2027 Proposed Budget Hearings - Day 8.

Since you all know, our budget is actually fixed, and it will be going down by about $200,000 this year. Sergeant, any questions you may have? Yeah, there's a disparity between the budget book and your presentation. Brandi, you might be able to explain this. On page 358, the 2026 adopted budget totals $3.9 million, but the presentation notes that it's $4.4 million. And the same for the 2027 proposed budget. The budget book is $4.2, whereas the presentation is $4.4. So I didn't complete the presentation. I will start with that. The adopted budget is correct for adopted. Their budget was amended, because if you recall, the revenues went up for general fund. And so these agencies, the OIG, Independent Police Monitor, they get a certain percentage of the budget, so we had to increase their budget. So their amended budget did change for 2026, but the adopted budget did not change. I cannot speak on why the proposed budget states this in their presentation. I defer to the department. Do you have any insight on that? Those were the numbers we were told, I think, from budget to put in. Who did you speak to about your presentation? I can talk to you offline, but the budget book is the factor, and you all should have access to Questacon to pull your data. Okay. This is for many of the agencies appearing today, the Ethics Review Board, Office of Independent Police Monitor. Okay. So those offices, we don't work directly with them, because they're external from the administration. And so like the other agencies who came yesterday, they get their data, should come from the budget book. They always give us the number to use for this is the previous year's budget. Okay. You all figure it out. Okay. But what number are we working with from you all? Our budget went down $200,000. We did not have our budget number until after the PowerPoints were due. Yes. So I will say that the request that goes to the outside agencies is before the budget book is out and the budget is finalized. So some departments are using past numbers because the request from counsel comes a little earlier. The good news about many of the agencies, you guys are a percentage of the general fund budget. So it is what it is. Do you have a surplus that you're running? So in the past years, we have had a surplus, and we've returned that surplus. But as we, in the past couple of years, we have hired to our capacity. So in the last couple of years, we've given back anywhere from $500,000 to $2.5 million. But for the coming year, we won't be giving back as much because we've hired more employees. And we are operating within our budget. So the numbers that we're given, we are continually ensuring that we obviously are not overspending. Okay. Well, let's stay in touch on your surplus because we might have to sweep that. Council Member Willard. Thanks, Madam Chair. Just a couple of questions. Thank you guys for being here today. I noticed that there's $35,000 budgeted for conventions and travel. Could you touch on that? We're really trying to limit that across the city. Yeah, sure. So the Office of Inspector General is unlike any other city employee. So when we produce reports, our reports are highly technical. And when we produce reports, they are never disputed because the people that write our reports are J.D.s, Ph.D.s, accountants, CPAs. They're either CIGA, CIGE, or myself, CIGA and CIG certified. So it takes an inordinate amount of training and subject matter expertise to continue on in those professional That's like continuing education? Okay. And if we don't have those continuing education credits, it impacts our certification. Sure. And then $100,000 for outside legal services, is that in preparation to write the reports? No. So we have a general counsel. We haven't spent that. We don't anticipate on spending that. But it's a retainer in case we need it. Okay. Because it looked like the last couple of years you didn't have that? Well, we had it, but we didn't. I think the last year we used $20,000 in outside services. So what happens at the end of the year, we just give the money back. Okay. We don't need it, but I'd rather have it and designate it because people like to question our activity, mainly the people that we are holding accountable for their bad behavior. So I need to make sure that I have fees and money for legal representation to insure it through. Okay. Sounds good. Like I said, we frequently give enormous amounts of money back in, identified about $20 million so far this year. So our rate of return is about 360%. And that doesn't include all the people that have been arrested, indicted, and convicted of using their public office for personal gain. So we continue to be a really good asset for the state. Okay. And then how do you guys decide where you go next? What departments to look into, what contracts, services? Yeah, so we... Does somebody, like, give you a lead or... So we have a, and I'll let the deputy talk about it a little bit more, but we have a risk assessment process. And our risk assessment process focuses on operational, organizational, reputational, and now, more than ever, financial risk. Because every dollar counts. Absolutely. We used to do, every year we'd select 25 entities and we'd have them fill out a survey. And we'd go do a deep dive. We'd meet with them. We'd kind of do, like, analysis and give them a risk score. But now we've dedicated one employee to do that full time. So we're going to be hitting up all the big departments every year. We also rely on tips that come in as well. Okay. Awesome. Well, keep up the great work. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. I do have one more question. I see you have in the queue a 2027 report on recycling services. Given the fact that that might be in dispute during this budget season, is there any way to expedite that report? Yes, it should be coming out soon. Okay.

Soon as in before budget season's over? Can we get a preliminary? When is budget season over? November 9th. Soon. November 19th. We'll try. Okay. Okay. Will it come out before 2027? Yes. What was the question? Recycling. Recycling. Is that Adam's turn? Adam is where we have an evaluator who's working on sanitation. And it will include a little about recycling. But it will not be out before the end of this year. It will not be? Not the end of this year. Is there any way? My question is, is there any way to expedite that given the fact that we are in the middle of deciding on budget and that might be some important information to have? Well, it's possible we can pull that particular issue out maybe and present a letter just specifically on recycling. I'm not sure. I'll have to speak with him about it. We may be able to pull some of the information out and do an expedited letter. But please keep in mind when we write these reports, we have standards for the GAO that have to be completed. You have to have a comment period and all that. But we will have a letter out soon on recycling. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Ashley. Up next is the Office of the Independent Police Monitor. Oh, the keyboard. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to address the council and the public on the Office of the Independent Police Monitor's budget for 2027. I'm Stella Cement, the Independent Police Monitor for the City of New Orleans. And I'm joined today with Chrishell Williams, our Deputy Police Monitor, and Renee Livius, our Office and Budget Manager. She's sitting right there. Our presentation today starts with the status of our stated goals for 2026. In 2026, the Office of the Independent Police Monitor expanded our mediation programming and services. We increased our community district pilot program, which provides mediation services to the community to resolve disputes that would otherwise demand police officers' time and attention. Similarly, we expanded the post-investigation mediation program to include cleared by body camera cases. And we've received over 40 referrals to this program so far this year. Due to budgetary issues that we faced in 2026, we did elect to push our recruitment and training of our new class of mediators to 2027, when we will be able to accommodate this in our operational budget. The recruitment of a new cohort of mediators occurs every two years, but in light of our budget in 2026, we elected to do this on a three-year interval. And we will be providing that in-depth training to the new mediators in 2027 as well. In 2026, the OIPM completed the virtual public archive, which is now available on our website. We continue to make significant progress with our public-facing database with officer force, award, and discipline data. And the beta is now done. We're trying to finalize this interface before the end of the year so it could be publicly released. We're working with NOPD on that goal. In 2026, due to budgetary issues, we ended the monitors mic radio show. The monitors mic was designed to provide more transparency and information to the public about the way that they're policed and give them a platform to engage with leadership and stakeholders making policing decisions. Our final show was an interview with Chief Kirkpatrick. We thank all of the partners, elected leaders, stakeholders, NOPD, and community members for coming on to the show and all of our listeners for tuning in. You can now access the shows effectively as podcasts on our website and on Spotify, so that way we're adding to institutional memory regarding policing. We're happy to report that the majority of our goals were completed or are currently in process, and we anticipate that we will be done with some of those goals by the beginning of next year. There are some goals that we'll be carrying into 2027, and we'll discuss that later. Next, I'll provide a brief overview of our personnel. This chart provides an overview of OIPM's personnel. These are our full-time employees. We do have some vacancies, but we will not be doing any hiring in 2027. Looking to our organizational chart, in 2026, our full-time staffing was consistent. However, our general counsel, who is a contractor, left, and we've been unable to replace her through the RFP process. It is a goal to replace this contractor position in 2027. I believe that RFP is still live right now, so if anybody is watching, please apply. In 2027, if we do lose a full-time employee, we will seek to replace them if our budget allows and the hiring freeze is lifted. I will flag for the counsel that the OIPM does carry a $100,000 wage reserve in our personnel budget, and if we're required to, as we were in 2026, we may tap into some of that personnel fund to supplement our operational budget if needed. Now, looking to our 2027 OIPM goals, we will pivot to more report and audit-based goals for the next year, such as prioritizing reports that we started in 2026 but will finish and release this next year. That includes reports on facial recognition technology, criminal investigations, lawsuits, and claims. For example, in 2026, we submitted our first truncated case review to the NOPD in that we critically reviewed a use-of-force investigation regarding an arrest that occurred in the French Quarter where strikes against the individual being arrested were not recorded in the force statement. This case review will be eligible to be released to the public at the end of October. But in 2027, we will continue to expand these case reviews in order to provide more timely reviews of NOPD's formal disciplinary investigations and use-of-force investigations. As mentioned earlier in 2027, the OIPM will recruit and train a new cohort of mediators for the Community Police Mediation Program.

All selected mediators from the community will participate in an intensive 50-hour training that will help prepare them to mediate the three types of mediation that our office currently provides, which includes the traditional police community mediations, mediation between community members, and mediation between NOPD employees and NOPD employees and supervisors. On that note, in 2026, the OIPM started drafting a new policy for the Community Police Mediation Program. the process and the policy for the expansion of the mediation program to include these mediations between NOPD employees and NOPD supervisors and subordinates. This draft policy is currently under review at NOPD and will be provided to stakeholders and the city attorney for review before being implemented in 2027. We look forward to formally adopting and launching this program in 2027, though I will flag that in 2026 the OIPM informally led two of these mediations for the NOPD already. In 2027 the OIPM will be completing an audit into Public Integrity Bureau classifications of formal disciplinary investigations that we started this year. Additionally we will audit case refusals and evidence exclusion that is recorded under chapter 1.2 paragraph 16 of NOPE's policy to determine if there's officer misconduct or illegal searches and seizures that are threatening the ability for successful prosecutions to occur in criminal district court. And as we do each year we intend to continue to expand our community engagement and this includes our work with the police community advisory boards which I will highlight we are still very interested in coordinating and would love to work with the council and with city leadership on on that endeavor. All of these goals that we listed are budget dependent, however we will continue to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars that we are funded with and make necessary decisions to pivot or cut costs as needed while still achieving our mission and serving the public. So moving on to our budget summary and our proposed budget for 2027. The OIPM receives 0.16 percent of the general fund each year pursuant to statute. Additionally in the coming year the OIPM intends to explore grant opportunities. I anticipate that we will be able to address this more in our publicly released 2027 work plan by the end of the year. Thank you for hearing from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and we welcome any questions. Thank you. Any questions? No. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you so much. Up next is the French Market Corporation. Thank you. That's okay. Okay good morning. I know everyone's vines are in Paris right now but we're gonna keep it here for a few minutes. All right so I'm gonna start with a review of our goals from 2026. Completing building E was one of the biggest goals that we had so some of you are not as well versed in this, haven't been through the trenches so we'll bring you in a little bit. So after during IDA there was major damage to building E which is our main administrative building. What was found was that it wasn't specifically IDA related damage it was building issues from when the building was built in the 1970s and so French Market had to go into our coffers into our reserves to rebuild that building. So there was a big push to get us back into that building. It ended up being about a seven million dollar project so that all came from French Market reserves. Typically speaking French Market as you all know has a franchise agreement with the city and so we give $100,000 in rent payment or 20% of our net revenue the greater of. We've always loved to give money back to the city given given this situation and the upper Pentalba we haven't been able to give as much recently so one of our kind of overarching goals is let's get back to that place let's get back to the place where we can be giving money back. So with building E there was a huge push to get that project done to get it done right so that we could get back in. A couple highlights I just want to say we moved back in in August and we already have had some community meetings hosted in the building. FQMD has hosted some of their meetings in the building so we really take it seriously that it is a public asset and we're always looking for ways to share that with the community so we're excited and we also think that that can drive down costs for other community agencies who may be paying rent somewhere to to host a meeting.

The upper Pentalba project so as you all know graciously City Council assisted FMC in using eight million dollars in bond funds for this project so this was a long-standing project it had been out bid out several times all these projects kind of came together there was balcony repairs that were needed there was roofing work that was needed there were there were water intrusion issues that were a problem and it was costing us a tremendous amount in maintenance and so Leslie Alley the former director really worked with City Council we're super grateful to get that eight million dollars does not cover the cost it's gonna be about a 12 million dollar project all in but again we're working really hard we have about a million dollars in revenue from residential tenants in that building annually so having them out of the building is hurting our bottom line but that's something that you're gonna see in the budget as we move into 2027 we're anticipating reoccupying that building about halfway through and so we'll be able to start bringing that residential rent back online we're already working with people the the board just approved the appraisal for the to set the baseline from for market rents that appraisal or the RFP should be going out next week and then we'll start we'll get that the board will approve those rents and then we'll start sending those out to people we have a waiting list for that building so we're confident that once we can get through this project we can move forward it's a historic building so we know there's exposure we've had a few things come up along the way but we're holding things pretty tight we anticipated kind of a larger amount for change orders on that project so we're continuing to move through and we're pleased with the progress tuna was a low bid on that and we've been really pleased with their work on this they've really been working with us they've dealt with some hurdles that the mill work operator went out of business in the middle of it and they stepped up and they're making it happen so very grateful we're really excited to bring this building back online on in its true glory of what it should be as a historic asset for the city one of our big goals for 2026 was just really increasing local engagement specifically in the French Quarter and so as we've stepped back and we've looked at kind of changing market needs and retail and just kind of how people are engaging with the city what we realized in interviewing people was that there was a disconnect and that people had once really felt a connection to the French market and we're not seeing that as much and so we wanted to start close and kind of build our way out you know and so I'm a firm believer that every resident of the city of New Orleans is a part owner of the French Quarter and that we all you know it belongs to all of us and that everyone should feel that way so it's really important for us to start close and what that meant was we've done a lot of survey work with our with our vendors and our tenants and the people who visit the market we've worked on a strategic plan for the market itself where we had truck wise who does great work in the city literally come table and just talk to people who are moving through the market and ask them what they're looking for and so as one of our goals or one of the things we heard was that the kind of big festivals that we were doing we're actually taking away from the market and not adding to it so obviously Creole Tomato we're gonna keep that that's our signature event so we had our 40th annual this year and it was amazing we did a Miss Creole Tomato contest at Oz and so the winner got to be Miss Creole Tomato and was the MC for the festival it was really fun engaged a totally different population that we then we usually usually engage with we engage with some influencers and then what we saw is because it was June it was kind of a slow news week and so we had a lot of influencers coming who just needed to generate some content and then day two of the festival we had all these college kids come which was great because you know we've been talking a lot with Tulane about the fact that there's a real disconnect between our you know between Xavier, Loyola, Tulane you have these kids who are coming here and they're getting this great education and they're not getting that investment in the city so we've been really excited to see some of these projects that we've been working on are actually working. I will note that Book Array is this weekend so if you're you know watching you guys here so this is really an event for locals so on Saturday 11 to 4 it's a free event kids come in costume we had 700 kids show up last year which is typically all local kids and we do free trick-or-treating we do face painting there's a petting zoo it's just a really fun local event our vendors love it they all have a balloon on their store if you have a balloon on your store that means that there's trick-or-treating inside the store so it's just it's one of those things that it's nice to see the community come together and show up. So the shift in marketing efforts when when I came to French Market most of our marketing was print advertising and not to not to disparage print advertising but what we recognize is there's a real shift to online engagement and so we've worked really hard with both local influencers media and media companies to start to move that online and so we've worked with some locals like Quinn Bishop, Ron Orleans, Diane Honore, Buku Local to really get our messaging out and hit people that we haven't been hitting to say hey there's something for you here as well.

And so just kind of by the numbers so one of one of the partnerships that we've had is with next our media and they are very data tech savvy and so what we did with them is really looked at targeting specific audiences to see who is engaging with our advertising and so we kind of broke it up into different advertising campaigns so you'll see here we did a 50-plus 20-something family audience and then this Houston Atlanta so the Houston Atlanta was actually a secondary campaign that we ran and I'll just draw your attention to the fact that we had almost a million impressions on social media and so when we're talking about you know we're hearing a lot in these in these budget hearings and just across the board of like How do we sustain? And we have to create a great city for our citizens. But we also know that bringing in outside dollars is really useful to us. And so that's why we knew that those were two groups that are regional travelers who like to come to New Orleans. And so that's why we targeted those so that when they're coming, they're knowing, oh, hey, I can come, I can spend money here. We're telling them how to engage with our city. And so we're really proud of that. The other thing I wanna point out is just between July and September, we had over two million views on our Facebook page, which is a huge increase. And I credit that a lot to, you know, our marketing team has been working really hard. And that's something that we'll be working more on in the future. So, excuse me. One of our other major goals was to fill vacancies, right? So I talked about building E. When we were in building E, what that meant is that French market offices were occupying two ground floor retail spaces in the upper Pentalva, which is critical retail space. And so it was really important to us to get out of that building so we could get retailers into those spaces. And so, and then there was also a vacancy in the farmer's market. So we had some of these vacancies come up. And so we've been really excited to engage and to get people into these spaces. And so I just put this chart together for you guys because I thought it's sometimes just easier to see kind of the totals and the numbers. These are the 2026 leases that we have executed. And so we have on the collective shop, which at 528 St. Peter was vacant. And so we were able to activate that space. Only coffee in the farmer's market. And so that space was formerly French market produce. And so we've been able to move forward in that as well. The soul study, which is kind of a personal favorite just because it really hits what we were trying to do. So Christian Davenport is a poet and he's also an artist. And so you go in and he writes a custom poem for you, but it's in this very immersive environment. And what we've done is we've realized through this strategic leasing process that we've been in since 2023, people are looking for something more than they can just do Google Lens and buy it on Amazon. They're looking for an experience. They're looking for a one-of-a-kind moment. And so that's what we're trying to get to is, yeah, you're still gonna have your stores. People still wanna buy stuff. The sock store does about $1,000 a square foot in sales. I mean, they're just, it's amazing. But people are looking for, hey, I can't get this anywhere else. So we're really excited about some of these. And so that was one too. There was a vacant space. Actually, an RFP was done on that space. The lease fell through on that RFP before I started. And so it was vacant and we went back out. We put it on the market and we were able to do this lease. Paradise Garden was actually, and I'm sorry, there's a typo here. That should say 16200, not zero. Apologies, but the numbers on the bottom are correct. She was actually in a larger space in the district and really couldn't handle it and was paying well below market rent. And so we said, hey, your space is going out, but there's other spaces available. And so I talked to her yesterday and she's like, Casey, it's so great. I didn't even realize how good it was gonna be. So it's nice to see like, yes, some of this change is uncomfortable, but then to see people who are succeeding in it is really exciting. So we're doing more in revenue, but she's also doing more in sales. And so everybody is winning. It's uncomfortable at the beginning. I'll admit that. We're making big changes, but it's exciting to see that, hey, we were trying to make these changes and now we're seeing them work. Key Home Studios, that is a local artist. He has a book he does. And so again, kind of same. And then Pelican is one of the new releases. That space was vacant in the ground floor of our administrative building. So that space has been vacant since 2015. So to put that space back online at over $100,000 a year is something for us all to be really proud of. Southern Paw, which has decided they wanted to put their flagship store, they closed their Riverwalk store because they wanted people and neighbors to be able to walk their dog into the store. So really enhancing that neighborhood feel in the upper Pentalva. And then Cajun Collectibles, which is a jewelry store. Again, that was one that had gone out for RFP. We couldn't get responses. We put it on the public market. We were able to use broker sites to really advertise it and bring it online and increase our revenue. So we're really excited to present this to you. And part of why we present this to you is because, again, with that goal of we want to start turning money back over to the city, these increased rents are making a difference. So on our personnel, we are kind of tightening things up. We have a total of 44 folks. It's largely laborers and maintenance team for us. We have a pretty small administrative staff. We are working to fill some positions right now. We had a ton of exposure with upper Pentalva and Building E under construction, and so we held off on some hiring.

But now that we're starting to ramp back up, we are starting to do some of those interviews and hire people into these positions. And you can see from our org chart, there have been some changes where we've brought in kind of outside consultants where we realize there's a significant savings in using a consultant that maybe it's a position that doesn't need a five-day-a-week person. Maybe it's something where we just kind of need one off. I will note that you'll see that with the real estate brokerage services. So right now, we have several leases on month-to-month, which has been one of the goals is to get those off month-to-month and into longer-term deals. So you'll see in the budget for this year that those services are higher. I think we have a budget of about $135,000 for commissions. That'll drop in the next year, because once those are signed, then you don't need a budget for that as much. But that gives us that flexibility. We're not just holding someone on payroll for no reason. So our 2027 goals, it's just a quick review of our 26. So I'll just move into 27. So, again, completing Upper Pentalva, right? Building you was the big goal for this year. Upper Pentalva is the big goal for next year. We're confident that we can get it done and get people moved back into the building. Restoring that residential occupancy, it's just immediate revenue back into the pocket of ultimately the city. Strengthening the public market. So as I noted, we did this strategic planning effort for the market specifically. And so now we're working on really advertising and getting new vendors in and getting a stronger vendor population. Advancing strategic leasing initiatives. So like I said, we've been on this journey for some time now and continuing that so that we can move into getting those spaces under longer-term leases so that we can kind of scale back on the need for that intense leasing effort. Expanding digital marketing efforts, taking what we've done and moving it forward. And then strengthening our cultural partnerships. So we've been meeting a lot with the French Quarter locals and the cultural partners in the French Quarter to really say, hey, let's all tell our story together and not be telling it individually. So I'll just kind of go over the quick highlights. So on our personnel services, there is a decrease of 82,000. That is actually attributed to the grounds patrol. So we have, I think they were here yesterday. So we use grounds patrol officers. And what we did is we really looked at the actuals from last year. And so this is more in line with what it should have been. So it's the same budget. It's just we didn't need as much as we thought we needed. So the same amount, we're not cutting officers, I guess I should say. And then on the operating, the biggest change you'll see is that we are constantly kind of going through and looking at everything and making sure things are being accounted for the way that they need to be. And so there was a $1.1 million correction related to depreciation. And I will let you know that that is not fully my strength. So if you have further questions on that, I'll let Robbie answer it. But it's not actually a change. It's just how we were accounting for it and making sure that it's accounted for properly. And then I will note too that there was a precedent set in the Recovery School District with the tax credits, for historic tax credits. Because we're a corporation and we're not a political subdivision, we have the ability to get tax credits in the project that we're doing for Upper Pentalba. And so this was part of the conversation back when Leslie was here. And I have the benefit of kind of carrying that through. But we've been working with SHPA, which is the State Historic Preservation Office, to make sure that those tax credits are reserved. And so that's gonna be about $2.5 million in tax credits. French Market will receive those, we will sell them off, and then that money will be given back as an extraordinary contribution to the city. So that'll kind of be our little partial repayment for the bond funds. But we're excited to, I mean, you know, we think it's a good thing. So we're excited to be able to turn that back over to the city next year. Any questions? Council Member Willard? All right, thank you, Madam Chair. Casey, thank you for coming down and walking us through all of this. I had a couple of questions just on the rent side. And we, you know, you presented some stuff about getting closer to market rate rents. When's the last time French Market Corporation actually adjusted rents? So to my knowledge, so we have CPI increases annually, but at least not since 2015, if not before then. So I think what happened is, you know, French Market can have a high turnover rate in executive directors, which can mean that there's kind of a starting up every time. Leslie Alley was incredible. She came from a lifelong service in city government and came in ready to go. And I think what, the next day, the city shut down for COVID, literally. So, you know, a lot was put on hold. And then it was COVID, you know, we were, French Market worked with tenants during COVID so that they weren't having to pay rent during that time. So it was actually a loss for French Market. And then Ida, right? This is a story we all know. And so as we kind of climbed our way out of that in 2023, and again, this is kind of right before I started, you know, she went to the board. There were a lot of discussions about setting market rate rents so that new rents going forward would be based on that market rate. And so that process started in 2023. You know, the appraisal was brought to the board. It was put on the website for review. There was public comment. It was presented again at a real estate committee meeting. And then it was adopted by the board, I want to say May 2024. And so that was kind of that setting of a baseline and then to move forward into this process.

I will note though, if I may, some of those rent increases were so significant that the question became, how do you do this, right? Like you can't just take people and say, by the way, you're going to start paying double, which is why when I came on board April 2024, we really looked at how do we do this. And so that's when we went to the board and asked to do this RFP for a strategic leasing consultant and broker so that we could then have a professional come in who understood the market. market and say all right here's this baseline that the board has voted on here's how we get get there and it and it wasn't necessarily about existing it was about when we move into new leases now as I noted a lot of our leases were on month-to-month and so we've had to kind of you can't do them all at once because people would think that something was really wrong if all of a sudden the whole district went out to lease at the same time so that's a process that we've been moving through for the past couple years but I think the evidence shows that it's making a difference what did you guys do I guess to mitigate with that sticker shock for the huge spikes did was there like a phase in planner yeah so what so what we did is we and again so um corporate realty was selected through our RFP process just so you know who the broker of record is they've done a lot of work in the city so what they did is the strategic so that first couple months they were on board they took the McHenry study which was the appraisal they reviewed it they did a block by block review in the French Quarter of market rates and they said okay this is like this is what the study says this is what the rents that's and then the next piece of that was they took the effective rent so what the current tenant and it's our leases we're trying to streamline them because you have a cam component there's CPI there's percent rent there's advertising where people don't know at the end of the day what they're supposed to be paying so we took all of those numbers to look at them to then say okay here's what we're advertising and so when it's advertised on the market it's advertised at a total cost yeah as a set rent and then you know you see what the market does and what we've seen is that the markets responding and people are willing to pay the rents that we're putting on the market okay and then on the slides you showed when they had zero that means that was an empty space correct so filling vacancies was one of our biggest goals we should never have vacant spaces in the French corner so we're really excited but when people see vacant spaces they get a little nervous sure those were our top priority to get this filled and how do the new leases compare to other facilities in the French Quarter other office space so the French Quarter is really unique in that it's truly a block by block I mean you'll see on one block of Royals gonna look different than another and so these are we believe fair market rate based on what we've seen but we've which is why it's not just looking at the rest of the French Quarter it's looking at our existing tenants what their sales are what their neighbors are doing and there's a lot of kind of number crunching that goes into it to make sure that it feels appropriate okay so you looked at all of that when you were sitting in here yeah okay that sounds good all right thanks Casey all right thank you hey Casey I have quite a few questions first is walk us through how FMC will evaluate the results of its leasing strategy what additional rent has been actually collected to date and how have vacancies changed and how have the cost of tenant turnover how are those accounted for so I mean I think that's what we're looking at right so when we when we put it out when we put these things out we're looking at a baseline so we look at lease years so we say okay in this lease year and then we're able to look at the next one and see where those changes are so when the intent of getting people on longer-term leases is when we're presenting it to the board we're presenting a 5 10 15 year term so once they're signing on that typically we don't have people who aren't paying rent right like once once if you're coming to the table and you're agreeing to these terms people are willing to pay these the variable there that you'll see is on percentage rent so all of these leases do still so we've simplified right like it's all a base rent you don't have cam you don't have CPI you don't have all these things but what you do have is typically 8% of sales over a breakpoint and so there's the only kind of variable is the additional rent we could be receiving but that baseline is understood from the time that we're signing the lease okay and so for the people that you're transitioning from month-to-month leases into long-term agreements how do you promote stability there and how do you manage those commitments to get to protect existing tenants and give them a fair opportunity to remain those month-to-month tenants as you're transitioning them into long-term rents so I want to be clear that we are not necessarily transitioning month-to-month tenants into long-term leases we have and I think what had happened for a long time is that there were kind of these like renegotiations that were quietly happening what we've heard from the community is I didn't know I hadn't even an opportunity to propose on these spaces so we've put it out on a very open market which is I mean I've done public bidding for a long time so that has always been my training in the public sector is that everyone should have a shot we certainly we have a rubric that we've developed where we when if an existing tenant is looking to propose on the space right their term is up there on month-to-month we always go to the existing tenant first and say hey your spaces you're on month-to-month you're no longer under term which they know already but we go meet with them and we say hey it's

gonna be going on the market we just want to let you know and you're gonna be as long as you're relatively right and we've been very loose on this in good standing then you're welcome to propose on it and so I don't think that we've had anyone we've told couldn't propose on this space that rubric that I talked about that's where we we have several things we're looking at and so one of the things we look at is is this an existing tenant in the French market district and how they perform so off out of the gate they're already gonna get a leg up because they can show that they can perform in this space we look at are you someone who's operating a French Quarter operator right like are you able to because it's a unique landscape to be in the French Quarter so that's one of the things that we look at we look at is your storefront here generating additional jobs in the city of New Orleans so I use a coffee shop for example if you're coming to us and you're proposing a coffee shop but you're gonna use locally sourced beans well then you're generating more jobs because it's not just this storefront so those are so we're not we're looking at rent right like that's one component but we're also looking at we're looking at have you been here for a long time have you been successful you know are you is this how does this fit in the tenant mix like do we already have a lot of this item or you know like do we need another t-shirt shop some would argue no so those are the kind we're looking at that whole mix and the way it works is it's put on the market staff gathers all of the proposals we you know get the best and final we review them and then we make a recommendation to our board of directors and excuse me our real estate committee our real estate committee then has the opportunity to take a vote and decide what they want to do based on our and they might not agree right like but that's our job is to give them that recommendation and then they vote to advance that to the full board of directors for consideration yeah I think the concern is making sure that existing month-to-month tenants have the opportunity to compete they do through that rubric is that what you're saying they will they do in several ways right so it's an LOI process and so we meet the existing tenant we meet with them before we put it on the market so they're the first person that knows okay you're next in line for this to go out and corporate realty recognizing that not everyone has maybe the expertise in submitting an LOI so they actually have a word document that they give to people that they walk through with them they talk to them meet with them if there's questions the difference between this in an RFP is in an RFP system you fill out one form wrong and you're out so this is we've had a lot more back-and-forth doing it like this then in created a more competitive market than in the traditional RFP what we saw when we did the traditional RFP is that only people who were in the know got the spaces and it's evidenced in our district so we have I think Chapel hats has three stores sellers has two stores who I mean we have a couple of folks who have Kevin Iman has two so we have people who kind of knew how to get in and so now they're in the know and so it's it's maintaining that balance of protecting people have been there giving them you know like yet Latins hand for example they same process we met with them talk to them put it on the market there's some other interest they submitted and now there's was the most competitive LOI we presented it to the board we said this has been an amazing tenant there's still an amazing tenant and the board voted to move it forward because they have that evidence of being a strong tenant okay I want to turn to the upper table of renovation what milestones support the reopening date what costs remain and how further delays can affect rental income and the operating budget okay so all of the roof work has been completed the biggest milestone that we were working on was the subsurface work that had to happen for the mechanical system so we're putting in two totally new mechanical systems into the entire I'm just gonna call it building but it's 14 individual units and so those were kind of when I talk about that risk that we were facing a lot of that happens in that demo period so the the biggest hurdle that we faced so far was that kind of subsurface work that needed to happen we found some artifacts which as you know can be one of the biggest challenges in this area the they were able to come out immediately and address that and so I think we're kind of back on on schedule you know originally we were at a much earlier date I want to say February and so now we are at kind of that late May date for ending the project but again we've taken we've kind of taken the skins and the skin of the muscle off and so we can really see the bones and so now it's that build back which is typically a little bit smoother so the original projection for reopening was February we're pushing it back to late May is that correct because of that subsurface work in the mechanical systems and what costs remain for this renovation I can pull up and I'll send those to you guys send them to all of us please absolutely all right I'm gonna turn to Crescent Park as you know there has been a decision to relinquish Crescent Park to the city you initiated that what alternatives and authority supported it and how have you determined whether the transfer produced the results that we wanted which was a savings for the city so the relinquishment of Crescent Park started apologies I don't have all the notes in front of me on this but I'll do my best so I can certainly send back everyone that the specific dates if I misspeak but the CEA between French Market and this the city ended in 2018 so French Market had been operating the park with with no authority and it became like we weren't able to get insurance I mean there were big issues

of not having a contract in place meanwhile and again this is kind of before you know and I kind of took the baton but the city was in discussions with and for taking it over. And this was before the opening of the Governor Nichols Park. So we were in weekly meetings at that time. Leslie had talked about this with the board several times before she left, that they were turning it over. They were in the process of turning it over. When I started, we had those meetings with the city and Audubon and ourselves. And we kind of moved through the process. And I'm going to mess up. I just want to make sure I have the dates right. I apologize. So it was Valentine's Day, February 14, 2025. We sat in a meeting in the aquarium conference room and had the conversation that, OK, the city is going to work directly with Audubon and do a CEA so Audubon can take over Crescent Park. And we said, OK, we're going to provide notification that we are relinquishing the park because we don't technically have rights to it, so we don't need to be on the CEA. So we sat in that meeting, had that conversation. I met with you. I met with several of our council members. Well, I met with every council member. So I met with every council member to discuss it. And then after I met with every council member, I met with the mayor's office under the previous administration to make sure that, OK, are we all good with moving forward with this? And got the final OK from the mayor, which was the last step, and sent the letter to the city that we were relinquishing it. We got a response from the CAO's office that they needed additional time, so we granted additional time, and then moved it forward. Part of the timing in that, it was largely because, I mean, all of our lawyers, everyone was working on this. So that was part of it. The other part of it was that we knew that we were vacating the Upper Pentalba, and that we were about to lose a significant amount of revenue and have a ton of exposure. And so it was kind of, it went hand in hand with the timing, but those conversations were very much led by the city and Audubon as far as that deal. We were not part of that deal. We were just told that that deal was happening. So you can't quantify whether or not there was a savings for the city versus a shifting of expenses? Well, so we were told that Audubon was going to be taking over, and that was the decision that the city and Audubon had come to. So we were not included in quantifying what those expenses were. OK. Can you walk us through your spending on professional services, including legal counsel, accounting, and auditing, and insurance? Are there any overlap with other public benefit corporations that we could sort of save by combining those services or contracts? So for our audit service, I think that is a question that we could look into, whether or not if we sent out an RFP perhaps for all of us under one. I think there's definitely an opportunity there. For grounds patrol, I know that the, excuse me, OPSC. So we've actually, since we've sent this, we're starting to reduce our use of OPSC. We're not seeing really the results that we need to. And we think that it makes more sense to use grounds patrol, who are really boots on the ground and have that visibility. So I can give you guys updated. I mean, this is kind of like in real time that we're doing this. We're constantly looking at these things. Architectural, that's as needed architectural. So that's when we have to do a structural study, which is something that we have to do on a pretty regular basis. Ever since Cafe du Monde, we do regular structural assessments. I'm not sure there's a cost savings there, because it's a direct cost. I mean, you're going to get the same cost regardless. That's really just us using it just like we did the same type of thing when I was at NOBC, right? We did those structural assessments at St. Rock when we had all that subsidence. Legal services, so we just looked this up for our board. I think we used $14,000 last year in legal services. So just like I think OIG said it earlier today, we set that $75,000. That's how we go out. But we don't like to use it all. So it's there in case a lawsuit comes up or something comes up. But using $14,000 is pretty low when that's our outside counsel. I do know that there was a decision, there was a time when we used the city attorney. And we've looked at this recently. And we're told, excuse me, French Market cannot use the city attorney. So we have a letter telling us that that is not acceptable. You know, I think certainly the appraisal, $10,000, I mean, that's the cost of what it is. So there's no real efficiency there. Corporate Realty, that service, it's truly a commission. So it's a standard 2% if it's a renewal, 4% if it's a new lease. And that doesn't matter if it's an existing tenant who's getting a new lease or a new person who's getting a new lease. It's 4%. So that kind of is what it is as an industry standard. Brinks is our armored car. I don't see a lot of savings there. Our computer services, our janitorial, so that is one that you'll see that we took out of the game. So we've started really empowering our staff to do the things that were being done by ART. And that's been a huge cost savings for us. Insurance, perhaps, right? Like, I think maybe we could there. And then, so parking, premium parking. So we are putting together the RFP. That got kind of delayed with everything going on. But we're putting together that RFP for a parking manager. But that really comes out of what the lots are generating. Part of that delay is because in our capital budget, we're looking to do a mill and overlay on our lots because they're kind of the last ones in the quarter who haven't had that done. So we're doing a lot of that. And strategic planning services, I mean, that's a direct cost of what that service is. So I don't think that's really the answer you're looking for, unfortunately.

So maybe audit. OK, thank you. I appreciate that. What is your current cash position, meaning cash on hand? And do you have any bonding capacity? Can you answer the bonding capacity? We have issued bonds in the past year. We have issued bonds in the past, but we don't have any currently. You don't have any current bonds, but you have the capacity to issue bonds? In the past, they have. OK, what is your current cash position? Cash on hand as of the second quarter was $13 million. I can't hear you. $13 million in the second quarter. So you're sitting on $13 million. So part of that, I just want to note is, we have to keep the cash. And I will get this to you for upper pental, but I apologize for not having it. We have to have the cash on hand for the projects that we have underway. So a large portion of that is for the projects that the capital project exposure that's underway. And then the other portion is the way that our reserves work. And we certainly can look at all of these things, but we keep the amount for our deductibles for our insurance on hand, because we do our own insurance. And then I think one place where we can talk to the city, we've been discussing this, is where there maybe is a possibility to wiggle a little bit, is we, it is our understanding that we have to keep the cash on hand for our pension exposure. And so that is, I think, an opportunity for us to look at, do we or not? And it could be somewhere we could free up something. But that's, I think it's a. Look, we are shaking down everyone at this point for money. Yeah, shake us down. That's why we're here. So I would like to see the reserves that you really need for the construction, what you really need for other issues, and how much potentially you could return to the city. Because we're in a tough spot right now. That's why we're constantly, and that's why the numbers are so real time. Because when we constantly are looking at, even if it's $20,000, $30,000, that's $20,000, $30,000. And so those numbers add up. So we absolutely want to work with the city where we can. All right, I have one more question. I know you talked about the historic tax credits. Do we have a timing on when you might receive those and how they might flow to the city? So my anticipation is that won't be until 28, because of the time it's going to take us to sell them. But I am happy to see if there's any way to press on how that works, or if there can be a partial. I can look into that. Rob is telling me no. OK, and are there any changes that y'all can make to increase your annual financial contribution to the city? I think bringing rents to market rate is going to allow us to turn more money back to the city. OK, I think so, too. You have a question, Council Member Willard? All right. Thank you all for your time. You're free to go. Thank you. Up next is RTA. Oh, wait, no, no, no, sorry. I have several cards. Sorry, y'all. Trying to get out of here. All right, Alan Zahara, followed by Russell Kent, I think. Kelly. Thank you all, and I appreciate you hearing me out. And a lot of what Casey Guidry says sounds great on paper, but what she's been doing has been actually the complete opposite. She has not done a fair leasing process. For example, she just said that Corporate Realty will give a document to people trying to apply for leases. We asked Corporate Realty about 20 to 30 times for information on just simple things on the process, like is it a bidding process? Can we see other people's leases? Or I mean, what they propose. Can we look at any of this? And there was never any answers. We've tried to go through Freddie King's office, and Freddie King tried to ask them twice, and they never responded. I do not know why this is. And as far as keeping current local businesses, they are trying to, I show my artwork out of OMG, so I'm a vendor there. Casey has tried to attack Steve Doss, owner of OMG, saying that I'm illegally subleasing from him, which is not true whatsoever. But she's trying to kick OMG out, who's been there for 12 years. He's increased revenue this year by about 260 to 300 and something percent. For example, you can record this in case I, because part of that legal that you're talking about, they've been using Ray Lewis and Deutsch and Kerrigan. They have $75,000 on the budget for it this year, and they're probably going to use more, because they keep on lying about local tenants and putting them into positions where they have to file lawsuits. Back to OMG, though. So I'm sorry, but everyone gets two minutes so we can keep the program moving. If you want to shoot us all an email, that'd be great. Thank you. Mr. Kelly? Commend you on the questions you've been asking, I've been following, as a council person. But like I say, only in New Orleans, corporate realty capitalism. Corporate realty, to me, doesn't care. I've been a vendor in the market since 2018. Corporate realty does not care anything about local vendors. Their approach doesn't care anything about local vendors. I'm glad I just heard that the market is sitting on $13 million, but they're about to push out people who helped them get to the $13 million. Local, longtime, committed vendors. It's not right. Talking about a budget, I personally run people out of the restroom in the market, because the money that's being paid to NOPD, they sit in their car. We are told to use the app if we see something. Yesterday in the market, a guy walked through, cursing everybody out, threatening to kill people. No one is around, security-wise. Maybe you could save some money in the security, or get more security. While we're talking about raising local vendors, what's really pushing, just like re-gentrification in the neighborhoods with the housing, that's the same thing that's happening with, or attempting to happen with local vendors in the market. So I'm so glad, again, to hear that they're sitting on $13 million.

In this deficit, we're trying to raise the rent, and turn over the jewels of the city to whoever can pay for it. It's not right. I don't care what they say. This approach from corporate reality doesn't work for the local vendors. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. That's your time. You all are free to go. Thank you. Absolutely. Up next is RTA. Whenever you're ready. Whenever you're ready. Good morning. My name is Ronald Baptiste. I am the interim CEO of the Regional Transit Authority, with me today is Ms. Giselle Banks, our CFO, and Ms. Tiffany Gurrier, our manager of budget and analyst. So before we get started, I just wanted to make sure that everyone understands that what we're presenting today is a preliminary budget. Our processes internally requires that we have our budget formally reviewed by the Board of Commissioners, which is scheduled to take place next month, and formally adopted by the Board of Commissioners. So that's why we are referencing this data as preliminary. So with that, Ms. Giselle Banks. Good morning, everyone. We'll go through the slides. All right. This is a review of our 2026 goals and the status. Our first goal for 2026 was to implement Algiers service improvement plan and complete the plan for New Orleans East for their service improvement. We do have 20, we do have Algiers ready, and you'll see that presented in the 2027 goals. We are still working on the plan for New Orleans East, and that is also in the 2027 goals. The second goal was to begin the design of the downtown transit center and to begin plans for our bus rapid transit. BRT is underway, and we are getting close and ready to award the planning phase for downtown transit center. In 2026, we did begin the construction of the Algiers Ferry Terminal, and we did some design work in 2025. We are under construction right now in 2026, and so we are on track with that goal. We've been talking about fares, fare technology at the RTA for a while. In 2026, so currently, we are completing our fare technology improvement study, and so that is recently complete. And we also embarked on a universal accessibility study this year in 2026, and that is also newly completed. All right, our personnel, and this is current and going into 2027. We have 881 FTEs, and that's full-time equivalents. And the breakdown you'll see there, our unions make up the biggest portion of our staff, of our employees. We have approximately 525 FTEs that are attributable to ATU union. This is our operators, paratransit, bus, and streetcar. We do have our dispatchers in this group as well. So that's the bulk of our staff, and that's about 60% of our FTEs. We also have our IBEW union at about 20%, at 174 FTEs. And that's our electrical workers, our machinists, those folks who kind of keep the maintenance workers, that keep our vehicles moving. And then on the admin side, we have about 20% as well. And you can see the breakdown there. You can scroll through. All right. Currently, we are staffed at about 807, and that's about an 8% vacancy rate. And so we have improved our vacancy rate over the past few years. So much better than we were coming out of COVID, and we are continuing to fill those necessary positions. All right. You can go to the 2027 goals. Thank you. Our first goal, of course, we just talked about this, is to implement our LJERS service improvement plan, and then have the completed plan for New Orleans East that we are currently working on, and have that implemented in 2027 as well. Again, we want to complete the engineering for the bus rapid transit project, and that is currently underway. We want to have that completed in 2027. We know that BRT is a long-term project. And so as we are moving through getting environmental clearances, design work happening, all of that is currently underway. We do plan to complete the preliminary design for the downtown transit center in 2027. And as we have completed our fare technology study this year, we are moving into the procurement phase, the implementation phase. And so we want to have that part done by 2027. And so we're looking to have tap cards, open payments, just kind of update all of our fare technology to make it easier for riders, and also to speed up the boarding process so that we can improve service and on-time performance. We do want to start construction for the ADA compliance streetcar stops along the St. Charles route for 2027. And finally, we plan to order 37 new buses. 25 of those buses will be low emission through CNG technology. On the operating budget side, I want to do an overview of our revenues from 2026 to 2027. You'll see in 2026, we have an approved budget of $225 million. Primarily, in our revenue, my breakdown in terms of operating revenues, primarily are made up of sales tax. So general use sales tax, hotel motel tax, and state motor vehicle tax. That's the bulk of our operating dollars. We do have non-operating dollars that we get for capital projects. And that is primarily through the Federal Transit Administration. And you'll see that outlined here as well. You'll see we have a small portion for maritime operations. And then we do have preventative maintenance and some operating assistance that we get from the Federal Transit Administration through a formula allocation that helps us operate. We do have a reduction in revenues for 2027. We're projecting around a $201 million budget. And primarily being on the capital project side. So as we are starting to complete some of those projects, we have spent down those dollars. And so those are one-time grants. And so as we spend down those dollars, those funds, of course, are moved to the expenditure side when the revenue comes down. So that's the primary difference on the revenue side. All right, on our expense side, you can see our budget is pretty much remaining flat for 2027.

We do know that we have some increased costs that we have to consider around our union contracts, our CBA agreements that call for small cost of living increases. And so we are honoring those. And our health care insurance has increased year over year. And so taking those into consideration, we do have some increases there. But trying to keep everything to a minimal increase as possible. And so that means no additional. FTEs for 2027, just making sure that we are able to meet those contractual obligations. On the capital investment side, I kind of just talked about how those projects are getting completed, and as we're splitting down those dollars, our local match has also decreased. And so last year, we had budgeted around a $14 million local match to most of our capital projects, about an 80-20 split on the federal side and 20% local match. This year, we're looking at just about $10 million in terms of the local match for our capital projects. And then on our government operating assistance that we get from the government, again, this is formula funding. This is based upon ridership. We report every year through our national transit database data for ridership and different operational KPIs that we track, and the FTA does the formula funding, and so every year we get an allocation for preventative maintenance and operating. And this year, we anticipate to get about $23.3 million in those formula funds. I think that is it, and we'll take any questions. Council Member Willard. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks, Ms. Giselle and Ron. First question, what's going on? How's the search for the new CEO going? On Tuesday, October 27th, is our monthly scheduled board meeting. The agenda has a line item for the final three candidates to be interviewed with the board members coming out and taking a public vote on the selection process. So next Tuesday? Next Tuesday. Okay. And so we'll know who the next CEO is next Tuesday? We hope so. Okay. All right. I hope so. All right. A couple of questions on the budget side. So it looks like before the government assistance kicks in, you guys operate at a $21 million deficit. On the government assistance side, it looks like preventative maintenance takes up 93 percent of that allocation. What's the source of this funding for the preventative maintenance? So the source of funding, you said before we received the allocation? So throughout the year, we have, of course, some cash reserves, because this is a reimbursement basis. Even though it's an allocation, we have to actually spend it to get it. And so we are constantly maintaining our vehicles, buses, streetcars, paratransit vehicles, all those things that are tied to continuing operations. And so we're spending that on a monthly basis. I report to the board every month on our purchase orders that are less than $100,000 of visibility. Every month, it's about maybe $500,000 in just maintenance. Well, Ms. Giselle, what I'm asking is where does that funding come from? It's like $23 million for the 27? Oh, it comes from the Federal Transit Administration. So it's from Federal Transit. That's what I was asking. So that's from the FTA, that's right. Okay. About $43 million in capital expenses for 27. How much of that is positioned to come from the city's capital budget? None. Okay. That's good. Any pass? Yes. I think the council, you know, there's overwhelming support for that. So I wanted to know if you guys have had any conversations about bringing that in-house? So we have not talked about bringing it in-house. We have had conversations with our partners, right? Right, yeah. Around the advocacy for this project, we have, of course, agreed if we have the funding to continue the program the way it's been running, I think we've had a lot of success mixing up the pass products with the pass and the paper passes that we have, the physical passes. So I think that has demonstrated that there's a need. Folks are using the program, but of course, that funding runs out this year. So going into 2027, I mean, we still do have a reduced rate, it's 40 cents, for youth. And so we're hoping that, you know, that the youth will still continue to ride. And as we go out and ride helps us to advocate for this program, hopefully we can find some funding to supplement it. Yeah, I think long-term, that would be a good program to incorporate under RTA's jurisdiction. So just putting it out there, I hope that the new CEO and board can start to look at that in the years to come. Yes. And let me say something else. So as we are looking on our FAIR technology project, and as we get into the procurement of this hardware to kind of reduce our costs, right, to maintain those FAIR box, it costs a lot of money. And so as we bring down those costs, those operating costs, and create more efficiencies, I mean, it's very possible that we could, you know, at some point look at what that would look like to go to zero FAIRs. But right now, we're not able to do that. But as we get more data on what that FAIR technology can do for the agency in terms of reduced costs, I mean, I think all things are possible. Okay. All right. All right. That's it. Thank you, all. Thank you. Ashley? Oh, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Yet again. Public questions. Owen. Owen, come on up. You get two minutes. I'm here. My interest is I've lived in this city 50 years. I love this city. I'm very concerned where it's in an existential crisis right now. The city has lost 30,000 people estimated since the last census, okay, 30,000. And it's estimated at least 10,000 of those people are young adults. The city can't afford that, okay. And one of the problems, a major problem is, you know, a weak economy. So there's not a lot of good jobs. High rents, okay. These people don't need cars. A car note, insurance, gas. Repairs. It's crazy.

And I'll point out that Councilperson Harris, you told me, we talked one time, and you lived in New York City for several years, and you said you rode, nobody had a car, and you were able to pay their high rents easier because of you, because you didn't have a car, okay. This has to get resonated through this city. I mean, it's, anyway, that's, and I'm not going to get into what the RTA's needs are. Anyway, I think they're wicked important, okay. I'm not going to get into their specific needs, but they deserve every attention. Anyway. And they're green, too. It's a green thing, okay. And I don't think this city's going to flood before it loses all its people. I mean, the flood isn't something we should worry about as much as this, you know, losing the hemorrhaging of residents. Thank you. So you are in support of RTA, is what you're saying. Okay. Thank you, Owen. And up next is the algae development. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you for being here. That would have been a good deal for him. Here's how it should look. All right. This is another organization that gets no city revenue. But please introduce yourselves. Sure. Sean Bruno, CPA for the algae development district. And I'm Kathy Lynn Honaker, the executive director for 22 years. And we are pleased to be here. Good morning, everyone. We're going to do the overview first. Our board of, let's see, yeah, we'll start with our board of commissioners. And they all send greetings to you. They're out and about, of course. And we recently, when the state reorganized, we went from seven members to six. So we recently, in August, had Darren Lombard added by Congressman Troy Carter, who now has a seat on our board also, just to let you know that. And we're working with the mayor's office, and she's going to give us a city representative, which we always have. The next page is just a map. I prepared because some of you I know are newer in the positions and may not have been to federal city yet to see some of the things that have been. done. And basically, it was a former Navy base for over a hundred years, and we've been working, it's around 200 acres, and we've been working to expand that and turn it into a place to live, work and play. And we're very proud that we were one of the only ones in the country ever to save the base, and we have the marine support facility for the whole United States there. And on the river, we have the Coast Guard, which oversees, as you know, an eight-state area. So very proud to have them. 300 housing for military also. And we're focused on housing right now. Last year, we opened Riverside Retreat for 55-plus independent, and it filled up immediately. It was great. And in about February, right after Mardi Gras, we'll be opening up one of our historic buildings. Brown Taylor, BTMSG, is our developer. Anything in the pink on the map that you see, they're working on. And that will be our second development. It's the lofts at Federal City. There will be 60 lofts in a historic building over a hundred years old. It's beautiful. So hope we'll send you all an invite and hope you'll be able to come. The next page is just the Riverside Retreat. It was a brand new building built on the facility just to show you what it looks like. Next is a look at what the lofts will look like at Federal City. They're actually much prettier than this. They have the old bricks and just very beautiful. Just to give you a list of some of the key tenants there, the Marine Corps, of course, support facility, the Coast Guard, I've already mentioned. We also partnered with the city in Nord and turned over our pool that was just for Federal City and now it's open to everyone and that's been very good for everyone in the community. We have a Delgado Advanced Center there. Clara's Little Lamb Development Center is expanding and I have a picture attached of what her facility will look like. We also have Navy Federal Credit Union Advanced Nursing Training and we're so proud to have the New Orleans Maritime Military Academy. With their bursting at the seams, we sold them three different parcels about a year ago and they're making plans to expand that. It's state-of-the-art. There's only one other like it that just opened this past year so we were the first in the country to have the Maritime Military Academy. A picture of Clara's Little Lamb and what it'll look like in the future and she is known throughout the state. She's outstanding and also we've worked on the new Cut-Off Natatorium. We actually got that assignment from Congressman Carter and working with the state in Nord, it's just been fabulous and of course this is not the prettiest picture because it's work in progress but hopefully we'll be inviting you about December to come to a ribbon cutting there. There's still a wrap to go landscaping so still a little bit to be done but I just want to thank you all for the outstanding support we've received from Nord and I have to do a shout out to Jerry Harris and his team at Capital Projects. He was at the first meeting. He was there for us every week with anything we needed and got us to the right people. So outstanding and thank you very much and I'll turn it over to Sean now. So just real quick from a budget standpoint, the total budget revenues is 2.4 million dollars. Approximately 1.5 of that comes from TIF funding both from the city and from the state. LG Development District has properties that's rented out to the military. That accounts for about nine hundred thousand dollars of the revenues and then we have interest income. In previous years we did have some other funding but that kind of dried up as other stuff did from Baton Rouge so we're just kind of using our TIF funding and the bulk of money is used for the development of the real estate property on the Algiers Federal City area and just for community revitalization, blight cleanup, those types of things. Thank you. Council Member Willer. Thank you Madam Chair.

Good morning Miss Kathy and Sean. It's good to see both of you. So as far as the funding goes, doesn't the development district also get funding from the fairgrounds from the slot machine play? No that's the Algiers Economic Development Foundation. Got it. I used to run that too. I know you did. So what about the city money? Is that millage revenue that they get, that you guys get? It's a TIF funding from a block of land where Walmart is on the West Bank and so all the sales taxes from that area is dedicated toward. So that makes up the city funding? Correct, yes. Okay, all right that's fine. Thank you all. Thank you. Anything else? No, I did actually. So the lease payments that you guys get, so the development district owns that property out there and they lease it out. How did, I mean it just seems interesting, how did they come about owning that property out there in the West Bank? You have to know. Oh on Federal City? Yeah on Federal City. It was at that time we had just finished Katrina. Everybody was pretty busy in the city and the state and let's see at the time Jim Tucker was the speaker and so they worked to have a local, you know, to make sure it was someone in New Orleans that was running things because everybody else was pretty darn busy. So the idea came up between the city, the state, and the elected officials at the time that it would be good to have a board of commissioners to run things of elected officials and then to hire, you know, a small staff to run it. So is that when the development district was created? Yes. Got it. Okay, thank you all. Good story, no general fund use. Thank you all. Any questions for us or anything? No ma'am, thank you for coming out. Just me. Thank you Ms. Kathy. Thank you Sean. Hey guys. Uh-oh. Gotta give Andy a little room here. Hey my friend. I should sit there. We're used to sitting next to each other. I'm glad it's under better circumstances these days. All right, good morning. Good morning. We're talking about our pizza. We're hungry. And salad. And salad. Are we standing between you and lunch? No, the library actually is sitting between us and lunch. We'll be efficient. All right, whenever you're ready. Good morning Madam Chair and members of the council. I'm Andy Copland and I have the privilege of being the chair of Biodistrict New Orleans. And I am joined by our two budget committee co-chairs, Emily Arata and Charlotte Parent. And we're collectively going to give you our budget presentation this morning. So just, I want to highlight a little bit to get us started. We did a strategic plan in 2024 that really highlighted three transformative projects that are frankly bigger than the biodistrict alone could push. But that we recognized our advocacy for was essential and our participation was essential for these things to happen as well. And so we're super excited. We'll have some slides that Emily and Charlotte will talk about, about the work at Charity Hospital, about Xavier Osher College of Medicine, and about our work to get an NCI designated cancer center. But I just want to say I'm privileged to have been part of conversations where Mike Fitts said, absent the biodistrict's vision, we may not have had the confidence to come down and make our Tulane downtown campus the way we were dreaming of it. Absent the biodistrict's vision, Dr. Verrett has said we might have located the Xavier Osher College of Medicine in a different place, but we wanted to be right in the heart of the biodistrict. And I do think that we will be instrumental in helping LSU and LCMC on behalf of our region and then a broader consortium over time get an NCI designated cancer center. So those are things that are above and beyond our scope, but that we're really proud of the progress that we've made this year and proud of the part that we've played. Overall, our mission is to grow the bio, health, and life sciences ecosystem by supporting entrepreneurship, workforce development, public infrastructure, and placemaking. But we're excited about these three projects, and so I'm now going to pass it on to my colleagues. So as Andy mentioned, there's a lot of great news, a lot of great investment happening in the biodistrict. Thanks to the leadership and investment of Tulane University and the city and the state, that charity hospital, adaptive reuse, is moving forward. The biodistrict played a role in that by investing in the project and also acting as a pass-through for state funds. And we know that this will be transformative in terms of jobs and innovation and research and just quality of life in the district. Another major transformative project that's advancing in the biodistrict is one that's close to my heart is the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine. This will be located in Benson Tower. The College of Medicine recently received preliminary accreditation, which was a major milestone. So as early as 2027, the Xavier Oshker College of Medicine will be welcoming medical students to the Bio District, to downtown New Orleans. We know this will make a big difference in addressing the physician shortage, improving health and wellness in our community, connecting New Orleans residents to career pathways in medicine, and also just the innovation and the activity and the economic activity this will generate in the Bio District and downtown will be part of the city's vision that you guys have been pushing forward. So again, the Bio District's role in this, we worked closely under the leadership of Congressman Carter, who secured a federal investment from HUD that was able to pass through the Bio District and helped bring this project to fruition. I'll turn it over to Charlotte. So good morning everyone. The other piece in the Bio District that is important and a priority for the city as well as for the region is the opportunity to become an NCI-designated city per se.

Part of the National Cancer Institute is to look at different organizations and figure out how do we get the opportunity for clinical trials, and in our case for clinical trials, to be available to our citizens right at home versus them having to travel when they may not be able to travel, right, to get those things. So the NCI work is a partnership between LSU and LCMC Health with the work of other entities with this, but there has to be a group that is the leaders on that, and that's who we are at this point. As of right now, clinical trials for this program, there's about 180 clinical trials that are there. 72% of those adult trials are happening at UMC, which is the adult hub for this, but we've done a few things to get us ready to keep this moving. One is a $2 million Cancer Center expansion that opened up in August. We had a grand opening. That was a combination of HRSA funds that were obtained through Congressman Carter for this, along with investment from LCMC Health to do that. The clinical trials that we have, over 80 that are happening right now, but more to come, including phase one trials, which are the ones that you really want to have for NCI designation. And then finally, something that did not start with this, but the Louisiana Tumor Registry, which is nationally known for the work that they do and the information provided around tumor mapping and information, so we know what's going on with that. So NCI designation is a big piece of what we do. It will have a big impact on the community once it is in place in terms of the dollars turned around for economic entities and economic stability for our community. So that is something that is up and coming. Next slide. So a few other things that the Biodistrict is involved in, and of course, it's around entrepreneurship and commercialization efforts. So while we're doing the clinical work that needs to happen, this is a lot broader than just that, and it is looking at companies that can help us look at bioinnovation. So Beacon Bio and Informata are local bio startups that are based in the Biodistrict and recently received $1.25 million in SBIR Phase II awards. And this is something that the Biodistrict is focused on helping them to do and supporting that work that needs to happen. There's also the annual Bio Challenge competition, which attracts companies, research trials from all over the country who have put in proposals to the Bio Challenge and have been awarded grants for that. Next slide. And then finally, the other piece for us that's important is to improve the area, right? So environmentally, to look at the Biodistrict and have it be appealing and inviting to anyone who wants to come in, not only for people who are looking to invest in us, but for our community to see what that looks like. So there's work that's going on with groundwork in the New Orleans area to plant trees on Tulane Avenue. We will be working with RTA on bus stops and things like that to make sure that that's there. And then finally, our students, right? So you can't have this work going on without making an investment in the kids. And so we do have K through 12 engagement by funding some work with STEM NOLA to be able to run those camps to engage and inspire kids. And again, touching those things that are happening, finding new things, but also touching the things that's already happening in our community and supporting what's going on. Emily? In terms of personnel, we are sitting before you as three volunteer board members. The Biodistrict moving into 2027 as funds start to flow, we will move towards hiring at least one employee going into 2027. If you look on 11, you can see we've been able to accomplish and advance the work with the support of contractors. We have management support, accounting, and also legal counsel that work on a contract basis. And when we look ahead to our goals in 2027, as Andy mentioned, the board and then presented to the council a master plan that was approved. And so we'll be kind of ticking off those goals now that funding is starting to flow. We'll be able to begin implementing more of these goals. I would point to the placemaking at Tulane Avenue and Claiborne, activation, lighting, landscaping improvements, changes that the residents and businesses of the Biodistrict will see and will enhance quality of life and the overall feel of the district. We also have a plan to partner with the RTA on high quality bus stops throughout the district, which are much needed and will go a long way. There is a plan to adopt a biosciences entrepreneurship strategy in 2027, which is one of the core goals of the district and also facilitating that workforce training and the Biodistrict Investment Fund. Andy? Great. And I'll go through some of your budget slides. This first one notes that we had adopted an $830,000 budget for 2026. We are anticipating spending about $537,000. We do anticipate a receipt of about a million dollars in city EDD funds for 2027. And so our RFPs for searching for personnel, communications, public realm of design, that entrepreneurship strategy so we can give a long-term commitment to an incubator for multiple years to help us on life and biosciences in the district will be part of that. With the next slide, this is referring to the state fund. So we have a local EDD and we have a state match. The state match is limited to public infrastructure, but that covers things like the charity hospital project, the tree planting, and lots of those sorts of items. We did overestimate the 26 state funds. And so that's why that number is so much higher than the reality. But we are expecting to catch up a little bit on what we didn't get from the state in 2027. And so we'll have about $1.8 million. As Emily mentioned, one of the commitments that we made early in this process was to really improve the transit infrastructure on Tulane Avenue.

That biodistrict bus line, if you will, takes you from Loyola and Elks down to Lane Avenue, past Old Charity Hospital, past LSU Medical School, past UMC, past the VA, down to Xavier, and then it continues on to Ochsner and Jefferson Parish. So you've got a zillion of our healthcare jobs along that corridor, which is great for workforce, it's great for those hospitals, it's great for patient access. But it's not great right now in terms of infrastructure for riders. And so we've been working with the RTA. They haven't been going, quite frankly, as quickly as I think any of us would have liked to get those things. But they're still, I believe, committed to it, and we're committed to helping fund that infrastructure so that that bus line comes alive. And that's where some of that state money will go as well. And with that, we are finished with our formal presentation and would be delighted to respond to any questions that you might have. Well, I just want to say thank you. You have great volunteer leadership. I consider you both my friends, and I know how smart you are and how committed you are to this project. I think it's going to be transformative once it gets up and running. You've already made great strides. The fact that we have a Xavier Medical School right here in District B, all of the things that are really just amazing and emergent on Tulane Avenue, it's really exciting. And I think it is going to be transformative. As Mr. Owen, who is here, said, I think transit is going to be super important, especially connecting through Jefferson Parish to Ochsner and back, because that's exactly the route that you want running for the students to take advantage of it, the workers, everybody else. And I'm also looking forward to getting some Xavier students to live downtown as they go to their medical school. So whatever I can do to assist with that, please let me know. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember McCarron. Yeah, I just want to say the opportunity in the Biodistrict is incredible. I'm a little biased. My husband is a physician with LSU, so he teaches residents and students, and he's part of the recruiting. But this will draw recruits from across the country for all of our medical schools, all of our allied health, I mean, everything. So it's really, you guys are doing a fantastic job. So keep it up. And I really look forward to seeing how things continue to grow. Councilmember Willard. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming down today. One question, then just a couple of comments. Andy, you said you're expecting one million from the city EDD next year. That's the TIF? Yes. Okay. All right. Perfect. And there's a baseline, and then the amount above the baseline, up to a cap, is allocated under the CEA to the Biodistrict. And the money above all goes back to the city. So we've got a little slice. The great news on that, at least from our perspective, is that the that we've had, we've been meeting, so that the goals and aspirations that we have can be met, and the city is making money on top of that, which was also part of the deal, which was we wanted to make sure that we're not, A, taking anything from the city, we're getting some growth, and growth even beyond that is going back to the city. Sounds good. The National Cancer Institute designation, I mean, I really hope we get there in short order. I think that would be transformative for the city of New Orleans. Last year, I did a panel with Senator Cassidy on clinical trials and research and really spending by the industry toward clinical trials, and apparently, it's an issue going on at the federal level up in D.C. because a lot of clinical trial activity has moved over to Asia, and so he said a lot of his colleagues were trying to work on something to bring more of that investment here into the U.S., and so as we talk about that, I think that would be huge for us. Xavier's medical school coming online, I mean, couldn't be more excited about that, and still having those startups. You mentioned two biotech startups receiving Phase II awards, SBI awards. That's major. A lot of what I did in Baton Rouge was based on that type of work, and I don't know if it's still available, Andy, but I set up an incentive program for Louisiana companies who got Phase I and Phase II awards from federal departments to be eligible for match funding at the state level, and LED has, you know, as we all know, they've made a lot of changes to their incentive programs, but as we move to scale up the biodistrict and, you know, at the end of the day, I think everybody up here, what we want to see is improved patient outcomes, more spending here in the city of New Orleans, and really more jobs being created here in the city of New Orleans, and when you increase that clinical trial activity, when your startup community is doing better, it attracts more capital, right, Emily? And that's just great for our economy. So I think it'd be worth, you know, bringing up a conversation to LED, you know, as we try to scale the biodistrict, because that certainly benefits the state as well, to see if there's something else that we can set up to help these companies and help facilitate that NCI designation. So I'm excited, you know, the company is a partner, and whatever we need to do to get there, you know, I'm just anxiously waiting for us to strike gold here, but keep up the great work. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to, I probably should have done this at the beginning, but I want to thank the council member who was here the last time when we approved the TIF, right, led by our mayor, who is also handling that ordinance, but without the council's support, we would not have been there. Without the legislature's support, former Representative Willard, we wouldn't have gotten a state match, so thank you for that. Thank you for your enthusiasm to Ms.

McCarran as a new council member who's got part of the biodistrict and her district as well. Your leadership on this makes all this stuff possible, and so we're really, really grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You all can get started. Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, and thank you for having us. I'm Emily Payton, Executive Director of the New Orleans Public Library, and I have with me today Tamika Miles, our Deputy Director, Michelle Thompson, our Fiscal Administrator, Heather Riley, our Director of Public Services, and one of the newest members of our team, Sam LeBlanc, our Facilities Administrator. Our 2026 goals. In 2026, we continued to expand mobile pop-up services and increased our flexibility. We invested in updated equipment, which allowed us to offer more outdoor pop-up events. So far this year, our Outreach Department has conducted 240 outreaches, connecting with 13,000 community members, and we gave away 5,000 books to children with funding from the Library Foundation. We also hosted 115 field trips, serving almost 3,000 young people. We increased places for whole families to engage in activities. We reopened a refreshed and renewed Children's Resource Center with a greater emphasis on early literacy to support children and their families in learning the love of reading together. This project was coordinated by the Capital Projects Administration and funded by both Capital Projects and the Library, with CAP investing close to $408,000 and the Library investing a little over $303,000. We also invested in expanding our team of early literacy experts, librarians and associates who will staff the CRC and increase early literacy programming outreach for families across the city. In 2026, we updated and improved library spaces. We invested in replacing roofs and four HVACs. Five roofs and four HVACs. This year, the Library has invested $1.7 million of millage funds into this ongoing project. We have so far replaced the roof at Rosa Keller and roofs and HVACs at New Orleans East Regional, Robert E. Smith, and Norman Mayer Library. Next up, starting today in fact, is Algiers Regional Library. We are grateful to the Capital Projects Administration, which has continued to coordinate this project for us. The main library project. We continue to work towards replacing the main library's elevators and HVAC system, as well as several other main library repairs. We have budgeted $8 million for this project, which is being coordinated by Capital Projects. We recently went through the public bid process, but the bids came back roughly $2 million over expectation. We are now working with Capital Projects to explore all options to keep this project moving forward. We also invested in a much-needed Facilities Administrator position to help us address long-standing facilities issues. Sam LeBlanc began in this newly created position early in 2026. He is responsible for overall management and oversight of system-wide library facilities operations, long-term planning, and construction projects. This position also plays a key role in supporting facilities-related communications with library patrons, city officials, community partners, and other stakeholders. We also filled vital positions. In 2026, like other city departments, we continued to be part of the city's promotion and hiring freeze, but we are grateful for the support we have received in filling our most vital positions. As I mentioned, we filled the Facilities Administrator position, which the library has been in great need of for years. We expanded our early literacy team. We filled the Programs and Partnerships Manager position to better coordinate and oversee fundamental library services, including outreach, our summer fun and reading challenge, community partnerships, and programming for children, teens, and adults. In 2026, we also grew our knowledge of what everyone wants and needs. We offer listening sessions and surveys. We also upgraded the way we collect our statistics to gather more qualitative data and patron feedback, specifically documenting what needs our library patrons had that went unmet during their visits. We launched a new online forum where the community can tell us what programs they want us to offer and can request to partner with the library to offer services or programs with us. Currently, we are creating a survey specifically for adult learners and job seekers to learn how the library can better support them. Next, we have our budgeted personnel. Here are our 2026 actual and 2027 budgeted personnel. In 2026, we have so far hired eight new staff members. However, we also lost 20 staff members due to retirements, resignations, deaths, and dismissals, leaving us down by 12 from where we started. We are actively interviewing and in the process of filling vacant librarian, library associate, and facility positions. Many applicants turned down positions or staff who resigned mentioned low pay versus high cost of living as well as residency requirements. I've said this before the council before and it bears repeating because it goes to the heart of our budget. When it comes to recruiting and keeping skilled library workers, we are not operating in a vacuum. Just across the parish line, Jefferson Parish Library competes for the same talent we do and they do so without a residency requirement and with annual raises. We are not currently able to match. Library work at its core is people work, people serving people, and it takes a great many of them to keep 16 library locations, 16 locations open six days a week with hours that run two shifts for more than half of the week. Our staff are not simply just a line item. They are our single most valuable asset and I mean it plainly when I say we could not do this work without them. It is also skilled work. It should be paid as such. Serving the public well takes a surprising command of both technology and people.

Every one of our library associates holds at least an undergraduate degree, navigates complex systems daily, and brings the patience and genuine care to serve every person who walks through our doors from every walk of life. Each of our librarians holds a master's degree and many of our staff hold more than that along with the student loans that came with earning it. So as we present a budget shaped by real constraints, I want to be clear about our priorities. Paying our people fairly and keeping our libraries open to the communities that depend on them remains at the top of that list. Here is our organizational chart. For our 2027 budget goals, we will continue to focus on investing in our facilities. We will push forward with the main library project to replace our three elevators and HVAC system. All equipment that is original to the building that was built in 1958. We will also continue our system-wide HVAC replacement project, work that defined much of this past year and will shape the ones ahead. I'll be candid. This summer was hard for us and for the communities we serve. Between the Children's Resource Center closure for capital repairs and the libraries intermittently down for planned and unplanned roof and HVAC work, we were stretched thin and it showed. By the end of 2026, we'll have replaced the HVAC systems at four of our 16 locations, Algiers, East New Orleans, Norman Mayer and Smith. All four reopened in 2012 after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, which makes the systems only about 14 years old. Like so many in our community, we found ourselves asking why. Why we keep repairing the same things again and again. What we have learned offers part of the answer. These post-Katrina builds appear to have been constructed for speed rather than longevity. The equipment is failing earlier than it should and several buildings, the control systems appear to have never been properly communicating. These are not ordinary wear and tear issues. They're long-standing problems built into the buildings themselves. Our current HVAC and roof project was designed more than five years ago to be funded by capital projects. When that funding fell through, we moved ahead using the library's own reserves because our buildings and the people we serve simply could not wait. The plan didn't cover everything we now know we need. The meeting room HVACs at those four branches and Keller Library's HVAC were left out of this project. We are now supporting the meeting room HVACs with temporary units when necessary and planning a separate project to replace them, one that should not require library closures. But I'll be honest about what's ahead. We will likely have some closed libraries again next year, either for planned HVAC replacements or emergency repairs or both. We will of course try to avoid that happening during the summer, our busiest time of year, but the reality is that we now expect to need HVAC replacements at Alvar and Nix at about $85,000 each and Keller as well, which is likely to be closer to $2 million. Plus the four meeting room systems left out of the original project at roughly $150,000 a piece or $600,000 in all. The Capital Projects Administration has not been in the position to fund these replacements, but I do want to recognize and thank them for their partnership in coordinating much of this work. It has made a real difference. In 2027, we will create a much-needed In 2027, we will create a much-needed overall facilities assessment. We will also focus on the city archives and special collections with the goal of creating a feasibility study to determine a long-term plan for storage and safekeeping. As you know, the library houses and funds the city archives, where over 300 years of our city's history and government documents are held, preserved, and made accessible to the public. As the archives continue to grow, so do the demands for physical digital space in which to store and protect them, as well as the need for new technology and more staff to provide access to them. Speaking of physical space, at present, the archives are housed in the second basement of the main library, which is not an ideal location in a city below sea level. Thankfully, they did not flood during Hurricane Katrina, but it was close. They were about six inches away from flooding, and the sea levels in the region have risen by roughly seven to eight inches since that time. One day, your council records will also be housed in the archives, and I would like to personally invite you to all come for a tour of the library. We'd love to show you around, and I'll follow up with some emails. These are the cute photos. Thank you, Heather. Before we turn to our 2027 budget numbers, I'd like to offer some context. As you know, the library is funded entirely by two dedicated tax villages. We receive no money from General Fund, but that independence does not make us immune to the pressures facing the city as a whole. As the tax base shrinks and our expenses continue to grow, we feel these impacts directly. I'd also like to take the opportunity to set aside a common misconception that the New Orleans Public Library sits on large reserves or draws on a generous millage. For some perspective, the Jefferson Parish Library operates the same number of locations we do, 16, but with 247 budgeted staff to our 212, and a budget of roughly $29 million to our $22 billion. Will we continue to deliver excellent services, programs, and resources to the public? Absolutely, but we do so while managing real budget challenges of our own. When I stepped into this role over four years ago, the library held around $18.5 million in reserves, but it also carried years of deferred maintenance that had to be addressed. Those reserves have largely done their job. Most are spent, encumbered for projects already underway, or set aside for emergencies we know this city can face. They are no longer the cushion they once were.

You will find our 2026 adopted budget and our 2027 proposed budget. The reduction in personnel and other operating expenditures as a result of millage revenue trajectories continue to decline, while operational costs are steadily increasing. Furthermore, the reduction in operating expenditures reflects a one-time reserve allocation used for facilities projects due to completion by year end, due for completion by year end. This is the funding that covered our system-wide HVAC and roof replacement this year. I also wanted to take a moment here to highlight that both our proposed budget for 2026 and 2027 included funds that we pulled out to cover one-time expenses. For 2027, our proposed budget of $32.2 million includes projected millage revenue of about $22 million, with an additional $10 million pulled from library reserves to fund facilities projects and a few one-time operating expenses. This completes my presentation. Thank you so much for listening, and I'm ready for any questions you may have. Thank you, Emily. I appreciate you, and I appreciate the fact that you have Sam LeBlanc here, who was much needed as a facilities manager. I know that there have been repeated outages. I'm specifically going to ask about Alley May and the status of that branch. Where are we? There's no issues with that branch that we're aware of. The Central City Library and the Alley May Center has been operating successfully, knock on wood. Knock on wood, right? I mean, that's one that continues intermittently in and out, so I appreciate that it's up and running now, but the fact is that it has been closed, and it's open, and it's closed again. So, Sam, I know you have your eye on that. The City Archives, we've been talking about this since I've been in office, that they're sitting below sea level in a basement. Is there any opportunity to move any of those to any of the branches, or do you want to combine them, have them in one location? So, what we mainly are talking about is storage, and I know you didn't get to come on the tour, but your team did. They are taking up almost one entire floor of the main library in the second basement. So, we actually have two basements, which is amazing in New Orleans. So, there's not really any space. So, one thing is the municipal complex conversations are talking about perhaps having a public-facing part. We would definitely want them near the storage. That's the other piece, and one of it, we do own the parking lot behind the main library, and one of the thoughts we've had, and that's so we're going to work on that feasibility study, is could we put a modern storage facility up high that we could get to from the third floor where the reading room is, if we continue to have that as our public-facing part of the archives, and it would also perhaps give more parking for staff and the community, if we could have parking garages. This is just my fantasy, my undergraduate art history, so I don't know, but that is something we're going to see how much that costs, but the idea is, you know, it would be temperature controlled, humidity controlled, above water, and also we can get the modern shelving that we can, you know, so that to us is like the thing we know we own that property, so it's an opportunity that we can use. You said you're doing a feasibility study. Where are you in that process? We haven't started. That's partly why I brought Sam on. I mean, that sounds like a good idea, and I believe you guys have bonding capacity, and if you own that land, you know, that's potentially money there as well. Well, I was an art history major as well, so I appreciate you, Emily. Council Member McCarran, any questions? Okay, I do have one comment card from Shannon. Well, good afternoon. I'm Shannon Citanovich. I'm the executive director of the Library Foundation of New Orleans. We're the nonprofit agency that fundraises and advocates for New Orleans Public Library. We are in full support of the library and, in particular, bringing Sam LeBlanc on to oversee these facilities. I hope you understand that the library has undertaken the biggest investment in capital since Hurricane Katrina, and they did it out of their reserves. We are delighted about that. However, the question we have is where are we going to be in 15 years when these buildings are going to need remediation or more work? We greatly appreciate the facilities plan, but we are looking for a funding plan long term so we can get in front of this. We cannot be here again in 10 years. This is not where I want to be. I have a feeling it's not where Sam would want to be. It is extremely frustrating to us and, obviously, to the public. So, again, we are in full support of Emily Payton and her administration and the work that they have put into capital. Our concern is when all you are doing, though, is playing whack-a-mole with buildings, it doesn't give you time to dream and to think about the library of the future that we want to build. Right now, they are trying to hold on to what they have. So, anything that we can do to plan long term, not just for 27, how can we take care of the buildings we have so Emily and her team can bring us the archives that the city deserves and the facilities that they deserve? Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it, Shannon. With that, you all are done. Thank you for everything you do. I rent books all the time to mitigate my time up here, mainly trash books. All right, Ashley. All right. Thank you. We are back at 1 o'clock for budget.