City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening. It is 6 o'clock on May 26th, and I call this regularly scheduled Dunwoody City Council meeting to order unless there's an objection. Seeing none, this meeting is called to order. Councilman Lambert, can you lead us in the invocation and pledge, please?

Please stand as you're able. At this council meeting, help us to make decisions which keep us faithful to our mission and reflect our values. Give us strength to hold to our purpose, wisdom to guide us, and a keen perception to lead us. And above all, keep us charitable as we deliberate. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic

All right. Chief, you're here.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm here to present to you our officer and employee of the quarter for the first quarter of 2026. If I could ask Police Service Representative Marie Thomas to come up first. This is Police Service Representative Marie Thomas. PSR Marie Thomas consistently demonstrates exceptional teamwork and reliability through her unwavering commitment to our department. She repeatedly goes above and beyond, offering support whenever needed and frequently stepping in during short staff situations while managing her own challenges. Over the past quarter, Marie has faced significant personal hardship. Despite this, she has remained resilient and continued to show up with the same dedication, professionalism, and positive spirit that define her. Her ability to persevere through such adversity while still supporting others speaks volumes about her character and strength. Her positive attitude and reliability are key to keeping operations running smoothly. Marie is known for her constant smile and the uplifting energy she brings those around her. Marie's connections built through her interactions with coworkers demonstrates a deep commitment to the department staff and mission. PSR Thomas's actions reflect not only an exceptional work ethic, but also a selfless dedication towards fostering a supportive, cohesive team environment, making her truly deserving of the Employee of the First Quarter Award. Congratulations. Before we do the photo, I want to kind of commend the Dunwoody Police Foundation. Marie lost her home, and the Dunwoody Police Foundation stood in to help her, and the department has stood behind her as she's gone through this. So she's been very resilient, and we are honored to have her as a part of our team. She shows up every day with a smile on her face. And the Dunwoody Police Foundation also has a gift certificate for Marie as well. all right and at this time i would like to call up the officer of the quarter officer gwen winsick Officer Winsick has proven to be invaluable to our department through her expert drone operations, which have directly led to multiple arrests and enhanced officer efficiency and safety. She excels at monitoring flock alerts and rapidly disseminating vital information over the radio. Officer Winsick consistently anticipates officers' needs and provides intelligence that improves our operational effectiveness in the field. Additionally, Officer Winsett increases our staffing by handling reports at the police department over the phone, allowing patrol officers to remain available for priority calls and emergency responses. Officer Winsett's dedication, professionalism, and proactive support of patrol operations make her highly deserving of this recognition. And listening to her firsthand, it is a force multiplier out there on the streets. And for her to... She has totally embraced this position, and I have never been more impressed of getting our officers dispatched to these critical incidents quicker. I'll just give a quick example. All of our officers were busy. We had two shoplifting in progress as in call. She launched the drone, found both of them, and waited for the two officers to go up, arrest the first one, put them in the back of the car. They guided them to the second one over to Target. while the drone was over them, got in, scooped him up, put him in the back of the car. And without that, these two would have gotten away and probably stolen again. So anyway, I just want to commend her for the excellent work that she's doing. This is our Officer of the Quarter for the first quarter of 2026.

Congratulations to our award winners. And we are so appreciative of your service as well as the service of your colleagues. You do great work for our city. And thank you very much. Like I said, we always appreciate our police department. And congratulations. Okay. Public comment. Is that right? Public comment. I have two cards if you'd like to do public comment. It's on the music stand back there. fill out a card and bring it to the gentleman in the front row. Jennifer Fennell, if you'll approach the microphone and you'll have three minutes. Just introduce yourself so they have it on the record, please.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Fennell, and I am a Dunwoody self-employed right down the street from here. And I'm also a skateboarder, and I teach skateboarding, and I've been skateboarding for about 13 years. And over at Brook Run Skate Park, is one of my most favorite places to let off some steam instead of going to the gym. But over the years, I've seen Dunwoody change a lot, Brook Run go through three or four different management people. And I just really want to introduce myself and let you all know that we really appreciate anything that you all can do to help us at the skate park. grow and become a place where families can continue to bring their kids. I do have mentorship programs that I've done in the past, and I was the head of the Dunwoody High School Skateboarding Club for two years. So I guess the big thing is, is as we progress, Deshaun's here, he actually manages the skate park. But as time goes on, I just want you all to see my face and familiar face. We're going to try to work possibly with the Peachtree Middle School and maybe have some type of outreach program with those students over there. So just kind of want... you know, warm and fuzzies and for you all to get behind us if we do have some things that we want to present to the different high school and the middle school. There's been some times where money has gone to the skate park, and I feel like it was maybe mismanaged based off of weather, timing. So... Potentially in the future when money is going to be spent, maybe be more thoughtful. And so it's not like, oh, this is just, you know, another skate park and the kids are thugs and whatnot. There's a lot of young kids that go to the skate park, a lot of teenagers. scooter kids, biking, um, rollerblading and all that. So just really want you all to, uh, help support us when the, if, if, and when the time comes so we can build a beautiful community and don't really want to see that, um, park go down town because there's a lot of mental health, uh, advantages of having the kids young, old, uh, rich, poor being out there. So, um, just want to have a smiling face and you all to know the 13 and a half year skate park mom. So yeah. If anyone has any questions, I'm done with the hair over down the street and sk8atl.com.

Thank you. If you could leave your contact information, because I don't think our parks directors do. Okay. You got her to come down here. Okay. Here she comes. Rachel will just get your, she's our parks director. Okay. Deshaun Wells, if you'll approach the microphone, sir, you'll have three minutes. And thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Okay.

Hello, guys. My name is Deshaun Wills. I'm the current owner-operator of Brookridge Skate Park. I've been there for about three years now, and as Ms. Jennifer said, coming into this skate park, I provide a lot of different community activities, lessons, rentals, but it was a little tough trying to clean it up at first because, you know, before I got there, obviously, there was a lot of You know, mishap and things going on there. But needless to say, when I got in there cleaning up very greatly, the local, the immediate local area loves what I'm doing. It's a safe place. Parents tell me all the time they feel great about even leaving their kids there. Not saying they're supposed to do that, but that's how comfortable it has become in the neighborhood over there. And I'm just coming today to ask you guys, is there a way that we can work together to get more exposure for the park? Because I'm doing a lot of great things there, but not many people know about it. And it's like they only find out about what I'm doing when they're walking their dog paths or maybe they hear their song on the radio, I mean, on a speaker playing. But other than that, that's been the biggest thing, even the local community has come and said, hey, we try, we do the best we can to get the exposure that you need. But unfortunately, not a lot of people know what I'm doing there. So, if there's any way we can work together to get some signage or anything, just to let people know that there is a park inside of a skate park inside of. But that's that's pretty much all I'm asking for. Other than that, it's been great making a connection with the community out there, even watching some kids grow up, because like I said, I've been there for three years. So that's all I'm hoping for. Maybe get some exposure so I can keep doing what I'm doing and keep growing. That's all I have to say, guys. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Rachel has your information, but she's here. If you have questions or suggestions, I think it's a good idea to figure out how to get more exposure. So thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, that is the end of my public comment for today. And there'll be another public comment section at the end if you want to stay and give us more feedback. You have three minutes. All right, next is Ms. Davis. So for those who might not know, a few months ago, we started the Dog of the Month to get dogs from Lifeline into Cab. We're going to get you situated right so you can be on camera. Because this beautiful puppy needs all the exposure she can get. And Jessica Davis is going to tell us a little bit about the dog.

Yeah. Thank you guys for having us again. Like I said, I'm Jess. I live in Dunwoody. My husband is a Dunwoody police officer and I work for Lifeline. I volunteered there for a couple of years and started working there in December. This is Debbie. She's perfect. Debbie is seven months old. and about 40 pounds so she might get a little bit bigger but she's always going to be a pretty small dog she's been at the shelter for right out a month she walks well on the leash she's super snuggly she's very dog friendly with a gentle play style she loves car rides and she just everyone that meets her just falls in love she just melts into you and just gives you all the kisses It's been a little bit of a hectic couple weeks at the shelter. Last week, we were over capacity come Tuesday night by 30 dogs, which meant that we did have a euthanasia list of 30 dogs with a Thursday 7 PM deadline. But out of those 30 dogs, we were able to find placement for every single one of them. So we saved all of them last week, which is really huge. But our goal is always to not have a list at all. And so that's where Tuesdays come into play. When I left the shelter at five, our capacity was at 490, which is about 15 dogs over our humane capacity goal. So fostering and adopting on Tuesdays, especially, that's when we do that count. And it really helps the week substantially. Even if you just do like a week in Warrior, which is a two-night foster program, that also helps with our numbers. And again, if we meet that 475, then we're golden. And that's the goal. We do have some fun adoption events coming up. This upcoming Sunday will be at Perk Coffee in Atlanta from 10 to 12. And then on June 6th, we have... leashes and lattes at the Tap Room Coffee in Atlanta from 9 to 11. And then we're also going to be at the Petco in Sandy Springs and the Petco in Edgewood. So if you want to come by and show your support, you know, no pressure to adopt a dog. Just come by and say hello and get some snuggles and come meet us. So we would love to see you guys. So again, Debbie, she's eligible for short-term foster, long-term foster adoption. We would love to see her get out of there because she's just so precious. So thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Someone needs a dog.

Someone needs a dog. Yeah. Thank you, Jessica. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Consent agenda. Does anyone have any questions or need to pull something off?

Good. Okay, good. I do see the change of the term date on the urban mural, so that's good. We're good.

Go ahead. I have a question for Rachel with the Wynwood Hollow.

She's right at the, I think she's out talking about the skate park, but we'll get her. Hold on. Sorry, Rachel. It's always busy. That's okay. Councilman Harris has a question. Yes.

So it kind of goes back to what we talked about, and then there was a vision. Does it make sense? I mean, I was kind of surprised at how much it was going to cost, to be honest.

We're talking about Wynwood Hollow?

Yeah, Wynwood Hollow. Sorry.

Yeah, so we spoke to the vendor, explained what we're looking for in terms of having everything meet the sidewalk. So because the way the playground was built, so you've got your playground equipment up here and the sidewalks down here, we can't lower everything because then you don't have your accessibility for the slide and access points. So what we can do is once you get out of the play zone or the fall zone, they will start to slope it towards the sidewalk. So you'll still get it level with the sidewalk, but it's not going to be like Brook Run just because that's how the playground equipment was installed. That makes sense. Yeah. And then we'll still have the three access points for ramps, but those will be the EPDM instead of concrete. It'll all be the rubber surfacing. But yeah, when they did the math for the removal of the concrete, the additional square footage of EPDM, she said actually it's basically a wash, so that's why they left the price the same. Yep. It's the same sales rep, different vendor, same sales rep who did Brook Run, so she knows exactly what we're going for.

Okay, cool.

I just kind of wanted to make sure we were all good with that. Thank you. Anybody else have questions? Okay, this is action.

Second.

Moved by Joe, second by Tom. All in favor, say aye. That's unanimous, 6-0, because Councilman Hennigan is not here. All right, Nicole.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We are back to talk about our compensation and benefits study. Stacey Whitchell is with us on Zoom. I'm hoping that you all can see her. We're not going to go through, we're not planning to go through the whole presentation again, but Stacey's going to talk about the recommendations that came out of the study. So I'll turn it over to her.

Could I just quickly ask, is there anything different from what was presented two weeks ago? No.

I don't know why we could. I think if you or Stacey could just summarize it so the public can hear, because I think this is a good thing we're doing for our police officers. So if we could just summarize that potentially. Okay. I think that's what Stacey's planning. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, Stacey.

Absolutely. Can you guys hear me okay?

A little louder, please.

A little louder. Okay. I don't usually get accused of being quiet. So is that better? So for the study, like we presented the last time when I was there in person, right now from the market standpoint, the findings are you're approximating that 85th percentile, which is where you want to be from a competitive standpoint. The cost of living adjustment that you already have planned for this year will help address most of those little areas of shortfalls that you had. Other than that, the other recommendation that we had was you know, looking at that police structure that you have in place right now and making sure you're meeting the needs of your community, meet the needs of the police department, wanted to take those police officers that have longer tenure in that position and provide an opportunity to recognize them for their seniority, their time service with Dunwoody, and then also the role that they often serve in training the newer hired police officers. So with that, we wanted to give the two different tracks, if you will, So police officer two would be at that grade 108, along with the detective also at a grade 108. And that would allow for your officers to continue to advance within your system without stepping into that sergeant role. So it gives you a little bit more defined growth and recognizes that seniority of your officers. That was, from a police standpoint, one of the largest bigger recommendations that we made.

Okay. This is an action item. Does anybody have any questions or comments? It's an action item. Move to approve. Second by Rob. Any further discussion or questions? Hearing none, I call the question. All in favor, say aye. Thank you all. I think this is a significant change in a positive way for our police department. Thank you. Thank you, Nicole, for leading this. All right, Michelle, I can read this too, right? I mean, I can call her up, right? Because you don't have to read this, do you, Sharon? You don't have to read this, right? Okay.

Okay.

Good evening. I'm here again to talk about the North Peachtree Sidewalk PFA, which is the Project Framework Agreement. So really just here to answer any questions. So this was for the TAP grant that we receive funding. So this will be designing a path on the west side of North Peachtree.

I have a question. Sorry, but does anybody else have questions? Okay, I'll go first. All right. So on the details, the first line says the North Peachtree Road Path project projects a 0.75 mile shared use path for pedestrians and cyclists. The path will begin north of I-285 and expand to Barclay Drive. That's only three quarters of a mile or am I misunderstanding something?

That's three quarters of a mile.

Okay. Okay. And this is on the west side, which is the sides with the schools. Yes.

So we have the other local project that's already been...

Right, for the chestnut.

Okay. For the sidewalk side on the east.

And then I think one of the concerns could be that... we're building it where the schools are. There's not many people. I mean, the kids at the school are there, but also all the people live across the street. I think we ought to focus on crosswalks and safe crossings. I know we've done some of that already in the meantime, so that we plan for, go ahead, Tom.

Yeah, no, I thought it was something too. I think my hope is that north of where the Dunwoody Village Apartments is at that signalized intersection, that the two travel lanes for vehicles disappear and it's just one lane north of there. That'll greatly improve the safety there, but it also creates a signalized intersection that'll be, I think, much safer for a lot of the families that live in that apartment to cross safely there and walk up to the school. And we also have a lot of families, don't forget on Peachford, that would walk up and access from that side of the road as well. So, of course, Dunwoody North families would need a safe crossing spot. as well those apartments and so because we want them right now they they don't cross there they cross they go up to whatever the first street is and i don't blame them because it's not a safe spot to cross currently but if you take away that's that two lanes of traffic and i think we can have a much better and much safer crossing there yeah so that's that extra lane that then tapers down to the one lane yes so we've already identified as that's one area that we would go down to one lane in that section

And this is going to be 12 feet all the way, or you have some flexibility depending?

No, again, we'll always have flexibility. You know, we'll start out at the preferred of 12 foot. But, you know, utilities and right-of-way and other constraints along the corridor may require us to shift down to a 10-foot lane.

So on the handful of the residential area, so there's a handful of houses, do you anticipate having to use their yards or do you anticipate there being enough roadway?

So we will go into the roadway also and, you know, just to take that extra space and utilize all the area within the right-of-way first. I do anticipate we'll need to get at least some easements. I'm not sure. We'll have to get surveys and see how it all lays out first. But hoping for, you know, that we'll be able to get the full path inside the roadway. the existing right-of-way and then it may be easements to tie back into existing typography.

So my concern is that some of those lots aren't very deep. And so my concern desire because i think this is an important project it's just that i don't think it needs to be 12 feet wide and i where where especially where it's not i mean the schools all that property's fine if we can make it fit but to take as much flexibility as you need even if it narrows to eight foot we're a built-out city so we have to make things fit and work And I don't want to see delays because we're haggling with a homeowner or something or a property owner. So I think. Yeah, that's just my concern.

So because it's a federal project, we would have to meet the 10-foot minimum. But we will definitely look at, like I said, capturing and using as much of the existing right-of-way as possible. And so a lot of that is we do have some extra pavement out there. And so we will look at the lane widths and make sure we're fully utilizing that space.

Okay. Anybody else have questions?

Joe. Hey, thanks. I fully support this project. I think it's great. In 2019, when I ran for council, I said I wanted to help create a city where every child should be able to safely walk or ride their bikes to school. And I literally said the following statement, and we can do that by connecting our trail network from Brook Run on all points of Columbus, of the compass. And so... we talk about the children in the schools but yet this is a regional network connection this is connecting to cotillion it is connecting to shambly it is connecting adorable it is connecting to all the different points of the compass not just those few people that may walk to school for chestnut or those few handful that happen to live along there so i fully support it and And I will tell my bicycle friends that are in spandex that use the bike lane today that the bike lane is going away and I'll be fine with that. Because I believe it's better to get those other 80% of the people out there off that aren't going to go on the road. So that's good. The timeline for the next, this phase we're about to enter. of this design or whatever it's called, right? What would be that timeline timeframe look like then when something would next be presented either to the public or to council of what we're moving forward on?

So, um, the next steps would be to advertise for a qualified consultant to do the design work. So I will come back with a contract at that point, um, with a consultant. And then they'll go through the concept phase and we'll have a public meeting at that point in concept. And after the public meeting, I would present the concept to you. Okay.

So sort of like what we're doing on North Shaleford.

Yes, it would follow that same model. Right.

So that timeframe, just being conservative of when would that be presented to council, that could be maybe even the end of 2027. I mean, who knows when that might be?

It most likely will be, because remember, this is federal, so it is a longer timeline. So most likely it would be in the spring of 28.

2028, right? So when we're sitting up here at that time, that'll be your next chance of having feedback, whoever has to be sitting up here in 2028 on this project. Yeah, just putting a real estimate in on it.

and i have been told that the schools are supporting this uh they've submitted a letter yes the the school administration of chestnut and peachy middle they support it um as part of the grant application so um obviously they are a major stakeholder along the corridor and once we have a consultant under contract we'll reach out as we are developing the concept um and just you know how especially for their carpool and drop-off and how people use and move about their space.

Yeah, well, less people be needing to carpool when we make it safer and build this infrastructure. Two more quick clarifying questions. There's been talk out there in the internet world about a $12 million, $14 million price tag. And my response is we don't know what the price tag is until we get these designs built and and and and so on right so it's it seems to be kind of like kind of hard for people to come forward with a project number you know um so originally um that was part of the grant application and that was both sides um construction for both sides the path and the sidewalk

And that was a conservative number just because we were unsure. We kind of made a lot of estimates based off of historical data that we had at the time. And so we have actually refined and like costs are going up and down constantly for construction. So once we get into the concept, we'll have a high level assessment. estimate done that we can really look at what the costs are based off of current projections. You know, it's not like it would because we're only doing half of that number splits in half, but it would be significantly less.

Yeah, I would conservatively say wait till 2028 and then we'll know.

Exactly. And that is also why we did not request construction money as part of the grant, because we were we needed a more solid number to go by.

And then the last part is the let the citizens know if this is federal funding total project, we're going to be asking for additional federal funding. And generally speaking, that is federal is paying for 80%.

Yes, so it would be an 80% federal dollar, 20% local match.

So whatever that, so yeah, so just to kind of summarize, whatever that number is, and we'll find out in 2028, and then we're going to go ask for federal dollars, whatever that total is. And then so 20% of that, that would be the obligation that the city would potentially be up for. So we've got a couple of years to figure that out. Yeah. To learn that information. Great, thank you.

Okay, this is a... Action item, unless I need a motion, please.

Move to approve.

Second by Joe. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously, minus John, because he's not here.

Thank you.

The next. Go ahead, Michael.

all right this is an action item to accept the six hundred thousand dollars in um additional lmig funding it was discussed um last meeting and we did change the recommendation based on the mayor's suggestion to put the money towards paving with the understanding that in next year's budget we will take that money out of paving to put towards the mount vernon tilly mill project But if we put it in paving, we can spend it faster.

Moved by Joe. Second. Second by Rob. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously. Thank you. Go ahead, Richard, when you're ready.

Good evening. This is the bid for the annual household hazardous waste. The last contract ran out. So this is a new contract. It's for three years. We had three bids from Clean Harbors, Clean Earth, and XI. We went with the low bid, which is Clean Harbors. So their contract is in there. They've already signed it. And I think Eric is going to sign it if you all approve.

Is that price for all three years or is it annually?

No, it's annually.

Okay. And go ahead. Anybody have questions? Go ahead.

How does this number compare to the previous contract? It's right about the same.

All right. What we do is we have them bid on a set list of things that collect so that they would bid on it so that the price can go up or down depending on It all shows and how much stuff is collected.

And is that about what we've been spending on an annual basis? Okay.

Thank you.

And do we know this company?

No, we researched them.

Did you check references?

And it's all okay?

Okay. All right. It's an action item.

Move to approve.

Moved by Rob. Second. Second by Catherine. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. Thank you. Public comments? I don't have any new cards. So it's not public. City manager comments? Big sigh there. Council comments? Go ahead, Joe.

For those, this is Bike Month May, this Thursday, weather dependent, join us at City Hall here at 1130 a.m. in the front for a prompt departure at 1145 a.m. We're going to do a nice little bike ride. We're going to run Dunwoody Village and stuff and have lunch over there and come on around and have a little bike ride and have fun out there. Enjoy the weather. Thank you.

um anybody else our local spelling wonder kid is back at the national scripts uh spelling bee sarv he's made it through the first two rounds i think starting thursday you can watch it on tv if i'm not mistaken on ion ion but you can google it um he's he's adorable and now he's in middle school he probably wouldn't want me to say that but he's a spectacular speller so let's all cheer for sarv and um thank because that's very exciting and also thank everyone who attended the memorial day ceremony yesterday and everyone who helped put it on it was really special um i think that's all uh That is it. Cheer for Sarv. All right. I need a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. Moved by Stacey, second by Joe. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? We stand adjourned. Wow. I know.