The first meeting of July, also the first meeting since Jackie Reed’s death. Rest in peace.
The agenda and meeting video are available online.
Mayor Battle was absent from today’s meeting (away on city business). In his place, someone put a bouquet of flowers and papered over his nameplate with “in loving memory of Ms. Jackie Reed.” The first act of the council was to appoint Jackie Reed as “honorary mayor” for the evening (moved by Kling, seconded by Meredith, unanimously carried).
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20j: The Nashville Soccer Club is launching a MLS NEXT Pro soccer team in Huntsville, after their 10-year lease of Joe Davis Stadium was approved unanimously by council. Highlights of the lease agreement include:
Hamilton mentioned that temporary paint technology means the field can be used for basically any game that works on a rectangular field.
The team is expected to take possession of the stadium next May.
Agenda-related public comment started with 3 minutes of silence. There was no substantial agenda-related comment (one individual had questions about the legal authority Community Development uses during the notice and demolition process, however).
Chad Chavez noted that the speaker roster tends to get collected a bit too early during council meetings. (Council bylaws say that citizens may sign up to speak through the end of item 20; Chavez says the list was collected about 45 minutes in advance of this.) He mentions the IRE’s Golden Padlock Award and describes this year’s HPD annual report as much sparser than those of previous years (this is true, I’ve read the annual report and it is really lacking in actually useful information other than high-level crime statistics).
Everyone had some sort of memorial speech for Jackie Reed at some point.
Keith announced the District 1 “A Cut Above” summer landscaping challenge.
Akridge:
Robinson:
Kling gives us a trash truck ordering update. It sounds like a total of 9 additional trucks — 6 boom trucks and 3 automated trucks — will be delivered by the end of the year, with the first scheduled to arrive in October.
Meredith:
12: Mayor Battle was out, so Hamilton made nominations from the floor during the usual mayor comment period.
15b and 15d: These two items are board appointments to the same seat. Initially, neither had enough votes to pass. After realizing that the bylaws for this board leave seats filled until replacements are elected, Kling moved to reconsider 14b, and Chase Allen’s appointment to the Alabama Constitution Village and Historic Huntsville Depot Board, Place 7, passed in a 4-1 vote with Akridge as the only “no” vote.
16a: Keith requested that this appointment be voted on in the first council meeting in August.
16: Akridge nominated Lynn Troy (spelling?) to the Von Braun Center Board of Control from the floor. Keith requested that this nomination also be voted on in August.
19e: Introduced by Akridge, not by Public Transportation. Akridge wanted to revise the ordinance to require a dedicated employee to tend to horses pulling carriages during disembarkment and boarding only “if possible”, instead of having a blanket requirement. Robinson successfully moved to postpone consideration of this matter.
9a: Demolition of an unsafe property as a public nuisance. Usually these are routine, but a real estate developer spoke up about wanting to buy the property in question. Community Development and Akridge noted that if an unsafe property is brought up at council for demolition, it’s way too late to buy that property and fix it. Hamilton noted that property sales are fully independent of any Community Development action, and the city doesn’t necessarily have the authority to sell the property at all.
9d: Akridge mentions that Stan Smith, who was issued a horse-drawn carriage operator license, might be operating such carriages on private property (which explains the “streets and routes” language in 19e).
17: Keith (I think? not clear in my notes) mentions that Huntsville Utilities will be giving a general update to council at the first meeting in September.
19b: Akridge asked why old vehicles were being disposed of as surplus given the extreme issues getting vehicles in this supply chain environment. Ricky Wilkinson, director of general services and fleet, noted that the repair cost for issues in these vehicles had exceeded their actual value or were otherwise deemed unfit for service.
19d: This could result in a significant pay bump during future promotions for city employees. The current pay system gives city employees a 5% raise target during any promotion event, even if the promotion would normally be several pay grades above their current level. This amends the pay structure to guarantee a 5% raise per grade increase. Hamilton says most grade increases are two steps or more. This ordinance also amends service anniversary dates for firefighters and police officers so that there aren’t months-long pay disparities between members of the same academy graduating class.
20o: Council approved demolition of the (now vacant) Butler Terrace apartments to make way for the new Mill Creek Choice Neighborhood plan. Keith noted that council and city administration need to make a concerted push to actually get started on construction in this development soon. Kling mentioned that affordable housing needs to be spread throughout the city, and not just be concentrated in one area.
Agenda items are in bold.
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