Regular Meeting Minutes
January 16, 2025 7:00 P.M.
Members In Attendance: Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Janice Fleming Alderman Deneitra Ross Alderman Donald Richard Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
The Town of Richwood met for a Special Meeting held January 16, 2025, at 7:00 P.M. at the Richwood Multi-Purpose Center, 2710 Martin Luther King Drive, Richwood, Louisiana to consider the following business:
I. Meeting Called to Order 7:09 P.M.
II. Prayer by Mayor Gerald Brown
III. Pledge of Allegiance in unison
IV. Roll Call: (5) Aldermen Present at Roll Call
Alderman Simeon Profit Alderman Janice Fleming Alderman Deneitra Ross Alderman Donald Richard Alderman Wysinger Cleveland
V. Adoption of the Agenda:
It was motioned by Alderman Simeon Profit and seconded by Alderman Janice Fleming to adopt the agenda as presented.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the agenda as presented with the following results: (5) Votes Yes to Adopt the agenda.
Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Deneitra Ross Yes Alderman Donald Richard Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VI. Adoption of December 2, 2024 Special Meeting Minutes, and December 19, 2024
It was motioned by Alderman Simeon Profit and seconded by Alderman Janice Fleming to adopt the December 2, 2024, Special Meeting Minutes as presented.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the December 2, 2024, Special Meeting Minutes with the following result as follows: (5) Yes Votes to Adopt
Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Deneitra Ross Yes Alderman Donald Richard Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
December 19, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes:
It was motioned by Alderman Simeon Profit and seconded by Alderman Janice Fleming to adopt the December 19, 2024, Regular Meeting Minutes as presented.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the December 19, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes with the following result as follows: (5) Yes Votes to Adopt
Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Deneitra Ross Yes Alderman Donald Richard Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VII. Adoption of Financial Reports
It was motioned by Alderman Simeon Profit and seconded by Alderman Deneitra Ross to adopt the Financial Reports as presented.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt the Financial Reports as presented with the following result as follows: (5) Yes Votes to Adopt
Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Deneitra Ross Yes Alderman Donald Richard Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
VIII. Public Comments as they relate to items on the agenda
* There were no comments, and the agenda proceeded as presented.
IX. Mayor s Dialogue
Mayor Gerald Brown- Thanked the forum for their participation in the 50th Year Gala Celebration.
X. Adoption of Ordinance 2024-06 (An ordinance amending Ordinance 2020-02 to include compensation for the Board of Alderman and Town Clerk for Special and Emergency Meetings.)
It was motioned by Alderman Donald Richard and seconded by Alderman Deneitra Ross to adopt Ordinance 2024-06.
* The record shall reflect a vote was taken to adopt Ordinance 2024-06 (An ordinance amending Ordinance 2020-02 to include compensation for the Board of Alderman and Town Clerk for Special and Emergency Meetings.) with the following result as follows: (5) Yes Votes to Adopt
Alderman Simeon Profit Yes Alderman Janice Fleming Yes Alderman Deneitra Ross Yes Alderman Donald Richard Yes Alderman Wysinger Cleveland Yes
XI. Discussion of Property located at 5960 Jackson Street
Mayor Gerald Brown- shared and reminded the forum the property was the old gas station leading into the Green Acres community, that property, not Green Acres, is located in the town of Richwood, and if you have been by that property lately there is a lot of trash and the structure itself is falling in .
Mayor Gerald Brown advised , that he was notifying the forum that the Code Enforcement Department has sent out or is sending out the proper paperwork in an attempt to have Mr. Dhaliwal address the situation either by repair or demolition. He has to be served with this particular paperwork and once that happens and he is served, he would have 30 days to address the situation one way or the other. If that doesn t happen, then we will be coming back to ask your permission to declare the site condemned and to allow us to utilize our funding to take care of that issue and then roll that cost over to the tax roll to the owner of that property.
Alderman Janice Fleming- inquired what is the time frame?
Mayor Gerald Brown- advised, he has to accept service first, code enforcement has tried to serve him in the past and the service was not accepted. We will get him served and after he is served he has 30 days.
XII. Beaux s Kitchen and Kocktails ( regarding denial of their liquor license)
Mayor Gerald Brown- addressed the forum and inquired as to why their liquor license was denied renewal at the previous meeting and they want to discuss the reason for that denial.
Mr. D. White (owner of Beaux s Kitchen and Kocktails) addressed the forum and stated he wanted to discuss the reasoning why the liquor license was denied because from his understanding everything is in order, we have been shut down because it was said we did not have water, we have never not had water, we have our insurance, we haven t had a violation problem with ATC, we haven t had any violation from the Health Department, we have had (2)two fights in there in maybe 7 months, haven t had any shootings, our parking lot is clear at 2:00 o clock. We shut down when we re supposed to and I am just trying to get an understanding as to why it was denied and possibly if we can come to an understanding to let me appeal that.
Alderman Janice Fleming- responded, Mr. White in speaking with you I did contact the Town of Richwood in reference to all of the allegations that you mentioned, and Ms. Johnson from our Code Enforcement office is going to answer everything that you needed.
Ms. Johnson (Code Enforcement Officer) stated, let me start by saying, when they first opened, he stood here and stated they were going to open as a restaurant; since he opened in my opinion, he has been a club, he has advertised on several occasions, he has put out flyers advertising his parties and concerts, even at one point he had a foam party in the building and I have a video of that.
He says, he had never been cited by the State, he has been sighted ten violations that he had and from my understanding, talking with them today, they gave him two weeks to correct them, and once the two weeks was up they came back out, and he still hadn t done it.
I met with Mr. White, and Mr. White stated his only violation was water; when we spoke with Greater Ouachita Water, Mr. White hadn t paid a water bill since May; his taxes, we asked him to go and get the paperwork to show he is current, he does not have a tobacco permit, yet he was selling hookahs.
When I talked to Mr. White in my office he stated to me that Mr. Fields was not going to go back in the kitchen as his cook, he made the statement to me that he was going to be the cook, and I told him he needed to bring me his certificate from the Health Department. Mr. White had no security, we told him to open back up he needed a signed contract with security; he ended up getting a signed contract with Mr. Jackson, United 318 Security, and we allowed him to open on Thanksgiving, in actuality we allowed the kitchen to open back up on November the 25th. In my opinion Mr. White never opened a restaurant, he has always been a club, I have videos to prove it.
Mr. White had a party, I m not going to say it was Mr. White, to my understanding it was the KAPPAS from the northeast, on November 21st, he wasn t even supposed to be open at the time.
All we asked Mr. White to do was follow the rules, regulations, and laws of the Town of Richwood, and he refused to do so if you are not going to follow the rules and regulations, I don t think you should be allowed to serve alcohol at the establishment.
Mr. D. White- (addressed the forum to address the points stated by Code Enforcement) and stated,
Those ATC violations, if you look it up, everything I got cited for was fixed. All those were cited as a first visit and on the 2nd visit all of them were fixed, that is why I have never got fined from the ATC. If you don t fix that citation there is a fine that comes with it, all those citations were fixed that is why I never got fined.
Mr. D. White- stated, she said I hadn t paid a water bill since May, the water bill had a cut-off notice, and when I noticed the notice, the bill was paid, so I have always had water
When it comes to the traffic jams, I was totally closed and did not open my doors all night, and guess what it was still traffic jams and people were hanging out in the street therefore the security concern, even if you eliminate Beaux s Kitchen and Kocktails, there will still be security concerns whether I m opened, or I m closed, so that s a security concern form the Town of Richwood, that I ve been trying to address since day one. Do I want people hanging out in the streets? Of course not, those people in the streets ,don t bring me any income, they are security concerns for the people leaving my establishment, they haven t spent a dollar with me, I don t want them out there just like y all don t want them out there.\.
Next issue, open as a club: Bar hours are from 8:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The kitchen opens up from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m. Monday through Monday so that means 16 hours a day, our bar is open for 18 hours out of the whole.
Now do we have events there? Yes, but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that evening if you want to come and watch the game you have some food and drink, it is available.
Do we party once a week of course we do, I have never tried to hide it, so therefore I have 250 people there on a Saturday, one day a week, and the rest of the week we serve food and drinks and play music.
You can pull up those flyers, but pull up our Wing Wednesday flyers, our game-watching party flyers, where we are just sitting watching the game, and pull up those flyers as well. We are talking about 4 nights a month, when we are open for 30 days a month, and sales reflect we are 85% food, we re not even close to being considered a bar or club, because we are a restaurant that has an event space.
Do we not use the event space, of course, we are, that is my argument, there has not been any violence there, there have not been any shootings there, 2 fights that I am aware of, 2 females fighting in the restroom.
And not having security, we have always had security, if anybody knows my background in event throwing, I have always had security. The Town of Richwood said, hey you ve got to have certified security, I talked to Mr. Jackson, and I got security, so hey what s the problem? All of this is just saying things. But what I have done is within the guidelines of what Richwood has asked.
Alderman Simeon Profit- asked Mr. White if they were staying open past 2:00 a.m. ?
Mr. D. White answered, No sir, once the ordinance got passed at 1:50.a.m. I shut my doors.
Alderman Simeon Profit- stated, we are going to take that under advisement and we will get back with you .
Ms. Johnson (Code Enforcement) -stated that she wanted to address the violations.
Ms. Johnson (Code Enforcement) – stated Mr. White was supposed to report in November, this is the information I got from Mr. George and Mr. Hughes, Mr. White was rescheduled, when I spoke with him today, his violation still stands, they are now in the process of getting him paperwork as to when he has to come to court and that was told to me today by Mr. George and Mr. Hughes.
Mr. D. White said, he has not received any paperwork on being in court for November.
Alderman Simeon Profit- stated, we have all the information we need to make a decision, so we don t need to hear from either one of you all tonight. Thank you
Chief Johnny Cleveland- stated, Mr. White I really didn t like calling her a lie like that.
On the record, at the last meeting, you and Alderman Cleveland, used the phrase Club, as your business, it s on record, so you can stop all that, you are not following the rules and regulations of Richwood, I m the one you ve got to go through, so stop lying, stop lying if you cannot follow the rules and regulations of Richwood, security-wise, and everything, I am the person you have to go through, so stop lying,
XIII. Discussion of R2 Rental proposal:
Mr. John Sutherland- addressed the forum and indicated he was here doing some work for a Brownfield Grant and noticed there are multiple types of trash companies and multiple types of trash cans. As a result, there will always be excess litter, and the community is too pretty of a community to allow litter in the streets. I asked the Mayor if I could create a criterion that evaluates the possibilities.
Mr. Sutherland stated this is just my suggestion of a criterion: having worked in solid waste for almost 30 years, I think the first criteria should be:
Do you have someone local in the community? Woman or minority-owned company?
New jobs created in the business, jobs should come from the community, at least 5 garbage trucks. Not a fly-by-night company, so this was the basis for asking R2 to provide a proposal.
(A representative from R2)- addressed the forum and asked if there were any questions from the forum.
There was a question of the cost of the service, the answer was $22 per month.
Alderman Janice Fleming- inquired about the billing integration.
It was discussed that the billing is placed on the water bill.
XIV. Adjournment
It was motioned by Alderman Donald Richard and seconded by Alderman Deneitra Ross to adjourn the meting @ 7:53 p.m.
