City Council

1 CITY OF COLLEGE PARK 2 MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL 3 REGULAR SESSION 4 SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 5 6 MINUTES 7 8 Present: Mayor Bianca Motley Broom; Councilmen Ambrose Clay, Joe Carn, Ken Allen, and Roderick 9 Gay; Interim City Manager Jackson Myers; City Attorney Winston Denmark; Deputy City Clerk Queenie 10 Brown 11 12 Absent: Shavala Ames, City Clerk 13 14 1. Opening Ceremonies beginning at 7:34 p.m. 15 16 A. Pledge of allegiance to the flag. 17 18 B. Invocation by Chaplin Dent. 19 20 2. Additions, Deletions, Amendments, Or Changes to The Agenda. 21 22 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to add 9b. Consideration of and action to adopt a proposal 23 of a 15% salary increase for sworn fire personnel, seconded by Councilman Carn 24 and motion carried. 25 26 3. Presentation Of Minutes of City Council. 27 28 A. Regular Session held on September 6, 2022. 29 30 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve the amended Regular Session Minutes dated 31 September 6, 2022, with corrections, seconded by Councilman Carn, and motion 32 carried: 33 34 Packet Page 25 line 943 - Clarification to Councilman Carn’s state about the 60% fund 35 balance 36 37 B. Work Session held on September 6, 2022. 38 39 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve the amended Workshop Session Minutes dated 40 September 6, 2022, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion carried. 41 42 4. Proclamations, Resolutions, Plaques, And Announcements. 43 44 5. Remarks Of Citizens. 45 46 a) Stephanie Jones of 1824 Cambridge Ave said, good evening, Mayor and esteemed Council. Page 1 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 47 I serve as the president of the College Park Women's Club and I'm here tonight to talk about 48 our 125th anniversary. You're probably aware of that but it's worth repeating 125 years of 49 service to the City of College Park. In honor of that momentous occasion, we are throwing 50 a birthday party and we would like to invite all citizens of College Park to join us. We are 51 going to have food, we're going to have a balloon artist, a face painter, music and lots of fun. 52 It's going to be this coming Saturday, September 24th from 3 to 5 p.m. at the home of the 53 College Park Women's Club which is Camellia Hall and that's 3413 Main Street. I just 54 wanted to encourage everybody to come out. We'd love to see you all there and celebrate 55 the length of service in serving this amazing community that continues today. So hope to 56 see you there, thank you very much. 57 58 b) Johnnie Williams of 2241 Lyle Road said, I'm back again about the taxes. I was told they 59 would pass, and they did not pass. You need to do more for the senior citizens in this 60 neighborhood. The other cities have that, and College Park should have it also. I want to 61 know why it didn't pass as it should have passed. I know you cannot answer me now, but 62 you need to do more for the seniors in this city. You have quite a few seniors over 75 in this 63 city and that should pass, that should be an important thing. You have to do more for the 64 elderly than what you're doing. So, I hope I don't have to come back again, and I hope it 65 won't take you too long to do this. 66 67 c) Larry Evans of 2112 West Princeton said, I like to greet you all tonight in the greetings of 68 peace and happiness. We like to give a presentation on behalf of the homecoming College 69 Park Committee: Charles Dowdell, Calvin Rainey, Deborah Broomhead-Woods, Timothy 70 Greer, Pamela Greer, and yours truly. We want to give thanks to you all for supporting our 71 homecoming reunion and special thanks to you Gay for your support. Mr. Carn, we had your 72 plate, but you never showed up. We have a little token of appreciation. We have shirts for 73 you guys. These are historic t-shirts that we have here and I like to give up a special thanks 74 to the city of the council for opening up a road from Camp Creek Parkway through the Old 75 Lottie Miller Homes where a majority of the original people of College Park are. The blacks 76 only had one place to live here in College Park at that time. They couldn't live on Rugby and 77 all the other places in College Park but we lived there. I see that you all are building Six 78 West there and for that street to run from Camp Creek Parkway to the Brady Center, I feel 79 very proud of that because the Brady Center is where we're planning to make that a historic 80 site for those of us who were placed out of our homes when the airport abatement program 81 came through back in the 1900’s and 1980’s. So, we give a special thanks to you all, and 82 hopefully, Six West doesn't cover Lottie Miller Homes because that was a black lady who 83 stood for us when we couldn't stand for ourselves. With that being said thank you all and we 84 look forward to seeing you all next year. Councilman Clay, you've got to be one of the 85 proudest councilmen to sit on the board here because two of the most historic sites in the 86 City of College Park, Georgia you reside over and that would be Woodward Academy and 87 the Brady Recreation Center. 88 89 d) [Read verbatim via Deputy City Clerk] Russel Gibbon said, I am a resident that lives on 90 White city Road (4439 White City Rd). I have a major concern about the speeding on White 91 City Road, cars come off of Janice Drive exiting onto White City Road at a high rate of 92 speed to exit at the end of road onto Roosevelt Highway. The speeding occurs in the morning Page 2 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022  93 and in the evening between the hours of 5pm and 7 PM. This has caused it very unsafe to 94 walk my dog in the evenings or in the mornings. I have spoken with my neighbors and they 95 share the same concern. Please consider this issue and let’s make this road safe for all that 96 live on it. SPEED BUMPS would help drivers reduce their speed as they travel on this road. 97 I’ve spoken with Councilman Gaye and he is doing an amazing job to see to that the Citizens 98 of fourth ward are heard and our needs/concerns are addressed. Sincerely yours, Russell 99 Gibbons. 100 101 e) [Read verbatim via Deputy City Clerk] Randy Godfrey, 1966 Lyle Ave said, distinguished 102 Council and Mayor: “Three groups spend other people’s money – children, thieves and 103 politicians. All three require supervision.” – Dick Armey. I’m writing to encourage your 104 prudent action regarding any alteration of our tax rate. Prior to increasing tax rates the city 105 must: Demonstrate that it’s making good use of the funds it currently receives - how are we 106 performing against the budget established this year? Where are the shortfalls? Demonstrate 107 the value of increasing funds – what benefit will citizens see with this increase? Explore 108 other ways to fund the value – e.g., can you sell the massive real-estate assets on city books 109 or consider privatizing the GICC which is bleeding money? Explore ways to cut costs in 110 other functions of the city (are there events or functions that don’t provide a return financial 111 or otherwise that benefits the city?) Where’s the waste? I’d also like to specifically address 112 an idea expressed by the council that any mileage rate increase should be offset by senior 113 citizen’s electricity bills. This is an absurd idea. This mixes apples and oranges. The 114 electric utility that the city runs is paid not by taxes but instead by electric rate payers. This 115 means that there are two separate buckets that should remain independent. Adding revenue 116 to one bucket and lowering the revenue to the other could would place our electric utility at 117 risk and would likely mean the need to raise electric rates. Make a great day! 118 119 f) [Read verbatim via Deputy City Clerk] Demetris Taylor said, Greetings Mayor and Council, 14-year 120 Resident of Embarcadero Club Apartments in Ward 2. I have had such an epiphany and it has 121 warranted some discussion and disclosure. Here's the question, what is the city's contingency plan 122 to recuperate the monies lost on the relocation of The former City Manager who only lasted 4 months 123 with The City? I am also hearing the former Assistant City Manager's CONTRACT WAS PAID 124 OFF as well, and he was here even less time. I'm not sure if that is a true statement about the Former 125 ACM, BUT IF IT IS what are we going to do recuperate especially when the heated discussions 126 between Mayor and Council have been about the possibility of raising Property Taxes??? Question2: 127 If the city is having such a hard time with finances, why are we spending monies to bring folks in to 128 RELOCATE to The City of College Park from OTHER STATES when we have qualified 129 individuals here IN THE CITY let alone THE STATE OF GEORGIA? Councilman Carne has 130 implicitly been asking for us to do better with our recruitment and hiring practices and YES I 131 understand that since we've been POST LOCK DOWN it has been rather difficult to get folks to 132 COME IN to work, BUT if we are having financial problems, WHY are we risking such a great loss 133 by hiring OUTSIDE OF THE STATE??? It would be nice if there were answers to these questions 134 that the citizens could HEAR or READ so that we can have the transparency that everyone keeps 135 saying we need. Thank you for your time and careful consideration 136 137 g) Michael Moore of 2320 Rugby Ave said, good evening my name is Michael Moore I live at 138 2320 Rugby Avenue for those of you who know me, you know that I've been involved with 139 College Park for 11 years with Club E. Madam Mayor, distinguished Council people and 140 others in the audience tonight. I come to you tonight on behalf of the recently resolved Page 3 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 141 resolution or presented a resolution by The Fulton County Commissioners regarding the 142 one-million-dollar allocation for tiny homes/micro homes/affordable living to be provided 143 somewhere in the South Metro Area, i.e. South Fulton and College Park. I would encourage 144 you this evening when you later discuss that matter as you realize and recognize that the 145 ability to provide affordable housing to those in need, as well as to enhance our community 146 to show something to the people in Georgia as well as show to the people in the southeastern 147 United States, how you can properly administer micro living-tiny homes or whatever you 148 wish to call them, to be a highly effective way to provide homes for people who cannot 149 normally afford nor qualify for homes but also would encourage you as in a 12-year involved 150 person with micro-living that you need to be very careful. As a new resident of College Park 151 and a 47-year resident of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, as well as a veteran it becomes very 152 important and very important that you consider the long-term impact as well as the short- 153 term popularity of doing something a little different. Being a leader in your community and 154 a leader in the metropolitan Atlanta area. I'm Michael Moore, I'm here in your neighborhood 155 and I would love to help anyone who's concerned interested or wishes to be educated in the 156 world of micro-living tiny homes or appropriately providing livable processes to allow a 157 family to grow regardless of their size. Whether it's one, two, three, or four people, they can 158 live with under 500 to 700 square feet of space affordably. Thank you. 159 160 6. Other Business 161 162 A. Consideration of and action to on a request to adopt Resolution 2022-28 College Park 163 Hazard Mitigation Plan. 164 165 Mayor Motley Broom said Chief I've got one question for you. How do we have more households 166 than people in this Hazard Mitigation Plan. It says we have 13,930 people which is what the 2020 167 census said but then we have the 20-something thousand households. 168 169 Fire Chief Wade Elmore said I will have an answer to that. Tonight, we just want to ask for Mayor 170 and Council's approval to adopt the Hazard Mitigation Plan. It's the federal Hazard Mitigation Plan 171 that has been adopted by FEMA and this will allow the city to apply for reimbursements in case there 172 are emergencies, disasters, flooding, tornadoes, and spending funds on equipment or personnel as far 173 as overtime to work extra. We will be able to get reimbursements from that. 174 175 Councilman Clay said did we make the correction that I found on packet page 70 line 38. Where it 176 says hereby adopts not adapts but adopts? 177 178 Fire Chief Elmore said yes. I got an email from Shavala over the weekend and said she was going to 179 correct it. 180 181 Councilman Allen said I think it was a great package that you put together. I don't know who was 182 involved in working on it from your team, but they put a lot of work into it and a lot of good 183 information. 184 185 Fire Chief Elmore said I'd like to give extra credit to Andrea Smalls. 186 Page 4 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 187 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Fire Chief Wade Elmore to adopt 188 Resolution 2022-28 College Park Hazard Mitigation Plan, seconded by Councilman 189 Clay and motion carried. 190 191 B. Consideration of and action on a request to adopt a funding resolution to be included in 192 submission to Georgia Department of Nature Resources Outdoor Stewardship Program 193 grant in October. 194 195 Community Administrator Tasha Hall-Garrison said good evening, Mayor and Council. We are 196 seeking to submit an application to DNR for the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program. It is 2.5 197 million that's being requested. This is a new grant that is available for the second year that has been 198 established. As far as the grant, it would be awarded in the summer of 2023 and if awarded it would 199 need to be spent before 2025 so it would not be within this budget cycle but could be budgeted for 200 the future if received. 201 202 Councilman Clay said the question I had was how would it impact the budget, and the only comment 203 I received was this isn't in the fiscal 2024 budget. This would hit the fiscal 2024 budget, but it is not 204 in this fiscal 2024 budget and it's to the tune of 600,000. 205 206 Ms. Hall-Garrison said that doesn't take into account the in-kind costs of contractors which will be 207 subtracted. I placed the name of the company in the packet, but I did receive confirmation as of 208 Friday that they are providing $150,000 towards our match as well. 209 210 Councilman Clay said which is really good news, but the point I want to make is that we looked at 211 the capital plan projections for five years, in the out years, it did not include this for example, and 212 there are other things that it will not have included. So, when we have a discussion about raising the 213 millage rate and we have to consider that everything isn't defined, it never is and it never has been. 214 I’m using this example to prove my point that we do need to increase the millage rate. That’s all I 215 had. 216 217 Councilman Carn said this was the redevelopment of the creating the park between us and East Point. 218 I remember it being shared with East Point. 219 220 Ms. Hall-Garrison said there are 7.47 acres. It is a sliver of the property that's divided by a small 221 stream and that sliver is owned by East Point, but we would seek to have an intergovernmental 222 agreement with East Point regarding that portion of the property. 223 224 Councilman Carn said so the vast majority of this would be owned by the City of College, correct. 225 Upwards of 90% or more? 226 227 Ms. Hall-Garrison said correct. 228 229 Councilman Carn said $638,000, and the $150,000 towards the match-- 230 231 Ms. Hall-Garrison said we're requesting 2.5 million. We're asking for the full development of the Page 5 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 232 park. We are unsure at this point as we do have two phases to go through before approval, if received. 233 We're asking for the full amount from DNR which may not be granted but we wanted to go for the 234 big bucks. 235 236 Councilman Carn said we could possibly get the 2.5 million for the full cost. Do we get the $638,000 237 back? 238 239 Ms. Hall-Garrison said how it's done is similar to the Brownsfield in which the city pays and then 240 they would be reimbursed through DNR for the 80% of the costs associated with the grant. 241 242 Councilman Carn said is that yes, or no? 243 244 Ms. Hall-Garrison said no, we would pay the $638,000 so that we can get 2.5 million. 245 246 Councilman Carn said so you're asking us to approve the $638,000 now on the chance that we may 247 get the 2.5 million. We don't get the 2.5 million if we don't pay the $638,000. The $150,000 248 towards the match from the other outfit we get is contingent upon if Georgia gives us the 2.5 249 million. I want to make sure that's clear because this last page here is impossible to read without 250 a magnifier. City Manager, remind folks when they put stuff in the packet to make sure 251 everything in the packet is large enough to read. Proving this again, if we get the 2.5 million would 252 we have to pay this 638? 253 254 Ms. Hall-Garrison said yes sir. 255 256 Councilman Allen said as you know I've been a fan of this Finding the Flint forever and it’s a great 257 project. A lot of people have done a lot of work. It's nice to see a nature reserve come into College 258 Park and it's nice that there'll be paths for seniors to walk around in the area. It’s too many good 259 things about it, so thank you, your team, and everybody involved. 260 261 Councilman Gay said I've been around enough grants to know that if you apply for a grant, you're 262 telling them that we're going to match the $637,000. This is to my colleagues, you don't write a 263 grant and tell them that you're going to match it and then you awarded it. Essentially, you’re 264 agreeing to pay 637,000. Here's the thing, we spent six months to defeat a $180,000 bill for 265 seniors, and with three sheets of paper, we're gonna vote for $638,000 and then congratulate you. 266 Here's why we have a fundamental difference in this organization. I'm talking to the people that 267 are seeing me on the other side of that camera. Nobody is more of a conservationist than me. You 268 got Camp Truitt that's been over there for 20 years and nobody on this body care about conserving 269 it but all of a sudden, it's the greatest thing since cornbread to spend $500,000. We have a 270 fundamental difference and it's time that the people in this community start coming to these council 271 meetings and talking up. 272 273 Councilman Carn said I have a question. I saw the site plan and it looks like a nice area. How long 274 before we know something? 275 276 Ms. Hall-Garrison said we will find out in summer 2023. 277 Mr. Myers said we would like to have an opportunity to figure out where and make sure we've got the funding for future years. The Finance Director said that she did not get an opportunity to look at Page 6 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 278 where the funding was coming from and if we could put this off to reconsider this. 279 280 Mayor Motley Broom said Ms. Philord-Bradley, did you want to add anything. 281 282 Director of Finance and Accounting Althea Philord-Bradley said I wasn't on the approval tree so I 283 didn't have the opportunity to review this agenda item. As far as the $638,000, I'm not aware of where 284 it would come from because normally it would come from General Fund reserves because we don't 285 have the funding for it. 286 287 Councilman Clay said so you're agreeing with what I said earlier. It’s another justification for doing 288 a millage rate increase. As we know, we could have gone for a three mill increase and been more 289 comfortable. Is that what you're trying to say? 290 291 Ms. Philord-Bradley said this is a one-time expense. Normally with the Capital Funds, you would 292 use a one-time revenue. I wouldn't say to increase taxes for this one item unless it was an ongoing 293 expense. 294 295 Mayor Motley Broom said Ms. Philord-Bradley, have you had an opportunity to review. 296 297 Ms. Philord-Bradley said no. 298 299 Mayor Motley Broom said would you like an opportunity to review it. 300 301 Ms. Philord-Bradley said yes. 302 303 Mayor Motley Broom said is there a motion to move this discussion to the next meeting? 304 305 Councilman Clay said I motion to approve it at this meeting. 306 307 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Community Development 308 Administrator Tasha Hall-Garrison to adopt a funding resolution to be included in 309 submission to the GA Department of Nature Recourses' Georgia Outdoor Stewardship 310 Program grant, motion died for a lack of a second. 311 312 Councilman Allen said I motion to move this item to the next meeting. 313 314 Councilman Carn said I second with discussion. 315 316 Mayor Motley Broom said go right ahead. 317 318 Councilman Carn said I was saying that I'm fine with voting it up or down. My question was, how 319 did something with that big of a number attached to it not get looked at by the Finance Director? 320 321 Ms. Hall-Garrison said as far as the approval tree and I will take responsibility as this is my first time 322 needing to have a funding resolution along with a grant application. So once again this grant is not 323 going to even be provided or given until the summer of 2023. This grant comes from DNR. There Page 7 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 324 was a special sales tax added to any outdoor recreation. They want to ensure that whoever receives 325 these funds will be able to utilize and provide a tangible product by the end of the two years. We are 326 only needing this funding resolution as part of that application which would allow us time to review 327 the future budgets for both terms and to be able to allocate potential funding. Once again, we are 328 only asking for 2.5 million. It does not mean that we will receive it all nor do we have to spend it all 329 as well. As I was stating to Ms. Philord-Bradley, if we do receive it and she finds that we do not have 330 the funds, we can then deny that application and allow them to select another person. 331 332 Councilman Carn said here's the thing, I understand it. Jackson, I understand you're temporary and 333 you didn't ask for this, but I don't always look at the review, but let's make sure that doesn't happen 334 again. I'm assuming we're not chronically missing stuff like that where somebody didn't get their 335 eyes on it. Councilman Clay, I was fine voting it up or down now. I wanted to have a little bit of 336 discussion and I was fine with it if I was able to have the discussion. We got to be able to discuss 337 stuff, ask questions, and talk in terms of things not being too restrictive here. 338 339 Councilman Gay said I've done procurements and grants all my adult life. You cannot possibly say 340 that the city or any municipality is gonna go after a grant and tell them, we got it, but we're not going 341 to give you the money because we don't have to vote. In other words, when you submit these grants, 342 you're telling them that you're going to fund the match, it's not in case we don't get it. You're putting 343 our city in a position where we're going to give them this money. We had a three-month budget 344 process and none of these things came through that process. What is the point of having the budget 345 process? We couldn't even get $10,000 for a camera for crime but you got $600,000 and we ain't 346 even looked at how we can pay for it. We got to be better stewards of the public's money. 347 348 ACTION: Councilman Allen moved to defer a request from Community Development 349 Administrator Tasha Hall-Garrison to adopt a funding resolution to be included in 350 submission to the GA Department of Nature Recourses' Georgia Outdoor Stewardship 351 Program grant until the next Regular Session of Mayor and Council to be held on 352 October 3, 2022, seconded by Councilman Carn; Councilman Clay, Carn and Gay 353 opposed, Mayor Motley Broom opposed, motion failed. 354 355 Councilman Carn said somebody could make a modified motion of some sort. 356 357 Councilman Clay said I already had my shot at it. 358 359 Councilman Carn said and you would’ve gotten your shot-- 360 361 Mayor Motley Broom said Councilman Clay would you like to restate that motion? 362 363 ACTION: Councilman Clay move to approve a request from Community Development 364 Administrator Tasha Hall-Garrison to adopt a funding resolution to be included in 365 submission to the GA Department of Nature Recourses' Georgia Outdoor Stewardship 366 Program grant with proviso to look for additional funding for the match, motion died 367 for a lack of a second. 368 369 Councilman Carn said if we can get it reviewed, I motion that we put it on the next agenda. Page 8 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 370 371 Councilman Gay said unless I'm wrong I didn't know we could legally keep making the same motion. 372 373 Mayor Motley Broom said I'm the chair and the motions are different. 374 375 Councilman Gay said my mother taught me how to read and write. These motions sound similar. Are 376 we allowed to keep making the same motions? 377 378 Mayor Motley Broom said Councilman— 379 380 Councilman Gay said -- I’m talking to the lawyer. That’s what we pay him for! Speak sir! You 381 moderate-- 382 383 [Mayor Motley Broom hits gavel] 384 385 Mayor Motley Broom said Councilman you are out of order. Please lower your voice. 386 387 Councilman Gay said we are talking to the lawyer. Go head Winston. 388 389 Mayor Motley Broom said Mr. Denmark, hold on. You need to address me, and I will address Mr. 390 Denmark. Please keep your voice at a level that does not rise to yelling. Mr. Denmark, please answer 391 Councilman Gay’s question. 392 393 City Attorney Winston Denmark said as I heard the motions; there were two motions by Councilman 394 Clay, one motion by Councilman Allen and one motion by Councilman Carn and they were not 395 identical motions. Councilman Gay, you would be correct that we cannot make the same motion 396 again and again until something changes, no we cannot do that. However, each motion of the four 397 was different. 398 399 Councilman Gay said can you clarify for me how the second motion differs from the other? 400 401 Mayor Motley Broom said Councilman Gay, I said it once, please address me. 402 403 ACTION: Councilman Carn moved to defer a request from Community Development Tasha 404 Hall-Garrison to adopt a funding resolution to be included in submission to the GA 405 Department of Nature Recourses' Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program grant until 406 the next Regular Session of Mayor and Council to be held on October 3, 2022 for 407 Finance Director Althea Philord-Bradley has reviewed the request, seconded by 408 Councilman Allen. Councilman Clay, Carn, and Allen votes yes; Councilman Gay 409 opposed, and motion carried. 410 411 [Councilman Gay left council chambers at 8:30 p.m.] 412 [Councilman Gay returned at 8:31 p.m.] 413 414 7. Bids, Change Order Requests and Contracts. Page 9 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 415 416 A. Consideration and Guidance of Fulton County Tiny Homes Intergovernmental Agreement. 417 418 419 [Councilman Gay left council chambers at 8:32 p.m.] 420 421 Mr. Myers said from my understanding that Fulton County had called me and told me to give you 422 some information about putting tiny homes into College Park. I also noticed it the newspaper they 423 talked about the South Fulton area as well. Then a resolution came down from Fulton County, so we 424 need to come up with an agreement to have an intergovernmental agreement between College Park 425 and Fulton County. We also need to have an agreement with Business Industrial Development 426 Authority. We're talking to identify property for tiny homes. We also need to discuss with our City 427 Planner to make sure that we have to change our ordinances to be able to accommodate that but it's 428 up to this body how we want to move forward on this. 429 430 Councilman Clay said I think that we should move forward. It's an opportunity for affordable housing 431 which we desperately need in the city. I sent some information to Jackson with some of the concerns 432 that I had. One of them is, if Fulton County is looking for us to partner with them by donating some 433 property to this enterprise, then I would want to look at the conditions under which the property is 434 handled. In other words, is it an outright gift, a 50-year lease, or a hundred-year lease? I think the 435 concept is great, it's the devil in the details, like anything else, which would get worked out in this 436 agreement. 437 438 Mr. Myers said from my understanding they are going to assign a project manager to this program 439 and then we'll work through those concerns that you're talking about. I didn't want to move forward 440 with this without making sure this body voted to continue working with Fulton County and spending 441 our time with this. 442 443 Councilman Clay said if that’s all you want, I will make a motion that we move forward with the 444 process with the County. 445 446 Councilman Carn said I second with discussion. 447 448 Councilman Carn said I know we talked about this before I think it's a good opportunity. When 449 Fulton County have these pilot programs coming from a national level, they have a choice of 15 450 cities to put something like this in terms of the pilot in terms of free funding and opportunities for 451 cities. I want that to remain in College Park if possible. When I heard about it, I told you about it and 452 I had an area in mind but Jackson talked to me about another area that he had in mind. When I thought 453 about it, it did sound like a better area. 454 455 Mr. Myers said back in 2005, when I first came here we talked about the Princeton Village, and he 456 talked about some property that’s down there by the FAA building across from the ponds that's not 457 part of the airport noise. It's a hodgepodge down through Princeton where of it you can and can't put 458 residential in. I thought that would be close to the MARTA station to be able to ride up and down to 459 Atlanta shopping and it's also close to our downtown area. I thought that would be a good place if 460 we could find a space in there to put those tiny homes. Page 10 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 461 462 Councilman Carn said Ken, not that I don't like your area. I had another area in mind and but when 463 he went through the particulars, I did I went over there, and I took a look. I had to admit that area 464 he's talking about, the little piece of property that we own is a thousand feet from there to the MARTA 465 station. That was a much better area. 466 467 Councilman Allen said I think that's where I am. I'd like to see which property you're talking about 468 but I think the questions we're going to deed the property to them they're going to build on it. Is that 469 correct? Who sells it? We want to make sure there are no rentals. There's a lot of ‘t’ that needs to be 470 crossed and a lot of ‘i’ that needs to be dotted. 471 472 Councilman Gay said Jackson, I would like for you to have a conversation with the gentleman that 473 came up and see what kind of value he can offer us. 474 475 476 Mayor Motley Broom said how does this align with our Comprehensive Plan? 477 478 Mr. Myers said it's not in our Comp Plan, not these tiny homes. 479 480 Mayor Motley Broom said no, the area that you were thinking about. What does it look like in our 481 comp plan? 482 483 Mr. Myers said it was a single-family residence that was down through there and of course we're 484 about to rezone that parcel of land that we want to utilize. It was the only one that I could think to 485 take a bite out of. I didn't want to put them in the middle or over there in Six West. There were too 486 many questions and not enough answers. The City Planners and I want to wait till we meet with 487 Fulton County and their project manager. 488 489 Councilman Carn said my understanding is that if we grant them the property, they build the houses 490 and they deed them back to us. We can decide on financing. The thought in the back of my head was 491 something along the lines of city employees or seniors. One other thing I do want to mention because 492 I saw one of these developments in Clarkston. What they had was a pocket neighborhood of eight or 493 nine houses and they said it would be something like that. They had a community garden there in the 494 middle of the enclave and it was a u-shape. The community garden piece, I'd like to do that with 495 ours. 496 497 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Interim City Manager Jackson 498 Myers to continue discussions with Fulton County to enter into an Intergovernmental 499 Agreement for the purpose of Tiny Homes, seconded by Councilman Carn and motion 500 carried by those present. 501 502 B. Consideration of an action on a request for approval of CCTV SLA Netplanners renewal 503 support for CCTV cameras in the amount of $14,000.00. 504 505 Councilman Clay said I had only one question. How many hours of support are included in the 506 current contract and how does this additional contract differ from that because the cost went up? Page 11 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 507 508 Chief Information Officer Michael Hicks said it did. It went up because I mandated that they put 509 some hours into this new contract which wasn't in the previous one. I've got to have some hours to 510 help AJ out in the event of a weekend. 511 512 [Councilman Gay returned at 8:37 p.m.] 513 514 Councilman Carn said how many cameras does this get us or is this the support? 515 516 Mr. Hicks said supports the system we currently have. 517 518 Councilman Carn said it's compatible with the other ones. 519 520 Mr. Hicks said yes sir. 521 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Chief Information Officer Michael 522 Hicks for the approval of CCTV SLA Netplanners renewal support for CCTV 523 cameras in the amount of $14,000.00, seconded by Councilman Clay and motion 524 carried. (All voted yes). 525 526 8. Unfinished (Old) Business. 527 528 A. Consideration of and action for approval of Statement of Work and Outage Management 529 System (OMS) with NorthStar Utilities Solutions from Power Director Hugh Richardson 530 for the amount of $167,217 which includes the 1st year maintenance and fees of $22,300. 531 532 Director of Power Hugh Richardson said evening Mayor and Council. This is a technology I've been 533 looking at for several years, I keep pushing it out. It's a technology that most of your progressive 534 utilities have. We had it 20 years ago although it was a little different technology at the end. This 535 technology will take our advanced meter information during outages and apply it to reports. This is 536 what I call internal use. It will record power outages via the advanced meter notification in generating 537 reports and classify the cause of this outage. We’ll probably classify our outages into eight different 538 categories: weather, equipment, fire, limbs, lightning, vehicle, and things like that. Then at the end 539 of each year, we can track our average outage per event and citizen to determine if there needs to be 540 any more preventive maintenance to improve. In the next slide, I mainly want to show you all our 541 external use. That is for our citizens to be able to track and keep up with the power outages and the 542 restoration time. 543 544 This is the app that they would see once they register, and it personalizes them where they are at. It 545 says, we're aware of our problem. Then the next page is what we call a public outage map which they 546 can see if there are outages in the area. The next page is another app that shows where we can give 547 the estimated restore time, but we can also keep updating it to get more accurate as we're working 548 on the outage. They can also report an outage and it also will let them know how many accounts are 549 affected. The next page shows what we see which is a little bit more detailed information on the 550 outage. It can also provide this detail to the citizens but typically utilities have gotten away from that 551 because it shows too much detail of whose power's out and that might become a security risk. In the Page 12 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 552 next few pages, I have some examples of some cities Griffin, and Albany. It's a lot of quick 553 information but it's something we need. 554 555 Councilman Clay said I have all my questions answered, it makes sense as it’ll be beneficial to our 556 citizens. 557 558 Councilman Carn said Hugh, I'm not really against it. I wouldn't call it useless technology per se 559 because some would be interested in using it. If the lights go out, they're gonna call the non- 560 emergency line. At times like this, I have to ask myself, are our residents that are renting, are they 561 gonna use this? Is there a lower-tiered version of this thing? 562 563 Mr. Richardson said this is it. We left out the RDI part that if they call in, it’ll call them back. This 564 is the bottom line of it. 565 566 Councilman Carn said this is something I would have to attach to if we’re giving the residents a 10% 567 discount. I wouldn’t spend my money if we weren’t doing the discount, but that’s me. 568 569 Councilman Allen said I think this is a tool that a lot of people could use. If someone's power is out, 570 they call up the street to ask if their power is off. Now, they can go online and get the information 571 and estimate the time it could be fixed. 572 573 Councilman Gay said how accurate is this data. 574 575 Mr. Richardson said it pretty accurate. I get a meter email for every meter that goes out and when it 576 comes back on. So, they'll be using that information. 577 578 Councilman Gay said I meant the homeowner's data. How accurate would the data be to each 579 homeowner’s meter? 580 581 Mr. Richardson said it should be 100%. 582 583 Councilman Gay who are they calling? 584 585 Mr. Richardson said no, this is not an IVR system. They'll have to access this via an app or a web 586 page. 587 588 Councilman Carn said if we spend this $176,000, it's not bad technology, and it's not the worst idea 589 I ever heard come up here. They're going to ask me, how is spending this money gonna get my lights 590 turned on any faster? 591 592 Mr. Richardson said it's better information for our citizens. It's not going to speed up the power 593 restoration process because we already know where the power was out. 594 595 Mayor Motley Broom said I had the opportunity to talk with Mayor Holdberg from Griffin about 596 their use of this system and he was very happy with it because a lot of times when the power goes 597 out, folks go to Facebook first to see if anyone else’s power’s out. I think with iNotify, it has been Page 13 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 598 somewhat of a culture change, and we've had to keep on reinforcing that we want people to report 599 things in a certain method. There's been an adoption of that, and I think that this kind of information 600 is very useful for folks to recognize either it's out entirely on my block or I'm alone. We'll probably 601 help our 911 operators to not get as many calls as others who may reach out to after-hours numbers. 602 This is a budgeted item and something that was planned for in the budget. 603 604 Councilman Carn said I’d like to offer a friendly amendment to add the senior discount on the electric 605 rates for seniors 65 and over at an additional 10% discount. 606 607 Councilman Clay said I'm not amending my motion. Let's vote on the motion and see what happens. 608 I support what Joe says I just don't think these two things need to be coupled together. 609 610 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Power Director Hugh Richardson 611 of Statement of Work and Outage Management System (OMS) with Northstar 612 Utilities Solutions for the amount of $167,217 which includes the 1st year 613 maintenance and fees of $22,300, seconded by Councilman Allen, Councilman Carn 614 opposed and motion carried. 615 616 9. New Business. 617 618 A. Consideration of and action on a request for approval to pay Cardno for College Park 619 Golf Course Brownfield Clean Up invoice in the amount of $10,942.42. 620 621 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve a request from Community Development 622 Administrator Tasha Hall-Garrison to pay Cardno for College Park Golf Course 623 Brownfield Clean Up invoice in the amount of $10,942.42, seconded by Councilman 624 Carn and motion carried. (All voted yes). 625 626 B. Consideration and action of a 15% increase for sworn fire personnel. 627 628 Councilman Carn said this does include the Fire Chief, is that correct? 629 630 Mr. Myers said yes, sworn officers. 631 632 Councilman Carn said Chief, do we have the Deputy Chief position or is it vacant? 633 634 Fire Chief Elmore said it’s in NEOgov waiting to be approved by either the City Manager or 635 Finance Director. 636 637 Councilman Carn said Althea is the Deputy Chief position budgeted. 638 639 Ms. Philord-Bradley said yes, it is. 640 641 Councilman Carn said I'm assuming it includes this position if it's filled. 642 643 Mr. Myers said yes. Page 14 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 644 645 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request to adopt a 15% salary increase for sworn 646 fire personnel, seconded by Councilman Clay and motion carried. (All voted yes). 647 648 C. Consideration of and action on a request for approval of a one-time incentive 649 bonus for City employees. 650 651 Director of Human Resources & Risk Management Dr. Dwight Baker said this item is to 652 request a one-time bonus for all city employees. $1,500 for full-time employees and $750 for 653 part-time employees. 654 655 Councilman Clay said I think it's something we should and want to do. I'm happy. 656 657 Councilman Carn said when does staff see this, before the end of the year? 658 659 Dr. Baker said yes. The plan is to distribute the checks on December 14th at the holiday 660 luncheon. 661 662 Councilman Clay said this will be for all staff as of what date. 663 664 Dr. Baker said they have to be on board prior to November 1st. 665 666 Councilman Carn said do you anticipate folks coming on board before that date. 667 668 Dr. Baker said we have two more orientations scheduled. 669 670 ACTION: Councilman Gay moved to approve a request from Director of Human 671 Resources & Risk Management Dr. Dwight Baker for approval of a one-time 672 incentive bonus for city employees, seconded by Councilman Clay and motion 673 carried. (All voted yes). 674 675 10. City Attorney’s Report. 676 None. 677 678 11. City Manager’s Report. 679 680 Interim City Manager Jackson Myers said I just wanted to brag a little bit. We've been working very 681 hard with EPD and we passed the sanitary sewer. They were here earlier this week. The Public Works 682 Director worked hard. We've worked with Melissa and they came down here and the only thing we've 683 got is to buy some paint for one of our lift stations. We still have the fuel suppliers we get for $2.39 684 a gallon for fuel and $2.51 for diesel, which is a great deal. Also, 3907 Main Street finally got their 685 building permits ready and we're waiting for them to pay us $11,169 to get started down there but 686 we're all clear to go. Another thing is the 3400 West John Wesley Corner Grill wants to do a blacktop 687 parking lot back there. We're working on some storm drains so those are the happy thoughts. I have 688 seen an email come out today about the Gateway Complex and we're going to try and have a meeting 689 to see what we can do about activities that are going on out there at the complex. I talked to Page 15 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 690 Woodward Academy and they told me today that they're happy that nothing's happened there in three 691 years without getting into detail. 692 693 12. Report Of Mayor and Council. 694 695 Councilman Clay said I'd like to make sure that we move forward as soon as possible to get the 696 second monitor up in the Public Safety community room. It was out when I had my ward meeting 697 about a month ago and I'm looking forward to October when I have my next ward meeting to it being 698 fully functional. It shouldn't take two months to get that monitor working. I'm sure that other people 699 would like to be using it for their meetings outside of just me. 700 701 Councilman Carn said IT I know I talked about my camera at the corner of Frontage Road, I'm hoping 702 that's in progress. I want to talk to you about something I found the potential pot of money in terms 703 of public funding that we could get our hands on if we can work a little clerical magic. I talked with 704 Althea and I want us to see if we can figure something out to be able to get it. A couple of things, I 705 just wanted to kind of touch on. I look around this city and we probably have vehicles that drive 706 around this city dozens of times every day. Not just Police, Public Works, Fire, Power or utilities 707 and whatever have you. There are a few things that I see that are probably painfully obvious to 708 everybody else that drives around this city. I'll give you one example. There's a sign at the front of 709 the RaceTrac gas station on Camp Creek, the sign has been knocked down and bent over to this 710 degree from the ground for over a month. There's absolutely no way that everybody driving in this 711 city, in the terms of staff, hadn't seen that sign down. There are other things along those lines that I 712 see that for one reason or another are not getting done. I know everybody has a lot on their plate. 713 Well, this is a city and you're going to have a lot on your plate but there's no way that other cities for 714 something like that would be down for that long and in that high profile of an area along the biggest 715 corridor that we have. City Manager, I know there's a lot on you, and this is not on you because I 716 know you didn't ask for this but we kind of recruited you into this. But, at the same time, I'm just 717 expecting better. I'm expecting that type of stuff to be taken care of. So, I want us to try to do better 718 there. I saw Saturday around 2:00 the GICC parking lot was completely packed and there was a line 719 coming out of Camp Creek Parkway. There was a line at the entrance spilling out into Camp Creek 720 Parkway and that's always a good thing for us because that means we're packing them in. I didn't 721 know what was going on because I know they had the reptile thing, but I know it wasn't for that. 722 723 Director of the Georgia International Convention Center & Gateway Arena Mercedes Miller said 724 good afternoon. We had KICKCHELLA which is a shoe show. This is the second tennis shoe show, 725 we had about 800 people in one day and then the reptile show had about 7,000 people per day for 726 two days. Then we had our breakfast over in the ballroom. We're getting ready for Chick-fil-A for 727 the month of October. 728 729 Councilman Carn said it was full. I was glad to see that I did go by the reptile show and that was 730 interesting. I have never seen that many snakes, bugs, and the whole nine. Are you sure none of them 731 got loose in there, right? 732 733 Ms. Miller said if they did, they did. 734 735 Councilman Carn said Mercedes, I think you're doing a great job over there. We're doing well in Page 16 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 736 some aspects but we can do a whole lot better in others. I just want us to keep our eye on the ball and 737 keep our eyes open when we see obvious stuff. Let's go in and get it fixed so we're looking better out 738 here. 739 740 Councilman Allen said I just have a couple of things. I'd like to note again the Women's Club, 741 Saturday the 24th from 3-5. 125 years, that's fantastic and it's a celebration well deserved, so 742 everybody show up. Also, everybody show up at Eden Fresh, that place is fantastic. Anne's done a 743 good job and we don't need for it to slack off. The last thing, the Trunk-or-Treat is at the Tracey 744 Wyatt Center? The Police will do a fantastic job on October 28 and we have plenty of time before 745 then to mention it again. I want to echo in on what Councilman Carn said, Mercedes, your team at 746 the golf course, GICC, and the Arena are exceeding the expectation. Thank you very much and thank 747 your team. 748 749 Councilman Gay said I have a few things. I want to thank GDOT for paving Old National, they 750 started from Hershel Road and went all the way up. When the group was up here talking about the 751 road that we're putting in, the previous council pledged to pay homage to Lottie Miller and to that 752 community that lost their homes due to eminent domain. We're talking about naming that road Lottie 753 Miller which will require some discussion, but it was a pledge from the previous council. The other 754 thing, City Manager, we had asked for three speed humps: Greenspring, Colonial, and White City 755 Road. We need to coordinate that with Public Works but those residents have continued to call me. 756 In 1986, I learned Robert's Rule of Order and in 1994 I graduated with a master's from DePaul 757 University. For 8 years, I've been on council we had been able to speak to y'all. So, for me to be 758 spoken to like a child to stop talking, I find offense to that. I'm sure that my 2,000 eligible voters in 759 Ward 4 are as well. They respect me and the leadership that I give them. I hope that my voters 760 understand that we as a community cannot take the disrespect in these budgets and conversations. 761 Thanks to Chief Elmore, Major Patterson, and Major Ward. We went out to the Main Street Academy 762 for a great meeting. We had a meeting with the new leader and he's the best thing that could've 763 happened for the school. We came up with a workable way to minimize the traffic. We're going to 764 keep the conversation going. Thank you, Jackson, for sending over the City Engineer. Hopefully, we 765 can get a resolution over on Lakeshore Drive. 766 767 Mayor Motley Broom said I want to start by apologizing to you (Councilman Gay) because I held 768 you to a standard that we typically do not hold, although Robert’s Rule does align with that. That 769 was unfair and it was not something that needed to happen. We all have an opportunity to maintain 770 decorum and we all share a role in that. My sincere apology to you sir and we’ll keep moving forward. 771 772 I want to thank Courtney Smith, Miss Georgia Teen USA for stopping by. Councilman Allen and I 773 had an opportunity to meet her. She's competing in the Miss Teen USA on October 1st and came by 774 to see College Park and learn more about our community. She is visiting other cities throughout the 775 state and has the opportunity to take over the Instagram of the Teen USA program. She's going to 776 show a bit about our city and we wish her the best of luck in the coming weeks when she competes. 777 I was pleased to join the Senior Social today, thank you Ms. Hall-Garrison, and everyone in the 778 Recreation and Cultural Arts Department for setting up that opportunity. It was great to see the 779 seniors today and interact with them, although briefly. I did have the opportunity, the week before 780 last to spend time with the Georgia Municipal Association Board of Directors. We had conversations 781 about the type of things we would be seeing in the upcoming session of the Georgia legislature. I Page 17 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022 782 want to keep it on your horizon as it will be important for your community including build-to-rent 783 subdivisions. We have the chance to weigh in on some of those as the legislature is discussing, so 784 we may be asking you to reach out to our legislature under the gold dome and let people know how 785 we feel about some of these things. We also had a great discussion with leaders around the state 786 about issues of public safety and a lot of cities are seeing the same things as us, a rise in property 787 crimes and gangs. These issues aren't unique to our community, but they are ones that folks are 788 looking to tackle throughout the state. 789 790 [Power outage occurred] 791 792 13. Executive Session. 793 794 14. Approval of Executive Session Minutes. 795 796 ACTION: Councilman Clay moved to approve Executive Session Minutes dated September 19, 797 2022, seconded by Councilman Allen and motion carried. (All voted yes). 798 799 15. Adjournment. 800 801 Mayor Motley Broom declared the Regular Session adjourned at 9:14 p.m. 802 803 804 805 806 CITY OF COLLEGE PARK 807 808 809 _________________________ 810 811 Bianca Motley Broom, Mayor 812 813 ATTEST: 814 815 816 ________________________ 817 Shavala Ames, City Clerk Page 18 of 18 Regular Session 09/19/2022