One Port Arthur city councilman wants a legal opinion from the city attorney before continuing with the deletion of two city districts.

Willie “Bae” Lewis Jr., District 5 councilman, will give a presentation on the implementation of the deletion of Districts 5 and 6 on the city council.

Lewis wants to point to the negative impact of deleting those two of eight councilman positions under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The presentation will be given at the regular meeting of the Port Arthur City Council at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 444 Fourth St.

Lewis will ask City Attorney Val Tizeno for a written opinion. Later on the agenda, the council will discuss and possibly take action on implementation of the deletion of the two districts.

Lewis said the proposal for deletion must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval prior to implementation.

“This will have a negative impact on Hispanics, Anglos, Asians and others. There’s a high concentration in District 6,” Lewis said. “Another course of action is citizens can file an injunction to take it to federal court on its merit.”

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in Section 4(f)(2) of the Act, according to the Justice Department. Most of the cases arising under Section 2 since its enactment involved challenges to at-large election schemes. But the section’s prohibition against discrimination in voting applies nationwide to any voting standard, practice or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group. Section 2 is permanent and has no expiration date, as do certain other provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Port Arthur voters approved the charter change, eliminating the two positions, in the November 2016 General Election.

The amendment to eliminate Districts 5 and 6 from the Port Arthur City Council to reduce the number of seats was 6,559 or 65.93 percent for and 3,390 or 34.07 percent against with a total vote count of 9,949.

Lewis isn’t the only council member giving a presentation.

Osman Swati, District 6 councilman, requested a discussion regarding ethics.

He said the discussion is in response to a copy of a video that shows Councilman Thomas Kinlaw III berating first responders at the scene of a traffic accident in which his daughter was involved on Jan. 6 at Memorial Boulevard and 19^th Street.

The council will consider a resolution authorizing a contract between the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool Turnkey Recovery Program to rebuild the Port Arthur Public Library.

An interoffice memo read as a result of the damages to the library, a claim was filed with TMLIRP with damages totaling $1,950,679 excluding contents. TMLIRP has offered to settle the claim for $1,950,679 less the physical damage deductible amount of $55,497, making the final settlement offer $1,895,182.

TMLIRP guaranteed the physical damage deductible in the amount of $55,497 will be covered by TMLIRP, so the city will incur no deductible charge through this recovery process.

Likewise, the Bob Bowers Civic Center will be covered by TMLIRP. Damages to the civic center were $2,433,446 including contents. TML offered to settle the claim for $2,433,446 less the physical damage deductible amount of $53,644, making the final settlement offer $2,379,801.

The council will consider an agreement for independent professional services between the city and Hani Tohme, P.E. as interim director of water utilities.

The resolution reads the city council deems Tohme to possess the necessary professional, technical and institutional knowledge, as well as required professional licensure, to ensure the effective execution of city projects to its citizens at a rate of $2,400 a week.

Tohme was a representative of Riceland Farms two years ago when he and former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson tried to bring a meat-processing plant to the Spur 93 Business Park in Port Acres.

The Port Arthur Economic Development Corp. board members killed the meat-processing facility idea. The city council later upheld the PAEDC’s decision.

Many residents voiced concerns that a meat-processing plant — or slaughterhouse as most called it — was not the kind of business they wanted to locate in their community.

Prior to his employment with Riceland Farms, Tohme was ousted from the position of water utilities director in Beaumont in 2015 after an audit allegedly uncovered deficiencies in the department, including in oversight and payroll spending, according to www.theexaminer.com.

Tohme was a Beaumont mayoral candidate last year who was bumped from the May 6 ballot over an eligibility issue, according to www.kfdm.com.

City Clerk Tina Broussard informed Tohme in an email and a certified letter he registered to vote in Beaumont five days too late to be eligible to run for office.

Tohme applied for an address change on Jan. 23 with the Jefferson County tax assessor-collector’s office, which is the county’s voter registrar. The effective date for the new address would be Feb. 22, or 30 days later. The filing deadline is 5 p.m. today.