Community Tree Council

1 Community Tree Council (CTC) Meeting Minutes Meeting Date: June 8th, 2020 Location: ACC Cisco Webex online meeting, You Tube Streaming Link: https://youtu.be/i4a_9icl7wA In Attendance - Members: Rodney Walters, Pam Knox, Mary Attaway, Lea Clark, Edith Jackson, Victoria Goff, Shawn Doonan, Jessie McClellan, Joseph Bates, Joe Perloff, Nina Wurzburger, Phil Hale, Larry Morris (emeritus member) Staff, Guests, and Ex-Officio Members: Marc Beechuk (ACC Planning Arborist), Laura Ney, Andrew Saunders (Central Services Director), Russell Edwards (CTC Mayor and commission liason) Absent: Jake Hagan, Jim Weck, Mary Songster, Call to Order and Welcome: Shawn Doonan 4:00 - 4:05 Housekeeping (Secretary) Rodney Walters 4:05 - 4:25 ● Roll Call/ Sign in (2 minutes): Secretary recorded everyone in attendance from Webex Participants list ● (Action Item: Vote to approve the May CTC meeting minutes), (3 minutes): After the March meeting, the CTC meeting minutes were distributed to the CTC members for review. The CTC voted unanimously to approve the May 11th CTC meeting minutes and include the suggested corrections. ● (Information- 3 minutes) Angel Creek Nursery trees (3 gal. potted $4 each, 38 trees to pick up in October) – already had one gal pots potted up to 3 gal with pre-emergent and fertilizer. Will still sell at the 1 gal. price of $4 each. Please give Angel Creek good PR for this very generous offer. ● (Information- 2 Minutes) Motions that were passed during the May meeting were reviewed ● (Information) List of action items passed in 2019 and so far in 2020 was noted. (sent to every voting CTC member) ● (Information and Action Item): It was announced that Jake Hagan has been transferred to Atlanta and will no longer be a member of the CTC. A motion was made and seconded to approve the re-formation of the Ad Hoc Interview Committee (consisting of the prior ad Hoc Interview committee members: Shawn, Mary, Phil, Pam, and Rodney) and the CTC voted unanimously to approve the motion. Treasurer’s Report (Information – 5 minutes): Pam Knox 4:25 – 4:30 ● Treasurer submitted a treasurer’s report (attached at the end of this document) CTC Committee Reports (Information and Motions): Shawn Doonan 4:25 – 5:15 ● CTC Executive Committee {Shawn (chair), Joe Perloff, Pam, Rodney} - (Information) Suggests each chair set a goal for each chair to ensure everyone on their committee has a job and is helping to achieve their committee’s objectives.  2 ● CTC Steering Committee {Executive Committee and Standing Committee Chairpersons} - (Information- 10 minutes) Sunshine laws and how to have Webex CTC Committee meetings  2019 ACC Boards, Authorities, and Commissions Manual (moving in direction of following instructions as listed in the manual) - Sunshine laws require all meetings, including committee meetings to be announced in advance, be held in a place where members of the public may attend, make an agenda available to the public in advance (with date, time, place of the scheduled meeting), and record minutes that will made available to the public to review and include the date, time, and place in which the meeting was held along with who was in attendance, an outline of what was discussed, and what actions/decisions were taken or made. - (Discussion): – In order to be able to have committee meetings and also meet Sunshine law requirements during the current COVID – 19 restrictions, CTC committees need to either meet in person and practice social distancing or they meet online they will need to schedule reoccurring blocks of time to help with the management of the online meeting scheduling. Each Committee meeting will have to be announced in advance and available for the public to attend (either on You Tube online or at a public in person meeting).  If desired, Secretary can set up a single block of time where all committee meetings may be held - The general consensus of the membership was to schedule Committee meetings online. (Action Item: Vote to set a block of time during which all CTC Committee meetings may take place online o (Online Committee Meeting Discussion): if online block is desired, it is best if the CTC agree on a 5-6 hour block of time that can be set up to run at the same time of each month (allows meetings to be announced in the calendar) o (Action Item) A Motion was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote to assign the 3rd Monday of each month from 12:00 PM until 5:00 PM for the purpose of conducting the Executive Committee, Steering Committee, Ad Hoc Interview Committee, Policy Committee, Education Committee, Promotions Committee, and Ad Hoc Trees for Tomorrow Committee meetings. - (Discussion and Action Item - Vote to have a July meeting): Generally, the CTC does not have a July meeting. This year, since many people are not traveling and the meeting time (July 13th) falls outside the 4th of July Holiday period, the CTC was able to determine that it will be able to have a quorum and conduct business.  (Action Item): Motion was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote to conduct a July CTC meeting on the customary 2nd Monday of the month. - (Discussion); appointing or assigning new members to committees  General consensus of the CTC membership was for each member to select at least one committee of their choice and participate (“select a committee”). ● CTC Education Committee {Marc Beechuk (Chair)]: - Marc will be reaching out and polling the group to see when they may start meeting. - Ed SPLOST (Planting and Maintenance Project – Proposal would be due early Fall) ● CTC Policy Committee {Rodney (Chair), Shawn, Joseph, Joe, Marc, Lea} - Plans are to meet soon and discuss the Tree Ordinance (Exploration of Larger, more complex issues and possible ordinance changes)  Need to decide what is wanted and why  Could involve deliberative processes with a wide range of community groups  Will require many discussions and will likely involve public forums as the process progresses o (discussions with ACC staff, the Planning Commission, etc.) o (Legislative Review, Government Operations Review)  3 ● CTC Promotions Committee {Mary (Chair), Larry, Joe Perloff, Jessica} Met on 2/23/20 (Mary, Larry, Joe, Jessica) - Discussion/Action Item – Vote whether to adopt a new logo and on which new logo design(s) to utilize  Discussion occurred about why a logo change is needed and desired, Response is to provide iconography that works well with current technology, such as cell phones and on social medial. Current logo is to complex and clunky to work well on handheld devices. Current logo does not show tree roots, which does not represent trees well.  Discussion also occurred about the specific words that may be used in the logo, specifically whether the logos must include “Athens Clarke County” or “ACC” and whether the logo should have the word “Community” Concerns were raised that a logo of “Athens Tree Council” leaves out people in Clarke County who do not live in Athens and excluding the word “community” may not imply inclusivity, such as communities like “Wintetville” or Bogart which are part of the County.  Response that Website and Facebook page would still include the Words Athens Clarke County Community Tree council and some iconography would use variations of shortened verbiage of the Tree Council’s name  Concern was expressed on the legality of using some combinations of verbiage based on the Tree Ordinance and the names the ordinance states that the CTC shall be known as. Consensus occurred when CTC agreed to recommend a small ordinance change to Sec. 8-7-10. Community Tree Council Motion was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote to recommend to the Mayor and Commission to amend the sentence in the tree ordinance Sec. 8-7-10. to be changed from “There is established an Athens- Clarke County Community Tree Council, which shall be known as the community tree council and the CTC.” to an update phrase that states “There is established an Athens Clarke County Community Tree Council, which shall be known as the Community Tree Council, CTC, ACC Community Tree Council, Athens Community Tree Council, or Athens Tree Council.” Motion was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote to adopt image #1 (image 1) and image # 3 (image 3) as logos that may be used on official CTC documents, the CTC webpage and on social media. Athens Clarke County Community Tree Council Image 1: Adopted CTC Logo Image 2: Adopted CTC Logo Meeting Wrap up: Secretary 5:40 – 5:45 ● The members voted unanimously to table the remaining items on the agenda until the next CTC meeting and end the meeting. The meeting ended at 6:00 PM. The next CTC meeting will be held on 7/13/2020 at 4:00 PM. via Webex and made available to the Public on You Tube streaming online -  4 Treasurer’s Report: June 8, 2020 submitted by Pam Knox Money Market Account Beginning Balance as of 2/10/2020 $12,023.26 Transfer to Checking 2/11/2020 -2,000.00 Interest 2/29/2020 0.26 Interest 3/31/2020 0.25 Interest 4/30/2020 0.25 Interest 5/31/2020 0.25 Ending balance as of 6/8/2020 $10,024.27 Checking Account Starting balance 2/10/2020 $2,731.05 Deposit 2/11 (transfer plus donation) 2,055.00 Ending balance 6/8/2020 $4,786.05 PayPal Account Beginning balance 2/10/2020 $0.00 Ending Balance 6/8/2020 $0.00 There is one outstanding check to Moon’s Tree Farm for $2,856.60 that has not been cashed yet.