Commission - Special Meeting

Take your time. It's coming. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. All right. Mountain Clerk. Time is now 11.06 a.m. And we have a quorum. I call this meeting to order. Attorney Plunkett.

Mr. Mayor, we request a motion to go into executive session to discuss real estate pending the threatened litigation and personnel matters.

So moved. Second. There's a motion by the commissioner from the third, commissioner Catherine Smith-Rice, seconded by the commissioner from the fourth. Commissioner Lonnie Wimberley, Madam Clerk, don't see any colleagues in the queue for discussion. We're voting.

that motion carries with mr clark and ms scott out thank you madam clerk we're now suspended through executive session

My administrator. I'm sorry, Madam Clerk, we have a quorum. Time is now 2.36 p.m. Ladies and gentlemen, we do apologize as we had an extensive, very extensive legal session. And that went way longer than we anticipated. But we're through it. I call this meeting back to order. Attorney Plunkett.

Mr. Mayor, we request a motion to authorize you to execute the closing meeting affidavit.

Is there a motion, please? I move. There's a motion by the commissioner from the seventh, seconded by the commissioner from the fourth. Madam Clerk, Teno colleagues in the queue, we're voting.

That motion carries.

With Mr. Lewis out. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Attorney Plunkett, are there any motions as a result of our executive session?

We have four, sir. We request a motion to authorize the mayor and clerk to execute a commercial waste application lease agreement as permit holder with Alamo Farms and Cattle LLC regarding land located in Jefferson County, Georgia.

So moved.

There's a motion by Commissioner Garrett, seconded by Commissioner Tina Slendak. Seeing no colleagues in the queue, Madam Clerk, we're voting.

Shenanigans. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Attorney Plunkett.

We'd request a motion to settle all claims of Al Mims against Augusta, Georgia, and Christopher LaVaris, case number 2025-CV-290, in the amount of $47,000.

So motion by the commissioner from the 5th. Second. Second by the commissioner from the 3rd. Are there no colleagues in the queue? Madam Clerk, we're voting.

It's unanimous. Thank you, Madam Clerk. A turn point.

Mr. Mayor, we request a motion to satisfy, excuse me, a motion to satisfy the judgment in Eddie Kemp versus Augusta, Georgia, case number 2023, RCCV447, by paying to Eddie Kemp the sum of $98,000. I move.

There's a motion by Commissioner Brandon Garrett, seconded by Commissioner Lonnie Wimbley. Seeing no colleagues in the queue, Madam Clerk, we're voting.

Shenanigans turn the pocket and the last one is request a motion to extend the interim legal services transition plan with Jim Plunkett and John Manton until December 31st, 2026 under the same terms and conditions as in prior extensions summit as a motion by Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice and heard a second by Commissioner Lonnie Wembley.

Madam Clerk, we're voting. It's unanimous. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Attorney Plunkett, does that conclude our motions for today? It does. Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to take a brief point of personal privilege to acknowledge our District 3 school board member, Mr. Board Trustee Walter Eubanks. As I understand, he's no longer with us. And if you don't mind, join me in a moment of silence, not only for his service on the board, but his service to this community. Thank you so much. And if you know Mr. Eubanks' family, please put them in your prayers and please be with them during this tough time. And with that, Madam Clerk, I hereby turn this session over to the Committee Chairs from Public Services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon. Public Services will probably be the quickest one on the agenda today. Madam Chair, are there any additions or deletions

No, ma'am. We just have one correction on item number one, the caption, just to approve RFP 153.

Okay. If my colleagues do not object, thank you, Madam Clerk. If my colleagues do not object to that, I'd like to consent items number one and two. Got a motion. Do I have a second? Madam Chair, I have a question. Yes, Commissioner. Go ahead.

Yes, ma'am. I just wanted, trying to find out, is this part of the conversation that we had last week about getting our CONTRACT AND OUR RFP IN LINE BECAUSE THE DATES THAT WE HAVE ON THE RFP AND GETTING THIS DONE, SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE AND MAKE HIGHLIGHTS AGAIN OF WE'RE HAVING A PROBLEM GETTING OUR REQUESTS THROUGH WHATEVER MEANS IT IS TO GET OUR WORK DONE. SO IF DIRECTOR WILLIAMS FROM THE PARKS AND RECS CAN JUST COME AND CLARIFY, IS THIS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY WE HAVE SO MANY LADIES?

IT WAS LAST WEEK, BUT YOU'RE RIGHT, WE'LL LET DIRECTOR WILLIAMS SPEAK.

Yes, good afternoon, Commissioners. Yes, ma'am, this is part of what we need to kind of move projects forward. We're looking to have these on-call contractors in place so when we're ready to do our various projects, this process have already gone through with procurement and we'll be able to move a little quicker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, too. Okay, if my colleagues do not, we've got a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, may we go ahead and vote?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

It's unanimous.

Thank you, public services. That concludes public services for the day. Thank you.

All right. I'd like to call administrative services to order, Ms. Bonner.

Yes, sir.

Any additions or deletions?

No, sir.

All right. If there's no objection from the committee members, I'd like to consent items one, two, three, and four. I'd like to entertain a motion. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second, Ms. Bonner. Voting?

Ms. Slendek. Mr. Clark. Ms. Shenanimas.

Thank you, Ms. Bonner. And with that said, I will call Administrative Services to a close.

Madam Clerk, I would like to call public safety to order, please. Yes, ma'am. If there's no, do we have any addition or deletion? No, ma'am.

Madam Chair, Administrator.

Madam Chair, could we move number five to the full commission? We will have Tetra Tech on site to actually do a formal presentation.

And I was going to ask about that. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

It could be placed on your consent agenda to move forward with no recommendation. Is that what you're asking?

Yes.

OK.

If it's OK with the committee, I would like to consent 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

I have a question on 1 through 4. I'm just picking.

I was going to say so. Motion to approve.

Second.

Voting is fine.

I'm sorry. I have a question just from a finance standpoint on one, if that's okay. Okay, Ms. Bond, are we going to?

Okay. Your question, ma'am.

i have the floor thank you um for this um is this administrator allen for the firefighter work uniforms is this anything that we have not done in the past commissioner pulliam i will have to defer to mr pennock and to chief either one in regards to that okay thank you

Good afternoon, Commissioner. This is our annual, this is for our firefighter work uniforms and accessories, our firefighter turnout gear and such. And so we have to have that contract each and every year. That contract came to the end of its five-year term. So this is in a sense, a new RFP, but somewhat of a renewal.

Okay. And are we, is it changed hands with it being?

Based on the tabulation and the RFP, it ended up being the same vendor that we had previously.

Okay.

So no additional funds. This is within budget.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Okay.

Voting Ms. Barna. It's unanimous. And Madam Clerk, I believe that's the end of public safety. Yes, ma'am.

I'd like to call finance to order. Ms. Bonner, are there any additions or deletions?

No, ma'am. Okay.

If it's okay with my committee, I'd like to consent one and two. Are there any objections?

Okay.

Beautiful. Thank you. It's unanimous.

Okay. Item number three, Ms. Bonner.

Item number three is a motion to approve funding of operating capital and encumbrance carryovers and the use of fund balance for previously approved settlements.

Okay. And who will be presenting on this?

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Do you have a question, Commissioner? Would you rather me just give an overview of the item?

An overview, please. Yes, ma'am.

Good afternoon, everyone. This is a routine item that we do each year. At the end of every fiscal year, there are certain items that are still open. They're either projects that are not completed or they're purchase orders that still have funds attached to them. Those are encumbrances. And those need to be rolled forward from the previous year into the current year so the departments don't have to spend their current year budget for items that were supposed to be purchased out of the previous year. So attached to this item, you will see a number of a listing of what all those are. There's different projects in there. Most of them are purchase orders that are still open. And again, this is something we do as part of the year and close every year. This year, we are also asking for a specific appropriation of fund balance. As you know, we begin the year with contingency funds. And those get spent out over the course of the year. And this has been an expensive year so far because of legal settlements and two unscheduled or two special elections that have consumed a lot of our contingency funds. So we are asking that we recategorize three of those settlements from fund balance so that we have enough contingency funds to continue the year.

Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Stevens, how does this impact our overall budget? Can you kind of share with the committee how this impacts our budget?

Yes.

And does it have any kind of impact on the 27 budget?

None of these items have an impact on 27 budget. We're moving money from the 25 budget that fell to fund balance, and we're appropriating it in the 26 budget. So these are each one-time allocations for 26.

Okay. And again, you so how do you how do we come up with? You know, how does how does money is going to be used again, like once it's, I guess I can say recovered? Is that a good word to use?

So each department submits the request of the items that they need to roll forward. We can look in the financial system and see the purchase orders that are still open. For small amounts that the departments can absorb in their budgets, they just pay for it from 2026 if they don't receive the invoices in time to pay from the 25 close. But some of these are larger items in small operating budgets and they can't absorb them. And so they submit it forward, we review it in finance, and then we bring it to you.

Okay, and last question. Is this good operating? Is this pretty standard? Is it good operating practice or is this something that the commission should dig a little deeper into?

I think this is a common practice, particularly for operating encumbrances. We do scrutinize them very closely, but particularly this year where so many departments did cut their operating budgets for 26, it would be very difficult for them to absorb these costs.

Okay. All right. So this had nothing really to do with the budget cuts that we had for the year.

This is every single year. I got you. This comes forward as option.

Okay. All right. Motion to approve.

Okay.

There's a motion to approve and a second. We're voting.

It's unanimous. Item number four, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Receive as information a presentation by Malden and Jenkins on the result of the fiscal year 2024 financial audit.

Okay.

And Maddie, will you be presenting for this? Administrator Allen, my apologies.

That's okay, Madam Chair. So I am happy to announce Madam Chair and Governing Body that the 2024 audit is finally complete. As you know, we discovered the audit was previously not as far along as we were originally informed. Ms. Stevens and the finance team, along with Malden and Jenkins, I will say did a phenomenal job And getting this completed in the short period of time in which we had to work, that audit normally is due at least 180 days from the closeout of that year, which meant it would have been due June of 2025, June 30th. And however, it was not completed during that time. We have, they have worked diligently in getting it done and it has been submitted to the state. I will now turn it over to Ms. Stevens so that she can kind of give more of an update and have a presentation by Malden and Jenkins.

Thank you, Administrator Allen. Good afternoon again. Yes, as Ms. Allen mentioned, this audit has been submitted to the state, which means that we are now eligible again for state grant funds. So that is a big deal for us to be back in compliance. Once the 24 audit was submitted, the state also considered and granted an extension request for us for the 2025 filing. So that does not mean that we are going to stop efforts to complete the 25 audit. It's important for us to get it done as quickly as possible. Mr. Erwin will share more about that during his presentation. But that does mean that while we are working on it, we will remain in compliance through the end of the year. So that's very good news. I want to say thank you to all the departments that have worked with us over the past few months to get this information together in an expedited way. And I particularly want to acknowledge the finance team that have all stepped up to do tasks that they have not done in the past, particularly Nancy He, our grants compliance manager who's here, and Rachel McFattridge, our budget manager. With that, I'm going to turn it over to David Irwin, a partner with Malden and Jenkins, our external auditor, and he's going to give you an overview of the audit. The audit documents themselves will be shared with you electronically immediately after this meeting, as well as posted on the city website, and next week we'll have hard copies of it for you all if you'd like to look at those.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Hope you all are doing well. Again, my name's David Irwin, and I'm with Malden Jenkins. As Maddie Sue said, I was the partner who oversaw the 2024 audit of the government's financial statements, and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to be here with you all this afternoon to discuss the results of the 2024 audit. For today's presentation, I'll start off by introducing and discussing some general information about our firm. I'll provide you all an overview of our independent auditor's report. I'll talk about the results of the two compliance reports that we issue in conjunction with the audit. I'll hit a few of the financial statement highlights. I'll discuss some general information that the auditing standards requires that we communicate to you all. And last but not least, to answer any questions that you all may have. So, you know, my role this afternoon is to take a very technical document and focus on the items that matter most to the commission. What went well, where were the challenges that we identified, and what those mean going forward. You know, since there are a few new members of the commission, since the last time that I presented to you all, I did want to take just a few minutes and introduce our firm. MJ is a large regional firm. We have 19 offices in eight states throughout the southeast. We serve over 725 governments throughout the country. That includes around a little over 100 cities and over 50 counties here in Georgia. Entities similar in size to you all that we currently audit include the City of Atlanta, Columbus Muskogee County, Macon Bibb County, and the City of Savannah. Our firm has around 50 partners and managers who spend 100% of their time auditing state and local governments. So while a lot of firms audit governments as a way to keep their people busy outside of tax season, there is no tax season for our group. We spend 100% of our time auditing state and local governments. So again, just a little bit of information about our firm, and we certainly appreciate the opportunity to be of service to Augusta-Richmond County. Now, what the government is required to have performed each year is a financial and compliance audit. That is what we conducted and what we are presenting to you all this afternoon. You know, there are several different types of audits. So, again, it's important to kind of clarify what a financial compliance audit actually is. The objective of our audit is to obtain reasonable assurance that the government's financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. In plain terms, our job is to determine whether financial information that is being presented is accurate, COMPLETE AND RELIABLE TO BE USED BY CITIZENS, CREDITORS, BONDHOLDERS, MANAGEMENT AND YOU ALL AS ELECTED OFFICIALS WHEN MAKING IMPORTANT FINANCIAL DECISIONS FOR THE CITY. To do that, we assess areas of higher risk. We design our audit procedures to address those risks. And when we test transactions and balances on a sampling basis. A financial audit, you know, we do not examine every single transaction that occurs during the year. That's not how audits work. Instead, we focus our work on where errors or irregularities would most likely have a material effect. An audit is not designed to catch every minor mistake. It is designed to identify material issues, meaning issues significant enough that would change how someone interprets or relies on these financial statements. So ultimately, again, the purpose of the annual financial audit is accountability, is providing an independent assurance that the government's financial reporting is presented fairly in accordance with applicable standards. Now the financial statements that have been presented to you all are the responsibility of management and members of council. As your independent auditors, our responsibility is to express an opinion on these statements. We conduct our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and governmental auditing standards, and I'm happy to say that we are issuing a clean or unmodified opinion on this year's report. Again, this is what you want. This is the highest level of assurance we can provide as your external auditor. What this means is that, in our opinion, the financial statements are fairly presented in all mature respects in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. And again, most importantly, again, it means that you all can rely on these financial statements when making decisions regarding budgets, policies, capital projects, debt issuance, and really just the overall financial direction of the government. I just want to give you a brief overview of the financial statements. Again, you all prepared what is called an annual comprehensive financial report, otherwise known as an ACFER. An ACFER includes additional information that goes above and beyond the basic financial reporting requirements. This document is submitted annually to the Government Finance Officer Association, otherwise known as the GFOA, where they put it through a pretty rigorous review process. When they review the government's ACFRA, their goal is not to assess the financial health of the government. What they want to do is make sure that all the necessary information is in this document so the readers of your financial statements can do so themselves. And through this review, the GFOA has awarded the government the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. And as you can see on the slide, this is the ninth year in a row that you all have received the certificate. So again, this document, it's an impressive document. It's one that you all should be proud of. And it's just a perfect example of you all going above and beyond and continuing to raise the bar for transparency and high quality financial reporting. So again, congratulations to you all on that. Before we get the numbers themselves, I always encourage everyone to spend some time to read the management discussion analysis, otherwise known as the MD&A. This section begins on page five of your financial statements. It's written by management. It really does a good job of bridging the gap between the technical financial statements and the story behind those numbers. This section explains major changes. It highlights trends. And it provides a side-by-side comparison of the past two years' financial activity. So, you know, if you ever find yourself asking why did this increase or what caused this change, the MD&A is typically where you'll find your answer. So, again, as you read through the financial statements, I would strongly encourage everyone to take the time to read through the MD&A. Now the government's basic financial statements are broken down into three components, the first of which are your government-wide statements. The government-wide statements, they provide a broad view of the government's operations in a manner similar to that of a private sector business. So rather than focusing on individual funds, in this section, all financial activity is combined into two columns, depending on the nature of the fund. You have a column for your governmental activities, and you have a separate column for your business type activities. We have a slide here that summarizes the government's financial activity for the year from the government-wide perspective. And again, these are 2024 numbers, so I won't go into this in too much detail. But as you can see, the government end of the year with assets and deferred outflows of resources, around 2.7 billion. Of that amount, around 1.6 billion are your capital assets, net of accumulated depreciation, which again, capital assets, that's your land, buildings, infrastructure, machinery, or equipment. um total liabilities and deferred inflows of resources were around 1.2 billion of that amount a little over a billion are long-term in nature meaning they're not due within the next fiscal year looking at your revenues they were around 670 million dollars for the year that was an increase about 80 million compared to fy 23. But you also had this corresponding increase in your expenses. Total expenses were around $591 million, which was an increase of $77 million compared to the previous year. So, this resulted in the ending net position of approximately $1.4 billion, which represents an increase of right at $79 million for the year. So, again, that's just a high-level overview of the financial activity from the entity-wide perspective. Again, that's just one component. The second component of your financial statements are the fund level statements. Again, this is what you all typically see throughout the year. This component focuses on individual parts of the government and reports your operations in more detail than that of the NDY. And with all the government's funds, if I'm in your shoes, my primary focus is the general fund. The general fund is the main operating fund of the government. It's where the majority of your revenues are received and funds expended. And we have a chart here that breaks out the general fund's revenues for the year. Total revenues, again, this is just for the general fund, but total revenues were approximately $203.9 million. And that's an increase of about $19.3 million compared to FY23. Again, like most governments, the majority of your revenue are derived from taxes, which were a little over $141 million for the year. TO KIND OF BREAK THAT DOWN A LITTLE BIT FURTHER, OF THAT 141 MILLION, PROPERTY TAXES WERE AROUND 64.4 MILLION, FRANCHISE TAXES WERE AROUND 24.6 MILLION, AND THEN I'M SORRY, AND SALES TAXES WERE AT 47.1 MILLION FOR THE YEAR. A COUPLE OTHER SIGNIFICANT ITEMS WORTH MENTIONING, YOU ALL HAD CHARGES OF SERVICES OF AROUND 24.1 MILLION, AND YOU HAD INTERGOVERNMENTAL REVENUE OF JUST UNDER 26 MILLION FOR THE YEAR. THIS NEXT SHORT BREAKS OUT THE GENERAL FUNDS EXPENDITURES BY FUNCTION. TOTAL EXPENDITURES WERE JUST UNDER 226 MILLION. THAT'S AN INCREASE OF ABOUT $41 MILLION COMPARED TO FY23. SO YOUR REVENUE IS INCREASED BY ABOUT 19.3, BUT YOUR EXPENDITURES INCREASED BY ABOUT 41 MILLION. You know, this increase was, you know, the result of the additional expenditures that you all incurred as a result of Hurricane Helene. And, you know, when you look at your expenditures, once again, no surprise, you know, the largest expenditure function was public safety, which was around 83 million. And that accounted for around 37 percent of the general fund's total expenditures. Couple other functions worth mentioning, you all had general government expenditures of around 49 and a half million and public works expenditures of 44.4 million for the year. And when you factor in other financing sources and uses, such as sales of capital assets and transfers to and from other funds, the general funds fund balance decreased by approximately 16.7 million for an ending balance of 44.8 million for the year. And again, this is for 2024. THIS NEXT CHART SHOWS THE GENERAL FUND'S FUND BALANCE HISTORY OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS. I ALWAYS THINK IT'S HELPFUL TO KIND OF STEP BACK AND LOOK AT WHERE YOU WERE COMPARED TO WHERE THINGS CURRENTLY STAND. AGAIN, AS I MENTIONED, 2024 WAS UNIQUE GIVEN THE DAMAGE THAT YOU ALL SUSTAINED DUE TO THE HURRICANE. BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THIS CHART, THE PREVIOUS FOUR YEARS, IT REALLY SAW AN IMPRESSIVE INCREASE IN YOUR FUND BALANCE. You know, while the decline in 2024 certainly gets your attention, I think it's important to remember that this is why fund balance exists in the first place. You know, governments build reserves so that they are available when extraordinary events occur. And, you know, again, the hurricane was exactly the type of event for which those reserves are intended to help absorb. Again, one thing I always like to remind everyone, fund balance is not what you all have in the form of cash for discretionary spending. Fund balance is the difference between assets and liabilities, only a portion of which is in cash. Again, when I think about fund balance, it really represents the government's liquidity, your flexibility, and your ability to respond to cash flow needs, emergencies, and unanticipated expenditures. And as I did last time I presented to you all, I'VE INCLUDED A CHART HERE THAT COMPARES THE GENERAL FUND'S UNASSIGNED FUND BALANCE FOR BOTH 2023 AND 2024, ALONG WITH THE GENERAL, THE GOVERNMENT'S FUND BALANCE POLICY. AND AGAIN, YOU ALL REVISED YOUR FUND BALANCE POLICY A COUPLE YEARS AGO WITH A GOAL TO MAINTAIN BETWEEN 120 AND 150 DAYS OF OPERATING EXPENDITURES IN YOUR FUND BALANCE. SO AGAIN, I'VE INCLUDED BOTH OF THOSE RANGES IN THIS CHART AS WELL. Again, while total fund balance was approximately $44.8 million, of that amount, around $6 million of that has been assigned to risk management and emergency reserves. So that leaves around $38.4 million left as unassigned to fund balance to be used for your operations. And again, I hate to keep repeating myself, but 2024 was a unique year, given the additional expenditures that you all incurred. But again, as you can see here, you all ended the year with an unassigned fund balance of approximately 62 days of operating expenditures. You know, again, while that is currently below the minimum target established by policy, it is understandable given the extraordinary circumstances that you all face in 2024. At the same time, it does highlight the importance of rebuilding those reserves over time as conditions continue to normalize. So again, just wanted to add that chart in here just to kind of give you a comparison of where your unassigned fund balance is now in 2024 compared to where your government's fund balance policy is. And again, not to belabor the point, but again, governments that don't maintain an adequate fund balance often end up reacting to financial pressures rather than planning for them. In many cases, being reactive can lead to higher taxes, it can lead to deferred maintenance, and it can also lead to you all having to take on additional long-term debt. In many ways, fund balance is what separates a government that can strategically manage through challenges from one that is forced to make difficult decisions under pressure. Again, as I mentioned earlier, when you look at fund balance, you know, property taxes represent a significant portion of your revenues and those revenues are received at specific points during the year rather than evenly throughout the month. So maintaining a healthy fund balance provides the cash flow necessary to continue operations and meet obligations during those months when expenditures may exceed revenues. Again, fund balance, it serves the government's financial safety net during emergencies and unforeseen circumstances. And again, that's certainly something that you've all experienced in 2024. Having adequate reserves, again, provides you the flexibility to respond quickly to disasters. It addresses unanticipated expenditures. It allows you all to maintain service levels and avoid making short-term decisions that could have long-term consequences. So other reasons, it can also contribute to more favorable borrowing costs when you all issue debt. And last but not least, it provides you all stability during periods of economic uncertainty. So again, while the The government's fund balance, while it did decline in 2024, it's important to recognize that these resources exist for times exactly like you all faced in 2024. So the true value of having a strong fund balance is not that it just sits on the balance sheet. It's that it provides you all the financial capacity to respond, recover, and continue to serve citizens during unexpected times. A couple other funds I want to briefly mention are the government's four major enterprise funds, which again is the water sewer fund, your airport fund, your garbage fund, and your stormwater utility fund. Again, enterprise funds, they're used to account for operations in a manner similar to that of a private sector business. The goal of enterprise funds would be self-sufficient, to generate sufficient operating revenues to cover their operating expenses. And we have a chart here that shows the operating revenues and expenses for these four funds. As you can see, the Water Sewer Fund continues to do very well. It ended the year with operating income of around $21.6 million. The other three funds all had relatively small operating losses this year. However, most of those operating losses were offset by non-operating revenues, capital contributions, and transfers in from other funds. YOU KNOW, WHILE THOSE OPERATING LOSSES ARE NOT IMMEDIATELY CONCERNING, THEY ARE SOMETHING THAT MANAGEMENT AND THE COMMISSION SHOULD JUST CONTINUE TO MONITOR GOING FORWARD, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING AT YOUR ENTERPRISE FUNDS. THE GARBAGE COLLECTION FUNDS NET POSITION HAD A SLIGHT DECREASE IN 2024 OF A LITTLE OVER 40,000. BUT THE OTHER THREE FUNDS ALL HAD AN INCREASE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE NET POSITION FOR THE YEAR. AND OVERALL, THEY'RE ALL IN GOOD SHAPE FINANCIALLY. SO AGAIN, THAT'S CERTAINLY SOMETHING YOU WANT TO SEE OUT OF YOUR ENTERPRISE FUNDS. As I mentioned, as part of the audit, there are two compliance reports that we also issue. The first of which is a single audit report. Again, a single audit is a compliance audit that is required when an entity has over $750,000 of federal expenditures during the year. You all had approximately $36.2 million of federal expenditures in 2024. As was the case with the financial audit, we are issuing a clean or unmodified opinion on the single audit as well. The second compliance report is the Yellow Book Report, which evaluates the government's internal controls and your compliance with various laws and regulations. We did have two audit findings report to you all this year, and I just want to take a couple of minutes to walk you through these two findings that you see on the screen, and just as importantly, put them in the proper context. You know, first and foremost, none of these findings affected the audit opinion. Again, you all are receiving a clean or unmodified opinion this year. These findings really are about strengthening your processes and your controls, not about the accuracy of the financial statements as a whole. The first audit finding here relates to the administration and financial management of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. You all are very aware of this, but, you know, again, just at a high level, this finding is not about a single transaction or an isolated error. It relates to the overall weaknesses of the control environment surrounding the program, including how those funds were tracked, reconciled, and reported. You know, as you all well know, you all engaged in independent third party to perform a comprehensive assessment just of this program. I believe these issues came to light in 2025, and that assessment covered the 2024 audit that we're presenting to you all today. But I do want to emphasize that you all have been very proactive in addressing these concerns. You know, management has already begun correcting or implementing corrective action plan. Those action plans, it includes strengthening your grant management procedures, improving the reconciliation process, enhancing oversight, implementing more robust financial reporting controls, as well as providing additional staff training. The second finding relates and you all are obviously aware of this as well, to the timeliness of the audit itself. As Ms. Allen mentioned earlier, Georgia law requires local governments to complete and submit their annual audit within six months after year end. And again, as everyone in this room is aware, the audit was not completed within the time frame established by state law. You know, I do think it's important that, you know, to understand that this finding did not necessarily arise from any one single event. It was a result of several significant challenges that occurred during that time. Again, I'm repeating myself. I apologize. But the hurricane, again, had a significant impact on the 2024 financial statements. In addition to that, the finance department experienced leadership and staffing turnover. You know, in addition to the complexities surrounding the Housing and Community Development Department and the ERAP program, again, required an extensive independent review in 2025 to review that program. So, you know, the real impact of this finding is that it delays the Commission's ability to receive independently audited financial information. And as elected officials, you rely on these audits to understand the government's financial position, to evaluate risk, and again, to make informed financial decisions regarding budgets, regarding policies, and long-term planning. The longer that information is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to do your job. That being said, I do want to take time to recognize the tremendous effort by Tamika, Maddie, Sue, and really just the entire finance department, the time and effort that went into completing this audit. You know, your financial statements are nearly 300 pages long, so needless to say, there's a lot of information that has to be gathered, and there's a lot of time and effort that goes into completing this audit process. throughout this process, especially over the past four months, We observed a strong commitment from the Administrator's Office, the Finance Department, and really just your staff as a whole to work through these challenges and provide us all the necessary information to resolve the outstanding issues that we had. So again, completing this audit of this magnitude is truly a team effort, and there were many individuals that played a role in this, and we really appreciate all their hard work to get this audit finalized. And just importantly from our perspective, now that we have 2024 completed, the foundation is put in place for a more efficient financial reporting process going forward. We observed a willingness to, again, address these issues, improve the processes, and dedicate the resources necessary to move this organization going forward. And again, those efforts will not only support future audits, but it will provide the commission with more timely and reliable financial information going forward. Any questions on those two fines before I proceed? I have a couple more management letter items I guess I can address first. But again, at the end of the day, you know, findings are not uncommon in governmental units. The more important question is whether management recognizes the issues, takes them seriously, and implements the corrective actions. And, again, based on the work that we've done with your finance department over the past three months, we've already seen meaningful progress, and many of the corrective actions related to both of these findings are already being implemented. So, again, just a testament to everyone involved in that audit process to get these corrective action items implemented as soon as possible. Before I conclude, I want to briefly discuss the management letter comments that were included in this year's audit. Unlike findings, management letter comments, they do not arise to the level of a material weakness, a significant deficiency, or noncompliance issue. Manager Miller comments are really just constructive recommendations based on the observations that we made during the audit of how we can improve the overall audit process going forward. And there's several items here. I won't go into these in too much detail, but I do just kind of want to briefly summarize the major themes. Several comments relate to the general accounting and financial administration, including the timely payment of vendor invoices, getting your bank reconciliations and your bank statements reconciled in a timely manner, and the removal of closed bank accounts from the accounting records, as well as the tracking of capital assets and construction projects. You know, again, these comments, they're primarily process-related, and they're just intended to strengthen the day-to-day financial operations and improve the accuracy of your financial reporting process going forward. We also noted a few comments involving the constitutional offices specifically related to long outstanding checks, as well as excess funds where the ultimate recipient could not be readily identified. In those instances, we just simply recommend that management continue efforts to identify the appropriate parties and assure that any remaining amounts are handled in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. YOU KNOW, ONE MANAGEMENT COMMENT I DO WANT TO SPEND A LITTLE BIT OF EXTRA TIME ON, AND I MENTIONED IT EARLIER, IT RELATES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S ENTERPRISE FUNDS. AND AGAIN, AS I MENTIONED, ENTERPRISE FUNDS ARE INTENDED TO OPERATE MUCH LIKE A PRIVATE SECTOR BUSINESS, YOU KNOW, WHERE THOSE REVENUES, THE INTENT OF THESE FUNDS ARE TO GENERATE SUFFICIENT OPERATING REVENUES TO COVER THEIR OPERATING EXPENSES. AND, YOU KNOW, AGAIN, DURING OUR REVIEW, WE NOTED SEVERAL ENTERPRISE FUNDS. airport, transit, stormwater, garbage collection, waste management, as well as the Daniel Field Airport funds, they've experienced operating losses in at least two of the past three years. and you know an operating loss that's not necessarily uh it's not necessarily unusual things happen um capital projects economic conditions or one-time expenditures can result in operating losses in any given year it's just when you have operating losses that become recurring it's truly an indication and just a suggestion that management uh as well as the commission just you know take a closer look at these underlying causes to make sure it's not a recurring theme And again, our recommendation is not necessarily that rates need to be increased. We're not recommending that. We're just recommending, again, that you all periodically evaluate your current revenues, evaluate your operating costs, as well as your long-term capital needs, and make sure everything's appropriately aligned. Again, the goal is to ensure that these operations remain financially sustainable over the long term and not create additional pressure on other government resources going forward in the future. So this is about planning. It's not about panic. You know, the best time to address emerging trends is before they become problems so as i mentioned earlier the the net position of your enterprise funds overall are in good shape this is more about being proactive and again positioning the government for long-term financial success so it's much easier to make small adjustments over time than it is to address larger financial challenges after they've already developed. So again, it's more about being proactive rather than reactive. Again, one thing to keep in mind when you look at these management recommendations items, I just want to remind everyone, you know, none of these comments, again, like the findings, none of these comments affect the audit opinion that was issued on the financial statements. Again, they just represent opportunities for you all to continue to strengthen your internal controls and financial reporting process procedures. And again, as with the audit findings, management was very receptive to these recommendations and they have already implemented additional procedures to correct these items going forward. So again, that's certainly good to see. One final recommendation that we have for you all is just to consider having an independent operational assessment conducted. And, you know, I want to frame this recommendation in the proper context. You know, over the past several years, obviously the government has experienced a significant amount of change. There are new members of the commission. There are ongoing efforts to strengthen your financial reporting processes. And, again, the likelihood of new financial leadership in the near future as well when you all hire a full-time CFO. you know in addition in addition again the organization has obviously navigated a certain number of challenges uh incurring the hurricane including the hurricane um the complex financial grant issues as well as just the operational demands that naturally come with a government the size of august person county and for those reasons it may be an ideal time to kind of step back and evaluate the organization from a broader operational perspective. And again, an operational assessment, it's not a financial audit. It's not backward looking. It's not about assigning blame. It's a forward looking process that provides an objective review of how key departments and core services are operating today. And again, it evaluates organizational structure, staffing, operational efficiency, internal controls, business processes, and really just the overall alignment between the resources and the service expectations. So an operational assessment, it can identify opportunities for cost savings. process improvements, enhanced customer service, and then last but not least, operational efficiencies. And more importantly, it provides you all objective data. And again, data allows you all to make decisions based on facts rather than assumption. You know, for a commission that is helping shape the future of Augusta-Richmond County and for future leadership that will be responsible for implementing that vision, an operational assessment can really serve as a strategic roadmap. Where we are, where we were, where we are, where we want to be. You know, it establishes a baseline of where the organization stands today. It identifies opportunities for improvement and it helps It helps ensure that future decisions are thoughtful, measured, and supported by independent analysis. Again, ultimately, it's less about finding problems and more about identifying opportunities. It provides the Commission of Management, again, with actionable information that can strengthen operations, improve service delivery, and again, position the government for long-term success. Again, that's just certainly something, given everything that's going on with you all over the past several years, something that we wanted to kind of bring to your attention. We would be happy to further address that with finance, and we have discussed that with finance over the past six months, but I did want to take the time to kind of explain what an operational assessment is and really how I think it would be beneficial to Augusta. One final item to discuss is just certain information that the auditing standards requires that we communicate to you all. Again, the government is receiving a clean opinion with the two audit findings that I mentioned earlier. We received full cooperation from management staff There were no disagreements with management on any kind of accounting issues or financial reporting matters. There were no significant issues discussed with management that would have affected the financial statements that we have not already discussed. And again, we are independent of the government as required by government auditing standards. And again, at the end of the day, our independence is what gives this report credibility. Our job is to provide an objective opinion regardless of what the results may be. And now that we've completed 2024, you know, our focus immediately turns to 2025. As Maddie Sue said, you all were granted extension by the state. It's technically not due to the state until December 31st. We're going to get it done much sooner than December 31st. We're going to start, the plan is to start audit field work the week after Fourth of July holiday. And our goal is to get it done as quickly as possible. And my hope is to be back up here in September, October to present you all the results of 2025 audit. And the good news is that we're not starting from scratch. A significant amount of work has already been performed during the 2024 audit, and many of those issues that required additional time and attention have already been identified and addressed. And again, your staff, as they were collecting the information that we were requesting for the 2024 audit, they were doing the same for 2025. While there's still a lot of work to be done, I'm far more optimistic about the 2025 audit standing before you today than I was even three months ago. Again, our objective, and Matt and Sue and I were talking about this at length earlier, It's just to build on the momentum that we've established and continue to move with the government toward a normal reporting cycle. And again, as I said, if everything proceeds as planned, our goal is to have these financial statements, have this audit completed in September with my presentation to you all in September, October of this year. So again, there's a lot of work ahead, but I'm really encouraged by the cooperation by your staff. And I really appreciate all their hard work at MSU. And with that, again, that concludes my presentation. Again, there's a lot of information in your report. I've tried to hit the highlights, what I think is the most important to you all. But again, thanks to your staff for all their hard work. We certainly appreciate the opportunity to be of service to you all. And I look forward to seeing you all here in a couple months.

thank you so much mr. Irwin for your presentation I do have some colleagues in the queue but before I go to them I even I had to take a second and look down at the administrator me and her both smiled at the same time because she knew my favorite part was the data-driven part I literally have smiley faces on my paper that's probably TMI for everyone on looking but I really don't care I am that person. I love data. And so with that, I also love that you talked about identifying opportunities and being proactive. So I have two questions for you. The first one is, what are some of the forecasting trends that you see in other governments, if you're able to answer that?

Oh. Well, the ARPA funds has been a big issue, if you will, over the past several years. And those ARPA funds were one-time funds. Hopefully they were one-time funds. Hopefully we don't have another pandemic that would cause us to receive those ARPA funds again. So it's to transition from receiving those large amount of funds and having the revenues going forward to to reestablish your fund balance. Again, we've seen a lot of governments have their fund balance decrease over the past year or so, has those ARPA funds have declined. But again, when I look at Augusta, Richmond County, it's really good. When I go back to that chart of you all just having 60 days of fund balance, I think the goal now, when I look at this organization as a whole, is to get that fund balance back up within the government's fund balance policy, which again is within that 120 to 150 day policy.

And so specifically, I was looking more along the lines of, in my questioning, forecasting from a standpoint of going forward. Are you seeing more municipalities looking at three-year plans, five-year plans, ten-year plans? Like, what do those trends look like?

We typically see five-year plans. But again, every organization is different. It's always tough when somebody asks, you know, how does one organization compare to other counties because every community has their strengths, has their weaknesses. But to answer your question directly, I think a five-year plan is what we typically see.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Irwin. And my last question is, we talked heavily about the decrease in 2024, and I believe the number you gave was 16.4 million. And of course, we were in the midst of the hurricane, so we know where that came from. But how much of that, if you- if you have this data, how much of that would you say was attributed to the hurricane out of that $16.4 million?

I don't have all that necessary information, but just seeing how much your expenditures increased, I think your expenditures increased by $44 million compared to FY23, and specifically public works expenditures increased significantly. So standing before you right now without having all that information, I would say almost all of it's attributed to the hurricane.

Okay, all right, and then I'll get with the administrator later to just go a little bit deeper, but thank you again for your presentation. First in the queue I have Mayor Pro Tem Guilfoyle.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Irwin, thank you for coming before us. Thank you for complimenting our staff. They have been working diligently. I know with Maddie that's over the finance now that she has been a saint in that department. This here is for December 31st, 2024, for the year 2024. And I'm looking at your audit findings, which is inadequate in turnover, federal government grant, federal grant management, co-mainly funds, inability to verify expenditures, financial report and classification errors, and liquidity and cash shortfall. That looks like the exact statement that came from the auditor we had over the HCD department. But I would like to ask, since you represent Malden Jenkins, what was your recommendation under your audit finance for 2023 and 2022?

I would have to look back.

Because it's easy to look back now and go, hey, but.

Well, yeah, I mean, and that's a good point. You know, a financial audit is looking back.

That's right, but you could also make recommendations moving forward. So I'm trying to find out what was your recommendation 23 and 22.

And I would have to look back at that information. I apologize, I don't have it with me. As far as the ERAP funds are concerned, the former finance director, he brought that to our attention I believe in February of 2025 there were some issues there pertaining to 2024. We made a note about it to make sure that, you know, when we start the 2024 audit that there were going to be additional procedures that we encounter or that we perform to address those issues. We really had no idea in March of 2025 that we would not be performing your audit until essentially a year later. So again, a lot of information has come about within that 18 month timeframe that we've incorporated within this audit.

Yes, sir. I've always looked at how did we get to this point? You know, 2025 was a hard year on us, trying to figure out the budget. And 2024, it was recommended by staff to reduce our exposure on the, on a reserve account from 120 days, like you had mentioned, down to, I think it was down to 62, is that correct?

How many days? It's around 62.

Right. And so with that amount of days that we took off, that amount of money went somewhere. It went to, I guess, balance the budget. So when 2025 came around, it was a hardship that we had to face. It went somewhere.

Well, again, the fund balance, the decrease in fund balance, I would attribute in 2024 to the expenditures that you all incurred September through December as a result of a hurricane. If that hurricane doesn't, you know, you can always Monday morning quarterback. But if that hurricane doesn't occur, then I think this fund balance tells a completely different story. Right. And, again, that's why I wanted to make sure to highlight that that's why you need to have the fund balance. You know, fund balance, again, as I said, it's not just to sit there on the balance sheet.

Oh, it's no different than a savings account for every citizen.

Absolutely. So, you know, I think you can look at it in a lot of different ways. One way you can look at it, and it's the truth, is that you all had that fund balance available when this hurricane occurred to continue serving citizens without any kind of disruption or having to be reactive.

And hopefully we'll get reimbursed by 100% as well. Correct. ONE OF THE OTHER THINGS THAT YOU HAD BROUGHT UP WAS THE MAJOR ENTERPRISE FUNDS OPERATING REVENUE VERSUS OPERATING, YOU ACTUALLY USED THE TERM OF OPERATE IT LIKE A BUSINESS. AND ENTERPRISE, THERE'S TWO DEPARTMENTS THAT YOU SHOULD BE RECEIVING THE FUNDING, YOU KNOW, IT'S ONLY TWO DEPARTMENTS THAT ACTUALLY MAKES MONEY, THAT'S UTILITIES AND LANDFILL IN EVERY GOVERNMENT. As I can see, the utilities here, we actually, the revenues outweighs the expenditure, which is good. But the garbage collection and stormwater is a big concern of myself because we, it used to be a money-making proposition, and I guess if we pulled the records, we could probably see it. But do you have any insight what the expenditures, what they would, relate to why the expenditure is higher than the revenue?

I don't have that detailed information in front of me. That's certainly something we can get. And again, as I said, that recommendation, again, it's not panic.

The sky is not falling. No, it's not.

It's more just kind of a forward-looking, you know, we're seeing a recurring trend there. That's right. And are there anything we need to tweak? Is there anything that we need to kind of reevaluate from a revenue perspective or an expense perspective?

THAT'S CORRECT.

SO AGAIN, REALLY DON'T HAVE A SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATION IN THE STANDPOINT. IF YOU ALL NEED TO INCREASE RATES, THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE SAYING AT ALL. IT'S JUST AN OVERALL, IT'S JUST A SUGGESTION TO PERIODICALLY LOOK AT THESE ENTERPRISE FUNDS AND WHILE THEY'RE ALL IN GOOD SHAPE FINANCIALLY, LET'S LOOK AT THE REVENUES, LET'S LOOK AT THE EXPENSES PERIODICALLY AND JUST SEE IF THERE'S ANY IMPROVEMENTS THAT CAN BE MADE SO THESE FUNDS CAN BE AS SELF-SUFFICIENT AS POSSIBLE.

that's right but the stormwater say fixed income everybody gets hit with the same charge from year after year the revenue shouldn't vary that much if anything it should drop where people don't pay but we need a mad administrator we make sure we need to make sure we keep eye on that because there's no other way to get revenue because we ask for the max in the beginning of the stormwater but Mr. Irvin, I appreciate you doing this presentation. I'm going to go through this presentation that you have given me. And Madam Chair, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Commissioner from the 5th, Commissioner Clark.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Mr. Erwin, thanks for all the information. Thanks for what you all consistently do for us. I echo the same sentiment. I think we all feel the same way about our administrator and her team, but Maddie Sue being the superstar that she is, getting out there really grinding this thing out, we are super happy to have her doing what she does with her team. I got a question. So you brought up about operational audits, and I don't know if you had a crystal ball or if you had prior conversation, but our administrator has been leading this effort. So I wanted to really kind of this is more so, Madam Chairwoman, if I can ask this to the administrator.

Yes, sir.

All right. Madam Administrator, can you kind of give us a status update of where we are on this? I know this is something that's been near and dear to your heart. You have whiteboarded the heck out of this and have been working pretty diligent on it. Can you give a status of that? Because I appreciate the fact that he even brought up that we need to do that.

Yes, sir. So this is one of the initiatives that when I first became the administrator, one of the things that we were looking at as it relates to efficiency and the operation of the government. And of course, we had the hurricane and all of those things. So what we made sure that we did was include funding for operational operations. efficiency assessment to be conducted because of course we need to look at the respective departments and see how things going so some people call it an operational audit i've also had that conversation with mr irwin at malden and jenkins as well um to let him know that was one of the things that when he mentioned it to us that was one of the things you exactly right that i have on my white board that we are implementing um so in the next two weeks i already have the draft completed So within the next two weeks that RFP should be going out from procurement to the streets so that we can hopefully bring somebody in to begin conducting that assessment so that we can hopefully provide some in efficiency improvements and or recommendations from a company to bring forth to the government body.

It's something that I mentioned to finance department probably two years ago. Again, just given the size of Augusta and just the changes that you all have undergone. A lot of the other large communities in Georgia have undergone that. Columbus-Muskogee County has just undergone an operational assessment. I know Gwinnett County did it a couple years ago, as well as DeKalb County. So again, when I see those operational assessments done by those large entities, and I look at Augusta and all the changes you all had, that's when I brought the Finance Department's attention. Again, it was probably a year and a half, two years ago. This would be a great opportunity for you all to do.

Well, great minds think alike. Happy that the administrator is kind of getting us a head start on this and looking forward to be, you know, a benefit for us going forward. But again, thanks for everything you do. Maddie Sue, can't say enough about you for sure and the entire finance team. Thank you all. I don't want us to clap too long because we still got 2025 out there, but no, great job. Seriously, proud of you, Maddie Sue. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Administrator as well. Madam Chair, thank you.

You are so welcome. Thank you. And thank you again for your presentation, Mr. Irwin. Thank you. Can we receive this as information? Okay. Without objection. All right. That concludes Finance Committee. Thank you.

All right. Madam Clerk, we're going to bring Engineering Services Committee to order. Do we have any additions or deletions?

No, sir.

All right. Committee members, looking through the agenda, I'm going to bring the following for consent. Item one, item two, item three. Thank you for that echo. and five and six i'm gonna bring those um for consent any questions or concerns about that all right can i hear a motion here we've got a motion in a second madam clerk we're voting

unanimous yes ma'am if we can go ahead and bring um dr malik you want to go ahead and come up sir i know you're going to be a part of this you may be a part of it for some information but just come up for that madam administrator uh madam clerk if you can read number four item four is the motion to approve a staff to initiate procurement of a parking management firm for the downtown parking area and be the law department to draft related updates to the code of ordinances regarding parking

yeah this is an exciting one um that we're going to bring um in concert with the updates that's happening downtown so madam administrator you've been doing a lot of effort and a lot of corralling of folks to support this um you're going to go ahead and lead us in this yes sir mr chairman so on march 31st the government body taxed administration to begin identifying a parking management plan for downtown

A meeting was held on June 11th with the internal staff as well as stakeholders to include the Downtown Development Authority, our Chamber of Commerce, Augusta Tomorrow, and even some business owners from downtown. At that meeting, we reviewed the 2019 data. We recognized that it was some very valuable information. So we all had a discussion on that. We are now asking the body after our discussion over each of the respective items that were included in 2019 that you allow us to proceed with initiating the parking management plan by beginning the procurement process as well as any requested ordinances that would need to be modified by our legal counsel

All right. Thank you for that. I'm going to tell you, I'm pretty excited about this one, that the conversations and the enthusiasm from the business owners. I've received numerous calls from them. I think many of us have. They're excited about this, and I think this is a right on time upgrade for the downtown corridor. I got a colleague in the queue. District 1, Commissioner Johnson. Go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are very excited about this. And as the downtown commissioner, I couldn't be any more excited myself, but I do have a couple of questions. With this plan that's going forward, has there been any conversation about what those revenues would be used for?

Yes, sir. There was some discussion. And of course, you know, we looked at what was identified for 2019 for those potential revenues. But what we decided is to wait till we get the responses back and then have a discussion with that committee and then bring it forth to the governing body for discussion.

What were some of the takeaways from that meeting that you had with the downtown stakeholders?

Oh, it was, I will say, very positive. Everyone felt that this was the right time based on the fact that we're doing the major TIA project downtown. They also felt that some of the revenues could be utilized for the upkeeping of downtown, security needs for downtown. And what was other... you know, different funds for downtown development authority for Augusta tomorrow. So we looked at a number of things, we had a number of discussions. But overall, it was a positive meeting. And everybody that was there at that meeting felt that it was something that we all needed to move forward with.

Okay, yeah, I think this is a good start because parking is a concern that a lot of folks have. When it comes down to the paid parking, have we had any conversations about what the specific rates would be or is that going to be something that the firm would decide?

That is something that they will bring a recommendation and then that we'll bring back forth to the governing body. We are also identifying other agencies, communities that have actually implemented parking management plans. So that is one of the takeaways that we'll be getting back together with that respective information as well to see what other agencies have done. in the meantime so that when we come back together we'll have something not only from that group that um whoever is selected and the government body approves also a recommendation on how other agencies implemented the same plan yeah i think north augusta runs a pretty good parking management system and so does um

athens has a pretty good system but i know that you know we have substantial parking in our parking decks but parking spaces in our parking decks but they aren't used so i would i would suggest that even with this that we find a way to to to get creative in getting people to the parking decks as well even if that means that you know the parking decks are free for a certain amount of time and if you don't want to pay on broad you park in a parking deck walk over or something i know we talked years ago about a shuttle service going from the parking decks to the central business district I think all of that works. But even with the revenue portion of the conversation, I would suggest that the dollars that are used, that we all kind of sit together and talk about those priorities. I know you mentioned safety, you mentioned maintenance, but there are so many other things that the dollars can be used for. Marketing. Oh, yes, sir. So many other things that we can be using that money for. I would bring Destination Augusta into the conversation as well. other than just DDA and Augusta Tomorrow, because what Destination Augusta does, a good portion of that trickles into downtown, if not a main portion of it. So great first start, but I will be very much so interested in expanding that stakeholder list because of the amount of industry and partners that we have in a downtown corridor. But good first step.

Thank you. And also, Commissioner, you did hit the nail on the head. That was a discussion in regards to the parking decks and how we market those parking decks better. So that is one of the items that was discussed.

You know, as the downtown commissioner, I might know a little something about what's going on down there. One more time for the record, please. I don't have to say it for the record. It's known. But no, but basically, but you're right. I think the parking decks are our main asset in downtown. And so however we can get people to use those decks would be great because I'll go on record and say it, even with the parking spaces that we have on Broad and paid parking, in the future, we're going to need more parking decks if downtown is going to expand the way that we're hoping that it would expand. And I think that Ella Street would be a great place to do that. So anyhow, good first step, and I look forward to seeing what comes from it.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner, from the first. Can I hear a motion? All right. I got a motion and a second. Got a motion from the Commissioner from the 10th, a second from the Commissioner from the first. Madam Clerk, we're ready to vote. synonymous all right madam clerk team that concludes engineering services thank you