City Council

1 2 3 CITY OF COLLEGE PARK 4 MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL 5 REGULAR SESSION 6 September 6, 2022 7 8 MINUTES 9 10 Present: Mayor Bianca Motley Broom; Councilmen Ambrose Clay, Joe Carn, Ken Allen and 11 Roderick Gay; Interim City Manager Jackson Myers; City Attorney Winston 12 Denmark; City Clerk Shavala Ames 13 14 Absent: None 15 16 1. Opening Ceremonies begin at 7:48 p.m. 17 18 A. Pledge of allegiance to the flag. 19 20 B. Invocation by Pastor Stacie Alexander 21 22 2. Additions, Deletions, Amendments, Or Changes To The Agenda. 23 24 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to remove from the agenda item 8c. Consideration of and 25 action to adopt Resolution 2022-28 College Park Hazard Mitigation Plan Resolution 26 2022 and item 8e. Consideration of and action for approval of Statement of Work 27 and Outage Management System (OMS) with Northstar Utilities Solutions, seconded 28 by Councilman Allen and motion carried. (All voted yes). 29 30 3. Presentation Of Minutes Of City Council. 31 32 A. Regular Session held on August 15, 2022. 33 34 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve Regular Session Minutes dated August 15, 2022, 35 as presented, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried. (All voted yes). 36 37 4. Proclamations, Resolutions, Plaques, And Announcements. 38 39 A. Introduction of New Employees 40 41 Matthias Verlonreko Fire Department 42 Roosevelt Donaldson Fire Department 43 Marcel Murray Fire Department 44 Tamara Moton Recreation and Cultural Arts Department 45 Tyler McLendon Fire Department 46 Anton Jenson Fire Department 47 Charles Davis Public Works Parks & Grounds 48 James Robinson Public Works Water & Sewer 49 Officer Hall Police Department 50 51 B. Presentation of Employee of the Month 52 53 Employee Ambassador Committee Members Belinda Wilder and Tanya LaPlanche came 54 forward to present the Employee of the Month Award to Lafayette Askew of Water and Sewer 55 Division for the month of June; and Monroe Tolbert of Water and Sewer Division for the 56 month of August. 57 58 5. Remarks Of Citizens. 59 60 a) Jamelle McKenzie of 2497 Odell Way, said good evening it's good to see you all. I also 61 want to acknowledge the presence of South Fulton Councilman Corey Reeves who's with 62 us this evening. My announcement for this evening is a comment. Unfortunately, one out 63 of every five Americans has a diagnosable mental illness, and the stress of COVID-19 has 64 caused these figures to escalate. Over the past two years, mental illness is often something 65 that is kept hidden for so many individuals especially in the black and Broom communities 66 due to the stigma that often results associated with it. In an effort to bring greater awareness 67 to our mental illness crisis the IGNITE Resource Center is hosting a benefit concert on 68 Sunday, October 2nd at the College Park Auditorium where we'll be featuring celebrity 69 saxophonist Mr. Richard Shaw Jr. This is going to be amazing because Mr. Shaw’s birthday 70 is October 2nd but he is also a survivor. He has had bouts of mental illness and he has 71 recovered in his life, so he'll be performing at this amazing event; and we will be 72 celebrating persons who are excelling and successfully navigating through their lives 73 despite mental illness or health challenges. We'll be encouraging, and providing resources, 74 and we'll have different community organizations that will be out that day to be able to 75 give information and help people that are looking for resources revolving around emotional 76 and mental health. Again, the concert is going to be held at the College Park Auditorium 77 on October 2nd, at 6:00 pm. People can register or they can reserve their tickets at 78 www.adullamministriesincorporated.org. I will probably post that on Facebook. Some 79 other things that we're doing in the community; we have started a program with College 80 Park Elementary school and we're going to be reaching out to members of the community 81 to get them to donate clothing; jackets, socks, and undergarments for our students as the 82 weather gets cold. The school has needs and so we'll be reaching out to the community. 83 We also have begun our assistance program for persons experiencing living challenges 84 with landlord issues and we were able to give our first check to assist a family with moving 85 on last week. As far as the millage rate, I just wanted to have a conversation today. I heard 86 Ed Wall say that we are talking about probably about 4,600 or so homes in the city of 87 College Park and I truly understand. I hear what the council is saying on your end but I 88 wanted to speak on behalf of residents and persons in the City of College Park so you could 89 hear again our situation. I'm hearing the discussion of taking on a two-mill increase, and I 90 can tell you right now that in terms of the average home values in College Park, I do not 91 believe those numbers are correct. I can say that in my subdivision alone the average 92 assessed value for a home starts at $500,000 and goes up. We also have a subdivision, Page 2 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022  93 Rockland Homes, that is being built off Hershel Road and those homes are starting in the 94 $400,000’s. So a $400,000 home would have about a $200,000 assessed value which would 95 bring about a $200.00 a year increase on top of what our citizens are already paying. I just 96 want to remind the council, I know you all are going to do what you feel is best on behalf 97 of the City of College Park because that's what you are here to do but inflation is an issue. 98 Everything costs more and our seniors and disabled persons do not know at this moment 99 for sure whether that tax exemption is going to come through as it still has to go to the 100 legislature. It's all a gamble at this time and now on top of that, not knowing if we're going 101 to get that tax exemption, we are talking about the seniors and the underserved within our 102 community that are homeowners being possibly faced with having to continue to pay 103 higher taxes. Not because of the millage rate but because the home values are now valued 104 at more. So, your taxes are going to go up this year whether the millage rate goes up or not. 105 Also, we have the economic injury disaster loan payments are coming back for business 106 owners and homeowners that they’ll have to start paying these loans back. I know that the 107 city must run, and I think that we could look at other ways to generate income within this 108 city, but I feel like this is a bad time to increase. We still want to have people move into 109 this city, but we want to keep the people that we have as well. Hopefully, you will consider 110 that as you make decisions for the benefit of our people. Thank you very much. 111 112 b) Jessie Phillips, 4124 Williamsburg Drive said good evening Mayor and Council. I sent a 113 letter of invitation to you through Ms. Swann. I hope you had received it by now for the 114 Gospel Fest on Saturday, September 10th. We talked about this last year in cultural arts 115 about having a Gospel Fest. I was to be the chair but then I got sick and had surgery. A lot 116 of things happened, and they called me right after I had surgery saying we're going to have 117 a spring Gospel Fest. I'm like, I don't think so or not right now. So they call me later to 118 have one in the fall and I said yes, we can consider one in the fall. We got together and I 119 think we came up with a pretty good program. So, I'm here again to invite each of you to 120 our Gospel Fest on Saturday afternoon from 4-7 and hope to see each one of you. 121 122 123 c) Stacie Alexander, Williamsburg Drive said good evening Mayor & Council again. This 124 [Gospel Fest] is a great collaboration with this Elder and along with our arts and culture 125 community. We are indeed excited about this Gospel Fest. The objective of this Gospel 126 Fest of course is to do exactly what your tradition says, what our integrity says, which is to 127 celebrate the historical tradition of gospel music and to provide a spiritual and social 128 alliance among the churches in our community. What we want to do on such a grand & 129 large scale is to make sure that our spiritual and religious communities are together and 130 that there is no division. We are excited about the program that we put together here with 131 our leadership and with Michelle Johnson and Mother Phillips. It’s going to be a bang 132 program and we are so excited. We want everybody to come out and bring their neighbors. 133 The city has afforded it to where it’s a free program and it's from 4-7. You will hear things 134 like, [Ms. Alexander sings a snippet of Amazing Grace]… that's a traditional one but then 135 you'll hear some updated stuff too. So, we want you all to send your children as it's for your 136 family. We’d love to have our city officials there to support this program and thank you 137 again for allowing this Michelle. Let's do it big and not allow East Point to outdo College 138 Park. Page 3 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 139 140 d) Josh Wilson of Fostered Foundation said good afternoon Mayor and council. My name is 141 Joshua Wilson, I'm the President of the Fostered Foundation. I wanted to come here to say 142 thank you. We had a very successful event for the first Campaign College Park, where we 143 wanted to talk about inclusivity for foster care children and the general youth of College 144 Park. We had about 60 youth in attendance throughout today and we had about 40 foster 145 care youth and the rest were general youth from the community. We did have several 146 Councilmen come out and the Mayor did attend. I wanted to bring you guys your certificate 147 of membership because you guys are allies in the great City of College Park in the great 148 State of Georgia leading the new trailblazing of foster care youth in the state. It's a big 149 initiative, so I'm glad that this city is standing at the forefront with me now connecting the 150 dots. I gave them all to you individually, I hope you guys keep them and as we go we're 151 going to have a bright future for the City of College Park. Thank you. 152 153 e) Tommy Debosky of 2090 Cambridge Ave said, my wife and family, live on Flowers Drive, 154 and our family's been here over hundreds of years in College Park. I kid you not, my wife's 155 grandmother just passed in 2005 she was 94 and her daddy lived here, and he lived up in 156 his 80’s. I mean the family goes way back; my mom's grandmother lived here at College 157 Park until my mom got a job in Nepal and we moved over there. I grew up over there; I 158 was a fireman over there and I was a police officer. I had a job with the Braves where I 159 was on the camera crew and y'all saw my camera shots in the City of Atlanta. Here's my 160 problem, I just need some time on my cars. I’ve been in the hospital and lived here for over 161 10 years. I'm not going anywhere unless Jesus is going to take my hand and I’m here to tell 162 you he didn’t. They said well you might get two years. Anyway four and a half years they 163 finally decided to give me a liver in August 2016. So, it's been six years and I fought that. 164 I was in the hospital for about three months, and before that six months in ICU after the 165 liver. Then glory to God another after ayear in the hospital I got to go home with limited 166 physical therapy. I fell in the bathroom and broke my back. Code enforcement, they're 167 doing their job, and let me tell you, they've got every right to tell me about my cars. Last 168 year before I was here in October or November they gave me until the weekend because I 169 had a friend of mine coming over, but he was very slow. I will move the cars, I just need 170 more time. Tommy Debosky said I got a nephew coming to work on my cars and every 171 other weekend. He can come to help me and he's a lot faster. I can get a lot more done, but 172 I just need some time. 173 174 [Timer went off] 175 Mayor Motley Broom said our Interim City Manager will have a conversation with you. We might 176 be able to assist because it sounds like there's a Code Enforcement issue. 177 f) [Read Verbatim via City Clerk] Demetris Taylor said Greetings and Salutations Mayor and 178 Council, I am former Vice Chair of BIDA and a 14 year resident of Embarcadero Club 179 Apartments in Ward 2. I am concerned about how we are still missing the mark with 180 Communications. I've NEVER heard about "College Park Day" and I was recently told 181 this is an ANNUAL event. This past weekend, on the Jamestown 18 acres, there was a 182 massive community celebration going on and had I not been driving thru the neighborhood, 183 I would not have known ANYTHING about it. What is going on with our Communications Page 4 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 184 Department? It appears we can't seem to get the word out to the residents, which is what I 185 thought was the focus of the department. Who is now the director of the department? I 186 don't know who he or she is and THAT is even a concern because as the DIRECTOR of 187 the department, he or she have not put forth an effort to even announce themselves or let 188 the residents know how to contact her if we wanted to know the happenstances of The City 189 of College Park. Another question is, how many people are in the department now?? Since 190 the departure of Robin, (I don't remember her last name) Mrs. Mahersala Banks-Howard 191 and Gerald Walker were the only people I CONSISTANTLY saw working toward getting 192 communications out or posted on the LED Board. Are we in NEED of communications 193 professionals? Are those jobs posted on the website?? Can WE PLEASE get our act 194 together and be PROGRESSIVE with our communications with the citizens? We can't 195 support the City if we don't know what to support!!! Thank you for your time and careful 196 consideration 197 198 g) [Read verbatim via City Clerk] Stacie Land said, and I live in Embarcadero Club Apts. I 199 am reaching out in hopes that this does not fall on deaf ears. Y’all sit here meeting after 200 meeting making decisions for us, staff and businesses. Some decisions good but a lot are 201 bad. Why is joe back in office? This is the same joe that bought a house from BIDA for 202 pennies! Google it. I held my tongue long enough but clearly since he’s been back, there 203 has been an awful shift in morale. Kids Fest was a want not a need that he pushed. 204 Councilman Clay is probably too smart for his own good. Time for him to go. Councilman 205 Allen, well… not too smart. I think he means well usually. Gay, the brokest of them all. 206 Gay is a bully simply put. Bianca, our Mayor… all over the place. Does she work for GMA 207 or college park? Then you have staff. HR is a joke. Nothing is confidential. Dwight is 208 brash, rude and so is his assistant. How is he back and the position wasn’t posted? Stay 209 woke y’all. Google it. The City manager is incompetent. Finance Director is too too smart 210 which is why there’s no checks and balances. And she is making the most under the City 211 Managr. Why is that? Darnetta was fired for standing up to the bull. She was very 212 unorthodox but this council needs that. Not another Terrence. Google it. Artie left — good 213 for him. He was not the most approachable but still knew his stuff. y’all and you hired a 214 planning administrator/zoning instead of Tasha who is more than capable, although she is 215 rude af. Sabrina is fake. Shavala is fake. Mercedes is fake. Michelle is fake. Mike fake and 216 suspicious. Hugh, dry af. New communications lady, what has she done? Can she hold a 217 camera? Police- meh. Fire- double meh. Chief is a good ole boy. I say all that to say… get 218 it together. Fire baker immediately. He need to be investigated. Gay said all departments 219 heads make 6 figures. That is not true… but it probably should be! Why is the highest paid 220 making 145 k and the lowest is 80k. Oh and the residents. What devil deal did you all strike 221 with Rex Willis, mike Hightower and Jamelle McKenzie? I’m especially tired of Rex and 222 Janelle. All they want is city money, attaboys, photo ops and kissing baby moments and 223 oh yeah money. I won’t be surprised if they run for mayor. Or council. Too much conflicts 224 of interests but no one ever checks them! Maybe because your city attorney is sleeping? 225 We need the old residents to start speaking up. 226 227 [Timer went off] Page 5 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 228 6. Appointments 229 230 A. Consideration of and action on a request from City Planning Director Angela Rambeau to 231 appoint a new member to the Planning Commission for Ward 4. 232 233 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from City Planner Angela Rambeau to 234 appoint Whitney Flemister to the Planning Commission as the Ward 4 representative, 235 seconded by Councilman Allen and motion carried. (All voted yes). 236 237 7. Public Hearings 238 239 A. Consideration of and action on a request from City Planning Director Angela Rambeau to 240 set a public hearing to consider the approval of the NW Clayton LCI. 241 242 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from City Planner Angela Rambeau to 243 set a public hearing to consider the approval of the NW Clayton LCI, seconded by 244 Councilman Allen and motion carried. (All voted yes). 245 246 8. Other Business 247 248 A. Consideration of and action on a request from Woodward Academy to host an Alumni 249 Event. This is a one-time special event to be held on October 15, 2022. See memorandum 250 dated August 31, 2022 from City Clerk Shavala Ames. 251 252 ACTION: Councilman Allen moved to approve a request from City Clerk Shavala Ames for 253 Woodward Academy to host an Alumni Event to be held on October 15, 2022 from 254 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., seconded by Councilman Clay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 255 256 B. Consideration of and action of a discussion of proposed Millage Rate and approval of 257 recommended rate for advertisement for Fiscal Year 2022- 2023. See memorandum dated 258 August 24, 2022, from Director of Finance and Accounting Althea Philord-Bradley. 259 260 Financial Advisor Ed Wall said we recommend for you to advertise three public hearings of a 2- 261 mill increase from 12.619 to 14.619 in the newspaper. We took five years of your tax digest, and 262 you are allowed to on the third meeting to approve that number or anything less but nothing greater. 263 I say to you all that we are not approving it tonight you're just authorizing us to advertise the three 264 public hearing advertisements. 265 266 [Councilman Clay made a motion to approve, Councilman Allen second the motion] 267 268 Councilman Clay said this is your proposal to change what is on the Regular Session agenda based 269 on the discussion that we had at the Work Session this evening? 270 271 Mr. Wall said yes. This is with a 2-mill increase above what we have had since 2012. You are 272 authorizing us to do the advertising. 273 Page 6 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 274 Councilman Carn said I've got a little discussion on this. I understand we had the workshop earlier. 275 It looks like we finally got this senior homestead tax exemption thing straightened out. The second 276 time we ran it up the flagpole, it was approved up here and I think it left out a lot of people that 277 would have benefited from it. I supported both senior tax exemptions, but something had occurred 278 to me when we approved that, and it had occurred to me that we gave a great benefit to a significant 279 portion of the population of this city and at the same time there's a significant portion in the 280 population of the city that did not get any type of benefit. Everyone in the City of College Park 281 does not own a home and we’re mostly rentals, around 75%. So, we approved something that 25% 282 of our population may be eligible if they meet the age requirements as well as the income 283 requirements. All of that is dependent upon if it gets to the state legislature, the governor's 284 signature, and it's approved on the referendum hopefully sometime in 2023. I wanted to do 285 something that equalizes things for the other 75% of residents who did not receive a benefit and 286 it's hard to receive a homestead tax exemption benefit if you don't own a home. I would like to see 287 some type of effort at a discounted rate of some percentage for utility customers that meet the same 288 thresholds as what we provided within the senior homestead tax exemption, in other words, 289 fairness. Regarding the electric rates, now there is a senior discount on the utility rates, and it is 290 the 10 base charges that the city charges everyone, but I wanted to see something added to that. I 291 asked around 300 people and I would like to see a modest 5% discount for residents meeting the 292 same requirements. We need to raise funds, but I don't think we have enough funds to cover the 293 budgetary needs of this city and I’ve said that all during the budget hearing process. I understand 294 it was not a great situation where we couldn't get the full picture of what we needed from 295 Department Heads because of circumstances beyond the Department Head's control. No one likes 296 increases but at the end of the day, we've got to manage the city's money as best as we know how. 297 That’s what I would like to see as a friendly amendment. 298 299 City Attorney Winston Denmark said with utility rates there are certain rules that govern us in 300 terms of how we set utility rates and we must treat like customers alike. I'm not saying that it's 301 impossible to create something that would provide the relief that you're suggesting Councilman, 302 but I’m just saying that it is a very complicated thing in terms of how we deal with utility rates. It 303 would have to require some careful study and a kind of structure in a way that's consistent with the 304 law. 305 306 Ms. Philord-Bradley said we would like to run numbers on that request as well as work with 307 Winston’s office to determine what we can and can't do. Then run some numbers as well to 308 quantify what Councilman Carn is requesting. 309 310 Councilman Clay said I have a suggestion in that regard. I don't see how these two things tie 311 together. We want to do something for utility customers that we already have a senior rate for 312 seniors on their utility bills. We have identified the class of people or the group of people that have 313 signed up for the reduction. That's not something that needs to be approved, I don't believe Winston 314 by the legislature or by anybody. We already have a senior utility rate, and we should be able to 315 say that rate might be twenty dollars instead of ten dollars. That wouldn't require a special long- 316 involved process, like to do what Councilman Carn is suggesting where we would give it the same 317 income requirements that we're requiring on the exemption that the legislature is going to have to 318 work on. That's a whole different ballgame and I would think from a legal standpoint it would Page 7 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 319 make it much simpler. You've already identified the class of people you're applying it to but all 320 you're doing now is deciding on how much you're going to give them. Am I correct? 321 322 Mr. Denmark said yes sir. I would say is that we have a process and Mr. Richardson can probably 323 speak to this better than I on how we set utility regs and the rules that govern that, and how we 324 treat different classes of customers. I don't know how our current senior rate discount came to be 325 the case, but I would look at it very closely and try to determine whether we're treating like 326 customers alike because we cannot discriminate among classes of customers. That's very 327 important. 328 329 Councilman Carn said if it is simpler to just do it across the board at the base rate or if we increase 330 the base rate across the board without the income requirement, so be it. Obviously, we did that and 331 we waived the base rate for seniors at some point. I know that did not require state intervention. 332 We decided to do that as we own our non-profit power company, and we can do that. 333 334 Mr. Richardson said the senior rate was established back in January 2011. It's the residential rate 335 without the base charge and that's what most utilities are doing. Even Georgia Power has a senior 336 rate and is almost equivalent to taking out the base charge in their residential rate, but they do have 337 an income level requirement on theirs. We could establish as many options. There are many ways 338 you can look at designing something for seniors under different income levels. 339 340 Mayor Motley Broom said does it make sense to have a conversation about this in a Workshop 341 Session and see what our options are? I agree with Councilman Clay that they're both important 342 issues, but they are separate in terms of we're just determining whether we're going to advertise 343 this millage rate now. Councilman Carn, are you amenable to putting it on a Workshop Session at 344 the next meeting? 345 346 Councilman Carn said no. I disagree that they're not connected number one. In my opinion, they 347 are connected. My opinion counts here as one out of four other opinions up here. 348 349 Mayor Motley Broom said there is five of us. 350 351 Councilman Carn said my opinion counts out of one of four of us that is up here. I know what I 352 said and that’s what I meant. I would like to add as an amendment, a commitment to put together 353 a discount tier along the lines to increase that 10% senior discounts for utility bills if we're going 354 to do this. Then we can put it on a Workshop and flesh the rest of it out. 355 356 Mayor Motley Broom said your amendment is to have a conversation about it? 357 358 Councilman Carn said no, I said a commitment to doing that along those lines. I don't know if it's 359 5% or 10%. I’d like to see us make a commitment where there's going to be a discount on utility 360 rates for everybody if we're considering increasing this millage rate. 361 362 Mayor Motley Broom said without knowing the numbers? 363 364 Councilman Carn said that’s correct. Page 8 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 365 366 Mayor Motley Broom said Councilman Clay an amendment has been proposed to your motion. 367 Are you amenable to it? 368 369 Councilman Clay said you're saying to get your vote to keep the city from drawing down its reserve 370 by having a two mill increase which will affect the homeowners, you want a commitment in the 371 amendment to the motion that we will not do just one thing, and not only will we make the motion 372 to do the millage rate, but we will also make a motion that will commit us to doing a reduced utility 373 rate for seniors? 374 375 Councilman Carn said if you want, we could do the commitment to the utility rate first and separate 376 them up but I don't want to do the millage rate until we consider this. 377 378 Councilman Clay said you're basically saying if you want my vote for the millage rate, you will 379 vote on this? 380 381 Councilman Carn said I’m saying, I’d like that as a friendly amendment so we can vote it in a 382 package. Yes. 383 384 Councilman Allen said do we have a length of time that a person needs to be in the utility program? 385 I think there are more numbers we need to look at. 386 387 Councilman Carn said Ken, I'm fine with fleshing all of that out a Workshop later. What I’m asking 388 for is a commitment to an increased utility rate discount for seniors along the same age frame of 389 65 and over. I think it would be the right thing to do. 390 391 Mayor Motley Broom said I have a couple of questions because the commitment could be going 392 from $10 to $11 and that's a commitment to increase the senior discount. I understand your view 393 that if we go up on something, we should go down on something if we can find a way to do that. I 394 haven't heard opposition to that concept from the body and regardless of whether that $10 goes to 395 $11.25 or some percentage we still need to handle the millage rate. So, it’s not enough to say that 396 this body is focused on doing that and we have a conversation at the next Workshop Session. We 397 are just handling the advertisement of the millage rate which is the issue at hand. 398 399 Councilman Carn said I get what you're saying, and I understand you think that's a separate issue, 400 but I don't think it is. I would like this amendment in terms of numbers. According to Customer 401 Service, we have 1,350 seniors signed up for the senior discount base charge. I’d be happy with a 402 modest 5% discount. I don’t think we should take a huge loss on it. 403 404 Councilman Clay said what I would rather do because I think it's strange to mix these two motions 405 together for a whole variety of reasons. If you want to mix the two motions then I would propose 406 a three-mill increase and I’d revise my motion to go with the three mills increase and include the 407 recommendation to do that. Alternatively, what I’d like to do is withdraw my motion on the millage 408 increase and have a separate motion to do what Councilman Carn is suggesting. Which would you 409 rather do Joe? Which way would you rather go? 410 Page 9 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 411 Councilman Carn said I would actually like to hear the Mayor’s feelings on this before I make a 412 decision on this. 413 414 Mayor Motley Broom said I would like Councilman Clay to accept the friendly amendment or 415 withdraw the motion. 416 417 Councilman Clay said I withdraw the motion. 418 419 Councilman Carn said I would like to hear the Mayor’s opinion on this. 420 421 Mayor Motley Broom said I am here to run the meeting. If there’s a motion you would like to 422 announce, go ahead. 423 424 Councilman Gay said I have an opinion. I don't think that this is the right time to raise the tax. 425 There’s inflation even though the governor and Stacey Abrams are both touting how they have 426 lowered the state tax. For the City of College Park to raise the taxes at this point, I just don't think 427 it's fair. To give some other consideration is only fair. I was thinking about the bills that the 428 democrats are passing, and it's taken them months to pass it because one man named Joe and he's 429 bold enough to hold out until he made that body fair. 430 431 Councilman Carn said would you be ok with a modest increase? 432 433 Councilman Gay said I would be ok with it. 434 435 ACTION: Councilman Allen moved to approve advertising of the proposed Millage Rate with 436 a 2 mill increase and look at the numbers to propose a utility credit for Seniors, 437 seconded by Councilman Clay; Councilman Carn and Councilman Gay opposed. 438 Mayor Motley Broom voted in favor and motion carried. 439 440 Councilman Carn said once we start the ball rolling on the millage rate process and it has been 441 decided on, would it stand a reason to make sure that caveat in the process as we proceed down 442 the road. 443 444 Mr. Denmark said I thought it was consensus to include that in a Workshop Session. I would 445 suggest once the millage rate has been voted on to discuss a senior utility credit increase at the 446 following meeting. 447 448 ACTION: Councilman Carn moved to approve a request to hear the issues of a senior utility 449 credit during the next workshop session September 19, 2022, seconded by 450 Councilman Gay and motioned carried. (All voted yes). 451 452 C. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of the acceptance of a Fulton County 453 Arts & Culture Grant award for programming for the City of College Park Recreation & 454 Cultural Arts Department. 455 Page 10 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 456 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Director of Recreation and 457 Cultural Arts Michelle Johnson on the acceptance of a Fulton County Arts & 458 Culture Grant award in the amount of $15,000 for programming for the City of 459 College Park Recreation & Cultural Arts Department, seconded by Councilman 460 Gay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 461 462 D. Consideration of and action on a request for approval to purchase twenty-one (21) Dell 463 rugged laptop computers and adapters for the new vehicles for Police Patrol. 464 465 Councilman Carn said We’re getting the computers. How close are we getting the cars? 466 467 Interim Police Chief McCrary said I’m being told that we are closer and it’s dependent upon how 468 soon they can get it to us. We are waiting, they’re not waiting on us. Ms. Philord-Bradley and Mr. 469 Moody have done everything on our end. We are just waiting for the cars to come in. We’re 470 expecting them around October hopefully unless they delay. 471 472 Councilman Allen said do the computers have a delivery date. 473 474 Interim Police Chief McCrary said no sir, it will be dependent upon your vote. 475 476 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Interim Chief of Police Sharis 477 McCray to purchase twenty-one (21) Dell rugged laptop computers and adapters for 478 the new vehicles for Police Patrol in the amount of $42,341.46, seconded by 479 Councilman Clay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 480 481 9. Travel Request 482 483 Consideration of and action on a request to authorize members of the College Park 484 Planning Commission to attend the Georgia Planning Association 2022 Fall Conference. 485 The Planning Commission members are Patricia Zackery and Kaseem Ladipo. 486 487 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Planning & Zoning Administrator 488 Sabrina Walters for two board members of the College Park Planning Commission, 489 Patricia Zackery and Kaseem Ladipo, to attend the Georgia Planning Association 490 2022 Fall Conference from September 14-16, 2022 in Columbus, GA in the amount 491 of $1,572.00, seconded by Councilman Clay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 492 493 10. Bids, Change Order Requests and Contracts. 494 495 A. Consideration and action on a request for bid approval of concrete pad needed for US 496 Soccer Foundation grant of $100,000 at Richard D. Zupp Park to build a new mini pitch 497 soccer system. 498 499 Councilman Gay said can you explain to the body that of this amount $45,000 is out of the general 500 fund. Page 11 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 501 502 Ms. Johnson said $40,000 was budgeted in the general fund. So, we have a $90,000 grant from 503 CDBG so we're requesting to use the $130,000 to build the concrete pad for the RFP which is for 504 approval. I think it was $91,727.50 for the concrete pad and any other things; lights, sidewalks, or 505 anything else that we may need in that area. 506 507 Councilman Gay said I think that'll look great over there. 508 509 Councilman Carn said Ken, that's your park and I know you know what you need and like to see 510 over there. This is a question for the City Manager, I just find it hard to believe that we can't pour 511 a square concrete pad. I mean we pour sidewalks, but we can't pour that. 512 513 Mr. Myers said I’ll see about it. 514 515 Councilman Carn said I want it to happen obviously, but I want us to do it obviously, but I mean 516 $90,000. We poured some great sidewalks in this city; we poured some pretty big sections of 517 concrete. Pouring concrete this isn’t rocket science. 518 519 Mr. Myers said I could pour a sidewalk but when you start talking about pouring a slab of a certain 520 abnormal size, you need to make sure that it's level, it's got the right fall to it, and there's a lot of 521 additional things. The slab that we did at the splash pad takes a certain skill set to do that. Yes, we 522 have all kinds of people that can pour sidewalks, it's a whole different skill set. 523 524 Councilman Carn said I’m going to vote for it, but I would like to see if it's something that we can 525 do. I mean if we can't do it then it's out of our wheelhouse. 526 527 Mr. Myers said if you approve this I will talk to Tim Lewis in Public Works to see if we can 528 accommodate that request. 529 530 Ms. Johnson said Councilman Carn, we did address that with the Public Works Director before 531 putting this out for bid and was told that wasn't something that they could do. 532 533 Councilman Carn said here's the reason why I asked. We have a new Public Works Director, and 534 I don't think it costs any money to ask again. 535 536 Councilman Allen said I didn't know if Dick’s was providing you with the information. Do they 537 have any requirements? 538 539 Ms. Johnson said they did. Those were the requirements that we used for the RFP 540 541 Councilman Gay said I made the motion but now that we're discussing it, I’m looking at the unit 542 price schedule. 425 of what? It doesn’t give us yards or feet. 543 544 Representative with ST English Construction Star English said 425 sq. yards. I’m the owner of ST 545 English Construction and we did this bid. 546 Page 12 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 547 Councilman Gay said do you know how many yards this is. 548 549 Ms. English said 425 square yards. 550 551 Councilman Gay said oh that's what you're telling me, this means square yards. 552 553 Ms. English said yes. 554 555 Councilman Gay said the GAB. 556 557 Ms. English said this is heavy duty, so I think the GAB is mixed in. 558 559 Councilman Gay said in the future, you got our specifications, but you didn't itemize them. Your 560 prices aren't itemized. 561 562 Ms. English said we usually do square foot. I had to convert my numbers to match what Mr. Moody 563 wanted. So that's why you see the units as they are and not in square feet or cubic yards. 564 565 Councilman Gay said I agree with you, it's already done. I'm just telling you as somebody who has 566 lost a lot of bids, this is not a real true accessible bid. It’s not itemized, so you're not telling us what 567 costs what. You just got a lump sum. 568 569 Ms. English said we have one, but she doesn't have it here. 570 571 Ms. Johnson said we didn't include it in the packet. Mr. Moody just puts the cost. 572 573 Ms. English said I have subtotals with everything. I conformed to the RFP, I didn't want to be non- 574 compliant. 575 576 Councilman Gay said going forward our bid should be itemized. It is not fair to the taxpayers or 577 for us not to know what we're paying for. I don't want to vote in the future again on $145,000 578 without any data. 579 580 Mayor Motley Broom said what I heard from Ms. Johnson was that information was included but 581 it wasn't included in our package. Moving forward, can we get that in the package? 582 583 Mr. Myers said I'll take care of it. I wrote it down and made a note to talk to Mr. Moody. 584 585 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Director of Recreation & Cultural 586 Arts, Michelle Johnson on a bid for a concrete pad needed for US Soccer Foundation 587 grant in the amount of $91,727.50 at Richard D. Zupp Park to build a new mini pitch 588 soccer system, seconded by Councilman Allen and motion carried. (All voted yes). 589 590 B. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of a Service Agreement between the 591 City of College Park and Motorola Solutions, Inc. for maintenance, support, or other 592 services for the Police Public Safety radio system. Page 13 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 593 594 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Interim Chief of Police Sharis 595 McCrary for a Service Agreement between the City of College Park and Motorola 596 Solutions, Inc. for maintenance, support, or other services for the Police Public 597 Safety radio system in the amount of $61,734.15, seconded by Councilman Carn and 598 motion carried. (All voted yes). 599 600 C. Consideration and action on a request to extend the Chemical Injection contract for one 601 year between the City of College Park and Burnett Lime Company, Inc. 602 603 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Interim Public Works Director 604 Timothy Lewis to extend the Chemical Injection contract for one year between the 605 City of College Park and Burnett Lime Company, Inc. in the amount of $192,000 for 606 chemicals, equipment rental and maintenance seconded by Councilman Allen and 607 motion carried. (All voted yes). 608 609 D. Consideration and action to approve a bid from Gresco for the purchase and installation of 610 LED fixture, poles and other material for the baseball field at Brannon Park. 611 612 Councilman Carn said this is Brannon Park right. We’re redoing that whole park? 613 614 Mr. Richardson said right. That’s the one. 615 616 Councilman Carn said are these the same decorative poles that are at the other parks. 617 618 Mr. Richardson said it would be the same lights we have at Badgett football field and Bill Evans 619 baseball field. 620 621 Councilman Gay said are they paying for it or are they reimbursing us? 622 623 Mr. Richardson said they’re paying us in advance before we order. We’ve already invoiced them 624 weeks ago. 625 626 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Power Director Hugh Richardson 627 on a bid from Gresco for the purchase and installation of LED fixture, poles and other 628 material for the baseball field at Brannon Park in the amount of $183,988.00, 629 seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried. (All voted yes). 630 631 E. Consideration of and action on a request for approval to renew the City’s citizen response 632 software with QScend Technologies, Inc. 633 634 Mr. Hicks said good evening once again Mayor and council. Any questions? 635 636 Councilman Clay said I had some concerns that I've voiced before. We had this application for 637 how many years? 638 Page 14 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 639 Mr. Hicks said three. 640 641 Councilman Clay said if you want to use it a lot, you have to log in constantly. It does not have a 642 good user interface. I don't understand why we can't do what all the other apps do once you've 643 logged in, you can do face id. Councilman Carn has made the point, give us a phone number kind 644 of thing and that's almost the way I’ve gotten to feel with the app. I used to try using it all the time 645 and every time I tried to use it I had to log in again. I'm out walking, and I see something on my 646 walk that I’d like to report but it isn’t worth the trouble to be honest. Now, there are other citizens 647 who maybe don't mind taking the time to log in. I understand that but for somebody that's going 648 to use it, I don't understand why they can't change that simple thing for us. But every year we 649 renew it, and they can't make that one correction. What's their reason? 650 651 Director of Information and Technology Michael Hicks said I think in the last year we've homed 652 in on you having to log in every time. The first couple of years we didn’t see that was happening 653 but I brought all of this to their attention and they gave me a list of new features that they're going 654 to add, and they understand that logging in every time is a pain, and they promise to fix that. 655 They're going to redo the whole app so my recommendation would be to move forward with it and 656 let me monitor it. Then the next year if it's not repaired then, I’ll bring it back before you guys and 657 we bid it out. 658 659 Councilman Clay said let me ask you, is this something we have to pay at one time or can we 660 spread payments out over the year. 661 662 Mr. Hicks said you have to pay it one time. 663 664 Councilman Clay said once we paid it we lose our leverage. They can promise us anything and 665 next year we'll be having the same discussion. Is there any way that we can get some leverage with 666 them to make sure it happens because we've been talking about it, but this is not the first time I 667 brought this up. I asked you before the meeting, can you tell me what the usage has been? What I 668 was trying to figure out is, are people using it more or less. 669 670 Mr. Hicks said so that we could make some data-driven decisions, I gave you the data for the last 671 30 days and I’ve also sent all of you some data this evening. That data shows that with android 672 phones, 128 people have logged in to use the system and with iPhones, we had a total of 529 673 people. Which is a total of 657 that has logged in. 674 675 Councilman Clay said are those users that logged in once in their life or are they once per month? 676 I'm one of those people that logged in and I haven't logged in for ages. 677 678 Mr. Hicks said the leverage that you're concerned about, Winston, I would like to bring that 679 contract to your office so that you can look at it and I’ll go back to the company and tell them 680 exactly what our concerns are about these features that seem to be haphazard if you will. That 681 would be the leverage to make sure that they fix these things, or we find a way to get out of the 682 contract. 683 Page 15 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 684 Councilman Carn said I got a couple of things. I've been asking for a phone number for this since 685 May and I know you're not responsible for the phone number directly, but do we have a phone 686 number? 687 688 Mr. Hicks said yes, we do. I own that because I talked to the City Clerk that I should have had that 689 number posted a while back. So, we do have a number posted to the system, but I just haven't 690 posted it to the website and that's going to involve our city clerk and Ms. Harrison to do. 691 692 Councilman Carn said the first and the second time I asked for a number I think Tasha gave the 693 presentation and I asked for a number twice in two different things but I’m glad we got a number. 694 I'm not against the technology but I’ve been hollering about getting data points in here and I think 695 we need to use the data we have around us. We all have cell phones. If you see something going 696 on that needs fixing you take a picture of what it is, text that picture to this phone number, and 697 type in your sentence. It just seems to me it's complicating something that seems simple to me. 698 699 Mr. Hicks said we are certainly moving in the right direction by having the see something say 700 something software. Counties and cities they have that, we have some issues with it and we're 701 gonna fix that I hear you loud and clear about some things that need to be fixed but we need this 702 software. We can't go backward and use pencil and paper and have people calling the person that 703 answers the phone a thousand times. We got to have a combination of things and so again I hear 704 you and we're going to have it fixed. 705 706 Councilman Carn said can you send a picture and text the picture to that phone number, is that 707 possible? 708 709 Mr. Hicks said no sir. The phone number is designed for you to call the operator and the operator 710 is going to facilitate that information to the department. We have the app for that. 711 712 Councilman Allen said I just have the same comment that they have to log in each time and that's 713 their main concern. 714 715 Councilman Gay said my concern is culture and our leadership. I’m not sold on iNotify as I told 716 you. I mean we have children in middle school making apps. What I learned about these uniform 717 reporting apps is that it holds people accountable. It holds you accountable, so the easiest thing to 718 do is complain. When I first got on council you had bravo and alpha. When I woke up in the 719 morning I couldn't wait to go on my phone and see what bravo and alpha had seen that night. We 720 need a unified reporting app, and you need leadership and education to make it work. 721 722 Mayor Motley Broom said one of the concerns that I had about Q-Send was that push notifications 723 aren't available on it, are they? 724 725 Mr. Hicks said no. 726 727 Mayor Motley Broom said is that something that may be coming down the line? It seems as though 728 if we can better communicate and it's not just this one-way street. where people sometimes see 729 what they've reported and then it may get answered, most of the time it does, but I have heard of Page 16 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 730 some folks who have open iNotify complaints, that it would be helpful if there was an opportunity 731 for to you know if something has been closed and handled. 732 733 Councilman Clay said I've gotten notices back that something has been addressed. 734 735 Mr. Hicks said right and that's me working with the Power Department when the power's out. I 736 think we've been able to push notification that way but not in that sense that the Mayor is talking 737 about. If we want to reach several people the only people we're going to be able to reach are the 738 ones who signed up for iNotify. Are you referring to pushing it out to the entire community? 739 740 Mayor Motley Broom said I know we had talked about that and that was not a capability of this 741 app. 742 743 Mr. Hicks said could you all send me a list of some of the things to look at and we'll work on it 744 and use that leverage from Winston’s office to say we want these fixed by this date. 745 746 Councilman Gay said my last comment is that for some reason, Power takes care of every 747 notification I send and sends me a notification. I don't know why it's working in Power, but it 748 doesn't work in some other departments. 749 750 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Chief Information Officer 751 Michael Hicks to renew the City’s citizen response software with QScend 752 Technologies, Inc in the amount of $13,817 with modifications to the app, seconded 753 by Councilman Clay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 754 755 11. Unfinished (Old) Business. 756 757 None 758 759 12. New Business. 760 761 None 762 763 13. City Attorney’s Report. 764 765 Mr. Denmark said I know over the past several months we've had some illness. I wanted to point 766 under a recent amendment to the Open Meetings Act O.C.G.A 50-14, they've created an exception 767 that allows public officials up to twice a year for illness to attend by teleconference which would 768 include virtual meetings like Zoom or Teams. You can do that up to twice a year without a doctor's 769 note but if it's more than twice a year you would have to get a written opinion from your physician 770 so that you cannot attend physically based on illness. I didn't know if the Council was aware of 771 that but that is an option that had not previously been available to you, but it is now. 772 773 14. City Manager’s Report. 774 Page 17 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 775 Mr. Myers said I put on your desk up there about tiny homes from Fulton County which the County 776 approved. I noticed that Fulton County approved a resolution for the tiny homes, and I also attached 777 a copy of what went out in the newspaper. As you know they're considering College Park. 778 Also, Herschel Road has got garbage pickup between Camp Creek and Washington. What's 779 happening is that they're going and moving the garbage out from that side of the house and set it 780 out into the street and apparently, some of them don't put them in their bags. I’ve asked them today 781 why are they putting it out there on a curb and they said they're having a lot of problems with 782 vehicles coming up there and coming to the garbage truck and the guy's hanging off. What they 783 want to do is they're putting the garbage out on the sidewalks. We will look into that more. 784 785 The other thing is that the Georgia Department of Transportation did a supplement to our 786 agreement to our Global Gateway and gave us another $395,628. I put the contracts in with the 787 Mayor so we can get them signed. I'm working on a couple of dollars for McClarin school next 788 door. They put in their application to start their land disturbance for the school next door so that's 789 getting kicked off. 790 791 The memorial for Major Joseph A. Bishop who went to Woodward Academy, is going to be out 792 front on October 25th where they're going to rededicate his plaque in the ground. I sent that out to 793 everybody but now we've got a firm date from Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association. 794 They're gonna send an invite to everybody to come. It'll be about 11 o'clock on the 25th. 795 796 The last thing, we talked about is Fulton County's got emergency rental assistance. If you go to the 797 Department of Community Affairs website, they have information for tenants and landlords and 798 you can click on there and make an application to those who need help with either rent and/or 799 utilities. Fulton County is supposed to come up with some additional money to help with utilities. 800 801 15. Report Of Mayor And Council. 802 803 Councilman Clay said I have only one item and it's an interesting request that someone brought to 804 my attention which would be a great idea. Some of you know Audrey Wilson passed recently. I've 805 known Audrey for years since she became head of the coalition at the Housing Authority. It was 806 exciting to see her personal growth in that position and it was amazing to see the amount of 807 dedication despite her physical limitations and the amount of dedication that she showed toward 808 helping other people. The proposal I got from someone was renaming Atlanta Street, from down 809 by the Housing Authority up to Barrett Park. I counter-suggested because she lived on Atlanta 810 Street for several years but in her last few remaining months, she had a place that was on Simmons, 811 which is a one-block long street. I suggested not Atlanta because every time you rename a street, 812 you impact a lot of buildings along it. So, my question tonight to the Council, I know we've done 813 it for a few people and normally I'm not big on renaming things for people but in this particular 814 case, this is somebody who just exuded what a person should do to care for other people. I just 815 wondered how the Council would feel about renaming. My suggestion would be to limit the impact 816 by renaming Simmons. If you’re okay with doing it then what I will do is I’ll explore it further 817 with the Housing Authority because those will be the major homes that would have their address 818 changed and they would suffer the inconvenience of having a postal address change. I realized that 819 Audrey was not a council member nor a pastor but she had a huge influence on a lot of lives in 820 that area. Well, that is all I had. Page 18 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 821 822 Councilman Carn said I knew Ms. Wilson and I think something like that would be a very good 823 thing for this city to do. She gave a lot to this city and she was kind of the mother of the Housing 824 Authority for several decades. I think naming a half a block would be a disservice to somebody. 825 Atlanta Street, it's all residential there are no businesses and buildings on Atlanta Street so I think 826 Atlanta Street would be all right. The folks in your Ward especially they're not so hip on everything 827 or anything being named Atlanta anyway. 828 829 Councilman Clay said there aren't that many homes, so the major impact is on the Housing 830 Authority. That's something I can work out with Housing Authority. 831 832 Councilman Carn said I think naming that little part of a piece of a street wouldn't be adequate and 833 it's up to you. 834 835 Councilman Clay said if you're okay with renaming multiple blocks of Atlanta, I'll try to work out 836 that issue, but I was assuming that people would like to minimize the impact and that's why I 837 suggested Simmons. 838 839 Councilman Carn said I’m fine with Atlanta. I’ll follow your lead. 840 841 Councilman Allen said I don't have any problems. I think you need to explore with the Housing 842 Authority to make sure that they don't have any problems, but I think it's fine. 843 844 Councilman Gay said I don't have a problem with it, but I have a recommendation. I've made a 845 motion to name a street after Jessie Dent and what I’ve learned from that experience is that you 846 need to get the buy-in from the other residents because how you feel may not be how they feel. I 847 took a huge hit for that name change, and they told me that I should have talked with them. What 848 they told me was that they would have been okay for an honorary name which was perfectly okay 849 but changing their address, was personal to them. 850 851 Mayor Motley Broom said that's something that the City of Atlanta does a fair amount of. If you 852 look downtown, several streets are honorary. They're named after people in an honorary fashion 853 but the actual name of the street hasn't changed. 854 855 Councilman Clay said I'm with you now. I understand. That may be an option as well, but I think 856 the major impact would be on the Housing Authority. 857 858 Councilman Carn said I think you need to do it the right way if you're going to do it. 859 860 Councilman Clay said I've been waiting for a return call back from somebody at the Housing 861 Authority and if I haven't gotten anything back I'm going to go a different direction on that. 862 863 [Councilman Clay exited the chambers at 9:39 p.m.] 864 865 Councilman Carn said the first thing I want to mention is public comments. I'm probably one of 866 the biggest proponents of public comments. It's great to listen to public comments and some are Page 19 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 867 not so great. In my opinion, that is one of the most important parts of this meeting, good, bad, 868 weird or strange. People need to express themselves. I’ll say it and I’ll say it again, I think they 869 should be allowed to talk and speak their peace as long as they want at the end of the day. They're 870 paying the freight for this whole operation here and wanting to hear from residents means you 871 want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. I've had things that have been said here that people 872 didn't like, and they've lined up in here and they read us up and down. You may not always agree 873 with it up here, but I’ll always agree that it’s their right to say whatever they have to say. 874 875 One of the things I wanted to discuss was In Her Hands group that came into the city. Their 876 application closed on the 28th. For those people that aren't familiar, we were very fortunate to be 877 selected. Only three areas in Georgia so far received this tremendous gift through the federal 878 reserve bank. It's a guaranteed income pilot program and it's been done in several states throughout 879 the country. Out of all the cities in Georgia, three were picked. A portion of Atlanta, small rural 880 communities in southwest Georgia, and College Park was the third city picked for this opportunity. 881 882 [Councilman Clay returned at 9:43 p.m.] 883 884 I've got a call from a couple of my residents that have said they’ve been called and notified that 885 they were selected. Each recipient is looking at a guaranteed income for two years of $850 a month 886 and that may not seem like a lot of money but that's over $20,000 of free money to use as you 887 wish. This city got over 4 million dollars of free and clear money for our residents and that's 888 something worth recognizing. City Manager, I want to have them come here and we need to 889 recognize them or give them a proclamation because that's a gift. To consider College Park, you 890 thank people for something like that. You talk about good exposure and good press, that's some 891 pretty good press. If no one else has an objection to something along those lines, I’d like to reach 892 out to them and see what we can come up with. 893 894 Regarding the garbage issue, I understand what they're saying but I still say that's unacceptable. 895 Garbage trucks have been driving up and down Herschel Road and all these other roads for years. 896 As far as I know, I don't think there's ever been an accident on Herschel Road with a garbage truck 897 or some type of danger. They've been stopping picking up cans for decades. I want to give you all 898 some context in terms of what was going on. We have the policy where our sanitation service, 899 which I think is special because they will come to your yard or the side of your house and get your 900 herbie kirby and bring it out on the curb. Our guys dump that trash, and they roll that herbie kirby 901 back to your home. My neighbors on both sides of me weren't getting the same service. Their 902 herbie kirby was being thrown back in their yards. Now, I understand if you got a driveway that's 903 you know a quarter of a mile now and you do stuff within reason. But my neighbor is an over 70 904 years old single lady with no husband there to help her out with that type of stuff. It looked bad 905 they were doing something at my house that they weren't doing at my neighbor's house. I want to 906 make sure everybody's being treated the same and if it's doable. The last two pickups they took my 907 herbie kirby out and emptied the herbie kirby onto the sidewalk. Now everybody doesn't bag their 908 trash. My trash and my neighbor's trash are sitting on the sidewalk exposed and apparently, this is 909 a new system that they came up with. I'm not going to accept that. That's unacceptable. City 910 Manager, this is a shortcut and I’m not going to accept it. I didn't pay 90 dollars for a nice herbie 911 kirby for them to take my trash and dump it out on the sidewalk. That's ridiculous. If he did 912 something like that over in Rugby Valley, I don't think your explanation would be acceptable either Page 20 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 913 matter of fact I know it wouldn't. So, unless we change the policy up here in terms of how we 914 expect trash picked up, I expect it picked up the same way it's been picked up for years here in this 915 City. The other question I have is for Althea. How much of the 2.3 million ARPA funds do we 916 have left? 917 918 Ms. Philord-Bradley said we received 2.8 million and we're waiting on the remaining 2.8 million. 919 920 Councilman Carn said this is for another point, but I want to get a feel for what are all the allowable 921 expenses and do we have plans on what we are going to spend that on exactly. 922 923 Ms. Philord-Bradley said we were allowed to claim standard expenses. Basically what I am doing 924 is taking the Public Safety expenses salaries and netting them against the revenue we receive. The 925 funds would flow back into the general fund reserves to replace the general fund dollars lost over 926 the past three years. 927 928 Councilman Carn said okay. So, all that money is going towards Public Safety expenses? 929 930 Ms. Philord-Bradley said correct. 931 932 Councilman Carn said I’m assuming that's something y'all set up before I got here. I just want to 933 know what we're doing with that. Speaking of dedications and naming, City Manager where are 934 we with the dedication and naming of this building for Mayor Jack Longino? 935 936 Mr. Myers said as far as I know, I talked to the City Clerk because she was working on that because 937 she was ordering some plaques and I don't know where they were at. 938 939 Councilman Carn said I just say this, City Clerk I don't put any of this on you at all but it's funny 940 how if certain people don't want something to happen it somehow coincidentally will linger and 941 not happen eventually. That's something that we voted on and I expect to see it happen. The last 942 thing I had was that I'm not going to go anymore and further into that the millage rate thing. I 943 remember when the fund balance would be over 60% it felt pretty good when you went to bed at 944 night, and I hope we can get back to that level. I want us to look at making some changes in terms 945 of this city. I was on a website that didn't paint a pretty picture of College Park and I’ll leave it at 946 that. It's like the number one YouTube video about it and I’ll text everybody the link. I'd like to 947 see us consider making a lot of changes for our biggest problem issues. Three of them off from the 948 top of my head would be not so much our hotels but our motels and the quality and standards of 949 our motels. I think that's something that we can fix if we as a body can decide that we're going to 950 get it fixed and we're going to eliminate that type of level of service that’s unacceptable. I think 951 there needs to be a wholesale evaluation and reevaluation of how we approach our apartment 952 communities. I think that is a key to turning a lot of things around that would make this city a 953 whole lot better and put it in a lot better direction. There’re some things I want to talk about and 954 discuss that I’d like to put on a Workshop or two as soon as possible. When I got back into the 955 office I was given some data and she gave me a pie chart. It was a simple pie chart of all the crimes 956 in College Park from year to year. You wonder who gets the biggest slices of pie sometimes and 957 if you look at that chart, over 70% of that pie was Councilman Allen’s area. My area and Ward 4 958 were looking pretty good. My Ward has most of the apartment communities. I want us to Page 21 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022  959 Workshop and talk about some fixes and brainstorm around it with all these experts, department 960 heads, and City Managers. I think we can figure some things out and make some real changes that 961 are long overdue. I think we can do things better and we do better than most cities. Don't get me 962 wrong but at the end of the day from a state perspective, whether the statistics are fair or not, 963 they're the stats that we got. Like our property assessments is what we got, and we've put excuses 964 up for years about the reasons and I’m done with the excuses. I got a few ideas, I talked to council 965 members about a few ideas and y'all had a few ideas and I’m sure Mayor may have some ideas; 966 and I want us to put our heads together and figure out some ways we can make some major changes 967 in terms of the weaknesses that we have in this city. There are a lot of worse cities, but we can do 968 a whole lot better. 969 970 Councilman Allen said if you get together to talk about the apartments, the hotels, and so forth, I'll 971 be more than happy to sit down with you, Police and Fire, or whatever we need to do because I 972 think we need some work there as well. I don't know if anybody has been up to see the new art on 973 Clipper Drive with the Atlanta Airport with Gary Young's support. If you haven't seen it, you need 974 to go look at it. It's about 30 feet high, lighted up, and has a lot of flowers underneath. Thank you 975 Atlanta Airport for that. 976 977 A couple of things that came up at the last meeting, but I think it's worth mentioning again. First 978 is the pedestrian bridge and Congressman David Scott and all the other politicians that came out it 979 was a great affair, and this is something that the city needs. It's going to be very good for the city 980 and people coming to the airport to see it every day. Secondly, I've been up to Eden Fresh about 981 10 times since they have opened and if you haven't been up there, you need to go up there. The 982 food is great, and the deli stays packed but it's good for College Park. Lastly, I want to say a lot 983 of kids are back in school and crossing the streets. So, drive carefully drive, slow, and watch what 984 you're doing out there because there are a lot of kids rushing to get to school and not paying 985 attention. Drive safe out there. 986 987 Councilman Gay said I have a few things. The traffic on Lakeshore Drive with the school, it's a 988 situation that we got to try and help them find a permanent solution. It's tolerable but what has 989 come to our attention is that they're impeding the flow of traffic. We notice that the Fulton County 990 School bus can't get in front of the traffic line. 991 992 [Councilman Allen exited the chambers at 9:59 p.m.] 993 994 It's not a long period but a short period of time is impactful if there were an accident. I'm talking 995 with the Interim City Manager and he's putting thoughts into it, but we got to come up with a 996 solution because we can't legally allow them to impact to impede the flow of traffic. I believe that 997 if that was an accident and someone were to be injured or killed, I think the city would be liable 998 because they would say we allowed them to impede the flow of traffic. I did go there Sunday, I 999 walked the grounds and there's a baseball field directly behind the parking lot that could be a 1000 potential roundabout. I'm meeting with the Executive Director who replaced Virginia but that's 1001 one of the conversations that we need to look at. The second thing is the gym. You said that they're 1002 about to do a land disturbance but Mr. Myers we had talked about making that gym available to 1003 our Parks and Recreation. The last thing I heard was that there was a conversation, but no one 1004 followed up, so we are still looking to have a contract agreement for that gym? Page 22 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 1005 1006 Ms. Johnson said I've reached out to Mr. Malouf within the past month, and we were to schedule 1007 something, and I’ve also reached out to Winston to talk about getting an agreement ironed out 1008 before we can have some input on the entrance to that facility and use. After all, we need to plan 1009 for our activities because we utilize it. So absolutely we're working on trying to get something 1010 written. 1011 1012 [Councilman Allen returned at 10:01 p.m.] 1013 1014 Councilman Gay said I was told that the gym is important to our program. That was our building 1015 and we negotiated but we said whatever you guys want. I think in all fairness that there should be 1016 a conversation. I put it out there and it should have been something that already should have been 1017 resolved. 1018 1019 Ms. Johnson said Jackson and I did meet with them before that after the first discussion. I would 1020 like to have something in writing that gives us access because we've used it. I’ve looked back in 1021 the documentation it's since 1972 that we've had access to that facility for our programs after hours. 1022 1023 Councilman Gay said I had the pleasure of having brunch with the two black women board 1024 members, but they seem to be very amenable, I think you should start there with them. I think they 1025 have a great relationship with the other board members, so it shouldn't be a hard fix. 1026 1027 Ms. Johnson said okay, thank you. 1028 1029 Councilman Gay said if my son was on the news for burglary, everybody would talk about it, but 1030 my oldest son, if he can hear me, he's in New York and he was selected as one of 23 Global Media 1031 Leaders for 2023. We wanted him to be an investment banker, he said dad you know they commit 1032 suicide, the new money is in digital. I just want to thank my son Blake for representing College 1033 Park and representing himself in the community. I wish there was an opportunity that he could do 1034 more in the city where he was raised but that day has not yet come. 1035 1036 I was watching a church tv Sunday for Jamal Bryant and I got so jealous because he started talking 1037 about taking water down to Jackson, Mississippi. He was taking a tractor-trailer load of water. 1038 Many of you know that my wife is from Jackson, Mississippi, and her dad's an American hero, 1039 he's still living in Jackson and is one of the original white Freedom Riders. Now my daughter goes 1040 to Ole Miss. So, I got the thought, I said well if Jamal can take water and I’m elected official what 1041 can I do? So, I’ll be going to meet with U.S Congressman Benny Thompson and it'll be a 1042 conversation, but I’ve been extending that invitation. I wanted to put that out to the viewers that 1043 that's our way of trying to give back. 1044 1045 The other thing is that we have lots in our Ward that are not being maintained and the Interim City 1046 Managers and I have talked about it. I don't think it's fair to give residents tickets for not mowing 1047 their lawn and we have lots that we have not mowed at the entrance of our Ward on Herschel Road. 1048 When you come off Main Street which is formerly 29 both lots are unkempt. Now when Code 1049 Enforcement was with the Police we didn't have this problem but for six to seven months those Page 23 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 1050 lots are not being maintained. It doesn't look good. What I learned from the City Manager is that 1051 we can ticket the absent lot owners. Can you explain your course of action? 1052 1053 Mr. Myers said we can recoup our funds. 1054 1055 Councilman Gay said what we found out is that our finance office has not filed any liens. Is that 1056 correct that no liens can be found? 1057 1058 Mr. Myers said not in the last couple of years. 1059 1060 Councilman Gay said we can log on to file liens electronically. In other words, you discovered 1061 that's close to $100,000 of monies that have not been paid to the city for hiring contractors to mow 1062 those lots. My point is that we need to file those liens. One to recoup our money and two somehow 1063 some property owners will say I don't want a lien on my property so I’m going to mow my lot. 1064 That's what I think should be the process. 1065 1066 Mayor Motley Broom said I want to thank everybody who took the time to come out to my Town 1067 Hall and those who watched it online. I appreciated the opportunity to talk a little more in-depth 1068 about some of the issues that are going on in our city. I also want to remind everyone that students 1069 in 8th through 12th grade have until September 30th to sign up for our youth council. We are 1070 looking forward to launching that and making sure that we are developing the next generation of 1071 leaders in our city. Talking a little bit about In Her Hands because I think it is a very important 1072 program and I want to thank Councilmember Amir Farokhi, one of my classmates in college. He 1073 was on the board, and he reached out to me about a year ago about it and asked if College Park 1074 would want to be involved and I said absolutely. It has been a process and one that I’ve been 1075 talking with him about for over a year; I was very happy it turned into action and appreciate all his 1076 efforts to make it a possibility for our residents. 1077 1078 I also want to thank the good folks at Chick-Fil-A who took the time to give me a tour of their 1079 headquarters. It was phenomenal and I did have a magnificent peach milkshake. It was a great 1080 opportunity to connect with one of our larger corporate citizens and I look forward to doing more 1081 visits around the city. I also want to thank Wrap-A-Lot because they did a drive last week to supply 1082 water for a hundred families in Jackson, Mississippi. Wrap-A-Lot is on Godby Road they make 1083 great wraps and they’re great. They're great citizens that want to make sure that everyone is taken 1084 care of, so thanks to them for those efforts as well. 1085 1086 I want to talk a little bit about the millage rate issue because tonight we just put it out for 1087 advertisement. I don't want people to be confused about what’s happened this evening, but I would 1088 encourage everyone to come. We have three hearing dates. September 19th , October 3rd, and 1089 October 17th. I want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be heard on this particular 1090 issue. In the next three council meetings, people will have the opportunity to come to voice their 1091 questions about the proposed increase, and then at the October 17th meeting when the council 1092 determines the millage rate for the upcoming year. I just want to make sure that was clear as we 1093 move forward because there are a lot of discussions to be had, there are a lot of questions, and we 1094 must keep on having those dialogues and making sure that we are moving forward. 1095 Page 24 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022 1096 16. Executive Session. 1097 1098 17. Approval of Executive Session Minutes. 1099 1100 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve Executive Session minutes dated September 6, 1101 2022, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried. (All voted yes). 1102 1103 18. Adjournment. 1104 1105 Mayor Motley Broom adjourned the meeting at 10:10pm. 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 CITY OF COLLEGE PARK 1116 1117 _________________________ 1118 Bianca Motley Broom, Mayor 1119 1120 ATTEST: 1121 1122 1123 ________________________ 1124 Shavala Ames, City Clerk 1125 Page 25 of 25 Regular Session 09/06/2022