Mayor & Commission Meetings

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Thursday, September 17, 2020 Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Commissioner Andy Herod, Committee Chair Commissioner Patrick Davenport Commissioner Tim Denson Commissioner Melissa Link Staff: Josh Edwards, Assistant Manager Angel Helmly, Operations Analyst, Central Services Sherrie Hines, Interim Chief Assistant Attorney Butch McDuffie, Transit Director Travis Cooper, I.T. Director Pat Hale, Assistant Transit Director Brad Griffin, Planning Director Rachel Hopkins, Transit Marketing Coordinator David Boyd, Finance Director Steve Decker, Trans. & Public Works Director Chris Caldwell, Assistant Finance Director Todd Stevenson, Stormwater Administrator Kent Kilpatrick, Leisure Services Director Committee Chair Herod called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. A. Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Link made the motion to approve the Minutes of the August 20, 2020 meeting. Commissioner Davenport seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. B. Commission Identified Items of Interest: Review of short term rentals: tax payments same as hotels; possible permitting process; health and safety related issues (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on November 5, 2019) Josh Edwards provided a brief history of this topic. Sherrie Hines briefly discussed the confidential memo that she had provided to the Committee regarding short term rentals. She suggested that the software program discussed at the last GOC meeting and the requirement of an occupation tax certificate would be the better way to regulate short term rentals. The Committee discussed requiring occupational licenses (business licenses) and using the zoning ordinance to regulate short term rentals. Commissioner Link recommended a lower tier of regulation if a homeowner is renting a room. Brad Griffin said that there are four major categories of short term rentals: Homeowner rents a room occasionally; Homeowner rents an accessory dwelling; Homeowner rents their whole house six weekends a year; and the house that is purchased specifically for short term rental. Commissioner Denson agreed with using zoning as a tool but first need to know where these short term rentals are located and the registration software program needs to be in place to do that. Commissioner Herod requested that Brad ask the Planning Commission to consider possibly different regulations for the four categories that Brad mentioned when they look at this topic. Commissioner Denson made the motion to recommend to the full Commission that we put out an RFP for a registration/collections software, that we go ahead and begin requiring  occupational licenses for anyone operating short term rentals, and ask that this be sent to the Planning Commission for recommendations on regulating short term rentals through zoning. Commissioner Davenport seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. Review of the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government policy for naming of public places in Athens (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on July 7, 2020) Kent Kilpatrick said that the two items he has for Committee discussion are the proof of community support and the naming after individuals, living or deceased. The most popular thing he is seeing across the county is community support within a certain radius. The Committee agreed with the suggestion of having a public notice period for public comment. The Committee agreed with waiting 3 years after a person’s death to name a facility, unless the individual made a significant donation. Sherrie Hines said there could be a clause included in the contract that if any findings of moral turpitude are discovered, the facility would be renamed to remove the individual’s name. Kent will prepare a draft policy for discussion at the next GOC meeting. Transit Advertising Program (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on September 1, 2020) Josh Edwards told the Committee that Butch McDuffie has an intro slide deck and good reference materials that Josh will email to the Committee for discussion at the next GOC meeting. Commissioner Herod said he agreed with Commissioner Denson’s recent proposal regarding increasing the proportion of our buses with full and half wrap advertising. Commissioner Herod would like guidance from the Attorney’s Office regarding legal issues of picking and choosing between different types of advertisements. Stormwater Management Public and Private Agreement (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on September 1, 2020) Commissioner Herod told the Committee that the issue they are trying to address is what happens when property owners are not maintaining the drainage ditches and swales that are located on their property. He said there are two complaints that he hears. One is where you have two private property owners and there is water coming from one property owner onto the other property owner’s property and it is happening because the first property owner has not maintained the infrastructure in the way in which they were supposed to. Then from the County’s point of view there are issues with what happens when a property owner is not maintaining their drainage easement, what does that mean for runoff as it may be affecting County property. Commissioner Link said her main issue is when it comes to the drainage swales that are collecting public infrastructure runoff and the culverts that go under folks’ driveways. It is her understanding that private property owners are responsible for maintaining those culverts and if they don’t it can have a big impact on neighboring properties. Commissioner Davenport agreed with Commissioner Link. Commissioner Denson said the biggest complaint he receives is problems with runoff coming off of public right-of-ways that is going onto private property and a lot of times it comes down to when the developer built the property he did not build it correctly, did not put the infrastructure in place, but the homeowner who purchased it did not realize that. Commissioner Herod summarized the issues as “How do we find a better way of making sure that the drainage infrastructure is properly maintained so that it works.” The meeting adjourned at 6:27 p.m. Government Operations Committee Meeting Minutes Page 2 09172020