[0:00] Central Sports Park where we have a lot
of our youth as well as adults playing a
[0:04] lot of leagues and Sport leagues and
staying active and so you can see last
[0:08] year 1.7 million I was a 30 uh 3% I also
share this with my board to say that hey
[0:14] we're serving more people with the same
amount of people and often times the
[0:18] less amount of people than we had before
to show that we are trying to be as
[0:23] efficient as possible with taxpayer
dollars next slide uh goes into uh where
[0:28] we are through July sort of the same
report uh next slide gives a little more
[0:34] detail and we talk about the different
kind of facilities uh you can see in
[0:39] athletics this was for July uh o Villa
Olympia and you can see Central Sports
[0:46] Complex as part of the Athletics look at
our recreation centers you can see how
[0:50] many people visited Jackson that month
and so all of this is uh great
[0:56] activities in terms of the facilities
that we have next
[1:01] slide summer camp that's our you know
most popular program certainly here in
[1:06] central all the spots fill up pretty
quickly at love it and Jackson we had a
[1:11] great year this past summer um I don't
think we did it this summer but previous
[1:16] Summers we work with the central school
system and the offord camps um um after
[1:21] the school system half a day you learn
and then half the day you play and so we
[1:25] were uh great to have that participation
with Jason Fountain next
[1:30] slide oh yeah see I was I wasn't
responsible for putting this
[1:35] presentation together somebody slid that
picture in on me but uh uh we talk about
[1:42] all the great facilities we have This Is
Us in 2022
[1:46] celebrating uh Central Sports Park we we
had just finished turfing the last of
[1:52] the Seven Fields out there and had a
great celebration it's the first Park
[1:57] system we've had that we we've turfed
all the field
[2:00] uh we have shade sales and stuff like
that and I had to put that quote down
[2:05] there from my good buddy uh former C bod
white uh talking about working with us
[2:12] and and and how we've been doing a great
job and so um next
[2:18] slide some of the great projects that
we're working on all across the parish
[2:22] starting with the zoo um Jim and his
team have been locked up in trailers for
[2:28] the past three years dealing with
construction and so we're excited to be
[2:33] uh announcing the the first phase of
that completion celebrating that on
[2:37] October the 5th the Central Community
was a big part of um the folks who came
[2:42] down to our board meeting and demanded
that that the zoo stay at its current
[2:45] location and so um city of central still
has higher representation certainly the
[2:51] top four or five areas that that visit
the zoo and so uh that is an asset that
[2:56] I'm sure the citizens here will continue
to enjoy
[3:00] um improvements at H Park uh frown
conservation area is area uh probably
[3:07] our night's biggest Conservation area
where the co meat meets the a meat I
[3:11] believe over 700 Acres of Conservation
Area we just finished the Nature Center
[3:16] out there the safe rooms at Memorial and
Airline is a great partnership with City
[3:20] Parish Office of Homeland Security where
some FEMA dollars are paying for these
[3:26] two safe rooms at at Memorial and
Airline none of your property tax or or
[3:31] Park and Recreation dollars these are2
15 million buildings that will serve as
[3:37] emergency operation centers at times of
disasters where police and Personnel
[3:42] come it's not a shelter but 99% of the
time it's going to be a state of art
[3:46] recreation center and so we we're glad
to be able to offer that and and work
[3:50] with City Parish uh FEMA's going to pay
75% in office of Community Development
[3:56] is is providing our match so again two
great facilities arand highway is
[4:01] turning into a community park uh we're
doing more green infrastructure at Green
[4:06] uh Greenwood uh the Lakes project is is
a big project where uh LSU is one of the
[4:12] few universities that has a lake system
on its campus and so that's a big
[4:17] attraction uh for students and athletes
and then we're always working on our
[4:21] trails and connectivity we're doing some
of that uh even here in the city of
[4:26] central as we look to make safer places
next next
[4:30] L and so we just finished a threeyear
study Trust for Public land where we
[4:35] basically talked about the economic
benefits of bre we started this back in
[4:40] 2021 knowing that it was going to be an
important year for us this year to be
[4:44] able to share that information and so we
work with this National outfit that does
[4:48] a lot of this for a lot of different
Parks the next slide kind of gives you a
[4:53] snapshot of what they ultimately
concluded in terms of the economic
[4:57] benefits we provide not just Recreation
benefits in terms of being able to go
[5:02] play on the playground but other
benefits such as savings and health care
[5:05] costs you know the fact that we have
parts and people are exercising that
[5:09] saves in our health care cost um storm
water management some of our a lot of
[5:15] our Parks hold water maintain storm
water that benefits us that that's money
[5:20] we don't have to pay in order to
maintain uh the increase in property
[5:24] values uh well-maintained Parks help
increase property values tourism um as
[5:30] you guys know a lot of people come in
town to play at central Sports Park and
[5:34] we have to stay the weekend that's
that's additional dollars that our Park
[5:38] system is is benefiting us with and so
all in all over $300 million of benefits
[5:44] on an annual basis uh off of the 7580
million public tax money that we
[5:50] received next
slide there's a there's that in a better
[5:56] description U next slide
and so imagine your parts one back in
[6:02] 2004 before I came to bad news you guys
would know better than I do we were a
[6:07] system of neighborhood parks and we were
kind of at the at the at the end of our
[6:12] our our our our sort of last uh deal
because we hadn't done anything in terms
[6:17] of raising taxes since 1966 and so fast
forward to 2004 Park system is hanging
[6:24] on by a thread and the community um uh
decided to pass the imag Parks tax an
[6:30] additional 3253 millage um that brought
us from 11 Mill to to 14.4 Mill and so
[6:38] what that brought us is the 12 new
community Parks uh Jackson and Zachary
[6:43] and Greenwood and Liberty Lagoon and
brought out splash pads and dog parks a
[6:49] lot of things that introduced to the
community uh conservation areas we
[6:53] improved every neighborhood park as a
result of that including the realm of
[6:57] the tiger at the zoo the next slide
talks about imagine your Parks
[7:02] 2 well this is some before and after
from Imagine your Parks one uh Jackson
[7:08] Community Park you can see believe
that's love it down there at the bottom
[7:12] and improvements that we've made at love
it next slide talks about imagine your
[7:18] Parks two now we're talking 2014 to
2024 our normal sort of every year that
[7:25] ends in four or 10 year tax and so
imagine your pars
[7:30] did a lot of Renovations we added air
condition to a lot of facilities
[7:33] including love uh we were able to
reimagine the zoo and do a lot of the
[7:38] Lakes programs and stuff like that and
so look as a result of of U putting
[7:44] those plans together driven by Community
input um ultimately uh the support of
[7:51] the community and in passing those taxes
and then ultimately us implementing what
[7:56] the community provided Us in the plan um
if my timing is right on here the next
[8:02] slide will show you what that results in
uh which is us being recognized as the
[8:08] best park system in the country in 2022
and so look that's that's the blueprint
[8:13] that we're just trying to follow again
and we're talk about imagin your Parks
[8:16] three get the input from the community
um show what you've done on the previous
[8:22] TX in terms of keep promises talk about
what you plan to do with the next
[8:27] hopefully the tax passes and then you
implement the plan so we can be
[8:31] recognized again as we were in 2002 uh
Phoenix Arizona Convention Center about
[8:39] 5,000 Park and Recreation professionals
and so that does bring us to imagin your
[8:43] Parks 3 which is the next slide talks
about uh our plans and our focus and our
[8:49] challenges we we do take on our
challenges head on when we talk about
[8:53] how do we move forward sustainably
that's my board is challenging us that
[8:58] that he every time you bring me the
capital project you have to let me bring
[9:02] a maintenance budget along with that
because as you
[9:05] know the a new capital project doesn't
come with new maintenance dollars those
[9:11] maintenance dollars have to be shifted
from your current maintenance budget and
[9:15] so we have to be efficient we have to
look at taking some things offline so we
[9:19] can take care of the new and improved
stuff uh that's going to be a challenge
[9:23] uh another focus is equity making sure
everybody has access to a great par we
[9:28] can't talk about benefits that Park
provide and then not try that provide
[9:33] that to to every area uh and so that's
going to be a big focus of ours making
[9:38] sure we're focus on some areas that
maybe we haven't historically focused on
[9:42] uh such as kobby Park you know Council
woman Wells along with mayor Evans said
[9:47] we hadn't done anything there in a while
and we went back and looked and we
[9:51] hadn't done anything in a while so we'll
be doing that all across the parage
[9:54] where we haven't made Investments
historically and making sure uh try and
[10:00] correct those past wrongs uh the next
slide goes a little more in depth about
[10:05] the community engagement involved uh
Katrina Joy our community team helped
[10:12] with a lot with this in terms of
knocking on doors making sure people
[10:15] taking surveys uh more than anything we
wanted everyone to have some input on
[10:20] this 10-year plan next
slide and so when we talked we talked
[10:26] about the focus on equity and we people
equity mean because obviously it means a
[10:31] lot of different things for a lot of
different people but you can see some of
[10:34] the information we got back just um you
know some of the Ada stuff making sure
[10:39] that everybody is able to to to play and
enjoy a playground uh recognizing the
[10:44] historical importance uh all of our
Parks have some kind of cultural history
[10:50] making it affordable um accessible hours
all of those things came up when we
[10:55] talked about Equity next slide kind of
talks about of themes that came out of
[11:01] uh the 10year plan increase connectivity
making sure you take heat into
[11:05] consideration when you're building stuff
uh improving the quality of of what we
[11:10] have um making sure conservation
education remains a big thing and
[11:15] keeping up with national Trends next
slide and so here are the five guiding
[11:21] principles uh welcoming everyone where
we talk about Equitable quality
[11:26] connecting people that's that's some of
the programming and Partnerships and
[11:30] making sure people are connected
connected places now we're talking about
[11:34] connectivity in terms of trails and safe
routs uh moving forward sustainably we
[11:39] talked about that a little bit uh
sustainable operations and then the
[11:44] connected environment piece making sure
we keep that a priority next
[11:49] slide we talked about how the needs vary
depending on where you stay at in Baton
[11:54] Rouge we know East bat Rouge Parish
we're parishwide agency but we do
[11:59] understand that different areas have
different needs uh downtown has
[12:02] different needs than Urban has different
needs than suburban and different needs
[12:06] than rural so we we wanted to take that
into account As We Lay the plan out next
[12:12] slide and this is where we looked at the
equity priority map we looked at a lot
[12:18] of these uh where the youth live adults
live uh but we also looked at low income
[12:24] lack of high school diplomas uh obesity
and and and risk of Cl you know a lot of
[12:30] areas don't have as many trees and so
they aren't uh reaping the benefits and
[12:35] then we looked at some of our previous
Investments uh the acreage per capita
[12:41] and this ultimately sort of highlighted
those areas that that had the most needs
[12:46] as you can see a lot of it is in the
inner city Baton Rouge uh Central
[12:50] probably is a lighter area because you
have less of these things when we talk
[12:55] about lowincome and folks who don't have
uh cars and uh some of the things that
[13:01] that happened and so that's how this map
was uh developed also looked at
[13:05] investment over the last 10 years where
we've been investing dollars which I
[13:10] also Imagine uh probably played a part
in having Central a little lower than
[13:14] some of the other areas next
slide and so here's the conundrum that
[13:20] we face um when we talk about the
average Park system similar to brecks in
[13:26] terms of size and population
um this is a eye openening slide which
[13:32] says that we have 38 more recreation
centers than the average Park system our
[13:37] size we have more than 111 basketball
courts more than the average Park system
[13:44] our size and so forth and so on you see
some of the communities that we we
[13:49] compared to um in terms of our peers but
but this is this this is a big challenge
[13:55] for us yes it provides a lot of
amenities for a lot of people
[13:59] but as Dr Lawson in charge of our park
operations can tell you it's a strain on
[14:04] our resources next slide talks a little
bit more about the biggest strain that
[14:10] we have 56 recreation centers uh in our
in our Parish that's more per capita
[14:17] than than pretty much anyone in the
country except
[14:20] Minneapolis I like to always go down
right to those bottom two numbers where
[14:24] we see 24 of them between 30 and 50
years old have three of them that that
[14:30] are older than me 50 years old and so
that that becomes a challenge when you
[14:37] talk about 56 of them um over 20 of them
without air condition over 27 of them
[14:45] older than 30 years old we did ask the
community and our surveys our public
[14:50] meetings and you can see from the
scientific survey a high percentage of
[14:55] residents 72% are supporter but fewer
but higher quality facilities again we
[15:02] believe our community deserves these
higher quality facilities we should not
[15:06] be fighting to to to renovate a 50 old
facility no let's get a brand new
[15:12] facility like the one that we're in now
but that also comes with we have to
[15:17] manage our priorities we can't have this
and keep the old one that grandma taught
[15:23] us how to play basketball and you know
and so those are going to be some
[15:27] challenging conversations when we talk
about that 72% right because we know how
[15:31] it goes yeah I'm in favor of of better
quality and less facilities we're just
[15:37] going to take mine my neighborhood and
so a lot of 2025 will be focused on
[15:42] those kind of conversations where we
talk to the community and say Hey you
[15:46] have three recreation centers all within
the mile which one do we want to
[15:50] renovate which one do we want to make an
outdoor which one do we you know and so
[15:54] those are tough conversations we'll be
having all throughout 2025
[15:59] uh as how those conversations will go
we'll talk about in the next
[16:03] slide it's our current model 56
recreation centers um next button will
[16:10] show where we're ultimately trying to go
in terms of a tier model and so if you
[16:15] hit the next slide it talks about tier
one recreation centers similar to how we
[16:21] did the community Parks right where
where we uh we focused on quality across
[16:26] the Paris and we're talking about larger
facil is wider range versus our tier two
[16:31] which may be smaller um and and may not
have a basketball court and may just
[16:36] have for for for Gatherings and and
meetings and those sort of things like
[16:40] that but also it's part of tier to these
outdoor hubs uh which we've seen all
[16:45] across the country that we want to be
able to bring uh to East bat mouge
[16:49] Parish next slide I believe we talk
about some challenges that we have with
[16:54] the 50 old Recreation Center one is to
small most of the time it's too hot uh
[17:01] and then it has to be staffed right you
can't open it unless you have somebody
[17:05] there all of those are big challenges we
have with some of our recreation centers
[17:10] the next slide talks about the benefits
of some of these outdoor hubs where it
[17:16] can be used all day you don't have to
have a staff person there it reduces um
[17:21] our maintenance cost and one that you
don't have to have a staff person there
[17:24] you don't have to have a agback system
there uh but you can build a outo
[17:29] facility state of theart outdoor
facility that's better than a 50y old
[17:34] recreation center and I know that's
going to be some of the conversations
[17:37] we're going to have I think we have some
examples in the next couple of slides of
[17:41] what we're kind of talking about here I
will say this one on the left I believe
[17:45] is in Iowa I think maybe that's a
different climate but the one on the
[17:49] right I believe is in Austin or San
Antonio so this is in similar climates
[17:54] that we have here in south Louisiana
next slide kind of shows cou other
[17:59] examples pickle ball courts and cover
playgrounds are some of the things we're
[18:04] going to have to move to when we talk
about reducing our maintenance cost uh
[18:08] so that we can be more sustainable over
the long course of the of the time next
[18:14] slide just a couple more
examples next
[18:19] slide just a quick reminder about the
environmental benefits um just talking
[18:25] about where we have trees and the
benefits of that environment that we
[18:29] terms of cleaning the air and absorbing
water and all of the wonderful benefits
[18:35] that uh Park and Recreation provide next
slide and so this is an informative
[18:42] slide uh very educational slide when we
talk about how bre is funded and so I
[18:48] know often times we talk about the
number of times I see bre on my property
[18:53] tax bill and a lot of that has to be
over the course of years we've added
[18:58] progressively you see we're at 14.4 now
but when we were created in 1946 the
[19:03] legislation said we can Levy up to 18
we've never took that position you know
[19:08] we started out with 1 m in 54 quickly
found out that wasn't enough and went to
[19:13] 1966 and added a couple more and it
wasn't until 2004 when we added that
[19:19] last 20y year millage and so that brings
in about 7880 million a year and then we
[19:25] have another 12 or so self-generated and
then between grants uh some some
[19:32] donations and those sort of things make
up the other 10% so roughly uh just
[19:38] round numbers1 million um in revenues
that that obviously we we have to limit
[19:43] ourselves to $100 million in expenses
the next slide talks about why that's
[19:49] important when we talk about November
5th and so we have that 20 year millage
[19:53] is up for Renewal along with our normal
10year millage that's up for renal as
[19:59] well over
65% uh over 50 million of that $80
[20:04] million in uh property tax revenue we
receive is up um big part you know
[20:11] there's not an increase we're just
talking about renewing two mes that we
[20:15] currently have in place um and I don't
have to tell you guys who who look at
[20:19] budgets all the time uh what the impact
would be if if we lost 65% of our budget
[20:26] and so that those are some important
things to to mention and just a couple
[20:30] more slides and I'll open it up to
questions uh October 5th Greenwood
[20:36] Community Park we're celebrating uh the
first phase of not only the zoo um but
[20:42] the Bayou prominade which connects the
zoo to the Greenwood Waterfront and last
[20:47] but not least at the end of the day
we'll be celebrating brand new
[20:51] playground at greenw community park so
please if you're available come out and
[20:55] celebrate with us a lot of fun games
music activities on October
[21:02] 5th think one or two more mayor just
some events that uh are happening around
[21:12] town you guys missed the Liberty Lagoon
pool party that was this past Saturday
[21:20] uh Brew at the Zoo gim not let me get
out of here if I don't mention Brew at
[21:24] the Zoo this Friday uh tickets still
available crating 10 years of uh selling
[21:31] beer at the zoo just on that one day by
just on that one
[21:36] day next slide just gives you a way to
keep in touch with us sign up for our
[21:41] newsletter it's custom if you only want
to hear about pickle ball just check
[21:46] pickle ball and you only get updates on
pickle ball and then
[21:51] uh answer any questions you guys
me I apprciate
[21:59] we appreciate you or I appreciate you um
speak for I know um just the last 10
[22:06] years what you know have brought to the
Central Community um I I definitely see
[22:11] the impact growing up in this area and
you know a lot of times i' go play ball
[22:16] at plan par Shar area but really I feel
like a lot of things have been brought
[22:21] to central and so uh thank you for that
thank you for the playground par I just
[22:28] how you get the community involved in
those surveys and you create the
[22:34] Strategic plan around what the community
saying and then you have proof that you
[22:38] do that so up with the work I appreciate
y thank you I appreciate that any other
[22:43] questions comments
Council Cory I've always been a fan of
[22:48] bre and personal fan of the way you run
it um but you know we're often Under
[22:53] Pressure to try and separate from BR
that's been going on for a while and um
[22:59] when you guys rolled the village forward
you made it hard on us we're going to
[23:03] get a lot more pressure because of that
I really wish I would have done
[23:08] that it's going to make our job
harder no we certainly understand your
[23:13] concern um um and so so you know we're
we're not in charge of assessing
[23:20] property and so if your property value
increase that that's certainly not on us
[23:25] and we would expect as our property
value inre that we'll we'll pay a little
[23:30] more in taxes and so our decision to to
roll forward um um by our calculations
[23:38] was was a was a minimal increase per
household But ultimately um as I shared
[23:44] on that first slide we have a lot of
stuff to take care of and um we we are
[23:49] limited in the resources so and and in
one hand I have people telling me to
[23:54] defer revenue and on the other hand I
have people telling me we're doing a
[23:58] good job of taking care of stuff and so
that that's what makes it a challenge
[24:02] for us but we certainly understand
you're not alone in your position we had
[24:07] some board members who had concerns as
well but the board ultimately made that
[24:11] decision council member mckin right to
to back up the temp point I know that
[24:16] you don't you guys aren't in the
business of assessing properties but you
[24:20] are cognizant that properties do get
assessed and that that uh those values
[24:25] will go up so as you push that seem like
a like a double whammy to the homeowners
[24:31] um one one of the questions and I I
think we've had these conversations a
[24:35] while back too is there a way to see the
financials for bre for Revenue collected
[24:40] in central versus expenditures in
central over let's say the 10 year time
[24:45] period yeah and again we
uh we can pull that information again we
[24:51] we don't again we're parishwide so we're
we're trying to serve people within the
[24:57] parish
um um you know saying you know did we do
[25:03] this in central did we do this in Baker
did we do this in Zach we look at where
[25:06] people are located and make sure that
people have access and so uh you know
[25:12] and so so we can pull that information
again part of the the benefit of having
[25:17] a large Park system is we don't have
people dedicated to just Central ride we
[25:21] got people cutting grass in central as
well as outside of central as well so
[25:25] pulling that information uh is a
challenge but we do have people uh that
[25:30] work at Jackson Community Park that work
at lovey Community Park where we can get
[25:34] the details on that sort of information
and we certainly can work with the tax
[25:39] assessor to to determine um the amount
that we receive from Central yeah that
[25:45] information is available that would be
that would be definitely something to
[25:48] look at I'd love if you could share it
with us yes we'll do that and we we're
[25:52] we're taking notes I know part of uh Joy
is is making sure we follow up and we we
[25:57] respond uh to the entire council with
that response thank you council member
[26:04] L thanks for coming out I appreciate the
presentation um if I heard you right you
[26:10] have about $100 million budget right
that's that's that's pretty healthy uh
[26:16] you all do a lot um like you said
fairish wide um I think you're you know
[26:22] I think you do a fair job leading the
group um leading the
[26:26] organization not I feel confident that
there are some accountabilities in
[26:31] place um I think you're compensated very
handsomely for what you do um on par
[26:38] with I think the the mayor Parish
president uh who has who has a$1 billion
[26:43] doll budget and I guess I would I would
just say that um if as I look at the
[26:49] Audits and the financials that were just
posted in August of 24 for the year
[26:55] fiscal year
21 I've got concerns that you can make
[26:59] or your board can make educated
decisions on how much revenue you need
[27:03] or don't need to take care of your parts
because because your fiscal your your
[27:09] your your audit is three years old that
you're that you just you know published
[27:13] so um I'm not sure what I was taking
into consideration as as you rolled
[27:18] forward um it feels like it's a group
that says we can get more let's get more
[27:25] and um that's concerned
yeah no I appreciate your concerns and
[27:31] comments again on on the on the rad
forward piece uh the 14.4 63 was was was
[27:39] voted on by the voters in in 2004 2014
and
[27:44] 2016 they they they voted on 14.4 63 and
so that's part of that and and again
[27:51] look my board um has has made it a point
to me in terms of uh uh disciplinary
[27:59] actions as as it results as it involves
uh the timely filing of our audits our
[28:05] 21 audit was due in in June of 2022 and
so it was completed in June of 24 so it
[28:12] is it is two years old um part of that
was within our control in terms of not
[28:18] having things ready when the Auditors uh
some of it was out of our control we had
[28:22] an untimely death of a CFO who was in
charge of that process um there's been a
[28:28] the lack of professional accountants
that's been talked about nationally
[28:32] everywhere um and so there were some
things out of our control we you know
[28:36] sometimes we got we have stuff ready and
the Auditors can't look at it for
[28:40] another two or three months because they
have so look we understand the concern
[28:44] we know that that audit is one piece a
big piece of the trust um that that that
[28:51] the community has for us but there are a
lot of things we have in place to to
[28:56] ensure that we are collecting
propably accounting for the way we spend
[29:01] dollars our internal audit division is
is looking at uh PE card use and anytime
[29:08] you see a
misappropriation uh of funds it's
[29:12] because we found that ourselves our
Auditors have never found any
[29:15] mismanagement poor management um um we
have findings just like most audits have
[29:21] findings we're rectifying those findings
but um you know post the way in N Aville
[29:28] AER biggest accounting firm in in
Louisiana has been doing our artists for
[29:33] the last 10 years if there was cause a
concern to to raise a rave flag I don't
[29:39] think they would jeopardize their
credibility to try and protect Bret for
[29:43] anything and so if there were you know
things that needed to be brought to the
[29:47] legislative Auditor's attention um I
don't think Posta nville isma Amper
[29:53] would would would skirt their
responsibilities to do that and so look
[29:57] again we we know that's the trust that's
all we have is the community's trust and
[30:02] we know that that audit is a big piece
of that trust but but so is a lot of
[30:07] other things that we do in terms of
delivering on the Promises saying we're
[30:11] going to fix a playground fixing that
playground um trying to pick up trash
[30:16] and clean restrooms and cut grass all
all of that is part of the trust uh
[30:21] relationship that we develop with the
public and so we're working on cleaning
[30:25] all of that up including getting our a
time finally but I appreciate your
[30:29] concern not every conversation is easy I
appreciate you coming to the table and
[30:33] speaking secet thank you for having any
other questions
[30:41] comments superintendent Wilson thank you
for coming uh I want to preface my
[30:46] comments by saying I did in fact reach
out to the superintendent and offer him
[30:51] an opportunity to come to my office and
let's discuss this but he had to leave
[30:56] you out of town could
meeting
[31:00] um I I mean we could sit here and say oh
it's great you're doing a great job but
[31:05] look the fact is you're not the parks in
central are suffering because of that um
[31:11] we've had an issue with sports
park and it's got
[31:17] Central Sports Park Breck on the theme
and yall least the sports park for a
[31:23] week long
tournament without bathrooms because
[31:26] they were under construction whatever
reason and nowhere in the planning of
[31:32] operation with a th000 employees and
a100 million budget did anybody say hey
[31:37] we probably should get some bathroom
trailers or something out there and I
[31:41] get a text from the mayor of Addis who
said brother your Park is terrible over
[31:46] here people are complaining about the
city of
[31:48] Cent and and that tournament organizer
played until Tuesday and they said to
[31:53] hell it they left they went to
Livingston took their tournament to the
[31:57] town of living
we lost that multiple thousands of
[32:00] people that were going to be in the city
of Cent spending their money because of
[32:04] poor poor manag
brother do we have a solution for the
[32:09] rodeo what are we doing for bleachers do
we
[32:14] know my issue with this is I've asked
for information I asked months ago for a
[32:20] breakdown of the money that is spent in
simple I I can figure out what's
[32:24] generated in simple based on the millage
and the value of in
[32:28] central but I I don't get the
cooperation that I would expect for the
[32:37] kind of operation that we're running
I've got multiple flood projects we're
[32:41] working on and you have a park that
serves absolutely no purpose on h a road
[32:46] except for trees it has a major
conveyance on running across it and I
[32:52] need some of that part to save $22
million of central taxpayer money to be
[32:58] able to move a detention project from
north of Cooper to south of Cooper but
[33:03] the cooperation I get for bre is we have
to keep our
[33:07] Tru I just I don't see it brother I'm
sorry and I'm not going to support going
[33:13] forward I'm going to I'm going to fight
for Central it's my obligation I'm sorry
[33:17] to the bre employees that live in
central but as your mayor I owe it to
[33:21] you to do what's right for this
community uh I appreciate Reed I
[33:26] appreciate your whole team
but we have issues out here that are not
[33:32] being addressed I went around I went to
BR wood those are tennis
[33:37] courts uh there's no
bathroom out there there's no I don't
[33:42] know what the building this far I don't
really don't I don't know what's
[33:46] happening it has a air conditioner got
Vines growing all over the side of the
[33:50] building um we I know Brett generates
from simp close to $3 million a year and
[33:58] I don't see an equitable return over
time and and you if you want to show me
[34:04] show me the the money bre put in not
from State funds what has bre invested
[34:09] in central not from state capital Outlet
not from FEMA not from money you got
[34:15] because of a disaster or something else
the money you took from us show me where
[34:19] you spent that money in in central I
think I think we we deserve to know that
[34:25] uh I mean it it feels good you know to
say we got great Parks but if you go
[34:31] around to every park in Central the the
tables at Indian Mound the paint's
[34:36] flaking off of them one of the seats is
broken at the table I mean help I don't
[34:41] know where $100 million go but to not be
able to properly maintain these parts we
[34:47] have a city of 62.8 s miles almost 200
Mi of Roads thousands of of feet or
[34:55] hundreds of miles of offroad ditches
that we we maintain this whole city for
[35:00] a contract of 65 million a year we spent
about another 4 million cutting grass
[35:05] and doing all the things that we do
fixing cul Crossings enhancing the
[35:09] quality of life of our citizens and it
allows us to to take an additional 15 to
[35:14] 20 million a year to do capital projects
which is I'm not comparing me to you but
[35:19] I'm telling you with that 3 million and
those few properties in central I know
[35:23] we can do a better job that's why I I
wanted to work with with you to do a CA
[35:30] and say here you take that money because
you have Legacy cost I get it you have a
[35:34] lot of
administration but I can do better with
[35:39] a million and a half of the money you're
taking and you can take that other
[35:44] million and a half and pump into your
bureaucracy and let me invest that in
[35:48] our
Parks I can get the grass cut I already
[35:51] got bids for 320,000 a
year that's for every park in Central
[35:57] every property I mean the Frenchtown
conservation part we talk about it's a
[36:02] great part I ain't been out there I
ain't took a tour I go out there every
[36:06] now and again I went out there not long
ago the gate was open rode back
[36:10] there and and this is the same thing for
the rodo you spend a bunch of money you
[36:15] say getting ready for the rodeo I
intentionally went out there the week
[36:19] leading up to the rodeo every day and
around 2:00 I would go by there and
[36:24] everybody that was working out there was
under the C
[36:28] sitting on the picnic
tables when I went to the first town
[36:32] Conservation Area the weed eaters were
on the back of the truck and everybody
[36:36] was sitting under the
building you've got an accountability
[36:40] problem man and you have no control over
the staff and they're fleecing the
[36:44] taxpayers by not doing the job that
needs to be done in an efficient man now
[36:50] that's just my take and I wanted to deal
with this with you in me and you public
[36:58] for
so yeah yeah you you didn't share
[37:03] anything that you ever shared with me
privately mayor and so I I don't I don't
[37:07] mind you speaking candidly mayor I I
will have to speak up on behalf of of of
[37:12] the Thousand employees that work for
Breen and the Investments that we've
[37:16] made in the city of central whether it's
Jackson Community Park whether it's
[37:19] Central Sports Park whether it's loveed
in the dog park whether it's kobby Park
[37:25] um you know we we feel confident that
that that per capita we've invested in
[37:30] central more than any other area in the
parish quite frankly and and if you need
[37:34] to see the numbers on that we can show
you but look our challenges are no
[37:39] different than your challenges right you
want to make sure um Everybody in the
[37:44] city of central is taken care of um and
and and you we know that everybody
[37:49] doesn't contribute the same amount and
so there are some areas that contribute
[37:54] more there are some areas that
contribute less but every body deserves
[37:58] a nice Road everybody deserves a nice
school and so we we don't necessarily
[38:02] look at who contributes what because if
we looked at that then we're saying that
[38:08] those who don't contribute anything
don't deserve anything and I and I just
[38:12] I just as a government agency you know I
think our role is to to be there for
[38:18] those that need it and and part of those
um who have who have not been able to
[38:24] put in as much as others have been able
to put in uh quite frankly because they
[38:29] weren't allowed to put in at some point
and so we're not going to hold that
[38:33] against folks because they don't put in
as much as the city of central we know
[38:38] that there are areas in town that that
need great parks and so again it's not
[38:43] we don't look at who put in and make
sure that they get the same amount
[38:47] because we
have words I'm just telling you I'm I'm
[38:52] just telling you our perspective man so
that is our perspective and we can get
[38:56] you that information and it may show
that one year we spent $10 million in
[39:01] central it may show one year we spent $1
million in Central and so that is the
[39:05] information and look we're we're fully
transparent you can go look on our
[39:09] website right now all of our audits are
listed all of our monthly financials are
[39:14] listed uh all of our budgets are listed
we're not trying to hide any information
[39:19] and look we we work with anyone in terms
of proposals uh we have a proposal with
[39:24] the Central Area Youth League they they
use the par operate a league that's
[39:29] money we don't have to pay spend on
operating a league they operate that
[39:33] League we take care of the parks and so
we're open to proposals if it makes
[39:37] sense if it serves the citizens of of
central better than we're serving them
[39:42] now uh not only do we have to look at
that we're obligated to to take that
[39:47] into considerations when we're talking
about um dealing with other people's
[39:51] money so so you know if and until we get
a proposal to do things better we we
[39:57] keep working as hard as we can to serve
the folks here in central as best we can
[40:02] and again we appreciate the opportunity
to share information tonight do we have
[40:06] a solution
[40:10] for in May and so and so that
Rodeo um again it's for a private
[40:17] nonprofit
organization uh it's it's it's we we
[40:21] take care of shady like we take care of
any other Park we cut the grass we clean
[40:25] the trash now somebody wants to hold a
special event there like a rodeo uh then
[40:31] that that organization needs to to to
contribute more that that organization
[40:36] needs to get Partnerships uh but but if
we try to fund every private nonprofit
[40:43] organization that's not sustainable and
so we've done that we we've we've
[40:50] spent dollars hosting that event we we
don't get any return in investment we we
[40:56] don't get any dollars from the number of
people come in to help us take care of
[41:01] the facility uh but yeah we're open to
working with that organization as well
[41:06] as the city uh to get whatever it needs
to get in order to have a successful
[41:12] rodo thank you any other questions or
comments
[41:16] Council thank
[41:20] you okay next item three report from
Central Police Department concerning law
[41:26] enforcement within the city of
[41:41] ESS
make uh good evening counsel uh clight
[41:47] the assistant chief on behalf of police
department I have some very extremely
[41:52] brief presentation uh or an address for
you all as soon as I give the STA for
[41:57] August uh August 2024 stats uh your
central police department responded to
[42:03] nine to six 911 hangup calls 19 aand
installed vehicle with traffic ingestion
[42:10] complaints one alarm performed 154
business checks and neighborhood
[42:16] controls 11 damage to properties five
disturbances two D eyes uh followed up
[42:23] on 14 prior calls responded to four h r
four calls regarding improper vehicle
[42:30] operation uh one missing uh at or found
at all or juvenile one narcotics
[42:37] investigation six overdoses 70 public
assists including welfare checks and
[42:43] assisting other uh law enforcement
agencies one report of a shots fired 13
[42:48] suspicious incidents vehicles or persons
reports one theft 56 vehicle crashes and
[42:55] 10 uh parking lot crashes responded to a
total of 225 calls which exclude traffic
[43:01] stops and business checks and
neighborhood
[43:04] controls off of 240 stops we rode 155
tickets uh our reserves donated 38
[43:12] hours uh of service for the month of
August uh as everybody's both aware and
[43:18] if you uh have a chance to glance your
Channel 9 Channel 2 news app theirs
[43:24] about uh Rangers onway
uh this even um coming here tonight I
[43:31] thought I would look back uh everybody
is very familiar with the the two
[43:36] fatalities we've had the last 30 days
but in addition to that 30-day 30-day
[43:41] look back from September 23rd Road
crashes Aline we've had 62 from those 62
[43:48] crashes we sent six people to the
hospital by ambulance off of those
[43:53] crashes four DWI arrests were made one
was a third making it a felony one
[43:59] arrested off of one of those crashes was
previously arrested by Central Police
[44:04] Department in July for
DWI we have a problem in
[44:08] central um to explain the extent of the
problem uh these are I believe eight
[44:15] each box represents a separate case
obviously I'm not disclosing the name
[44:20] some of those are Active cases under
prosecution uh these are uh blood test
[44:27] results from State Police off of blood
draws We performed in connection to
[44:32] DWI
uh it's never just one uh drug uh the
[44:40] predominant uh the two predominant drugs
that we see uh methamphetamine which
[44:45] breaks down eventually into amphetamine
uh and fental um some of the uh every
[44:52] now then you get the moon rock such as
cocaine BL it's kind of a last from the
[44:57] past we don't see much anymore uh the
the Delta 9 tetrahydro canol that's
[45:03] going to be your uh active ingredient
from U from marijuana um each of those
[45:10] when it's a drugged driver that greatly
increases the time we have to spend with
[45:15] that person okay because it does not
result from a breath alcohol test it tox
[45:20] 9,000 test for one thing so that means
we uh if we obtain consent we can go
[45:26] directly to a hospital obtain a blood
draw Sub the blood draw Kit to State
[45:31] Police um after that uh or or aside from
that if we don't get consent either
[45:37] because they refuse to give it or
because they're
[45:40] unconscious uh we then have to apply for
the warrant which we've done frequently
[45:45] uh thankfully uh technology today we can
do it
[45:48] electronically um submit it through an
online system and the judge can sign it
[45:54] I can tell you we've never had a a
search warrant to
[45:57] uh we're pretty good at that
um just to tell you what the problem the
[46:03] extent of the problem it was even uh
hammer did to me a little bit more today
[46:08] on my way here I live in South Baton
Rouge I'm coming down Perkins Road
[46:13] Perkins and
ESS there's two turn Lanes one turn lane
[46:18] is not moving I thought it was a crash
it wasn't the gash get out guy behind
[46:23] the wheels passed out get him out of the
car get him off into the abandoned right
[46:29] a parking lot I got to get in the car to
move it for
[46:33] him scare Jesus out of me is Daddy okay
and I turn around I look and there's a
[46:38] six-year-old in the back
seat U he back Police Department came
[46:44] had to call Ms make sure he was okay uh
looked like uh he had a aerosol can in
[46:49] his hand he's probably that's that's a
thing so um it's not VI incidents that
[46:57] result in death we sending people to
hospitals for injuries from crashes and
[47:03] making DWI arrests uh and thankfully a
few years ago we had the
[47:09] foresight we need to send all of our
road officers to tox pety make sure
[47:15] certifi unfortunately now we not use the
intoxilizer machine very often
[47:20] so
[47:24] um thank you
[47:28] Council council member you
[47:34] mention that data that you showed just
now that was how far back that's uh
[47:39] during the past year arrests from
[47:44] DWI andoun counc members I just want to
let you know so far this
[47:50] year Central PD it's count Sheriff's
Office cor we worked over 520s
[47:57] so far this year and we're we're having
some of these DWI that we're catching
[48:04] are that were working or 8:30 in the
morning as well as at night you know
[48:11] that's not count the Goda ways as they
call it U we have a problem with people
[48:17] paying attention we we are seeing a lot
of people driving down the road taxi as
[48:23] they're driving and it's causing WS and
we're trying to avoid those uh WS
[48:30] writing a lot of tickets to these people
and we're writing these tickets in the
[48:35] school zones too we've been
given some people breaks you know on on
[48:42] these spe tickets but it's it's fixing
to stop because we're having too many
[48:46] rats especially in the subdivisions
we're stopping people in these
[48:51] subdivisions that we've been accused of
not patrolling but we're stopping these
[48:55] people
going over the speed limit running the
[48:59] stop signs with the excuse of I live in
here why do I have to
[49:04] stop and we get that
excuse you and it doesn't make any sense
[49:10] to me what if that child walks out or
that young driver backs out of the
[49:16] driveway because they didn't see because
they Haven been driving long they don't
[49:20] they're not paying as much tension as an
experienced driver well I live in here
[49:25] doesn't work
we don't want anybody hurt and we need
[49:29] our public out here to pay attention to
all this and report it especially we the
[49:36] the people drive passenger buses and
just yesterday I I was I was in my
[49:41] personal vehicle and I was going down Jo
Road 4:30 in the afternoon or 5
[49:46] somewhere around there and I was in my
personal vehicle and someone went around
[49:50] the traffic passing in the media the
pained media they're doing this every
[49:56] day and if we catch you trust me you're
getting a ticket at very expensive but
[50:01] they're passing in this medium here and
we need our public to report this get
[50:06] the license plate take a take a picture
and I know you're driving take a picture
[50:11] of the license plate when it's stops at
at the red light get it to us and we're
[50:16] having we've been seeing a lot of people
they're throwing garbage out of the
[50:20] windows they're stopping at a red light
opening the door and dropping it on the
[50:25] ground and driving off take a picture of
it contact us get the LI number we will
[50:30] charge
them thank
[50:34] you how many Reserve officers do we have
well we're down to only a couple now we
[50:41] only have I in July there was only 38
hours yes sir we only have we only have
[50:46] a couple reserves now we're trying to
recruit more because we have hired a
[50:51] couple people that are uh as
part-time and our numbers we we we'd
[50:58] like to find some more Reserve officers
we only have two think we
[51:08] have we are down uh in fact one of our
our biggest performers so to speak uh
[51:15] was also Russell Williams who
transferred part-time status and that
[51:19] really cut cut into that number uh now
though if you R take somebody wants to
[51:26] they that's I tell them that's fine as
soon as I can find you in class to go to
[51:31] I'll see you six and a half months later
that's a huge commitment for unpaid
[51:36] position
so and it's it'sa seven months it's two
[51:41] days a week and every weekend for seven
months it's hard to get somebody to do
[51:45] that especially and we get people that
want to be reserved but they work ship
[51:49] work well lot the guys there at night so
and if they miss one day they put them
[51:56] out
they might get excuse for one they sick
[52:00] if they miss them days they put them out
of the Academy I hate to spend that
[52:04] money to put somebody through the
academy that's not make you know it's
[52:08] it's a lot different than it was back
years ago when like when Tim started the
[52:13] academy is is different now and uh it's
it's it was as many
[52:21] days
months yeah every other weekend but it's
[52:25] every weekend now I mean there's a lot
more you been doing years yeah You' been
[52:30] doing it 30 years a long time but if you
know a good recruit that wants to be a
[52:37] reserve I mean you could be a reserve
even though you're on coun reserve
[52:42] position I don't know about
you Chief are we are we keeping track of
[52:48] the accidents and DUIs that are
involving people that are just passing
[52:53] through Central like traveling
we'd have to we'd have to do a little
[52:59] bit more footwork on and passing through
where for I mean but every DWI I mean
[53:04] it's in the report um and you'd be
surprised we have quite a few of them
[53:10] from here yeah no I'm sure I was just
it's and it's it's a shame and just like
[53:16] these two fatalities we had there was
two within a week and they were both
[53:21] within a mile and 610 of their home one
was going home and one was going to work
[53:26] and unfortunately we lost one of our
city workers for one of them I'm going
[53:30] speak to that minute and and it's
unfortunate but we need to we need to
[53:35] pay more attention to these stop signs
these roadways get off the
[53:41] phone thank all right next we have a
report from ibts
[53:57] forts um I would like to thank you all
um for your condolences this past week
[54:04] um as you all know we lost a member of
our family Javon Quinn and I stress the
[54:10] the hour because ibts in the city of
central are one uh we represent you all
[54:18] in the field and outside the field we
wear shirts that says city of central on
[54:23] our backs and we have pens on our impels
that as much and everywhere we go um our
[54:30] reputation follows us and it represents
you all so I just wanted to stress that
[54:35] I know there was some chatter um this
past week regarding that but I just want
[54:40] to let you all know that our partnership
is beyond a contract and it's more and
[54:45] it's more about family than anything
else so I just want to stress that
[54:51] before I do our presentation so with our
public works for the past month
[54:56] we had a total of 266 issued per orders
uh we completed
[55:03] 273 171 was generated from August 1st to
August 31st year to date we have
[55:11] completed a total of
571 um excuse me
[55:16] 431 of 571 orders we currently have 140
that are still pending
[55:26] regarding our planning donning we have
been very busy regarding that it's
[55:31] really truly does not indicated in our
report but we have text commitments that
[55:35] are going to come before you all that's
totally going to reamp the way we do
[55:39] business here in the city of central um
you all have saw a little bit of that
[55:45] tonight in what you passed earlier
regarding our proposed
[55:49] UDC um flood plane management we had
four flood zone determination requests
[55:55] and four then disturbing permits issued
regarding permits and inspections we had
[56:02] 103 permits issued and in cold
enforcement we are still in that season
[56:07] where we're still dealing with a lot of
high grass and
[56:12] rubbish regarding roadside drainage um
as you can see on the screen there
[56:17] gremley Oaks subdivision U we could
cleared out
[56:22] 5,300
5,436 fet of
[56:27] excavation regarding the drains our
off-road project on Indian Mound you can
[56:33] see the type of work we've done
there and regarding also for our
[56:40] roadside drainage cleaning um we got
Hunley Avenue and Downey
[56:45] Drive do you all have any
questions um regarding the um sign
[56:53] permit there only people can only be
granted a sign permit four times a year
[56:59] is that correct temporary garage garage
uh temporary
[57:04] signs I I got an email from a couple of
business owners that they needed a
[57:11] different type of sign they couldn't get
one the city only gives them four times
[57:15] a year so I wasn't really sure we tried
to in our code it limits the amount of
[57:23] of tber signs you have for a business
and that's only you can only have it
[57:27] four times a year for 14 days but they
can go get they can go and get a
[57:34] sign okay that's what that's what I told
them but I want to dou check and then I
[57:40] saw the um in July and August y' had a
75% completion rate um I know it's
[57:46] usually in like the 90 percentage is
that because of the storm or I didn't
[57:51] know what was going on for July and a is
Storm pick up count in the qus or is
[57:57] that above and beyond um I would
attribute some to the storm if correct
[58:02] uh we do have a h volume when we do have
high rain events we did have a certain
[58:08] period of time where we had a lot of
rainfall uh for a couple weeks uh so
[58:14] that does affect a lot of our our
operations at time we had a shake up in
[58:18] Personnel well ramp
operations so did that that affect the
[58:25] well I look I'm not so sure
some downa
[58:32] should I don't think the number of work
our completion dates
[58:37] is the amount
completed somewhat accurate when we were
[58:43] doing R notes uh I
had we had two sink holes that had
[58:49] fences
around you know we put orange Fen up
[58:52] back in
November and
[58:58] so you know there's
issues about accountability that I'm not
[59:08] sure no the current stuff but in June
July and August you have a l a decrease
[59:15] because we turn into public for we
reorganized how we do things so it
[59:21] shifted the
workl Chang some processes
[59:26] want to go out
just so there's some things shed so that
[59:32] may see
differ speaking to the sign perms I
[59:36] would like to see and I don't know I've
got to check I would like to see us go
[59:40] to you get six a year and you
know extend the
[59:46] dates because we are our small
businesses do need some but the problem
[59:51] is if you put a sign out and just leave
it there does work anyway because it's
[59:58] your psych it's just like any other new
sign you notice it but then as you go by
[1:00:04] over and over diminishes what it does
and so it would beho the businesses to
[1:00:09] to do multiple different types of
temporary signs anyway to excite
[1:00:15] attention believe me my family is
buiness
[1:00:19] own a lot of heat from him code
enfor and S so I get it
[1:00:28] and we have started an initiative uh to
address some of those uh Perman
[1:00:34] temporary signs that been left in
businesses um we do have only one coose
[1:00:39] enforcement officer who does a great job
but he's man of one uh so we're trying
[1:00:47] to clean up the city at your direction
um if there is a text amendment that we
[1:00:52] can change that better serve the
community please just inform and
[1:00:57] get I need
[1:01:04] to thank you any other questions council
member Le I was just going to say that
[1:01:09] as I as I looked through all of the work
orders earlier today a lot of them seem
[1:01:14] to be maybe standing work quarters uh
that are just kind of reminder to go
[1:01:18] check certain areas for litter or um you
know or something to see if
[1:01:24] there's an issue there some of uh
obviously somebody different probably
[1:01:29] put the data together so some of that
could be uh someone counting those
[1:01:33] standing
workers stuff that we have to we have a
[1:01:39] PM work that comes up to
notify for this yeah and and it's in
[1:01:44] that it's in the big long you know the
long list that was provided with the
[1:01:47] report but um some of not all of them
but some of them say you no work needed
[1:01:52] or something like that so they may not
have been closed out
[1:02:03] all right next item five distribution of
the city of central accounts payable
[1:02:07] dispersement report fuel report deposit
for period of August 1 2024 through
[1:02:12] August 31 2024 six distribution of
financial highlights for May of 2024
[1:02:18] seven other business one public comment
no cards were turned in we'll go to item
[1:02:22] number two announcements Mr M
want to mention um as it relates to uh
[1:02:30] van uh the gentleman that lost his life
Friday um his wife uh is is very
[1:02:38] gracious for the the support she's
received emotionally from us in the city
[1:02:43] uh but we're we're hoping to put
together a fundraiser to help them pay
[1:02:47] for some final
expenses um so just be aware of that uh
[1:02:53] just try to help them out um
Cory is dealing with some things as soon
[1:02:58] as he's back to to being able to focus
we're going to put something
[1:03:03] together you know part of this job is
fixing roads and ditches the other part
[1:03:09] is dealing with people I met with our
cruise Monday morning um to reassure
[1:03:15] them you know even though the chain has
lost a link and it's going to get very
[1:03:20] tight kind of grind a little bit we are
going to adjust
[1:03:25] seem to be very receptive ibts made geve
councils
[1:03:29] available so I commend our team at ibts
for always being moment to go above and
[1:03:34] beyond for us the fact that while we do
have a contract so many things we do is
[1:03:40] because of our relationship and our
piece of paper so thank any other
[1:03:44] announcements
[1:03:47] anyone we have a motion to
adjourn by council member Meer second by
[1:03:53] council member mcken
am