05/05/2020

[0:00:00] latest with that heavenly father lord god we thank you for tonight again we thank you as always for the opportunity to come here and we're going to conduct the business of our city father thank you for our mayor and board and the wisdom and discernment you give to them or we ask tonight or that you just use them and you guide them or to make best decisions for our city or we thank you how you watched over and protected our city and such different times than we've ever faced before the lord we just continue to turn to you and look to you for guidance the lord i pray that you just bless them lord we pray for our citizens we pray for all those are here in attendance tonight lord just pray that the best decisions lord will be made here and lord that uh you would be glorified we ask all this in jesus name amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god and indivisible with liberty and justice so i want to welcome everyone we have a we have a good crowd tonight it's been kind of lonely at the meetings lately with all this remote uh operations so it's uh it's kind of we're not used to having uh having everybody back uh in person with us so i appreciate all of y'all being here tonight um just to kind of let you know we're gonna go through the city business i'm gonna have under my mayor's report i'll have some updates some very uh valuable information that i think you're here to hear and then also we will have a citizen's agenda if you want to speak uh you will have the opportunity to speak just due to time constraints we do ask that we you know limit that to three minutes per person but i just want you to know you will have a chance to speak if you'd like to so but before we get to that we're gonna go ahead with city business and first we need to approve the minutes for the april 21st 2020 meeting [Music]

[0:02:14] okay we we have actually had a motion by alderman gallagher first and i'll take honor and pains as a second and is there any discussion hearing on roll call i remember honoring kelly yes thank you [Music] we're trying to practically preach here in social distance but yeah we can definitely adjust the mic so we'll we'll be better tell me if it's not the next time okay okay next on the agenda is a continuing disclosure submission city attorney mr nick manley yeah you may recall we previously authorized the filing of the disclosure this will just acknowledge uh the exposure in our minutes uh a part of the securities exchange commission for the previous bond issuance and powell of irma so it's not just authorization to accept the submission that's set forth in the minutes we have a motion monitoring brooks

[0:04:17] second bottom in pain is there any discussion hearing none roll call andrew wheeler arnold flores chris can you help us get on with flores yes sir i'm trying to get him in now okay okay that motion carries next on the agenda that's the employee handbook amendment mr chris wilson okay board this is just a clarification in the handbook which will allow when our employees have to take medical leave under token 19 pre-approved they will not take away their ability to earn their four hours of medical needs while they're out handbook already allowed for those types of leave but given the situation we want to make sure we codify this prior departmental is approval a motion to approve that amendment all right have a motion balance second of all wheeler is there any discussion hearing mountain roll call on them that motion carries next on the agenda

[0:06:45] is the donation donkey uh [Music] who made a second i'm sorry we've got a motion model in brooke second and kelly is there any discussion hearing none we just had two items donated to us uh andrew would you tell them exactly what that is yes um nick suggested that we start doing a donation docket the police department is accepting a donation as well as public works so for now on those will be listed on the docket it's a donation to us not to us not from us no problem any other discussion hearing none roll call alderman alderman kelly aldermans that motion carries next on the agenda is we're going to we're going to proclaim professional municipal clerks week and i'm going to read the proclamation to you try to do it without glasses um 51st annual professional municipal clerks week may 3rd through may 9 2020 whereas the office of the professional municipal

[0:08:47] clerk a time-honored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world and whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants and whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens the local governing bodies and agencies of government at other levels and whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality rendering equal service to all whereas the professional municipal clerk serves as the information center from functions of local government and community whereas professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk through participation education program seminars workshops and the annual meetings of their state provincial county and international professional organizations whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk now therefore i darren muscle white mayor of the city of south haven do recognize the week of may 3rd through may 9 2020 as professional municipal clerks week and further extend appreciation to our professional municipal clerk andrea mullen and to all professional municipal clerks for the vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the communities they represent thank you andrew we appreciate you okay next on the agenda is a resolution to surplus property from the utilities department [Music] i got a second alderman brooks is there any discussion hearing on roll call

[0:10:57] alderman brooks alderman kelly alderman news author rotating audrey that motion carries next on the agenda is our planning agenda playing director miss whitney cook uh yes sir our first application is actually from the bank acres section the homeowners association um if you'll remember we discussed a variance procedure we were going to take the homeowners through to grant them a variance to the width and the design of bakes cove east which is going to be on the north side of nail road just off of banks road itself the board of adjustments did see that there was a variance in place and in order for this so it was both daniously in favor of a variance to the 12-foot and uh further design specs of that road so uh at this point uh the homeowners are asking that the city take the existing private ingress egress drive and convert it and approve it as a city-wide of way to be maintained in the future by the city of south america is there any discussions [Music] hearing none roll call i remember otter mcallen

[0:13:01] alderman hood okay motion carries on item one item number two is request uh for subdivision approval for cherry tree south of phase three c it's gonna be on the north side of star landing road west of getwell property consists of 3.45 acres with lots uh ranging in size from 6 800 to 20 000 plus square feet there are 13 watts in this area uh it's part of the master plan of the cherry tree south that is compliant with that uh one thing we did ask them to do for 9-1-1 discussions to change one of the street names uh to lessen the confusion with directional uh additions to the name north south east and west they got complied with that with that being said it was voted unanimously in favor of the planning commission we have a motion monitoring fluoresce second ballroom wheeler is there any discussion hearing down the roll call alderman brooks alderman kelly alderman hoods [Music] ottoman flores the motion carries our final application is a request for design review approval for a dental office to be located on line 27 of silos for a commercial subdivision it's going to be on the west side of gatwell road it's going down the north side of wildflower lane which is going to be down there by the actual silo on site um i'm going to show you on the screen

[0:15:03] but it's not there but uh it's a beautiful two-story office with southern vernacular design um we have no comments regarding the designs submitted for the building elevations there was some adjustments made to the landscaping and some adjustments made to the overall footprint of the site which the applicants met with us after the meeting and are making those as we speak it is compliant with the overall design for silo square it has been approved by the developer who controls uh design as well on this side with those changes being submitted that you have in your report staff recommended approval it was voted unanimously in favor of [Music] um we have a motion on item three baltimore flores a second alderman kelly is there a discussion hearing on roll call brooks alderman kelly alderman hoots alderman next on the agenda is our mayor's report i'm going to spend most of the evening talking about the code 19 update in the governor's executive order uh yesterday before i do that just a little quick quick update for everyone uh obviously construction is uh deemed as essential through all this mess and that's good that our park projects have been underway uh just update the board greenbrick and door training facility has been uh complete for the most part it's ready to be used that's been done for about 14 days now the

[0:17:08] snowden grove pedestrian trail the 10-foot multi-use trail there it does have its final layer of surfacing it is paved now uh they're still doing some uh grassing you know putting some sod down and there's some ada ramps that are being added as well but it's within days of being done uh it's an awesome project if you haven't seen it yet go check it out i know that we've worked on this for a lot of years we received mpo funding uh whitney and uh and dan cordell helped us with you know getting all that submitted to npo we got funding so it's probably been four years ago when we submitted that and uh it's always nice when after that many years you can look at something on the ground and say hey we're not just talking about this anymore people are actually walking on it as we speak uh so it's really really nice i encourage everybody to go check that out when you can the springfest pavement project obviously we didn't have spring fest this year uh we're looking at possibly having you know some other competitions there i don't know if it'll be a dual sanction event i don't know yet we're just looking into that but the the payment project is done and as you all know it has power supply for every booth there for the for the cooking teams it's going to be landscape that's not done yet but uh but the lighting is up the pavement is done so it's almost done and that'll be super nice too that's another project that the city of south haven uh talked about way before me uh that certainly wasn't my idea that's something that's been a long time coming so real excited to make that happen as well soccer is underway they're doing a large amount of drainage infrastructure first so that's what they're doing now but that is moving now that the weather is better the park's maintenance shop is projected to be done in early june if you drive by there it's just just west of the tennis complex and it's going to give our our team much more room it's going to be a it's a nice

[0:19:11] facility it's got them backed up away you know from that high profile corner where they weren't snug and land maine boulevard so it's going to be a a good thing for the city too so it'll also help us preserve our equipment better as we'll have more stuff that's under a roof as opposed to the way it has been up under i mean excuse me just out in a in a parking lot so those things are all going um and then obviously developments you know they had challenges too with labor and such but things are going well in the city so other than covet 19 things are going great in the city so let's talk about the bad stuff so just give everybody an update last week the governor by executive order changed the shelter in place to what he calls a sacred home he made some adjustments to that that went into effect and is still in effect until monday may 11 at 8 00 am yesterday he came out with an amendment to that in executive order 1478 he amended that order starting effective thursday at 8 a.m and uh basically the two main things that he changed he did allow restaurant dining rooms to open with a 50 seating capacity for their customers uh many say social distancing requirements maximum six persons per table six feet social distancing at all times when possible bar areas are prohibited unless they serve food there's no live music and there's mandatory facial coverings for servers as well as a very very detailed hygiene and health evaluation list of measures in addition to that he did expand the size of the allowed gatherings outdoors for outdoor recreational activities which also will include team sports uh he did that max is 20 people in any gathering he did expand on that with

[0:21:15] other questions and indicate that uh that his intent with that is to allow uh team sports other group activities outside uh but he made that clear that um that's not to include any kind of sports tournament of any kind so obviously in southaven we know how developed and how large our parks and recreation department is so we were anxious to find out some information about that we did not get that i did i have been in contact with the governor's office throughout the weekend and also yesterday i did speak with one of his doctors advisors last night and to talk about the tournaments and basically they still expressed some concern about having a mid-may tournament so we we've adjusted our parks plan uh according to that based on the data that we have now and the guides we've had from the governor's office we felt like it was okay now to go ahead and start setting some specific uh dates for our parks operations so the main thing that i know many of our citizens are worried about is the recreational sports leagues we're worried that that may be canceled uh entirely this year and i'm here to report to you unless something unusual happens the way trends are going now we will have our recreational baseball and softball those guys and girls will start practice on monday may 18 at snowdro park and greenbrook parks they will be allowed to use the game fields for practice since there's no games going on at that time we will have a full season we're going to start the season on june 1 and we'll complete the season by the end of july there will be no state tournaments this year for recreational baseball and softball and the dizzy dean world series that the city has hosted for many years in july has already been canceled competitive baseball and softball tournaments will begin at least by friday may 29th uh i've tried over and over to explain uh that these tournaments take a large degree of planning this is not some small uh get together where you decide

[0:23:18] on a thursday that you're going to get some teams out there this is something that requires a large amount of planning and so i've just pleaded with the governor please understand that please give us some direction there so we don't know about the may 22nd tournaments i've not put that in the announcement that went out we're still hoping that we may have a tournament in both baseball and softball may 22nd but we don't know that for sure but we are counting on starting on may 29th indoor training at the bankplus sports center and our new beautiful green facility that i mentioned earlier uh will be open on monday may 18th soccer practice begins on saturday may 16th all the games will be played on saturdays this year starting on may the 30th volleyball will not occur with it being indoors it's a low risk more risky event it's not going to occur until after june 1. tennis and golf are now open but no tournaments or group activities until friday may 29th the playgrounds and forever young senior activities will remain suspended until monday june 1 and with all the events even when they open we're going to do this consciously there will be strict social discipline requirements at all facilities and preferably a six foot distance between all persons uh obviously a degree of common sense has to be used with that in sporting competitions the players at times do have to get closer than six feet apart i want to say that um first of all that i recognize just from what i've been going through for the last two months and at a much different degree i recognize that governor reeves has is working i mean he's working he understands the issues so i commend him for all his hard work i commend him for listening to the mayors i can tell you that he has listened to me he has listened to other mayors in this state and he's made some changes some of the things that we talked to him about he has implemented those changes so what he did yesterday i think is a step in the right direction but i will be very wide

[0:25:21] open and straightforward with everyone it's not enough i believe that it's time to do more i will continue to plead with him and get all of our businesses open and get more of our activities open so we can come back we do have a plan that's been in place since our april 17th the governor has not given us the latitude to implement our own plan so we're basing everything that is going on with restrictions in the city at this time is the governor's order that's not the city of south haven it's not the board it's not me we're under his his authority at this point and i can tell you that i've asked for that to be released i've asked for the governor to release us from that and let us make the decisions in our city again because as i said on april 17th i'm very confident that we can bring our city back both economically with our personal lives gradually very consciously and very effectively i want to get into something that i've not gotten into through this whole thing and the reason i'll be again very straightforward with you i'll tell you things that no other politician will ever tell you i promise you i did not want to get into talking about statistics early on the main thing is i'm a statistics guy some of you may know i'm a career insurance person i make my living on underwriting and understanding statistics the law of large numbers the reason i didn't want to get into statistics early is you don't have that law of large numbers yet to have law of large numbers to be accurate you have to have a large enough pool to adequately and accurately predict a risk so for example the people in this room an insurance company can tell you they can't tell you which one of you but when you if you put 10 people in a room they can't tell you which one is going to have a heart attack in the next five years but if you put a group this size in the room they can tell you to the person how many people are going to have a heart attack that's called the law of large numbers so the reason i get into that detail is to let you know the statistics i'm about to tell you we've been compiling these for 55 days so we could get that law of large numbers

[0:27:24] going so i'm about to get into some numbers that we've not talked about before basically in mid-march i think i speak for everyone the things that we were hearing around the globe uh things that we saw in italy and spain and in new york we were terrified you know i didn't know i was watching this virus long before i got to america a lot much less getting to mississippi and south haven but when all that information came out march the 11th was a date that president trump declared a national emergency we had no idea what to expect in southaven desoto county we're terrified so we listened to every expert we did what everyone recommended that we do to keep our people safe because that is our number one priority so we did that and i'm happy to tell you that um our people make tremendous sacrifices i mean the things that we've done are things that no one's ever done in their lifetime we did what all the experts told us to do and we truly did flatten the curve you know that was the number one goal in the world we were told that don't let your healthcare facilities get overrun that did not happen in south haven we all made the sacrifices and keep that from happening but since it's been 50 days excuse me 55 days since president trump declared that emergency we now have our own data we're not working out data in italy and spain we're working off data that we have really in the memphis metro and to saudi county and south haven so that's what i'm going to tell you now there's been enough data to have that law of large numbers where we can get an accurate an accurate feel of exactly what this is and what kind of risk this is to our community as of today may 5th we've had 308 coveted 19 positive cases and that equates to point one seven of one percent of our population in desoto county which is approximately 185 thousand people our fatality rate is 0.002 that's two one thousandths of one percent

[0:29:27] of that one hundred eighty five thousand piece shelby county tennessee's numbers are very similar shelby county tennessee is my understanding that there's about 900 i think the last uh census showed 937 000 people they've had 53 deaths so if you do the math on that that gives you 0.003 of 1 so all the things that you hear well you're next to memphis you know memphis is this south haven's this the numbers don't lie okay shelby county and desoto county are almost identical with their lost experience with this virus um our code 19 hospitalization rate in south haven not new york not italy not spain in south haven has decreased 83 percent since april the 1st i've been tracking this every day i have all that data it's gone down 83 on not on one day has the capacity ever been challenged at our hospital so where does that leave us and i want to listen to you i want to talk some facts with you i want to remind everybody that we're truly not out of the woods yet this this virus is obviously very serious i'm not trying to make light of that uh losing one life is too many and that's why we take public safety as the number one priority but we now have our uh our own experience and data and we realize that the things that happen in other parts of the world just simply didn't happen here you know the threats that we were afraid of it's we've had enough time now and enough data that's that's not happened here so what we've learned is that now we're starting to have other health risks not i'm not getting an economic risk yet so don't accuse me like some do of loving the dollar more than life that's not true our other health insurance risks are now starting to outweigh the risk of the virus just health risks that's not mentioned in the the damage that we've done you know to our economy but the bottom line of my message today and that i've communicated

[0:31:29] with the governor mississippi and everyone else looking at our own data looking at the numbers that don't lie we cannot continue to be paralyzed by fear and let the national state and local economies be destroyed it's time that we come back we've got to get out of our bunker and fight you know i use that as an example you know when march came we were all scared we got in the bunker i mean that's what we did we jumped in that bunker to let the storm go by and to let the let the fight find out what kind of fight we're in but it's time now to crawl out that bunker and fight i mean we got to get our lives back we got to get our economy back we got to get all of our business not some we got to get all of our businesses churches other organizations and individual citizens we got to get their lives back we got to get government out of the way and let people get back to their lives this time right now so i'm i'm almost done i'm going to wrap up but i want to continue on uh not trying to be dramatic but this is just a message that everyone needs to hear um with all due respect to all of the doctors and scientists in our world we know that we have some of the best doctors and scientists in the world in the united states we have great ones in mississippi and we have great ones in south hate but with all due respect their role is to be an advisor and what it appears to me it appears that in the state of mississippi that these doctors are now making policy decisions for our state and with all due respect it's time for the doctors to go back to their role as an advisor and it's time for elected officials to step up and start making policy decisions for our state and for our counties and our cities and so i'm telling you that tonight that it's about leadership and we have got to we have got to give more information to our citizens we've got to communicate a longer range plan knowing four days out and again i've said this to the governor i've talked to him and his staff about this we've got to give people hope we got to know more than just what's going to happen four days from now i would assume i'm about to hear that some of the people in this audience that one day now makes a big

[0:33:32] difference with all the drastic measures that have been taken businesses are hanging on by a thread uh families are having problems at home people are they're they're at their end at the end of their twine it's freight they're ready to move on with some hope so that's what this message is about tonight just quickly before i close up i do have a message to the elected officials in our state and that's every elected official when we have a crisis like this it's not the time for political games finger-pointing and fighting never is it acceptable to circulate misinformation especially at a time like this for political purposes it's time to come together and solve problems for the people that entrusted us to do that and you have my commitment in south haven that i've done that since day one i'll continue to do that i will continue to be in the governor's ear and everyone else to get get us through this crisis so we can move back to our normal lives again and to the people of south haven i'll close by just saying again you've made tremendous sacrifices i'm proud of the people of southaven when i talked to the doctors last night and kept sharing these statistics with them that i've shared with you today they continue to come back and say y'all done a good job y'all done the right things in desoto county and south haven and we have so i thank our people for that we made tremendous sacrifices and showed some extreme toughness and resilience and i want to encourage you too i want to tell you that a lot of times the life is darkest before the dawn i'm telling you i know y'all had enough i know that everybody's had enough of this but we're on the brink of a great recovery i believe and i believe it will come back strong not only personally but our economy as well so i just encourage everyone tonight to hang in there let's continue to be smart but let's claim our lives back so that being said that's my message tonight are there any any questions about my discussions from the board about just anything in general that's a good question my plan has them

[0:35:50] open right now as we speak if we were not under the governor's orders uh salons barbershops and gyms would be open right now if he lifted that right now i would be asking for a motion right now to open salons barbershops and gyms right now any kind of any kind of salon to answer your question i do believe like i said earlier i believe that the governor is listening i've made that clear to him and his staff when i talked to them saturday and sunday i told them that restaurants need to be open and i told them that salons gyms and uh barbershops needed to be open as well so i really believe that there's discussion going on as we speak about that and we've not gotten the word but i'm hopeful that between now and monday that will happen thank you yes sir in our description of that we have we have tattoo shops named the tattoo shops are not i can't speak for the governor but in our uh grouping we uh we do have tattoo shops tattoo parlors listed as salons as well and the bottom line with that is again like i said i don't i don't know how i'm more clear to make it all it's time for all to have a chance and i was talking to one of our other aldermen earlier today and i shared with him one through all this and listened to so many people through this one person said this to me and it stuck with me it was one of the strongest statements that i've heard from one of my citizens throughout this and it was a business owner and it was a salon and their statement was can we have a chance can we have a chance to open our business like the others with the same requirements we know how to run our business we can we can have social distancing we can do extra hygiene

[0:37:51] we can limit the crowds that come in there but give us a chance i mean why are you given a chance to i mean the cro you know the grocery stores are open lowe's is open and now you've got restaurants up and you've got so many different things and well what's different about the salon why can't they have a chance why can't our salons and barber shops and everyone else have a chance y'all been y'all of you i know i know some of you are salon owners i see your faces um you've been watching the same thing i've been watching for 55 days you get this lord knows there's nothing else on tv we watch this every night you get it i mean you know what you've got to do you know your business is better than the governor does or better than i do it's time that we let you open and i'm telling you right now i'm on your team i'm i'm pulling that train i'm gonna do everything i can do to get you back up thank you hang on just a second let me see if anybody else was a board then what we'll do is move in to the citizens agenda and you'll be first okay so um is there any other questions about that from the board so i can tell you you can hear your board members your board members are behind you they uh you know like i said in my statement earlier we did what we had to do back in march but it's time now it's time that we move on with our lives and uh your board of aldermen are behind you i'm behind you and uh and i believe we're gonna see some results soon okay if there's no other questions from the board we're going to move on uh to our citizen's agenda and if if you would like you can just for social justice you can stay there or if you would like to come up to the podium whatever you prefer i just want to ask you you became because that you would always look out for us and the question i have is that as a salon owner just like this one the chairman governor and the governor reads you can tell it

[0:39:52] all over the air who's going to accommodate us for what we're going through financially these these owners are not giving us a break they're born in their money even if this just takes months um i'm blessed to be able to pay my mortgage and all of that for april and may but i have no other income coming in so will you make sure you speak up to get some money directly to us i will and i'll update you i've been on conference calls with all the mayors in the state with the governor and i'm not going to get into all that tonight because it's i'm actually kind of ashamed of what's going on in our with our governor in the legislature fighting that's kind of what i was talking about it's time that you quit fighting and come help the small business owners and i can tell you that both of them i do think have the same goal i think that they recognize that salon owners and small business needs these these monies that came from the cares act and the coronavirus relief fund so the money is there the money has already been deposited in a state of mississippi account for the federal government so there's 1.25 billion dollars that's there so a large part of that money is gonna are things that can be allocated in a hurry and the governor i've heard him say on these calls that he recognizes that too so it's his goal to get money to you as quick as possible i don't know exactly how they're going to do that it's my understanding that there is going to be a special legislative session tomorrow afternoon i would encourage all of you all to watch that and uh and you'll um you'll see the facts instead of reading what's being said in the paper you can go and listen to that yourself and see what everyone says but the encouragement that i would give you is that the state legislature and the governor both do recognize that small business needs relief and i think that that's i think it's coming pretty soon i'm gonna be okay i'm just hurting i see here and i cry because to see me and i can't serve my clients who's losing their hair because it's time for their chemical service they've got to go there to get their hair done now is this unfair it's not and uh saturday

[0:41:56] morning i just couldn't take it anymore so i had to get up really really early and start typing a letter so i did and i'll just share with you since you asked that i put in that letter that with memphis and shelby county opening that i was fearful that it was going to make our businesses in desoto county at a competitive disadvantage to shelby county in the state of tennessee and that's not the message we want to send and i know the governor doesn't want to send that message you know we've made a lot of strides in mississippi to make ourselves more economically attractive but something even like that to me sends the wrong message you're letting tennessee and memphis and shelby county open before we do and and your clients uh that have been waiting so long they're not gonna wait on you anymore if they can drive to memphis and shelby county they're going and let's just say and i kind of know a little bit about your business because i'm a small business owner too i know my business if i don't if i don't give my customers what they want before noon they'll ditch me in a heartbeat and uh so i know that some of them may go there and hey that maybe they like the person that that gave them the service or maybe they don't come back to you you know that's the risk that you take and so i do understand that and i did communicate that with the governor and i honestly do believe he understands that so the floor is that we are in the citizens agenda so anyone that wants to speak uh you can come forward or speak from your seat whichever you prefer yes sir this is our live vision and i understand you are trying to work for us to get this thing going but i'm interested in what our constitution says in article five um it says in short it is uh and i quote we will not be derived or deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law some of us are losing our properties because we can't work and we are desperate we're desperate to go back to work

[0:43:58] and um i mean it's a very stressful time for us financially and i don't know if anyone i mean i don't understand how the constitution doesn't hold i understand we have a virus going on but i don't understand how this can't somehow help us because we're still under the constitution i believe certainly and i'll just tell you what i know i've had uh our city attorney here will know that i've also done a lot of research during this because we've been faced with decisions we've never had to make so we did go back and and what took place in march you know when the when the drastic measures were taken the constitution does allow governments to in the supreme court to back that it does allow governments to take unusual like the strict certain liberties of people when there is a danger to the public safety or the general welfare of the entire community or our country and so it is constitutional for a government to be able to do that but i think it makes it clear that it's temporary in nature and so i think the key point that you make tonight is due process what what are we basing that decision on now i think in march with all the unknowns i think it was i think that the government's it was a fair thing for them to make that decision but i think you bring up a great point tonight what are we basing that on now what is the due process now nick can you add something to that or uh [Music] i mean the numbers don't again forgive me for being a i'm a statistics guy i know the numbers don't lie i wish my era had been a little bit lower but um the numbers don't lie you know that's what it is i mean you get your calculator on your phone you you can do it yourself i mean the numbers don't lie i don't i don't see the justification in this ongoing so i'm on your team i don't know what else to tell you but i'm hoping that i'm on your team thank you discrimination against our industry what

[0:46:11] does the numbers show that we as an industry is causing coding to to spread any faster than a person at their parties there's fact they're clicking beside one another why why are we just like we're just systematically being discriminated against and you know and i love you i really do but at this point do we need to come together and do a lawsuit against the second mississippi two if you can't if they won't listen to you i don't think it's time for anything i haven't seen on the news that there are some states in our country that that has happened i know that um there was someone in uh there was a city in california that i think did that about the beaches yeah so that is a possibility i would just encourage you kind of what i said earlier let's let's i think the governor's listened to us i think that we're getting our point across i just think that i think we would give we sit tight for a few more days if you can hang on for a few more days i really believe i really believe that by monday i think that we're going to get some relief on this i believe that i the governor's not totally that but i really believe that and uh but as far as like why are you excuse me why are you being uh you said discriminated against well what and that goes back to my comment about the doctors and the scientists early earlier that what they say about that is that you're touching you know like you're physically touching someone and that you're coming you're coming within six feet with your patrons so that's why they view that as a more risky thing but it kind of goes back to what i said earlier you know you guys know your business i mean you've been watching this you know you can put a mask on you can have special hygiene things with your chairs you can limit your crowds so i'm not i'm not trying to like um you know uh just i'm just being straightforward i'm on i agree with you i i believe and i thought about this a lot i mean i mean for hours

[0:48:14] and hours i really believe that you're no different than anybody else i think that you can i think that you have to do certain things that other businesses don't do because you are you know engaging with your patron but i think that you can do that safely i do i do know that you support us i'm just asking on another level because it seemed like this was just systematically just us i could never i prayed about it i still committed to why yeah we're just targeted no i understand that i appreciate your kind comments too i will add to that just real quickly that um you can look and even even even the scientists even highly respected seasoned physicians have had question marks about all this like i mean and i'm not trying to be like i said i'm not trying to disrespect any of them because from day one i started listening to everybody too i'm like hey what you know talk to me doctors what is this going to do here but even many of them have been wrong you know so i don't i mean i'm just telling you what they say that's that's why they say the salons and barbershops and tattoo parlors are more dangerous but um because i guess naturally you're used to having to have hygiene and all that like how does a dog come before a human yeah we're training in infectious diseases we are trained in all this we go to school for this yeah we have license tonight we're struggling yeah well i am talking to him well and i would encourage you you know if you're a citizen of mississippi he's your governor i mean

[0:50:18] yes [Music] yeah and can we get a photo uh just just i'm just curious uh everyone that's here that has an interest in salons barber shops tattoo parlors gyms would you raise your hand and keep it up for just a second so that's okay there's a lot of inspiration right here can we get a photo seriously can we get a photo um or let me see if i can do that with my phone i just seriously i want uh people to know that you're here because you care we could stand up and you know i took the picture four minutes ago and i'd like to say derek thank you for your response towards everything man it means a lot towards us and everything and man we love it man we just want to get back to it and get that going and get back to and everything like that we could we can actually have some type of structure where people could come in and they schedule their appointments and they get out you know i mean they have that structure thank you for saying that chris i appreciate that and and again i know i'm speaking for my board too it's not just me my board is behind you guys too let me ask you something you just chris made me think of something is there any kind of professional like do y'all have a professional association with salons and is there any kind of professional like a collective bargaining organization that maybe could speak on your behalf i'm in the professional beauty association but it's like a big

[0:52:20] association but i can't find one just down here do you know nick is there anyone in mississippi state board because they border cosmetology they just speak for us okay there you go but they're yeah they are a big hillary well we'll um i just thought that maybe you know some type of collective bargaining you know with an organization that just reaching out um but again i will say this i really do i'm not just telling you that i i think that the governor is listening i really am hopeful that within the next few days that uh that we're going to hear some positive news and if not i promise you i'll go to bat for you i promise i will i just really understand like why is uh like cause with uh cosmoprof and sally's and everything like that it's open and they're giving out you know these the equipment to us and we can't even we can't use it really you know barbers we we work hand-in-hand with each other and i really understand like why are they still open and given to the public and we cannot actually cut hair a few hair or nothing like that you know what you're saying all the allies and people doing their job yeah that doesn't make any sense it don't make sense at all here and we can't yeah any of it all this stimulus money that's out here everybody that's making it the koreans are making all this money with drive-by even when you shut them down they still sold products and we can't make anything it's just yeah no you you make all of you make great coins [Music] yeah i think that uh you know the again

[0:54:27] the the crf money tomorrow that's why i would encourage all of you to go listen to that because they would be talking about that tomorrow and i know it's frustrating i mean you know so many people told me they've called evil unemployment you know trying to call and you can't get anybody on the phone you know i think our state seriously with all respect to my state i think we need a wake-up call i mean you know we can't even answer the phone for our citizens and what about online they're not online options i mean it just we're just we just weren't prepared for something like this the people that actually work don't know how to process because this is a person of our industry with those and i would never and i don't think even my employees would ever have someone come in without taking off precautions to not harm that everything no more than i think my people would come in and sit in my chair that they've been out exposed and not wearing masks or gloves or are taking doing their part as a citizen to try to combat this whole disease you know i don't get it we're doing all we can i mean we're cleaning going by appointments math everything and i don't think one of my clients would come in if they thought they had been exposed because they're taking they're staying safe just like i am yeah but i'm sure a lot of your clients are

[0:56:29] you know not just the people that work with you but a lot of your clients are long-term clients too you develop a personal friendship with them too and you care about them they care about 40 years 35 years people that i've done and they would never come to me if they had to say i i know they wouldn't yeah no more than i would expose them i would not i don't come fast and i'm going to score unless i have to and i'm i'm protected yeah because i wouldn't want to permit when i get to life [Music] well yes it sir goes against it it doesn't happen what's the blowback of saying y'all come together at desoto county and say we're through with this we're going to do what we want to do we're going to let our people open up on their business how they want to because we have this as you said claiming to have the faith in these people they can run their businesses in a clean and orderly manner i want to stop at y'all as our representatives from letting us open up and do our view well you just you get into a you know a civics discussion there i mean basically you know we are a a temporary order from the governor is a temporary law and so you know we all swear that we'll uphold the laws of the constitution of the united states certainly but i'm just answering his question too i agree um so we swore that we would uphold the laws of the state of mississippi in the and the united states and so uh it's my understanding we have a city attorney here nick um something like that would be uh i don't know any way that that's not violating that we wouldn't have it that local

[0:58:31] state law you don't have the governor's executive order proclamation overrules anything the city does so i'm not saying free or disagree i'm saying that's the state law and so the question that you know you know of course it will i guess the government could then enforce it average the government to enforce it but as it stands right now the governors are not as a standard now understandable if the government's executive order trumps anything the city can do in fact under this executive order right now the only thing i see you can do is it can't be less restrictive so a city if you were to vote the only option we have said you were going to open everything up the city could be more restrictive than the city couldn't be seen kind of backwards to you i don't um [Music] my girlfriend here she ain't working three months yeah like i'm trying to figure this out to her i'm gonna hear some voice because i ain't afraid to speak my mind no we welcome that and yeah we i i don't blame you a bit understanding law enforcement they're they're gonna be your only out like that's the only obstacle you got these people worried about getting their licenses taken and getting arrested for the until you look law enforcement but leave alone let them up i know they need they need her yeah they need haircuts and they have to [Music] i understand well those are what you're saying is um i mean i we're we're to a point that we've never none of us ever faced this before and i'm not saying that to whip out on you i'm just saying i i'm trying to answer any question i can with the authority that i have but i don't have the authority to tell the

[1:00:34] governor what to do i mean i can i can explain the damage that's being done to this state in southaven and like carl said i do represent you i'm the mayor you know you put me here to represent you and i will always represent you i will i will go to bat for you that's my job and i have been doing that and i will continue to be doing that i just i just don't know like getting past that you know as nick said i don't you know it's kind of getting above my authority um but i'm hopeful again that we don't get to that because what a shame in america that we surely people are going to understand this is not who we are in america i mean you know we we've got to let people we got government's got to get out of people's way and let them make a living again i think that's a very fair ass yes sir chris um who determines uh what's essential and non-essential uh the way it was presented to me that list when the first civil emergency ordinances came out that list was compiled with a framework from the united states department of homeland security so they they set the list um obviously um that can it's my assumption that the governor is that the governor has the authority to adjust that right now but i don't like he made it clear in all his orders like nick said earlier we can do things that are more stringent but we couldn't we couldn't go anything less stringent than what the governor's order was and so his order was and that's a great question because i know all of y'all had the same question well how can uh grocery stores be packed to the gills but then other businesses can't even open and uh throughout the whole thing it made it clear if it was deemed essential we couldn't touch that we couldn't do anything with that virtual um the link will be sent out if you could listen to your conversation

[1:02:38] and i found out that i stayed all we couldn't be prohibited from coming here right so when i talked to your secretary she corrected it and right and just so you just so you know and i know everybody does it with all the different orders and everything that's come out everybody had read anything from day one i did make that clear that uh that that any kind of meeting that was governed by uh by public meeting laws would not it is deemed essential so none of the rules apply to that so i have communicated that i'm not sure who would have said that because i know christie as you stated to clarify my office christie does understand that there's no one's being restricted from coming to a public meeting but i'm going to check on that thank you for bringing my attention okay is there anyone else that would like to speak well again i thank all of you for coming um i'm sorry what you're experiencing um and i'm just asking you to hang in there for hanging there for a few more days and i wish i could give you better news tonight hopefully better news is quickly around the corner so we'll move on past the citizens agenda and next on our agenda is our personnel docket uh okay we got a motion ball from brooks the second bottom in pain is there any discussion hearing none roll call alderman alderman payne

[1:04:45] alderman gallagher yes honorable wheeler [Music] that motion carries next on the agenda is our city attorney's legal update nothing this evening so we'll move on next on the agenda is our utility bill adjustment i'm sorry who made the second uh william okay i'm sorry we have a motion monitoring pain second alderman brooks is there any discussion hearing none of the roll call alderman older mentality wheeler that motion carries next on the agenda are two claims dockets is there a motion to approach one painting second mother of fluoresce is there any discussion hearing gun roll caller yes

[1:07:17] that motion carries on docket one is there a motion of pro docket two is there a discussion hearing none roll call alderman drugs alderman brooks alderman kelly alderman payne alderman gallagher yes arthur wheeler that motion carries next on the agenda is the purpose of determining the need for executive session you got a motion monitoring gallery i didn't hear the second i'm sorry any opposed say no eyes have it motion carries the knee this evening is litigation and claims involving city infrastructure and police and economic development is there a motion to declare executive session you got a motion by automate gallander second model in flores i'll favor say aye any opposed say no eyes have it motion carries the mayor

[1:09:21] board will now enter executive session we're going to do um i think we can do it differently tonight we're going to go and then we have the conference room behind us uh finished so we're going to go back there so chris wilson nick how do we

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=bXVaotno8uM