Mayor & Commission Meetings

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Thursday, November 19, 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 Kristall Barber, Animal Services Director Sherrie Hines, Interim Chief Assistant Attorney Stephen Bailey, Assistant TPW Director Brad Griffin, Planning Director Todd Stevenson, Stormwater Administrator Kent Kilpatrick, Leisure Services Director Kevin Gentry, Streets Superintendent Committee Chair Herod called the meeting to order at 5:34 p.m. A. Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Denson made the motion to approve the Minutes of the October 29, 2020 meeting. Commissioner Davenport seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. B. Commission Identified Items of Interest: 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) Josh Edwards gave a brief review of this topic. Brad Griffin reviewed the revised Street Name Changing Policy which included the changes requested by the GOC. Commissioner Herod requested a change to Item #8 in the policy to add (s) to Commissioner so that it reads “An endorsement by the Mayor and the Commissioner(s) representing the district in which the right-of-way is located” since some streets are the dividing line for districts. Commissioner Herod made the motion to forward the Street Name Changing Policy to the full Mayor and Commission with the recommendation to send it on to the Planning Commission. Commissioner Link seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. Kent Kilpatrick reviewed the revised policy for the Naming of Public Facilities, Parks, Natural Areas, and Amenities. The revisions included grouping like items, creating a tier of groups and adding the number of required petition signatures within each tier level. Discussion was held regarding the number of required petition signatures. Commissioner Link had concerns regarding the requirement of signatures in less populated areas. Commissioner Denson suggested that the requirement read “with a minimum of 100 or one third of the population living within a one-mile radius of the location to be named.” Kent said that he would revise the policy for each tier to be the fixed number or one-third of the population living within the one-mile radius.  Commissioner Herod said that the number of required signatures may be too low. He felt it would not be unreasonable to require 1,000 signatures for naming of a park, building or natural area. Commissioner Herod suggested 400 signatures for naming of an aquatic facility, ball field, group shelter/pavilion, gymnasium, or trail. Commissioner Denson suggested that the petition be notarized. Staff was asked to create a standard petition form with a legal statement on the form that it will be invalid if proven there is any false information on it. Commissioner Link requested that a sign be posted at the driveway entrance and entrance of a facility during the sixty day public notice period similar to the signs posted for planning variances. Commissioner Denson made the motion to forward the policy with the requested revisions to the full Mayor and Commission for adoption. Commissioner Davenport seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. Stormwater Management Public and Private Agreement (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on September 1, 2020) Commissioner Herod said that given that this is such a hot button issue in the community and since it has been 15 or 16 years since the M&C implemented the first stormwater utility, he thinks it makes sense to have a citizen committee look at this. He thinks that the instructions to the citizen committee should make sure that the committee is looking in a narrow area. The citizen committee’s discussion should be are there some tweeks that could be made to it and are there some things that we are not doing that we should be doing. Stephen Bailey reviewed the November 18, 2020 memo provided to the GOC regarding the Proposed Stormwater Process Recommendation. Sherrie Hines reviewed the memo that she provided to the GOC regarding the gratuities clause issue and sovereign immunity protections. Commissioner Link said she is all for sending this to a Citizens Advisory Committee that has some diversity and some level of expertise on it. Commissioner Davenport agreed with Commissioner Link. Commissioner Denson agreed. Commissioner Denson said the piece about the sovereign immunity was very helpful and feels it should be shared with the Citizens Advisory Committee. Commissioner Herod made the motion to recommend that the M&C establish a Stormwater Citizen Advisory Committee and direct the committee to look at the issues that are raised in Facts and Issues 5 and 6 of the November 18, 2020 memo with a revision to 5 d) to change it to read “potential additional funding sources.” The committee should be diverse in its membership but also have some people with technical expertise. Commissioner Link seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. Review of “Chapter 4-1.-Animal Control” of the Ordinance (Mayor Girtz assigned to GOC on November 4, 2020) Josh Edwards gave a brief history of the Animal Services Department and the creation of a departmental strategic plan by staff and key stakeholders. One of the initiatives in the strategic plan is to review animal control ordinances. Kristall Barber gave a brief presentation to introduce the topic of Ordinance Review for Animal Services and to share an outline of work that has been done by staff and stakeholders in the review of the animal control ordinances. Government Operations Committee Meeting Minutes Page 2 11192020  Staff will provide the GOC a copy of the marked up ordinance with a memo summarizing the proposed changes. Commissioner Herod asked what the specific issues are that the GOC is trying to solve. Staff will provide more detail about what staff and the stakeholders think some of the issues are that the present ordinance or practices and procedures do not adequately address. The meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m. Government Operations Committee Meeting Minutes Page 3 11192020