BOGALUSA CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
MINUTES
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014
PRESIDING: CHARLES E. MIZELL, MAYOR
JERRY BAILEY, DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION
DALE BRANCH, CITY ATTORNEY
PRESEN T: COUNCILMAN O’REE
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND
ABSENT: COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS
COUNCILMAN HODGES
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Bogalusa City Council meeting will come to order. Invocation by Councilwoman Graham, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: Led the Invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE………………………HERE
COUNCILMAN HODGES……………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE……………..HERE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE……………………….HERE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS…………….ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM………………HERE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND………………HERE
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we have the approval of the minutes held on June 17, 2014.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: I move we accept them.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE……………………AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES…………………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE………….AYE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE…………………….AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS………….ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……………AYE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND…………….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO APPROVE THE MINUTES HELD ON JUNE 17, 2014 MEETING).
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next we have Introduction of Resolutions.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next is Introduction of Ordinances Vice-President Perrette.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE:
AN ORDINANCE setting Millage Tax Rates for 2014 as required by law.
This ordinance will be up for public hearing at a later date.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Next is public hearing, Vice-President Perrette.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE:
AN ORDINANCE requesting proposals for the operation of the Deli in the Park.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone from the public wishing to speak for or against this ordinance please step forward and state your name and address. There being none council discussion.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: I make a motion we accept it.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE……………….AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES…………….ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE……..AYE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE………………..AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS…….ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM………AYE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND……….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT REQUESTING PROPOSALS FOR THE OPERATION OF THE DELI IN THE PARK).
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM:
AN ORDINANCE to revise the 2014 Budget.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone from the public wishing to speak on this ordinance please step forward. There being none council discussion.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: I make a motion we accept it.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE…………….AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES……...... ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE…..AYE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE…………….AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS….ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……AYE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND…….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO REVISE THE 2014 BUDGET).
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM:
AN ORDINANCE to amend and re-enact Section 4-3 of the Bogalusa Code to make it unlawful for any person engaged in any business of selling or serving alcoholic beverages as described in R.S. 26:90(3) and defined in Section 4-2 to permit any person below the age of twenty-one (21) years to frequent, hang around or loiter at or in such place of business.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone in the public wishing to speak for or against this ordinance please step forward. There being none council discussion.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: This means if you are under the age of twenty one you can’t go to the bar?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: That is what it sounds like to me.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: I mean you can’t go into the premises at all. Isn’t the law already that?
BY CHIEF CULPEPPER: There is a State Law that 18 to 21 year olds can go into these establishments accompanied with their parents but are not allowed to drink with in the city limits.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: It is bringing it up to date. I was at the age 18 and 21 when we were grandfathered in so that is not the way they plan.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: They say also the business of selling or serving that is more than a club.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: You can’t sell it if you’re under the age of 18.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: It makes it unlawful to selling or serving anyone under 18 to 21.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Oh so if you are a bar owner and you are serving under the age of 21.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Yes but I’m also looking at it is saying about the law to hang around I mean we are talking about a gas station or strictly a bar.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: So you have to be 21 to go in.
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: Where it gives the advised statues it includes visits loiter or any place where alcoholic beverages beer or principle commodities are sold or and given away.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: So you can go to a restaurant just not a bar.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: So a bar is the legally defined as they don’t sell food?
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: They can’t by it at the bar anyway I mean at the restaurant.
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: Well not buying but going in. We got this place down the highway the Red Zone.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Yes like Yo-Yo’s how do you do that?
BY COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND: It has to be 51% of their money is in food.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: It’s a restaurant so is Red Zone considered a restaurant? Well it is a bar and grill. I’m just asking. It would not affect them they are outside city limits.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Any more discussion? Motion anyone?
BY COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM: There being none I move that it be accepted.
BY COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND: Seconded.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE……………..AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES…………..ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE……AYE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE………………AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS……ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……..AYE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND………AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO AMEND AND RE-ENACT SECTION 4-3 OF THE BOGALUSA CODE TO MAKE IT UNLAWFUL FOR ANY PERSON ENGAGED IN ANY BUSINESS OF SELLING OR SERVING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AS DESCRIBED IN R.S. 26:90(3) AND DEFINED IN SECTION 4-2 TO PERMIT ANY PERSON BELOW THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE (21) YEARS TO FREQUENT, HANG AROUND OR LOITER AT OR IN SUCH PLACE OF BUSINESS).
BY COUNCILMAN O’REE: We are going to bring the ordinance off the table to provide for inspection of rental houses in Bogalusa before occupancy by the tenant begins. I want to make a motion to bring it off the table first.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Seconded. Roll call.
COUNCILMAN O’REE……………AYE
COUNCILMAN HODGES…………ABSENT
VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE…..AYE
PRESIDENT RITCHIE…………….AYE
COUNCILWOMAN WILLIAMS….ABSENT
COUNCILWOMAN GRAHAM……AYE
COUNCILMAN DRUMMOND…….AYE
(MOTION CARRIED 5-0 WITH TWO ABSENT TO AMEND THE AGENDA TO BRING AN ORDINANCE BACK TO THE TABLE).
AN ORDINANCE to provide for inspection of rental houses in Bogalusa before occupancy by the tenant begins.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Anyone in the public wishing to speak for or against this ordinance please step forward and state your name and address.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: 1704B Riverside Drive. First I would like to thank Mr. Hall for giving me a hand with some stuff we had to take care of. As far as this ordinance is concerned we thank you for allowing us to work with you all on that ordinance. There are still a couple of questions that I have. One of them is the time frame and two it is a two part question. From a time you come into a plot for an inspection what is the leg time between the actual times you can get the inspection done?
BY MAYOR MIZELL: We are shooting for 72 hours max.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: 72 hours max.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: This does not include weekends just week days Monday thru Fridays.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: Second thing is does the landlord have to be present to the inspection? Can I designate someone to stand in for me while you do this inspection?
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: As long as they are over the age of 18.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: Here is where my problem is you say you are going to do it in 72 hours that is fine. Now that means I have to stay there from eight o’clock in the morning until four o’clock in the afternoon until you show up?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: The day that it is set they most probably will be able to get in touch with you very easily.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: That is what I’m asking. Could I give you a contact number where they can say I’m in route or thirty minutes out and say I’ll be there in thirty minutes or what ever.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I would certainly think that----
BY MAYOR MIZELL: It will be the same as relationship to those who are testing natural gas and so forth. I think my aim is to make this to go on at the same time.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: The last question I think I might have now lets get a for instance I’ve had a move out for whatever reason and I need the water turned on to clean the place up will that be a possibility? To have the water turned on to clean up?
BY MAYOR MIZELL: I see no reason you couldn’t turn it on with the property deposit.
BY ELBERT BUCKLEY: That is all I have and thank you.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Thank you any one else?
BY LEON SAMPERE: 835 North Columbia Street. This is my second meeting with the City Council. Questions that I have are many such as what is the deposit or cost of the inspection? Do we have a cost?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: It is my understanding we are striving to make this cost neutral. Okay that is the ultimate goal we pay a cost now for having your electrical inspection done and there is hopes that we can get all this done in that fee structure.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Like they come and do it all they inspect for electricity and they inspect water and all that right there.
BY LEON SAMPERE: I really have no objections to all the items I just need clarifications what the item means such as what is a functional---
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: What number?
BY LEON SAMPERE: Number five. What is a functional heating system?
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: One that works. That is functional.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I would say one that works.
BY LEON SAMPERE: One that works well most of them has some kind of piping in the house and therefore we use some people use these heaters are these no longer liable?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Not the old tunnel no.
BY LEON SAMPERE: Making oxygen depleting that a lot of people use. It is a certain heater certified by the government used by HUD in different locations is that a functional heating system?
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I’m looking at James Hall.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: I don’t think they are requiring you to have one that you have to--- they are not requiring that. Like my grandmother’s house she has the old wall heater.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: I think the key word here is functional.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Hers is fine but it is not new and it works fine.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: But are those up to code those old ones?
BY JAMES HALL: (inaudible) yes.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: Okay.
BY LEON SAMPERE: I don’t know about the rest of the landlords and I am convinced that the tenants has a way of eating screens that they are barbequing them. In my warehouse right now they just brought in some screens and the old ones are just about shredded. These people have just torn them to pieces. My three other houses they did the same thing too. We might have to go to aluminum screens and we can put up throw away screens as they cost very little and may be better off doing that.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Yes some places don’t even have screens so we are not requiring them to have them. If they don’t have them is that correct? He says yes that is correct.
BY LEON SAMPERE: I would say that screens are an ideal thing to have if you don’t have air conditioning.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: We are not requiring that they have air conditioning.
BY LEON SAMPERE: When you don’t have air conditioners you don’t have screens?
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: Well if you don’t then yes you do need them. I mean these are the kind of questions that you can answer Mr. Sampere.
BY LEON SAMPERE: Like I said I got this writing and I went through it and these are the things that jump out at me because when you put screens on the house it cost three to five hundred dollars. You put a screen door on the front and the back it is fifty dollars a screen door and the other windows just think of how many windows you got. It cost forty dollars a window.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: But I don’t see anything here that says screens are required are they?
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: He is saying they are not but he is saying they are not required.
BY PRESIDENT RITCHIE: I don’t see it any where in this that says screens.
BY ALL COUNCIL MEMBERS: Number one.
BY LEON SAMPERE: It doesn’t say they are required but you are going to inspect them if they have them.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: If they got them up there they should be in good condition.
BY LEON SAMPERE: I’ll go down the line and say ninety percent of the houses in town do not have screens. Seventy percent does not have screen doors. Some people want to sit outside and look out through the screen doors. Basically I can live with most of this as is.
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: I don’t have one and it is not required but if I do have one it doesn’t need to be hanging on the floor.
BY MAYOR MIZELL: Could I address this if I could Mr. Sampere? On number one if I read it correctly it says if the exterior including roofs porches, windows, doors or screens etc. and the interior disrepair and in need of maintenance. No where in here does it say that it is required but if there is a screen and it is hanging down and dilapidated yes it needs to be removed or repaired. This is the simplicity of it.
BY LEON SAMPERE: When you’re electrical system and your smoke alarms and things of that sort---
BY VICE-PRESIDENT PERRETTE: It’s with a battery.
BY LEON SAMPERE: I think Mr. Hall and I and electrical inspector tried this a couple of years ago we put a bunch of them in that we wired and inside of a year they were all gone and the batteries were out of the smoke alarms and were in the children’s toys so it is almost impossible to control but we have to do it right?