[7:15] Hit it once. Yes, sir. Good afternoon. So
[10:19] today we are here the Metro Council budget
[10:23] hearing and today is the mayor's proposed 2023
[10:28] budget being Tuesday, November 2022. The meeting has
[10:36] been called to order and we have informational
[10:40] presentations by five different entities. And so we
[10:45] will begin with the Prison Medical Services. If
[10:49] you'll come on up, followed by the Department
[10:52] of Buildings and Grounds, Juvenile Services, the mayor's
[10:57] office, and the Mayor's Office of Community Development.
[11:01] Let me say that there will be, because
[11:05] no action will be taken, there will be
[11:09] no public comment. There was an opportunity for
[11:13] this on November 22 at the council meeting
[11:16] and then there will be another opportunity on
[11:19] December 13. So, And you can always reach
[11:25] out to your council person or to the
[11:27] department. So we'll go with Prison Medical Services.
[11:31] Thank you, Councilman Coleman. I'm going to introduce
[11:34] Flint Juneau who is actually the CEO of
[11:36] Turnkey Medical. Turnkey, which you guys probably remember,
[11:40] took over Prison Medical at the beginning of
[11:43] this year. The mayor has asked them to
[11:45] come back in January to do a full
[11:47] one year report in terms of what their
[11:49] activities have been at the prison. But just
[11:51] as a refresher, the current budget for 2023,
[11:55] the proposed budget for prison medical is $6,600,000
[11:59] approximately, just a little bit over that. The
[12:02] base contract is $6,100,000 We have about $380,000
[12:07] worth of medical supplies, which in this case
[12:10] are mainly HIV drugs. We've had an issue
[12:13] with a change in the formulary for HIV
[12:15] drugs. We're working on this with the state.
[12:18] We think we'll find a solution where we
[12:20] will be able to cut those costs, and
[12:22] about $140,000 for contractual services, which include people
[12:26] who have to go to a medical facility
[12:30] where those charges aren't covered by DOC and
[12:33] where we have to send them for x
[12:34] rays, etcetera, outside of the facility. So I'll
[12:37] introduce Flint. Turnkey is actually in 92 facilities
[12:42] and nine states. The RFP process was competitive.
[12:46] We had five different groups that examined coming
[12:48] in and Turnkey was picked through that process.
[12:52] Good afternoon. Thank you all for allowing me
[13:00] to come in and speak with you today.
[13:02] We've enjoyed a partnership with the East Baton
[13:05] Rouge Parish, as Darryl mentioned, since last January.
[13:10] We came in of course in the heart
[13:13] of the COVID epidemic. So we've had some
[13:16] challenges coming in as far as facility movement,
[13:21] you know, working through the epidemic and, but
[13:26] even through that time, we've made drastic improvements
[13:30] and major strides with what we do out
[13:33] at the prison with you all. As he
[13:36] mentioned, I'm Flint Juneau, CEO. I have been
[13:39] down here numerous times personally in in Baton
[13:43] Rouge, I I enjoy the southern hospitality. So
[13:48] I I love eating southern food and sharing
[13:52] hospitality with you all. I am gonna cover
[13:56] a few highlights. As he mentioned, we are
[14:00] willing to come back. What we would like
[14:02] to do and as you guys have asked
[14:06] us, we want to provide kind of an
[14:08] annual review as we go through our relationship
[14:11] with you. We will do that as we
[14:15] wrap up each contract year and give you
[14:18] a little bit more meat and statistics and
[14:22] kind of shifts in things throughout the year.
[14:27] But today I just came in to just
[14:30] kind of give you guys a highlight of
[14:32] where we've been and kind of an idea
[14:35] if you guys have questions, you know, that
[14:37] you want us to address as well in
[14:39] our January presentation. This might spur some ideas
[14:43] and we're always welcoming of those suggestions so
[14:48] we can cater it to a way that's
[14:51] feasible to you guys. So I'm gonna have
[14:57] a hard time reading through this. It's a
[15:00] little far out there. But we, first of
[15:03] all, I wanna just go through some achievements
[15:06] that we had over this last year beginning
[15:09] with, you know, we started a year ago
[15:12] in January 1 and it truly was a
[15:16] very compressed transition process. We actually, I believe,
[15:23] thank you. The contract was actually signed, I
[15:27] believe, less than two weeks before we even
[15:30] started services, but we did a lot of
[15:32] work upfront, meeting with the existing staff, etcetera,
[15:37] working with some of the community clinics and
[15:40] providers to get prepared for the transition. And
[15:43] of course, as you guys know, from Thanksgiving
[15:47] to New Year's Day, people are pretty stable
[15:50] with where they're at. So we had some
[15:53] recruiting challenges to work through those last couple
[15:55] weeks. Although they were challenges, we did a
[16:03] lot initially. To begin with, we increased the
[16:06] staffing out there by more than 2.4, what
[16:10] we call FTEs, full time equivalents. From the
[16:15] get go, we implemented some critical positions that
[16:19] we believe were lacking out there, one being
[16:23] an HMP nurse to make sure we had
[16:28] somebody dedicated to make sure every individual who
[16:32] became incarcerated out there had a full physical
[16:35] within the fourteen day guideline and then an
[16:38] additional physical within a year. Since we implemented
[16:43] that position, we are current on both of
[16:47] those categories, which is very important because the
[16:51] facility is accredited by NCCHC. We did inherit,
[16:58] as you guys know, or probably know through
[17:01] COVID, there's been massive inflation. No area in
[17:06] our industry has been hit harder than the
[17:08] healthcare area, especially nursing for like correctional facilities.
[17:15] Nurses in our industry, we have experienced over
[17:19] a 20% inflation in salaries. So when we
[17:24] came in, we had a vacancy rate to
[17:29] fill positions for full time staff of over
[17:32] 73% of nursing staff and 100% vacancy rate
[17:38] of the CMAs. Now that's not saying that
[17:41] services weren't being provided before we came in,
[17:45] but the individuals providing those services were on
[17:49] like a contract basis or a temporary staff,
[17:52] agency staff, which provides essential services but it
[17:57] doesn't provide the continuity of care that you
[18:00] want to establish to make sure services are
[18:04] being delivered right. The nursing staff were dramatically
[18:09] underpaid out at the prison which was part
[18:13] of the contribution of why they had so
[18:16] many vacancies. We have increased the hourly rate
[18:20] for the nurses out there by over $8
[18:23] an hour from what they were being paid
[18:25] before we assumed the contract. We believe in
[18:29] spending more money on the front end because
[18:32] lower turnover obviously is more financially sound. So
[18:38] we always pay a very competitive rate in
[18:43] the healthcare industry, not just the corrections industry.
[18:48] We so as of today, we've been fully
[18:51] staffed out there. As of today, we we
[18:54] have two individuals filling two of the last
[18:57] permanent positions and we still got a couple
[19:01] temporary staff out there while we get them
[19:04] fully oriented. But within a year, we pretty
[19:08] much stabilized the entire program out there. This
[19:13] also included adding a very qualified RN administrator
[19:19] who works there Monday through Friday. I know
[19:24] in the past that that had been kind
[19:26] of hit and miss due to personal reasons
[19:30] but that is a critical component of the
[19:33] program that has helped to stabilize it as
[19:35] well. We implemented a new medical director who
[19:42] has received great reviews by not only the
[19:47] security staff out there but also by the
[19:49] inmate population out there. And we have implemented
[19:55] a full time psychiatric provider where there were,
[19:58] prior to us, there were only two part
[20:00] times who came out as their scheduled allowed.
[20:06] One main area I do wanna touch on
[20:08] is the community coordinator. That was a new
[20:11] position out here. We, as he mentioned, as
[20:15] Darryl mentioned, we work with over 90 some
[20:18] parishes and counties in the Southern United States
[20:22] and the larger facilities such as Baton Rouge,
[20:26] we are very progressive in trying to continue
[20:31] to care once inmates go back into the
[20:34] community because if they stay healthy, it's proven
[20:38] to reduce the recidivism back into the jail.
[20:41] So we have implemented that system. We're trying
[20:45] to get that program built up and I
[20:48] have a few things that we've already accomplished
[20:50] with that that I'll continue on here in
[20:53] a minute. So as I mentioned, NCCHC, our
[20:59] services now exceed those standards. Should NCCHC come
[21:04] back for a review at any given time
[21:08] when they're scheduled to, we are fully confident
[21:11] that not only we meet the standards but
[21:14] we exceed them and that is a big
[21:19] accomplishment for the parish overall. NTCH, is that
[21:23] the accreditation group? It is, yes. It stands
[21:26] for the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare. And
[21:29] did y'all fail the last time, is that
[21:31] what you're saying? And now you're on position
[21:33] to pass, I may have missed that. No,
[21:35] no, so the facility's still accredited but they
[21:38] only come in every three to four years.
[21:40] Okay. The initial accreditation was done, I believe
[21:45] two years ago, maybe. I'm sorry. But it's
[21:50] not an annual review and we haven't went
[21:52] through one since we've been there. There's also
[21:58] the electronic health record that was in place.
[22:00] We had a seamless transition because the system
[22:04] that the parish was using is the same
[22:07] system we use throughout our company. So we
[22:14] were able to make sure there was no
[22:17] lack of care or loss of care through
[22:19] that transition because the records transitioned smoothly. Some
[22:24] of the new implementations which we're very proud
[22:28] of is we have implemented an MAT program
[22:32] which is medicated or medication assisted treatment. For
[22:37] those of you who are not in the
[22:40] healthcare industry, what that means is we treat
[22:44] people with opioid and alcohol addiction while they're
[22:48] in the facility as long as they you
[22:52] know, are willing to do it and meet
[22:54] the qualifications to prevent detox, to prevent illness
[23:01] from them coming off the medication and also
[23:05] to give them a higher success of when
[23:08] they return to the community, they are not
[23:13] completely off of something and their body's not
[23:17] transitioning. As we know that the parish is,
[23:20] the parish prison is for the parish, it's
[23:23] not the state DOC system. So the amount
[23:26] of time individuals stay in the parish prison
[23:29] is much smaller. So it's better to provide
[23:33] a continuity of care for those services as
[23:37] long as they meet qualifications and are willing
[23:43] to participate. So along with that, we have
[23:49] introduced as part of our discharge planning program,
[23:53] the implementing release of medications which is done
[23:58] through our community coordinator position. Those medications have
[24:02] also been enhanced to include access to Narcan
[24:07] which is in layman terms, somebody is overdosed,
[24:13] it's an inhibitor that prevents bad outcomes. So
[24:18] we've allowed those and we provide education to
[24:22] the inmates at the prison on how to
[24:26] use Narcan, the benefits of having it around
[24:30] if you have even, obviously not for themselves
[24:33] but for family members as well. And we
[24:36] try to get them access so they can
[24:38] have access to NARCAN when they're back in
[24:40] your community as well. Grievances, inmate complaints have
[24:46] reduced by over, regarding medical has reduced by
[24:49] over 50% since we started services in January,
[24:55] which is a substantial reduction. And we also
[24:59] through the year provided numerous COVID vaccines for
[25:04] the population out there and even boosters for
[25:07] those who had been fully vaccinated. And one
[25:12] thing we are working on now is a
[25:14] new technology that's called Custody Protect, which we'll
[25:17] go over that a little bit more in
[25:18] January as that advances, which is a health
[25:22] monitoring system for those at highest risk. It
[25:28] allows, since individuals in correctional facilities are locked
[25:33] down sometimes without correctional staff around or definitely
[25:37] without medical staff around. It's a tool to
[25:42] monitor their vital signs if they're a higher
[25:45] risk category, so hopefully we can catch a
[25:49] downfall and be able to be proactive in
[25:53] addressing it. So those are some highlights that
[25:57] we will expand on in January. Some of
[26:01] the challenges we're still working through. Hey, it's
[26:04] not all roses and perfect after one year.
[26:09] We realize that. A lot of that is
[26:12] due to there is a, and it's not
[26:15] just East Baton Rouge Parish by any means.
[26:17] It's nationally, there's a correctional officer shortage. Out
[26:21] of 91 clients, I do not have one
[26:24] single client that is fully staffed correctionally. It's
[26:28] a national crisis that we're dealing with as
[26:31] well as a national crisis with nursing shortage.
[26:35] Fortunately, we've been able to get staffed up
[26:37] on the medical side. I'm hoping on the
[26:40] correction side that starts reversing. But it does
[26:43] create additional challenges, makes our, sometimes our staff
[26:46] have to work additional hours to get all
[26:49] the tests done and make sure we can
[26:53] coordinate with the other systems going on within
[26:56] the facility. There is a, I believe we're
[27:01] still working with their IT department. The EMR
[27:04] is on, from my understanding, on a older
[27:09] service system. We found a way to move
[27:11] that onto a newer system which we will
[27:16] take care of that for the parish to
[27:19] make it a little bit more secure and
[27:23] prevent any crashing of the system. So we're
[27:26] working with IT to try to get that
[27:28] done. The jail did change. JMS providers, which
[27:34] is the jail management system that does all
[27:36] the security side records. There's been a few
[27:41] hiccups we're still working through with that. The
[27:43] interface, which is how they talk to each
[27:46] other, the two systems, is not the best
[27:51] with the new JMS system, I'll just say
[27:53] that. They don't have the best interface capability.
[27:57] But we are working through it and hopefully
[27:59] we'll get those resolved. And as Darryl mentioned
[28:04] previously for me, the HIV epidemic, of course,
[28:11] Ryan White funding is federal funding that is
[28:15] allocated to combat the HIV epidemic. We're trying
[28:20] to find ways to help that relieve the
[28:23] cost for the parish financial burden for the
[28:27] inmates who are on medication for HIV. So
[28:32] those are kind of the challenges we look
[28:34] to try to overcome in this next year.
[28:39] Questions? Okay, Councilwoman? You for being I can't
[28:46] tell you how much it means that you
[28:47] were willing to come in and speak with
[28:49] us and give us this high level presentation,
[28:52] so it's certainly very, very encouraging. I just
[28:56] wanted to drill down on the so it's
[28:59] a million dollar increase in the budget this
[29:01] year. Is that and I may need Daryl
[29:03] for this. It may not be you. Is
[29:06] that related to salaries for employees? Is that
[29:09] related to medications? Part of the increase this
[29:15] year is actually the CPI increase. It's a
[29:18] 5% CPI adjustment in the contract. Also the
[29:23] HIV, is 380,000 and other contract services is
[29:27] roughly, we estimate, about $140,000 Okay. Got it.
[29:31] And then there's an increase from 2022 in
[29:34] that it's kind of hard to explain. In
[29:37] 2022, we budgeted what we estimated the contract
[29:42] to be. So we weren't fully funded even.
[29:44] We're going to come back with a budget
[29:45] supplement to cover the end of twenty twenty
[29:48] two. Got it. Because the right amount wasn't
[29:50] actually budgeted then. Okay. And just out of
[29:53] curiosity, you mentioned Ryan White funds. I know
[29:55] we do see a lot of those funds
[29:58] flowing into the parish. Do we need to
[30:00] apply specifically for? It's very interesting to me.
[30:03] I always thought that those Ryan White funds
[30:05] actually for HIV drugs. Those funds actually go
[30:09] for housing, for medical care, etc. The drugs
[30:13] actually come from a different pot that we
[30:15] actually do not control. They're controlled by the
[30:17] state and administered through the state. And there's
[30:20] a different formulary for small cities versus large
[30:24] cities. It's very complicated. And that formulary is
[30:27] actually changed through some court orders. So we
[30:30] have some work we're trying to do to
[30:31] get through all of that. So we may
[30:33] be able to access some additional funding. We
[30:37] have an agreement with the state to cover
[30:39] three months of 2022. We're trying to get
[30:42] through the paperwork that may carry over into
[30:44] part of 2023. And then we think we
[30:47] do have the way, In theory, what should
[30:50] happen if you go into the facility and
[30:52] you're a local person and you're getting treated
[30:54] at a local clinic, those drugs should follow
[30:57] you into the prison for up to ninety
[31:00] days. So we have work to do to
[31:02] get through that process. Okay. Right. Thank you.
[31:06] And Mr. Junior, just a little quick aside.
[31:09] I was at a social event a couple
[31:11] months ago, was talking with a gentleman who
[31:13] was a nurse, had just gotten a new
[31:14] job. He was telling me about how excited
[31:17] he was and what a great place it
[31:19] was, and he was working at the prison
[31:21] for y'all and he was explaining to me
[31:23] the protocols and how impressed he was. So,
[31:26] that was from an employee at a social
[31:29] event. So, anyway, kudos to you. Wonderful. Great
[31:33] Councilman Hurst. Hey, thank you again for presenting.
[31:38] I had the the fortune to fortunate opportunity
[31:42] to visit the prison or jail. I hate
[31:45] using the word because it's not a prison,
[31:46] it's a jail. Earlier this year. And, you
[31:51] know, the one thing that I look at
[31:53] when I look at the EBR jail is
[31:54] the majority of those people have not been
[31:56] sentenced. They are either awaiting trial or they're
[32:01] waiting to get a bond or they're transitioning
[32:04] back into society from a more hardened facility.
[32:09] And so when I got there, said, hey,
[32:12] show me the medical. I've heard a lot
[32:13] about the medical. And I mean the medical
[32:15] is not as big as the council, the
[32:18] little booth right here, man. But how many
[32:20] prisoners do y'all service? Fluctuates but On average,
[32:26] how many? About 1,000. A thousand inmates. Yep.
[32:29] How many rooms do you have for medical?
[32:32] Actual exam rooms, I think there's a couple
[32:34] exam rooms, there's a main triage room and
[32:38] then several offices. Due to the, as we
[32:42] mentioned, the smaller medical unit, we we use
[32:46] multipurpose rooms, sometimes out on the actual facility.
[32:50] Okay. And tell me about your women's facility
[32:52] at the prison for medical? As far as
[32:58] Just in general? Because when I got there,
[33:00] there wasn't one. So I was hoping there
[33:01] was an Yeah. I yeah. I don't I
[33:04] don't know anything about a prison or a
[33:07] women's facility. What's that? No. There there's no
[33:14] women's health facility in the in the jail.
[33:17] So those people have to be transported out
[33:20] to women's hospital because there's no on-site resources
[33:25] to support the women in jail. So what
[33:27] I'm trying to do is because when I
[33:29] went there, I thought the facility was deplorable.
[33:32] I thought the health care part of it
[33:33] was deplorable as well. And so I've had
[33:35] several conversations of how do we put another
[33:38] facility in place. The challenge is that without
[33:42] a plan, it's even worse than what it
[33:44] is because you end up sending people to
[33:46] a facility that's worse, that you have no
[33:47] control over, or you end up sending somebody
[33:50] to a facility where their parents or family
[33:54] members are unable to access them based on
[33:57] limited transportation. So, I mean, this is where
[34:00] my heart is and I want to help
[34:02] you. So in a perfect world, what would
[34:05] your medical facility look like? In a perfect
[34:09] the facility is dated. I mean they're That's
[34:12] an understatement. Being transparent, my veterinary facility looks
[34:16] better than that and it's built in 1960s.
[34:19] Yeah, the facility's dated, either a new facility
[34:24] or a new bookingmedical unit. Most of our
[34:30] services are provided either through the intake process
[34:33] or directly through a medical unit. But we
[34:37] are limited on what we can provide there
[34:38] as you mentioned just because of the facility
[34:42] layout and when it was built, medical was
[34:46] an afterthought with the way they designed jails
[34:50] back then. So there should be numerous, the
[34:55] perfect facility would have numerous medical exam rooms.
[34:59] Are you comparing this to other sites? Yes.
[35:03] Tell me, I think it's a better way
[35:04] to put it because I believe in a
[35:06] perfect world is dreaming, right? Tell us how
[35:09] this compares to some of the other facilities
[35:11] you've been to to know where we are
[35:12] and where we need to go. So we
[35:16] work with about 90 some facilities, obviously. I've
[35:19] been to many more than that just through
[35:23] my career. Large facilities of this site should
[35:27] have an inpatient infirmary. It should have multiple
[35:32] exam rooms. Should have Quantify that. How many
[35:35] inpatient rooms? Those are overnight rooms, right? We
[35:40] can get I would want to get with
[35:44] our Chief Medical Officer on CEO. Can definitely,
[35:49] if you guys would like us to make
[35:51] some recommendations for a new design, can get
[35:54] all those rooms and that now. I just,
[35:56] I don't want to take a wild guess
[35:58] without considering. No, I just want to know
[36:01] the report that I would ask that you
[36:02] send back is what does adequate health care
[36:05] look like based on the facility to support
[36:07] the amount of the average amount of inmates
[36:11] that we have in there at a single
[36:12] at a single point in time. That's all
[36:14] I need to know. What does that look
[36:15] like for both male and female? Because it's
[36:17] not there right now for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
[36:21] Please. I'm ask you a question. Yeah. You
[36:24] asked for a report on that thing. What
[36:26] about funding? Funding? Well you can't get funded
[36:30] until you got a problem and so I
[36:32] wanna show how big the problem is so
[36:33] we can get to the funding portion. So
[36:35] you have to be able to solve something.
[36:39] Gentleman. Gentleman. Alright. So and the other part
[36:47] is what services are provided to detainees transferred
[36:52] to other facilities out of Parish? I don't
[36:57] have an answer to that. We provide health
[37:03] services to even the females. We do provide
[37:06] services to females. We don't do specialty female
[37:10] care like OBGYN, women's health services, those go
[37:14] out to outside entities and that works through
[37:17] the Department of Corrections. I think actually in
[37:21] the state of Louisiana it's mandated that that's
[37:24] scheduled and managed through the Department of Corrections
[37:30] because we do all of our scheduling for
[37:32] that through them. So ideally it would be
[37:36] great if we could bring an OBGYN on-site.
[37:40] That would be great for security as well
[37:42] because you know they don't want to transfer.
[37:45] But we also have to follow in the
[37:46] guidelines that the state has set up. Okay,
[37:50] so I appreciate that and go back to
[37:52] don't need a whole rendering of how you
[37:54] would redo the facility. Redoing a facility is
[37:57] a waste of time because it needs to
[37:58] be demolished. But just come back and tell
[38:02] me what adequate healthcare is based on the
[38:04] patients, how many rooms, how many physicians, do
[38:06] you need dental which I don't believe you
[38:08] have right now? We do. Oh you do?
[38:10] Okay. Maybe expand the dental because I believe
[38:13] there's one little cubbyhole room if I remember.
[38:16] But just tell me what a perfect world
[38:17] would that look like based on that size.
[38:20] We'd be more than happy to provide you
[38:22] that. I can't give you that. That's fine,
[38:24] don't expect that. Thank you. Okay. Okay, Councilman
[38:30] Moak. I might want to add one thing.
[38:32] There actually has been a study on the
[38:35] prison in terms of rightsizing. The big issue
[38:37] is what size of a facility do we
[38:39] need. The next step really is to have
[38:42] someone design the facility and those discussions are
[38:45] actually going on right now. Does that include
[38:47] the medical portion It would to figure out
[38:50] what we need for a new facility, what
[38:52] space we need, what the cost would be
[38:55] and then determine where it would be located
[38:57] and where the funding would come from. And
[38:58] so as you do that study, Daryl, I'm
[39:00] going add three things to it. Is find
[39:03] a space to add for mental health, find
[39:05] a space dedicated to substance abuse, and then
[39:08] find a space dedicated to rehabilitation because I've
[39:11] already spoken with BRCC and some other folks
[39:14] who would come there and put a program
[39:16] in place so when the inmates transferred out
[39:18] they wouldn't go through the street, they would
[39:20] have a sustainable education platform that would transfer
[39:23] from in the prison walls to out the
[39:24] prison walls so that they could become part
[39:26] of our workforce and not part of recidivism
[39:29] and keep recycling those same criminal activities. And
[39:34] we do Prison Medical now has a person
[39:37] who actually helps transition people out, and the
[39:39] big trick is trying to connect them with
[39:41] all of those groups on the outside. No,
[39:43] I mean inside and then Right. Yeah, like
[39:46] BRCC have a campus inside the walls where
[39:49] they can get high set degrees, earn certificates
[39:52] for short periods of time and if those
[39:54] certificates don't last, the problem is a lot
[39:57] of the things inside the prison don't go
[39:59] outside the walls. Then you give somebody $20
[40:01] and tell them go ahead and have a
[40:02] great day. And we need to make sure
[40:05] that the programs in the prison are sustainable
[40:07] outside so that they add to the workforce
[40:09] and not add to recidivism. Right. Thank you.
[40:12] Okay. Councilman Moak. So I'm just trying to
[40:20] go along, I'm trying to further the discussion.
[40:23] I agree that as far as medical facilities,
[40:27] y'all are just managing what we're providing to
[40:30] you through the contract. Correct. I mean, if
[40:34] we provide you two beds or two rooms
[40:37] to work in and two office spaces to
[40:40] work in, that's what you have, that's what
[40:42] you manage, that's what you contract out? That
[40:46] is correct. We work with what we have,
[40:51] yes. Yes, that's what it sounds like, you're
[40:53] working with what you have. Now, I agree
[40:55] with Councillor Maherst, I think the whole thing
[40:57] needs to be leveled and rebuilt and it's
[40:58] old and I would love for, since y'all
[41:01] are the medical contractors, to come back to
[41:03] us and say, here's the wing that we
[41:05] want, you know, the women's facility, this, that,
[41:08] so on and so forth. I just think
[41:11] that he's called for a report from y'all.
[41:15] I think with that report, I would like
[41:17] to see what your estimated, basically, correct me
[41:21] if I'm wrong, you're asking for what would
[41:24] it take to bring the standard of care
[41:25] up, what facilities and type and stuff that
[41:27] you would need to do that type of
[41:29] stuff. I would like the financial part on
[41:31] your recommendation on what we would also be
[41:34] looking for to do that. So we don't
[41:39] do construction consulting. Okay. So our estimate would
[41:44] be just, I mean that what we could
[41:48] do is make a recommendation of an ideal
[41:50] facility. We do provide the standard of care.
[41:54] I wanna clarify that. We do provide that
[41:56] No, agree. Like you said, it's gone down,
[41:59] it's dropped. I haven't heard, there's problems, don't
[42:03] get me wrong, but medically, I haven't heard
[42:06] the problems that we've had and so on
[42:07] and so forth, I will agree with Councilman
[42:10] Hurst that there are additional services that could
[42:13] be provided if we had more facility resources.
[42:18] Right. And it both, to me, like I
[42:21] said, all the services are great and everything,
[42:23] but it boils back down to like everything
[42:24] else and all the other departments that report
[42:26] to us is, it's about funding. And I
[42:30] think the Sheriff's Office is looking at some
[42:33] things to do for funding and I know
[42:35] we would have to look for funding and
[42:36] stuff. So that was my big thing is,
[42:39] you know, I think y'all are doing a
[42:41] great job with the facilities that we as
[42:45] a city parish have provided to y'all. They
[42:49] are not the best facilities, they are not
[42:50] whatever, but y'all are managing the facilities that
[42:53] we have provided for y'all in the contract.
[42:57] And like I said, I think the complaints
[43:01] have gone down significantly medically and so on
[43:04] and so forth. So anyway, thank you all
[43:05] very much for coming for your report. Thank
[43:07] you. I just wanna clear up that mine
[43:10] wasn't a complaint about how you're servicing. Mine
[43:13] was more about what can we do as
[43:14] a counsel to make sure that you have
[43:16] the best resources because these people aren't convicted.
[43:19] Can think about my son being held in
[43:21] there with no bond, right? I always try
[43:23] to put myself in somebody else's position of
[43:25] my child being there, what would I want?
[43:27] I want the best for him. And so
[43:29] I'm just trying to figure out what does
[43:30] that best look like. That's it. Yeah. And
[43:31] we're more than happy to work with you
[43:33] guys on recommendations and all that. I just
[43:36] want to make sure I get the right
[43:37] people in the room for it. Thank you.
[43:41] So with all of that being said, when
[43:45] we thank you, we look forward to hearing
[43:48] from you in January and even your, maybe
[43:53] your operating manual if you have one to
[43:57] kind of let us see some good stuff
[43:59] and you know, talk about the retention of
[44:03] your staff and all of those things. We
[44:05] look forward to seeing you after Santa. Very
[44:10] good. He's got a better beard than I
[44:12] He should come first. You got a mark.
[44:16] Thank you all. Council Member Coleman, do we
[44:20] have a public hearing component to this? No,
[44:22] we don't. Okay, thank you. Alright. Next, we
[44:30] have the Department of Building and Grounds. And
[44:38] while building and grounds coming forward, Councilman Go.
[44:42] Yeah, as I said earlier, December 13, that
[44:48] would be an opportunity, that's our approval meeting,
[44:51] but that'll be an opportunity for any other
[44:55] questions from the public just as November 22
[44:58] was. I think this may be your first
[45:05] time doing a presentation. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Indeed.
[45:17] Alright. Good evening. Thank you guys for inviting
[45:20] us. I'm Joe Joe Butler, director of buildings
[45:24] and grounds. Here to give you our 2023
[45:27] presentation. Alright, in our buildings grounds, we have
[45:32] a mission to provide quality service in effective
[45:36] and professional manner to ensure safety and the
[45:40] health and welfare of the city employees and
[45:42] the patrons that use our facilities on a
[45:45] daily basis. Something that we take serious. It's
[45:49] something that we discuss every morning. Our morning
[45:51] meetings. Our guys, when they go out and
[45:53] hit the ground, they know that we are
[45:55] here a service to all these facilities that
[45:58] we do manage. So, this year, 2023 for
[46:05] our budget, we have a little bit over
[46:06] $10,000,000 dedicated to building maintenance. Outside of that,
[46:10] for prison maintenance, it's, 907,000 that we have
[46:15] committed for that. And what we managed in
[46:20] that is different contractor services that we have
[46:22] from electrical, plumbing, HVAC, janitorial service, elevator maintenance,
[46:29] and pest control. Prison maintenance, we we offer
[46:34] the same services over the prison maintenance. It's
[46:36] identical to what we do with the rest
[46:38] of the facilities. Well, in our allotment this
[46:44] year for 2023, we we have a 20%
[46:48] vacancy rate. Something that we fighting across DPW
[46:52] as a whole. Find employees to come in.
[46:56] Qualified employees, but, we're pushing with reaching out
[47:01] to BRCC, different technical schools to see if
[47:04] we can get some candidates, out of school
[47:06] and get them trained up to come work
[47:08] for, city parish and some the benefits that
[47:10] we have to offer. What you don't see
[47:14] in there is architecture services. The breakdown, we
[47:17] do have three senior architects. One one junior
[47:22] architect and next year for 2023, we're looking
[47:25] to get an internal architect to come in
[47:28] as well. So, some of the services that
[47:34] architect service provide is developing scope and budgets
[47:38] for facilities. That's facilities they build from the
[47:41] ground up or facilities that require any major
[47:44] renovations. They do select design consultant. So, some
[47:50] of these projects are too big for us
[47:52] to do in house. So, what we do
[47:53] is architects will manage the project from a
[47:57] project manager standpoint and oversee any outside services
[48:01] that we receive from any architectural architectural group.
[48:06] We we also review the invoices of do
[48:10] construction management. So as soon as they as
[48:14] soon as we start breaking ground, we have
[48:16] a a gentleman that that goes out, assesses
[48:19] all the safety aspects, assesses the scope, makes
[48:22] certain that the contractor is working within this
[48:25] necessary scope that we provided for them. For
[48:30] building maintenance, our responsibilities are the overall to
[48:35] I'm sorry. To overall the the manage the
[48:38] maintenance of overall facilities, custodial operations. We also
[48:42] set up for different events that we have
[48:44] that's also on City Parish property, and it's
[48:47] put on for the City Parish employees. Prisoner
[48:53] maintenance, we manage the electrical service, plumbing, HVAC,
[48:58] kitchen and laundry equipment, and also any structural
[49:01] repairs that we have around the prison facilities.
[49:07] What you see right there in front of
[49:08] you is the work request for 2022. So
[49:13] we in total, we have 167 facilities that
[49:16] we manage. We have one hundred and forty
[49:18] forty five that we actually provide services to.
[49:22] So that's all the services that I mentioned.
[49:24] We offer those services to all those facilities.
[49:29] For work orders, we had roughly 12,000, a
[49:31] little bit over 12,000 work orders for the
[49:33] year. We we completed a little bit over
[49:36] 5,800 work orders with a 65% completion rate.
[49:40] We do have a slight backlog. Some of
[49:43] that is due to material costs. Some is
[49:45] some of that is due to some of
[49:49] the some of the items that's just unavailable
[49:51] and we're working plans to change out some
[49:54] of the older assets that we do have.
[49:56] Some of these assets that we have a
[49:57] little bit over twenty years old or better
[49:59] and we're working to to to swap those
[50:03] out. Alright. What you have in front of
[50:08] you is the building ground projects that that
[50:10] we completed over 2022. '1 that you may
[50:15] notice is the front entrance, the apron as
[50:18] you come into City Hall. That was just
[50:22] repaved. We put down new concrete pavers and
[50:26] we resealed the steps. We put a water
[50:28] seal on those steps that would help anything
[50:31] down in B B 1, any leaks that
[50:33] we have coming from the frontage as we
[50:35] did have some issues with that over the
[50:37] past years. So we also assisted with the
[50:42] OCD seven floor renovations. We did this inspection
[50:47] department control installation. We we replaced several pieces
[50:53] of equipment in the prison, ovens, walk in
[50:56] coolers. We did a relamping on the paper
[51:01] clip dock on eleven. You'll see that picture
[51:03] above. And we also replaced some air handlers,
[51:06] two air handlers at the prison as well.
[51:12] Here's, some more of the equipment that I
[51:15] was, discussing that we changed out. Here so
[51:23] this is just a a view of some
[51:25] of the things that we that we took
[51:27] care of over the past year. The first
[51:30] one, the top left, SJ Jewel Newman. We
[51:33] repainted the the gym and relayed the floors.
[51:38] Chanelville Community Center. We went into total renovation
[51:43] from front to back. Put in some exam
[51:45] rooms. Redid the kitchen for him. We also
[51:49] did some hazard elimination over at Leo Butler
[51:52] Center. They had a retaining wall in the
[51:54] back that had bees and those are hazardous
[51:58] anyone that walked by. So, we replaced that
[52:00] and then over over the at the River
[52:03] Center, we had some air handling units that
[52:06] were dated, they need to be changed out,
[52:08] they were cooling part of the arena, and
[52:10] we changed those out and replaced those mid
[52:14] part of the year. So for the upcoming
[52:21] year, were awarded $10,500,000 Some of the facilities
[52:26] that will be impacted by that is going
[52:27] to be the River Center, City Hall. We're
[52:31] doing security for the First Floor upgrades. We
[52:34] got wind wind retrofit that'll be done in
[52:36] the building as well. We'll be changing out
[52:38] the windows on the building, to make those,
[52:42] missile proof. We have DHDS. They'll have some
[52:45] upgrades and public safety complex over at the
[52:50] police headquarters. We have a lot of renovations
[52:53] that will be taking place over the over
[52:55] the H 2 Building. And juvenile services will
[52:59] will be buying a modular building to extend
[53:02] extend their offices and then also upgrading and
[53:06] and putting in 25 doors and controls. For
[53:12] prison maintenance, some of the facility improvements that
[53:16] we plan on having, We're going to be
[53:19] installing some more kitchen equipment. We also have
[53:23] some 25 rooftop HVACs that we'll be replacing.
[53:28] We have some air handlers, eight air handlers
[53:31] in house that we'll be changing. And we
[53:34] also have some exterior improvements that we'll be
[53:37] doing with lighting. There's bad security lighting around
[53:41] the facility. We're working with energy to improve
[53:43] that. Some of the efforts that we're pushing
[53:49] forward in the department itself that help with
[53:52] overall efficiencies, continuous improvement efforts. So part of
[53:57] that is going to be as you see
[53:58] plan, schedule, execute, analyze and follow-up. That'll just
[54:02] help us as far as we are a
[54:04] service to all the buildings that that we
[54:06] use. I mean, that we service to. So,
[54:08] we wanna do is make certain that we
[54:10] are meeting all the needs of the facilities.
[54:13] So, by by implementing the continuous improvement efforts
[54:17] that would help us make certain that we're
[54:19] executing all the work orders and eliminating any
[54:23] dead dead hours and dead man hours is
[54:26] basically hours wasted going back having to touch
[54:28] the PC equipment twice. So if I have
[54:31] an asset that breaks down, we make certain
[54:33] that we're fixing it right the first time
[54:35] and not having to double up on the
[54:37] work. So what we'll be focusing on is
[54:43] three aspects of maintenance: corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance
[54:46] and predictive. So, we're try to eliminate the
[54:49] corrective maintenance to get away from reactive maintenance
[54:51] and go into a more proactive phase. And
[54:54] that's going be using preventive and predictive maintenance
[54:57] measures. That should help us with better workflow
[55:03] also reduction in asset breakdowns and identifying any
[55:08] equipment that we have in place right now
[55:11] that it needs to be changed out. Will
[55:13] be able to put together a three year
[55:15] I'm sorry, one year, three year, and five
[55:17] year plan so we can plan ahead, budget,
[55:20] and request the money as needed. So, we're
[55:22] not coming to you guys when we have
[55:24] a emergency and things breaking down. So here's
[55:29] an example of some of the predictive maintenance
[55:31] that we've, been using over the past couple
[55:33] of months and past four months. This is,
[55:35] electrical testing and inspection that we did at
[55:38] the, exhibition hall. We identified some faulty fuses.
[55:44] So this this fuse that you see on
[55:45] the table here, this fuse powers up the
[55:48] exhibition hall. This fuse was delegated. If this
[55:52] fuse would have continued to be in service,
[55:55] we possibly could have could have lost this
[55:56] fuse on the load to doing an event.
[55:59] So we it had a ball concert or
[56:01] anything in the exhibition hall. We'd have lost
[56:03] power, which would have been embarrassing for us
[56:06] and as as well to the patrons ruining
[56:08] the experience. So by doing this test and
[56:11] inspection, we were able to identify it before
[56:13] we fail, change it out, and, prevent any,
[56:18] interruption in services that we may had. So
[56:20] this is this is vital to, for us
[56:23] to step, for us to step up our
[56:24] program and to help us provide adequate service.
[56:30] Here's another example of predictive maintenance. This is
[56:34] for all the rotating equipment. So we have
[56:36] a ton of rotating equipment around the facilities
[56:38] with our air handling units. And there's a
[56:42] lot of vibration, a lot of movement, a
[56:45] lot of this equipment is old, hasn't been
[56:46] touched as far as tighten down tighten down
[56:49] boats in a while because because the the
[56:53] practice of it is is is not where
[56:56] it needed to be. So what we're doing
[56:58] is we we revamp in our rotational PMs
[57:02] and we're doing the the vibration analysis. This
[57:04] will tell us any type of movement we
[57:06] may have on the shaft that you that
[57:08] you can't see with your eye and tell
[57:10] us if we have any potential failures in
[57:13] our bearings or shaft alignments. Some of the
[57:19] employee training and process improvements that we're going
[57:21] to implement is work order process flow. We're
[57:25] implementing a CMS system working with MGO. This
[57:30] process will help us be able to track
[57:32] our assets, to know exactly what work we've
[57:34] done on our assets, how much money we
[57:36] spend on our assets, so that way we're
[57:38] not pouring too much money into our assets.
[57:40] And let's say for instance, have an air
[57:42] handling unit and I spent 80% of the
[57:45] value of a new one, I know it's
[57:47] time to purchase a new air handling unit
[57:49] versus continue to put money into asset that's
[57:53] that's past its life cycle. We're improve our
[57:56] planning and scheduling. We're actually doing some training
[57:59] on planning and scheduling. We're working with, with
[58:01] Shell. Shell Geisman employee, mister Glenn. He's come
[58:04] in. He's helping us, organize and try to
[58:07] help bring City Perish employees in the building's
[58:10] grounds area up to industry standards on how
[58:13] we actually do our planning and scheduling. So
[58:17] while I'm researching with BRCC and I have
[58:20] a group of failure prevention associates, they're they're
[58:23] going to come out and help us with
[58:25] millwright precision training. That's going to help us
[58:28] with our shaft alignments, pump pump installs, and
[58:33] overall mechanical maintenance inspections. We're going to do
[58:37] some continuous improvement for our HVAC employees. We're
[58:41] going to do boiler maintenance training, five s
[58:43] training, that's six sigma six sigma practices that's
[58:46] used across industrial industry standards. Hazard eliminations, and
[58:51] then also we're going to do some management
[58:54] training to help our management staff make sure
[58:58] that we're managing our guys adequately. Alright. That
[59:03] is it. Any questions? Okay. Councilman Moak. You
[59:10] have two minutes. Thank you Mayor Pro Tem.
[59:17] Feel like I'm working directly under him right
[59:18] now. Can you go back to the slide
[59:23] that has the list of facilities and the
[59:25] man hours? Right there. Okay. Did that take
[59:40] up my time going to that slide or
[59:42] no? Community centers. Throw those out and I
[59:51] don't mean throw them out as whatever but
[59:52] I'm not going to talk about them on
[59:54] the list. Parish prison. I'm to talk about
[59:55] headquarters, police headquarters, juvenile service, juvenile court, EMS
[59:59] fire. What is EOPP building? EOPP. I mean,
[1:00:07] I mean, I know I got a contact
[1:00:09] in Lasix and one eye but it does
[1:00:10] say it's on 4523 Plank Road. Emergency Operations
[1:00:19] Building. Emergency ATM. It's emergency what? That's the
[1:00:24] Emergency Response Building. That's the ATM Building. The
[1:00:27] the address is wrong with it. Okay. Think
[1:00:29] so. That's on Harding. Okay. That's the other
[1:00:30] address is wrong. Yeah. You what? Keep keep
[1:00:57] your office as social service. You had you
[1:01:02] had to forgive me. I'm five months in.
[1:01:04] He's active. Right. That's the And and anyone
[1:01:08] you know, feel free to assist. They just
[1:01:10] with this. Okay. Okay. You. Yes. City Court
[1:01:20] Building, City Hall, we know okay. In the
[1:01:24] City Hall, the City Court Building, Nineteenth JDC
[1:01:31] what else do we have downtown? Know Human
[1:01:35] Resources is right downtown and we have we
[1:01:38] have a planning commission over on is that
[1:01:43] North? Laurel. Laurel? Yeah, Laurel. What has anything
[1:01:50] been looked into or and and again, it's
[1:01:54] hard to ask these. Know you've been in
[1:01:55] five months and I respect that, but does
[1:01:57] anybody else have the answer to these? Has
[1:01:58] anybody been looked into the percent of use
[1:02:02] for each of these buildings? In other words,
[1:02:05] the occupancy of each of these buildings. And
[1:02:08] I'll give you one example. I've started at
[1:02:11] the Tenth Floor with some other council members
[1:02:14] and went floor to floor to floor to
[1:02:16] floor to floor, seeing what exactly this building
[1:02:18] is used for. And I know we've had
[1:02:21] a couple floors that we've got multiple areas
[1:02:24] of just stuff stacked up. Has there been
[1:02:28] any thought, any study, any last time it
[1:02:32] was done on consolidation of these buildings or
[1:02:35] resources? Yeah, that's, I'll let Darryl answer that.
[1:02:41] I know in City Hall, we we have
[1:02:44] consolidated storage space. Like right now, we have
[1:02:47] some vacant space that the registrar of voters
[1:02:49] uses for elections. We have some space. The
[1:02:52] Tenth Floor has the the restaurant or the
[1:02:55] food service area that has basically been shut
[1:02:57] down because of the COVID epidemic that's getting
[1:03:01] ready to be reopened. But we don't have
[1:03:03] a lot of storage space. We had OCD
[1:03:06] space that's actually now been fully repurposed and
[1:03:09] those files have basically been eradicated. So we're
[1:03:12] really doing everything we can to maximize the
[1:03:14] use of space. Well, I mean, I'll just
[1:03:17] be like when I first came in and
[1:03:21] didn't even have a desk in the office,
[1:03:23] I got taken to, I forget what floor
[1:03:27] it was, where the courtrooms were, and there's
[1:03:28] just desks stacked all through, and they're still
[1:03:31] there. And I guess what I'm looking at
[1:03:33] is, I'm looking at the building and it
[1:03:34] doesn't seem that big, it may be huge,
[1:03:37] Where I forget the Where sign all your
[1:03:45] paperwork and everything? So across from where the
[1:03:47] voters registration Where the voters is on the
[1:03:50] Ninth Floor at the parish attorney's Office is
[1:03:53] what you're referencing. Yeah, but then a couple
[1:03:56] of other locations Right. It may be the
[1:03:59] public defender space. They have space in their
[1:04:02] floor that they're struggling to make better use
[1:04:05] of their space that exists. Well, I was
[1:04:08] just thinking, it seemed like some of these
[1:04:10] services could be pulled here with redoing the
[1:04:15] resources of It just seemed like we had
[1:04:17] a lot of open space and that would
[1:04:18] save us money by releasing these older buildings
[1:04:21] that we're having to proactively maintain and take
[1:04:25] on. Don't even know what to, and I
[1:04:28] know it's a brand new building. I don't
[1:04:30] know if they just built it for complete
[1:04:32] size or if there was more space available
[1:04:34] in there that certain services could go to
[1:04:36] the courthouse over here. It just seems like
[1:04:39] I know the state a while back went
[1:04:41] through a big consolidation thing and they built
[1:04:43] buildings, but We do know again in our
[1:04:45] building, I'd have to say that pretty much
[1:04:47] if there's a vacant space, it's sitting there
[1:04:50] based on like in Hiller's case, there's some
[1:04:52] space that he needs to build out that
[1:04:53] we just haven't had the funding to do
[1:04:55] yet. I think that funding is actually being
[1:04:57] appropriated. Some of the other buildings we do
[1:05:01] have two or three buildings that we are
[1:05:02] on the verge of working on selling. The
[1:05:05] old Council on Aging building on Florida Boulevard,
[1:05:08] the old detox building on Florida And Nineteenth,
[1:05:10] and we have a fire station building that
[1:05:12] is going to be sold also. Okay. And
[1:05:15] I get that, but like the Council on
[1:05:16] Aging, you're selling that building, but where did
[1:05:19] they go? They have a new space. They
[1:05:22] have a new space. They were in a
[1:05:23] building that belonged to City Parish that they
[1:05:25] are actually going to move they're fully vacating.
[1:05:28] I guess that's what I was kind of
[1:05:30] getting at is, I don't know how many
[1:05:32] spaces they have at this new space, they
[1:05:34] couldn't come down here? Oh, no, the Council
[1:05:36] on Aging is huge. It's a huge complex
[1:05:38] that they built their own dedicated funds. But
[1:05:42] again, maximization is one of the things we've
[1:05:44] really worked on, trying to consolidate things, make
[1:05:46] sure we don't have things. The Public Safety
[1:05:48] Complex, there's a space out there that has
[1:05:51] been vacant in H2, which is next to
[1:05:53] the police headquarters. We have moved the Cooperative
[1:05:58] Extension Service. They vacated a building that we
[1:06:01] had there in that space. Some of the
[1:06:03] ARP money is set up to actually redo
[1:06:05] part of H2. The registrar of voters will
[1:06:08] be moving out of one location on Corsey
[1:06:11] end of the building. So we have a
[1:06:12] lot of plans in terms of how to
[1:06:14] maximize those building spaces. It is pretty critical
[1:06:17] to us. Do we have any kind of
[1:06:19] reporter information on occupancy, vacancy, and stuff like
[1:06:23] that as far as each building? Yes, And
[1:06:27] we can also provide what we're doing with
[1:06:29] those ARP funds to help people understand what
[1:06:31] we're retrofitting in terms of filling out vacant
[1:06:33] space. We can get that back. Alright. Thank
[1:06:38] you. Councilman Hurst. I know when they saw
[1:06:42] me and Moke walk in the building and
[1:06:44] they they start looking at their watches. I
[1:06:45] never had. But you have three minutes. Gens
[1:06:50] three. So to answer one thing about Aaron's,
[1:06:54] I did have the opportunity. I think you
[1:06:56] should go also visit the new COA Building.
[1:06:58] 1 Day about a week and a half
[1:06:59] ago. And the whole bottom floor is bigger
[1:07:02] than my community center on both sides of
[1:07:04] the kitchen. So now they make their own
[1:07:06] meals or their own meal prep, their own
[1:07:08] TV dinner. They do all that stuff there
[1:07:09] to cut down on cost in other areas.
[1:07:11] You're using your time? I got you. So
[1:07:14] when I look at this, I go back
[1:07:16] to what pain points that that I believe
[1:07:18] are part of the reason god put me
[1:07:20] here and I'm going back to that prison.
[1:07:22] I'm looking at two thousand seventy five man
[1:07:24] hours, fourteen forty two work hours. I want
[1:07:28] you to come back to me and quantify
[1:07:29] that and tell me how much it cost
[1:07:31] in terms of material and labor to do
[1:07:34] whatever you did for two thousand seventy five
[1:07:37] hours. And I know you're new, so it
[1:07:39] may not all be you. You have to
[1:07:40] do a little digging, but that's very important
[1:07:42] to understand how much money we're wasting every
[1:07:44] year. And then also, as a matter of
[1:07:54] fact, can probably stop there because that was
[1:07:55] my biggest concern is Okay. Is in turn
[1:08:00] oh, the other one was 20% reduction our
[1:08:03] challenging workforce. So do you know the dollar
[1:08:06] per hour that you're paying those people that
[1:08:09] are unable to get jobs or don't wanna
[1:08:11] get jobs because of what you're paying them?
[1:08:13] I'm trying to figure out what that gap
[1:08:14] you know, we talk all the time about
[1:08:15] trying to fill the workforce and I call
[1:08:17] you and say, hey man, I might have
[1:08:18] somebody. But what's the average pay for those
[1:08:22] jobs that we're talking about have a gap
[1:08:23] in your in your in your department? The
[1:08:25] average pay is roughly around $13 an hour.
[1:08:29] Okay. And what type of job would they
[1:08:32] be doing for about $13 an hour? It
[1:08:34] can range from general maintenance, cleanup to electrical,
[1:08:40] plumbing, HVAC work, boiler maintenance. So now I've
[1:08:46] met with the labor unions and because I
[1:08:47] I really wanna understand what workforce challenges in
[1:08:49] the community to the point where I was
[1:08:51] at the carpenter's union last week all day
[1:08:54] long. Work met with Louisiana Workforce Commission. These
[1:08:58] people who are untrained, skilled labor that are
[1:09:02] going through an apprentice program for what you're
[1:09:05] paying for $13 an hour for somebody who's
[1:09:07] knowledgeable, they will pay $19 an hour for
[1:09:10] somebody who's not knowledgeable and learning that same
[1:09:13] trade, whether it be boilermakers, they can bank
[1:09:15] a little bit more boilermakers, painting electrical so
[1:09:19] this is not a slap and chew. This
[1:09:21] is just a public statement to say, again,
[1:09:24] I've I've I've asked for a pay study.
[1:09:27] I've not gotten my email back from Daryl
[1:09:29] Gissel, I was listening, to approve the pay
[1:09:32] study for the Department of of HR. But
[1:09:37] when we talk about $13 an hour, we
[1:09:39] talk about gaps. We talk about prison is
[1:09:41] not fixed. We talk about challenges and work
[1:09:44] orders that sit out there for four years.
[1:09:46] I need the email approval piece there, I
[1:09:50] guess, so that we can get that study
[1:09:51] done at least to show the disparity with
[1:09:53] it. Then then once we create that gap,
[1:09:56] show how we can close that gap. Thank
[1:09:57] you. Okay. Mister Butler, excellent presentation. Four months,
[1:10:03] five months it's been? Five, a little bit,
[1:10:05] yeah, the five months is some change. So
[1:10:07] excellent and just keep on doing what you're
[1:10:09] doing at the Butler Center here over there
[1:10:10] in the District 10, okay? Keep on doing
[1:10:14] what you're Yes, sir. Sir. May add one
[1:10:17] thing about salaries. Looking at Joseph's numbers, he's
[1:10:21] actually done a really good job in terms
[1:10:22] of recruiting. And we have talked to some
[1:10:25] of the labor union groups about bringing in
[1:10:27] people who are retired in some cases, who
[1:10:29] have great skills, who would like to come
[1:10:31] to help us. One of the things that
[1:10:33] you guys did through ARP funding, through the
[1:10:35] funding that was provided to Joseph's organization, we're
[1:10:38] really having the opportunity to get rid of
[1:10:41] a lot of antiquated equipment, which is not
[1:10:43] only going to cut down his maintenance costs,
[1:10:45] is going to greatly reduce energy costs also.
[1:10:47] So we should see some big savings all
[1:10:49] across the board. River Center for instance was
[1:10:51] built back in the 1970s, still has the
[1:10:54] original mechanical equipment. Only want to help you
[1:11:12] close that gap. Let make that clear. Okay,
[1:11:14] thank you. Also I'd have to say Mr.
[1:11:16] Butler you're to be commended about that training
[1:11:18] and that education component. That is of utmost
[1:11:23] importance, train folk then require folk to work.
[1:11:28] So you're to be commended for that. Okay,
[1:11:32] Mr. Gaudet, just two minutes. Thank you ma'am.
[1:11:37] Yeah, Mook took your minutes. Can give an
[1:11:40] update, Darryl, on the City Hall security? Yes.
[1:11:44] We have actually done a study in terms
[1:11:46] of what we need. The ARP funding is
[1:11:49] providing money for the new doors and for
[1:11:54] the scanners, etcetera. We're now working on writing
[1:11:57] the protocol for the scanners to be put
[1:12:00] in place. We have a couple of legal
[1:12:01] things we need to do. Can we have
[1:12:03] signs that say you can't bring weapons in,
[1:12:05] etcetera? These are metal detectors when you say
[1:12:06] scanners? Yes, yes. And so those things we've
[1:12:09] actually set up the teams within the building
[1:12:12] so each operating division, all the different groups
[1:12:15] of sheriff's office, the assessor, etc. We have
[1:12:17] teams now that we've created so that we
[1:12:20] can do alerts within the building. The constable
[1:12:22] has now taken over security in the building.
[1:12:25] So we still have more work to do
[1:12:27] there, but we're on the way to getting
[1:12:28] where we think we need to be. Okay,
[1:12:30] thanks. Thank you. That was an excellent question,
[1:12:32] Councilman Goldaert. I could have given you five
[1:12:34] minutes. Thank you. Yeah, just have one question.
[1:12:43] Has that department ever looked at being privatized?
[1:12:47] The grounds and maintenance? I don't think we've
[1:12:53] ever looked at that. I think it's part
[1:12:54] of the plan of government. I mean, it's
[1:12:56] part of DPW. Well, mean, I don't really
[1:12:58] need the department, but I'm talking about the
[1:13:00] workforce and everything. So, you know, you have
[1:13:02] a list of contractors and a boiler goes
[1:13:04] out. You call a certain company and they
[1:13:07] go do it. We do have a lot
[1:13:09] of contractors in place. Probably knows a huge
[1:13:11] number of contracts for outside services. One of
[1:13:14] the things that straightened out, for some reason
[1:13:16] we had a bizarre setup where if we
[1:13:19] had a contractor to do mechanical equipment, we
[1:13:22] would order the parts and they would have
[1:13:24] to wait for us to get them the
[1:13:26] parts to put the product in place. That
[1:13:28] made no sense. So we're doing a lot
[1:13:30] of those things to kind of clean up
[1:13:32] how the maintenance is actually done. The River
[1:13:34] Center now is going to be fully maintained
[1:13:36] by the River Center under their contract as
[1:13:39] opposed to us sharing those responsibilities. And I
[1:13:43] do want to add something and this is
[1:13:44] just Permission first. Yeah, hold on. And that
[1:13:48] word privatized, yeah, let's let's let's be mindful
[1:13:53] of that in my opinion there. Yeah, these
[1:13:55] folk working like Hebrews saying, you tell them
[1:13:57] privatized and okay, go on councilman Hurd. So
[1:14:00] that I was One minute. Yeah. I was
[1:14:03] just gonna address that one statement. And I
[1:14:05] talked about this on the radio the other
[1:14:07] day, and then I actually talked about it
[1:14:09] with interim director Fred Ray for the challenge
[1:14:11] of improvisation is that when we put contracts
[1:14:14] in place, they are specified for a job
[1:14:17] or whatever it may be. A lot of
[1:14:19] times, we have jack of all trades who
[1:14:22] may be on one job, but then when
[1:14:23] that job ends, we can move them over
[1:14:25] here. We don't have to constantly bid it
[1:14:27] out and slow the process down to solve
[1:14:29] city problems. We can move it from one
[1:14:31] space to another. So when we control the
[1:14:33] workforce, we have the ability to solve problems
[1:14:35] a lot faster. When we privatize them, we
[1:14:38] have to then go bid them out for
[1:14:39] the new project because they guess what? They
[1:14:42] bid based on what we told them would
[1:14:44] be a part of that packet and not
[1:14:47] playing A, B, C and D. They're only
[1:14:49] gonna do E, F and G because that's
[1:14:51] what they bid for. But we still need
[1:14:52] A, B and C and D done. So
[1:14:55] for that reason, I'm probably against privatization and
[1:14:58] more so looking at how we, from an
[1:15:00] internal standpoint, close that workforce gap. Then Aaron,
[1:15:02] we can talk about that offline, but I
[1:15:04] wanted to make that public. Juvenile service. Thank
[1:15:09] you so very much, mister Butler. Juvenile services,
[1:15:12] if you'll come on up. Oh, I saw
[1:15:18] Fred move out. It's about to say, Fred,
[1:15:20] you got juvenile services too? Wow. Good afternoon,
[1:15:28] everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to present
[1:15:31] the 2023 operating budget for juvenile services. So
[1:15:37] our purpose is to provide supervision and probation
[1:15:42] services as well as oversee the juvenile detention
[1:15:45] center. Next slide please. Next slide, please. The
[1:15:57] mission, is to help change lives and build
[1:16:00] futures and restore hope to the youth and
[1:16:03] to their families. Our mantra at Juvenile Services
[1:16:06] is hope. Have only positive expectations. So the
[1:16:18] Department of Juvenile Services basically have two divisions,
[1:16:22] Probation and Family Services and the Juvenile Detention
[1:16:25] Center. Well, the probation side is responsible for
[1:16:30] pretrial and post disposition monitoring of our youth.
[1:16:34] And with detention, we provide for the care
[1:16:38] and the custody as well as the services
[1:16:40] for those detained youth, which include medical, mental
[1:16:44] health screenings, educational, faith based programming, and educational
[1:16:49] services where our partner is the East Baton
[1:16:52] Rouge Parish School System. As it relates to
[1:16:57] family services, FANS, also known as family in
[1:17:01] needs of services, that particular department welcomed the
[1:17:06] individual families from off of the street. They
[1:17:09] do not have to be a part of
[1:17:10] the system. And if they have a need,
[1:17:12] they come into our facility and we partner
[1:17:14] them or refer them to the necessary community
[1:17:17] service providers in an effort to keep them
[1:17:20] out of delinquency and the juvenile detention center.
[1:17:31] The organizational structure shows the position allotments for
[1:17:36] our respective divisions. More than half of the
[1:17:40] positions are concentrated in the juvenile detention facility
[1:17:44] with 51 positions and on probation and family
[1:17:48] services side, there are 33 positions. We have
[1:17:55] two grants that we work with, families in
[1:17:58] needs of services, our FENS grant, and this
[1:18:00] is outside of the City Parish General Fund.
[1:18:03] They provide, services in order that we may
[1:18:06] cover two positions, specifically counselor positions. For the
[1:18:11] Title IV E grant, we have five positions,
[1:18:16] that are covered. I don't have my glasses,
[1:18:18] I'm sorry. We have five positions that are
[1:18:20] covered and this is specifically for our commission
[1:18:23] law enforcement officer positions, the probation post officers.
[1:18:31] So this shows the total budget inclusive of
[1:18:35] sources as well as operations. I want to
[1:18:38] focus on operations. Go to the next slide,
[1:18:42] please. So when we look at 2022 versus
[1:18:46] 2023, we saw a 9.12% increase, which equated
[1:18:54] to approximately half a million dollars that had
[1:18:58] been allocated in the proposed 2023 budget. Later
[1:19:03] in the slides, we'll explain or I'll explain
[1:19:05] the need for the positions that we've requested.
[1:19:17] So with our professional service contracts, all of
[1:19:20] these contracts are renewal contracts, which means that
[1:19:25] these providers, for me, have provided a proven
[1:19:28] track record in which they help to respond
[1:19:32] to not only the Department of Juvenile Services
[1:19:35] need, but also to the court orders by
[1:19:38] the juvenile judges from juvenile court. And so
[1:19:42] we have three main providers, which is Convenient
[1:19:45] Care that does business as total occupational medical.
[1:19:49] We have Doctor. Brandon Romano that provides four
[1:19:52] psychological and other evaluations. And we have New
[1:19:56] Decisions that's responsible for social, therapeutics and recreational
[1:20:01] services as well as those medical evaluations and
[1:20:05] on-site medical care. So for the department positions
[1:20:14] request and rationale, I have requested the addition
[1:20:19] of an Assistant Executive Director, three positions for
[1:20:24] Juvenile Probation Officers post two, and for data
[1:20:29] coordinator. By adding these particular positions, it will
[1:20:34] allow our department to operate more effectively and
[1:20:38] efficiently. The creation of the Post two allows
[1:20:44] for recruitment and promotion of retention of staff,
[1:20:48] but it also improves the ratio of commission
[1:20:52] law enforcement officers that's available to help improve
[1:20:56] safety and security of our entire complex. Also,
[1:21:02] the last rationale is with the data coordinator,
[1:21:06] I feel that we will be in a
[1:21:07] better position to respond to data requests from
[1:21:10] three primary organizations that we are responsible to
[1:21:14] provide that data to. That's Louisiana Commission for
[1:21:17] Law Enforcement, the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, and
[1:21:22] the Louisiana Juvenile Detention Association for the State
[1:21:26] of Louisiana in which I serve as Vice
[1:21:28] President. Now over the last year and a
[1:21:38] half, we certainly saw a change in the
[1:21:41] landscape for juvenile services. And in doing so,
[1:21:46] we attribute a lot of that to raise
[1:21:48] the age law as we examine the associated
[1:21:52] data. If I may, I want to read
[1:21:58] from the Louisiana Children's Code Article eight zero
[1:22:02] four, for the definition of child. Child means
[1:22:06] any person under the age of 21, including
[1:22:11] an emancipated minor, who commits a delinquent act
[1:22:15] before attaining 17 years of age. So, as
[1:22:20] a result of these changes, the detention center
[1:22:24] now has to house people that are aged
[1:22:27] 17 to 20 years old, including those youth
[1:22:30] who have been indicted or billed for prosecution
[1:22:34] in adult courts. Doctor Wade, I'm sorry. Point
[1:22:41] of personal privilege, if that's okay. I'm so
[1:22:43] glad that you're talking about this because I
[1:22:45] know that this is a pain point. But
[1:22:46] can you tell us while we're speaking on
[1:22:48] this, you may have been getting to it,
[1:22:49] so I apologize, the youngest age of a
[1:22:52] person in the juvenile detention facilities? The youngest
[1:22:54] age of a person is 10 years of
[1:22:56] age. So 10 to 20? Yes, ma'am. Thank
[1:22:59] you so much. Phase one of raise the
[1:23:03] age only address those youth who committed minor
[1:23:07] offenses. Phase two now addresses anyone who commit
[1:23:11] any offense which includes fourteen-two violent crimes which
[1:23:17] is inclusive of first and second degree murder,
[1:23:19] aggravated rape, and offenses of that nature. So
[1:23:26] the changes to the population created new pressures,
[1:23:30] which you'll see that the allocated ARPA funding
[1:23:35] from the mayor's office is certainly helping us
[1:23:38] to address those challenges. So we are thankful
[1:23:40] for that. This particular slide shows a consistent
[1:23:48] decline in the admissions of juvenile detention over
[1:23:52] a thirteen year period from 02/2007 to 2020.
[1:23:58] Raise the age is kind of what I
[1:24:00] considered as an unfunded mandate. And so although
[1:24:04] those individuals came to juvenile services, there was
[1:24:07] no funding attached to it. I would like
[1:24:11] for you to pay particular attention, 02/2007, the
[1:24:15] admissions population was a little bit over a
[1:24:18] thousand. Over that thirteen year period, it declined
[1:24:23] to three ninety three. The next slide. But
[1:24:30] we then started to experience an admissions influx
[1:24:34] in 2021. And if you are reminded, in
[1:24:38] much of 2020, during the pandemic, we were
[1:24:41] pretty much under a global stay at home
[1:24:44] order. And so we did not experience the
[1:24:47] influx until 2021 when we started to return
[1:24:51] to some states of normalcy. And so in
[1:24:55] 2021, we would see the increase of admissions
[1:24:59] go up to four sixty nine. In this
[1:25:03] particular year, as of today, at one p.
[1:25:06] M. When I ran this data, we have
[1:25:08] admitted four sixty youth to the juvenile detention
[1:25:12] center. Now the average or the range over
[1:25:16] the last five months have been anywhere from
[1:25:18] 32 to 48 admissions averaging about 40 admissions
[1:25:24] per month. So we are on track according
[1:25:28] to the data to meet or exceed 500
[1:25:32] by the end of the year. So what
[1:25:42] are the areas of impact and actions as
[1:25:44] it relates to the challenges with juvenile services?
[1:25:47] I see it as two fold staffing and
[1:25:49] infrastructure. When we look at staffing from the
[1:25:53] City Parish general fund, we have been able
[1:25:58] to address a special recruitment rate increase. Let
[1:26:03] me use for an example, in April of
[1:26:06] this year, detention officers made $11 and some
[1:26:10] change. Right now, their entrance rate is nearly
[1:26:15] $17 an hour. And so I want to
[1:26:18] thank finance and the mayor's office for hearing
[1:26:22] and immediately addressing those needs. Another example I
[1:26:28] like to share. For more than two years,
[1:26:33] we received requisitions, some literally that had one
[1:26:37] name or zero names on those requisitions. And
[1:26:41] so we attributed that to an influx of
[1:26:44] prime in area and this not being a
[1:26:47] very attractive institution in which people desire to
[1:26:51] work. So we are at a point, the
[1:26:55] last requisition I looked at for detention officers
[1:26:58] had 22 names on it. It had 22
[1:27:02] names. And so that is a significant improvement
[1:27:07] and it certainly speaks to the special recruitment
[1:27:10] rate that has been implemented across the board
[1:27:13] for juvenile services. I want to add, you
[1:27:21] know, the question may eventually be if the
[1:27:26] rate has went up to nearly $17 an
[1:27:29] hour, why are there still staffing issues? I
[1:27:32] want to remind everyone that in order to
[1:27:35] work in juvenile detention, you go through a
[1:27:39] series of qualifications, including a state background check,
[1:27:43] a CANS, which is a child abuse and
[1:27:46] neglect system, a matrix, which is a psychological
[1:27:50] evaluation, and a drug examination. And so failure
[1:27:54] to meet any of those standards eliminate them
[1:27:57] from the requisition. So although we started at
[1:28:00] 22 names on the requisition, when you go
[1:28:03] through that process, it dwindles it down to
[1:28:07] maybe three or maybe four that make it
[1:28:09] through the entire process. The one thing we
[1:28:19] identified at the beginning of this year is
[1:28:21] that there is always a need for additional
[1:28:24] training, but especially in light of the changed
[1:28:27] landscape within juvenile services. And so we are
[1:28:30] happy to say that that is in progress.
[1:28:33] They are receiving, those additional trainings that are
[1:28:37] specific to juvenile detention and we are in
[1:28:40] partnership with the Baton Rouge Police Department to
[1:28:43] offer defensive tactics and other professional development for
[1:28:48] our staff. Next slide. The second area of
[1:28:58] impact and actions associated deals with the infrastructure
[1:29:02] for juvenile services. We've often heard on the
[1:29:05] media that it is a building built in
[1:29:07] 1952. However, we are certainly working with what
[1:29:12] we have, But specifically through the funding, again
[1:29:15] from the administration, the allocated ARP money of
[1:29:20] $2,000,000 will help us to update and renovate
[1:29:25] needed areas within the juvenile detention center. I
[1:29:29] did not go into much detail simply because
[1:29:32] of the nature of the facility, but in
[1:29:35] general it will help to provide security doors,
[1:29:38] surveillance control and additional trainings, things of that
[1:29:42] nature. So we started this year, early February
[1:29:51] or March, working with DPW to do an
[1:29:55] assessment, working with other state subject matter expertise
[1:30:04] for prisons and for juvenile detention centers to
[1:30:08] come walk our buildings. Not only did we
[1:30:10] invite them in to come walk our buildings
[1:30:13] this summer between July and August, my staff,
[1:30:16] my leadership and administration, we visited approximately five
[1:30:21] or six out of state juvenile detention centers.
[1:30:25] And the purpose of that was to understand
[1:30:28] best practices outside of a state with a
[1:30:32] raise the age law. For example, we visited
[1:30:35] the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center. It was
[1:30:39] quite intriguing because their detention center is located
[1:30:43] in City Hall and it takes up about
[1:30:46] five or six floors. They have recreation on
[1:30:49] the roof so that was a bit surprising
[1:30:51] for us. We also visited the Harris County
[1:30:56] in Marietta, the Regional Youth Center and we
[1:31:00] studied their systems, we studied their practices and
[1:31:04] we studied their policies and through these visits
[1:31:07] and the DPW walk throughs and the experts
[1:31:10] within the state of Louisiana, I believe that
[1:31:13] we are on track to address the needs
[1:31:15] that we have within the detention center. That
[1:31:23] concludes the presentation. Councilwoman Bianca. Thank you so
[1:31:32] much, Doctor. Wade. This has been a passion
[1:31:34] of mine to see what you guys have
[1:31:36] been doing since I started on the council.
[1:31:38] And I'm so happy that you talked about
[1:31:40] the raise the age law and how that
[1:31:42] law did not come with additional funding to
[1:31:45] change your facility. Also, think I've been out
[1:31:49] there multiple times and I think it's important
[1:31:51] for everyone to know how antiquated your building
[1:31:53] is. And if you go into modern facilities,
[1:31:57] you would have open space where guards could
[1:31:59] see everything that's happening. However, in your facility,
[1:32:02] there are blind spots all over it where
[1:32:05] people can hide or do bad acts or
[1:32:08] whatever they may be up to, and it
[1:32:09] puts the guards in a particular position that
[1:32:12] is unsafe for them as well as the
[1:32:14] people that are in the facility. So can
[1:32:17] you can you tell us a little bit
[1:32:19] about if that $2,000,000 is gonna help with
[1:32:23] some of those issues and and what it
[1:32:26] is looking moving forward through 2023. What do
[1:32:29] we need to be looking for to make
[1:32:31] sure that we're moving forward and getting you
[1:32:33] those funds? Because so certainly the ARP funding
[1:32:37] of $2,000,000 will greatly help with juvenile detention,
[1:32:43] as we specifically look out and look at
[1:32:45] changing doors, with a heightened level of security,
[1:32:49] the locking mechanisms, their surveillance, video, things of
[1:32:52] that nature. Those things that we are able
[1:32:54] to renovate in an antiquated building. And so
[1:32:59] we will start there. Additionally, not just with
[1:33:04] the facility, but I believe that there was
[1:33:06] a great need for additional training with a
[1:33:09] new population coming into the juvenile detention center
[1:33:12] that officers were not familiar with. And so
[1:33:16] we have seen a drastic improvement. For example,
[1:33:20] it has been more than a year since
[1:33:23] there has been an escape from that particular
[1:33:26] facility. And within the four years that I've
[1:33:29] been there, there have been two escapes. In
[1:33:32] comparison to any other facility, that's a decent
[1:33:37] number. And so I attribute that to the
[1:33:40] officers and to my team members who are
[1:33:43] dedicated, diligent and very determined to do their
[1:33:46] jobs. So one more question. With regard to
[1:33:50] visiting some of these newer facilities and some
[1:33:52] of the educational programs that you guys have
[1:33:54] put in place, are y'all fighting? Can you
[1:33:57] show the recidivism rates with some of your
[1:34:01] residents? Is that declining within moving on, growing
[1:34:05] up? How does that work? How do we
[1:34:07] compare? So at one point we saw the
[1:34:10] recidivism rate declining. Just through observation over the
[1:34:14] last few months, we see the same individuals
[1:34:18] returning. And so we've not yet run the
[1:34:22] statistics for recidivism, but it's certainly something that
[1:34:26] we're watching and we'll be doing at end
[1:34:28] of year. Thank you so much. I just
[1:34:33] want to say God bless you. I have
[1:34:35] spent my career in schools and most recently
[1:34:39] working in a school that had everything from
[1:34:41] six weeks old to 18 years old. And
[1:34:43] I know what we went through just to
[1:34:46] make things developmentally appropriate and to keep children
[1:34:49] of certain age distances apart from each other.
[1:34:52] And just in very controlled school setting, was
[1:34:55] difficult, so I cannot even imagine what it
[1:34:58] has been like for you. So thank you
[1:35:00] for all your efforts. Thank you. Hey Doctor.
[1:35:06] Wade, have you come up with a job
[1:35:08] description for the addition of the Assistant Director?
[1:35:11] Yes, have. And, Mr. Gaudet, I don't have
[1:35:15] that with me, but, I would be happy
[1:35:17] to forward it to What I would like
[1:35:19] to say is through the visitation of juvenile
[1:35:22] detention centers out of state, but specifically in
[1:35:25] state. We have 13 juvenile detention centers with
[1:35:29] about three maybe on the style of the
[1:35:31] East Bainbridge Parish. Most detention centers are operated
[1:35:36] separately than from the services side. And so
[1:35:39] certainly I believe that the addition of the
[1:35:42] Assistant Executive Director allows for more leadership at
[1:35:46] the helm to effectively and efficiently address the
[1:35:51] needs of the entire building as opposed to
[1:35:55] focusing solely on juvenile detention which in the
[1:35:59] last year it has been a huge focus.
[1:36:04] Thank you. Thank you. And I'm sorry, was
[1:36:07] pulling up the budget. Meals caught my attention.
[1:36:10] It's a I I don't know if it's
[1:36:12] a revenue source for you. There's a 50
[1:36:15] in the 2023 budget for juvenile detention meals.
[1:36:18] Help me out with that. So at one
[1:36:20] point, we were receiving funds from the Department
[1:36:25] of Health and Nutrition for those funds to
[1:36:28] supplement. It came with a lot of restrictions
[1:36:31] and stipulations, And so it has dwindled down
[1:36:35] and we are looking to move away from
[1:36:37] it as we do have the funds available
[1:36:40] through our City Parish General Fund account. Y'all
[1:36:43] are cooking on-site. You have a full operational
[1:36:45] kitchen out there. We have a full operational
[1:36:47] kitchen and we have five staff that operate
[1:36:51] the kitchen and the laundry services for detention.
[1:36:54] Okay, thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay.
[1:37:01] I might make one statement about the facility.
[1:37:05] The study that's been done on the prison
[1:37:07] actually has also been done on juvenile services
[1:37:10] and the correctional facility there. So that study
[1:37:13] is done to help right size that doctor
[1:37:15] Wade has worked along with the warden, with
[1:37:17] the consultants, and the next phase really is
[1:37:20] to figure out what it takes to build
[1:37:22] that facility, what the spatial needs are, etcetera.
[1:37:25] So that'll be coming back to the council
[1:37:26] at some point for approval. Councilwoman Banks. I
[1:37:33] I guess I I came in on my
[1:37:36] one of my pet on departments that I
[1:37:39] really appreciate working with you as the director.
[1:37:43] One of the things, I guess again from
[1:37:45] the perspective of being an East Baton Rouge
[1:37:49] Parish school employee and working with, now I
[1:37:55] don't even know if it exists, but when
[1:37:56] I worked with the Office of Adjudicated Youth,
[1:38:01] in which I was responsible for transitioning students
[1:38:04] from juvenile services back into the school system,
[1:38:08] and one of the things that was during
[1:38:11] that time was never put into practice was
[1:38:18] an actual MOU between East Baton Rouge Parish
[1:38:22] School System and the Office of Juvenile Services
[1:38:25] and I was wondering can you elaborate on
[1:38:30] that because with that also it was necessary
[1:38:33] to have the proper staff on both sides
[1:38:36] because students were and I I would be
[1:38:41] remiss if I didn't say that, you know,
[1:38:43] I I'm not sure about this this current
[1:38:45] superintendent but we children actually got Carnegie units
[1:38:49] when they left under your helm where before
[1:38:53] time just went by and a lot of
[1:38:54] the frustration that led to not only recidivism
[1:38:58] but also students dropping out is that when
[1:39:03] they were in detention and they were doing
[1:39:06] the work under the East Bandwidth Parish School
[1:39:08] staff and when they left there were no
[1:39:11] grades, no attendance, no anything. And I know
[1:39:15] that getting that back into full a lot
[1:39:19] of time, a lot of that had been
[1:39:21] delayed with the change in a lot with
[1:39:23] the larger employee and all the other things
[1:39:26] that happened. So I'm going back to find
[1:39:28] out if the MOU had been established and
[1:39:32] what positions possibly on both sides are gonna
[1:39:37] be needed or implemented or suggested for both
[1:39:41] sides and if that is included in your
[1:39:43] current budget? So that's not included in the
[1:39:47] current budget, Councilwoman, but I will say that
[1:39:51] when I started at the helm of juvenile
[1:39:54] services, I went in to do review and
[1:39:57] assessments to see what existed and what needed
[1:40:01] to be maybe modified. I found upon my
[1:40:05] entrance that no students were receiving Carnegie credit
[1:40:08] units, and so it troubled me that these
[1:40:12] young people would attend school between 07:45 a.
[1:40:17] M. And 02:45 p. M. For busy work.
[1:40:20] And so I met with the administration, the
[1:40:23] superintendent, the director of alternative schools for EBR,
[1:40:27] and we quickly put a system in place
[1:40:32] where for the first time in the history
[1:40:34] of juvenile detention, that students receive Carnegie credit
[1:40:39] units. And so it did a few things.
[1:40:42] It incentivized them to want to do the
[1:40:46] work. Also, it prepared them for better reentry
[1:40:51] into society without having an education gap. I
[1:40:56] am thankful for the leadership of EBR, specifically
[1:41:01] Mr. Larry James, the Executive Alternative Director, who
[1:41:07] has worked side by side with me to
[1:41:09] address any needs that I brought to his
[1:41:12] attention. We have a current draft of a
[1:41:15] memorandum of understanding for East Baton Rouge Parish
[1:41:19] School System and juvenile detention that is in
[1:41:22] draft form that we will meet on and
[1:41:25] have conversations on both sides. What are the
[1:41:29] expectations for juvenile services? And then what are
[1:41:33] the expectations for East Baton Rouge Parish School
[1:41:36] System? I would be remiss not to say
[1:41:38] that I believe that our partnership over the
[1:41:42] last three years have seen great improvement, and
[1:41:46] so we hope to continue on a positive
[1:41:48] trajectory. As we go into 2023. We will
[1:41:53] continue those conversations and ultimately between legal services
[1:41:58] for the city and legal services for East
[1:42:01] Baton Rouge Parish enforce a memorandum of understanding.
[1:42:04] Okay. Who which staff of the parish attorney
[1:42:07] works closest with you in juvenile services? So
[1:42:11] that has been attorney, well, attorney Joe Scott,
[1:42:15] Elena Branserou, Don Gilliat, and so I worked
[1:42:18] with multiple ones. But within this year I
[1:42:21] worked a little bit more closely with Attorney
[1:42:24] Joe Scott who's actually here today. Okay, because
[1:42:27] I do know chances are you have to
[1:42:30] go through the General Counsel but also just
[1:42:34] wanting to make sure there was also under
[1:42:39] your staff a Director of Education. At the
[1:42:44] time this was Mr. Newman before he retired.
[1:42:47] So yes, Mr. Newman was the superintendent. The
[1:42:49] superintendent. And so we don't have a superintendent,
[1:42:51] we changed the name to senior shift supervisor
[1:42:55] to stay with best practices. There is no
[1:42:59] detention center that I'm aware of that has
[1:43:01] a detention manager and a superintendent because the
[1:43:05] functions are too similar. And so we changed
[1:43:07] that position to senior shift supervisor. Now we
[1:43:10] have a detention counselor who is a licensed
[1:43:13] professional counselor that will be starting within a
[1:43:16] week. That particular position is charged with the
[1:43:19] coordination of educational activities within the JDC. So
[1:43:23] are they doing academic and mental health or
[1:43:26] just academic? They are doing academics. Way the
[1:43:30] structure is right now, through our partnership with
[1:43:34] East Baton Rouge Parish school system, we have
[1:43:37] on-site five days a week, seven forty five
[1:43:41] a. M. To 02:45 p. M. Certified teachers
[1:43:44] and so the detainees attend class on a
[1:43:47] regular basis. On that particular staff, all East
[1:43:52] Bay Village Parish School System, we have an
[1:43:58] assistant director of EBR Readiness who is on-site
[1:44:02] every day And then we have the teachers
[1:44:04] for the various subjects as well as the
[1:44:07] paras that are needed. Our detention counselor, we
[1:44:11] certainly don't want to intrude on their expertise.
[1:44:14] So our position from the detention counselor is
[1:44:17] to ensure the coordination of educational services. So
[1:44:21] that's a new budget position? It is not.
[1:44:25] Okay, just a name change and a position
[1:44:27] change. Yes ma'am. Once you all get the
[1:44:29] MOU in order, it would be great if
[1:44:32] you would meet with Ms. Brazier so that
[1:44:37] each school counselor has that person's contact so
[1:44:41] that when children transition they will make sure
[1:44:44] those records follow them because that, you know,
[1:44:47] all of that is really the pipeline that
[1:44:49] is leading to a lot of our youth
[1:44:50] violence. You know, we don't have to go
[1:44:53] through that and I do recognize, you know,
[1:44:56] this administrator totally embracing you, Doctor. Larry James,
[1:45:00] having you in professional development as well as
[1:45:03] our fun stuff. So, you know, just thank
[1:45:05] you. We do have to work together and
[1:45:08] that's something I believe since I've been here
[1:45:10] and I do see it working very well
[1:45:12] between Juvenile services and the Spanish Fair School
[1:45:16] System. Thank you. Also, I wanted to share,
[1:45:19] we do have what I call a hope
[1:45:22] series, a leadership series. Again, hope have only
[1:45:26] positive expectations. So we bring in what I
[1:45:29] call realistic speakers for the youth. And recently,
[1:45:33] we had Mr. Bobby Ginn, who is the
[1:45:35] general manager for Winfield. We've had Superintendent Sito
[1:45:40] Narcisse. We've had Baton Rouge Police Department, Chief
[1:45:44] Murphy Paul, Deputy Chief Myron Daniels. We've had
[1:45:49] Ms. Vernadine Mabry, workforce and development. It is
[1:45:52] our goal to be intentional in pairing them
[1:45:55] with the resources so that they can successfully
[1:45:58] reenter into society. All right, thank you so
[1:46:03] very much for all that good information. And
[1:46:06] just keep in mind some individualized academic education
[1:46:09] plans for these children to see where they
[1:46:13] are and where they can go. Absolutely. Yes.
[1:46:17] Thank you so very much. If I could
[1:46:20] just have three seconds just to tell you
[1:46:22] that the city of Birmingham did launch a
[1:46:25] conflict resolution curriculum and so you know once
[1:46:29] that MOU that might be something we can
[1:46:31] also work on as a preventive methods for
[1:46:34] those to avoid recidivism and it'll help us
[1:46:37] in the school system so much better as
[1:46:39] well. Absolutely. Thank Thank you. Thank you. At
[1:46:43] this time we'll have the mayor's office. Thank
[1:46:48] you very much. This should be the briefest
[1:46:50] presentation of the night. My throat says yes.
[1:46:55] Our budgets, I think I have a little
[1:46:58] clicker, the mayor's office budget basically has three
[1:47:02] different divisions, administrative division, grant division, and special
[1:47:07] programs. The actual administrative part of our office,
[1:47:15] the budget there, excuse me, has actually gone
[1:47:18] down just a little bit from last year,
[1:47:20] and that decrease actually includes a 5% pay
[1:47:24] raise that everybody got. And part of that
[1:47:27] decrease is removing two of the positions out
[1:47:30] of our office into a special grants division,
[1:47:33] which we'll talk about in just a minute.
[1:47:35] But our total budget is roughly $2,500,000 for
[1:47:40] the administration part, 15 employees, one of those
[1:47:43] is actually the mayor, and one of those
[1:47:46] positions is made up of two part time
[1:47:48] people who serve as receptionists in our office.
[1:47:53] Grants has been a big challenge in my
[1:47:55] mind in City Parish. We have tried two
[1:47:58] different things to get to where I think
[1:48:01] we should be. We've had a federal grants
[1:48:04] coordinator which we needed to expand. We brought
[1:48:08] in a contract worker who was housed in
[1:48:12] the police department and that person was willing
[1:48:14] to do grant work for other departments. What
[1:48:18] we discovered was that our departments really don't
[1:48:20] have the capability to handle grants. We're trying
[1:48:24] to build that capacity. So this new division,
[1:48:28] we've taken two people, from our team and
[1:48:32] one person from OCD to create a special
[1:48:35] grants office. And the main person in that
[1:48:38] office, their key job will be to go
[1:48:40] out and basically market grants to different departments.
[1:48:45] There are grants all across the board, the
[1:48:47] fire department, police department, etcetera. So they will
[1:48:51] go out and encourage the departments to take
[1:48:53] grants that they find that they think are
[1:48:55] a good match. The National League of Cities,
[1:48:58] which we belong to, is a community. We
[1:49:01] have a special grants program that we have,
[1:49:04] contracted for there where they will actually write
[1:49:07] grants for us for $6,000 So as opposed
[1:49:10] to having a grants division that is stuck
[1:49:12] writing grants, we want to make certain that
[1:49:14] our grants division is out trying to get
[1:49:16] our departments to take those grants. And then
[1:49:19] two people to help administer the grants to
[1:49:21] make sure the departments can get through the
[1:49:23] process. One of the things we're working through
[1:49:26] also, we had a consultant who came in
[1:49:28] who's examined everything from the grant startup process,
[1:49:34] grants review, how it rolls through finance. We're
[1:49:37] trying to make certain that we can streamline
[1:49:39] that process to make it easier for everybody
[1:49:42] along the way. I think everyone here has
[1:49:44] seen that we struggle with grants. It takes
[1:49:46] a long time to get through that process.
[1:49:48] It's very cumbersome if you've ever tried to
[1:49:51] work with one of those grants per se.
[1:49:53] We love the money, but again, the bureaucratic
[1:49:55] process is very difficult. The other part of
[1:49:59] our budget within the mayor's office is special
[1:50:03] programs. Those include community sponsored programs. Those are
[1:50:08] things such as the Kiwanis Christmas Parade, which
[1:50:10] we help fund, White Light Night, which is
[1:50:14] a Dan ten Merchants Program. Different community events
[1:50:18] are funded through this category. Economic development programs,
[1:50:23] our actual, our lobbying functions are categorized in
[1:50:30] that. We do have a Corsten Nichols that
[1:50:34] does lobbying for us on the state level,
[1:50:36] and we have Crossroads that does lobbying work
[1:50:38] for us on the federal level. And then
[1:50:41] under economic development programs, we have things such
[1:50:45] as Oceans Medical, which we gave a stipend,
[1:50:49] a ten year commitment to help incentivize them
[1:50:51] to come to Baton Rouge. That's where these
[1:50:55] funds come from. The summer youth program, there's
[1:50:58] $200,000 in that category. There's also another $250,000
[1:51:04] of ARP money for 2023 that will help
[1:51:07] augment that program. Educational support initiatives used to
[1:51:14] be Cradle to K. That funding is now
[1:51:17] used for special education programs that we can
[1:51:19] help fund through the mayor's office. Neighborhood revitalization
[1:51:23] is a new category in our office. I
[1:51:25] think we explained that in budget meetings. We
[1:51:29] have a process that's been proven successful in
[1:51:32] Monroe and in New Orleans to expedite the
[1:51:37] blight remediation process and get some of those
[1:51:39] properties back in the marketplace. What that does
[1:51:43] is it will give us a way to
[1:51:44] clear titles on the most distressed properties, the
[1:51:47] ones that we just can't quite move through
[1:51:48] the process. There's a way we can take
[1:51:51] it through the court system and then clean
[1:51:53] the title up and get it in commerce
[1:51:55] very quickly. These funds will actually help us
[1:51:58] basically start almost a revolving fund where the
[1:52:03] funds will come in, the properties will be
[1:52:04] sold and the money will go back to
[1:52:06] continue the program. The Baton Rouge Film Commission
[1:52:09] is actually funded through this category also. There's
[1:52:13] a small increase in that this year. I
[1:52:15] think in 2020 or 2019 when we had
[1:52:19] to reduce budgets, we took a little bit
[1:52:21] of money away from that group and we're
[1:52:23] now giving it back. And I'm proud to
[1:52:25] say that the Baton Rouge Film Commission is
[1:52:28] doing extremely well. This year alone in 2020,
[1:52:32] there's $81,000,000 of production that's been done in
[1:52:35] Baton Rouge. The largest project was a Disney
[1:52:39] production that's getting ready to have its main
[1:52:41] screening. It was a $56,000,000 production. So that
[1:52:47] summarizes where we are in terms of our
[1:52:49] funding and where our money goes. Be glad
[1:52:51] to answer any questions. Do. Okay. Councilwoman Banks.
[1:53:03] In each of these categories, is it possible
[1:53:07] based on a 2022 budget to break down
[1:53:14] these initiatives, the ones that were current based
[1:53:16] on districts? We could come back and do
[1:53:21] that. Okay. I don't know about, I don't
[1:53:25] know if And some of them, like I
[1:53:28] was looking at I'm surprised the community sponsored
[1:53:34] program, it looks like that amount, I'm surprised
[1:53:37] it's only 65 because a lot of programs
[1:53:40] have been sponsored through But as it relates
[1:53:44] to that neighborhood revitalization, I probably did miss
[1:53:49] that meeting last Tuesday. Is there a department
[1:53:54] head for that? Marley Pittman who actually housed
[1:53:57] in OCD. Marley who is here. Marley might
[1:54:00] want to come up and give a little
[1:54:01] information. Is actually going to oversee that program
[1:54:04] and it's a program that Marley researched and
[1:54:07] discovered and has convinced everybody that we need
[1:54:11] to do a pilot program. If you have
[1:54:14] time to briefly tell me who qualifies, is
[1:54:20] it something that is from the top down
[1:54:23] or can, is it for non profits, is
[1:54:27] it for profits, how do you determine programs,
[1:54:31] all that good stuff? Yes ma'am. So our
[1:54:34] piece of the project is really about identifying
[1:54:36] the most distressed properties that have had title
[1:54:40] issues for years, if not decades. And so
[1:54:42] this is a process that the city can
[1:54:44] use. The ARP funding that y'all already dedicated
[1:54:46] for blight work, once that property is cleared
[1:54:50] of blight, to take it through a court
[1:54:52] process, to then put it into the land
[1:54:55] bank, so that we're then able to sell
[1:54:58] that to non profits, local developers, and have
[1:55:00] some community control over that property now that
[1:55:03] it has cleared title. I know that there
[1:55:05] we we wanna make sure that it is
[1:55:08] quickly moved out of the land bank and
[1:55:09] into community hands, but with cleared title, they'll
[1:55:13] actually be able to get the financing that
[1:55:14] they need to then do something with it,
[1:55:16] so that property will be a lot more
[1:55:17] useful to our local developers and to our
[1:55:20] local nonprofits, and so there will be a
[1:55:21] lot more interest in it. Because my concern
[1:55:25] is when you said land bank. I know.
[1:55:28] I'm not the man of the land bank
[1:55:30] at all. No. Know. And so are we
[1:55:32] still talking about the Bill Baton Rouge land
[1:55:34] bank? Yes, ma'am. But what's key to know
[1:55:36] is that the the reason the land bank
[1:55:38] really isn't able to to live up to
[1:55:41] some of those hopes that we have for
[1:55:44] our community is that the enabling legislation for
[1:55:47] how they were gonna clear its title, it
[1:55:49] fell. And you know this, and but we
[1:55:51] will actually be handling handing them titled cleared
[1:55:55] title property from the Okay. So they won't
[1:55:58] so we won't have to work with some
[1:55:59] of those other existing issues. And then they'll
[1:56:01] be able to use their equitable resale model
[1:56:03] to get that back into people's hands. Because
[1:56:05] our our goal is not to have the
[1:56:06] auction determine these things. Sure. The other thing
[1:56:09] is I'm concerned about big business with big
[1:56:12] money eating up the little fish and the
[1:56:14] little developers. Yes, ma'am. I'm thinking about a
[1:56:18] particular piece of land that has been difficult,
[1:56:21] it has been targeted by some very wealthy
[1:56:25] people and I could see them using this
[1:56:28] mechanism to clear title, but then there are
[1:56:34] other less fortunate developers that would like to
[1:56:38] have that same opportunity. And a lot of
[1:56:42] these things happen absent the of the council
[1:56:47] members. And so I like the idea that
[1:56:50] when, for instance, ABC, when Okay. I've gotten
[1:56:54] it where and and also planning where they
[1:56:58] let us know what's coming down because they're
[1:57:01] each one of our areas have may have
[1:57:03] a focus that we're working on. And and
[1:57:06] you can help to determine Right. So if
[1:57:08] someone out the blue comes up with their
[1:57:10] own little deal and we aren't aware, that's
[1:57:12] taking resources from like, I work very closely
[1:57:16] with CPEX in Scotlandville. And so if I'm
[1:57:19] working with CPEX and Southern University and we're
[1:57:22] going around trying to make sure that the
[1:57:26] quality of life for people living, working, whatever
[1:57:29] around Southern University and then somebody comes and
[1:57:33] they go through this and it just mess
[1:57:35] up the whole ecosystem. So I'm interested in
[1:57:39] making sure, wanna know how we could mitigate
[1:57:42] that, will that, And just, you know, a
[1:57:44] little bit more focus on I don't wanna
[1:57:47] I I don't like working six years to
[1:57:49] get get us to a point and then
[1:57:51] someone just come in and do their thing.
[1:57:54] I mean, I think that clearly outlines why
[1:57:57] we need to use the capabilities of a
[1:57:59] land bank. Because we could just take it
[1:58:01] to auction and then just whom Houston Developers
[1:58:03] could kinda come in, use a tax write
[1:58:05] off or something like talking about the the
[1:58:08] service prior to that. Yes ma'am, so once
[1:58:11] it's in a land bank, then the land
[1:58:13] bank can adopt those community plans, can work
[1:58:15] with council members to find ways to sell
[1:58:18] and use that property that meets the best
[1:58:20] needs of the districts, which really our council
[1:58:22] members know. And I'm talking about before we
[1:58:24] even get to that. So how do you
[1:58:26] identify the One of my biggest points, problems
[1:58:28] with land bank is that we just land
[1:58:30] bank. And for me to when I've got
[1:58:33] and talked to other programs that did redevelopment,
[1:58:37] You don't just choose a piece of land.
[1:58:39] Yeah. Used targeting, didn't And we're clear, you
[1:58:43] have to have a specific plan. Yes, ma'am.
[1:58:48] And as a matter of fact, anybody comes
[1:58:49] You're talking my language. I You have to
[1:58:51] have a plan before it even gets to
[1:58:53] a land bank to qualify for all these
[1:58:56] other things. Yeah. Because how often I mean,
[1:58:59] these land bank, it stays forever, you know?
[1:59:02] So I'm talking about where we get where
[1:59:05] someone is coming to meet, they're like, we're
[1:59:07] I'm trying to let's just say Scholumbert Avenue.
[1:59:10] I'm trying to do the Scholumbert Avenue thing
[1:59:12] and this particular property is in the land
[1:59:16] bank Mhmm. And they're able to show you
[1:59:19] substantial abilities and a plan, that should cut
[1:59:25] before you just people just sit in there.
[1:59:27] Yes, ma'am. And so I have several properties
[1:59:29] like that that are in blend in the
[1:59:32] land bank Mhmm. As being they don't have
[1:59:34] to their title, so you can't keep them
[1:59:35] with them. I don't want whatever the existing
[1:59:38] land bank to you start working on those
[1:59:40] property when I got some people waiting with
[1:59:42] money in their pockets to do something else.
[1:59:45] Ma'am. How do we avoid that? So the
[1:59:47] best way to avoid that is to I
[1:59:49] think it's what you said, is to pick
[1:59:50] the properties in the beginning for this process
[1:59:52] that are we know there's a community plan
[1:59:55] for, we know that there's a community partner
[1:59:57] that's ready and willing to do stuff. Because
[1:59:59] I think I know that I have residents
[2:00:01] that reach out to me, local developers that
[2:00:03] reach out to me, same that do to
[2:00:04] you. There is enough people in this community
[2:00:07] who have things that they wanna achieve. So
[2:00:08] we just need to work with them to
[2:00:10] pick the we this is a pilot, so
[2:00:11] just a little 25. It's a good Pilot.
[2:00:14] So we're gonna pick those properties using data,
[2:00:16] using our community partners. We'll take it through
[2:00:19] this process. We'll we'll work out the kinks
[2:00:21] on the small level, and then we'll get
[2:00:23] to, you know, a place where once it
[2:00:24] gets to the land bank, and then we
[2:00:25] immediately sell it back out and we're able
[2:00:27] to do what we need to do as
[2:00:28] as a community with that land. Okay. And
[2:00:31] then eventually get to where mister Gissel said
[2:00:34] that if we're able to if this works
[2:00:36] and then we're able to invest in this
[2:00:38] in a real way, then we have a
[2:00:39] revolving fund where we're constantly doing this. Mhmm.
[2:00:41] And it might only take a year for
[2:00:43] somebody to bring to you a good idea,
[2:00:45] but this clear title has been abandoned for
[2:00:47] ten years or more, fire, all that kind
[2:00:50] of stuff. We'll be able to take it
[2:00:52] through this process, land bank sold within a
[2:00:55] year, year and a half, as opposed to
[2:00:56] a ten year auction, prescriptive period adjudication process.
[2:01:03] Yes, ma'am? Yes, ma'am? Okay. In the right
[2:01:10] area. Mhmm. But I've gone from ten years
[2:01:16] of promising and believing god for Scotlandville area
[2:01:19] to have a full service grocery store. To
[2:01:23] the possibility of having a one and a
[2:01:26] half grocery store. But in the special projects,
[2:01:33] how do we fit that into economic development
[2:01:36] program? You know, we've done Healthy BR. I've
[2:01:40] approved Healthy BR with the promise that it's
[2:01:42] going to get a grocery store in Scotlandville.
[2:01:44] And then once it's approved, I've heard from
[2:01:48] grocery stores from the top of Bank 1
[2:01:51] in downtown to Plank Road to everywhere else
[2:01:56] and so of course I feel like I've
[2:01:57] been I've I've been duped. Then I've there's
[2:02:01] been it we've we've in the past approved
[2:02:05] money for strategic retail strategies. I'm thinking we
[2:02:10] are working again on Scotlandville because nobody was
[2:02:13] talking about a grocery store other than Scotlandville
[2:02:17] for ten years. No other it has the
[2:02:21] largest food bank. It's where all the interest
[2:02:23] was. But like every good plan, once you
[2:02:26] start, then everybody sees it as a good
[2:02:28] plan for their communities. And, you know, I've
[2:02:32] heard the excuse of, well, if I make
[2:02:34] it just for your community, your other colleagues
[2:02:37] are going to get upset, and all kind
[2:02:39] of foolishness like that. How do I get
[2:02:41] to the place where there is a sincere
[2:02:46] focus on a grocery store in this budget,
[2:02:50] in the Scholumbier community, not that we cut
[2:02:53] shortcuts, because I'm confident that we wouldn't check
[2:02:57] the box that are necessary, but that we
[2:03:00] go through the real plan because we don't
[2:03:02] want a project that's gonna Right. And that
[2:03:04] no other funds are there's a dedicated funding
[2:03:09] stream just like we did with Costco under
[2:03:13] Melvin Kip Holden. Like, what does it take
[2:03:18] for that? We still have, and Linda could
[2:03:20] correct me, we still have $750,000 that was
[2:03:23] allocated for a grocery store and I think
[2:03:25] the big issue has been trying to find,
[2:03:28] right now it's set up for disinvested community
[2:03:31] for a food desert. But that's the problem.
[2:03:36] When we deal with downtown, we didn't deal
[2:03:38] with city of Baton Rouge, we dealt with
[2:03:40] downtown. When we dealt with Plank Row, we
[2:03:43] dealt with Plank Row. When we dealt with
[2:03:45] Arden Wood, we say Arden Wood. But when
[2:03:47] it talks about a grocery store in Scotlandville
[2:03:50] that had that had four grocery stores and
[2:03:54] because of federal, state, and local disinvestment, we
[2:03:59] lost those arteries. So at what point is
[2:04:02] there gonna be the retail reciprocity owed to
[2:04:06] the people in the community in and around
[2:04:08] Scotlandville where this city says we are focusing
[2:04:12] on a grocery store in the community of
[2:04:16] Scotlandville. I can say as a realtor from
[2:04:21] the outside, I've worked on grocery store projects
[2:04:23] in other communities and the tough thing there
[2:04:26] is trying to incentivize someone to come in
[2:04:29] which those funds are actually there for. And
[2:04:31] it has never happened, that's my I'm asking
[2:04:37] Darrell to defer to me on this because
[2:04:39] I think that it's something that I could
[2:04:42] probably speak to a little bit more in-depth
[2:04:47] as it relates to the whole grocery store
[2:04:52] closing that gap. I think you will recall
[2:04:56] and maybe some of your colleagues, but you
[2:04:58] certainly have the longevity here. When I first
[2:05:02] came in office, we started an initiative with
[2:05:09] the Fresh food initiative. Yeah, but we started
[2:05:13] an initiative with Together Baton Rouge that asked
[2:05:19] us to use some of our resources to
[2:05:23] help uplift and stand up a grocery store
[2:05:28] in disinvested communities. The name of the company,
[2:05:32] not really a company but nonprofit, was Hope.
[2:05:37] We all came into agreement, counsel as well
[2:05:41] as the administration on that would be a
[2:05:44] good path forward. I will be very candid
[2:05:48] with you and say that we did not
[2:05:50] see the results that we thought we were
[2:05:53] going to see. Now, I'm not going to
[2:05:56] cast a negative light on hope. I think
[2:05:59] that perhaps they it was a little bit
[2:06:04] more challenging for them than than they anticipated.
[2:06:09] Fast forward, as Daryl said, we still have
[2:06:12] that money and that commitment. For example, I
[2:06:17] want to say it was either the North
[2:06:20] Baton Rouge Economic Development District or the Blue
[2:06:23] Ribbon Commission. One of those groups asked us
[2:06:26] to help support a study for retail. And
[2:06:32] I think that I don't know which group
[2:06:34] that was but it was one of the
[2:06:35] groups in the North Baton Rouge area that
[2:06:38] coincides with some of the work that's being
[2:06:40] done in Scotlandville. Do you recall which group
[2:06:43] that was? No, I know it wasn't in
[2:06:45] NBR now because we know that we don't
[2:06:47] need any more studies. We know that together
[2:06:49] Baton Rouge for six years, I already did
[2:06:51] a study on it. It was one of
[2:06:54] Probably NBR now because they came in late.
[2:06:56] Okay, it was one of those groups. But
[2:06:58] with that being said, the commitment to having
[2:07:03] closing that grocery gap, it still exists. Is
[2:07:08] there a specific plan now that we have
[2:07:11] all rallied around, whether it's been the council
[2:07:13] or the administration? There's not a specific plan
[2:07:16] at this moment, but we still have the
[2:07:19] dollars. We still have the resources to make
[2:07:22] that happen. And I don't think there's anybody,
[2:07:25] whether it's a council member, certainly not my
[2:07:27] administration, that does not want to see a
[2:07:31] grocery store happen in the Scotlandville area. You
[2:07:36] mentioned a few minutes ago being specific. I
[2:07:39] have no problem with Scotlandville because I believe
[2:07:42] that it is certainly part of the fabric
[2:07:44] of North Baton Rouge. And when you put
[2:07:47] a grocery store in Scotlandville, you certainly help
[2:07:51] empower North Baton Rouge. So I don't have
[2:07:54] a problem with that. And the administration is
[2:07:57] certainly open to any plans that perhaps we
[2:08:02] can incentivize. As you well know, Councilwoman, there
[2:08:06] were nothing at one point, and I think
[2:08:09] we all had a meeting about this, a
[2:08:11] public meeting at the library where we were
[2:08:14] talking about the different the potential of having
[2:08:18] grocery stores in the Scotlandville area because there
[2:08:21] had been a lot of discussion around it.
[2:08:23] You remember that meeting? I'm not remember. Is
[2:08:26] Scotlandville Library? No we had it right next
[2:08:29] I probably wasn't there. Okay well some of
[2:08:31] the members of the Schollerville community who've been
[2:08:35] working on that and I think some of
[2:08:36] them have been working with you on that
[2:08:38] were at that meeting. Nevertheless, I would certainly
[2:08:42] welcome any tangible strategic partnership that speaks directly
[2:08:53] to let's get a grocery store in Scotlandville
[2:08:58] with Plan ABC. I do believe that there
[2:09:04] are some other initiatives, as you may well
[2:09:07] know from some of the state legislators, that
[2:09:11] are trying to certainly bring a grocery store
[2:09:16] to that area as well. Listen, we have
[2:09:21] room for more than one grocery store when
[2:09:25] it comes to disinvested communities. So the money
[2:09:29] is here. We are certainly willing and ready
[2:09:33] to move forward with a plan of action.
[2:09:36] So I think, you know, I hear what
[2:09:39] you're saying and I've heard those things before
[2:09:43] as it relates to you saying you care
[2:09:46] about Schollinville and you support, but then when
[2:09:49] we get down to the nuts of Nabalta
[2:09:51] and we bring a plan and we think
[2:09:54] we're ready to go, then you renege on
[2:09:56] those plans. Well I disagree with you. You
[2:09:58] continue and then I'll rebut. Yes, and then
[2:10:01] so the thing about it is one of
[2:10:03] the reasons why we've come up with so
[2:10:05] many plans is because when there have, when
[2:10:10] the goal, when you set a goal such
[2:10:12] as in 2016 and you don't move forward,
[2:10:16] it gives an opportunity for more people to
[2:10:19] just come up with ideas because it's difficult
[2:10:23] to have someone setting a precedent and a
[2:10:27] leadership and stating specifically this is the direction
[2:10:31] we're going. That takes leadership. And so that's
[2:10:35] why we get all these people who have
[2:10:38] not been vested in Schuylenville Twenty And Thirty
[2:10:41] Years, go out of office forty years, come
[2:10:44] back, and they have the assets and they
[2:10:48] are able to get the money at the
[2:10:51] federal level or the state level, you know,
[2:10:54] all out the door. And if we're discombobulated
[2:10:58] with no one standing and saying, this is
[2:11:03] where we are and this is the direction
[2:11:06] we're going. So, it has put me, someone
[2:11:09] who has been fighting since 2012, to get
[2:11:14] these projects off the road to be in
[2:11:16] some several areas of conflict. You know, when
[2:11:20] you met mention North Baton Rouge Economic Development
[2:11:23] District, they weren't even the North Baton Rouge
[2:11:25] Economic Development District when we started getting these
[2:11:30] plans together. They had no funding. They didn't
[2:11:33] even cover at that time. They didn't they
[2:11:36] were not even part of our district. Our
[2:11:38] district didn't even cover their boundaries. So, my
[2:11:42] problem is, you know, just like we're heroes
[2:11:45] for hope, we came up with a plan.
[2:11:47] We we we did every the the dots.
[2:11:50] You know, those developers based on your word,
[2:11:53] based on you bringing that to the council,
[2:11:55] based on you approving those things, and now
[2:11:58] we gotta go to council we gotta get
[2:12:01] the the federal people that gave us the
[2:12:03] money, we done everything, and now you're making
[2:12:05] the developers go ask congressman Graves and congressman
[2:12:10] Carter, and they think it's laughable. And so
[2:12:13] I am dis disgusted that, you know, that
[2:12:17] it's lip service that we could If you
[2:12:19] would come with a plan, that you're gonna
[2:12:22] support it and that you don't have a
[2:12:23] problem with it because in the reality of
[2:12:26] it, we don't see it. And that is
[2:12:28] the disgust and there's no, no, no, there
[2:12:31] is no working together. You know, that's me
[2:12:35] stuck out trying to help developers who put
[2:12:37] all their funding on the retail side based
[2:12:40] on an approval and you don't give a
[2:12:43] damn about the fact that they losing money
[2:12:45] every day. And that's a that's a problem
[2:12:49] for me. And you have the asset. You
[2:12:52] have the federal. You have the ability to
[2:12:55] go to treasure. We've I've asked for that.
[2:12:57] We've asked you to to show to all
[2:13:00] the documentation. I've talked to finance to explain
[2:13:04] what where they're different. We've done everything we
[2:13:06] could do. So, for you to say that
[2:13:08] if we follow that same path to get
[2:13:11] a grocery store, it is is not is
[2:13:14] not really something that I could put my
[2:13:18] dollars on or that I could go back
[2:13:20] to the people and say, the mayor said,
[2:13:23] I can I no longer have that kind
[2:13:24] of support or belief that you would do
[2:13:27] it because you reneged on this other deal?
[2:13:32] So, Councilwoman, it's unfortunate that you feel that
[2:13:38] yeah, it's unfortunate that you listen, I'm not
[2:13:43] gonna I'm not going, you know, I could
[2:13:46] I think you have confused the truth. How
[2:13:49] about we say that? And I'm not gonna
[2:13:51] get into that debate. I've told you time
[2:13:53] and time again, if you want to talk
[2:13:55] to me about that in a civil manner,
[2:13:58] you have come to my We have emailed
[2:14:00] you. But you have you seen the emails
[2:14:02] you Listen, listen. I'm not going to debate
[2:14:05] that with you right now. I'm not going
[2:14:08] to debate it with you right now. If
[2:14:09] you want to have a civil conversation with
[2:14:10] I have had those conversations with you and
[2:14:15] you dismissed them. I have I have. I've
[2:14:17] gone I've gone to every Are you gonna
[2:14:19] let me talk? I listen to you. But
[2:14:21] you're not Madam Leader, Councilwoman, I listen to
[2:14:24] you. I am telling the truth. Mary, you're
[2:14:27] I am telling the truth. Councilor. And I'm
[2:14:28] not going to let you try to discredit
[2:14:30] me. Well, miss. I'm not going to get
[2:14:31] up here and debate with you. I'm not
[2:14:33] going know the problem is you. You worry
[2:14:36] about yourself. That's the problem. You're delusional about
[2:14:39] some of this stuff you're talking about. And
[2:14:41] call the developers, they'll tell you about the
[2:14:43] money that they're The developers tell me one
[2:14:45] thing and they have another conversation with But
[2:14:49] let me just say this, do you want
[2:14:50] to allow me a time to speak or
[2:14:52] you don't? If you're not going tell the
[2:14:53] truth. I'm to tell the truth. I'm gonna
[2:14:55] tell the truth. All right let's see, I
[2:14:58] think this one is. All right. Councilwoman, the
[2:15:03] truth is when you brought that program to
[2:15:07] me, I readily embraced it. I am still
[2:15:12] very dedicated to the project, whether you believe
[2:15:15] it or not. The proof is the pudding,
[2:15:20] and we are getting to that point. But
[2:15:22] the issue is, I'm going to do everything
[2:15:26] decently, in order, cross every T, dot every
[2:15:30] I. So I do not put you, the
[2:15:34] developers, this administration, at any liability. Now I'm
[2:15:38] not going if you wanna have an extended
[2:15:40] conversation with me If we ask you to
[2:15:41] go to U. Treasury, how that's not in
[2:15:43] If if if you wanna have an extended
[2:15:46] conversation with me about this in addition to
[2:15:51] what we've all the information we've already shared
[2:15:54] then you can do that but I'm not
[2:15:56] going to do it at the budget hearing.
[2:15:59] Okay thank you very much thank you. Alright,
[2:16:02] at this time we're gonna ask that the
[2:16:05] Office of Community Development come on down and
[2:16:12] I just hope no children were watching. Come
[2:16:14] on, come on baby. Children need to know
[2:16:16] about debates. That's why our kids can't function.
[2:16:20] They don't have a void. Thank you. Good
[2:16:33] evening council members. We'll be going through, of
[2:16:37] course, the mayor's office of community development budget
[2:16:39] today. The two documents that you have, one
[2:16:42] is a presentation that is on the screen.
[2:16:44] The other is the detailed budget as well
[2:16:46] that breaks down some of the costs. For
[2:16:48] the office of community development, of course, we're
[2:16:51] currently staffed at four full time staffers and
[2:16:55] nine contracted employees, which includes, of course, our
[2:16:59] community revitalization director that you spoke with earlier.
[2:17:02] It's important to note as we go through
[2:17:05] the budget for the Office of Community Development,
[2:17:07] it is comprised of entitlement funds as well
[2:17:11] as general fund budget as well, which we'll
[2:17:15] go through on the next slide. In the
[2:17:17] first quarter of twenty twenty two, we also
[2:17:20] went paperless in OCD. If you spent any
[2:17:23] time on the Seventh Floor, you'd know that
[2:17:25] we had rooms filled with boxes of files
[2:17:29] that dated back into the early 2000s, '20
[2:17:32] '10. Our team has now gone paperless in
[2:17:35] doing that. We also held a boot camp
[2:17:38] for our new employees and hosted an affordable
[2:17:41] housing developer workshop all within City Parish. In
[2:17:45] the past, you've seen many of these instances
[2:17:47] done through contractors or third parties, but our
[2:17:49] department has taken on that task. If you
[2:17:52] look behind me, you'll see a row of
[2:17:54] folks. I'm really elated that they've taken their
[2:17:56] time while off to join us today to
[2:17:59] see and understand the proceedings of the Office
[2:18:02] of Community Development, and these contractors and employees
[2:18:04] are committed to the process of improving our
[2:18:07] department and making sure that we are putting
[2:18:10] out our federal funds in a timely fashion
[2:18:13] and a compliant fashion as well. In that,
[2:18:16] we've also had an annual stakeholder meeting for
[2:18:19] community input for our action plan and we've
[2:18:22] hosted a statewide lead hazard reduction grantee meeting
[2:18:26] and many of our members have also attended
[2:18:28] several community development association conferences to increase professional
[2:18:32] development to be able to vet projects within
[2:18:35] our community. Our major programs are funded by
[2:18:38] those four entitlements, which you'll see on the
[2:18:41] next slide, which is CDBG, Community Development Block
[2:18:46] Grants, HOME, HOPWA, housing opportunities for persons with
[2:18:52] AIDS and ESG. Within these grants, you'll see
[2:18:57] under here that we've listed how these funds
[2:19:00] are eligible to be used, whether it's home
[2:19:03] buying activities, homeowner rehab, public facilities, public services,
[2:19:10] and then with our home dollars, construction and
[2:19:12] rehab for sidewalks, utility connections, soft costs, also
[2:19:17] converting properties from commercial to residential, homeowner rehab,
[2:19:21] and tenant based rental assistance. Speaking to some
[2:19:25] of the programs that we've had within these
[2:19:27] budgets, we've done many projects in the North
[2:19:29] Baton Rouge area because these funds are focused
[2:19:32] towards low to moderate income households. For example,
[2:19:35] we've had Elm Grove Capstone Project, which put
[2:19:38] $1,400,000 of home dollars in the Scotlandville area.
[2:19:42] YWCA Providence Place, dollars seven and fifty six
[2:19:45] thousand home project for domestic violence victims with
[2:19:49] the YWCA. Central Road Rehab, which is also
[2:19:52] in the Scotlandville area, 600 ks. And then
[2:19:55] UREC Foster Oaks, dollars one point seven million
[2:19:59] has been put in within those areas. In
[2:20:02] the last three to four years, we've put
[2:20:05] out approximately $10,000,000 in active housing projects for
[2:20:09] low to moderate income home buyer rental properties
[2:20:13] with developers within our community. And if you
[2:20:16] include the C and I grant, Choice Neighborhood
[2:20:19] grant that came from HUD that awarded $30,000,000
[2:20:22] to our parish, we also included $1,500,000 in
[2:20:26] an add on allocation to that as well
[2:20:28] in entitlement funding to support land acquisition and
[2:20:32] rehab that was needed to support that project.
[2:20:36] If you go to the next slide. The
[2:20:40] Office of Community Development within the last few
[2:20:42] years has also received a large amount of
[2:20:46] non entitlement funding as well. What you're looking
[2:20:49] at on this slide particular is our funding
[2:20:52] sources for general fund as well as our
[2:20:56] entitlement programs. As you'll see, 2023 has dates
[2:21:01] in that column. The reason why is because
[2:21:03] we do not receive our entitlements for that
[2:21:06] year until September. So the funding that you'll
[2:21:09] see for fiscal year twenty twenty two will
[2:21:12] actually be spent in 2023. Some of these
[2:21:16] dollars also carry over from year to year
[2:21:18] when you look at the budget within the
[2:21:21] budget book, so you'll see that there's increased
[2:21:23] funding year over year based upon carryover from
[2:21:26] those entitlement funds. For 2022 entitlement funds, again,
[2:21:32] that are spent in 2023, you're looking at
[2:21:35] $3,200,000 in CDBG funding, dollars 2,000,000 in HOPWA
[2:21:39] funding, 1.5 in home funding and 273,000 in
[2:21:45] ESG. Those entitlement funds is where most of
[2:21:48] our dollars for our staffing, contracts and administration
[2:21:53] of various grant programs and activities take place
[2:21:56] year over year. There's a reduction from 2022
[2:22:00] into 2023 for the general fund budget. There
[2:22:04] was a special allocation of $400,000 that you
[2:22:07] all, along with Mayor Broome, awarded to the
[2:22:10] Office of Community Development to improve processes for
[2:22:13] our home rehabilitation program, which is why you
[2:22:16] saw there was a special infusion in 2022
[2:22:19] that's not a part of the normal allocation,
[2:22:21] and traditionally the department receives 392,000 but you
[2:22:26] had Daryl reference that there was one staff
[2:22:29] position and some funding that moved from OCD
[2:22:32] to the mayor's office for the grant administrator.
[2:22:35] That grant administrator will also be able to
[2:22:38] support grants that are available through HUD for
[2:22:41] community development departments as well and this person
[2:22:43] is particularly specialized in finding new funding sources
[2:22:47] for gap programs that may exist within the
[2:22:50] department. Next slide. Now we're gonna talk about
[2:22:56] non entitlement funding which we've received several projects
[2:22:59] for within the last year. You have emergency
[2:23:02] rental assistance with the Treasury, lead based paint
[2:23:06] hazard reduction, the American Rescue Plan dollars that
[2:23:10] went specifically for home within, the Treasury program,
[2:23:15] CARES Act, Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security
[2:23:19] Act, weatherization assistance, declared disaster recovery funds and
[2:23:25] even more recently CDBG disaster recovery funds which
[2:23:29] are tied to a specific disaster and they
[2:23:31] must be used to meet unmet needs caused
[2:23:34] by that named disaster. You can look at
[2:23:38] the budget breakdown of that on the next
[2:23:40] slide. Rental assistance particularly I want to take
[2:23:43] some time to talk about because that's a
[2:23:45] significant number when you look at $80000000.80.6 to
[2:23:48] be exact. On the next slide, you'll see
[2:23:50] the breakdown of funding for that program. 59,000,000
[2:23:54] of that 80,000,000 is allocated to direct assistance
[2:23:59] for residents, meaning those are dollars that are
[2:24:02] going in the hands of tenants to make
[2:24:04] sure that they are not evicted from their
[2:24:07] homes. Another portion of those dollars went to
[2:24:11] the eviction diversion program, which is supported by
[2:24:14] organizations like Southeast Legal Services who just celebrated
[2:24:17] eleven years of being in operation today that
[2:24:20] have served over two forty nine families, six
[2:24:23] zero nine individuals that we have prevented from
[2:24:26] being homeless through the work of that program.
[2:24:31] The last slide, of course, does give that
[2:24:33] information particularly for the districts for the rental
[2:24:36] assistance and I know that there may be
[2:24:38] particular questions about many of the programs within
[2:24:41] CDBG or HOME for your districts and the
[2:24:44] Department of Community Development will start to host
[2:24:47] quarterly meetings to give general information to the
[2:24:51] council members about the projects that are happening,
[2:24:54] hold ups on particular projects because just like
[2:24:56] many other dollars that we see through City
[2:24:59] Parish, when you have federally regulated dollars, There's
[2:25:02] compliance restraints that we have to fall within,
[2:25:05] environmental reviews. So these projects can span anywhere
[2:25:09] from one to five or six years. That
[2:25:11] may seem like a long time just hearing
[2:25:14] that but there are so many phases that
[2:25:16] we have to go through within that. We
[2:25:17] want to make sure that we're having more
[2:25:19] conversations with you all as council members to
[2:25:21] be able to articulate to your residents that
[2:25:24] may be contacting you about them. I'll now
[2:25:27] take any questions. All by myself. First of
[2:25:34] all, Courtney, you did a great job. Thank
[2:25:36] you. Can you go back to slide number
[2:25:39] one? Slide number two. So, entitlement funds, it
[2:25:50] was my understanding that those are like extra
[2:25:53] funds that are pulled from other areas, I
[2:26:00] don't know if it's federal or state, but
[2:26:02] and then it that's how it's not like
[2:26:05] a reoccurring something you could count on, it's
[2:26:08] like lame yap. So explain that to me
[2:26:13] as it relates to this and is this
[2:26:15] part of the proposal for 2023 because they're
[2:26:20] gonna these are the entitled the city has
[2:26:23] received notification of entitlement funds under these programs
[2:26:29] coming in 2023? It's a little bit of
[2:26:32] both. There's some some fact in that so
[2:26:34] I wanna bring some articulation to it and
[2:26:37] align it, the facts there. So first off,
[2:26:39] the city and parish does receive annual allocations.
[2:26:43] You are right, we cannot count on those
[2:26:44] until we get an award letter that comes
[2:26:47] in saying that we will receive them. And
[2:26:49] then part two, we have to submit an
[2:26:51] action plan for those dollars, which also has
[2:26:53] to be approved. So there may be times
[2:26:55] that you'll receive a notification and dollars may
[2:26:58] be withdrawn if you're not spending them down
[2:27:00] enough. These dollars are all contingent. Contingent upon
[2:27:04] criteria of the program, contingent upon criteria of
[2:27:08] the city parish and their prior spending from
[2:27:11] previous years. For example, OCD is still managing
[2:27:15] dollars as far back as 2015. We have
[2:27:19] disaster dollars as far back as Gustaf and
[2:27:22] Ida that are still obligated and tied up
[2:27:24] into programs, however they are still on our
[2:27:29] books and we're still carrying them. What you
[2:27:31] see here, and if you go to the
[2:27:33] next slide for fiscal year twenty twenty two
[2:27:36] that says projected, these dollars were not awarded
[2:27:40] to the OCD until September of twenty twenty
[2:27:44] two. Our fiscal year is almost over at
[2:27:47] that point. So what you're seeing here that
[2:27:49] says fiscal year twenty twenty two, the spending
[2:27:52] of that will happen in 2023 up to
[2:27:55] five years after that. When you see 09/2023
[2:28:00] in all of those areas in September of
[2:28:02] twenty twenty three, we'll be able to speak
[2:28:05] about 2024 spending with twenty twenty three dollars,
[2:28:08] if that makes sense. So what you hear
[2:28:10] me talking about now is general fund from
[2:28:12] 2023 but program year dollars from 2022. But
[2:28:18] they are the are the lanyard. Some of
[2:28:21] it is and some of it isn't but
[2:28:22] you all roll it all in together if
[2:28:24] it had not been used. So you look
[2:28:26] at every year that's there. This shows the
[2:28:28] amount that we were given. Yeah. And we
[2:28:31] award them every year. However, if they're not
[2:28:33] used in a timely fashion, there may be
[2:28:35] land yet to roll over, yes, but that
[2:28:37] the rollover is not reflected in what you're
[2:28:40] looking at right now. Okay. Only what is
[2:28:42] awarded on paper, on books every year. Okay,
[2:28:45] so that was I received a notice that
[2:28:48] there was some entitlement money EBR just got
[2:28:51] like two or three weeks ago like 1,300,000.0,
[2:28:54] 3 point 1 million. So that is from
[2:28:55] the state, that is state OCD, yes ma'am.
[2:28:58] So how much was that? It depends on
[2:29:00] the particular program but I will go, if
[2:29:03] you go to the next slide, two slides
[2:29:05] back, actually one more. So if you look
[2:29:08] here, two to three weeks is not reflected
[2:29:10] within this, but you're probably speaking about approximately
[2:29:14] 1.3 to 1.8 that came from the state
[2:29:18] specifically for infrastructure. Yeah. And I don't know
[2:29:21] if you have that email up but. So
[2:29:23] when it's entitlement, what I I was told
[2:29:27] that when it's entitlement entitlement, it isn't it
[2:29:33] is not earmarked for a particular purpose. Once
[2:29:39] it becomes, once it's entitled, that it may
[2:29:42] have gone out initially under, you know, a
[2:29:48] specific whatever, but once it be kept, once
[2:29:51] that money is left over and that pot
[2:29:54] of money is given to You're probably speaking
[2:29:56] from state language, and and most respectfully, our
[2:30:01] state legislators are very familiar with how money
[2:30:03] goes from congress to the state. When it
[2:30:06] goes to the municipality, we have three layers
[2:30:09] of compliance that we have to follow. Local
[2:30:12] compliance for city parish, HUD compliance from the
[2:30:15] federal level, and we cannot operate as a
[2:30:19] city parish local jurisdiction like a state jurisdiction
[2:30:22] can. Sometimes the state will give us money
[2:30:25] if they have something left over. Before an
[2:30:27] entitlement, we are given these dollars specific under
[2:30:30] these categories and there's project uses for for
[2:30:33] each category that we have to have. So
[2:30:35] the only reason I was asking that is
[2:30:38] how do we as council members, since it's
[2:30:42] not count in, you know, like a lot
[2:30:43] of times you come with your projects you
[2:30:45] don't have enough money. But once we get
[2:30:48] entitlement fund, how do we become a consideration
[2:30:56] for this Absolutely. Every year. I got that
[2:30:58] notice, I already have a plan. So how
[2:31:01] how does that work? So number one, we
[2:31:03] have to look at what the compliance rules
[2:31:05] are for the dollars. It's great to have
[2:31:07] a plan of an idea, but then you
[2:31:10] have to figure out how we can put
[2:31:11] it into a compliant program that will be
[2:31:15] approved by HUD. I have to be very
[2:31:17] honest to say over the last five years,
[2:31:20] when and you're you're familiar because of the
[2:31:22] timeline that you've been here, OCD in in
[2:31:24] the city of Baton Rouge did not have
[2:31:26] favorable consideration with HUD. Over the last five
[2:31:29] years, we've worked very hard to become very
[2:31:32] compliant in our projects. We've had to get
[2:31:34] red tape. We've had to go back to
[2:31:36] HUD and other national departments to make sure
[2:31:39] that we're doing it correctly. Because when many
[2:31:42] other jurisdictions may get a breeze over, city
[2:31:47] parishes look through like a fine tooth comb.
[2:31:49] Yeah. And that's not a problem, it's just
[2:31:50] that is it our responsibility as counsel, you
[2:31:54] know, so I might have a plan and
[2:31:55] yeah, may or may not fit. Yes ma'am.
[2:31:58] But, and hopefully I guess that's now that
[2:32:00] we have an in house OCD, we need
[2:32:03] to know who is the contact person who
[2:32:06] is not as what I found in housing.
[2:32:08] He wrote to tell me why all of
[2:32:10] a sudden I don't qualify or I'm not,
[2:32:13] but how do you make it work? And
[2:32:15] it shouldn't take nine months, ten months. It
[2:32:18] does unfortunately. We have projects that have taken
[2:32:20] over two years to even get approved. Wasn't
[2:32:22] about to say that. Yes ma'am. To work
[2:32:24] the plan out. Yes. To present. And so
[2:32:28] it's like I'm glad we got an in
[2:32:31] house staff again. I think that's gonna be
[2:32:33] helpful. But we really gonna need to know
[2:32:35] what each person does. Sure. And know I
[2:32:38] like the idea of having an in house
[2:32:40] grant department because I've recommended and grants and
[2:32:45] they get approved but it never comes back
[2:32:47] to my district. Yes ma'am. But you know
[2:32:49] so how do we, I don't know if
[2:32:51] that's gonna be a case management project. I
[2:32:54] can give you some information. I'm looking for
[2:32:56] more inclusion. I'm not like, you know, a
[2:32:59] lot of I'm not like every other council
[2:33:01] member that might just wanna wait. I really
[2:33:04] am, you know, if the mayor is right,
[2:33:06] I'm in a hurry to get things done
[2:33:07] in my history. Yes, ma'am. Am in a
[2:33:10] hurry. Patience is a virtue for the Office
[2:33:12] of Community Development because one, every incremental year
[2:33:17] for every entitlement year, we have to put
[2:33:19] in an action plan. That's it. You all
[2:33:21] approve that action plan every year. Every three
[2:33:23] to five years, we have to do a
[2:33:25] consolidated plan. Right. You all have to approve
[2:33:27] that plan every year. I will share another
[2:33:30] non popular thing is meeting after meeting after
[2:33:32] meeting. OCD has to do that on paper.
[2:33:34] None of those are problems for me. I've
[2:33:36] been through all of that. Yes ma'am. I'm
[2:33:38] just saying that before we get to the
[2:33:41] action plan, coming to each council member and
[2:33:43] asking them for project. We legally can't do
[2:33:47] that. Here's what we'd have to do. We
[2:33:49] have to open up an action plan or
[2:33:51] a consolidation plan. We can talk to you
[2:33:54] about concepts, ideas and put together projects that
[2:33:58] may have a general cost, but that project
[2:34:00] then, after the action plan, has to be
[2:34:02] submitted in an RFP period. If the project
[2:34:05] has gone through an RFP, for example, Housing
[2:34:08] for Heroes, the reason why Housing for Heroes
[2:34:11] was able to be allocated or suggested for
[2:34:13] a home or CDBG project, and that's still
[2:34:16] on the table, is because they presented a
[2:34:19] proposal in prior funding rounds for the action
[2:34:22] plan, so we're able to go back to
[2:34:24] that project at any given time. Sure, but
[2:34:26] Holly for Heroes was approved, not presented, under
[2:34:30] ARPA because it fit the ARPA mandates. Yes,
[2:34:34] ma'am. And so and one of the things
[2:34:36] that the expansion of the ARPA program in
[2:34:39] April was because so many municipalities found the
[2:34:43] stringently of using home and CDC that they
[2:34:47] actually wrote guidelines to say, no, do not.
[2:34:51] You all are limiting the process of ARPA.
[2:34:54] ARPA is not for you to keep doing
[2:34:57] what you're doing here. It's to leverage the
[2:35:00] plan so that more people, and you are
[2:35:03] able to do more work, not that slow
[2:35:06] process that home is CDBG. And there's been
[2:35:10] a huge misinterpretation that from this municipality, based
[2:35:16] on what I heard when I talked to
[2:35:17] finance, they were under the impression that you
[2:35:21] have to be go by home guidelines, CD
[2:35:24] guidelines, HUD guidelines. That is not what it
[2:35:28] said. It said if it will If meets
[2:35:31] those qualifications, it automatically meets OPERA. OPERA. It
[2:35:36] did not mean you gotta go through those
[2:35:38] plans to get OPERA. And that So, when
[2:35:42] we get to that and even her, and
[2:35:43] I see why we've had a problem, because
[2:35:45] we are misinterpreting their plans so often. So
[2:35:48] there is something that they offer called technical
[2:35:50] assistance? And that's what I've been asking about
[2:35:52] for nine months. Sure, so I'm gonna speak
[2:35:54] back specifically to And the reason I'm so
[2:35:56] smart in knowing that we're not doing right
[2:35:58] is because I have a relationship with her.
[2:36:01] I have a relationship with Oprah. And the
[2:36:03] reason why I have been disgusted and debusted
[2:36:06] with the mayor is because she's on NLSC
[2:36:10] exactly the board and she won't ask them
[2:36:12] because she's a mayor and she won't ask
[2:36:14] treasury because she won't act wouldn't act and
[2:36:17] we've been doing this nine months and those
[2:36:19] guys lost money and they constantly lose money
[2:36:22] and she just keep passing us on to
[2:36:24] different one of her staff. Dontay just get
[2:36:26] here. What's the other girl name? I'm gonna
[2:36:28] go to respectfully, Councilwoman, I'll share that we
[2:36:32] can go to the patients is the virtue
[2:36:33] piece of this to be able to go
[2:36:35] through because we for example, the YWCA Providence
[2:36:38] project and I'm gonna go back to OCD
[2:36:40] Because they never received AQRA funding that was
[2:36:42] approved by the Right. We're speaking through OCD.
[2:36:45] So I'm going back to that I apologize.
[2:36:47] Speaking back to the OCD lens, you need
[2:36:49] me? Okay. Back to the OCD lens, you
[2:36:52] do have to go through the RFP process.
[2:36:55] Once the RFP process is done, you then
[2:36:57] also have to submit your projects through HUD
[2:37:01] to be approved, which is that one to
[2:37:03] two year project. All is understood per year.
[2:37:05] Yes ma'am. When interjected that housing for heroes
[2:37:09] I just answered your question. That's what got
[2:37:10] me fired up. I answered your question. I
[2:37:12] wanna go on record for that fact. I
[2:37:14] did answer your question. Any more questions? Any
[2:37:17] questions, councilman? Mayor, I hope you don't think
[2:37:21] you're security I mean, you don't think I'm
[2:37:23] about to like No, ma'am. Just wanted to
[2:37:27] be clear. The next slide. Next slide. Yes,
[2:37:30] I'm representing my people. I'm an elected official
[2:37:34] representing the people. I'm just as a married
[2:37:37] and I'm not being negative. Time. And I'm
[2:37:39] not being yeah, Thank you. Please. Could you
[2:37:56] walk me through this slide? I don't fully
[2:37:58] understand it. This is specific to emergency rental
[2:38:01] assistance by district. So the 80,000,000 on the
[2:38:04] previous slide that was non entitlement funding, that
[2:38:12] slide represents 41,000,000 of that that has been
[2:38:15] paid out to date since we received those
[2:38:17] dollars by districts specific only to emergency rental
[2:38:21] funds from the treasury. What's the unclassified? So
[2:38:24] unclassified is a bucket of projects that are
[2:38:29] not labeled by address by district solely because
[2:38:33] our system, and this is an internal system
[2:38:35] glitch, is not sourcing it by district based
[2:38:38] upon the address. These have to go back
[2:38:40] in hand process to see which district those
[2:38:43] are versus the computer generating them. So I
[2:38:46] wanted to show the total so that's why
[2:38:48] that shows there, but it's literally that these
[2:38:50] 10,000 are actually broken up into 12, it
[2:38:53] just has to be manually processed. So District
[2:38:55] 3 being the district that I'm privileged to
[2:38:59] represent? Yes, sir. Three fifty mean three fifty
[2:39:02] residents received emergency rental assistance who were placed
[2:39:06] in District 3? That is correct. That their
[2:39:09] landlord and their address that they are in
[2:39:11] currently, that they receive rental assistance for is
[2:39:14] within District 3. That is correct. And it
[2:39:17] very well may be possible that of that
[2:39:19] 10,000, there may be some District 3 as
[2:39:21] well. Just have to manually place them. Okay.
[2:39:23] That seems like a task. So I couldn't
[2:39:27] have it today, but yes. So do you
[2:39:29] have funding breakdown? Gardere is obviously the area
[2:39:34] that I'm most interested in. Sure. Do you
[2:39:36] have a funding breakdown within the zones within
[2:39:39] East Baton Rouge Parish? Not just for ERAP,
[2:39:41] but for what all funding? You you named
[2:39:43] about 1,700,000.0 within Scottsville. Yes, You have similar
[2:39:47] data. I I'd be interested in receiving it
[2:39:49] for District 3. Absolutely. I do not have
[2:39:51] it today. I apologize. But I can follow-up
[2:39:53] to get that to you. And we are
[2:39:55] planning our first scheduled meetings for each of
[2:39:57] you in January. So we will have more
[2:40:01] information about your district, what's The actual plan
[2:40:03] is Yes, yes sir. Thank you. Thank you
[2:40:06] ma'am. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you,
[2:40:11] mister Toots. And you all have a good
[2:40:16] good evening.