m giving you an answer. Now, if that is not the answer that you want, I’m sorry. This is a very, very important issue. We don’t want to be pacified on this. And I’m speaking not to you now, but I am speaking to my colleagues on the Council, we don’t want to be pacified. The Chairman came up with an insurance thing at first, this was suppose to de-rail Mr. Brown because he couldn’t get $3 million dollars. I hope my colleagues understand what I am saying. I wouldn’t want us to come up with this community divided over something that we can be together on and we have worked too long to try to be together. Mr. Chairman thank you. Mr. Lee appreciate you coming down. Now, some of the other Council members might have some comments.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Lee, I appreciate your time. I would like to share some objective information. You and I have talked numerous times and I don’t think that you have ever found me to be anything but directly forward and truthful. I am not seeking your agreement because that is not an appropriate request, we’ve known each other too long.

I want to speak to the issue of risk management and insurance which I spoke to before.

1. The Mayor was farsighted enough to create a fair share plan which allows funds beyond the normal bid amount to be spent in order to fairly distribute the work. 2. The request that I put forward in the form of an amendment is consistent with a risk management policies of this City. 3. Anyone can secure those limits and those limits happen to be $1 million per occurrence. 4. I write consulting firms and I can assure you that the costs is not nearly what it is construed to be if someone wants to feels that they have been put upon. I never received any calls in effort to clarify that but I want that on the record.

I spoke to Mr. Gary Joiner, I spoke to his insurance agent. They faxed me the information of his coverages, they did not meet those limits. I sent that to the Risk Management Committee, that is my obligation. If I do not follow my obligation, then I’ve broken the oath that I took. But the most important issue, for summary, is not trying to celebrate me, that is not the point, that is the obligation of everyone here.

The Risk Management Committee can meet and they can make any decision they chose and waive any agreement, they have right and if they do, then so be it but that is applicable to everybody. And any inference based on my 35 years in the business and my recent review that this is a financial burden that would keep somebody from doing it, doing their job in this situation, they have been mis-informed. That is strictly a risk management policy and I’ll be glad to sit down with Mr. Brown and anyone else and show them how to do it.

Mr. Lee: Chairman Stewart, I understand your perspective on that. I am also a financial consultant and I do understand the aspect of risk management. I think inherently what we are looking at in this situation, again, from the structure of the deal and I think Councilwoman Spigener, hit on it yesterday–the aspect of what Mr. Brown’s responsibilities are to be and from that Mr. Joiner has designated those resources to him in such a lowly manner, that there is no real involvement in terms of really helping to draw the lines. And I give you the example of Councilman Huckaby’s district: If Mr. Joiner was following the guidelines when he drew the last line, I very seriously doubt if you would have taken District A from the Cooper Road, jumped all the over Cross Lake into the Yarborough area around Cross Lake and consider that to be compacted.

Councilman Stewart: I understand and I thank you for your time. Feel free to call me after hours as I’ve always felt in the past or any time, I will be glad to explain it.

Councilman Burrell: Let me make one comment here. Given the fact this issue is a very important issue, I think we all take it very serious. At the risk of a debate, in which I will not debate Mr. Lee, first of all, your comment dealing with Mr. Johnson being my friend. I know Mr. Johnson. You are probably more friends with him than I am and to make such an irresponsible statement and then put my name in it, I don’t appreciate it, but I understand you and your position.

Secondly, in terms of the redistricting situation we are dealing with. We had three parties that came and brought a proposal for redistricting. The, other than Mr. Brown, there was another group that was there, in which I offered in order to have an alternative in case persons did not see fit to have Mr. Joiner as the lead person or Mr. Brown to give an alternative. I took the initiative to locate another to put into the mix. So, if the people did not have confidence in Mr. Joiner or Mr. Brown, we would have a third source.

If you go back to the vote and start looking at the vote, when the votes were taken and when Mr. Brown’s name come up, if you go back and review the records, I was the only one that voted for him. So, wouldn’t that be a strange situation there if I had a problem with Mr. Brown at that time?

Now, in terms of Mr. Brown’s credentials. Yes, I’ve talked with him on a number of different occasions about redistricting issues. No, I don’t have any information on his background per se’, other than knowing Mr. Brown or Mr. Joiner, as far as that goes, because I wasn’t involved in the last redistricting other than a part of the community. But since I do have a statistical background, I was interested in it and did understand a lot of it, from that perspective. Plus I’ve worked with Dr. Hines out at LSU, a demographer there, a very competent demographer who has done probably more work as it relates to demographics than any other professor here in Shreveport; so, from that perspective, I do understand a lot of what is taken place.

Now, if we want to talk about truths, truth is that based on the vote that we had initially, Mr. Joiner’s firm was confirmed out of the three that was there. Now, in the end, Councilman Shyne can backed it up as well as the Council, he chose to try to work an agreement between Mr. Joiner and Mr. Brown, in which I had no problems with as a matter of fact, I supported it simply because I didn’t want the perception to be that it would one-sided. I still stand with that, from that perspective.

We went into meeting, a committee meeting the other day and we talked along those lines, but as I understand from that meeting when it ended that we had not resolved anything because we had another meeting to go to, Mr. Carmody and I, we have Audit and Finance Committee meeting. So as far as I am concerned at this juncture, the decision has not been made if we are looking at this committee, if it was suppose to make a decision. We did not make a decision out of that meeting, so as far as I am concerned, it is still open. Do you understand that?

Mr. Lee: I feel you.

Councilman Burrell: Okay the. Well, that is my position at this point. I am still not sure where it is, but I think a lot of the accusations being made are not correct and far as I am concerned, we are still in deliberations on this issue.

Councilman Shyne: I have a couple of remarks I would like to make to Mr. Strong. He was out of the Chamber at the time, when you asked for comments from the Council members. Mr. Strong, first of all I want to commend you and the Administration for the fine job that we are doing over on Pine Tree. I was over there talking to some of the citizens this morning and Mr. Mayor I want to let you know that they appreciate that fine street that we are putting in over there. And, I told them that we would be about making sure that we enhance our neighborhoods, that all of the money would not be spent downtown that we would come back and make sure that we are doing some capital projects within our neighborhoods. I appreciate that I am looking forward to more because this is really where our City is, in the neighborhoods and we owe them a certain amount of their tax dollars coming back into the neighborhoods. So, I appreciate that and I am looking forward to having a meeting with you to see where our Overlay Program is at this particular time.

You all have done an excellent job on Hearne Avenue that comes right down in the middle of my district. A lot of the people had gotten to where they were afraid to drive down Hearne it was so bad. What I would like to do, I’d like to get with you or maybe somebody from your office and lets look at Hollywood Avenue. We have a few potholes. Mr. Holt and I was out there the other day and we looked at a couple of them that had been called to my attention, but after paying it a little bit more attention, we have quite a few—Mayor Hightower: Those are speed holes to slow people down.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Shyne, I apologize you were interrupted by the Mayor.

Councilman Shyne: That’s okay. I’m sorry, but Pat even say, this is a new approach to cutting down on speed. If it is Mike, we want to kind of level it off a little bit, please. I’ll call you after the holidays and I would hope that you would tell Nathaniel that I will be calling him because we have a couple of drainage ditches. I believe the weather is so now until the grass has been killed and if we cut it now, we won’t have to worry about cutting it no more until the Spring so, tell Nathaniel that I will be calling him so that we can take care of that.

Mr. Strong: Thank you Mr. Shyne, and I think with the Bond Issue that we just passed we are going to see more neighborhood projects going on because that is the key of the last $70 million dollar bond issue and we have let out the contracts to the engineering firms so I think you are going to see a lot of construction going on in the neighborhoods coming up in probably June or July of this next year that we’ll some construction projects.

Councilman Shyne: Thank you and let me clear this up and because, I’ll talk to the Mayor later. I’ve been telling people that it is illegal to have speed bumps and I didn’t know that we were having some speed holes put in our streets.

Mr. Strong: Yes sir, we are calling them inverted speed bumps.

Adding Legislation to the Agenda: (1) Motion by Councilman Serio, seconded by Councilman Shyne to add Resolution No. 185 of 2001: A resolution accepting dedication for Amethyst Circle and Calliope Lane in the Brunswick Place Unit No. 3 Subdivision, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto to the agenda. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None. (2) Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby to add Resolution No. 186 of 2001: A resolution to authorize the Mayor to execute the proposed agreement with JaLi’Ve Enterprises, LLC for redistricting / reapportionment consultant services and otherwise providing with respect thereto. to the agenda. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

CONSENT AGENDA LEGISLATION:

INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES ON CONSENT:

RESOLUTION: None.

ORDINANCE: None.

ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES ON CONSENT:

RESOLUTIONS: None.

ORDINANCES:

Councilman Burrell: I think this is a day that has come, that they have been looking for some time. This will officially allow the Job Corp to develop a campus that will provide some security for its students.

Job Corp is one of our pride and joy over in Queensborough that has created jobs for many people in our area. It also has a student base of over 300 and housing and not only that, they are looking to do some additional building or re-building in that area which will enhance the area. Not only that, we work very closely with Job Corp, the Queensborough Neighborhood Association and myself, and I am sure Mr. Shyne too because he has part of Queensborough where Job Corp volunteer their services to the community in terms of building or should I say vocational venues in terms of any concrete work, construction, they volunteer a lot of these services in that area for the community. And, as I said, it is really a jewel in that area and I support this measure because they have had some problems with crime against their students and we definitely don’t want them to leave the neighborhood or Shreveport for that matter; so, again, I ask for the support on this ordinance.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Burrell, seconded by Councilman Carmody for Adoption of the Ordinances on the Consent Agenda. Motion passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

ORDINANCE NO. 186 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE CLOSING AND ABANDONING THE 50 FOOT-WIDE LILLIAN STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY RUNNING BETWEEN ARKANSAS AND MISSOURI AVENUES IN THE QUEENSBOROUGH ADDITION SUBDIVISION, AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport in due, legal, and regular session convened, that the 50 foot-wide dedicated Lillian Street right-of-way running between Arkansas and Missouri Avenues and located between Blocks 2 and 8 of the Queensborough Addition Subdivision in the SE/4 of Section 3 (T17N-R14W), Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and as shown and as indicated on the plat attached hereto and made a part hereof, is hereby closed and abandoned, and be it ordained that utility and drainage servitudes be retained throughout the closed and abandoned street right-of-way.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that a certified copy of this ordinance be filed and recorded in the official records of the District Court for Caddo Parish.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ORDINANCE NO. 192 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE CLOSING AND ABANDONING A PORTION OF PARK AVENUE RUNNING BETWEEN WALNUT AND LAUREL STREETS, AND CLOSING AND ABANDONING ALL THE REMAINING ALLEYWAYS IN BLOCKS 5 AND 6 OF THE PARK VIEW SUBDIVISION LOCATED IN THE NORTHEAST INTERSECTION OF PARK AVENUE WITH LAUREL STREET, AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport in due, legal, and regular session convened, that the south 187.5 feet of the 100 foot-wide dedicated Park Avenue right-of-way running between Walnut and Laurel Streets and abutting Lots 4, 5, and 6 of Blocks 4 and 5 and abutting the south 37.5 feet of Lot 3 of Blocks 4 and 5 of the Park View Subdivision, and that all of the remaining 20 foot-wide dedicated alleyways in Blocks 5 and 6 of the Park View Subdivision in the NE/4 of Section 2 (T17N-R14W), Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and as shown and as indicated on the two plats attached hereto and made a part hereof, are all hereby closed and abandoned, and be it ordained that utility and drainage servitudes be retained throughout the portion of closed and abandoned street right-of-way and be retained throughout the remaining closed and abandoned alleyways.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that a certified copy of this ordinance be filed and recorded in the official records of the District Court for Caddo Parish.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

REGULAR AGENDA LEGISLATION:

RESOLUTIONS:

The Deputy Clerk read the resolution by title: Resolution No. 168 of 2001: A resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with Shreveport Urban Renaissance Corporation in furtherance of the City of Shreveport Neighborhood Revitalization Plan and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Serio to postpone the resolution until the December 27, 2001 meeting.

Councilman Carmody (referring to the amendment): The Council members have just received this particular amendment to the resolution and we have not had a chance to go through it. I would like the opportunity for us to all take a look at this and read through it. If you have got any questions, bring those questions forward, so I would appreciate your vote in postponing this, this time.

Mr. Thompson: Is this a motion to postpone 168, Mr. Chairman. Councilman Stewart: Yes, sir.

Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

Councilman Burrell: To further comment on this, again we did just get these amendments and I can appreciate Mr. Carmody’s position, but I know it is something that we were going to have to move forward eventually because if we don’t we continue to push back the revitalization of these neighborhoods.

We are already are into the, I think, the second or third year trying to put this initiative together, starting, I know, at least in 1998 or 1999. And this is going to be a very, very important piece of our overall revitalization strategy to try to go into our inner city neighborhoods and try to bring them back to some standard of living, that we can appreciate and those who live there to appreciate.

I suggest that if any Council member read this and have questions, that they would set up some meeting with Mr. Ferdinand’s office so he can give them some explanation of it because it is not the most easiest thing to understand, I’ll be the first to admit that, even after working along with them. Some of the issues in there are somewhat difficult to understand, but they are understandable because a lot of them are dealing with Department of HUD regulations that unless you are an attorney of some sort and then an attorney that understand housing, you probably wouldn’t understand them in the first place but hopefully, that will not stop us from moving this initiative forward.

Councilman Carmody: For clarification and Councilman Burrell, referenced that as well, Mr. Ferdinand had called this morning and had left a message at my office that they were preparing this amendment but that he did not know whether or not we would have a chance to go over it before the meeting. And so this is certainly, the postponement is only actually give a chance for us to each look at it and review the documentation and ask those questions. I’ve been involved, as well as Councilman Burrell in these meetings, and it is not an easy thing to understand, but we are all on the same page trying to move forward the redevelopment of the inner city. So, I look forward to reading through this information and putting together my questions and reconvening, hopefully with other Council members along with Mr. Ferdinand to come to some resolution as to what the effect of this amendment will be.

Councilman Shyne: I would like to concur with Councilman Burrell. I think if we keep on putting this off too long, these neighborhoods are going to continue to deteriorate. The more they deteriorate, the more money we are going to have to spend, the harder it is going to be to attract people back into these neighborhoods. And, as Mr. Burrell said, if you are a layman, this information is going to be hard to understand, anyway but the intent and the purpose to revitalize these neighborhoods, are extremely important because we are losing a lot of our neighborhoods and we can not afford to continue to have our neighborhoods destroyed and we do not do anything about trying to revitalize them; so, I would hope that we would move as fast as we can to give the Administration the authority to go on and do what they need to do.

Councilman Serio: I would just like to comment and I think it is primarily for the folks who are watching and the folks that are here in the Chamber, to compliment what Mr. Burrell said as well as Mr. Carmody has said as well. This is a 35-page amendment that has just been put on our desk and I think it is incumbent on us to have the time to look at the amendments and it is unusual to get 35 pages of amendments for a piece of legislation. I don’t think anybody here is trying to hold this process up or hold us up, Mr. Burrell. I have no intentions of holding this up, but I think it is incumbent on us to read and see what 35 pages worth of amendments actually amounts to.

Councilman Burrell: As I said that what we are doing here in trying to impart upon our City, is a very delicate situation where we are trying to take old structures, old neighborhoods through in-fill revitalization as well as redevelopment. Those are three separate types of revitalization efforts. And if we are able to accomplish this, in terms of developing at least one good project that we can set an example for, we can duplicate that. And some of the things that we are doing here, has not been done in other cities or else we could have taken that as a road map and duplicate it or should I say, and replicate it to Shreveport and it wouldn’t be so hard. So, some of the things we are testing and in those tests you are going to find that everything doesn’t fit the rules all the time, so we are having to shape it. So, I think that again, we are doing something that could be a model for other cities and it is important that we do it well and we do it deliberately and take our time and do it well, most importantly; so, with that I hope that we can, by next time, get it passed and moved on.

The Deputy Clerk read the resolution by title: Resolution No. 175 of 2001: A resolution to amend the proposed agreements with Precision Cartographics and Herschel Brown for redistricting / reapportionment consultant services and otherwise providing with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby for passage. The Deputy Clerk read the following amendment:

The Deputy Clerk read the following amendment(s):

Amendment 1 by Councilman Carmody:

Delete Page 1 of the resolution and substitute the attached Page 1 in lieu thereof.

Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby for adoption of Amendment No. 1.

Councilman Burrell: Let me make sure that I have got a clarification. This is not something that we, per se’, to pass right now, this is not Introduction? Is this Introduction?

Councilman Carmody: No, sir.

Councilman Burrell: Well then, I need to raise the questions again. We went to Committee and we had a discussion and we did not finish that discussion and based upon the fact that we were not able to finish that discussion, maybe I need to pose this to Councilman Carmody, are we read to resolve this issue, at this point?

Councilman Carmody: Yes, sir, I believe we are.

Councilman Burrell: Could you give me the grounds for it because it is my understanding, in the meeting that we had, that we were to, we were in the process of a discussion in that meeting and we were not able to close it out. We were suppose to bring something back to the Council and I don’t remember that being done, unless I was out of it or something?

Councilman Carmody: Councilman Burrell, you and I were both there at the meeting at the request of Mr. Shyne to see if there was a possibility of discussing with both Precision Cartographics as well as Mr. Brown some type of a working relationship in which they would facilitate the reapportionment / redistricting plan.

From what I understand, 10 minutes passed after you and I left. As you recall, because you had asked the questions, you wanted to know what function each party was going to do. As we went down the contract, specifies each item that Precision Cartographics was hired by this Council to do back in July, it appeared that every function feel under their responsibility to perform. I did not have a responsibility listed under Mr. Brown therefore, in that we voted we received the request for proposal, we voted to hire this particular firm back in the Summer. At the time that was my thought, because I had assured a number of my constituents that we would have our first public meeting to discuss reapportionment before the end of October. We are not past the month of November and headed toward Christmas. I was glad to be a part of that meeting yesterday, but it did not appear that we were going to get to the resolution that was originally proposed.

At this point, I think that it is imperative in that our time frame in order to get this process started to facilitate these meetings and to generate the plan, we need to move forward.

Councilman Burrell: So, maybe I need to ask then, because I am not quite clear at first we said that it was important that we try to create an atmosphere within the confines of the redistricting plan that we would have inclusion into the process, that was my understanding. And I agree, inclusion to me, they use the term "technocrat", I’m a technocrat by education and no, I don’t see public meetings as being a technical portion of the process. Now, I understood Mr. Brown did have the technically abilities, I have dealt with him on occasions in the past and I thought that we were looking at some relationship there between he and Mr. Joiner on the technical end because I pose the question, if you remember, I said that will feel very, very uncomfortable to address some of my constituents who had asked me questions about the redistricting plan and not be able to address them from the stand point that here we have a plan, we have Mr. Joiner’s position and he would be a lead person then let’s be honest with ourselves. We have a community here that based upon this plan is going to question whether or not the interest of at least two communities are represented, is that a fair enough statement? Okay. And, whether or not they are going to perceive this in the light that both communities are represented from the technical standpoint not from the public relations standpoint.

So, I am not sure if we are still resolving this issue and I thought that was the purpose of the meeting to try to help resolve that issue, that on the technical side more so than just the public relations that we do have persons involved in this process that we can ask technical questions to because you have two parties that understand the process. Does that make sense?

Councilman Carmody: I think your question makes sense, but I think we need to go back to the actions that this Council has taken.

Councilman Burrell: I understand, what happened on yesterday.

Councilman Carmody: And I know you do. But I mean, we received proposals from three different firms to perform this work. Mr. Joiner, obviously has experience in doing this work in this community.

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Brown too.

Councilman Carmody: In n that we have hired a firm to do this work. At the insistence of Mr. Shyne, that we look at the possibility of including Mr. Brown, we have now spent the last part of this year trying to reach some type of a scenario in which this would happen. But when yo go down the functions that are outlined in Precision Cartographics’ contract, each function falls under the sole responsibility of the person we have hired. Had we put out a Request For Proposal and we mandated in that request that we have an equal representation, then I think we would all be on the same level in how this worked.

At this point, I think we’ve got a City Attorney who happens to be black. He and the gentleman that we have hired to perform this function will be working intimately to bring the submission forward to the Department of Justice. I would certainly think that Mr. Lafitte has the concerns of the whole community, not just one segment, at heart. I would also have to say that Mr. Joiner, having been through the process in 1990, also has the basis for knowing the concerns of this community.

Again, I feel like that we are at a point now that we should proceed. If it is the desire of this Council to hire anyone else, that resolution needs to be put forth and not dove-tailed onto a resolution whereby we hired one person, that is the intent of this amendment is not separate what was not approved by this Council, so that if it is the desire of this Council to approve a second resolution, to hire a second person to or firm to assist in some capacity the hired organization, then we should consider it but we can not just take for granted that because since we hired one firm that there is another one that is required to work with them.

Councilman Burrell: Mr. Carmody, I am not going to debate that issue because it is not up for debate, I think you and I both are trying to find a resolution to this. And, I agree initially and it is a technicality, I agree, because when we first start looking at the contract, that was one of the reasons why I asked the second firm to come in because they were know to include, to be inclusive.

The problem that I have at this juncture because I understood, it was my understanding when we voted upon this and we addressed this in the Council meeting here, that there was an agreement between Mr. Joiner and it was a verbal agreement true enough, it wasn’t written and I may be wrong about this, but this is what I remember and I understand that he would work with this minority firm because we brought up the issue at that time. It appears now that we’ve gotten to this juncture where we are getting ready to do the work, that that is no longer and issue other than working to have public meetings.

From the standpoint of being, using the term again, a technocrat, just because you have a public meeting, it does not get involved into the technical issues associated with demography. That is a very, very, mathematically technical issue, a statistically issue. And I am not even sure myself, even with my background, I understand at all and I’ve dealth with it, as I’ve told you before. But I think there is a sense of discomfort since the issue has been brought up that the issue of both communities will be represented here, not questioning Mr. Joiner’s honesty, that is not the issue here. I think we’ve come to a point where there are concerns, if for no other reason because of the population shift. Do you understand where I am coming from? I am tying to bring out the issues that are true issues, issues that have been put in front of us that the newspaper has put out there in the people’s mind and there are concerns out in the community that if we go through this process, that we are both not necessarily equally represented, but at least the information that is brought forth that there is a sense of trust there, that both communities is getting the same information, from that perspective.

So, that is the reason I am a bit concerned about it, from that perspective. We can still have our public meetings, like I said JaLi’Ve, has nothing to do with this but from where we started and the decisions that we made or the things that we agreed upon now and making a change at this point, I’m trying to get a good feel for when did that happen? Why it happened? And whether or not it is for the betterment of the end result of what we are trying to do.

Councilman Carmody: Mr. Burrell, I agree with your concerns wholeheartedly. I certainly think that we are hiring a firm for their expertise. If we have a concern over how the plan is put together and that all parties interests are brought to bear, I think it serves this community, very well that the closest municipal employee that will be working to assist Precision Cartographics will be our City Attorney. I feel that Mr. Lafitte certainly has an ear for all of the community and is not afraid to communicate to anyone what he is hearing.

A third party can be considered, which is what this amendment would do. It would bring back to the point that we were in when we hired one firm after entertaining three requests for proposals, and we can proceed from there. If it is the desire of this Council to hire another firm or another person, that resolution needs to be placed on the table, offered for consideration, debated and then voted on; that is the proper democratic process.

Councilman Shyne: I agree with Mr. Carmody from the standpoint that we need to move on. Mr. Burrell, you are exactly right. I thought that you could tell when Mr. Carmody came in the meeting on yesterday, that he had his mind made up.

Councilman Burrell: I am kind of naive in some way.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Burrell.

Councilman Burrell: Sorry.

Councilman Stewart: Remember, we do not talk to personalities, we talk to facts.

Councilman Shyne: I mean, I could sense it. I guess it is because I been around a long time and it is kind of hard to fool an old fox but we all get fooled sometimes. Even by the mere fact that our colleague came, went to another meeting and came into this meeting and the name of JaLi’Ve came up; that should have let you know right then that, this had been discussed before. It wasn’t just a firm that was pulled out of his hat.

Mr. Lafitte is an excellent attorney. He doesn’t know anything about drawing district lines and where the precincts ought to be and all this kind of stuff. And Mr. Carmody want us to believe that, hey don’t worry about it, Mr. Lafitte is going to take care of your interests and JaLi’Ve is going to take care of your interest because they know about drawing district lines and they’ve been involved in the redistribution of power before.

Like I say, when I run again, the best public relations firm I know, super. Super. I think we need to move on because we are sitting here playing games. Mr. Burrell, I think you can see that our colleague is sitting here with at least five (5) votes to kill Mr. Brown’s contract and it is no use to prolonging this.

And, he is exactly right. This activity has not been prolonged because of Mr. Brown’s contract. First of all, the City Attorney had to draw up the contract for Mr. Joiner. Somewhere down the line, Mr. Burrell even with Mr. Joiner included, something has gone wrong. We are projecting to the City again, that hey, we are the same way that we were in 1990, before then, we have not made any progress. I kind of thought that we had a gentlemanly agreement, that we would involve another technocrat to work with Mr. Joiner. Maybe I don’t hear very well, my understanding is pretty good because I have lived a long time, but I thought I heard him say, hey we will sit down with Mr. Brown and see what we can come up with. After you all left the meeting, I think we did reach some type of compromise that Mr. Brown would be involved in the technical side of it, but Councilman Carmody didn’t hear that.

I would like for us to go ahead on and vote on this piece of legislation, on this contract and Mr. Burrell it is going to be defeated. . . . this was defeated even before yesterday. It was discussed even before yesterday of being defeated. So, Mr. Chairman if no one else has anything to say on this, I call for the question.

Councilman Huckaby: I would like for it to go down on record, that nobody speaks for me, and that is all I have to say.

Councilman Burrell: Again, I am little disappointed or maybe not so much disappointed just kind if disillusioned of what I thought the perception of what we were going to do this time in conjunction with the redistricting.

Again, I don’t feel either that this is Mr. Joiner’s, I mean, it is going to be Mr. Joiner’s plan but I feel a bit more comfortable when I know someone that has the expertise in a particular area can advise me more than someone that don’t.

Now, I agree you say that the City Attorney and I have all respect, but again, these people are not technocrats (keep using that term) but at the same time, I guess the only reason why I have a problem, Mr. Carmody, with this again is that I was led to believe that we were going in that direction and it was just my misconception that we were. And with these additions and deletions, at this juncture, then I am just a bit disappointed that somehow I don’t feel like I was given the right information or people were honest with me because I was ready to go either way, especially since we say we were going to try to move this thing in a direction where we would all be comfortable at this point, but I am not very comfortable at this point.

Councilman Stewart: Lets us seek clarification from the Clerk. An affirmative vote, would do what? Mr. Thompson: An affirmative vote would delete Mr. Browns’ contract from any consideration or being a part of this resolution.

Councilman Stewart: And a negative vote would allow it to stand as is? Mr. Thompson: That’s correct.

Amendment 1 passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Stewart, Carmody, Serio, and Spigener. 4. Nays: Councilmen Huckaby, Shyne and Burrell. 3.

Amendment No. 2:

In the "NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED" clause; after the word "hereto" add a comma and the words "except that in Section I. of the attached Precision Cartographics Contract add a new paragraph (13) as follows: "Supply the City Council with a metes and bounds description of each Council District, and a City Map in both hard copy format and a digital format agreeable to the City at the time of the submission of the final product, which shows each council district, city and parish boundaries, and if possible street names and block numbers ."

Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Burrell for adoption of Amendment No. 2. Motion passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

(Amendment No. 3 was withdrawn by Councilman Shyne.)

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman, it is my amendment. I want to ask him that I am not submitting this amendment at this time?

Councilman Stewart: You chose to withdraw it?

Councilman Shyne: Exactly right, that is why I wanted to stop him.

Councilman Stewart: For the record, I believe we all understand Mr. Shyne’s request. What is the appropriate way to achieve it?

Mr. Thompson: He just withdrew.

Councilman Stewart: You have withdrawn it.

Councilman Shyne: That is what I just got through doing.

Councilman Stewart: Does it require any type of legislative motion? Mr. Thompson: No, the Council just will not consider it

Councilman Stewart: Thank you.

Councilman Shyne: And to the City Attorney, this has nothing to do with your fine work, you’ve done an excellent job on drawing up this amendment, I appreciate it. I’m proud of you.

Motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Serio for adoption of the resolution as amended. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener and Burrell. 5. Nays: Councilman Shyne. 1. Out of Chamber: Councilman Huckaby. 1.

Councilman Shyne: I wanted to make sure that my "no" vote does not have anything to do with the Council or Mr. Joiner moving forward with the contract.

My "no" vote is that I think that we are sending the wrong message to our community. I think we need to continue to send a message of inclusion. Our community is smart enough to know that JaLi’Ve is an excellent PR firm, but they have no technical experience in drawing up and reapportion any type of political districts.

Our City Attorney will look at it from the standpoint of, how legal it is not from the standpoint of where precincts should be, what communities should be put together or divided and I think that we are really making a mistake and we are probably opening ourselves up for a suit that will be filed in the Justice Department and I think that we are also opening ourselves up from a standpoint of there are persons who are saying that, Joe, we are still not together. All this preaching that you are doing that we are a unified City, that is not true.

Councilman Burrell: As it relates to the Public Relations contract, is that being brought forth or is it something to be considered later?

Councilman Carmody: That is to be brought forward today for consideration.

RESOLUTION NO. 175 OF 2001

A RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE PROPOSED AGREEMENT WITH PRECISION CARTOGRAPHICS FOR REDISTRICTING / REAPPORTIONMENT CONSULTANT SERVICES AND OTHERWISE PROVIDING WITH RESPECT THERETO.

By: Councilman Carmody

WHEREAS, a proposed agreement has been prepared to authorize Precision Cartographics to provide redistricting / reapportionment consultant services for the City of Shreveport; and

WHEREAS, funds have been budgeted for this purpose and the Mayor is authorized to sign the agreement; and

WHEREAS, the proposed agreement has been submitted to the members of the Council for review, and it is necessary to amend the proposed agreement.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport in due, legal and regular session convened that the proposed agreement between the City of Shreveport and Precision Cartographics be amended and executed substantially in accordance with the terms and conditions of the draft attached hereto, except that in Section I. of the attached Precision Cartographics Contract add a new paragraph (13) as follows: "Supply the City Council with a metes and bounds description of each Council District, and a City Map in both hard copy format and a digital format agreeable to the City at the time of the submission of the final product, which shows each council district, city and parish boundaries, and if possible street names and block numbers .

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

The Deputy Clerk read the resolution by title: Resolution No. 176 of 2001: A resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute a contract with Bioset of Shreveport, L. L. C. concerning the handling of the City’s biosolids; authorizing the Mayor to request approval from the Louisiana State Bond Commission relative to the same and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Serio, seconded by Councilman Stewart for passage. The Deputy Clerk read the following amendment:

Amendment No. 1:

Amend Section 6.08 of the Biosolids Disposal Agreement to read as follows:

***

6.08 Payments by City Unconditional. The City and Bioset recognize that the Bonds will be payable from, and secured by, a pledge of the sums of money to be receive by Bioset under this Agreement and that in order to make the Bond marketable at the lowest available interest rate, it is to the mutual advantage of the City and Bioset that the City’s obligation to make the payments required hereunder be unconditional. All sums payable hereunder to Bioset shall, so long as any part of the Bonds are outstanding and unpaid, be paid by the City without set-off, counter-claim, abatement, suspension or diminution except as otherwise expressly provided herein. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary contained in this Agreement, so long as any part of the Bonds are outstanding and unpaid, this Agreement shall not terminate, nor shall the City have any right to terminate Agreement nor be entitled to the abatement of any payment or any reduction thereof (other than pursuant to Section 6.07 hereof) nor shall the obligations hereunder of the City be otherwise affected for any reason, it being the intention of the parties that so long as any part of the Bonds are outstanding and unpaid, all sums required to be paid by the City to Bioset shall continue to be payable in all events and the obligation of the City hereunder shall continue unaffected. The amounts owed by the City under this Agreement shall be payable by the City, notwithstanding the suspension, interruption, temporary termination or unavailability of the Facility, in whole or in part, for any reason whatsoever, and such amounts shall not be subject to any reduction, whether by offset or otherwise.

***

Motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Burrell for adoption of the amendment.

Councilman Stewart: Madame Clerk, approximately how many pages is the amendment for the record, please? Ms. Lee: One.

Motion passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, and Shyne and Burrell. 6. Nays: None. Out of Chamber: Councilman Huckaby. 1.

Motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Burrell for adoption of the resolution as amended. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, and Shyne and Burrell. 6. Nays: None. Out of Chamber: Councilman Huckaby. 1.

RESOLUTION NO. 176 OF 2001

A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH BIOSET OF SHREVEPORT, L.L.C., CONCERNING THE HANDLING OF THE CITY’S BIOSOLIDS; AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO REQUEST APPROVAL FROM THE LOUISIANA STATE BOND COMMISSION RELATIVE TO SAME; AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, over the past two (2) years, the Department of Operational Services has reviewed five (5) proposals from companies for the reuse biosolids which result from the treatment of wastewater; and

WHEREAS, the proposal received from BIOSET of Shreveport, L.L.C., ("BIOSET") was determined to be in the best interest of the City and would result in a cost savings to the City of approximately $25 million in capital expenditures over the term of the contract; and

WHEREAS, BIOSET’S proposal also included other benefits to the City including but not limited to the operation of a sod farm which may result in additional revenue for the City.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport in due, legal and regular session convened, Mayor is authorized to execute a contract with BIOSET of Shreveport, L.L.C., substantially in accordance with the draft thereof filed for public inspection with the original of this resolution in the Office of the Clerk of Council on November 27, 2001.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor is authorized to obtain the approval of this contract from the Louisiana State Bond Commission as authorized by LSA-R.S. 39:1410.60(A).

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or

application, and to this end, the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

RESOLUTION NO. 177 OF 2001

AN RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY TO CLOSE THE AT-GRADE CROSSING OF DESOTO STREET AND THE UPRR (UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD) BETWEEN THE PIKE STREET AND MANSFIELD ROAD AND OTHERWISE PROVIDING WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the Department of Operational Services is requesting to close the at-grade crossing of DeSoto Street and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), and

WHEREAS, the closure of the at-grade crossing will enhance the public and vehicular safety of the citizens of Shreveport, and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, in due, regular and legal session convened that the City is authorized to remove the at-grade crossing of DeSoto Street and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR).

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications, and to this end, the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all ordinances or resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Spigener for passage.

Councilman Stewart: Mayor, I would appreciate it, at your convenience this week, if you would review that legislation with me and some of the discussion associated with it. This has to do with the grade crossing on Desoto and Union Pacific Railroad.

Resolution passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, and Shyne. 5. Nays: None. Out of Chamber: Councilman Huckaby. 1. Did not cast a vote: Councilman Burrell. 1.

The Deputy Clerk read the resolution by title: Resolution No. 178 of 2001: An resolution authorizing the City to close the at-grade crossing of Morningside Drive and the UPRR (Union Pacific Railroad) between Kent Street and Mansfield Road and otherwise providing with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Shyne for passage.

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman I was going to move, Mr. Carmody if it is alright, if we could postpone this for two weeks because I know they are not going to start any work on it for two weeks. I don’t know whether you’ve had a chance to go out and talk to the any of the people, I know that I have not had a chance to do that.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Carmody to postpone the resolution until the December 27, 2001 meeting.

Councilman Shyne: I would hate to close it and we had not really talked to any of the people in that area and it is not that do not trust the Engineering Department because got some of the finest gentlemen—Mike, you got one of the finest departments that I’ve seen anywhere.

Councilman Carmody: Mr. Dark, could I ask a question of you. Mr. Dark: certainly. Councilman Carmody: Yesterday, Mr. Antee, related to the Council that these closures were part of an arrangement that was made, I believe with Missouri Pacific regarding some—Mr. Dark: Relative to the Convention Center, some abandonments that are necessary for that. Ya’ll also asked for the City Engineer to be here, if you all had any quesitons, and he is fact here. Councilman Carmody: That’s what I wanted to ask, would he come forward, please. Mr. Dark: He’s been sitting a while, and I don’t know if he his legs will work. Mr. Norwood: The legs will work, but the mind isn’t.

Councilman Carmody: Mr. Norwood, the question we had at our work session was whether or not these closures along that portion of Old Mansfield Road were matters of public hearing? Mr. Norwood: No, they are not.

Councilman Carmody: Are we required to ask the input of the citizens who live in that area, that will be affected by the closure? Mr. Norwood: You are not required because the closure is only at the railroad. We are not closing or abandoning any City right-of-way because there is no City right-of-way there, it is railroad right-of-way. The street is remaining open on both sides. We are just limiting access across the street and across the railroad.

Councilman Carmody: But for clarification, if this body votes to allow the closure then indeed we’ll put up some type of barrier to indicate that you can not cross at the crossing? Mr. Norwood: We will take a section of the roadway out on either side of the railroad.

Councilman Carmody: I think that is where Councilman Shyne and I were yesterday in that this particular crossing is the access point from his district into my district or visa versa and I can relate that one person has contacted me asking that this closure take place but I have not heard anyone else who seem to be of any knowledge that we were considering such an act. Mr. Norwood: Well, keep in my this is being done for safety reasons.

Councilman Carmody: I appreciate that. I think that should be foremost in our minds. Mr. Norwood: Yes.

Councilman Carmody: Very good, I would hope then that Mr. Shyne and I in two weeks, can move forward once we’ve had a chance to hear from our constituents and I appreciate you being here today.

Councilman Burrell: Let me understand this crossing business. This is a thoroughfare, right? You used to be a street across the railroad track? Mr. Norwood: Yes.

Councilman Burrell: So you are taking out portions of the pavement, so that people can stop going—in other words, you are dead-ending the road, on each side, am I visualizing that correct? Mr. Norwood: Well we in effect, yes, but they will still have access to Mansfield Road. There will just be another alternate route.

Councilman Burrell: No, I am talking about on this particular street? Mr. Norwood: On this street, no there will be no access through, but we are not closing either side of the track. We are not closing the road, itself on either side of the track. We are closing the road where it crosses the track.

Councilman Burrell: But still a car, in other words, will not be able to cross the tracks? Mr. Norwood: That is correct.

Councilman Burrell: So, you will not have a thorough street, basically is what it boils down to Mr. Norwood: No, Sir.

Councilman Burrell: So under the circumstances then those persons who would normally travel that route, then they would have some interest in this, I assume not only from the community standpoint, but from people who actually pass through there for whatever reason? Mr. Norwood: They will have to go maybe a block out of the way to exist onto Mansfield Road.

Councilman Burrell: And the reasons why we are closing this you say, because of safety reasons, we do not want to put up a crossing or something like that? Mr. Norwood: That is correct.

Councilman Shyne: The reason why I am concerned because Roy you are right, I go that way and sometimes something happens on the track at the Hollywood, I am able to go up to Kent and go across, that happens to a lot of people. And I was thinking about in case there was an emergency vehicle at a house, I mean if there was an emergency at one of those houses on Kent Street, if something had happened on the train track and this might be farfetched, it might not happen in 100 years and then it might happen tomorrow, the emergency vehicle will probably lose 3 to 4 minutes in trying to get to somebody on Kent Street. To be truthful about it, this could mean a life and the reason why I am saying that, is because if I lived on Kent Street and the City closed off of a thoroughfare where I would be sick or a loved one of mine would get sick and die because an emergency vehicle had not gotten there in time, I would be ready to sue somebody. Now, I don’t know how much, John David I don’t know how much insurance I could get, but I would be ready to sue somebody. Those are the two reason why I want to check into it.. To see how those people feel to let them know now, if your house catch on fire, if somebody have a heart attack, if there is an emergency then it is going to take emergency vehicles a whole lot longer to get there even some times, I’m saying 4 minutes, but some times 30 seconds can mean the difference between whether you live or die. If you are a firefighter, some times a minute can mean the difference between whether you can save a house or not, so that is basically what I am concerned about. I want to make sure that we give the residents that live in there, the opportunity, because I do personally, I use Kent Street some times because there have been times when there have been a wreck there or maybe the train stopped. Some times the train has had a wreck or something has happened and just the tail end of the track, might be across Hollywood and that tail end might be there for 15 or 20 minutes and people can run right up to Kent Street go right over and keep right on going. I understand but I just want to look at all sides because when I go back to knock on some doors and ask for some votes, and I just want to make sure of that. Mr. Norwood: And that is a very legitimate concern and I understand why you’d want to do that.

Councilman Spigener: I’m sure that you all have done traffic counts or a traffic count of the number of vehicles that go across over, is that going to affect and also, I’m sure the emergency, the Fire Department and Police Department have checked their response times. Do you have that available? Mr. Norwood: They have been notified and I don’t know off hand, what the traffic counts are. I don’t know if there are any that have been done recently, but I can check that.

Councilman Spigener: And also the response times for the emergency vehicles, if we could know that. . . Mr. Norwood: You are just looking at maybe an alternate route of maybe one block, I don’t think it is going to affect it that much. I think the safety aspect of closing outweighs any other aspect at this time, that is what we are trying to do.

Councilman Stewart: I will quantify my questions which, basically, they have summarized. You did not state that you had that information, you stated that the Police Department had been notified. I understand this is perhaps, handled by others but I believe it is very important that we be made aware of those responses, the next time we meet with your assistance. Mr. Norwood: Sure.

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman, you are exactly right and I hope you could have somebody from the Fire Department to determine how long it would take them to go an extra block, come up and come down where, I might think it might take 3 minutes. It might take 30 seconds, or we might say it takes 30 seconds and it might be 3 minutes or 4 minutes. Because you got lives involved with people who live there and I wouldn’t want to be put in a situation to vote to close it, 6 months later somebody would have a heart attack or a house would catch on fire and then they come to me and say, if you had not closed that street, my son would be living today, the Fire Department could have gotten here in time in order to put the fire out. I just want to be sure.

Mr. Norwood: But also, what if we didn’t close it and somebody runs into a train? Councilman Shyne: Then they are suppose to (inaudible) because the ones that we are leaving open, they could run into a train also. I mean, that you can’t. . . . Mr. Norwood: I don’t think any of those along there are very safe.

Councilman Shyne: But you see, we can’t close them all off. Mr. Norwood: And I understand that.

Councilman Shyne: We can’t close them all off, but we can make sure that that part that we can control about, if somebody gets sick, we would lengthen the response time. Now, that we can control. We can’t control nobody running down the streets running into a train because they do that a lot of times even with the lights flashing. Did you see the other day where those boys got, three boys got run over on the train track, they looked back and saw the train So, some things you can’t prevent but those things that we can prevent, I’d like for us to look at it and it might come back that we agree with you. Most of the times I do agree with you. Mr. Norwood: Sure. We’ll get that information and we’ll have the Police and Fire here next time to discuss that.

Councilman Serio: I am going to cut through some of the legal verbiage from a second ago. You said that, the crossing itself is not a City of Shreveport right-of-way? Mr. Norwood: Yes, sir.

Councilman Serio: It is a. . . .? Mr. Norwood: It is a railroad right-of-way.

Councilman Serio: So, the asphalt or the concrete that goes from one street to the next, actually, that is put in by the railroad? Mr. Norwood: It is put in by the City with an agreement with th railroad.

Councilman Serio: So, the railroad has the full right-of-way even the street approach that comes up to it? Mr. Norwood: Yes, sir.

Councilman Serio: So, that’s the case. Then we’ve got with, inside the neighborhood, how large of the neighborhood, that are there? How many houses that will be affected? Mr. Norwood: I really don’t know.

Councilman Serio: No idea? Mr. Norwood: No, we can find that out.

Councilman Serio: We have enough people that try to speed through there to get around the railroad tracks. The next thing you are going to have is people want to put speed bumps in the neighborhood. Mr. Norwood: No comment.

Councilman Stewart: Thank you for your assistance and you’ll bring us the information we requested at the next meeting, is that correct? Mr. Norwood: Yes, sir.

Motion to postpone the resolution until the December 27, 2001 meeting passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, and Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

RESOLUTION NO. 179 of 2001

RESOLUTION STATING CITY OF SHREVEPORT’S ENDORSEMENT OF BEST BUY CO., INC. TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BENEFITS OF THE LOUISIANA ENTERPRISE ZONE PROGRAM AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Act of 901 of 1981, Act 337 of 1982, Act 433 of 1987, Act 1024 of 1992, Act 581 of 1995, Act 624 of 1997, and Act 997 of 1999;

WHEREAS, the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program offers significant incentives for economic development to some of the most distressed areas in parish, and

WHEREAS, BEST BUY CO., INC. is located in Census Tract 239.02 Block Group 4 , which is not a designated Enterprise Zone, and

WHEREAS, said business will employ a minimum of 35% of its employees from the distressed groups targeted by the Enterprise Zone, and

WHEREAS, the City of Shreveport states this endorsement is in agreement with the Overall Economic Development Plan for the City of Shreveport, and

WHEREAS, the attached Enterprise Zone map is marked showing the location of the business being endorsed, and

WHEREAS, in accordance with the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program requirements the City of Shreveport agrees:

1. To participate in the Enterprise Zone Program

2. To assist the Department in evaluating progress made in any Enterprise Zone within its

jurisdiction

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the City of Shreveport, in due, regular, and legal session convened that BEST BUY CO., INC. and their project BEST BUY #363, Enterprise Zone Application # 20010326, is endorsed to participate in the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the

application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications

of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are

hereby repealed.

Councilman Serio: This is in my district, I don’t think we’ve reapportioned yet, but this is in my district and I would like a motion to accept this.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Serio, seconded by Councilman Carmody passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

RESOLUTION NO. 180 of 2001

RESOLUTION STATING CITY OF SHREVEPORT’S ENDORSEMENT OF ROOFING SUPPLY, INC. TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BENEFITS OF THE LOUISIANA ENTERPRISE ZONE PROGRAM AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Act of 901 of 1981, Act 337 of 1982, Act 433 of 1987, Act 1024 of 1992, Act 581 of 1995, Act 624 of 1997, and Act 997 of 1999;

WHEREAS, the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program offers significant incentives for economic development to some of the most distressed areas in parish, and

WHEREAS, ROOFING SUPPLY, INC. is located in Census Tract 233.00 Block Group 2 , which is a designated Enterprise Zone, and

WHEREAS, said business will employ a minimum of 35% of its employees from the distressed groups targeted by the Enterprise Zone, and

WHEREAS, the City of Shreveport states this endorsement is in agreement with the Overall Economic Development Plan for the City of Shreveport, and

WHEREAS, the attached Enterprise Zone map is marked showing the location of the business being endorsed, and

WHEREAS, in accordance with the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program requirements the City of Shreveport agrees:

1. To participate in the Enterprise Zone Program

2. To assist the Department in evaluating progress made in any Enterprise Zone within its

jurisdiction

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the City of Shreveport, in due, regular, and legal session convened that ROOFING SUPPLY, INC. and their project RSI BUILDING EXPANSION , Enterprise Zone Application # 20010291, is endorsed to participate in the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Program.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the

application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are

hereby repealed.

Councilman Shyne: I have no problem with that. As a matter of fact, I think that is a grand idea.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Carmody passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

RESOLUTION NO. 181 OF 2001

A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE 2002 BUDGET FOR THE SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU AND OTHERWISE PROVIDING WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau is required to submit its annual budget to the City of Shreveport for approval.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, in legal session convened, that the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau budget for 2002, a copy of which was filed with the Clerk of Council on December 11, 2001, be and the same is hereby approved.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Shreveport- Bossier Convention and Tourist Commission, acting as the governing body for the Bureau, is hereby authorized to adjust individual line items within the approved 2002 budget, provided that any adjustment which increases the total budget shall require the approval of the City Council.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications; and, to this end, the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared to be severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

Councilman Carmody: Can I ask for a clarification, on the resolution that was added to the agenda, can we consider it at this point? Mr. Thompson: It can be considered at this point. I thought that it was going to come up next. I’ve talked to the City Attorney about it, Mrs. Glass about it, and because the monies were already budgeted for this purpose, it can be voted on today.

Councilman Carmody: So it is just being Introduced then, today? Mr. Thompson: It can be voted on today, if you want to.

Councilman Carmody: Oh, it can. It would be my desire that we go on and consider it today. Is this the proper point? Mr. Thompson: Yes.

Councilman Stewart: We have a motion to Introduce Resolutions? Mr. Thompson: It has already been introduced. We had passed the section where it could be voted on today and I believe it was a question of point of order, by Mr. Carmody to ask why it was not read for adoption today or for defeat today.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Carmody, your directions.

Councilman Carmody: And I refer back to Mr. Thompson, then are we at a point where this will now just be Introduced today or has it been Introduced and therefore. . . .? Mr. Thompson: It has already been introduced and we were just passing the point where it could be considered for adoption.

Councilman Stewart: Well what is the appropriate direction then? Mr. Thompson: Well, we should have read it. And, though I believe that your comment was a point of order, why didn’t we read it, the essence of it and so if there are no objection we will now read it and it can be considered.

Councilman Stewart: I see no objections, please read it.

RESOLUTION NO. 185 OF 2001

A RESOLUTION TO AUTHORIZE THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE THE PROPOSED AGREEMENT WITH JALI’VE ENTERPRISES, LLC FOR REDISTRICTING/ REAPPORTIONMENT CONSULTANT SERVICES AND OTHERWISE PROVIDING WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, a proposed agreement has been prepared to authorize JaLi’Ve Enterprises, LLC to provide redistricting / reapportionment consultant services for the City of Shreveport; and

WHEREAS, funds have been budgeted for this purpose and the Mayor is authorized to sign the agreement; and

WHEREAS, the proposed agreement has been submitted to the members of the Council for review.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport in due, legal and regular session convened that the proposed agreement between the City of Shreveport and JaLi’Ve Enterprises, LLC be executed substantially in accordance with the terms and conditions of the draft attached hereto.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this resolution which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end the provisions of this resolution are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Burrell, seconded by Councilman Huckaby for passage.

Councilman Shyne: I have been corrected. I used the term, PR firm. Let me go back and say, I meant a consulting firm.

Resolution passed by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

Mr. Dark: I think that there is another one that you all added earlier today that was a one–reader, the dedication for Amethyst and Calliope, that one would also need to be voted on at some point through here.

RESOLUTION NO. 186 OF 2001

A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING DEDICATION FOR AMETHYST CIRCLE AND CALLIOPE LANE IN THE BRUNSWICK PLACE UNIT NO. 3 SUBDIVISION , AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, in due, legal, and regular session convened, that the dedication for Amethyst Circle and Calliope Lane in the Brunswick Place Unit No. 3 Subdivision in Section 33 (T17N-R13W), Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and as shown on the plats attached hereto and made a part hereof, be and the same is hereby accepted as dedicated to the public for public use in the City of Shreveport.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the original plat reflecting the dedication for Amethyst Circle and Calliope Lane be and recorded in the official records of the District Court for Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that if any provision or item of this resolution or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all ordinances or resolutions or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Serio, seconded by Councilman Huckaby for passage.

Councilman Burrell: Just as a clarification, these streets have utilities and we are just accepting them for maintenance, maybe I am missing something. Mr. Strong: Mr. Burrell, this is for the Brunswick Place Unit 3 Subdivision which will be built and it will have 26 lots on it and when all of the utilities come in, it will be new utilities for that area. So, it will be constructed and then the City will have the utilities donated to them by the developer.

Councilman Burrell: Now, when you say that it is accepted, is this an annexation? Mr. Strong: Accepting dedication for the Circle and the Lane.

Councilman Burrell: I assume that it is already in the City. We are just accepting. . . I am not following you, maybe I need to read the. Mr. Strong: This is for the subdivision itself to come in here. This is accepting that we get the subdivision that is planning on coming in. The property is inside the City, but they are just turning in the plats on how it will be set up. . . .

Councilman Burrell: That is what I was asking, is it already a part of the City boundary? Mr. Strong: Yes.

Councilman Serio: In response to Mr. Burrell, we passed that earlier, I believe it was almost last summer for bringing this into the City, so this has already been brought into the City, several months ago.

Councilman Shyne: Did we vote on this when Mr. Burrell, had taken his trip to Africa? Councilman Serio: I don’t know if that is—I have no idea when this was voted on or when Mr. Burrell went to Africa, quite frankly.

Councilman Carmody: He went during Christmas

Councilman Serio: But it was voted on earlier in the year.

INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTIONS:

1. Resolution No. 182 of 2001: A resolution ratifying the Mayor’s signature to the contract between the City of Shreveport and Motorola Credit Corporation and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

2. Resolution No. 183 of 2001: A resolution donating a 1987 Elgin Pelican street sweeper to the Naval and Marine Corp Reserve Center of Shreveport, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

3. Resolution No. 184 of 2001: A resolution authorizing the execution of a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Burrell for Introduction of the Resolutions to lay over until the December 27, 2001 meeting. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

Councilman Shyne: Mr. Chairman, I might be out of order, but there is an emergency that just—I have one of my constituents who have to leave and. . . .

INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES:

1. Ordinance No. 193 of 2001: An ordinance to amend certain provisions of Section 62-79 of the Code of Ordinances relative to fees charged by the Department of Public Assembly and Recreation and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

2. Ordinance No. 194 of 2001: An ordinance to reverse the decision rendered by the Metropolitan Planning Commission during their public hearing meeting of November 7, 2001, by closing and abandoning the portion of Glen Iris Boulevard located north of Ontario Street in the Glen Iris Addition Subdivision, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

3. Ordinance No. 195 of 2001: An ordinance amending the 2001 Capital Improvements Budget and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Read by title and as read motion by Councilman Serio, seconded by Councilman Huckaby for Introduction of the Ordinances to lay over until the December 27, 2001 meeting. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilman Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

ORDINANCES ON SECOND READING AND FINAL PASSAGE:

1. Ordinance No. 183 of 2001: An ordinance authorizing the lease of city-owned property at 740 Stephenson Street to Enver Alidema and Drita Alidema and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Councilman Stewart: Mr. Carmody, I would appreciate a motion to postpone. My reasons for postponement request is I’ve not spoken to the Risk Manager about the contract, that is similar to the one existed before. I understand I’ll be ready at the end of this month. I would appreciate a postponement.

Having passed first reading on November 13, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby to postpone the ordinance until the December 27, 2001 meeting. Motion adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

2. Ordinance No. 184 of 2001: An ordinance authorizing the lease of a certain portion of the Fairgrounds property to Century Cellunet of North Louisiana Cellular Limited Partnership and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 13, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Serio for adoption.

Councilman Carmody: I want to verify, is this our flagpole for Independence Stadium that we are voting on? Well hey, we need to get this up. I would appreciate everybody voting for Old Glory to fly.

Ordinance adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

3. Ordinance No. 185 of 2001: An ordinance authorizing the execution of an agreement with Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., d/b/a Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Shreveport and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 13, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Carmody to postpone the ordinance until the December 27, 2001 meeting. Motion adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

4. Ordinance No. 187 of 2001: An ordinance amending the 2001 General Fund budget and otherwise providing with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 27, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Huckaby adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

5. Ordinance No. 188 of 2001: An ordinance to amending Chapter 106 of the Code of Ordinances, the City of Shreveport Zoning Ordinance, by rezoning property located on the west side of Irving Place, 125 feet north of Herndon Avenue, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana from SPI-1, Highland Urban Conservation District to SPI-1-E, Highland Urban Conservation/Extended Use District limited to "a restaurant" only, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 27, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Burrell, seconded by Councilman Carmody adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

6. Ordinance No. 189 of 2001: An ordinance to amending Chapter 106 of the Code of Ordinances, the City of Shreveport Zoning Ordinance, by rezoning property located on the south side of Valley View Drive, 500 feet west of Mansfield Road, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana from B-2, Neighborhood Business District to B-3, Community Business District, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Councilman Shyne: Just before I make the motion, Mr. Kirkland, I had one other question I’d like to ask you. Will that B-3 allow for a truck stop? Mr. Kirkland: Absolutely not, truck stops require I-1 or I-2.

Having passed first reading on November 27, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Shyne, seconded by Councilman Spigener adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

7. Ordinance No. 190 of 2001: An ordinance to amending Chapter 106 of the Code of Ordinances, the City of Shreveport Zoning Ordinance, by rezoning property located on the south side of W. 70^th Street, 600 feet east of Waterwood Drive, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana from R-A (SPI-2), Residence-Agriculture (Industrial Park Overlay) District to I-2 (SPI-2), Heavy Industry (Industrial Park Overlay) District, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 27, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Burrell, seconded by Councilman Spigener adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

8. Ordinance No. 191 of 2001: An ordinance ratifying the lease of city-owned property to Louisiana Unwired, LLC, and to otherwise provide with respect thereto.

Having passed first reading on November 27, 2001 was read by title and on motion ordered passed to third reading. Read the third time in full and as read motion by Councilman Carmody, seconded by Councilman Shyne to postpone the ordinance until the December 27, 2001 meeting. Motion adopted the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

The adopted Ordinances, as amended:

ORDINANCE NO. 184 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE LEASE OF A CERTAIN PORTION OF THE FAIRGROUNDS PROPERTY TO CENTURY CELLUNET OF NORTH LOUISIANA CELLULAR LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the City of Shreveport ("City") is the owner of certain property generally referred to as the Louisiana State Fairgrounds property; and

WHEREAS, City has received a request from Century Cellunet of North Louisiana Cellular Limited Partnership ("Lessee") to lease a 0.062 acre tract of land on the State Fairgrounds property for construction and maintenance of a 180' cellular flagpole tower, facility and building, and a servitude on property adjacent to the tower site for ingress, egress and utility service to the tower; and

WHEREAS, the compound around the tower would be fenced and landscaped in accordance with the City of Shreveport Zoning Ordinance and other applicable provisions of federal, state or local laws; and

WHEREAS, the lease provides for a primary term of five (5) years, with the option to renew for five (5) additional terms of five (5) years each; and

WHEREAS, payments to the City during the primary term of the lease shall be $20,000.00 annually paid in advance commencing upon the inception date of the lease. During the renewal term, the yearly lease payment for each of the five (5) renewal terms will consist of a percentage of the primary term payment; and

WHEREAS, the site of the proposed tower and related facilities and the location of the proposed servitude are more particularly described on Exhibits "A" and "B, attached hereto; and

WHEREAS, the property is not needed for public purpose; and

WHEREAS, the lease of this property is in accordance with the provisions of LSA-R.S. 33:4712.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED, by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, in due, legal and regular session convened, that the City of Shreveport is authorized to lease the city-owned property described herein in on Exhibit "A", and to grant a servitude on other city-owned property identified and described in the attached Exhibit "B" to Century Cellunet of North Louisiana Cellular Limited Partnership for a primary term of five (5) years with the option to renew for five (5) additional terms of five (5) years each.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that the Mayor is hereby authorized to execute all documents with Century Cellunet of North Louisiana Cellular Limited Partnership relative to this lease and the servitude granted herein, provided such documents are substantially in accord with the draft hereof filed for public inspection in the Office of the Clerk of Council on November 13, 2001.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that a certified copy of the lease authorized herein and all Exhibits attached thereto, or an extract thereof, shall be filed and recorded in the conveyance records of Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications and to this end, the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED, that all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ORDINANCE NO. 187 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE 2001 GENERAL FUND BUDGET AND OTHERWISE PROVIDING WITH RESPECT THERETO.

WHEREAS, the City Charter allows the amendment of any previously adopted budget; and

WHEREAS, the City Council finds it necessary to amend the 2001 General Fund budget, to adjust the budget for the Police Department and for other purposes.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, in legal session convened, that Ordinance No. 174 of 2000, the 2001 General Fund budget, is hereby amended as follows:

In Section 2 (Appropriations):

In Police, increase Materials and Supplies by $45,300 and Transfer to Police Grants by $13,900. Decrease Other Charges by $13,900 and Improvements and Equipment by $45,300.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that the remainder of Ordinance No. 174 of 2000 shall remain unchanged and in full force and effect.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items or applications; and, to this end, the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared to be severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ORDINANCE NO. 188 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 106 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, THE CITY OF SHREVEPORT ZONING ORDINANCE, BY REZONING PROPERTY LOCATED ON THE WEST SIDE OF IRVING PLACE, 125 FEET NORTH OF HERNDON AVENUE, SHREVEPORT, CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA, FROM SPI-1, HIGHLAND URBAN CONSERVATION DISTRICT TO SPI-1-E, HIGHLAND URBAN CONSERVATION/EXTENDED USE DISTRICT LIMITED TO "A RESTAURANT" ONLY, AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO

SECTION I: BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in due, legal and regular session convened, that the zoning classification of Lot 7 and the north 12.9 feet of Lot 10, Herndon Subdivision, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, property located on the west side of Irving Place, 125 feet north of Herndon Avenue, be and the same is hereby changed from SPI-1, Highland Urban Conservation District to SPI-1-E, Highland Urban Conservation/Extended Use District limited to "a restaurant" only.

SECTION II: THAT the rezoning of the property described herein is subject to compliance with the following stipulations:

1. Approval of the restaurant shall be limited to the ground floor only, with offices, storage, and private residential use approved for the second floor.

2. Any exterior lighting shall be of a design which is compatible with the architectural style of the building, with a maximum height limit of 15'.

3. Signage is limited to the size and height of sign currently located on the site.

4. Hours of operation shall be limited to 5 p.m. til 11 p.m.

5. Vertical improvements shall remain substantially as they currently appear.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ORDINANCE NO. 189 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 106 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, THE CITY OF SHREVEPORT ZONING ORDINANCE, BY REZONING PROPERTY LOCATED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF VALLEY VIEW DRIVE, 500 FEET WEST OF MANSFIELD ROAD, SHREVEPORT, CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA, FROM B-2, NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS DISTRICT TO B-3, COMMUNITY BUSINESS DISTRICT, AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO

SECTION I: BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in due, legal and regular session convened, that the zoning classification of property located on the south side of Valley View Drive, 500 feet west of Mansfield Road, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, legally described below, be and the same is hereby changed from B-2, Neighborhood Business District to B-3, Community Business District:

Commencing at the point where the E’ly line of Garden Valley Subdivision, Unit #1 intersects the south line of the NE/4 of Section 27, T17N, R14W, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, run thence N’ly along the east line of Garden Valley Subdivision, Unit #1 a distance of 351.97 feet to the south line of Valley View Drive;

Run thence E’ly along the south line of Valley View Drive a distance of 40 feet to the POB of the tract herein described;

Continue thence E’ly along the south line of Valley View Drive a distance of 190.67 feet;

Run thence in a S’ly direction perpendicular to Valley View Drive a distance of 293.1 feet to a point on the south line of the NE/4 of said Section 27;

Run thence west along the south line of the NE/4 of said Section 27 a distance of 196.76 feet;

Run thence north and on a line perpendicular to Valley View Drive a distance of 341.76 feet to the POB, containing 1.38 acres, M/L.

SECTION II: THAT the rezoning of the property described herein is subject to compliance with the following stipulation:

1. Development of the property shall be in substantial accord with the site plan submitted with any significant changes or additions requiring further review and approval by the Planning Commission.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ORDINANCE NO. 190 OF 2001

AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 106 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES, THE CITY OF SHREVEPORT ZONING ORDINANCE, BY REZONING PROPERTY LOCATED ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF W. 70TH STREET, 600 FEET EAST OF WATERWOOD DRIVE, SHREVEPORT, CADDO PARISH, LOUISIANA, FROM R-A (SPI-2), RESIDENCE-AGRICULTURE (INDUSTRIAL PARK OVERLAY) DISTRICT TO I-2 (SPI-2), HEAVY INDUSTRY (INDUSTRIAL PARK OVERLAY) DISTRICT, AND TO OTHERWISE PROVIDE WITH RESPECT THERETO

SECTION I: BE IT ORDAINED by the City Council of the City of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, in due, legal and regular session convened, that the zoning classification of 91.05 acres, M/L, W/2 of Section 29-17-15, per Assessors plat, less the R/W. And, 7 acres, east 603.8 feet of that part of the west 1750.88 feet of the north 55 chains of Section 29, T17N, R15W, lying south of Greenwood Road, less the north 2974.2 feet thereof, behind the RR track. And, 40.37 acres M/L in Section 29, T17N, R15W, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, be and the same is hereby changed from R-A(SPI-2), Residence-Agriculture (Industrial Park Overlay) District to I-2(SPI-2), Heavy Industry (Industrial Park Overlay) District.

SECTION II: THAT the rezoning of the property described herein is subject to compliance with the following stipulation:

1. Development of the property shall be in substantial accord with a revised site plan showing landscaping to ordinance standards along the W. 70th street frontage, and a continuous berm with fencing and trees on both sides of the fence along the west property line. Said plan to be submitted to and approved by the Planning Director, with any significant changes or additions requiring further review and approval by the Planning Commission.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that if any provision or item of this ordinance or the application thereof is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions, items, or applications of this ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, items, or applications and to this end the provisions of this ordinance are hereby declared severable.

BE IT FURTHER ORDAINED that all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Discussion and/or Action Relative to the Public Safety Committee (remained tabled).

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Alcohol Retail Permit: Mr. Shah Mir (Employer: G/Burrell - 2506 Lakeshore Dr.) (Postponed until Dec. 20)

Ms. Lee: I think that is postponed until our next Conference.

Councilman Burrell: I think it was suppose to be postponed until today. No, that was on the other issue. I don’t remember postponing it until the next time.

Mr. Thompson: I don’t remember on Mr. Shah Mir. Ms. Lee: He had the extensive record, yesterday. You said that you were going to check into it.

Councilman Burrell: Right on the NPs that was on (null process). Okay, I’ll leave it at that. But clarification, Mr. Chairman, I thought that this had to do with beer sale, but they already have the right to sell beer, they are looking for alcohol.

Councilman Stewart: What are your wishes? Councilman Burrell: Under those circumstances, I was under the impression that it was beer sales, but if we are going for alcohol then I can vote on it, I mean I can make my recommendation today (Councilman Carmody: Second).

Councilman Huckaby: I was going to piggyback on what Mr. Burrell said, there is a liquor store across the street from where he is trying to put another liquor store. And, we don’t need that, that is right on the brink of my district and too, I have students who live around there; so, I can vote today also.

Mr. Thompson: Mr. Burrell might want to ask the Police Department to clarify specifically what this request is for.

Mr. Collins: Mr. Shah Mir is purchasing a business or taking over for the owner of the business. I am requesting an entire new alcohol license for high and low content, so his sale is, acquiring the business is based on whether he gets this license or not.

Councilman Burrell: So, it is not a matter of whether or not he can sell beer and not alcohol. I thought the alcohol, when I say "alcohol", hard alcohol ( if I can use the term) is a separate type of allowance than just beer? Mr. Collins: It is with a physical separation on it, but in this case, he is going from the beginning to open up his own business and I want to clarify it is high alcohol content. He is only requesting beer, to open up the business with beer.

Councilman Spigener: There have been beer sales at this location? Mr. Collins: Yes, he is looking to take over this location.

Councilman Spigener: And he has to get his own license.

Councilman Huckaby: With a record like he has, I would be somewhat leery. I would have to oppose it, if we vote today.

Councilman Burrell: Well, I can appreciate that, but I am going to go ahead and leave it postponed because I do have to—I would like to discuss the matter. Because given the fact that it was high alcohol content, I have a different view on that than I do beer. The fact that we have the NPs on there, the number of NPs that we have on there, I do have a question, I do need to talk to you about because, I am really concerned about why are we having so many NPs on situations like that because that to me reflects upon the City. It doesn’t reflect so much on the citizens and if it does, then I need to understand why. Mr. Collins: In response to your question yesterday about the NPs. I requested all of the reports. Those are all Bossier City reports, so it is going to take me a little bit to get those reports, I’ve requested them and also to get the court transcripts to see exactly why they were null processed.

Councilman Burrell: Oh, so they were not committed in, they were not tried in Shreveport? Mr. Collins: No. All four of those in question are all Bossier and that is on the brief sheet you had yesterday. The only one in Shreveport was actually a conviction.

Councilman Burrell: Postpone until we can get that added information.

Councilman Stewart: As it states, it is postponed until the 20^th. Mr. Thompson: No, it was postponed yesterday until the 20^th, the motion was to postpone it until 20^th unless you want to . . .

Councilman Serio: I’ve got one question. I’m curious about something. Yesterday it was obvious that this gentleman had a fine to the City of Shreveport that he had not paid. I know in a lot of cases when someone comes up here who has an outstanding warrant to the City of Shreveport, they would actually be arrested as they enter or leave the Chamber. At that time, were any actions taken against him for the money that he owes the City of Shreveport? Mr. Collins: There was not a warrant for his arrest, it was just a fine that had not been paid. I checked with the DA to see why there wasn’t a warrant, they had no idea why it wasn’t. His lawyer called me and informed me that he had paid it since then, but as of when he filled out the application, he still owed that money from 1996 that he failed to pay.

Councilman Shyne: Since this was postponed, what happened to the other case that was. . . .Mr. Thompson: Mr. Shyne, I can answer that.

Councilman Stewart: The other case, we’ve got item–are you speaking of Item 2 here? Mr. Thompson: Yes. On the regular agenda, you have Item 2 but we have two people doing the electronic agenda, one person; another person doing the paper agenda and it did not get put on the electronic agenda but it is on the official paper agenda. It is ABO Card appeal for Ms. Oliver, so it is second item to be considered.

Councilman Shyne: I didn’t know why.

Councilman Stewart: Now, you know why I use the paper one, huh.

Councilman Shyne: Right.

2. ABO Card Appeal: Nacasha Oliver (Employer: Rite-Aid 1850 N. Market / Residence: 3300 blk Darien Street) (Postponed until Dec. 11)

Councilman Burrell: I want to address this issue. I think on yesterday I told the Council that I would follow it up, but better than that Councilwoman Huckaby followed it up because the business is in her district and I do appreciate it. And she did call me with the information to let me know that the young lady was not truthful at all and the store. Well, Mrs. Huckaby. . . .

Councilman Stewart: Mrs. Huckaby, you want to brief us, with your permission. Councilman Burrell: Yeah, because I don’t want to get it. . . .

Councilman Huckaby: Well the store manager said that, all that she told us was false. That the reason she gave her the letter is because the detective said that she had to have a letter from the store manager saying that she would give her a job back if she got an ABO card. And she never informed them of her felon, so we can. . . .

Councilman Carmody: Would it be appropriate for a motion to confirm the Police Department?

Motion by Councilman Huckaby, seconded by Councilman Burrell to deny (uphold the Police Department) the ABO card. Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

3. BAC-90-01, 6200 BERT KOUNS INDUSTRIAL LOOP: 6200 Bert Kouns Industrial Loop; Special Exception Use and Variance in hours of operation in a B-3 District; lounge operating until 2 a.m. (G/Burrell) (Letter acknowledged on Oct. 22 and Postponed on Nov. 27)

Councilman Burrell: I did call the people at Forest Mobile Home Park. I had asked them about a week ago to get back with me to address this issue, if there was any restrictions they wanted to place on it, any recommendations on what they could do to either live with this situation or oppose it overall and I have not heard anything back. I did make them aware of the fact that I was suppose to be meeting with the party here and I would like to have their opinion so that I can sit and negotiate with them or either just tell them "no", we just could not do it and I did not hear back. I did make a courtesy call today, just to follow up, because it was important to me that the people out in that area are represented and that we, where possible, we can work to actually accommodate business and residents, then that is what we want to do and I did not get a response unless they gave me one after I left a Council meeting. So, as far as I am concerned, it is not a threat to the Park based upon the information that I could get, so I am going to recommend to go ahead on and pass this.

Motion by Councilman Burrell, seconded by Councilman Serio to pass (approve) the application.

Councilman Carmody: For clarification, an affirmative vote would be to confirm the allowance of the rezoning for this use? Mr. Thompson: That is correct.

Motion approved by the following vote: Ayes: Councilmen Pearl Huckaby, Stewart, Carmody, Serio, Spigener, Shyne and Burrell. 7. Nays: None.

REPORTS FROM OFFICERS, BOARDS, AND COMMITTEES. None.

CLERK’S REPORT. None.

THE COMMITTEE RISES AND REPORT.

There was no Report from the Committee.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting adjourned at approximately 5:54 p.m.

/s/John David Stewart, Chairman

/s/Arthur G. Thompson, Clerk of Council