Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, everyone. Welcome. We're here at Thursday, May 14th, 2026. I can't believe that any of those things are true, that it's May already or that we're in 2026. Um, and similarly, I cannot believe we are finally here at this great moment when we are just about ready to launch our uh new judicial center concept plan. We've traveled through stone sleet and pandemics and many years of question marks, but my heavens, your questions will be answered today. So, we have good times, my friends. Um and uh uh we are going to follow the judicial center uh by gatherings with uh many of our elected appointed constitutional officials in preparation for our FY27 budget. Um but to go ahead and begin, I'm going to turn things over to County Manager Bob Cowell.

Thank you, Mayor. Um good news today is that though you're going to get a lot of information, we certainly are wanting reaction to conversation about questions, those kinds of things. Nobody's going to be asked to make any decisions today. Um just give some general direction because you'll see actually we'll talk about it toward the end the need for decisions in June. So that's kind of where we're moving toward that June 2nd meeting. Um as well I think to to sort of reinforce the the mayor's point as we were preparing the agenda report. It was tw least um most recently 28 years ago this conversation started with a space allocation study um which there have been space allocation studies 16 years ago, eight years ago and through through the list there's been obviously a slost approval for an amount that was at that time even less than what was necessary to actually construct a a judicial center. Um and and there have been subsequent conversations. So all that is to say is that this has been a very long conversation that has been going on because understandably this is a very complex very important building. Um and frankly as you can see with the one we're in right now building in a site that we're likely to live with for next 75 to 100 years. I this is not something um that is insignificant as it moves forward. Um during the time in which I was interviewing for this position, uh probably the first conversation I had with you all, um certainly at the retreat, this item um was the top one or two items of of importance to you all, which was move this conversation beyond where we are and let's get this thing actually built. So that was in September. So since September um there has been a lot of work done by a lot of folks um ranging from folks that you'll hear from today about getting the user group together to kind of finalize what the programming would look like making

some final determinations on the best site um to the most appropriate um way in which to fund this um to some of the legal requirements around all of that. All of that work's been going on and um in January the decision was made to recommend the Doherty site where we sit today and there'll be more information about that through through this discussion. Um in May the concept plan that will be presented to you all. So this like a few weeks ago um was recommended by the users group to proceed with this and then of course today we're presenting this information to you all. And then ultimately again June is where we looking for some action that we'll talk about toward toward the end of this. This is all to set the stage so that if approved um a yearish from this time construction or really in this case demolition would be beginning um and there's a lot that has to happen before that obviously um as we as we move forward. Um, the last thing I'll say regarding this is, um, hopefully we have everyone here that should be able to answer every question from what it's like to conduct business in the courthouse um, all the way through to what the design would look like and why up to how we would pay for it and what those requirements are. Um, so hopefully we'll be able to answer as many questions as you have. If not, we'll get those answers because again, we got a little bit of time before we'll be looking for some kind of final direction regarding this as we we so with with that in mind, we're going to start by um covering sort of the concept plan. So, the location and the broad design parameters of what the building would be. We will then shift into a discussion of how that could be paid for and then the necessary steps to achieve that. And if it's at all possible, if you would hold questions until we finish that last piece of it, that would be super helpful. If during that process you hear you misunderstood something or you

didn't quite hear something, please feel free and say, "I didn't hear what you said." You say it again. But um there's so much complexity to this that if we start asking questions, we'll probably get bogged down. If we get through the whole presentation, I think that would be um ideal. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Todd and he's going to walk you through the uh the concept discussion. Thank you, architect with the DR group. I'm Earl Smith. I'm with Professor.

We have the pleasure here to kind of walk you through the concept plan that we've been developing in conjunction and very collaborative process with the work user group. And obviously as we put the pieces of the puzzle together specific to the DY3 site, we want to make sure we had all the minds in the room that we're delivering a concept plan that meets the goals you know of course operationally and also how the building will serve citizens of Athens Clark County now and into the future. So we're going to walk through the agenda here through our sort of programming summary process looking at the building organization which we our stacking option how the pieces and parts go together floor by floor. And then we did a more detailed dive, a test fit of how the building actually would potentially work on the site, how the plans would work to support that moving forward. So, what we started with is reviewing the program when we first started the process was back in 2022. So, we were able to rally the user group and have some one-on-one workshops to go through all the departments and court functions that will be in the building. And so, we did that over a series of a couple days. and we revised uh the numbers that were in the 2022 program. It went up just slightly as you can imagine over you know four to five year delay in where we're at in the program back then uh to where we are currently here in 2025 26. we're able to make some slight adjustments based on operations uh planning for future growth and looking at the growth and and services that are being increased for the betterment of the system and citizens of Athens Park County. So in the in the big numbers on the right, the 179 179,000 square feet as a result of our program refinement if you will, and then there's a series of pieces below the line in black that identify the secure parking uh the vehicle Sallyport and what we're calling kind of a building alignment. When we originally developed the

program, there was an assumption that we would have a little bit more area and so the building was more in the context of a four-story building. But now testing on the site, we're looking at a more of a six-story building with one level that's below grade. So when you think about things that support the operations of the building, just the general building support, you know, elevators, public restrooms, you know, mechanical systems that go on each floor, the building alignment, it take makes that adjustment from what we were thinking originally as a four-story building up to a six-story building. We had to repeat those basic building blocks within the program and repeat those live floor. Additionally, uh based on the footprint of the site we have here at Dardy, we had opportunities as we'll explore in more detail. There's a lot of extreme grade change as you can appreciate walking around the site. So the opportunities to bring things like secure parking and in custody delivery for those individuals coming to court from the sheriff, we had the opportunity to bring that below the building in the most secure environment possible. So that's why we're noting the salipore in the secure parking within those numbers to get us to the 218,000 what we call building growth square feet. And so later in the presentation when we talk about cost of project, we're using that 218,000 number to give a more accurate representation of where we think we're at today based on budget and total building square footage. So with that, what we started to do is once we refined the program and understood what the pieces and parts specific to support the courts and all the departments that are in the building, we did what's called a blocking and stacking section. So this is like you take a dollhouse, you know, cut a cut open and look inside. So we took all those departments and divisions and organized them by floor. And there's a things that are a series of strategies when we want to one serve the public,

right? provide a good customer service experience and also understanding how the different departments and divisions within the court work so that staff are not moving you know up several floors and we want to create an environment where staff can walk across the hall or walk next door to have that synergy and efficiency in their overall operations. So what we did is kind of sort of summarize that here on this slide. So still applying to this or vertical organization if you will what we call our stacking diagram. So at the top of the list was obviously from that customer service experience is bring what we're calling the high volume functions where you have a lot of population coming into the court and coming out bringing those functions down to the lower two floors where possible and the key components of that would be the clerk of the court obviously sheriff operations and the municipal court that is the most high volume functions that we have in the courthouse. In the stacking diagram, there was also an ability to create a single floor that would house all of our superior court functions. So that way their their program from the court side is the largest program element. So we did look at things where we would split them by floor but ultimately having this onf flooror adjacency so staff are not moving the public coming in to superior court having to go between different floors having them all collocated on the single floor seemed like the best approach to make that a very positive working environment and experience for the public. There's a lot of synergy we move down to the third bullet. There's a lot of synergy between state court and the solicitor. So in this blocking and stacking diagram on the fifth floor we have that onf flooror adjacency with the solicitor department and the state court. So there's that synergy both from the staff side and from the public. Fourth bullet we have the district attorney this case on the top floor of the building and they have a large

departmental area but they also the one who manage the grand jury operations. So we're able to bring that collocation onto the common floor to make that a very efficient function as well. The next bullet as we talk about the treatment services function within the courthouse and the juvenile court function. So one in the in the stacking organization today we have both of those functions side by side sharing a floor. The other thing that was built into that adjacency is that in the future, many many many years down the road, if there were to be a relocation of that function, which sometimes will happen based on the the the type of operations from the juvenile operation and the treatment services that would allow us then to grow additional courtrooms in that footprint based on that organization by having those pieces sitting side by side in the organization of the building. And then we have the clerk of court and jur jury assembly. Both of those the clerk of the court manages the jury assembly operations. Those are both colloccated on the second floor of the building. And to make better operation even the staff and the visiting public were suggesting there's a commuter stair. You'll see that in the planning diagrams so individuals can come up a set of stairs right to jury assembly and take some of that load and pressure off the elevators. And then the last bullet point is in the lower level of the building we do have our central holding component. So that's the most secure and sensitive area of the program. So having that below the building sort of out of sight and the very secure environment adjacent to secure parking seemed like a very built-in natural benefit of the site we have here at 12 west starting. So the deeper dive and the u organization of the building is not just to look at this mathematical organization operational organization floor by floor. We wanted to then look

at each floor individually and understand specific to the boundaries of this site vehicle access you know for building access both vehicles and pedestrians. understand how those pieces and parts how does the puzzle come together and provide us a true test fit to understand from a pricing standpoint and operational standpoint where we stand in the overall achievements of this particular site and location. So we're going to take a little bit of a deeper dive and kind of go through a high level kind of floor by floor. So this is the first floor plan. And so we started with this option because there's going to be a lot of colors on the plan and it may be hard to read. But the key backbone of a courthouse, a modern courthouse is separate circulation systems for the public, the staff, and those uh the secure movement for those in custody. So this diagram is the footprint of you know conceptual footprint of the first floor but it's right now highlighting on the first floor those three separate circulation systems and you'll see that repeated on each floor as we start to bring on and highlight where all those departments and court divisions are located. So anytime you see this lighter yellow that's where the public moves throughout the building. So the general circulation for public is kind of in this L configuration. with the main public entry and access and elevator core in the right hand corner, the bottom right hand corner of the slide. From an orientation standpoint, we've provided a a light outline of where the intersection of Lumpin and Dhy Street is. So, right now in this concept, there's kind of a corner entry if you will. Uh so bringing people and that's the highest point of the site. So it's strategic in that way in this concept is that it brings you know it's closest one it's closest to the intersection it gives us secondly it gives us an opportunity to have the building rise out of the ground ever so

slightly and provide a really natural access to that lower level as we move to the north and to the west of the site uh for the secure parking and the functions that will be under the building. The light blue circulation corridor is for staff. And so that all happens behind the scenes and separate from the public movement. And then on this particular floor, there's these kind of a darker supposed to be kind of a burgundy boxes. Those are the elevator systems that bring from the central holding that's in the lower level. Come up to the upper floors of the building. And you'll see as we get to the upper levels where there's little mini holding areas between pairs of courtrooms that allows that movement and activity to happen out of sight, out of mind from the staff and the public movement. It's a it's a security feature that's not present in your building today. So I just wanted to highlight that because that's one of the key drivers as we one organize the building and provide that level of security for the public. And so the next slide is a repeat of the first floor, but now you have the other colors coming on board to see where the departments programmatic functions are actually laying out on this floor. So again, you still see the yellow circulation in that L configuration. In the bottom right hand corner is where we addressing the corner of Lumpin and Dardy. And that would be we consider our main entrance to the building. And although it's not shown in that level of detail, there will be that's where your security screening is. That's where people come in uh go through screening and then enter uh the building. The green area bottom is the sheriff's operations. One of the things that was important about the sheriff being located on the first floor has that visual presence oversight for security on the first floor and it also put them just one floor removed from the central holding where their staff will be moving up and down. So having that one floor

separation seem to make a lot of sense and obviously importantly had that line of sight to the front door and entry. the court functions that happen to be on this floor because of the high volume of the population. In the orange or to the top of the drawing is the municipal court. So there is a single courtroom associated with municipal court and then the balance of the orange area is representative of office and staff areas that support municipal court. A darker gray in the back is our building support typically located on the first floor because that's a lot of your service mechanical electrical type rooms. That's the building that tends to want to be in the first that ease of access and maintenance. As you can see, the the light blue circulation corridor does connect behind the scenes. So all that. So anyone moving between the sheriff's office to municipal court, all that happens separately behind the scenes. And there's a set of either stairs or elevators to support that movement vertically up into the we jump to the second floor. Again, the same kind of L-shaped circulation pattern for the public in the yellow. If we work from kind of left, the bottom left, and work our way around counterclockwise, the two larger gray areas are for the clerk of the court and jury assembly. As we mentioned in the building organization, having those two colloc provided some operational efficiencies and it allowed the jury assembly to be not on the first floor but a close proximity to the core floors that are above. We have the alternate dispute resolution kind of at the corner and kind of the army green color. And then the balance of the floor is public defender and the magistrate court. And we're noting for magistrate we do have two courtrooms. So the numbers one and two represent their litigation spaces and the balance of the light blue area kind of the gray blue

area is where their staff and support spaces are occurring. Again behind the scenes in that light blue circulation quarter is where staff will move out of sight of the public and then they access their public elevator course and those kind of blade bright blue boxes and attack. They mentioned earlier the security aspect of having those who are in custody not circulate in the staff for the public circulation. There is the burgundy box that is in the middle. I'll try to use the cursor highlighter here. Steal me to do that. So this area and you'll see this repeated on floors. That's our holding area. So any individual that's in custody in that lower level central holding area will be able to access this elevator and security transport officers will bring those individuals up, hold them here and then they have access to both courtrooms that are on that floor. That pairing of courtrooms around that holding area is a common building block and sort of how the building was organized and laid out. Moving up to the third floor, as we mentioned kind of in the in the introduction, you know, talking about a single floor dedicated to superior court functions, they had within the program, those four main litigation spaces with an additional fifth space for a hearing room. I would say that as we looked at the program and the courtroom and litigation spaces, the user groups and team worked, you know, quite well together and looking at right sizing courtrooms. It's not every courtroom at a certain size. Based on functions of the courtroom, we're able to adjust the size to be very efficient with the program and and tune essentially fine-tune legisation spaces to meet the needs of the court. So on this particular floor, there is again the four main what I call standard

or um courtrooms that that work on the floor with two larger courtrooms that support you know high volume cases. And in the fifth space would be our hearing room space. Balance as a the gold yellow area is a staff support space, judicial chambers, jury deliberation rooms, all the things that support the court behind the scenes. As a as a repeat, this yellow circulation zone is where the public will circulate on and have access to all the courtrooms and litigation spaces on that floor. And again that building block between the pairs of courtrooms we have holding areas that are serving the central holding area below the building where ser transport or bring individuals up to the upper floor. Moving up to the fourth floor. This L-shaped configuration of the public circulation really starts to serve as quite in this particular floor because we do have a mix of of juvenile court and the probate court. While there are some synergies in both of those operations, they do have different clientele. And so the ability to use the shape of the floor plan to create two separate zones on the plan and you have more environments for juveniles uh environments for probate allows us to create that onore adjacency for staff behind the scenes. But it creates a little bit of autonomy and separation for the experience for those coming to those two different court types. And then at the end of the plan, we do have our treatment services. So as we mentioned earlier, which does have an operational relationship uh for the juvenile court operations. So the plans are starting to work fairly nicely and how we want those to work and create those on floor adjacencies for staff efficiencies and and access efficiencies.

Moving up to the fifth floor, we have the collocation of the solicitor and the state court. So to the top of the plan to the north in this kind of beige area is the solicitor's office. And to the bottom, we have our two courtrooms dedicated to state court chambers and jury deliberation room with staff spaces that support the state court. Back here in this corner, light blue circulation corridor allows judges and staff to move in a secure manner to and from those courtrooms to staff spaces. The adjacency of the solicitor allows it to them to greet the public here on this edge and also there's some ability to work across the line behind the scenes on the uh private circulation zone. again supporting the courtrooms. We have a holding area between those two courtrooms to bring individuals that are in custody up to the floor. And the balance of the floor is located in this location as court administration. So moving up to the top floor, this is a relatively simple floor. Majority of the plan is dedicated to the district attorney space and the balance of the floor. We have the grand jury room which we mentioned that the district attorney over that that space. So to have that that adjacency is quite important. We do have the added benefit is that we can while it's not typical we do have the added benefit where we could bring individuals that are in custody in a safe secure manner up to the grand jury room because we have this opportunity for this adjacency to that elevator uh that could bring those individuals up out of the public circulation. And then the balance of the floor in this area is our IT support for the for the building. We've kind of moved up through the building one through six. Now we're going to take a step back and go down to the lower level. And so this is where we

start to see the building footprint accommodate a secure parking that is now below the building. In the green area we have the central holding for those individuals that are being transported from the jail to the port. And we talk about a vehicle sallyport. This zone here is our vehicle Sallyport Drive. One of the goals when we move to this location and this new building is to be able to transport those who are in custody with the bus. So to be very efficient about how we get individuals to and from the courthouse. And so the drive lane and the access is accommodating that bus. And so they will they will park in here pump like a secure garage. They will unload and load individuals coming into the holding area and then back out. When we look at the site plan, the idea is that this is a drive-thru sally port is not in a secure environment. You're not having to bring that vehicle off the street back up negotiate when you have kind of a sensitive event happening. Uh this will be happening sort of out of sight in a very secure manner in a way that they just pull in, drive through and come right out the other side. Again, the balance of the floor is our secure parking area. Those elevators that would serve um staff movement would come down. So these light blue elevators would serve those individuals parking in the secure parking lot and bring them up to the upper floors of the building. Those red kind of burgundy elevators are the two that serve those holding areas on the court floor. For those individuals that are in the central holding area, we use one of those two elevators to travel up in the building to have access to the courtrooms on the upper floors. If there is an opportunity or a need for visitation, then we can bring some public down to that lower level depending how we want to solve visitation for those of clients or indiffs. And then the gray areas as we mentioned when we looked at the overall program

there was opportunities to have secure record storage and and sort of that low cost footage in the lower level that type of so now we're going to sort of jump quickly in sort of the last few slides kind of look at the approach of how that building planning concept was thought about as it related specifically to this site here at one point at West Dy. So, a quick sort of high level analysis. We look at this intersection of Lumpin and DY. As we mentioned, this corner is the highest part of the site and it starts to slope down, you know, somewhat drastically as we go to the west on Dhy or to the north along Lumpin. So, the idea is that if there were to be people navigating to the site, that being at that high point and be able to cross at a signaled intersection at Lumpin and Dohy made a lot of sense. those coming I guess west down Dherty being able to cross at that high point and then bring people into the building. So we've noted this sort of edge or this corner as kind of our civic edge for that activity to happen. And obviously a lot of that frontage and all authority we think about the presentation of a courthouse in a downtown environment and having it being visibly recognized as a courthouse and a building of importance. Those two edges jumped out as sort of our primary edges. the private edges that would be more along the extension of Strong Street and the edge against the church. We thought about being that you know being more of the private side of the building because there are activities of like building service secure access for those coming through the um vehicle sally port and kind of making those more quieter sides of the building where it's more limited access shows up in kind of our site plan diagram that we'll we'll look at here in just a second. So building upon uh that diagram we're just looking at, this is a more detailed

kind of layout and you can see the attention to where the access points are for vehicles accessing secure parking and the entry. So this orangish um peach color here is at that corner of Lumpin already that being our primary entry point. So it could be this elevated plaza, you know, kind of a civic space associated with our courthouse building accessing the front door, which is that yellow circulation zone we looked at in the plans. Keeping the curb cut along with DY allows us to utilize that parking with some minor reconfiguration uh just to have some control elements about vehicles that this is more for secure parking as it's currently um laid out here. The first drive would be access to the lower level parking for secure parking. This would be some overflow secure parking here that would be gated and controlled but not sort of visually barricaded if you will. And then to the top of the page or to the more northern edge, we have the drive-thru for the vehicle Sallyport. So entry off of Dy coming into the the back of the site, circulating through picking up and dropping off and exiting out on Tumpin. So that that right now the design is accommodating the circulation and turning radiuses for the bus to make that happen and access under the building. And then the service element here at the corner of Strong Street at Lumpkin. So that'll be kind of more of a backend kind of drop off delivery in that in that particular location. We do have opportunities that the team has explored and there's probably one thing in the site layout that'll take further investigation is we do want to have some level of immediate ADA access parking. Um, we do have an opportunity to do that there. We've since had some conversations about potential more access points off of Strong Tree that

might allow us to rethink how that how that occurs. So, we think there's a lot of positives even moving forward about us to fine-tune and even improve on where we're at today. There's a suggestion here of a of a bus drop off and curb cut along this corner for additional um public transportation to have that immediate access to the courthouse. So, on the upper right hand side, we're showing anal parking count. We have about 53 spaces total associated for secure parking. A mix of you know 26 under the building and 27 at the surface. And then we have the opportunity and what's shown here with the surface lot and using the on street parking of just a four spaces that would be more of an immediate day-to-day ADA access. So just for sort of further like study and analy analyzing building and the opportunities uh we know that a six stories is going to be you know a pretty significant structure within downtown. Uh so understanding how the building and the architecture could one create obviously a floor plan that works efficiently supports and this and the visiting public but also finding moments and opportunities where the building could maybe step back and be sensitive to the neighbors and understanding you can sort of transition that scale of the building based on the program and sort of operations of a court. tend to have what we call a very high volume podium level. The building first two or three floors tend to have more program function. The building will sort of tear us in as we get to floors. So, it started to show that on the back side of the building as we're looking at along this this edge here along Strong Street, the building can step back and be a little bit more sensitive in the scale. And we know that this is a study. We're kind of just dipping our toe in sort of the exterior of the architecture, but understanding where those opportunities are. We've had

some conversations obviously about planning and zoning and understanding those requirements of like how we rescale the building and make it adjust at that two to three story level. So that's all things that we would continue to evolve. And sort of along those lines, we took these basic blocks, if you will, and just started to to map, if you will, some moments to suggest some architecture. Again, these are not designs, and we have not, you know, the design process for us, the crop group team in the room with you. And while we've had these conversations about organization and planning and operations, you know, what it means to be a building in downtown Athens car county is a conversation where we have people in the room. we understand what that means and what's that what's what's important how do we express you know a courthouse you know for the next 75 years so this is starting just to suggest that if we're looking at that intersection of lumpin and dhy is there something that scales the building down that creates a sort of front porch and like this is where the entry is that clearly defines where people come to the front of the courthouse could there be some moment in vertical expression that creates that sort of clock tower you know that that thing that's recognizable in our traditional courthouse house buildings. And then the next slide is kind of looking from DHY looking east. So it's you start to see here that transition in the scale. So we're trying to bring that sort of threestory scale of the building to be a little more sensitive to the neighbors that are immedely adjacent to it. But again, these are things that are still evolving and be part of our design process moving forward. I think that's it for the ex sort the concept plan conversation.

We can either move into the financial discussion or I guess if we want to take questions. Do you all want to dive in just to kind of the physical contours first and then we can talk separately about the financial component? Melissa. Yeah. Um where is the moon tree on this site plan? be under the buildings. Under the buildings, that's coming out.

So, one important thing knowing that this was likely to be the site is we've tked our community forester to work on propagating it. They're collecting seeds and working with the university on cloning it. So, much like our tree that owns itself is technically a daughter of the tree that owns itself. We're exploring ways to honor its legacy. Um, I also have a question about um kind of the legacy of this building. which was once the public library. Um there's some interesting like art elements on this building out the tile.

The tiles. Yeah. I'm not sure the story be behind those, but I'm sure there is a story. Um, I just want to make sure that somehow those tiles get reused and repurposed in some kind of onsite art element kind of honor the history of what's been here before. Anything else about the bill component, Dexter? Yeah, I brought this speaker legacy. We got first meet. I'm sitting right there and you know just a huge facility and is going to impact hoping

they're going revolution but what but the impact it's going to have on that community talk about legacy but what is this trait going to do with the members of that community and attending church on Sunday although we don't have court on Sunday but you know they do have some programming there summer camp sometime they do conferences there so they're going to be impacted eventually. So, um, we really need to take that in consideration. I know county man has reached out to them and had those conversation, but we really need to take this site in consideration about first a me and I just think about the site on broad where my church is and you don't see these until you get right up on it. And I just, you know, um, like this side, it it bothers me. But again, I know we just encourage.

Uh Allison and Carol,

you know, I like pictures like talking. They're all good. I like following your later uh and the the methodology about the public, private, and secure spot. I really like the way that we maintain the surface parking next to the neighboring property that's historical and and sizewise to help us move to what u the space that we need to be a modern um and safe dignified area for the judicial center. Um, and then the picture, can you go back one where it's next to the ugly housing back to one of the slides? That one. So, you know, as far as it having the heavier side towards this, I I appreciate that that decision. And then behind the uncommon, that's our surface. Is that still us thinking of parking? Because I think Dexter when we talk about the community and who uses what parking we we have other ideas.

Yes. So one of the one of the things that was mentioned um is there is very very limited ability to accommodate parking on site. So it's really looking at secure parking on site. So we are well aware that there is a need for additional parking which is going to come in the form of a parking deck. And so one of the options is to Commissioner Wright's point and you can see it on one of the slides on there but in this image just to the right of the uncommon is a lot that we own. It was actually a part of one of the other sites that we looked at and analyzed as for a courthouse. Um and it is one of the potential locations. So about a half a block away would be one of the locations for a parking deck. Other options would we don't own other options. So you'd have to look at are there other properties in close proximity you would attempt to purchase or or otherwise. So right now and we haven't done any layout any design any of those kinds of things but it is certainly going to be a necessity that parking get developed concurrent with the development of this project. Now parking will be able to be constructed faster if you will than the the courthouse itself. But um the goal would be that when the courthouse opens so does available parking. um associated with with it and it's going to come again in the form of a of some kind of parking deck, but it's not it's going to be in proximity to this. The most likely candidate is the one that you just mentioned,

right? And that's public and some staff, right? Because the secure parking, which is also an element that we lack now is um for those who are coming in through the salad port as well as the um additional right now. our parking that we make available to everyone. There is no secure parking. You know, the Sallyport access is directly off the public street right around the corner. Um those pieces are pretty easily accommodated on this site. It's the more general public parking that would have to be accommodated and off-site structure.

Right. And so then my question is the secure parking both outside and within is that the the correct number or do we need more sec is the secure being adequately covered with your plan? I think we we have those conversations. I feel like it's the realm of like the immediate we we certainly have all the secure parking under the building, you know, for elected officials and then we have that overflow parking. So we're we're always trying, you know, you can always take one more space. We feel like the number that we're at today is is is satisfying the needs of the building. And I I also like the bus stop in the front to help with public access. Um and with the parking

that that it's a slide previous to this one. If we could just look at that since we just discussed it the exterior view one before. Well, it shows the parking lot really clearly. Oh, well. Okay. Okay. 16 page 16. It's not a It's talking about the tan picture. The picture with the tan block massing the massing on it and the trees and everything 16 that one. Yeah. Yeah. That one. So over there on the right one on the left all the way over to the left is the lot we're talking about city that's owned by ACC go. That's the most likely candidate at this point.

Right. And then by leaving it for as a surface lot that's not the numbers we need. Right. Correct. Correct. So, we definitely would need more than that. Yes. Yes. So, then we'd still have the other parking deck, but we we're going to be talking about this parking deck soon because Yes. So, back to the the this building. My question was on the design because made it real clear that this is just like you just came up with something, right, to show us. We're not What is the design process and how um you know, how many steps? How is the public involved? How is it you know for the outside and the architecture? Um what is that process like?

So involvement we would you know engage you know the mayor and commissioner to understand what that process looks like and how you want things out. Certainly within the internal you know user group team and we have a very much you know collaborative process. we have like a visioning session understand you know when you you think about this courthouse you know being here for the next 75 years and what does that resonate with you what makes it specific to Atlas Park County so we do a lot of have a lot of conversations really before we ever put sort of pencil to paper if you will and because we wanted to solicit input and develop a building that resonates with the community

so would that actually since you're sitting right there next to Josh um and the capital projects like if we're looking at the on a very much smaller scale the firehouse way out on the east side. So we have an architect firm but then you are kind of would you be coordinating Josh the capital projects department like with the public input and any kind of in the same way we do with other splash projects. Yes. In this case uh the engagement is centered around the existing stakeholder group that being the user group and the court officials that have been way through. there might be some need for some active public information and opportunity for feedback um in the next phases.

Yeah, I'm just thinking about that like not the internal but the exterior because it has such a significant impact, you know, like I walk by city hall and it's, you know, I'm always taking pictures of it and it's so impressive. This is a a a lifetime building that's going to be here for years and years. So

yeah, I think we would we would probably there's a couple steps involved with with kind of that piece. I think one of those is um see this as soon as tomorrow is we're we're trying to really increase what it is that we're making publicly available for folks to be able to track this all the way along. So for example, tomorrow and on from here there'll be frequently asked questions posted um that cover a lot of the points we're making in the presentation here. And so a piece of it will be all the way through the design process there'll be some public facing information consistently updated. Uh another piece of it as as was mentioned obviously the users for the inside involved in the design all the way through. Um there will be periodic opportunities for us to as as the design progresses particularly on the exterior that we would figure out a way in which to have some kind of public open house some kind of public kind of discussion associated with that. Similarly, we would bring back those steps to you all along the way. The kind of the two benchmarks, if you will, is if if we're able to move forward as soon as early June, we basically have early June till, if I understand correctly, kind of third quarter 27 is our design window in order to hit the construction targets that we have. So, what we have to do is fit all of those opportunities into that time frame. Um, and so that's what we would do is is do those those pieces. We would not, you know, we want to do the we want to do the engagement with user groups with obviously the American commission, obviously with the public to make certain the design is what we all want. We also need to be cognizant of what timeline is get to the finish line. But that's inside that.

So like by the end of next summer that design all that should be done so that we can Yeah. I just don't want to leave the impression for folks that, you know, between June and the end of next summer, they won't hear or see anything. There'll be Right. Right. There'll be updates all along the way and involvement all along the way. Just setting the stage kind of to know that that third quarter is kind of the date at which we have to have the design done to hit the target for the construction. Melissa.

Yeah. So, we currently have a user group that's had input all along um to determine the layout the building. um folks who work the courthouse. Um I would request that we appoint a second user group of folks from the rest of the committee who will be impacted by this. definitely from the AM church, maybe um someone at the bequest of historic Athens um you know someone from the commission to participate in the front end um exterior design process to kind of assure that you know that is launched in a direction that the public will find accessible acceptable. I'll note in terms of process, you know, something that I think we learn from the arena district design development process is is doing some specific outreach and and rather than maybe have a duplicative committee or another committee that that has that formality of structure. You know, just doing some targeted invitation, you know, might be an effective route. Um,

we got a lot of cooks in the kitchen and I'm very conscious as time goes on. a lot more effective when you know instead of these dropin sessions with five bands you know you have some intense discussion on the front end among you know the most impacted users or community members and then you move on to that general public

and I think there's a way perhaps to kind of bridge both of those um you know a good example of that is I mean I've already committed to the pastor that you know you will be engaged with them throughout the process. And maybe a good intermediate would be something akin to kind of like a focus group kind of thing where you kind of convene a smaller group of directly influential or impacted stakeholders as you're working your way through. It's not a committee. Um they're there to give more nuanced and specific input into I mean that may be another way we can about it as we go. Yeah, I definitely want to ensure that there are, you know, folks from that immediate impact that are engaged at the very front end.

And I think the goal would be that if if we're in agreement in June to proceed, one of the work products we will owe you back is what does that community engagement process look like through design and similarly there'll be another reset for that through construction because different parties will need to be kept up to date and up to speed during construction also. So that'll be a five day. Anything else on design before we move to the fiscal element? All right, let's talk pennies.

First, I want to say um just want to take a moment to express some gratitude to um the design team, Crop and DLR. has taken an exceptional effort to bring this concept to you today and and others as well, the court officials and staff. I just want to acknowledge their their work and ongoing. I know they're eager to kind of bring this building to life for you. Um so one of the symptoms for that uh quick reminder about the concept and commissioner Wright mentioned of value of providing some images uh and certainly these visuals are helpful in making some of the decisions that are going to be in front of you in the short range. Um I do want to offer kind of a reminder of what phase of the process we're in with concept and that um what what I want you to focus on is kind of the scale orientation that what we want to do here will work on this property. Um but that we will bring back the schematic plan to you later this year. And don't be surprised. I just didn't want you to be surprised if there are some adaptations and modifications of some of the things that we've shown you here. A lot of work to be done uh as we sharpen pencils on this. So, I just I wanted to prep that. Um but I do hope that the visuals that you've seen today are helpful in what we've got uh coming to you in this next agenda cycle. So, you've got your agenda setting next Wednesday vote session June 2nd. And there are kind of three things that will be included in that. And I want to be careful in this presentation to make sure and identify what what is what we're asking for in this agenda cycle and then what's to be answered at a

later date. Certainly there are implications of what we're deciding in this agenda cycle for a later date and we should probably talk about those. I just want to be clear about what it is we're doing now and what's ahead of us, excuse me, in the future. Manager Cal's comments kind of reminded me uh back in September at your retreat when I first walked in and I saw the butcher board up on the walls of where it looked like y'all had gone through just these exercises of what's important to you. And I remember seeing either the word courthouse or judicial center and on there like four or five times and in big letters. So, uh hopefully what today represents and this agenda cycle represents is some meaningful steps towards something that is clearly important to you. Um and I know we're eager to get started on that as well. Okay. So there there are three things really that I want to offer to you in the next couple of slides and then I'll stop and I'm sure there are some things you'll want to uh discuss. First is uh expected project costs which we'll identify for you. The thing that I want you to remember is is the u um the funding gap that that project cost will identify. We know we've got some money uh currently in hand. Um and then next we would talk about the kind of structure that we're recommending to use in order to cover that financing gap. Uh and then lastly is kind of blending uh the the process of bringing the building to life and the process of of of um bringing the resources that's necessary for construction on board kind of together and showing you that sequencing in one picture. So, I'll pause there and let you just take a

take a look at the numbers and then I'll highlight a few things. First thing I want to point out in these numbers is what's included and then what's not included in here. Uh, one of the things that is included is what's necessary to sustain the existing courthouse. Over there on the right side up at the top, uh, you'll see some numbers that reflect what's committed to sustaining the existing courthouse over a period of years. Um you'll also see on the left side kind of towards the bottom is included uh some resources for staff relocation that are in this facility today that will need to be somewhere else for a period of time. What's not included on here? One of the things that we've already talked about and is front of mind for all of us and that is a future parking structure is not included in these figures right here. The other thing that's not included in these figures right here is preparation of the existing courthouse for whatever its next life is. We are we feel like we are able to sustain the existing courthouse for some period of time. Uh but in order to prepare it for you know a future a future life that's a question that we'll have to answer on another day that not included in these numbers. Uh a couple of other things that I will point out here uh is we have uh 10% looking on the left side 10% design contingency. We have included 5% escalation through 2027 uh as well as 10% contingency for the project uh overall. Uh

and then finally if you take total expected cost of the project and consider the amount of money that we have currently the difference there is that bottom line as you see on the right side in the middle and that is $148 million. On the next slides, when I reference financing or project financing, what I'm talking about is how to cover that gap, the $148 million uh difference between the money that we have uh and the expected project cost here.

Josh, this is just a question on that on that. What does SP number two stand for? Sub project two. So when you see sub project number two, that's the existing courthouse. Okay, got it. Repairs, HPC, uh variety of things. Yeah, elevators. Correct. Can't forget those. Josh, what do I miss? What do we have right now? So what we got in the bank right right there at the top of the right side indicates the full uh splot project. So that's 77 million. Okay.

Now we have spent some of that on the existing courthouse and that's what's reflected there either encumbered or spent that four and a half there if you look two numbers down. I see it. That's what I thought. 77 what? Yes sir. So the difference is what we have to have potentially borrows to 140 million. That's correct. Okay. What's the 53 the the 5.3 million can you change can you trans

so there are some uh when we're thinking about the existing courthouse we have specifically identified uh some uses of 4 and a.5 million but we anticipate there being between now and whenever a new judicial center is constructed and ready for occupancy additional needs in the existing courthouse that 5.3 would cover uh what's needed to sustain that building. That's just because we're going to be in it for a few more years and stuff is going to continue to be right. So that's not redesign, that's just keeping it up. We're trying to be sustainment,

right? And and the good, if there is a good part, I suppose as we invest in things like roofs and to some degree the elevators, you know, those those dollars will still be of value when we request the courthouse. We're trying to minimize the expenses on things that would simply be torn out on the courouses reused. But an effective roof is an effective roof no matter what goes on

on the um demolition development. Um that number looks low um to me. We already looked at the um study and see that looked like T should be that's a low number $750,000 site development. You talking about demo demo demo? I'm saying just demoing alone, right? Yes, sir. Look at that next line. Uh passed it. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Demolition is just Okay. My bad.

There there's a lot of civil work to be done and that line is just specifically deadlines. Okay. Okay. All right, I'm sure there are other questions. Let me proceed to the next one and then we can come back to this one if we're sure.

So, this slide is intended to illustrate the uh structure framework that we're recommending for generating the resources necessary to cover that $148 million cap. The first thing that I want to say about this structure is that it's commonly used throughout Georgia on these kinds of projects. There are variety of ways in which local governments like yourselves can fund projects uh with guidance from the legal team and management team. This is the structure that we're recommending um to you and it actually builds on an action that you've already taken in 2003. Uh you've set this up. Say again. 23. Oh, what did I say?

2023.

Very sorry. 2023. Uh, you set up this structure for a different purpose and set it up uh to implement some opportunity zones. I want to be clear that what we were what we're doing here would not affect the opportunity zones, but it is the same framework. Um, just to accomplish a different task. first two uh blocks up here, the blue one and the green one are the ones that you would uh that would be achieved in this agenda report that you're going to see this cycle. And it does two things. It amends the urban redevelopment plan that you already have that was approved in 2023. uh and it redefineses kind of the the geographic area to include this piece of property right here. Um some findings of necessity for redevelopment of this area. Um and uh and a description of the project that's imagined. The second thing that it would do is create an urban redevelopment agency and that agency would be responsible for implementing the redevelopment would also be responsible for issuing the bonds necessary that would generate that for construction. Uh and so if we move into those second two blocks, those two would be achieved later this year, but would be a necessary part of of this framework here. That being an intergovernmental agreement that uh sets up the arrangement where the redevelopment agency would issue bonds to finance construction uh and that the unified government uh would then agree to make capital outlay payments back to that redevelopment agency uh so that they can make the debt service payments over time.

Again, let me go back to and this this is the the the resolution that achieves this is going to be attachment number two in your agenda report. So, pay attention to that. It's it's the blue and the green block up there that we would try to achieve in that um in that action. And your the orange so the the arrangement the intergovernmental agreement between the unified government and the urban redevelopment agency would be later this year fourth quarter. Any questions about just the steps in that process?

I want to clarify that the members of the urban redevelopment agency would be uh actually they're called commissioners under Georgia code statute that authorizes these redevelopment agencies would be the mayor and commission as well. So the mayor serving as chair and the mayor proar Tim serving as vice chair secretary. Thank you. So much like I do most mornings we'd be speaking to oursel in the mirror and coming to an agreement. So we wouldn't have any other people on this. It would just be us. So this this is this is like a formality required by the statement in order to issue bonds for something like this

because you have to enter into the intergovernmental agreement. So there has to be another entity to do that with. And currently since the agency already exists currently you all are already the members of that of that agency. That was the action that was taken in 2020. I can see before 2023 is last amended 2023.

All right. All right. This is my last slide and then we can and field uh field questions. So this is the sequence of events uh effectively from here on out that blends together the process of bringing the building to life as well as the process of uh securing the resources necessary um for construction starting with what's coming up in your agenda cycle now. Again, that is saying yes, we like this location. Yes, we like the building concept that you've just seen. And we like this this financing structure, this framework of using the urban redevelopment plan and agency and issuing bonds um to secure those resources necessary. Then again, then we would turn around pretty quickly. And one of the things I want, let me let me pause and point out. Um, you see up there, where is it? The yellow in the middle. Uh, Maring Commission approval of construction manager at risk. Uh, so we believe that this project is a good candidate for using a delivery method that's a little bit different uh from the traditional method of construction. Typically um what you would expect is for us to go through a process of designing the building all the way through to construction documents and then we uh solicit for a builder to take those documents and and build. It's called design bid build sequential process. The alternative that we're recommending here is construction manager at risk.

It's something we It's a delivery method that we've used in the past. Um, and we feel like it might be a good candidate here as well. The difference is that we bring a construction manager on earlier, so a builder on earlier to be involved in the design process a little more than they ordinarily would. and we would turn around and procure that uh that construction manager here over course of the summer and be ready to bring that to you here before the end of the year. Um the idea, the theory is that by bringing the builder on earlier and helping in the design process that it helps to make the building a reality sooner. Sometimes it works out like that, sometimes it doesn't, but that will be the intent. Um, so I did want to point that out because that is something that's a little bit different and it makes the sequencing of what we're asking for a little bit different. So you will see that this fall as well as we we expect to be uh be able to offer you a schematic design. So taking the concept that you just saw and it but far more detailed and far more specific about what it is we intend to build um as well as the intergovernmental agreement that would set up the arrangement between the unified government and the redevelopment agency. Um so this summer would would be a busy time. I know your finance staff and financial advisors and um and and fun council would uh be working hard to put together a plan for financing. Uh your design crew would be bringing uh building your schematic plan. Um and we will be working towards uh next year first part of next year

final design and complet uh final design and perhaps we could get started on some demolition and site work um in the middle of next year. Um, you know, the design crew will kind of help us out with what the sequencing and timing of that will be. Uh, and get ready to start construction in uh, 2028 into 2029. I already see some hands up, so I I will stop. I do want to offer a couple of final thoughts. Um, one thing that's just kind of always on our minds as we're working on this project is this is a building that won't just matter for the people that are here now. This will serve for generations. And so we want to make sure that this is an asset that's durable and stands the test of time. Uh that's just something we are also keeping in mind just the importance of the activity that takes place within and the role that the judicial system plays in in our government and everything that we do. Those are things that that we try to keep in mind. Um

let me stop there and then I'm sure we'll have some things to talk about questions. Well, first of all Josh, thank you for y'all finally decide to go this process with the You know what I'm saying? Which I've been preaching for the last four years. I get things done. For me though, what I like to see and I'm not sure whether or not y'all can do this or both. I like to see our numbers though. What what's what's going to be the cost? Think that needs to be and we have some of that information.

Okay. Well, I think it needs to be public needs know and we need to know if they ask us to take a vote in June. they need to be out here so we can understand what that cost is going to be. Um

yeah and one of the one of those and we didn't say this in this speech but certainly there is kind of biggest answer to that question is there is an expectation that the debt that would be issued for this would be retired through a futures lost initiative. So that would be your source of revenue um to be able to retire the debt and because otherwise you're retiring it through a a millage increase most likely with. So we can give you kind of both of those scenarios of what that 148 million ultimately looks like by the time you get all the cost in and also what that annual debt service would mean um relative to the uh the millage increase that would be necessary to support that. So yes, we have those numbers and we can certainly provide those as we further into this.

Right. I think we should that we need to see those numbers and again thank you Josh for y'all finally deciding to do this build and construct that. That's the best way to go and I hope in the future we'll continue to go down this road in our supply type project. It makes sense.

Yeah. I think the the one of the keys to that to using the construction manager at risk you know Josh has already mentioned which is they're working side by side with the designers and doing in effect the value engineering live instead of waiting till you get a design and figuring out oh that's too expensive now how do we reduce it the other benefit it gets in that slide that Josh had up there is you know in that November time frame is the the approval of a guaranteed maximum price and so you know what the item is going to cost going into the contractor is assuming that risk. That's that's the whole concept of it um at that point. And so there is not that normal cadence of sign bid, hope that the bid came into the budget that you have, and if it doesn't, how do you lower the stance of what you're trying to do and then get into a series of um change orders subsequent to that and all that? This um you know, this this is a a process designed to lessen the chances that those things.

Sure. Yeah, I was making the same point that Dexter was about the the anticipated cost and where it's coming from and different different alternatives of where it could come from as well. Um, and I I think when you and and from what you just said, you'll present us with that before we're voting on this uh bond, of course. Um, and you know the talk about using the next floss to pay the debt here. When you present that, I'd like you to make it clear to us how spending I'm making a number up like a hundred million or 70 million for the debt for this. How that affects whether or not we can have debt we can be get any bonds for future things. Because what what Commissioner Fischer just mentioned was, oh, I want to be able to do this for future, you know, other SPLOS projects. Well, if we're doing this for the last one, I'd imagine that affects our ability to do it for any extra projects that are on there. So, I just want that I know it'll have to be repeated again and again for all of us, different commissions, etc. But please, when you present that, explain its effect just so we have that information. Yeah, I think what we would what we would show you all is so and I I'll use real numbers that we have here. Um although again take these with a bit of a grain of salt because they're still being worked out and they are also subject to change depending on some parameters like how long you borrow for or other kinds of things. So if for example all in to borrow the $148 million the cost of doing so by time you factor in all the borrowing costs and all those other associated things is $164 million let's say. And that would be the number that would get captured, pre-desated, if you will, in a splust request. If that splast was a 10-year SPLost, you know, it'd be $164 million of let's say 500 million, 400 million,

whatever that amount would be. So that we can give you kind of that sense of magnitude of how much of that future loss would this consume. We can also, again, this depends greatly on are you borrowing for 10 years, are you borrowing for 20 years? you if you're borrowing for 10 years, you know, we can we can tell you, okay, that's the equivalent of two and a half 2.6 mil um to be able to service that debt for that period of time. So, so yes, we can give you a couple because it really is probably be helpful to give you a couple different scenarios because they really are dependent on ultimately when it comes time to issue the debt, what it is that you're going to to choose with those. Again, are you going to borrow for 20 years or 10 years or you know, what have you um with it? And yes, we can definitely give you I mean those numbers I gave you are real numbers, but we can give you some additional um versions of that um if you will at the end of that.

It sounds like though the payback scenario is much simpler than what we were exposed to again and again for the arena. We're not having naming rights like we're not selling that or anything else. You don't want to name this the I don't know Ann and Claire Meyers somebody would pay us a million dollars to name the courthouse you know but yes it's a much more straightforward right so it's much more straightforward it would be you know looking at bonds frankly the luxury

suites it is what it is it's a public facility no different bigger in scale certainly but no different than when you're building a fire station or when you're building a library or what have you. I mean it's, you know, it is pretty much you design it, figure out what it costs, where you going to put it, and then how you going to pay for it. That's, you know, a lot of the other nuances happen. Public private agreements or or other kinds of private developments just aren't at play here.

I could offer the way that makes sense in my mind anyway. There are kind of two sets of levers that we have as a commission to affect paying a tax. The first set is so you've got sales tax available, you've got property tax and that's one set of levers or you could use a combination cost or millage. Um and then the second set of levers is we can stretch this payback out over time meaning lower annual payments but more overall or you can compress that time pay higher uh every year but lower overall. Um, so you know, if you apply if you apply those two sets of levers, maybe put that in a scenario and maybe you say to me, Josh, we fully intend to include this in the next boss program. We want to pay it off by the end of that program. So maybe we're talking 2029 to 2039, so let's pay it off by 2039. Um, and use only splashed, so no property tax. What I would be able to offer you then next would be consumed by this project. And then whether that's acceptable to you or not would would depend on what else you were trying to do with the next block. Or you might tell me, well Josh, give me a scenario that using that same time period um is just property tax and not not sales tax at all. Um then what I would offer you is well, we know that today a mill would generate about $8 million for you. So, if I'm giving you a scenario that has $40 million of annual debt service, that would be an equivalent of two and a half mills if we're just using property tax.

And there are there are scenarios that might might get to an annual debt service of $20 million. So, that would be the thing that I would try to offer you. And again, those numbers are just um And when is 2020 over again? When do we stop? Because that's changed, right? My projection is that by the end of calendar year 2028, we will be at the dollar limit, meaning you need to put the uh next program on the ballot in May of 2028. lost

and I think to show that I think to show that kind of in the timing the um if there was with this approach for issuing the the debt that you know somewhere in that October time frame is when we would have to finalize these kinds of conversations because you're going to be at that point in October you're going to be entering into the IGAS you're going to be actually giving approvals for issuance of debt whatever that form so you want to know at that point to answering your questions definitively this is you know we want to do it for 10 years 20 years whatever it is we do indeed anticipate that it would be retired with loss on set of bonds

and if I might add one thing so I think our recommendation would be to plan to use the next loss but there is a a risk of a a referendum in there and so that is why it is important to pay attention to that millage rate equivalent is you don't that risk isn't fully mitigated All that's been approved by the voters.

Yeah. I think it goes back to Commissioner Fischer's point is, you know, we want to make sure that as you all consider this, you understand fully what the implications are. SPLS is one avenue. And to Andrew's point, if SPLS didn't occur, you would know what it is. Or if you chose not to do SPLS, you would know what the impact would be on the millage, right? Because I think it's important that you're going in with that awareness at least of those different scenarios and those different options and possibilities. We appreciate the man bringing the carrot and the stick to the point. You're right. So, we've got 70 million to spend until the next floss. Is that right?

So, is that we have enough to spend until we start collecting on the next floss? Are we going to have to take money out of the general fund or some of it?

Good question. So uh under the timeline that we have uh the intergovernmental agreement later this year would prompt issuance of the bonds. Um and yes so then there would be presumably a time period in between when we issue the bonds and whenever next program begins. Uh typically that time period is covered with something like interestonly payments and capitalized interest included in uh the bond uh issuance. Speak that issue. You know the the when we issue the bonds will depend on making sure that once the bonds are issued we're able to expend them in a timely manner. Uh, so you may not have been part of that discussion, but you know, we're shooting to be able to do that towards the end of this year, but there's still lot sounds to me like from the presentation we had from the architect, there's still a lot of planning to be done. So, we just have a con, we don't have a so I'm not sure.

And and you say that, Jeff, because of course in Georgia law, you've only got a limited period of time to spend those dollars. They can't just hang on, right? Exactly.

Yeah. I think you know to the extent practical we would like to hold the issuance of debt until we need it less like the borrowing costs that we're carrying while we're doing that piece there's a linkage between you know and I think this is what judge referring to is kind of the timing there's a linkage between when the is entered into and when you would issue the debt but the you know we've got at least a year's worth of design um before you know we move into needing the debt to be able to actually start construction so we would try to compress that to the extent practical to save those dollars. And I think I think and correct me if I'm wrong here, John Josh. Um I think to answer that question also is what has to happen between say June and when we would have proceeds available either from the debt or from the um from a SPL a future um on it. You know, we've got to have enough money to cover design. We've got to have enough money to take care of the existing courthouse and we have to have enough money to relocate people out of this building. Um, at that point we would need money in order to actually start the demolition and the design and construction. And I think our belief is definitely that the 77 million that we have to be able to do is able to to cover those expenses.

That's another thing we look at is the available funds. You know, we have setting in. So, how long will that take us when we need funds? But we have actually Ben Brooks who is the B our bond council. Many of you have seen Ben been here before uh is here today because this he he very sizable bond issue. So we want to make sure that everybody's on the same page. And so if you had any questions be able to help answer them today. And this is also why in our budget discussions, we've talked about the need to try to my desire to try to push that fund balance up as much as we can because through this process as we're borrowing by whatever means we're borrowing you there'll be a there'll be a credit rating agencies taking a look at our creditworthiness and you know the better our creditworthiness the better the interest rate and therefore the cheaper the the debt issuance piece of it. So you know we're at no risk go falling below our minimum policy. I would like to push us up as high as we can above that, if you will, to paint as as good a picture to those agencies as we can.

I'm glad you mentioned about the fund balance and pushing it up as far as you can because there are a lot of people who don't understand the fund balance and they think that we're like getting ready file bankruptcy, you know, and and have made clear, you know, I've heard it. I'll put it that way. But people do not understand what the fund balance is about and what it's supposed to do and the percentage um that we are stable with, but to go above that for that rating is um going to be necessary for any kind of bonding. And so I'm glad you said that um to clear up some. Yeah, we've got well over $40 million fund balance. We'll have that after the budget's approved and just the more we're able to actually, you know, there's a balance between increasing it to what you need and increasing it to a point that you're squandering other opportunities and that's the balance you're trying to strike.

All right. All right. Everybody feeling good? All right. Thank you all so much for your work on this. Very excited about Yeah. Thank you. Again, if I can, I just want to echo what what Josh said because I think I probably sent everybody into a panic when we came back from that September retreat and said, "This is actually really going forward." So, you need a design and they did a great job. Y'all pick back up at 2:30. Everybody be in your seats at 2:30.

We do have one minor um change um magistrate court state court come next of um head of court. So we'll we'll pivot a little bit then we'll go back to superior sheriff tax commissioner district attorneys listener probate juvenile and with that judge appreciate you coming in go let you get started. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Fisher, and thank you uh everyone for having us here again. I think I know or have met at least everybody around this table, but my name is Ben Min, and I'm the chief magistrate court judge uh here in Athens. Uh I know that you'll hear from all the courts every year uh and you hear magistrate, probate, municipal, states, and some of these titles and responsibilities may start to run together. So just as a quick overview,

magistrate court uh on the criminal side of cases, we are the beginning of cases, meaning we are the court uh that makes decisions about bond after a person has been arrested. And on the civil side of cases, we hear cases up to $15,000 that do not involve a jury drug. So that's what our general roles are. And we are also uh the court that considers almost all of the arrest warrant and search warrants that are sought by law enforcement. And that'll come up a little bit later in my presentation. So those are our general uh responsibilities in match the court. Before I get to the main topic, I just want to give you all two general uh information facts that are important about our court this year. The first is uh I think last year when I saw you all uh Judge WGO had resigned to take a position at the university and uh so we were in the process of seeking our third mag court judge and uh we hired Judge Jessica Benjamin um and she is now in magistrate court. We have myself, Judge Donnarell Green who's been there for several years and Judge Benjamin. Of course you all know Mr. Donnelly from the public defenders office. Judge Benjamin was the chief assistant uh at the public defenders office and so Mr. Donnelly is cursing my name for uh Judge Benjamin to come to magistrate court but she's been there since last summer and she's done a wonderful job and we have those three judges. The other thing that I'll mention and it's really not going to affect our presentation today is I I said that we are the court that can hear cases up to $15,000. Uh just as of a few days ago, the governor signed a law which increased the jurisdictional limit for magistrate court to $25,000. So uh what that means now is that if you're seeking up to $25,000, you can file in magistrate to state or superior court. Um that could increase our case numbers. Uh but that law does not take effect until January

1st of next year. And so we're going to sort of cross that bridge uh when we come to it in terms of what changes that that creates in our office. Uh but the primary uh reason that I'm here and our primary uh request of the commission is to consider uh adding a part-time magistrate court judge position which would bring us to three and a half positions. And there are two uh primary goals there. But the first and foremost is that if we are able to obtain and then fill that position, what I have agreed to with the superior court judges is that our judges, the magistrate court judges would beginning would begin hearing all of what are called the exparte TPO hearing. Um, and that is a significant piece of their work would be a significant piece of our work, but we feel like with that position, we could manage that duty. So, I'm going to give you just a hopefully quick but but deep enough overview about what a TPO is so that you understand what that work is and why it's necessary. Um, everybody probably has a sense that a TPO is something that you can get quickly. Um, and that is true. Uh and so what the law allows in the first step of that process is to for a party to come to the court exparte meaning without the opposing party and speak to a judge for a judge to consider issuing a protective order. Uh and so uh there is only one party present and they can happen at any time and that's going to sort of factor into why the need uh is is what it is. Um, GPOS's can be in general, um, to to break it down a little bit, you might have, uh, family violence type protective orders where there is, uh, some intimate partner relationship between the parties. And you might also have what are called stalking protective orders where there is not any need

legally for the parties to have had any particular prior relationship. It could be two strangers. And so those two categories make up uh, the cases that that the superior court judges see with TPOS. These can be cases where a person has been arrested um and uh the uh party is seeking the additional protection of a TPO or it can be a case where a person has either not been arrested or where officers are not uh comfortable pursuing arrest warrants, you can still pursue a CPO. And so these first exparte hearings are by their nature unplanned, right? So, no one obviously 60 days uh no one's thinking, well, in 60 days I'm going to have this really stressful event or this fearful event and I'm going to come down to the courthouse on June 29th and so I'll go ahead and set up a court date with Judge Hagard. That is not how ex parte cases work. They are unplanned events. What happens essentially is that the person is going to go into Mr. Ro's office with the clerk of court. They're going to complete uh the necessary paperwork, the petition for the TPO and then uh Mr. Sat's office is going to uh confer with the superior court judges to see who is available. There are some TPOS and I should say u we do on occasion sort of uh fill in say if all the superior court judges were at a conference or something like that. So, so I have a little bit of experience with TPOS already, but there are some TPOs that are extremely cut and dried and you really um there's there's ample evidence that a protective order should be issued. And then there are others that are quite murky. Um and there's a lot of uncertainty about what the facts are or whether a TPO should issue. Uh and so the scope of what you might be involved in in hearing that exparte uh or exparte hearing can really vary and

again you don't know that literally until you walked into the room. By law superior court judges are the uh the judges and the class of court that can hear TPOS. But the law also allows superior court judges to designate other judges to hear them sitting as superior court judges. And so when we um sort of pinch hit a little bit here and there, that is the authority under which the magistrate court judges do that. So that's just very briefly what a TPO is and how they come to the courthouse. And again um uh one of the events in our courthouse that is totally unplanned. And so the question for or one of the questions for you all I think is why should these be heard? Why is it important and effective for these to be heard by a magistrate court judge rather than by a superior court judge? And the first big piece of that that I would address is is logistics. And so um in superior court we have in general uh matters that have two traits. One is that they are planned very far in advance. So calendar calls and arraignments and jury trials are set months in advance. And the other is that they involve lots and lots of people. Uh so uh if you have a a jury trial and of course if you have uh the number of jurors needed summoned you might be talking about a hundred people much less the attorneys, the parties, the witnesses, all those folks. If you have an arraignment calendar, those might be 40 or 50 or 60 defendants, all of whom have attorneys and family members uh that also need to be involved. And so the superior court judges um and obviously they'll be able to speak much more articulately about this than I can, but they work in very big chunks. And

and sometimes I think of that as like flying 757. And when you're flying the 757, it really is sort of all you can do to kind of keep that plane in the air. And there is no time or very limited time or great difficulty with squeezing in things that were unplanned as part of that day. Now, to contrast that, in magistrate court, we have a big piece of our work that is unplanned. Um, and I mentioned the arrest warrants and the search warrants, and those are unplanned. Uh we have two officers here. They might two hours from now need to call me about a warrant, about a crime that they observed, but they don't know it right now. Uh and so their work is very much unplanned. Uh and so because of that, we have and we have to have and we've had for many years as part of our schedule an on call judge. And so what that means is that that judge uh is present uh but is not assigned any court uh on a particular day. So for instance, this morning I was the judge hearing uh civil and dispossessment cases. Judge Benjamin was the judge hearing bond hearings and Judge Green was our on call judge. And so because we have that on call structure, we are uniquely situated to take things that are coming coming in on an unplanned ad hoc manner. And essentially, if we're able to proceed with this plan, the way that we would operate is we have a schedule of who is the on call judge that goes to law enforcement and we will just give that schedule to Mr. Serat's office. So when Mr. receives a petition for TTO, her office will call whoever the on call judge is. We will say, "Great, come on down to the second floor and we will hear that application for a TPO." Um, and I would

also say that um I just got back from our our continuing education training that we have to attend every year and they had an entire session devoted to TPOS. So why would a magistrate for training uh continuing education why would they have a session devoted to TPOS and it is because of exactly this issue? There is a trend in Georgia in many other counties where uh magistrates are hearing TPOS and because there was such a need that the folks that run that continuing education felt like hey we need to get magistrates with a full education on TPOS. So this is something that is um going on in many other counties in our state. um it is going on on a very small scale currently uh in our court and and that is uh in broad strokes u what I can perceive as why our court is uniquely situated to handle those TPOs and and I think the next question for you all might be why okay well you have this part-time or I'm sorry not part time you have this on call position so why do we need to uh add to to fulfill this need for protective orders. Uh and so there's sort of two parts to that. Um the first is that with our schedule and the number of cases that we have, um our cases move very quickly. We don't have the same sort of long-term cases with with massive numbers of people involved at the superior and state court judges. But we do have a lot of cases and with that we do on occasion end up double booked. Uh and there are occasions uh where I we have to say hey uh officers for the next two hours there will be someone here for emergencies. So if there's some catastrophe we will be

here. We have to ask you to hold your emergencies. Uh, and so when I am committing to trigger all of the exparte TPOS with the for the superior court judges and for Miss Sarat, I'm not saying to them, well, we'll do it except on Tuesdays unless there's a judge on vacation or we'll do it except when one of the judges is at the doctor. We're committing that we will hear those cases essentially Monday through Friday during business hours. uh and so to do that we have to watch out for some of the schedule pinches uh that come up uh in our work. The other thing is that when you are on call um meaning that you don't have court um those are going to be times that we are all reliant on to do the things that to do the parts of our work that you don't do in court issuing u orders on cases that you've already heard or other procedural orders. So I do rely very much on that on call time to uh to make sure that I can get some things done and uh so this position uh if it is funded would essentially do a little bit of all the work that we do. So they're not just going to be sitting waiting for TPOS which we don't know when they come and they're not just going to be sort of twiddling their thumbs until that comes in the door. They're going to do all of the same court and legal tasks uh that all three uh current judges do. But there's a second benefit to this position uh and a second u improvement that we can make to our processes that we can do uh if this position is funded. And so I'll kind of give you again a quick little legal deep dive that hopefully will be helpful and explain what that is. So, one thing that we do in magistrate court is we hold what are called preliminary hearings. And those

are hearings after a person has been arrested to determine if there is still probable cause for the case to continue on to superior court. And so, it's sort of like a little miniature trial. Um, we don't have all the witnesses come, but we have the prosecutor, we have the defense attorney, and we have uh the arresting officer who would testify and answer questions. And uh and so what those hearings are is sort of the first chance a lot of times that everybody is in the room both the state and the defense the defendant and everyone can sort of evaluate what we have in this particular case. What is the strength or lack of strength of the case? What charges are appropriate or not appropriate? And sometimes what that is is an opportunity to resolve a case. And so we have the prosecutor, we have the defense attorney, and we sort of say they they sort of say, "Hey, I think what we've got here is a case that should be resolved as a misdemeanor charge for this sentence, or hey, it should be resolved as perhaps two misdemeanor charges." Um, and the problem with that is that historically we have not had the authority to take ples and to resolve cases in magistrate court. it would have to go back to the superior court judge. And again, their schedule being what that is, it's probably not going to be the same day as the preliminary hearing. So, what I've done is that I've conferred with Mr. Yalaman Chile from the DA's office who will be here I think later on today uh and all four superior court judges to establish a a designation order where a magistrate court judge would have the authority to hear a misdemeanor plea and resolve the case that day. Um and and we are going to launch that process no matter what happens with this position. Um we feel like it's efficient. We feel like it it will resolve cases quicker. it will

result in people uh being released from custody who should be released from custody. Hearing only misdemeanor police is sort of like opening up the faucet just a little bit. There will not be a lot of those cases that get resolved preliminary hearings. Our belief is that if this position is funded that we could also hear some felony please at preliminary hearing counters and that's sort of like opening up the faucet more to more potential rapid resolution of cases. I want to be clear, we do not expect uh it's not realistic to expect everyone to resolve particularly serious cases that early on in the process. That just doesn't happen. Our belief is that if this position is funded, we could have the the time on the calendar to consider those police and then to have everyone in the same place such that the district attorney's office and the public defender's office u could uh resolve the case that day rather than waiting for another calendar which might be on another day. Um, and so that is a second benefit that we foresee in addition to the ability to hear TPOS's that will come from funding uh this position. Um, also just broadly with that, I think what I want to say is that our goal here um is is probably three things. one uh on the criminal side of cases is to create an efficiency uh and a rapidity with resolving cases that is just uh more challenging right now. The second is to be able to allow superior court judges uh a greater focus on the things that they absolutely must be the ones to perform such as a jury trial.

And then the third is to make sure that we have as much access to uh the TPO process uh as the calendar day will allow. And so those are our three broad goals in having this position be funded. Um I will let you all know that Mr. Rotte from the clerk's office is here. I've spoken with her extensively about this plan. TPOS's would still be a superior court matter. We're just sitting as superior court judges by designation. Um, but she's fully in support and enthusiastic about this idea and she made the time to be here today. Uh, obviously the superior court judges are here and they will present next and they're fully in support um of this as well. uh and I was able to speak with uh Miss Scars who some of you all may know who is the director of the family violence clinic and her office assist uh in presenting TPOS's not not all of them but a good number of them and she was very uh enthusiastic and supportive of this uh proposal as well and the idea of the magistrates being able to hear these cases. Um so that is our u our request of the commission this year. Um and I think uh in closing, you know what I would say is this and and maybe this is an analogy that will make sense u just a little bit the the first year that I was chief judge uh we came to ask the commission for funding for an AV system. We had missed out on some of the ARPA funding and those things and then we found oursel in COVID and having all these virtual hearings without an AV system. Uh and so I came and we said please, you know, give us the technology that we need to manage these hearings. Uh and you all did it. Uh and it was a significant financial outlay. Um but what we didn't foresee uh at that point

is that you know now here about 5 years later that courtroom and that technology is used has been used by municipal court, state court, superior court, probate court, juvenile court. And so that was an investment um that uh the commission made that I I think was a great one, was very much appreciated by our court, but it ended up uh being effective and efficient in ways really that we did not even foresee at the time. And I recognize this is a different type of investment and it's an ongoing investment, but I feel confident with the level of cooperation that we have between the courts, between the courts and the clerk's office, um that this is an investment that will will pay off um across sort of multiple avenues uh as time goes on. Um, so with that, uh, you know, always appreciate, uh, I think the support that the commission has for the courts and certainly for magistrate court and thank you all for that over the years. Um, and if you all have any questions about that or or any other aspect of our budget, I'm glad to hear you all.

Yeah. Um, so as it stands now, if someone requests a TBO, there's a chance it could take a little while for them to get it, a day or two. And with this process, it could be quite immediate. I

I don't know that I would say a day or two, and I'll let the superior court judges speak to their their present scheduling, but um I mean, just as sort of a starting point, you know, remember that there's almost always at least one superior court judge chooses in Okone County. And uh and then from there, it sort of depends on where they are at in these various long calendars. And I'm sure it varies. I'm sure there are some days that there is a superior court judge that just walked out of court. And I'm sure there's other days that it's much more challenging. Um what we are committing to is that there is an on call judge uh in match court and so there should not be wait. Now sometimes if one of the officers calls and and I'm on with another officer or u there's something else going on, they might wait a few minutes, but there's no reason for those officers to wait more than a few minutes. That's that's the commitment that I make to the police department. Uh, and so, um, we anticipate being available, um, you know, full disclosure, I think we probably would ask for a pause over the lunch hour, but we anticipate being available, you know, kind of for the business hours,

um, I've always enjoyed you. Um, that makes one of us. Um, I remember one time when you didn't ask Randy got you came and you spoke and well neither here nor there. Um, I'm glad you reminded us about the AB system and I do remember a time when you talked about the data management u system interest in how was that working?

Uh, it's really well. So that went online just right before last year, before this meeting last year. Uh and so that has moved us into the 21st century. So now um instead of um uh sending in your 25 cent check to get a copy, which is literally what it required, now you go online, you pay a dollar instead of 25 cents, but you're also saving the postage. So So now you go online to make your copies. if you need to see uh the records of your case, if you want to know if there's been an answer filed in your case, um all of that information is available through, you know, a normal um website and and docket that candidly a court should have in 2026. Um our filing processes are more efficient. There's still a couple of pieces that we are working through with the provider that will actually give us a little more improvement. We don't have filing or electronic filing of civil cases yet. There was a a hold up there. Um but that's kind of the last major piece. So we definitely have seen the benefits and and that I mean it's important for the judges uh and it's helpful for the judges, but it's particularly helpful for the clerks in their work that they're they're much more efficient in spending their time on what they should be spending their time on and not ringing up 25 cent checks. Well, u I'm looking at page uh C71 and second bullet. I'm kind of confused. How much are you requesting for? Is it two positions over?

It is one part-time position. Okay.

U is is this the 70,000? So, so what so what we are anticipating is a position that would work and I should have clarified this a position that would work 20 hours a week. Okay. And so what we have requested is an amount that is based upon the salary of the associate a starting associate magistrate court judge salary. So not not one that has been here for a number of years but the starting salary at their hourly rate times 20 20 hours. Now, that's what we're anticipating. The amount in the budget, I believe, would go slightly beyond that. So that if there was um some situation, you know, say, god forbid, there's something that happens where one of us has to be out of the office for a period of time, there would be a little bit of of cushion there that we could say, "Hey, um, new judge, can you come and work a little more this week?" But a but what we anticipate is 20 hours per week.

Okay. Yeah, thank you. Any questions? Yeah. Thank you all very much. Appreciate your time.

Thank you. It's full of public mayor, honorable mayor, I appreciate all the time. I'm Chuck Oslander. I'm the state court judge with along with judge hope. And I'm here to for two things. Number one, I want to thank the mayor for 20 years of service on the commission and as mayor, we've sat in these meetings for 20 years. Uh, prior to my becoming a state court judge, I was a magistrate court judge like Judge Min and I sat through every single budget meeting with with Mayor Girtz, and I really appreciate it. And I want to update each of you on some of the fruits of what you have done for the courts over the past couple of years. I can't update you on all of them, so I will be brief. But a few years ago, you approved what was called we called a treatment services administrator where we consolidated all of the treatment court and treatment services into one unified division in superior court. And last year, Laura Welch and the treatment service judges hired Kristen Daniel for that position. She was previously the treatment and accountability court, our mental health court coordinator. She's an LCSW. She'd worked at Advantage. She is amazing and she's taken over that position and really provided to us the vision that we gave to you. So along with that, you have provided us some additional space over at 440 College Avenue temporarily while we're waiting on our new judicial center we talked about today. And with that, Kristen and our treatment services now are all coll-located in one location with all of their offices being together. Having the ability that they're a unified treatment services division, it has moved us so far forward over the last six months. I

know all of the judges are really ecstatic, but it's actually moved us well beyond just our treatment courts. Her her relationships with Advantage have really helped us strengthen our collaboration with them. We've created a brand new court referral system where we're able to quickly get our folks that are in jail who have substance use and mental health disorders appointments with Advantage, get them transportation to Advantage, get them brought to Advantage, have follow-ups, have the reports back to the judges. She's helped with that. She's helped us work on our competency issues. As you know, we can't move forward in criminal cases if a person is not able to understand the proceedings or is not in that um ability. And she's really helped us with that. and she has strengthened our relationships with other providers and so the fruits are really starting to show now and I want to thank you for your commitment the treatment services and to giving us this position and to colllocating it all together specifically I just want to mention one other thing one other fruit of your labors you've always ever since I first started coming here been very supportive of accountability and treatment courts and made sure we have the funding necessary to serve the citizens of our community and I just want to share that This past February, our DUI treatment court was again nom or selected as a national accountability or academy court, which means it's one of four national training courts that courts from all over the country, Georgia. They spend the week at the Classic Center in our hotels. They learn about treatment courts and then they come over to our courthouse. Sometimes they walk up the stairs, sometimes they take the elevator and they actually come in and observe our courts. And we are the only court in the nation that has been selected as an academy court every single time that that has been put out. And so you have one of the best groups of treatment courts in the nation. Definitely recognized as the leaders in the state of Georgia. You should be very proud of that. And it's because of the support

you have given to this. And there's a lot of communities that don't support the courts like you do. So I appreciate that. I'm here to talk about one thing. Back in 2006, mayor, you may remember at that time the the commission approved a second state court judge. And it has now been over 20 years. We've only had two state court judges. And I'm not here today asking for another state court judge. At that time, we had two and a half magistrate court judges. There's now three magistrate court judges. At that time, we had three superior court judges. We now have four superior court judges. The reason that I'm not asking you for another state court judge is the way that our courts work together. And one of the reasons we're able to maintain our increased case load based on the increased population over the past 20 years is the support that state court has from other courts, specifically municipal court, magistrate court, and superior court. and they serve and help us so we can maintain our increased case load with no additional judges which is a which is a savings to the county and I specifically am here today to support Judge Min. He did not mention how he supports state court but he significantly and his office significantly supports our court and I'm going to first start just by court support. We have two judges. Obviously, from time to time, Judge Hope could have a conference. We could have personal leave. But our court can't stop going with the case load. And magistrate court is one of the first courts that will volunteer a judge under a judicial assistance, which which he talked about, to come and sit in our place. He would never tell you that. He didn't get up here and highlight it. I learned today that he was going to present and not mention state court. So, I wanted to come and present and let you know what magistrate court does. He he didn't even mention that in his thing. Number two, search warrant availability. Magistrate courts, as you know, are 247 courts. All of us judges really are 247. So, a a

police officer could call us 24/7. Back in 2012 based upon requests from our prosecutors and the police departments, our judges made a commitment to our county to be prepared to issue what are called impaired driver search warrants. So, when a police get out on the side of the road with an impaired driver and they don't want to take any tests and they want to refuse everything, there has to be a a judicial officer that would consider whether or not there could be a a blood test or a breath test. And there has to be judge availability. At that time, seven judges from different courts all agreed that they would become available for that. And so, seven judges including Judge Haggard, I believe, Judge Norris, Judge Min, we all got together and we agreed to be a part of that. Very quickly, a couple of the judges, not the ones here in the room, but they kind of stepped out of that and it was left to basically Judge Haggard, myself, and the magistrates to cover impair driver search warrants. And we ran that program from 2012 to 2019, and there was over 177 times that officers came to see us. Most of those, over 50% of those occurred after hours. So, they're, you know, DUIs don't just happen 8 to 5, they happen at night. Of those 177 cases that we had impaired driver search warrants issued, there was over a 94% conviction rate based upon the fact that police went and sought that. Only four of those cases ended up going to a trial and only a couple more than that ended up going to a motion hearing. What that meant for the courts is number one, we were getting the cases disposed of. Number two, we were saving the police a huge amount of time because they didn't have to come and spend half a day at a motion hearing or an entire day or two at a trial. And we were able to resolve cases quicker for the state and if there was the case went to superior court. In 2019,

Judge Min and Judge Baron decided to take all of those in house. He didn't mention that to you today. So, all of those warrants they committed to do in house. So they're doing all of those warrants and that program has continued just with his office with no additional staff. I bring that to you because it is a very important program. Without the magistrates committing to it, we would not have the success we've had and this would support that. Them having additional magistrates, I think, or an additional half magistrate would be helpful to them. The last piece I want to mention is very specific to Judge Min. Judge Min took office in 2012 and as a 247 court there's always a magistrate on call. They work weekends. They go to the jail on weekends. They do worn out, you know, police are calling them on weekends. These two police officers can tell you. So there's always a judge that is on call or going somewhere on the weekend. So as part of what the magistrate court, the way they structure their schedule is that each of the magistrates get a half of a day off during the week to compensate them for working on the weekends. Well, over the last 13 years, 14 years, Judge Makin's afternoon off has always been Thursday afternoon. So, he gets off at noon, so he doesn't work noon to 5. During that time, he has volunteered to be a part of our DUI court treatment team, and we go from 1 to 7 every other Thursday. So instead of getting his afternoon off every other week, he is actually working till 7 o'clock that night in a volunteer role as a assisting judge with me. So first of all, we have over 80 participants in our court. We have to have a second judge and so our court can run efficiently. Now he didn't mention that either, but that's time I added it up for all the different things he does for our court. It's about himself 16 hours a month that he gives to the state court just to our treatment court. So, I'm here today to ask you to consider

fully funding his position that he's asking that the part-time magistrate. It would serve state court well. It'll help us come back in a couple of years, tell you about the fruits of your labor. I don't know if it'll be 20 years, Mayor Girds, before I have to come back and ask for another state court judge, but it definitely will delay it. Um, I did consult with Judge Lot. Obviously, I wouldn't do any of this without consulting with Judge Lot and with Laura Welch, but if for some reason the commission just is unable to fund this position, and I sure hope you're able to fund it, it is too important. But I would be willing to go into my budget to the extent that I can and find a portion of it necessary to bridge this gap, help get to that position, even if the commission can't fund it. And the mayor knows how tight my pos my budget is. This is the first year he's actually given me all the very this time very small requests I asked for, but I would be willing to look at my budget and and give a portion of it to magistrate. Thank you very much for hearing me. And I didn't actually ask for anything for me this time, Commissioner Thornton, but um it does help me indirectly. Commissioner,

um thank you. And um you just confirmed how amazing I think Judge May

it is. I agree. Um I'm in a lot of other community groups and I know you have the uh and and I've been to your graduation. What is how or do you work with the homeless coalition homeless coalition the homeless population with your program? And is there any um data or results? because I've been in several meetings and I'm always talking about are you how are you collaborating with uh the treatment center. So is there anything and I may be just asking you something that you may have to get back with us but I do find that a lot of between uh the sheriff's office, the judicial system, the homeless population, there just seems to be a disconnect. Is that something you can speak to right now or maybe share some information? I I I really would like to see more connectivity in areas of the same people that we see going in these revolving doors.

And I'm sure each of the judges that speak today can confirm that a significant portion of their docket list 240 North Avenue as their address, meaning that there is no address. They don't have an address. And then when we have our inmates that are brought over who can't even post a 20 or $30 amount of bond, we have those at the significant mental health disorders that a very large portion of them do not have houses. And so that's where our treatment services division and with Kristen Daniel working with advantage and their homeless outreach, we have John Morris and different folks from that agency coming into our courts. And actually, what is a plan for housing for these folks? I do not have a statistic for you, but I can ask Kristen Daniel to see what kind of statistics I do know with their grants, they do track how much they come into the courts and see if we can get you some better data. But yes, I feel like we are doing as good of a job as we can. One of the positions that Kristen Daniel is currently hiring is a case manager to specifically be in the courts for those folks that are in jail and those folks that are unhoused and to get them connected to resources in the courtroom. So when Judge Haggard or Judge Norris or Judge Lot is there, they can actually have a release plan whether it's housing or something else.

I really do. And and like I said, um this has nothing to do with your recommendation for your, you know, your support for Judge M. But it I think that when we're looking at resources on housing that I would love to see the courts as one of the advocates when I see um when I see these proposals and recommendations from our housing nonprofits, I would I would I would love to see more of the the judicial system working with our nonprofit housing um meeting.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking me out of order. I do have court actually. We're in treatment court. It's Thursday afternoon, but I am going to stay and watch Chief Judge L. Recording. Come on now. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Lisa a lot for those of you Oops. You don't know me. Almost went blindly. Sorry. Uh I am the chief judge of the Western Circuit and uh I'm from Superior Court. We have Judge Haggard here as well and Judge Norris. There are four of us. I think Judge Stevens is probably playing golf. Z. So you know that I hope that's on the record.

So the first thing I'd like to do is just thank you all for several things before I get into just a few comments briefly. I'm not going to rehash everything that Judge Oslander has said and Judge Makin. I certainly want to speak to the uh item that Judge Min and Judge Oslander have talked to you about. It's very important for the Superior Court to articulate our needs as well and our support for the judges. But first and foremost, I want to thank you all first of all for considering our new courthouse and the meeting we had at 1:00. This is a really and I certainly want to thank manager Cal for your aggressive um support and help. And I mean aggressive in a really good way. Of course, uh Manager Cal has been so attentive to our questions and our needs and our insistence that we be heard quite frankly and I really do appreciate it very much. And I really appreciate everybody's attention to the needs of the new courthouse. This is really an exciting day. We I'm in the user group of course and have seen those slides that you all saw and um the uh architects that have put that together are absolutely amazing. I don't I have I I'm not very good with spatial things. So often I look at those pictures and I have no idea what I'm looking at. And they are so good at explaining what they've drawn. and what they've drawn is completely consistent with what we've talked about with them. They're really an amazing group of people and so I really appreciate everyone's uh interest in the new courthouse and I'm very excited to move forward. So, thank you all for that. Very specifically, I do also want to thank you all for some things that you put in our budget. Thank you very much for funding our DUI drug court language interpreter in $9,600. That is incredibly important and

we appreciate it very much. We also appreciate that you granted us the full-time medical services technician uh at $54,142. It's a lot of money, but it is so necessary and I know it's very difficult to fund full-time positions and we are so grateful that you took that under consideration and um put that in your budget. So, thank you very much. As the chief judge, I just want to mention a few things to the courts in general. Uh for state court, I know that you granted additional funding for our court reporters for $8,300 and for bailiffs in the amount of $3,000. I know Judge Osander would agree with me how important that request was. As small as that may be for an entire budget, it is incredibly important for the state court. So, thank you very much for that. And also, I realize this is your court, the municipal court, but Judge Thompson is absolutely a part of all of us, and I want to thank you all on behalf of municipal court for the additional $5,000 in overtime that we granted in the budget. I know that she is incredibly grateful for that. And um and we are as well because I know how hard uh Judge Thompson works, how hard the entire staff at Municipal Court works, and how busy they are. And lastly, certainly, I want to thank you for the probate court, a full-time fiduciary clerk at the amount of $85,600. Uh it is an incredible moment for probate court and uh they are also incredibly busy and sometimes I think get very overlooked because um a lot of people don't know what probate court is or what they do and they're kind of on the second floor and they're in the back and you know and so um I they don't necessarily get overlooked and we kind forget that they're there to some degree and they are so busy and they are so important and I know that Jim Schaefer um and Judge Huff are incredibly grateful for that. So, thank you all

very much for all of those things. With regard to what Judge Oslander just spoke about uh the support that he has for Judge Min and that support, I I just want to emphasize that the Western Circuit has always been I I think a very unusual judicial circuit. We are all friends. We are all supportive colleagues and we always have been. It has always been that way in our district. It is not that way in other districts. It surprises me when I go to other districts, but Fulton County, they fight all the time. They don't like each other. And that is not unusual in some other counties. It's incredibly unfortunate, but we have never had that problem here. And so, um, it is very normal for us to support each other. It is certainly um we take care of each other and so I appreciate Judge Oslander speaking on behalf of Judge Min. I'm here to speak on behalf of Judge Min's request as well. I also want to just mention this one thing I come back to all the time. It just makes me smile. In Clark County, we have seven men and seven women on the bench for the first time and I think that is a beautiful number that reflects our community and who we are. Um, but in any event, with regard to the request for a part-time position in match court, I'm not going to go over everything um that Judge Min and Judge Oscander have talked about, but I certainly support everything they have said. Um, this position is really necessary for many reasons. Um it is necessary in addition to what they've all talked about um not just to explain to you all how busy we are but it is certainly we all are busy but this position will um certainly help alleviate some of the moments when um

the magic court cannot get to things. I can't tell you how many times I'll come out of court and I'll have three officers waiting outside my office asking for a search warrant and they're they're at my office because master court is incredibly busy and they can't wait and the other superior court judges are either in Okone County or in the middle of a trial and they need something to be heard right away. I give you that example to let you know that things are in constant movement at the courthouse. the necessity for all hands- on deck is ever present and an additional part-time magistrate court judge would help alleviate some of that. One of the things that is incredibly important to me as a superior court judge in the possibility that a magistrate court judge could hear our tposs or expartes is that it eliminates a conflict of interest for superior court. So for example, if someone comes in for an exparte and judge Haggard hears it, he's probably going to get the actual case which has to be scheduled within 30 days. And it is difficult for a superior court judge and sometimes a conflict for a superior court judge to already know what the facts are in a case to already have heard from one side only and then have to hear actually the entire hearing. It's a problem. And it in in a in the best world scenario for due process, for protection of all parties, for essential fairness, it would be best to have one judge hear the exparte and the superior court hear the full um TPO hearing that has to occur within 30 days. That is best practices and that is

one thing that is very difficult for superior court to balance is when you walk into a TPO hearing again that has to be scheduled within 30 days and you already know it's what the allegations are only from one side and our job is to be as impartial as possible and obviously to be as fair as possible and that sometimes can be a conflict for us and so for that reason I think an additional uh part-time magic judge would be incredibly helpful to all of us in maintaining a sense of justice and due process. With regard to uh Mr. Yoly who can speak to this of course and uh Judge Makin's conversation about having master court do some please I I am in full support of that moment. the the idea to become more efficient and move cases along as fast as possible when it can be done is an incredible moment for all of us. And it really speaks to efficiency and it speaks to um just a very well-run judicial center. And so for that reason, I certainly ask that you consider funding a part-time magistrate court position. I will echo what Judge Oscelinder has also said and that if it is difficult for all of you to consider finding that money for that position, the Superior Court is certainly um ready and willing to try to find in in our budget a way that we can maybe move some funds to help with that. Uh it's that important for all of us. We are a very frugal court and we will we we don't um sort of throw money around in any event, but certainly we would look at our budget and see what we can do. And Judge Norris is raising his hand. Yes, sir.

I just wanted to just to point something out. Um I was a magistrate judge for 11 years. I'm familiar with the 247 requirements and even now a superior court judge being on call essentially 247. What's really uh also I think plays into this in the last year here um the nature of cases that we have that are going to trial especially criminal cases we're getting a lot of heavy hitter cases and typically I would think at trial I mean usually I do 10 to 11 criminal jury trials a year plus three to four civil trials a year that's just in Clark County not county o county But we've started having multiple week trials. I can tell you in October of last year, I did a two-eek criminal trial. November, a two-e criminal trial. December, a three-week murder trial. January criminal trial for a week. February, a two two and a half week criminal trial. And I just finished a four-week murder trial on Friday while taking care of what was going to be another criminal trial week this week. They all got resolved. I live out on a farm. My goats got killed by coies yesterday. So, I'm I'm kind of trimmed down because I'm going to go deal with that. I know it was kind of bad. But anyway, I had a day off, but I wanted to come to tell you that it's it's not that we are trying to push something off by any means. uh because we will be the ones that will hear the actual hearing that will have both parties present uh and the issues about conflicts of interest and timing. But the tough part is, you know, in this four-week trial taking, you know, having someone come in and say, "I'll get to you in five or six

hours because the trial is the thing that I have to deal with." Um is somewhat unfair. And I would love to have them do that, but stepping off the bench to go take 20 or 30 minutes on a very difficult case affects a lot of things in that chain. And it's not just myself. Judge Lot had a three-week trial. I know Judge Haggards had at least a three-week, four-week trial. Judge Stevens just got out of a three or four-week trial not long ago. A and that is a trend that we're seeing coming down the pipeline. And so we're trying to get ahead of the curve to still provide that support and service and and we do all work very closely together. Um and so I I just like you to take that into consideration too is that we're trying to serve a lot of people. Um so with that in mind, I just wanted to add that little flavor of salt.

Well said. Well said. I I you reminded me I wanted to address something. Commissioner Link, you mentioned or you had a question earlier about whether if uh people had to wait a day or two on TPO. The answer to that is no. If somebody comes in for a TPO, they're seeking the emergency protection of the court and they are always hurt. Always. Um they can choose to leave and come back the next day if they don't want to wait certainly, but we never say, "Oh, come back Thursday or Friday or anything of that nature." I certainly want to make that clear. Um, so anyway, I hope that answers your question a little bit. Um, well, I think that's basically Oh, I do want to say one other thing. Um, and then if anybody has any questions, certainly I'll answer them. I don't want to go over my time. Uh, with regard to the courthouse, I know you all are aware that we have uh asked for funding for the courthouse to fix certain things over the past two years and it's been kind of constant. And I just want to thank you in public for your support of our current courthouse and the things that we've needed to do to make it um a much better place to work. The improvements at the courthouse have really been outstanding. Uh it certainly has been difficult as you all know to get the elevators working and things of that nature. It's a really old building, but the improvements that we have um been a part of, that we've asked for, that we have seen are really remarkable, and I hope you all can come down to the courthouse and take a look at it. We're still working on things, but there's new paint, of course. Um there's new carpeting, the AV system is amazing. Uh the bathrooms, the public bathrooms are amazing. The elevators are still in flux, but if you get in them, they're actually pretty amazing to get inside the elevators. Um, and we know it's a lot. We know it's necessary. Um, and and

I don't uh want you to feel we're taking it taking any of that for granted. We really do appreciate your support of our courthouse. And uh again, it really uh the outside has been powerwashed. I don't know if anybody has seen the outside or walk through that courtyard. I mean, it's really great. And so, it has lifted the spirits of the people that work there. It really, really has. and their spirits were down for quite a while I have to say. So for that I thank you all very much and if anybody has questions about anything I've addressed certainly I'll happy to hear them.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Good to see you. All right, everybody.

I want to start out thank you. Thank you for your time. Pleasure to be here and be able to talk amongst you again. Uh, I'm really not gonna ask something. I'm just gonna throw in my support for all those judges. No, back that up. But I do want to say thank you to the judges because if it's one thing that I think in the last year has definitely shown, uh, Clark County as a whole, when our backs are against the wall, uh, we can find a way to band together and to work it out. I think uh all the improvements at the courthouse uh still a work in progress uh thanks to that you all made uh we are well on the way towards getting that building to where it needs to be and also depending on what y'all saw earlier the new judicial center every bit the spectacle that it should be counted uh with the attitude of this county that we have. So, thank you all for that. Uh, again, it's an honor to be here. I want to start off this way uh because I did bring some folks with me. So, I have I'm Sheriff John Q. Williams. Anybody doesn't know, now you know. I brought Valencia Stanley. Uh, she's the person who uh has day-to-day oversight over our budget, trying to make sure that we uh follow everything that we need to follow and find ways uh to get things done. As far as that, I've got a all but one of my uh command staff is here. Well, two of them. So, if y'all don't mind standing up, I got Captain Wayan Rucker. He's over field services division. I got Captain Patricia Jensen. She is in charge of uh our recruiting and training units. I've got Chief Deputy Torren Jackson, who is our jail commander. And I've got my under sheriff chief Antoine

Leit who's my right hand who does everything that I can do and some things I just don't want to do. But it's important that I acknowledge them while they're here because they do so much of the stuff uh that one sheriff just like the judges 247. But the only reason I have time to breathe is because I do have a good team that's with me. All right. So, another thank you uh because we're in some of the position that we are today because of decisions that y'all have made in the last year. So, not just as far as the courthouse goes. Uh agreeing to get our salaries on par with the rest of folks has really helped us. Uh last year at this time, we were over 50 positions down in less than a year's time. Now we're down to about 30 slots that we still need to fill. Uh again, it's a progress, but in any other industry when you're that far behind, it's hard to get uh to make up 20 slots in a year. That's some real work that we put in. So, you know, our recruiting team, they've done their job, too. That money has made a big difference. Uh some of the things I'm going to talk about, uh we'll go right back to that as well. Some of the things I want to talk about are going to sound a little bit more negative, but I just want to make sure while we have this chance that you all have a chance to ask questions and fully understand uh some of the day-to-day factors with being a sheriff and just running things uh that constitutionally I am bound to do. And sometimes I think we come together when there is a specific problem. So, it's good to have seen some adjustments in the budget and and that uh the mayor actually wanted to uh try to help us get to where we need to be. I have to give the mayor a big thanks because as a result of the

adjustments to salaries for six out of the six months out of the last year, I've been the third highest paid person in the sheriff's office. I had both of my chief deputies were making more money than I was because of the adjustments. I brought that attention to of course incoming manager Bob and the mayor and they did uh their research and uh Mayor Gers, thank you for doing that research and coming up with what other counties were doing uh in situations like that and I understand there is an adjustment in there to address uh that pay uh for myself. So, I'm not as altruistic as I could be. Making more money is al is going to make that 247 a little bit better for me. But I did want to give that personal thanks uh for that consideration. Uh the other things that we have, I think you all know there's unintended consequences. I don't like the word consequences all the time but in this situation it does because while the police department is fully staffed and I love the police department I started well I started at UG then I went to there so I got all kinds of love for the police department and work they do I've seen it I've been a part of it and I have a good relationship with Chief Salter still so we talk all the time but with them being full staff arrest up uh they have I'm not going to say free time they have more time to do more things uh to try to keep the community safe. And uh the more people they arrest, the more we have in jail. Uh so we've gone from having 350 to 450 people uh average in the jail on a day-to-day basis to having 450 to 500. Uh that is why the costs are never going to go down working for the sheriff's department and working with the sheriff's budget. Uh, so I do thank you

for the adjustments that we've had. Uh, it's kind of a drop in a bucket, but we'll take it and we'll run with it. But this is my chance to kind of just get before you and let you know. Uh, there are going to continue to be asked. I'm thankful for what we have. Uh, but I just want y'all to understand plainly why we're going to be asking for more. And there are some things I'm going to focus mainly on the jail itself because those jail costs keep skyrocketing. uh the more people we have, you go up a 100 people, the average daily population, that increases the medical cost, that increases the food cost, that increases because what you all got to acknowledge, I think you're very conscious people. You talk about the homeless situation, the unhoused population, the mental health population. Well, as unfortunately throughout the nation and definitely in this state, the jail is where we put people who have mental health problems, where we put people who are unhoused, who have trauma in their past. That's where they end up in jail. And sometimes it's just that, well, you know, we don't know what else to do with them or they're safer there. will have people in jail who are there, not even necessarily because they've committed a crime, but because there's an order for them to go to a mental health facility and DBHD has short staff and they don't have enough feds and we've had literally people who have been in jail for a year or two just waiting to go get that evaluation. Uh, as a result, you know, the folks we deal with are not the healthiest folks. Many people come to jail. Uh they're underprivileged. This this is what the narrative is after. This this is the fact. We don't get uh I might get torched for just saying these names, but we don't get the Donald Trumps. We don't get the Elon Musk in our jail. It's the people who are so far

from that end of the spectrum that a lot of times they don't have healthc care coverage. They don't know what's physically or mentally wrong with them and then they end up in jail. And as a sheriff, we have to take care of people. And my folks do a great job with what we have. But we do need more. This budget is good, but we do need more and we're going to be asking for more. More in terms of what? When the jail was rebuilt and remodeled in 2016, uh the operating system uh literally was Windows 7. Anybody still got Windows 7 on any of their computers or phones now? But the jail does. And we have repeated problems with failures. We have to reboot things constantly. The sliders in the jail are on that. The cameras in the jail are on that system. and being short staffed. That's just that other thing that just works negatively against us all the time. At some point, we're going to have a critical failure in that jail and we are not going to be able to use those computers to open and close doors to monitor cameras. When we have incidents in the jail, we will not have recordings of them. So, we need to circle back around to funding upgrades at the jail. I don't think that we need I'm not arguing that we need a new jail, but we need to get beyond what was built and put in place in 2016. 10 years later is beyond time. I think this is cyclical anyway, but we were behind the times and that was put in place in 2016. Uh so there may be in the near future I need to circle back around to this uh after this budget goes into effect. Uh some of the things that we do, we work with the judges all the time to try to reduce the

population in the jail. We've uh had conversations. We call Judge Oslander all the time. We call Judge Norris uh because we have people in jail. What you don't get an email and don't know about every day is things like what happened two days ago. Uh we got a call, well we got an email and several calls from a doctor. Uh we had a lady who was just brought to jail arrested on the 11th and on the 13th there's a doctor call and say hey she needs to have heart surgery. Magically this problem became urgent when she got sent to jail. And this is not like a onetime thing. It happens all the time. People are in jail. So now it's like oh I can get this taken care of. And where does that budget come from? it comes from the money uh that the citizens of this county have to pay. So, anytime we can mitigate that, when we can reduce the numbers in the jail, we can get people out of jail that don't need that to be there. Uh whether it's for mental health reasons, for health reasons, we try to do that. We try to get beyond those uh constitutionally. We have to take care of people. It it's not it says shall. It doesn't say you may, you might, you can. It says that you shadow and when those bills come due, they come due. Typically, our medical budget, we burn through that uh by December and we're just uh pulling Robert from Peter to PayPal uh consistently. That's not something that I can just shift money around because the money is there for that and when it's out, it's out. Uh can I just not pay people? No, can't do it. Can I just not feed people? No, can't do it. Uh, so we're going to have to circle back around to some of these hard discussions and put more money into that jail specifically. So, I wanted to leave some time so y'all can ask questions about those things. And some of these things come back to uh when

we've had deaths at the jail. I don't believe that any of them can be tied back. the GBI investigations don't show that it's because we're short staffed, but there are some things that we could uh find out sooner. We could have quicker uh responses to uh if we do have increased staffing and and we're there. When the jail was built in 2016, they went to a direct supervision model. If you don't know, I think many of you have actually toured the jail. That model requires that you have two of our staff in each unit. And the more units we have open, the more people that we have. Right now, on most days, we have uh eight units that are in operation and we have three people who can work those units.

So, one at a time, hopping from place to place. Uh the jail when it was rebuilt in 2016, they should have asked for more staff then. Uh the last two years, I've asked for more staff. We haven't got there. And I understand where's the money going to come from? I have to ask close mouth don't get fed. So I'm asking again if any specific as I am uh find a way that we can circle back around. We're not full staff now but we're trending in that direction. And even if we get these 30 spots filled I know this year it's not going to happen. But if we get those 30 slots filled we still don't have people enough people approved to work the jail the way it needs to be. Uh we probably need at least 25 more people, 10 detention officers, another 15, and that will help us. But then with the new judicial center, when that comes, maybe we need more people. I just need to have that stay on your minds as commissioners. And I'm saying it now because hopefully some of y'all will still be in there for the next budget and budget after that. And I don't want to have to start this conversation all over and talk to new people. Uh, so those are kind of the things I just wanted to hit. If y'all have questions, I would love to take this time to kind of answer some of those. Uh, if not, then I will make the most of my 20 minutes of time and I'll circle back around.

Sheriff, um, on your software, um, jail enforcement and the jail positive software, what would that replace now that you got in place? I mean, talk a little bit about that. So that's a jail software or so that we have one as far as the operating system which controls the panels and stuff. That's one different thing. Is that the enforcement software? The enforcement says um next Paul.

Okay. So the lexical that's actually for uh and we need that but that's more so our policies are outdated and sometimes not with uh best practices and the way they're written. uh just a little bit antiquated. So that ask was actually to have an outside source come in and actually redo our policies with us. So you mentioned I know one time you had mentioned about how the locks and stuff work and so that that's a separate okay but I don't see it that's why I'm asking that's under jail uh jail management uh jail maintenance and management

security system yeah that's a security system itself last one 2500 2500 2500 No, that should be way more than that. Jail modernization is 1,974,000. That's what we asked for in the Okay. So, was that capital project?

We're just trying to match up what you're saying. So, Yeah. So that that actually that ask was under capital projects. Oh, okay. So I that was not addressed. Okay. Good. Okay. Because of the amount it had to be in capital projects to again that's almost $2 million. Uh it wasn't going to go in the budget. Yeah. And and if I you may on that piece the So what's included on that list of general fund capital items is $400,000 that would be dedicated to that effort. So less than what was requested, but that's the number right now.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. No, good question. I'm I'm I'm clear now. I'm good. Any other questions? So, let me make sure I understand. Is you said for something about 400,000 right now is what's in the general fund capital that's recommended. And how and and for for your for you guys, right? For that project. That's where that project is. And there's another there's another project in there that's tied with the laundry services which is 165. Those are the two legal. So from capital funds I think it's a little over 600,000 towards those. And so what would that be total

for the jail security upgrades? Is that all that would be about $2 million? Okay. Okay. Go ahead. Talk about that. Yes. Okay. I got it. that that's in the sheriff facilities life cycle program. Is that what that you're saying back in the capital? No, it's not. That that's just in the capital uh for the jail. And I think they've kind of combined a lot of the things we asked until Yeah, we have it we have it listed as modernization and security systems. That's that's the items. So on your PDF that's page 234. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. How um we calendarize that then if we want to how do we be so what we've provided you all is you remember that $7.5 million that we had said we would recommend this not a fund capital list of items in there right now it's just one of those items that are in there so if there was a desire to do something different you would look at that list now I will also say we talked about this you know it is certainly my belief that this ultimately resolution of this is going to be a multi-year process. Yes.

So, I wouldn't want anyone to leave thinking, oh, $400,000 to take care of it. Doesn't And that's where I was talking about. Another question for the sheriff. I guess on that list then you're not highlighting anything else on that list. You're highlighting other things. Yes. And they were all on which page was that, Kelly? Uh well if you want to look at general fund capital that list begins on 182 on the PDF the detail is in the page of the you don't have the page I have it that you yeah I'll tell you like the it's O sorry D3

D3 thank you D3 I need that kind of look sheriff When it comes to the medical budget, I is it the total that you requested for the FY27 year 112, right? Just Yeah. As an increase? Yes. 350 was approved or recommended for approval. 262 is not. So tell me what do you happen to know what the last year end of year expenditure total was? And it is understanding that there's a contract in place. What is the contract amount that they are requesting for reimbursement for their services the medical services company

for the medical service? So they would have a contract in in place and that but we we have a contract in place and when we go above a certain threshold the the amount of the contract increases. So the contract is for up to 450,000. I think my chief stands our our negotiated cut back is for 450 inmates to that daily population. Right now we haven't been at 450 and I know nine or 10 months. So because of the additional 100 inmates on average that's that's um increasing that cost. Yes.

Thank you. So there there's a there's a flat fee and then additional fees that come on based on the service that I actually needed during that time. So anytime we go over the 450 for more than uh 90 days that triggers the penalties on there commissioner last year it was 4.7. So then um that's 450 that's inmates, right? That is that that's jail residents. Okay. So then when you gave us that example about a inmate that needed heart surgery, do we pick up that? Yes.

Is it covered by insurance like So there's a portion of the insurance they cover up to a certain amount that anything after that uh we actually have to pay back uh risk. So we we just wrote back uh some checks to risk last month for overages just if we got to safety and risk. Yes. Yeah. Safety and risk cuz they control the insurance. So once we go about past that threshold, we have to reimburse them and we've passed that threshold. So right now every month we paid risk about $60,000 in addition to our regular month.

You have an internal control account line item for risk or this just separate as an expenditure. So that really could put a dent in your whole budget. Yes. Yes. Considerably. uh you know, anytime we have somebody that stays in the hospital, uh it it's more on that because we have those bills and then we also have to stab somebody. So, it's overtime potentially, too. So, it dips from multiple buckets anytime we have extra medical concerns. And I know people go to jail and they get their teeth fixed.

Oh, yeah. He said, you know, people come, they didn't know they had blood pressure issues and there are certain medications, you know, HIV meds, mental health meds. Those are some of the most expensive things that you have on the on the planet right now. Anything else that you want to share that we didn't ask or is it?

No. Again, and so what I want y'all to know, it's not all gloom and doom, but we do what we can to the best of our ability. Uh but we do, you know, we need some help and considerations when it comes to it's not just us being frivolous when we ask for things. These are things that we actually see the trends. We're trying to get ahead and we we don't want to be that that entity that's saying, "Oh, y'all go over budget every year." Like we're kind of underfunded every year. All respects, but that's what it comes down to. These things are they go up every year, y'all. Hey,

I got a house, too. My property taxes go up every year. My water bill, my electric bill, they all go up. They never go down. So, I can't cut that budget anymore. Yes, sir. Right. So, what you were saying, you have increased costs because we don't have the right number of staff because you go over 450. Is that No, we don't have the number of jail residents people were housed in there when it goes up 450. Yes. All right. know in your operating budget increase does it include like what you requested does it include the being over 450? Yes. So that's included in it.

Yes, that's yeah our ask. Now we don't know how much we're going to go over so we can only guess by the trends how much that is. So that's where our estimates come from. And then is there a ratio like that they use number of staff versus there a number that you're where you're supposed to be or where you like mean it like a a norm or whatever where everybody's supposed to be. Yeah. What is that?

So it's not that per residence is that for the number of units that we have open. Uh so for each unit we have open we need to have two people to man those units. And then we also have the uh you know we're counting records clerks, control room operators, all those things because you have to have all of those positions filled. Uh so essentially we have 12 units that we can have. So we should have 24 people assigned to the jail, but that's also uh in addition to having two people working the control room tower. That's the people that watch the cameras and open the doors. And then that doesn't include uh people that work medical ultimately would need 30 people per shift would be a number. So we have four shifts at the jail. We would need 30 people on each shift. So it's 30 60 90 120 total to operate at peak level. And that's that's not support or that is support

deputies and detention officers. So it says um you had 195 you requested or your budget was for 195 full-time people 26. You said you're 30 down right now. Yes. All right. So that's 165. So that but you were given the funding for the 195. Is that correct? So where does that leftover money go? Does that go to fund balance or does that stay in his budget? The it comes back into our into the overall budget. However,

we also cover I believe the overtime pieces come comes out of of that piece in back into the budget. There are there's room for him to move some things within his budget. Obviously, the salary pieces, as I understand, is not one of those those components.

So, so to answer that, up up to two years ago, there was this thing called salary savings, and the sheriff's office was able to come in at or below budget every year because we had salary savings. Uh, but we no longer have that. So, even though we're 30 down, that money is actually not counted in our budget until we go over that amount. Uh, so if we do go over, we can ask for some of that back, but we don't always get all of it. So, honestly, the only way that we didn't go over my first year or two in office is because we did have that money uh to just shift around, not having that.

Yeah. That and that is in a different way, but it's consistent with how all the departments are are managed um regardless of where the sheriff has a little more flexibility in the rest of his budget than perhaps some of the others do. But in terms of salary, it's handled in that same fashion with all of the departments. Yes, I I would argue that if we had the salary savings back, then we would probably need to move less and we could pay some of these things without coming back at the end of the year being.

Yeah. um looking at some of these numbers and on the and this is on C 106 like the performance measures here and so when it says total staff it says 198 is that positions or is that how many people you have that's total positions total so so that means with 30 that you have 168 I guess if there's 30 empty positions yeah I'd have to look that yeah

okay but um well one one positive thing here on the down below that is that the use of force incidents and maybe that's because you have more people on staff or maybe not but this is the lowest it's been in this this you know record of years um which is great time so that's that's wonderful to see but Dan and but you have a there's 585 is your average daily inmate population right for this year for this year so so have you in terms of the health the like the contract you 50. Is there like, you know, if you up it to are we upping it to or whatever?

Right now, we're not because we're hoping we do work with the judges. We're trying to do so, you know, whenever we can. Uh we work with local folks to try to get people bonded out. We try to get people uh shifted around. But one reason for the decrease in uh the incidents and uses of forest is the programs that we have and I know you came to one graduation. Yeah. Those things people really like those things. They want to be a part. So we've seen uh a reduction in incidents in the jail because people don't want to lose those privileges. They don't want to be kicked out of those programs. Uh so that's

yeah those those are some great programs. I mean I'm they're very impressive programs. Um, have have you all is I've had people ask me in the community. Um, and and I know it's logistics, but I'm going to ask you about it anyway. The um you there's no in-person visitation because with with more staffing, is there a possibility of getting some in-person sta uh visitation? The the long and short answer to that is no. The jail was not built in such a way that there would be inperson visitation. uh when it was remodeled, there was an area built at the front of the jail that and they called it inerson visitation, but what it is is video screens, right?

And you would come in and there's a kiosk. You talking to those screens, your loved one is in the back on their own screen. So there was never face to face since 2016 uh at the That's what I thought I've told people. But that's the way. So like even if if if one wanted to do that like the will of whatever it would require renovation of lots of spaces in addition to having the staffing renovation and staff. That was a question that could have been brought up and challenged back in when the you know that and the same for outdoor space as well. I mean, that was part of the

So, and we've upgraded outdoor space to some extent. You know, some of our units actually have basketball hoops that we put up. Uh, in fact, our our re-entry unit has recently gone into gardens, built garden boxes, and they're growing fruits and vegetables and flowers. What actually happened when we the commission changed the policy on salary savings? Is that what because I don't remember that

I do because I first time I brought up when I got elected about Sarah St. the former manager did not care for that from what I can remember. But again, that's that may be another topic for us in the future. But um it's something that I always do when I work for UJ, we always need sharing to help us sometime. Good g I mean you almost always account for some amount of your positions to be vacant. So even though they're on the books um and available to be filled if that happens to be the case, you're not you're not in effect holding money for those because you're using those monies for other purposes. So that's you know fairly and other places will do it differently. Some places will leave a percentage of the positions vacant. We do kind of a point in time where we say whatever vacant positions are at this point we won't fill those. Then we come back in and actually see but some of those will be filled when we add a dollar value to it and that's across the entire organization. I'm not that just talking on the sheriff department.

Well, I hope we look at that to see what we can do with that. It may help us at budget season um budget time.

It'll actually work in the opposite direction. So what would happen is if we don't account for those savings, it actually reduces the amount of funding you have available to actually spend because you're actually committing to those positions that we otherwise believe will remain vacant throughout the year. That's part of why we're going through the exercise also eliminating long-term vacant positions because truthfully, you're not funding them and if they're not being filled, they're probably needing to be not that they're not needed, they need to be removed from the books basically. Well, I guess I guess my thought is being able to have if if if you get midyear these provisions are off being able to make a a line item budget change for something that you need right then being able to do that I think would be helpful. I think in in many instances the challenge is there's no money there in

Oh, it's just in paper. Oh, you didn't have it in person. Not all of Not all those vacant positions fall in there. Okay. But but okay in our departments um and others are others are not I think in the timing have to help me in the sheriff's. Do we fully fund those or are those in that same calculation? In the same calc. Okay. So, we take fill positions only plus uh a buffer in case they fill some of those positions. Yeah. Okay. And and and Tim, just to kind of dive in

kind of another layer. What What's that buffer mean? Like say if you've got an allocation of $80,000 for a position, how much is represented by the buffer? It's u I guess we look at how many the percentage of positions that are filled and you know if it's uh 80% filled we'll make that 84%. That's what we do for public safety. Give them an extra 4 percentage uh to give them a little bit of buffer. And and the reality is what happens is as the departments wrestle with exactly what you're describing, which is they're going over in some areas, they're moving monies around within the area. And then to the sheriff's point, at some point you run out of money you can move around. And so you have to come and ask for a budget amendment basically to actually have money to cover those overages, which I think in the sheriff's department is average somewhere around $400,000 or so per year over the last several years.

I I just want to point out they don't have to ask if it's personnel related. Correct. Correct. that gets allocated automatically. Not personal since I'm thinking of the other ones, but I do want to u um acknowledge and and we don't talk about it the efforts you did or the sheriff's department has done uh teaching inmates how to build tiny homes. And again, I I would like to see things connect if housing is one of our issues and you're teaching. Is it just females or

right now? It's a female unit. Yes. of uh how to build tiny house. And I do think that when we're moving forward to all the new zoning things and and things that we can do, a whatever that the sh I I think we should use support resources that actually belong to as county. Yes.

And I don't see that enough. I don't know how to make that happen, but I know I've been there and I do think it's a worthwhile endeavor. Um, I've never seen anything in the budget for that. So, I don't I keep you secret to yourself. Um, I do want to be publicly recognized that you have the you have some tools in your tool box that really benefits the community plus inmates.

Commissioner, thank you for that. I don't want to go all the way down, but there's there's a a model to look at. Right now, they're doing it for a different reason, but if you look at uh Augusta, they actually have a tiny home village right now. Uh it's been built and who they are putting in that are people who are in the foster care system that age out. Uh so basically, they bring them out, they give them a place to stay. There's a community center there. So there's this whole support network. And I don't see why we couldn't do that for some of our folks who are unhoused and just a similar model just with a difference. Now you got to have the space. You got to be able to have that. But we could essentially build a few tiny houses each year to get that up if we had the I think that would be a good model. The zoning right to get that. Absolutely. We'd be on board and we try to make it happen.

I strongly always believe if there is a will, there's a way. Absolutely. And I question our will sometimes. Other questions from the sheriff. Sheriff Williams. Thank you very much. Thank God. I was asked all the time that I did bring it again. You didn't have to use it though. Use it every day. Thank y'all. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Seven minute break. Thanks. Appreciate it.

That's probably

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, tax admission may and thank you for coming before us today and the floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. Fisher. Um, thank you all for letting me uh present a little bit to you today. Um, first off, I do want to thank Cow, Mayor GS for including uh several items in my from my budget request in the recommended budget. Our operations budget in the taxers office has been relatively flat for the past 10 years. Um, this year I now knew enough to ask for the things that need and unfortunately it hit in year one when we don't have a lot of growth in the in the digest. So, thank you for the items that you're able to include. I'm here today to ask uh for three other items. Um, first one is something that we spoke about last year at this time and you were able to grant that uh was to convert the last two part-time positions that we have in the tag office to one full-time position. Uh, the number that I've got for that 17,277 in benefits. I have two full-time authoriz uh part-time authorized positions in the budget. Uh, the full amount of those salaries is not in my line item. So when budget uh did some corrections on that uh the amount that I have uh and the the difference between the two is about 33,652. So um that does change a little bit depending on which way you look at it. If I were to fill those two part-time positions at the beginning of the year, that full salary would get added to that line item from um the other compensation. So that is the first one. Um, and just to refresh your memory a little bit, the part-time to put a person in the motor vehicle office part-time is just difficult because there is it is such a complex position. It requires a lot of knowledge, a lot of regular repetition and doing things. Uh,

once we were able to fill that full-time position that was granted last year, uh, it was about October 2025. That person has been working full-time in our office since then. She's been fantastic. It has helped. We had a short period between July and October when the person who became full-time was working about 32 hours a week almost full-time fully staffed and the difference just with that one position and what the weight times look like and how it affects us when we have an unexpected absence illness or somebody needs to be out for uh anything like that. It is very noticeable when I now have that position empty. Uh we also just had a person out on maternity leave for three months. Um we pick up the slack, but that extra position is is really important to us to be able to kind of roll with the different things that are happening and still maintain our service levels for for our customers. Um if we combine these two last part-time positions to a full-time, it's going to make it much easier for me to recruit and train somebody and keep them. Um I am very lucky to have very very little turnover in my entire department and uh this position I hope would be no different once filled. So uh that is the bulk of that position. Um and just just some things about the tag office and why it's important. I've seen several of you out there in the past few months. So, you've been able to see some of the changes in person that have been made and um received some very nice compliments which I very much appreciate and I always make sure to share with the staff. Um doing the tag office motor vehicle register positions work. Uh it can look really simple, but many of our transactions in involve out of the ordinary situations. multiple owners, vehicles that were inherited may or may not have the proper chain of inheritance for us to follow that we have to

research. Um, there's financing leans. Sometimes the finance company has gone bust and now we're trying to do a lean release, but we can't get it from the company. Uh, out of state titles are always very fun because every state does it a little bit differently. Um, and our goal is to process every transaction correctly the first time because we are operating as an agent of the state of Georgia and we have strict legal requirements to follow. Um, motor vehicle laws are also changing all the time. We just I just came from the tax commissioner conference, our annual conference this week. Um, we had a whole two-hour session on just motor vehicle law changes that are coming up for this year. Uh, so we have to keep up on all of that. Um the combination of just the hype, customer volume, the legal complexity and the constantly changing rules make it challenging, but it makes training, daily audits, attention to detail very important. And that having this extra position will really help us keep maintaining these service levels that we have been um striving towards. Um just a couple of facts about the tag office. If you're not aware, we serve we'll serve about 60,000 people in person and over the about 22,000 over the phone this year alone. That is not even including all of the mailin renewals that we process. That can be anywhere from 200 to 250 to 400 a week that have people when you renew online. We get that the next morning. We print out the actual registration with the decal and put it out in the mail. Um, so we are we are one of one of the busier if not the busiest public facing customer service operations. Um, couple of things I've been able to

do since we spoke last year uh was to update some of the policies better align uh with Georgia uh Georgia Department of Driver Services. There was some conflict between when address changes are required between DOR and DDS. U but that reduces return visits for residents coming in. They don't have to run out to the motor to the uh driver's license office first and they come back. Um we added uh tag renewal kiosk at the trail kroger uh which has been getting a lot more use lately that reduces some in office visits but we still have a high amount of traffic. Uh we also participate in the statewide network so people can use any kiosk in the state including the one at the Fri Kroger. Uh we added uh tap to pay credit card readers last year to uh improve customer convenience. A lot of people were asking for it. It also improves payment security. That was done at no cost to our office. Uh that is picked up by our payment processor. Um we added language line translation services uh which is something that um in the mayor's recommended budget is going to be continue to be funded this year and that has been fantastic. Uh we serve 60 to 80 people a month in languages other than English and it's simple. We have a a handset at the desk that the clerk can hand to the customer. They point to a sheet with what language they need. We call in. We get a translator on the phone. We can do a real-time conversation. it is accurate and much quicker than us trying to struggle through using a Google translate and that sort of thing which is what they were doing before. Um and I think the thing I'm proudest of is um last week we I replaced the standing line um with lobby seating and a take a number system and that

really changed the customer's attitude. I mean, nobody wants to stand in line for any amount of time, never mind if it's a 45 minute wait and I, you know, see seniors and people with children and and all of that. And of course, by the time you get to the counter, you're not going to be very happy to start with, which makes it an unpleasant experience for both the customer and the clerk. So, that changed everything. Um, and I was able to do that for a one-time cost. There are a lot of systems out there that have hefty monthly subscription fees. This was $7,500 and that was it. And I I feel like it's the best taxpayer dollars I may spend my entire term taxation. So, um it really was the biggest impact on everything. Um so, we we just want to make things faster, easier, and more accessible while maintaining our compliance and security. Um, the other item I've got on there for the tag office was a one-time overlimit request um for our repairs and maintenance uh building repairs and maintenance budget. Um, that was for 23,300. We have 1,700 that is allocated yearly. Uh, we have a number of things that I feel need to be addressed. One of them is uh painting the public facing areas at least. Uh, we've been on the facilities paint list for about a year now. Um, other projects have come up like painting the courthouse, which I agree is important and those improvements have been fantastic. Um, but especially painting the public areas like the lobby, it's really hard to do that during the day, which is when facilities and their inmate paint crew are able to work. U, so I'd like to be able to have a contractor come in over the weekend, redo all of that, brighten up that space again. It's been a number of years since

it was painted. It's looking kind of dingy. People see that when they come in and they start kind of wonder, you know, where are my tax dollars going? It It looks like this. So, um, we do have a sign out front. It's got a nice brick planter stand. It has been hit two or three times by vehicles. It's in need of some repair. Uh, so I'd like to be able to get that taken care of. My hot water heater is original for the building, so 30 plus years old. Um, it's still works, but I'm figuring any day now. Um, and I would like to go ahead and get that replaced before something bad happens with it. Uh, I've also looked into with facilities to potentially replace it with an on demand because we really don't have a huge amount of hot water use in the office. It's really handashing. So, an on demand heater would definitely help reduce our energy costs. Um, something else I did this year too was to make sure that we had programming in on all of our thermostats to actually run program. When I started, I figured out that it was just locked at 72 degrees year round, like AC whether or not we needed it. Um, 247. So, after we shut the office down at night, it cycles up and goes back on the morning, not running on the weekend. So, I've seen our power bill come down a little bit. Um so those um just getting some of those things done would be very helpful just to kind of improve the general office flow. Um the last thing that I'd like to ask about um I had requested some additional funds for uh training and related travel which the mayor did put uh most of that in into the proposed budget and thank you for that. Uh the delinquent tax division is part of my office. Uh that that that money was not included for that division is 20 uh $2,875.

Um the local tax division is manages all the collection of our back taxes. Um we have to follow Georgia law. Um, and keeping up with, you know, Georgia law. It seems like every year, uh, some years more than most, we have changes in how the checks are calculated or fees are assessed, things like that. It's, uh, very helpful. Well, it's necessary for them to get training. Um so the good thing with most of their training the way it's provided through uh in the state of Georgia a lot of our delinquent tax we have delax vendors who can come in and assist and we do have a company that helps us with some of our collections on the tax sales side again at no cost to county or my department. Um and they do provide trainings several times a year for free. Um unlike you know when I go to a training conference like I just did there is a cost to just attend. Um luckily for this one I don't have any travel or anything with that but with theirs it's really just mostly travel because they the trainings will be in Blige or Tiffan that sort of thing. So there's a night or two in a hotel and some mileage. Um but for those two folks in my office especially keeping up with regular trends, what is current and you know new uh products and and techniques and things like that for achieving a high collection rate without going to tax sale. That is our last and final resort. Um and so it's important to me that they get that training. Um, so if we can figure out where to get some just to get that back in there, I would be very appreciative. Um, lastly, I just want to point out some revenue streams that I think are

available to cover uh most if not all of these requests. Uh, we generate a lot of non- tax revenue in my office. um we get a 2 and a half% of the first digest commission for just from the school board collecting their taxes. Uh that is statemandated and also statemandated is that I pay that out to the county and we do uh that amount for fiscal year 25 just on the property tax side was uh $3,447,13 for fiscal year 26. Um, I've got the numbers through January 2026, but this was we've already been through the this year, uh, the 2025 tax season. That was $3.5 million. That amount is enough to cover the entirety of my department's budget and the tax assessor's budget and still have some money left over. So, for us to assess and collect the property taxes, it does not cost the county anything. The school school department pays that. Uh I get obviously my you know my budget funded. Um the rest of that goes to general fund use. I'm asking for a small slice back. Um another potential funding source is one I had talked to you about last year was we had moved some of our bank accounts uh over to First American. Uh the interest that we earn over there is much better than what we're earning at Pinnacle Bank. Um, for fiscal year 27, the banker interest line item that we pay into is budgeted for 25,000. We will we estimate we're going to earn at least $100,000 just in interest will be paid to that. That's $75,000 difference. Again, more than enough these three items. Um, so that's all I have. Um, I hope you'll consider these requests and you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Yes, sir. So, so the money that you collect back into your average fund, not to your budget,

correct? Yes. The non- tax revenue is all paid. The any interest penalties that's dispersed to the county and school board. Um the specifically that those uh commissions that we get, one is that 2 and a half% of the gross digest from the school board. The other is a 1% commission on the title adorum tax that you pay when you when you title a vehicle in your name. we get 1% back on that from the state. Uh through January of this year, uh that amount was $70,850. Uh full fiscal year 25 was 115,883. So those are those are two fees that the legislature had in mind of funding tax office operations. Um, and so overall we collected about roughly $257 million in fiscal year 25. And we do that for a cost of 2/3 of one cent per dollar collected. Feel like that's pretty good return on getting that money and having an account for dispersed. We try to be very efficient with the money that we are given. Um, I did spend a little bit differently than my designated line items last year. to put money towards things that I thought would make good improvements like the tag office lobby and those have paid off and that's what I will continue to do with these other items if you choose to put those in the budget.

JP, are you asking us to allow you to use the 3.5? No, I'm just asking for these uh three additional items that I had requested in my budget. Uh one was a new initiative. The other two were over limit requests. I'm just asking for those to be funded. Paying for 3.5 or no? Uh well, it doesn't really matter where it comes from, but I mean there's I I figure the bank earned interest a good spot because that is budgeted at 25,000.

We know we're going to have at least 100,000 in interest unless interest rates go down to Yeah, we're getting 1.7% right now. Interest rates have to go very very much lower for us to not clear that 25,000. If the $25,000 figure is part of the overall amount of dollars that you all are looking at and and figure out where to spend, the way I'm looking at it is there's at least 75,000 extra that we don't have in that pool right now. So, Commissioner Wright, um I want to thank you for the um online access. So,

I'm sorry I'm not visiting your lobby, but it is nice to do all my um my fleet get the new tags from home and then so like the dollar mailin fee. Is that also one of your is that that mean that it is not is not part of that. Um it is a fee that we do not remit to the state. So, we do end up keeping that, but out of that dollar, 74 cents of that is Yeah. Send it back. And that doesn't cover the staff time to actually process it and print it, paper for mailing, things like that. Um,

so pick those up and you understand, but I'm sorry I'm not visiting the new lobby seating, but um it's important for the age friendliness that we're going to be in ADA and um temperament. Yes. While rating. Yeah, absolutely. And um you know I'm never mad if I want to be able to serve the c my the taxpayers in whatever manner is best for them whether that's online through the mail in person through the kiosks. Um you know not everybody has the ability to come and see us between 8 and 4:30 Monday to Friday. Yeah. So and so the kiosk that's in a Coney County does a Coney County do they can they do their packs?

Yeah. So the way it works is we join the kiosk network and so that is first part and that's what something that um taxer Tony meadow had started the process of before she retired. I was able to finish getting that online last year. So then we joined the network, meaning anybody in Clark County could use any kiosk in the state, whether it's, you know, in here or in South Georgia, be driving somewhere, realize your birthday's tomorrow, find the Publix or Kroger that's got it, and get your new tag while you're on your trip. Um, later last uh later in the year last year, I think it was September, we were able to get one installed at the EPS. Um I'm sorry, Trail Creek Kroger or the Space Ker uh

and so again, anybody from the state can use our kiosk as well. And these are at no cost to our office either. There are there's a service fee and a credit card fee that's added to that that's disposed to to the customer. Um so those are really self-funding. I was able to also Madison County is already on the network. So now we've got people that also utilize that

as they're going through. I've been working with uh been talking to Elbert County and Ogal Thorp Countyy's taxers about adding getting on the network for those um so their folks can use it as well. The more transactions we get, the more likely that the company will say, "Hey, you know, oh Bside Cro, yeah, that'd be a good spot to put it too." Um I have brought that up with them already, but once they built the new store, they said, "Well, we don't really have any traffic, you know, numbers to go on." I'm like, "Well, it's going to be higher than the old one." No. Uh we're still working through that. So maybe towards the end of this year we may be looking at getting out there that um right over there on the east side too.

Is that the kind of class the the tax commissioner class? Was it the classics this week? I mean do they have a class on teaching how to get in that network? Um no but that uh the vendors there's two vendors now um that provide the service. A few different brand brands of kiosk if you will. Uh and there we have a whole vendor selected down there. And so they everybody has the opportunity to talk to these vendors and find out more about how to do that. Thank you. Any other questions? JP, I have a question about several questions about the repair. You asked number two. Yes, ma'am.

So I'm curious about the central services department's role in these repairs because it sounds like it's under their umbrella. What was what's the conversation? What's the ask?

Uh yes, you're correct. Uh, normally I think that would come under facilities repairs and maintenance account, the general line item that they use for taking care of all of our buildings. Um, I've been an employee of the county almost 13 years. Um, for most of those years, I have watched that line item be chronically underfunded. We had some, you know, slow digest growth years ago. It never really recovered back. We kept we've been kicking the can down the road on maintenance on certain things for a long time. The fourth house is a good example just because the funds aren't available. Um Andrew can attest to this. We you know those will ask for large amount of money because that's what they need to take care of everything we're going to have coming up next year. get a much smaller amount because of budgetary needs and then we have a couple of roofs and an AC and next thing you know there's very little money to take care of those small things like painting and hot water heaters and things like that. So this is where I'm just asking for that one time kind of just get these things knocked out. Um I know capital maybe they're not even in budget for fisc year 28 and that may affect that program as well. Um, I lived the same thing in leash services. Uh, when I was there and I was helping with the capital budget, we would have a spreadsheet showing every single item on there, when we bought it, what the condition was, what the replacement cost was. So, when we put a request in, we had full backup on it. Again, we can't always get everything we asked for. And so, watch these things sort of decline more and more. So, before we get really bad on a few things, I'd like to try get these things addressed. other one um is about the sign outside that's been hit.

Was there any liability insurance for that?

That was long before it came. I don't know. I do know that there are bricks falling off of the planter. Um the sign itself is uh is from 201 14 something like that. I know it was redone when the building was renamed for mitrader. Um but it's gotten faded. It's I don't think we're really ever not using the official the maroon as our official color anymore. Um I'm not saying I'd get the sign replaced itself, but at least getting the planter kind of cleaned up, get the bricks back in that need to be put back in and repainted. Um you know, we had the landscape management was fantastic with us earlier this year. I talked to them about just getting a few things cleaned up and spruced up, taking out a couple of dead things. And next thing I knew, our new landscape architect came over and she had plans and drawings and we've been by that things are finally coming up now. Like we've got some nice landscaping where it was just a bare area between our parking lot and the airport uh where George Power had to clear everything out and it looks nice when you pull in and it it just sets the tone I think when people come in as well. Um they were able to do it from funds that they had available which is fantastic. Um, I just want to kind of do that on the other corner, get that going. Um, if I end up having the money to do it, I would also like to have the parking lot restriped. You can't really tell where to park anymore. Um,

things like that. See, we we see some crazy things on the cameras. People either will park, you've got spaces going this way, and they'll just park this way or just drive right across multiple lanes of where people should be parking because there's not really any visible way to see it. So, thank you for that. I have a question for Bob, too, about the striping and about the um painting. or our painting crews are painting crews just inmate labor um or do we have contractors that we still

Yes, it's both. Um, two budget cycles ago or maybe last budget cycle, you all approved a action to actually create kind of a hybrid crew where it is paid participants from the diversion center paired with a single Athens clar county um full-time employee and facilities management. They take on as much interior as they can. We still uh plan in our life cycle for exterior painting and multi-story work. So we don't really want to put our staff and inmates uh on three four stories of you think about big atriums. Uh to what JP shared um their work has really been pulled into the courthouse. We heard good things about that. But uh that crew has actually taken on a good bit of the work around like renovating the restroom. So part of the discussion we've had is putting them back into more painting, but it's there's a lot of work in front of them.

Sure. Yeah.

And I think that as JP that as time goes on, as that deferred life cycle works further deferred, the gap getting that done keeps growing across the entire organization. And probably this not taking anything away from be asking these question these requests here. Probably if you took any of our departments and sit them in that chair, they would probably offer you somewhat the same because the reality is that deferred maintenance, whether it be for painting or carpeting or whatever, is deferred and it's deferred way past its life cycle associated with it. And so, yeah, what you're hearing is, you know, just just a quick comment. I I appreciate all this um you know customer service taxpayer friendly tax office and so I think there is a argument to be made to have it present itself well. Um it's really clear that you've worked hard on trying to be efficient with the bank accounts with the the the changing the temperature and so forth. So I'm really supportive there and and I have to give JP credit because I called the TIA office for the issue. This was what really impressed me. I just called the number for public service, you know, for for customer service. Little did I expect that JP would be answering the phone.

Um, I'm just been really impressed as well. So, thank you. And this is all really good explanation of everything. I appreciate that. You don't think your number was tagged like it was, but he was right there. the person who I had on maternity leave was one of the folks who usually man's phones and if I'm out there and I'm the last one sort of in the the ring cycle but if if we're busy he was going to answer the phone so yeah he and he actually know what I was but he was on the counter a couple times so I mean it it it happens but again that's where this extra position really does help give some of that extra flexibility to

and of course you go all our pictures are out there so Anything else? Thanks, sir. I appreciate you all. All right, some questions already. How you doing? Good. How are you all?

Well, good afternoon. Thank you all for uh taking some time to speak with me. For those you who may not know me, my name's called Deion Machelli. I'm the district attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit, which covers here Athens Clark County as well as Okone County. Um, I will have some things that I'm asking for, but let me first start off by saying that I would like to thank you all and I know everyone who uses our judicial uh facilities is very excited about the prospect of moving the courthouse project uh forward. Please don't uh take my absence at that earlier meeting to be uh an indication of a lack excitement. I was actually in Buford today for the district attorneys association for the state of Georgia's meeting and when we conclude I will go back to Buford but I want to come down to be all uh and so we're very excited about that. I want to specifically thank manager cow uh for his leadership in getting that uh rolling forward. I also want to speak in support of Judge Min's request on behalf of the magistrate court. I know Mayor Girtz and I have had many conversations about trying to find ways in which we could possibly reduce our jail population and you know obviously uh the idea of taking some pistrate court to cases that we know are going to resolve soon within a couple weeks of that person's appearance in magistrate court and going ahead and getting that done there may only be a small dent. Um but there's not going to be a magic bullet solution. So any place that we can find an opportunity to do that uh is both the best thing for taxpayers of Athens Clark County, if not more importantly, it's the right thing to do for that individual who is facing those uh criminal charges as well. Um I I think Judge Norris spoke to the length of trials uh that have increased. There

are some very serious cases that have been threatening for an extended period of time that have been brought to trial in the last year and will continue to be brought to trial. I think that's also an indicator of just the nature of the environment that we're in from a law enforcement investigation standpoint. The more body camera footage that you have, the longer a trial is going to last because there's no way quickly for a jury to review it. They sit and they watch the body cameras that are being paid late. Um, and so with the increase in the amount of digital evidence that is collected in any given investigation, you're going to see a corresponding increase in the length of felony trials for that associated case. Um, also want to uh thank Sheriff Williams. I actually told him this when he was walking out. I said, "Hey, I'm going to say some nice things about you. I'll tell you now going to be in the room." Um, but we had some uh cases that led to more challenging security situations that may occur on a day-to-day basis at the courthouse and sheriff's office did an exceptional job with that and making sure that uh individuals involved in those cases felt as safe as possible given those challenges. I do want to thank him as well as all the deputies at the sheriff's department for their work making that happen and it certainly made our job uh as representatives of the state of Georgia in the courtroom easier knowing that they had the safety pieces taken care of outside the courtroom. Um I made a request first. Let me thank the the mayor for um his uh our budget request in many ways. There were some items that we requested uh that were not recommended that I want to speak with y'all about. Um I had requested one additional attorney position as well as two investigators uh positions. For a little bit of context of that, um if those three positions were granted, it

would bring the DA's staffing level just back to the level that it was in FY24. For the last several years, um, we've been operating with a diminished staffing level compared to what historically had been given to the district attorney's office. Uh, it had to do with nonapplication for renewal of grant funding that occurred prior to my taking office on January 1st, 2025. Um, I do understand and recognize that this county and this community has many very important priorities and particularly in a tight budget year, no one's going to get everything they ask for. Um, I would ask you to consider the two investigator positions. uh even if we are not given that attorney position. Um and a lot of that has to do with what we already spoke about uh and that Judge Norris spoke to as far as the length of trials, the volume of evidence or handling on cases that are coming in the door. Um, another factor there, uh, I I think, you know, I was fully in support, I don't know that I ever had an opportunity to speak to it, of increasing, um, our, uh, additional juvenile court judge from part-time position to a full-time position, but that does increase the tempo at which that court operates. And we want to make sure that we have the investigative resources to keep up with that tempo as well. and also the increase in volume uh of evidence in each individual case that comes through. Um and that would also allow us to build out an investigative structure that mirrors our victim advocacy structure as far as uh we have two special victims unit um victim advocates uh and we only have one investigator who focuses on those kind of major cases at that point. So, a few additional positions would allow there to be an investigator that's kind of assigned with each special victim's unit advocate uh as well as some of our more

senior attorneys in order to be able to um provide the level of attention that's required in those cases because they tend to be uh much larger as far as the quantity of evidence as well as the number of witnesses involved and can be uh more challenging as far as the need of those uh victims and witnesses that we're working with in those particular situations. Uh I'm very excited about where the office is as we stand as of June 1st. We've got three people that will be starting between now and June 1st, one on Monday, and then two attorneys on June 1st as well. We only have one open attorney position, one open victim advocate position. And with the open victim advocate position, I think we've received at least 15 resumes. We're talking about taking down the job posting. So, it's really just about getting enough time to uh interview the most qualified candidates uh and then move forward with the hiring process. Uh the office of success is really based on the team that we've been able to build out. Um and I'm excited about continuing to be part of that team and leading it uh to continue office and this community um the opportunity to serve it in the best way possible. Uh, with that, uh, I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.

Yes, Commissioner Thor. Um, when you took office, there was $100,000 in there for counseling and support for victims and I guess perpetrators. And I know you were new in trying to shift money around. What is the difference between a victim's advocate or and counseling that a lot of these families have trauma afterwards? What is the difference?

So, uh, Commissioner Thornton, I know that we've spoken about this previously uh during a phone call that that money was actually already all reallocated to different purposes before I even took office. And so the first time that I heard that it had originally been put in the budget as for a specific purpose was when you told me of that it had been reallocated into positions if I'm remembering correctly professional services and maybe contract um individuals uh is where it adhered in the budget when I took over. Um, some of the difficulties with that, and I think we might have talked about this very briefly, but I don't recall in particular, is that our office cannot provide funds directly to a victim for counseling or anything along those lines. It creates an issue where before a jury or duringation, it may look as if we are trying to buy testimony of the victim by having given them money directly. The only way that the DA's office could really serve as some type of pass through for that is if we partnered with a third-party nonprofit that offers counseling services and had some kind ofou by which they would determine when a victim came in as to whether or not that person uh was authorized to have counseling services provided to them. where that money has been used in our budget. Um because frankly where it went to contract services and things along those lines. I don't know the degree to which we were using in that in that way. The previous district attorney during due to extreme shortage of staffing had basically been using it to pay contract attorneys to come in and act as prosecutors which I I really have you

some people do it and that's fine. My personal view is that that's not appropriate. It provides a type of profit incentive to a prosecutor that I don't think is right. People prosecuting crimes in the circuit should be employees of the district attorney's office if they're acting on behalf of district attorney's office or an employee of the attorney general's office. at the attorney general's office is doing that. The only time that our office has signed uh sworn in a special a special assistant district attorney to prosecute a case uh was in the trial of Akquil Crumpton in Okone County. And that was because those were assistant United States attorneys who had already tried the federal case, knew the evidence, had developed a relationship with the victim's family, and were best situated to handle that prosecution given their uh previous information um and exposure to that case. But those individuals were not paid by our office at all. Um, our office handled the expenses such as travel and things along those lines associated with witnesses that needed to come in, but they weren't paid as contract labor. Uh, those funds for us have been used for uh training opportunities for our people. Uh, I think one of the things that um there there was a real deficit in in people's opportunity to grow professionally. Uh and so we had uh funds for that. Um as well as other office costs and expenditures just in operational terms, but that money had actually circling back to your question, I know this probably a longer answer. um that money had already been reallocated into other different buckets before I took office.

Well, I guess I guess my point is that um um post traumatic stress comes from every place and everyone. And when we have victims that are are victims, I guess when you say victims advocate, you're talking about the Google um uh route. And what I'm talking about is more of a humane route. How do we help people or do we I mean that might not even be uh on your thought list to help people um uh deal with a traumatic experience or is that somebody else's job?

So what I would say is it's certainly on my thought list. Uh I think to the extent that we can help people deal with their trauma healthy and pro-social ways, it will have a corresponding reduction in crime in general uh and it will lead to a healthier community with more uh community members who are able to fully contribute with all their talents and resources once they've addressed their trauma. I don't know that the district attorneys the appropriate conduit for that general community service. Um, I'm certainly supportive of any resources that can be uh given to whether it be victims of crime induced trauma or victims of trauma just from various life experiences.

Uh, I just don't know that housing all of those things in the DA's office is is the best way of going forward. I have been very careful not to try to use the district attorney's office as some place that I can promise everyone the solution to all of the problems that are faces because I don't know that we are the best situated office to do that. And I know that that can be popular at times to say I will get an office and I will fix all these things. But I think it's more important to be realistic with people, especially when you're talking about individuals who uh are dealing with significant trauma. Um holding out false hope to them for, you know, purpose of making it seem like we're going to be able to do things that we're not well situated to do, I don't think is the right thing.

Well, I will be, you know, I definitely want to be transparent. this um situation was not was prior to you being the DA. So to be real clear, it's nothing that um has come up or um has got my attention uh since you since you're being the D, but it it was very dramatic. Yes, ma'am. At that time. So thank you. Yes, ma'am. heard your question. Commissioner Myers is

you have three positions here. You said that that you're requesting two investigators, one assistant DA, and one upgrade to a chief assistant. That's, you know, whatever there, but you said your priority is two investigators. I feel like that was a maybe a priority last year, too. It was. And we got two investigators starting at the midpoint. Yeah. Last year we filled both of those positions. Um Okay. Yes, ma'am. So, but but you're saying that this still the two last year didn't catch you up to the pre-t trial uh the the previous return to the FY24 levels, right? That's correct.

So, were those F24 levels were they there like for several years? Do we know what the history of those? My understanding is they were there for several years. So in FY24, I believe the number of authorized positions, and I apologize, um FY24 isn't on my notes right here, but I believe the number of authorized positions in uh FY24 was 30 and then in FY25, it went down to 23. Okay? And so FY25 would have been halfway through FY25 would have been when I took over at the DA's office.

And and you're also saying that because of the nature of evidence with video, body cam, other there's more time involved with reviewing some of this material that's tied with the investigators. Is that correct? That's correct. And then one thing is I mean it looks like you're I'm looking at the CA the case numbers here and a CA it's it's very good you know I'm really glad to see this number of case uh cases closed at um 3,685 where the previous year had been 2040. Was that is the backlog all you know all taken care of now and we're all just at where are we on that? We're just

um And are we how long is it taking for I mean do you have a average length of time till the are we are we getting better at addressing cases sooner because we're not as backed up.

We are we are definitely getting better. The case backlog is not gone. Um but so when we came into office January 2025, we had cases going back to um calendar year 2022 that are felony cases that hadn't even been formally charged or dismissed. It's not that every case needs to be charged. Some cases need to be dismissed. Some need to be reduced to misdemeanors. I mean the ones from 2022, the statute of limitations for misdemeanor had already run at that point. So, no reduction would be possible. Um, but those cases haven't been dealt with. At this point, outside of a couple of stragglers that just have weird circumstances surrounding them, we're through all the 2022 and 2023 cases. And my goal is by the end of this year that again outside of whatever a handful of exceptions from each year that just have unusual circumstances to have made a charging decision on any case that predated our entry into office. Um but we have also been focusing on you know I call it eating the elephant from both ends. I mean, what you don't want to do is try to get caught up on these old cases. Then all of the new cases coming in the door aren't getting charged. So, we have um some folks who just look at old cases. That is what they are doing. And then the courtroom attorneys who are assigned to each superior court judge. We we work kind of in trial teams in front of each superior court judge. And so the individuals assigned to those teams are responsible for the new cases that are coming in the door on an active basis. So we're not letting new stuff just get old by charging all the stuff.

Right. And I've got uh FY24 in front of me and and 30 was number of authorized positions for 24 as well as 23 and 22. Um it so yes and then but that's just getting them charged. They'll have to also go through the court process once they are charged and that can typically take a year or so. So we the charges you just got you're caught up with what year now? So we're through calendar year 2023 and working through calendar year 2024. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the

Yes. Commissioner Thor. Um, I'm looking at page um C33 and I don't know if this was a Kelly uh I'm sorry, mayor um under um FY 277 mayor's recommend a right behind that a you see what is that a never All right. So then my next question now becomes to that was my ink panel. Um um um and uh let's go down to appropriations by fund and I noticed that there's funding in 2025 grant funding but there's nothing else um after 2025. As Tim grant in 2025, those are grant expenses.

Expenses. We don't put in the original budget any grant funding. Those are granted every year. You'll see them come to you as agenda items. And that's what I get appropriated, but it doesn't show up there as part of the original. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you, sir. Thank you all very much for your time. I appreciate it. Come on down. We're plugging through. Plugging through.

Good afternoon. Hello. Hello. Hello. We're here.

We're here. Uh, I think I know everyone in this room, but I'm Will Fleer. I'm the solicitor general here in Clark County. Um, I appreciate you letting me come here today. I was unable to be here last year and although I'm not asking for anything in addition to my normal budget from the previous year, it did seem rude not to come two years in a row. Um, so I did also want to thank this body because this body previously agreed to expand the digital discovery program for my office and for the district attorney's office and that has dramatically increased our ability to uh obtain the evidence quickly from our police department. Those two programs speak directly to each other. And we're also able to obtain evidence much more quickly from other law enforcement agencies as well as from third parties from, you know, stores like Walmart that can now send the video directly to us instead of us having to send an investigator to go to physically go to the store, pick up a DVD with the video, come back, download the DVD. It all happens electronically, seamlessly now. And what that does is it allows us to provide the evidence to defendant to their attorney very quickly in the process within days of the of the case being open. And what that does is it leads to the cases being resolved much more quickly. We're able to resolve them usually at an earlier court appearance. So we reduce the number of court appearances which reduces the number of people coming into our building. Uh reduces the time it takes to resolve these cases. So, it really has had a knock- on effect all the way through. So, it's been it's been extremely helpful. Obviously, that doesn't mean that it's any easier to watch the videos or they go by any faster when you try and review the videos. I think that's what the district attorney was addressing in terms of his

investigators, but it certainly made the process a lot easier for us. Um, with respect to my budget this year, the only thing really that stands out as even slightly peculiar is the very first line at the top, uh, compensation regular. I did not crack the code and figure out how to change these numbers at the top. U, but there is a, if you can see in the mayor's budget, there's an additional $20,000. What that reflects is a request from me. During my budget meeting with the mayor and the manager, I brought up the fact that we had had some meetings with the director of human resources and with the county manager about creating a career track for the investigators in the two offices. The investigators in our offices are postcertified. They law enforcement officers, they carry firearms, they have arrest powers, but they don't fit under any of the other public safety programs like the sheriff's office or the police department. um they're paid in those same groups, but they have no they really had no career ladder. Um you're either an investigator, you're a chief investigator. The DA's office had um a couple of senior investigators, but you could be there for a very long time as an investigator and unless a position becomes available, you'll never be promoted. You have no opportunity to be promoted. Um and so what we suggested was these people have the same qualifications as the senior investigators. The senior investigators are really not supervisors. They all the chief the senior investigators, the investigators all have case load just like um you know the chief investigator case load just like any of these other investigators. They're just more senior and certainly they can make you know more more serious decisions on cases and what needs to be done. But they're all taking direction from attorneys. They all have very similar jobs. What we suggested was creating a career track for those investigators so that we could keep people who we had trained for years instead of letting them move on to other prosecution offices where they could be

attracted as senior investigator or chief investigator. And so that is what that reflects is is working in the idea that investigators in both offices once they reach the appropriate qualification promoted to a senior investigator once they have enough actual investigative experience they could be eligible to be promoted the way that the attorneys are. The attorneys once they obtain a certain amount of experience are basically automatically eligible to be promoted. They don't have to wait for another attorney to leave. Um, so that's really that's really the only difference between the budget that I requested uh last year and budget I'm requesting this year and and and really the the mayor and and the manager met about that with me. They discussed it separately with human resources and I believe that's what that number reflects. Um the one last thing I want to say and you know uh district attorney has already left but he and I also met with Chris Paul about 5% funds and I know commissioner Thorne you were asking about how do we provide counseling services to victims who've experienced trauma. I think the answer to that question is really with 5% funds. So 5% of the fines that we collect throughout the entire court system are set aside into a fund and that money can be provided to agencies that are qualified as 5% agencies through CJCC and those agencies if they can display that they're going to be utilizing those funds to provide services direct services to victims they can receive those funds. Now there very strict rules about how those monies are used and there is accounting for those monies that those agencies have to comply with through CJCC but they come to this body and request those funds and there are multiple agencies including project safe family counseling services the cottage who are eligible to receive those funds. It's my understanding that the only one that requests the funds is project safe, but I can see certainly

where the cottage or family counseling services or project safe expanded a program where they, you know, said if someone comes in and indicates that they've been a victim of a crime, they could qualify for counseling through them and the counseling could be paid through 5% funds. But that would be that would require those agencies to reach out to this body with a plan for how those funds would be spent and to request those funds specifically. Now, the reason that we have those 5% funds and they're not being allocated to my office and DA's office is during COVID, we almost completely stopped collecting fine money. And there was a time where my office D's office and project safe sort of equally split those funds because we we do qualify for 5% funds and they were paying for our victim advocate positions. But during co it became sort of a farce because the general fund was just paying it all anyway and the 5% funds couldn't cover the positions in our office. So we just stopped pretending that it was covering the positions. But then after COVID, the 5% funds began to increase again and there's now actually a surplus of 5% funds and I believe Chris call has already left but I think it's somewhere close to $50,000 at this point. So that money could be if an agency came along it can't be as district attorney point out we can't provide that type of service. I can't hire a counselor have them in my office but those agencies could and they're here in the community. They're certified. You can go on the CJCC website and see a list of the agencies that are certified, but I know those three are. And as far as I know, Project Sage is the only one that requesting those funds, but it would take one of those other agencies or some other agency that currently isn't certified to become certified to request those funds. They could provide those direct services.

Are they are they aware that they can come or what was the third one? We have cottage project safe and family counseling services which is on oorp. That's a nonprofit. They also have they're also 5% certified through the CJCC. Well, I guess where I'm going with this, we need to maybe get that word out. And also to the people in our community when those type of got your head. I I do want to point out the $50,000 is probably correct. That's an accumulated balance, not an annual balance. I understand that.

Yeah. So we stopped taking money to the DA's office and solicitor's office when it became clear that there really wasn't any money there to take and the general is paying our demand positions anyway. But then as that money has begun to accumulate again, it's began to build. We did the district attorney and I met with Chris Cwell. We talked about the possibility of taking that money again and having it pay our positions. Uh it wouldn't pay the full salaries for either of the two positions. the general fund would still cover the difference. Um, and frankly, it it just seemed like that money could be better spent if there was an agency that would step forward and find a reason to use it as opposed to us taking some part of it just to cover some expense that is already covered in our budget.

Yeah, that's sort of where I was going though. these agencies that are qualified to do that. You know, maybe that need some type of outreach to them to say, "Hey, you know, these things are baby because, you know, we have victims all the time in our community. They may not get the help that they need." The the director, I know the executive director of Family Counseling Services is aware that that money is there. It is difficult to put together that sort of proposal, but do think they're an agency, the cottage would be the other obvious choice. And then, of course, Project Safe. Project Safe does actually receive 5% funds. None of this obviously has anything to do with my budget. Just bringing it up because

it was a question that was asked. I was listening and um you know it is again I think I think district attorney is correct in saying that we can't provide that type of direct service but there are agencies that can and there is there's it's not it's not going to be $50,000 every year. It has accumulated over the last few years and it's not being allocated. And it does need to be allocated. It can't it can't just build up and sit there. Understand? Thank you. Thank you. Another question.

Well, I mean, I just I just clarifying this for with Will here on the the C CJC certified agencies. Are you positive the cottage is in there? I just did a search in here and it says project safe family counseling and ACC sane which is certified to provide forensic medical examinations. This might be all wrong. There are two different lists and I had uh the director of my victim witness program provide I don't have it in front of me right now because that was from another meeting. They might have it in here somewhere. Um but I'm fairly confident we went through it. We saw that the cottage was on there. But you know I don't have Okay. Not that I mean just information is helpful.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't reach out to the cottage. We don't it's really more the district attorney's office that works with the cottage. We do occasionally have cases where we work with the cottage, but uh we don't have as much of a relationship with them as we do with Project Safe. Anybody else? All right. Thanks so much. Thank you.

That's okay. She's late for an appointment. They're gonna figure it out. I'll go ahead and talk for press court coming out.

Hello, I'm Mandy. Amanda Tumble and I go by Mandy. Um, and I'm the presiding juvenile court judge. It's going to be easy because I didn't ask for anything and y'all didn't give me anything. So, it works out. So, why am I here wasting your time? Um after we received the uh recommended budget, we learned that the general assembly increased the hourly rate that the attorneys for DeFax, who represent defax in my court, um can make. So the increase was to be from $77 per hour, and these are state funds again, to $82 per hour. That matters for us because um the county pays the attorneys who represent the parents in court and also the juveniles and the guardians at Lida. We struggled several years ago at not having par between the attorneys for deacts paid by the state and then the amount that we were paying at the county level. And they all corrected that and everybody was making $77 an hour and everybody was happy. So, if the state increases those SAG attorney, special assistant attorney general positions to 82, then we'll be asking for an increase in our hourly rate to 82. And that's what I was prepared to do today. And then I got word yesterday that the governor has quashed that raise for the I don't know that that's true, but I can't in good faith say that that raise is absolutely going to happen um at the state level. So, what I'd rather say is when it does, um, we'll be seeking contingency funding or something to that effect so that we can have parody with the attorneys. Our local attorneys are not going to continue representing parties in our court if they're making less per hour than the attorneys for defects. Um, so if there are any questions about that, I'll be happy to answer it, but I just I

just don't know right now that that's actually going to happen. um when it seemed certain a few weeks ago. Just for commissioners kind of to think about the correlary of our budget process here versus that of the state. The state does this significant midyear adjustment that you know sometimes in Atlanta they call the little budget. And so what the governor suggested is this approximately $300 million of reductions that he vetoed may be able to be revisited in January February of 27. So, so yeah, there's a big question mark for all of us. It

it could still happen. The only other thing that may impact our parent attorney and child attorney expenses is if if you've had an opportunity to see what's happening at the in the child welfare system at the state level. There have been drastic budget shortfalls and decreases in services. Representative Beth Ant is chairing a committee to look into our child welfare system. uh the delays in service provision from the state level is causing uh pretty significant delays and extensions of time in our court processes as well. So we're having a lot of continuences because children and parents haven't received services that should be provided by the state and those continuences and repeat hearings may cause us to have some additional expenses on the parent and child attorney side of things. But really, those are just forwardlooking things and when I have more data, I'll certainly let you know. Thank you. Is there any questions about the foster care thing? I guess that didn't go anywhere near

Well, it's ongoing. And if if you mean the potential for that to kind of have some expense. Yeah. And so I highly recommend still that that county governments throughout the state stay in touch with ACCG and really, you know, have a strong voice in making sure that um the counties uh advocate for not having services that should be provided by the states have those expenses transferred to the local governments. There there is still a contingent at the state level that wants to do that. Um, and I don't know what kind of traction that will have. I know that the statutory authority they were using, I think was they were mis kind of misinterpreting what that what they could do. But if if I were in charge of state government, and I am so glad I'm not. Thank you. Um, I I would really want to have a strong voice to make sure that that doesn't get kind of unfairly for it on the counties. Yeah. Thanks for the heads up.

Of course. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. That was good. Anytime I can not ask for something all the happy people can line up as much at the end. little bit in the house.

Um, how are y'all doing? You'll be happy to know that we also are not going to take a lot of your time. Um, I'm Judge Susan Schaefer, Associate Judge Susan Huff. Um, we appreciate your time today. Um, mostly I just want to update y'all about some exciting things happening in probate court. And I really want to just deeply express my gratitude and appreciation to y'all for your support. Um, we might recall that last year you approved uh my associate judge and I I couldn't do without her and it's been just a tremendous tremendous help for us. So I I greatly greatly appreciate that. I'm grateful for her every day. Um, in recognition of our continuing great need, the mayor's recommended budget uh includes and thank you Mr. Mayor, but includes funding for a full-time fiduciary compliance officer uh a budget for service of legal process and publications uh specifically to address our fiduciary compliance. a 4% increase for our contract staff attorney. He's worked with us for over three years. He has never gotten any kind of increase. Uh he's g such an incredible expertise, specialized expertise in our office. And there's been, you know, county employees getting pay equity increases, market increases. And so we're just trying to get him caught up a little bit. And then um a small but very important uh amount for operating budget expense increases for things like internal support, office supplies, and equipment. We haven't had any increase in those since uh fiscal year 20 or before that, I think. So we

we've had additional expenses and needs, but we've never had those line items increased. So, we want I just I'm here today just to let y'all know how vitally important these uh positions and expenses are for us to effectively run our office and just how big a difference it makes for the community. Um, when we got the associate judge in last year's budget, which I said is so beyond huge for us, it still was only the tip of the iceberg for our needs. We still have a critical staff shortage. We have an increasing case load. Um, you know, this is going to improve our ability to timely address fiduciary filings in much more meaningful way and to address our administrative needs. Um despite being understaffed and having these needs, our staff has worked so very very hard um to manage all the statutoily required mandates that we're required uh by law to manage. Uh we've made significant significant improvements over the five plus years that I've been in office. And I want to tell you about some of those improvements and I want to tell you about where we're going and then I'll we'll leave. But those improvements include um we're finalizing maybe one of these days the implementmentation of our case management system that we've been working on getting for 11 years. Um that system is helping us to more efficiently process and record our cases. It's helping improve how we report those cases to the state. Those are required every year. It's helping us make it's helped us to

make a comprehensive list of fiduciaries who owe a duty to incapacitated adults and deedenced states. It's helping us to develop a more effective procedure to hold non-compliant fiduciaries accountable and it's going to help us move towards mandatory eiling which is going the governor just signed a bill into law. Uh and it's going to take effect for all probate courts by January 1st of 2029. Uh this new system, they've already been developing the eiling system for us. We just haven't turned it on yet. We're waiting to see exactly what the law is going to require us to do. Um, but once we get the other parts of the system finalized, we're going to be able to move forward eiling. That's really a huge for us. We're continuing to make improvements on our office procedures. We're handling cases more expeditiously. we're communicating more clearly with filers and just more effectively being able to respond to the people in our community. So, in addition to all of those wonderful things, um these these items in the budget are going to go a long way to just continue to help us improve how we manage and run probate court. and it's going to help us implement our updated goals and vision. We've been working really hard to to move probate courts into a a very in a very thoughtful and meaningful way. So, we are in the final stages of hiring a clerk of court to replace a retired staff member. um that chief clerk is going to be able to focus on administrative processes involved in the clerk side of what we

do. We don't have our own clerk's office like state superior court. So, we're taking in the cases, we're taking in the filing fees. We're processing the paperwork side of that before we get to the case handling side of that. So the clerk court's going to be able to handle a lot of that clerk part of it for us, that administrative part. They're going to provide legal uh added legal knowledge and expertise uh to support our court functions. They're going to help manage our court recordeping and reporting. They're going to address our needs for supervision and coordination of the clerks and our financial administration. And then you're thrilled because it's going to free up our time to then spend be able to spend more time on the actual case handling part of the job which you know we need to do and we do but we'll be able to do it even more efficiently and hopefully faster and in a in a more uh productive way. And our case loads are ever increasing because our population is increasing and our members are aging and they're living longer which means we're going to be seeing more incapacitated adult cases as well as eventually more deceased estate cases. So we have to be able to process all of those. Nobody else has has jurisdiction or authority to handle those things. So, but then let me talk a little more about the vision and our goals. Uh, our new future compliance officer is just going to be huge for us. It's going to help us to um address all of our statutoily mandated duties uh to audit those fiduciary returns and to address accountability in a timely and effective manner. And you'll be happy to hear um this is sort of a new thing we've been

working on. Um, but I've heard several people mention trying to keep people out of the jails and trying to address the mental health problems in our community. And we're working with Advantaged Behavioral Health Services and other members of the courts and our and law enforcement, particularly the sheriff's office to develop what's a civil accountability court model for involuntary commitment proceedings. We we do, you know, involuntary inpatient outpatient treatment uh orders. But what we're trying to develop, what's going to happen is we're trying to develop a system that is called assisted outpatient treatment. Now, we've always been able to do outpatient treatment orders, but what makes assistant outpatient treatment different is that it's it's similar to the criminal accountability court models where the court gets more involved and has regular check-ins with the persons who have been committed. So there's that black robe effect and I can then get involved and provide positive and constructive feedback and we can work toward keeping that person really motivated and accountable to uh work through their individualized uh service plan to to address their serious mental illness

needs

and be able to order compliance if they don't comply. So, um, like I said, we're we're really it's going to be focusing focusing on members of the community with serious mental illness. Those folks frequently uh are uh seen in our hospitals and our emergency rooms and they're frequently seen in our jails and spend way too much time maybe sitting in the jail while they may be waiting on competency evaluations or other things. And which means then the sheriff's office has to, you know, we're paying fees for them to stay in the jail. They're trying to provide them with some form of medication or treatment, but they can't really, they're not really getting the treatment that they need. And so this may be a way for us to address those members of our community that are in crisis and hopefully make a difference towards some of those numbers. Um, we just advantage just applied for a big grant for that. It's a a SAMA grant. And so if we are able to get it, SAM, it's substance abuse mental health services uh, administration and or agency. And they if we're able to get the grant, it's $500,000 for up to five years. Uh, each year up to five years. So, we're praying we get it. If we don't get it, we've done a lot of footwork toward uh working on that and we can apply for other grants. And uh I'm ready to do them. The the bigger issue is just that Advantage has to have funding so that they can manage the case load and uh you know pay their attorneys and pay their evaluators and you know support their activities and their treatment providers and housing whatever

all the things that a person might need to work through their individualized plans. So that's a really exciting program that we're very we're very excited about it. we're ready to do it. Um hopefully we can get that grant and but we're going to be working toward that regardless. So, just wanted to kind of give you all a heads up about that, let you know what we're doing. Um, and like I said, all of these uh the position and the extra expenses are helping us tremendously to just run uh run our office the way we need to and to do it in a way that is uh going to be the best for the community and folks in crisis who need need our help at these difficult times in their lives. So, we just wanted to come again and just say thank you. We appreciate you. We appreciate your support. Please come to Probate Court and visit us if you want. We're here all the time. If you've got questions today, I'm happy to answer them. I'm happy to answer them later if you think of something. Um, you know, we just we just want to be able to do our jobs. You know, we're ready to get back to work. We just, you know, we just need to be able to do our jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible. Any questions?

Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you for your time. How was your husband? Yes, he went good. Dad, hello. I walked out. Tell him I didn't say hello. I'll tell you sign.

Thanks. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you.

John Donnelly, circuit public defender of the Western Circuit Public Defenders Office. Um, thanks for adding me on here. I'm not really a um an elected or constitutional officer, although let's see. Um, we are constitutionally required.

Last I checked, it's still here and I don't have the Georgia Constitution on me, but um, we're also required by the Georgia Constitution and state law that they forced this um, responsibility onto the local government. So, thank you for your support and letting us fulfill our constitutional obligation representing lower income people of the community who are looking at criminal cases in all the the various courts that you you just heard from. um all the cases that they're talking about, most of those our lawyers are involved in. And our goal is to represent everyone as if they had hired, you know, someone of their choosing. Um and try to get them an outcome that they they would be able to expect from someone that they hired. Um so we are the um the recommended budget from the mayor's office is matches our request. So I don't I'm not trying to waste your time. If everyone is supportive of that then then

No, YOU CAN'T. NO ONE.

I just I guess I want to make myself available. I I want you to to think of us as I think from your point of view it's a good idea to think of us as part of this public safety really a behemoth. I mean, it's a I'm sitting here listening to this um I came um not because I didn't have any work to do in my office because I really I wanted to hear the context with the other um court personnel officials um describing their their offices and and their needs. Um and it is massive and and the police weren't even here today. So, that's that's the really the biggest piece. Um, but so I think it's it's great if y'all would think of us as part of that because you can't prosecute and send lowincome residents of the community to prison unless you make sure that they have adequate representation for so um I don't think of it that way. uh I have a little bit more our adversarial view with those other folks, but we get along great. And um um but but I think that's probably a good way for y'all to think of it. Also, we are sort of a quality control on

the what goes on in the building. Um and you know, so that's another maybe um good way to think of it. Um the increases that we're asking for are really just to keep up with the salaries in the prosecutor's offices. And again, this happens to me every year. I I just I'm not as aggressive enough because I to this point I write this up in December and then I get to this point I'm like I looked made comparisons like wow we're like our experienced lawyers are like more than 10% behind the salaries in the prosecutor's offices. Um so anyway we we it's a it's a moving target. We're trying to keep within striking distance to keep people um in working in the office, people that are, you know, and we have a lot of lawyers who do a great job. Um they, you know, some of them got stolen by the courthouse and took Jessica Benjamin and to the magistrate court and Latasha Prempe to the juvenile court. Um, and thanks for not taking the other one in municipal court, but um, and what else? The So, yeah. And then we also probably have some rent increase from our landlord. We have this terrible landlord.

We might get you in a better place. No, don't. We're we're very happy. And um the you know we we're only asking for like a thousand square feet in the new you know just possible potential new palace to justice or justice two questions. You brought up the name is and I didn't ask it earlier. Is that all is that all of your offices? No, just a little part. We have 8,000 We have like approximately 8,000 square feet in 440 College Avenue. And so this would just be to supplement that to have a presence.

That's what that's what I could meet people right now. That far.

Yeah. So it's it's but we're dwarfed by I think it's like 23,000 square feet for the prosecutor's offices. So that really only puts us at like 9,000 square feet. And um their total request I think is like 4.8 million. Um ours is just over half of that. And so we have to deal with both the solicitor's office and the DA's office. Um as well as well uh defax lawyers because we do handle defax cases only in Okone County. Now we don't do them in Clark County. Has the has the I'm going to ask you the the increase in um the average daily inmate population over the last couple years, has that affected you all?

Yes. Um, we have a well um I mean in in a simple concrete way I I

but yes um we have so we have a parallegal who has an office in the jail the sheriff has given us this our small office and so she's there Monday through Friday and she her job is to see new arresties or new incarcerated folks folks and see if they need us in their case or if their family's going to hire someone for them or what. Um, and so it's this makes it a lot tougher for us to keep up with. Um, and it makes then we people who are not going to be able to postpone anytime soon on a felony case, we file for a preliminary hearing in magistrate court and those, you know, we've seen those get significantly pushed back. So now, you know, where it used to take a couple weeks, now it's taking like a couple months to get in for preliminary hearing. Um but um and and then the other thing is it is a um you know it there is a time cost for the way for see their clients who are in Florida County jail and waiting to see someone might have three people to see and um you only wait 45 minutes before you can even see the first one. Then you might wait 20 or 30 minutes next one and etc. because of the underst staffing out there. And that they it requires uh jail employees to move, you know, people from where they're being housed up to the visitation area with their lawyer and move them back. and they're um stuck in a locked room on their side and we're on the other side of glass where we can talk to them and slide paper through where they can sign and um yeah so some I mean the other day one of

the lawyers came back and told me that the person they just talked to um you know they can't leave to go back to their unit they have to wait for a deputy to come unlock the door and escort them and that it took so long this person had a really embarrassing accident in that in that room. Um so it's the the understaffing of the jail and and the increase in um population is it's it's like a ripple effects. Well, I don't have a question, but I would like to thank you for your office's work because out of my district and and personally as well, um your office have have been able to um represent some of my mentees um as well as some of my constituents. And without without the public defenders office, I I don't know what they would have done. um being able to, you know, speak to some of the the attorneys at your office. I know that they they love what they do. They do it because they love being able to help and serve people who are um less fortunate. And so I was telling Miss Alita, I said, "Every time I see him, he looks like he's so tired." Um but I and I know that that's because of all of the work that And it's not shade. I promise. I just really I really commend you. I've I've been on the court with some of the the young men in my district and so

Well, I thank you for Yeah, I'll be up with them. Um but I thank you as well.

Well, you know, I do I I really um wake up every day excited to try to get people out of jail and ease the burden on the sheriff and and see and I know everyone in the office, most of them feel the same way. And um if I look tired, it's just cuz I'm getting old and in the office for 30 well more than 32 years now in this same office doing this work. And so yeah, I really do like it. And um I would also point out that I have before that we probably are pay for ourselves in a way that I when I when I was coming up with the budget in December and I I didn't do any kind of um deep dive into the data but I just tried to jot down in the last calendar year 2025 um successful jury trials that we'd had and I could come up with seven felony trials. where and I tried to just sort of estimate the number of years that that we basically saved in prison and it would be between two and a half and $5 million worth of cost of incarceration. Now that's state that would be state money because that would be from the department of corrections but still I think we're we're um you know prosecutors we need them. God bless them. But um they need, you know, some some checking sometimes and and and I mean there's uh defense lawyers are required on the other side for a reason. And um and when they go too far or reach for too much um there needs to be someone will advocate for um whe if someone's got a defense or if if

someone has just circumstances mitigating circumstances that need to bring the temperature down on the punishment. Um that is just vital I think as we all understand. Um and so yeah so I'm not asking for any new positions or anything like that. We love to ask for new investigator positions. So you know the prosecutor's offices have the the sheriff's office and the police department kind of working in tandem with them but then then they get these investigators on top of that like how many people do we have to uh deal with there on the other side? But whatever we'll we we um aren't complaining. We do it there.

So any other questions? All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um just want to remind me we're meeting next Wednesday at city hall. Yes, sir. Right. Stay city hall 6. The long agenda. Theoretically, there's time for Oh, yeah. 30 something. We ain't coming.