Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

That we're remembered for, well, let that be enough. So when they stand and tell the stories of who we are and what we've done, of a thousand things that we could leave behind us.

Hello, everyone. I'm district two commissioner Bob Ellis. As we wrap up 2025, I'm proud of what we've accomplished together. One key milestone came thanks to you, the residents, who spoke out against the tax increase. Your voices were heard, and we kept the millage rate flat.

We couldn't have done it without your input. Looking ahead to the new year, I'm excited about the opening of a new health care facility in North Fulton that will provide one stop access to primary care, behavioral health, senior services, and much more. Our government center in Atlanta is also getting a major facelift, creating easier access services you need and a more friendly and inviting space for visitors. There's plenty of work ahead in 2026, but I'm confident that together, we'll continue to do what's best for our residents and spend your tax dollars wisely, Wishing everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

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For a written transcript of this meeting or if you need reasonable accommodations, including this communication in an alternative format due to disability, please contact the clerk to the Commission's office at (404) 612-8232.

Alright. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the second regular meeting of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. It's 10:04AM. Today is Wednesday, 01/21/2026. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Chairman Rob Pitts. Present. Commissioner Bridget Thorne. Present. Commissioner Bob Ellis.

Present.

Commissioner Dana Barrish. Present. Commissioner Mo Ivory. Present. Commissioner Marvin Arrington Junior. Vice chair Khadija Abdul Rahman. Present. Mr. Chairman you have a quorum.

Thank you madam clerk. Please rise for the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Let us pray. Almighty god, we give you thanks for this day, for your continued grace and mercy upon our lives. We pray now for the proceedings of this day. Bless now our leaders. Give them your wisdom and direction. It is in your name that we humbly pray. Amen. I

pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, to the republic,

to the republic.

Alright, continue madam clerk.

On page two, consent agenda. Twenty six zero zero one five, adoption of the consent agenda. All matters listed on the consent agenda are considered routine by the county commission and will be enacted by one motion. No separate discussion will take place on these items. If discussion of any consent agenda item is desired, the item will be moved to the second regular meeting agenda for separate consideration.

Nothing on the consent agenda. Commissioners, no items. Alright, entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as is printed. Motion to do so by commissioner Thorne, seconded by commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes six yeas zero nays. On page five, second regular meeting agenda 20 six-twenty eight, adoption of the second regular meeting agenda.

Any items? Nothing, commissioners. Alright, I entertain a motion to adopt as is printed. Motion to do so by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Commissioner Barrett. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Six yeas, zero nays. Twenty six zero zero two nine. Ratification of minutes, second regular meeting minutes, 12/17/2025. First regular meeting post agenda minutes, 01/07/2026.

Motion to ratify by commissioner Thorne seconded by commissioner Barrett please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes six yeas zero nays twenty six zero zero three zero presentation of proclamations and certificates.

How many?

We have three. The first proclamation is recognizing Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Founders Day, sponsored by commissioners Ivory and Arrington.

If I could have any of my sororities who are here to please come down and share in this celebration, Calling all sororas to the floor. Not gonna sing, but we normally would. Good morning everybody. It is my real honor to be here this morning to be able to do this proclamation. I never thought thirty five years ago when I pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated at Spelman College, Eta Kappa Chapter, I never thought that thirty five years later I'd be an elected official being able to give a proclamation to my beloved sorority.

Pledging Delta Sigma Theta was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. To have hundreds of thousands of women in all over all the continents, all over the world that you can call and rely on just because you are a member of this organization. I can't even express how important it has been in my life. So, this is really an honor for me. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on January 1913 on the campus of Howard University by 22 visionary collegiate women who sought to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence, uplift communities and advocate for social justice.

And whereas from its earliest days including participation in the historic women's suffrage march of nineteen thirteen, Delta Sigma Theta has stood at the forefront of civic engagement, public service and the fight for equity establishing a legacy rooted in scholarship, sisterhood and service. And whereas for more than a century, the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the five point programmatic thrust, economic development, educational development, international awareness and involvement, physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement. Positively impacting communities locally, nationally, and even globally. And whereas the members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, affectionately known as Delta Women and so rewards to me, continue to lead as educators, attorneys, elected officials, entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, and advocates using their talents and resources to mentor youth, strengthen families, and address critical social issues affecting undeserved populations. And whereas the enduring legacy of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated reflects a profound dedication to public service and social responsibility, inspiring generations of women to lead with purpose, integrity, and courage in the ongoing pursuit of justice and equality for all.

So now, therefore, be it resolved that many try, few are chosen, that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners commends the members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated for their outstanding service to the community, extending best wishes on the occasion of our one hundred and thirteenth Founders Day and anniversary, and do hereby proclaim Tuesday, this past 01/13/2026, as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Appreciation Day in Fulton County, Georgia. Is anybody is there any other store

you you there are many

there are many stores up here who are serving in Fulton County, so I wanna I'm so glad that they decided to come here in many of chapters in Atlanta. I'm a member of East Point College Park Alumni Chapter, but we have many, many chapters in Atlanta and in the metro area. And so, I'm proud I'm so proud for to be represented here today. Thank you. Yeah, just bring it to my office.

I'm gonna offer it.

The next proclamation is recognizing SL King and Associates Appreciation Day sponsored by Commissioners Arrington and Ellis.

You want me to do it? Can do it. It's fine. Okay.

Have mister King and his team come down? Come right here. All All right. It's my honor to share this proclamation about this fine man to my left here and the organization that he's built and the commitment he's had to our community and service to Fulton County and also our community. And I'm also proud that they have their business in my district.

Whereas Stanley L. King has built S. L. King and Associates Inc. Into a respected solution driven firm serving public agencies, commercial clients, and industrial partners across Fulton County, the state of Georgia, and the nation.

And whereas Stanley King's commitment to excellence is demonstrated through his leadership on major multimillion dollar initiatives for clients such as the General Services Administration, the University System of Georgia, Hartsville Jackson, Atlanta International Airport, MARTA, the US Department of Energy, Southern Company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and a long standing and impactful relationship with Fulton County. And whereas for the past thirty years, SLKA has upheld a legacy of service, technical excellence, and dedication to strengthening public infrastructure, reinforcing its enduring imprint on the economic, environmental, and community development of Fulton County, Georgia. And whereas SLKA has delivered major Fulton County public infrastructure improvements, including East Point City Hall, the Fulton County Government Complex, the Fulton County Juvenile Justice Center, and multiple facility modernization projects. And whereas SLKA has enhanced regional water and wastewater systems throughout engineering leadership on Camp Creek, Johns Creek Environmental Campus, and Big Creek Water Reclamation facilities, earning state and national awards, including the 2025 ASCE Project of Excellence and the 2025 ACEC State Award among other awards. Now therefore be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners recognizes SL King and Associates for thirty years of exemplary leadership, innovation, and stewardship in support of Fulton County's infrastructure needs and does hereby proclaim Saturday, no, did Saturday, 01/17/2026, that was the date, as S.

L. King and Associates Appreciation Day in Fulton County, Georgia. Let's give them a big hand. Would you like to say a few words? Yes, I would. Alright.

I didn't write that. First of all, I just want to give honor and glory to God because we couldn't have done it without him. And I also want to give thanks to my staff because there's no way I could have done all that by myself. In fact, it's more than thirty years. It's actually forty years. But thank you, Chairman Pitts. Thank you so much. And commissioners, I'm honored I'm humbled to be standing here in your presence to receive this recognition. We are committed to you all and have been and will continue. It's a legacy that we're going to continue and one day they're trying to retire me, but it's not in my DNA.

You know, God has blessed us. And I want to also thank my wife of forty five years. She's been by my side. For the last five six years, she's been battling stage three esophageal cancer. So I'm a caregiver. So you don't see me that much because half my time is with my wife. And she would be here and she apologized, but I'm just very careful about bringing her out with her immune compromise. But thank you so much. It's an honor and I look forward to continue working with you. And this is my team and I'm proud of them. They're the smartest folks. It's not me, it's them. Thank you so much.

The last proclamation is recognizing Creekside High School Football State Champions Appreciation Day sponsored by commissioners Arrington and Barrett.

Alright. I know y'all I know y'all can do better than that for the state champions. They got the shield, the championship. Alright. Let's let's get half on this side. Thank you all. Congratulations.

You need a balanced line up here.

Is truly my pleasure to be able to present this proclamation to Creekside High for winning the state championship this year. And the proclamation reads as follows, whereas the Creekside High School football team achieved a historic milestone by securing the 2025 Georgia High School Association for a state championship, defeating Benedictine by a score of 42 to 39. The win cemented the team's legacy as the highest scoring offense in Georgia history with a season total of 845 points and top 25 national ranking by USA Today, ESPN, and Max Preps. Whereas, Creekside High School completed an extraordinary undefeated season with a 15 and o record. Claiming the school's second football state championship and fourth consecutive region championship.

And, whereas, the team was led by the exceptional performance of the championship's MVP quarterback Caden Benson, who was named the region four quad a player of the year and earned all star honors from AJC Touchdown Club of Atlanta and Recruit Georgia. And whereas team leaders Tavar Terrell, Cassius Birch, Cedric Kelly and Gary Walker were among several others to receive all region and all state honors. And whereas head coach Maurice Dixon was honored as region four quad a coach of the year, a j c quad a coach of the year, and a j c Atlanta South Fulton coach of the year exemplifying outstanding leadership and mentorship. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners recognizes Creekside High School football team, Tri Pride, for their outstanding teamwork and sportsmanship that led their to their title as the twenty twenty five State Quad A champions and does hereby proclaim today, Wednesday, 01/21/2026 as Creekside High School football state champions appreciation day in Fulton County. Let's give it up for them.

Coach? Say something? As a lifelong Fullerton County citizen, I am honored to just be able to represent the county as we did. This is not only a tribute to me, but to my staff and these awesome young men who have committed to a culture of being consistent human beings and competing in the classroom and on the football field. So this is a celebration for them and their efforts. And like we always say, try pride.

Alright. Continue madam clerk.

Continuing on page five, public hearings twenty six zero zero three one public comment. Citizens wishing to participate in public comment will be allowed to appear in person or may choose to participate virtually via Zoom video conferencing by registering on the county website www.fultoncountyga.gov. Priority for public comment will be given to Fulton County citizens and those individuals representing businesses or organizations located within Fulton County. Speakers will granted up to two minutes each. The public will not be allowed to yield or donate time to other speakers.

The public comment portion of the meeting will not exceed sixty minutes. In the event the sixty minute time limit is reached prior to public comments being completed, public comment will be suspended and the business portion of the BLC meeting will commence. Public comment will resume at the end of the meeting. Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we will start with the speakers here in Assembly Hall. We have received 30 speaker cards. Will the first five speakers please come forward? Judge Kenya Johnson.

Hold on one second. Now speakers, think you know that when you have fifteen seconds remaining in your two minutes, I'll say fifteen seconds, that'll be your clue to begin to terminate your remarks. Also, I've been advised that a lot of people may be here today to speak about what's he called? Permanent supportive housing. What is it?

Permanent supportive housing.

Permanent supportive housing. That's in the budget. So don't feel compelled to speak. If you feel compelled to speak, we'll obviously hear from you, but it's in the budget. Alright.

First five speakers, Judge Kenya Johnson, Maurice Kenner, Keith Gamage, Bobby Wolf, and Patty Duran.

Good morning everyone. My name is Judge Kenya Johnson and I represent Probate Court. We're asking for your support for a $250,000 enhancement to staff our booming wedding ceremonies by charging a small fee this enhancement is a revenue neutral transaction. You've seen the statistics, cost and projected revenue, the data supports this request, the public need demands it. Every one of you here today is either married, was married or at some point considered marriage.

Maybe you had the means for an extravagant wedding, Maybe you were looking for a low cost option like thousands of our citizens. According to CNN's new study, they found that couples that spend less on their wedding tend to have longer lasting marriages than those that splurge. With Valentine's Day approaching, I come to you, I get down on one knee and I propose to you that you support wedding ceremonies in Fulton County and our modest budget enhancement of $250,000 Thank you for your time.

Good morning, Keith Gamage, Fulton County Solicitor General. I want to just say thank you for the last commission meeting where you clearly heard from members of the Justice Department. I worked here as a young public defender on the day that Brian Nichols went on that rampage that has affected us ever since. That was due to understaffing and some challenges around law enforcement and public safety. I was here working as an assistant public defender in this building just adjacent to us.

So thank you for hearing from those who are boots on the ground. Thank you for considering in conjunction with the county management team and finance those needs that are really foundational. Before we have good business, locate or relocate to our communities. The public has to be safe. I would thank you for reconsidering.

I saw the new proposed budget. Though there is nothing perfect, at least you all ensured that we had the opportunity to go back and engage again with our thoughtful county management team and finance team and get closer to what justice should look like. And, it's appropriate for me just to say thank you, and particularly to those who ask questions, particularly about victim services, about caseloads, about ABA standards, and about what an actual operational courtroom should look like. So I thank you for that and your commitment to public safety and justice. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Bobby Wolf. I'm a new Fulton County State Court Judge. I just wanted to introduce myself. I look forward to working with everybody. Just a little bit about me. I was born and raised in Fulton County in Sandy Springs, graduated from North Springs High School. I've worked for the county in three different roles over twenty five years. I'm really excited to partner with you in every way. I'm not asking for anything except maybe just stop by your office, introduce myself in more detail, and get to know you all. So thank you.

Good morning. I'm Maurice Kenner, the Circuit Public Defender. First, I want to thank you all for allowing me to appear in front of you. And, I want to thank the county manager for all the hard work and you all have put into supported my office and our budget. However, the recommendation I think the county manager makes today does not go enough go far enough.

I think our ask was for additional 1,300,000.0 to support the two new state court judges. More importantly, to give us the administrative staff that we need. Right now, we have three administrators that support 10 state court judges and 20 public defenders. That's a lot of work. And to add two new state court divisions and five new attorneys, two APDs in each courtroom and a supervisor, that will put the three administrators that are currently doing that work in a bone back breaking position.

I don't want any of them to throw up their hands and leave. What I want is this commission to see the value in those that support staff and to support us and to give us the $1,300,000 of additional funding that we need. And also, we did work hard with the county managers team. I know that in one of the memos it says that fifteen seconds that we may not have but the judicial stakeholders collectively did not see how knowing the names versus the positions of our staff would help us along in this process.

Hi, good morning everyone. Good day to all the great commissioners and good to see you today, Chair Rob Pitts and my Commissioner Mo Ivory, peace and blessings and good to see you Doctor. Khadija, Commissioner Khadija as well. To those that I don't know, peace and blessings. I have currently right now going along, I am Kennedy.

My company is Just Schooling. We are partnered with the American Cancer Society and we come before you today to discuss improvements with GDOT, the Board of Health Alliance, and to gain more public health resources within District 4 to combat some of the public health issues that are plaguing our community. Presently we have numerous encampments, and that is along I-twenty. I just see that, Council Dozier just had those removed but as a result they will return if there is no solution for field activity and improvements. So we are requesting funding from GDOT to get that immediately resolved by placing stones and gates to prevent that.

We understand that three eleven pad does provide those services but oftentimes as we go out we notice that they some refuse those services. As a result we are proposing that we get a designated plot of land from the city in order to address those nomads who don't want to live in population, who don't want to govern themselves with societal rules and they could possibly bring those tents there if they don't want to live in society and receive the help. But what we're not going to accept is the filth.

Fifteen seconds.

Affirm, sorry. We're not going to accept the filth. And so this proposal is specifically outlining different resources for our parks as well. We are because we have a lot of encampments in those as well and we need immediate rectification. So I look forward to following up with your office regarding these things.

Good morning commissioners my name is Patty Durand. Fulton County is one of the wealthiest counties in Georgia. There is no excuse for Fulton County to operate a jail so unsafe and inhumane that the US Department of Justice was forced to intervene in a second consent decree. First one was 2006, now we have one from 2025, asking the county to stop the violence, disease, and misery for incarcerated persons, a place that is so bad that corrections officers don't even wanna work there. A county budget is a moral document.

It reveals our priorities. And I don't like what I see, commissioners who do not care about how incarcerated people are treated as reflected in the budget. The Fulton County jail is a disgrace and it makes no sense to say that the jail doesn't need a new building when it clearly does. Repairs should not be made on top of a rotten core. Previous commissioner John Eaves wrote in a recent AJC opinion piece, I consider the allocation by county commissioners of $1,200,000,000 for a new jail as financially irresponsible.

He wrote that the board should focus on proactive investments to address the root causes of crime, particularly among youth who are the most affected by systemic inequalities. I agree with that part, but this is from a man who did not solve the jail problems during his tenure, from the Justice Department consent decree that was issued during his tenure. Yes. Proactive investments that address root causes are important. There is severe inequality in the county. You need to do both. Do the programs and the building. It's difficult to believe you cannot find the money to do both. Raise the millage rate if necessary, we can afford it. There are ways to do that so that poverty

Even is

better, stop mister Connolly's false property valuations that drains the tax base by undervaluing commercial and data centers. This is a huge problem that you can and must address, and I urge you to. Thank you.

Next five speakers please come forward. Casey Quinn, Leigh Carlisle, Ian Zaring, and Ricky P.

Hello members of the commission. My name is Casey Gwynn. I'm the founder of Alliance for Hope International. And I'm here on behalf of Madam D. A.

Fonny Willis and Simone Hilton, her executive deputy, who's present here today. And I'm here to represent a 150 people who are meeting at the hub today and tomorrow to imagine the creation of the Fulton County Family Justice Center to provide wraparound services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Fulton County. I've been honored to help open a 150 of these centers across The United States, and we're here now dreaming about one in Fulton County. Georgia has one of the highest murder rates of women in America. A 170 women were murdered last year in Georgia, and Fulton County leads those numbers.

I come from San Diego, California, where we've created the first Family Justice Center, and we now have one domestic violence homicide per year in San Diego. Fulton County has 15 times that many. We believe the Family Justice Center is that early intervention model, brings all the services under one roof for victims and their kids. It produces football players like Creekside High. It doesn't produce people that go to jail and prison.

We can end that jail to prison pipeline with family justice centers. So the funding for that is in the tranches right now in your budget, but I urge you to make public safety and public health, which is what the Family Justice Center is, central to your budget discussion. We're gonna have a vision for you in two days from a 150 people, Fulton County residents, and we can end domestic violence homicides in Fulton County. Yesterday, you had an Atlanta police officer shot in a domestic violence incident. The number one killers of police officers in America are men who assault women in America.

We can end this generational cycle and break that cycle for kids too. So thank you for prioritizing the Family Justice Center vision that's coming here. We have them all over the country. Fulton County needs to lead the state of Georgia in this. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Leah Carlisle. I'm a Fulton County resident in the South Atlanta neighborhood. It's excellent to hear that the supportive housing services is in this year budget, but I did want to take this time to reiterate the importance to me and my community that the $2,000,000 sum set aside in 2019 for supportive housing has been honored in this budget. Weather conditions in Atlanta range from the high nineties to the low twenties as we expect to see on this Saturday.

People cannot survive unhoused in those conditions. Outside of the weather, people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately victims of violent crimes. Shelter and safety are fundamental and foundational in our hierarchy of needs. Without these securities survival related crimes increase. The solution is fair and equitable housing for all. Committing to funding housing services protects people and taxpayers. I implore you to continue to support our homeless our houseless neighbors in this year's budget as well as to follow through with your long term commitments to fully fund housing services for the next thirty years. Thank you very much.

Good morning. My name is Ian Zring. I'm a Fulton County resident. I would just like to ask that you follow through on that commitment. The city of Atlanta reneged on obligations to put transit in the BeltLine. They were unable to follow through with the city investigation, but I hope that this is a surprise and the city continues fully funding the the homeless or the the the county continues to fully fund the homeless. Thank you.

Next speakers please come forward. LA Pink, Lance Robertson, Allison Johnson, Charice Brown, Margie McLeod, and Tim Franzen.

So good morning. As we continue to just pull 2025 garbage into 2026, I want to continue to just let the community know what exactly is going on inside of the community. I am L. A. Pink. I am an advocate for the jails as well as the community. We have several different issues that we need to address. For one, I got a call this morning from an inmate that is from Fulton County. I know you guys are aware of the fire that took place inside of the jail. This inmate was one that was a whistleblower on the phone.

The news watered down his story, but he had given me very detailed information that Lieutenant Butler had given him information two weeks prior that the smoke detector the extinguishers did not work, that he was left in his cell after helping save the jail, left there collapsed and the inmates had to notify the sheriff or the deputies that he had collapsed inside of his cell. They rushed him to the hospital. No word from any of this. We continue to unfold voter fraud in Fulton County, as

well as all of

the other frauds that we have going on. We continue to pour out all of these things to you guys and absolutely still nothing is being done. Nothing. We're preparing for elections. We're preparing for cover ups that is going on. Do you know that 2,000 voters across the street at the church over here from homeless have been, from the Democrat party, have been

Fifteen seconds.

Put up and put in to the system. Houses that are banded, houses have been a 100 of people put there as far as them voting. You guys, this is too much. Thank

you.

Good day. Good day, Board of Commissioners, Chair, Staff, and pillars of this phenomenal County Of Fulton. My name is Lance Robertson. I serve as director of government affairs and community relations for Natsun Hotel Group. I'd like to take this opportunity just to reintroduce myself because we appreciate the opportunity on behalf of Sam Patel, our CEO of Natsun Hotel Group.

We're here today to let you know that our hotel operates not only a significant portfolio in Georgia, but also a significant portfolio here in Fulton County. We are north of 150 hotels. We employ thousands of jobs throughout Georgia. Our hotels seats over 12,000 beds. We contribute to the hotelmotel tax revenue.

Let me repeat that. We contribute to the hotel motel tax revenue and we are critical in the infrastructure, tourism, business travel, conventions, and major events. We view ourselves not only as hotel operators, but as long term community partners. Natsun Hotel Group actively supports human and sex trafficking awareness, training, prevention, and policy and legislation. We are committed to working collaboratively with local governments and law enforcement to continue to and nonprofit groups to let you know that we are part of the solution and not the problem.

We also recognize Fulton County's housing crisis. We recognize your homeless challenges. We are here to offer collaborative partnerships, be it short term emergency housing vouchers or long term public private partnership conversations that we can have.

Fifteen seconds.

That we can convert our existing hotels to one bedroom studios and affordable one bedroom apartments. We're here to be with you. Natsun here to serve. My name is Lance. Thank you.

Good morning. Can you hear me? Okay. Good morning. I'm Allison and I am with the Housing Justice League. I'm going to reiterate what people are speaking about as it relates to permanent supportive housing. It is undeniable that we have a housing crisis in the state of Georgia. It's undeniable that it's right here in Fulton County as the other metropolitan areas as well. But what we want to do is first thank you all for committing the financial support that's needed. But we also understand that this can't be something that's one off because we're going to continue to have these issues because we haven't had any solutions.

One of the solutions that we want to bring forth is that we really think about how we are taxing commercial properties, what that means in communities, and how can those revenues help support long term supportive housing. So, although that, you know, you've done your due diligence for this year, we want to think in the long term, how can we support those folks who are unhoused and even the folks that we don't see who are unhoused? How do we continue to provide those types of supportive needs to our communities? So,

I'm

here today, again, to really say thank you, but also, let's continue to think about how do we move forward with the right tools to tax the commercial properties in fairness so that we all can have a safe, decent, affordable place to live in Fulton County. Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Charice Brown and I'm a member of the Housing Justice League and I came today to say thank you for reinvesting in support of housing. Housing is a basic human right, and I also want to reiterate that we should properly assess these billionaires that we've just given breaks and use that money toward continue supporting affordable housing and unsheltered people. Atlanta is a city that thrives, but yet we have our people outside on the street in the freezing cold. So, think you all should assess the taxes properly and to invest more into affordable housing. Let's be proactive, not reactive.

These services help people get on their feet. You know, it's not a handout, it's a hand up. You know, they need somewhere safe and affordable to live as well. And we're already losing our affordable housing stock, you know, rapidly. So, I think as our representatives who we vote in office, you come to our communities, we give you our concerns and our priorities.

And this is, I know, number one priority in Peoplestown. So, and it's all over Atlanta and The United States. So, I ask that you reconsider your tax assessment and truly tax it to what it you know, some people are getting like the data centers, $2,000,000,000 worth of whatever, and they're not, you know, paying the right amount of taxes. So, I think you all need to go back to the table, look at that, and again, I would like to thank you

so much for

reconsidering investing into the unsheltered and supportive housing.

Good morning. I came for Family Children's Service. I was trying to get down here before then, but a lot of things started showing up. I was a foster parent for ten years. And what I want I do not want to see Family and Children's Service that could be privatized because the funding my kids are some forgotten children. And they was not taking care because we're looking at money. And what do happen when you don't take care of the child, you take away from the mother, and then you put them in the foster system, and they don't do their part? 90 kids at 32 years old. They're called the unforgotten children. Arrington, you know who I am.

You know I came to you. A lot of people used my proposal, but I don't care. But here, twenty years later, we're doing the same thing. I will go to the state and I will say that these kids matter. These children matter. They are people also. So, we have to look about the funding because we keep doing the same thing over and over and over. And who get hurt? The children get hurt because they're not getting proper care when they do go into the system. So what I'm saying to you is like housing.

You're taking the children. The children don't have housing. They can't when more foster children is coming out of the system, and 80%, you're talking about sex trafficking. Who if you're not taking, when they do leave out, they are sex trafficking. And, Aaron, you know that because I talked to you about it. I was a foster parent. I loved what I was doing.

15 I

enjoyed what I was doing. And, Rob Pix, you know too. So I came to y'all many times. These kids need help. Now they're 30 years old, 25 years old, and you didn't do your part. That's what I'm saying, that you did not take care of those children. And they're here. They need help. And I need your help because I got one child need to go work and

alcohol program.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Good

morning commissioners. My name is Tim Franzen with the American Friend Service Committee and I thank you for the opportunity to speak. I want to start by also thanking you for reaffirming the $2,100,000 commitment to housing. The decision matters to providers, to the community and most importantly to those that are struggling with finding stable housing. At the same time, I think it's important to say that this never should have been in question.

When housing commitments are put at risk, it sends a message that providing for the unhoused is optional. And that's not who we should be as a county. This budget issue didn't come from nowhere. Fulton County doesn't have a housing problem, it has a revenue fairness problem. For too long commercial property owners have not paid their fair share. And the cost of that imbalance shows up when housing and human services are suddenly on the chopping block. We should not be forced to choose between fiscal responsibility and housing our neighbors. We can do both. If we're willing to take powerful interest if we're able to make powerful interest pay what they owe. Thank you again for honoring the commitment.

I urge you to protect housing funding moving forward, ensure that we don't break promises. I also want to just say that I really appreciate getting a quick response from Marvin Arrington Junior's office, from Bob Ellis's office, from Rob Pitts and of course Mo Ivory. And, yeah, thank you.

Next speakers please come forward. Matthew Nursey, Bianca Garcia, Allen Hall, Sojourner Maribel Grimmett, and Brendan Gill.

Thank you County Commissioners, Chairman Pitts. My name is Matthew Nercy. I am an organizer with the Housing Justice League. I wanted to start by as well thanking the county for the, $2,100,000 that was committed for the supportive housing. But Tim is right, that should never have been put up on the chopping block to begin with.

Fulton County has a health and human services that unlike the city and the city needs funding from the county desperately. We know that this is funding for 2026, but chairman Pitts, you're quoted as saying 2027 and beyond, we'll have to find the money because we may or may not have it. We could fund so much more if we made the rich and wealthy corporate corporate developers pay their fair share. We're giving them relief that they don't need. If the county would simply require their assessors to properly value the newest data centers for example, they'd have a combined value of around $2,000,000,000.

Yet in 2025, they were taxed at a mere 132,000,000. The result is our large losses for the county. If we're gonna fund something as harmful as data centers, which I have a problem with to begin with, why wouldn't we try getting the best, as much good out of it as possible? But the data centers are just one example. Many developments are being under appraised. The county has a responsibility to the city as well. Fulton County alone is carrying out almost a thousand evictions a week, so exacerbating the house's crisis. So the county is playing a role in getting putting people on the street. 60% of us live paycheck to paycheck, we're one emergency away. And chairman Pitts, you know

Fifteen seconds.

I know Tom, I know Vinny, I know Malik. So I know the kind of people they are. So I know the kind of person I think that you are and we need to get this under control. Stop giving corporate developers tax breaks and selling out the communities.

Good morning. My name is Bianca Garcia and I'm a resident of Fulton County. I want to start by saying thank you as well for recommitting the $2,100,000 for housing. It's quite important to support all Atlantans and uphold housing as a human right. That said, how we fund housing is important and luxury properties and commercial properties must pay their fair share in taxes.

Commercial properties throughout Atlanta have been shown to be severely undervalued and that lower tax rate means money is going back in the pockets of developers and for profit corporations instead of towards working class people and ensuring everyone has a roof over their head. As previously reported by the AJC in a 2023 study from Georgia Tech, $290,000,000 are found to be missing each year because of this undervalued commercial property issue. And some of those prime examples, as a reminder, at 725 Ponce BeltLine Kroger Building sold for 300,000,000 in 2021 and was appraised thereafter for only 130,000,000, a difference of that's a difference of $170,000,000. The 1180 Peachtree Tower sold for $465,000,000 in 2022 and was later appraised at 187. That's a difference of $278,000,000 Again, I reiterate that's money that went back in the pockets of developers and nonprofit and for profit corporations instead of towards working class people.

That was a few years ago but undervaluation is still a continuing problem with our Fulton County Board of Assessors today as witnessed most recently with undervaluing data centers. We must commit to people over profits. We must commit to supporting our unhoused neighbors with safe housing and wraparound services. And we must commit to fairly assessing and taxing all luxury and commercial properties to pay their fair share so we can fund our city and take care of our people. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. First of all, I'd like to thank god for me being here to be able to speak to the council meeting. My name is Alan Hall. I am from the Old Wheat Street Homeless encampment.

In fact, I am a survivor of the whole Old Wheat Street Homeless encampment. For thirty one years, I lived as a homeless man in the streets of Atlanta, and I am here today to speak on behalf of all of the unhoused and homeless people that are presently and currently experiencing homelessness. And I'm here on their behalf to thank you, the commissioners, for recommitting to the 2,100,000.0 for housing for homeless people. I can't begin to be even explain and express how much of a monumental you understand of of of thing that it is for you to be able to pass this bill. Because this bill actually is helping unfortunate people who are unhoused to change their lives.

I mean, being housed is the catalyst of bringing about not just the transitional change from the streets, but a transformational change in people lives like mine. I want to thank you again on behalf of all of the homeless people who are sleeping on the house out there in the streets for recommitting to this bill. Thank you.

Good morning chairman, commissioners, and members of the public. It's great to see all of you this morning. My name is Sojourner Maribel Grimmett and I'm a life long community advocate for our most vulnerable and underserved citizens and a resident of Fulton County District 5. For five years, I've worked in affordable senior housing during the COVID pandemic and I saw firsthand how critical it is to keep roofs over the heads of our most vulnerable residents. Housing is not just shelter, it is stability, dignity, and health.

In District 5 I hear from residents and service providers who see how the lack of stable housing combined with unmet behavioral health needs shows up in our neighborhoods and in our emergency rooms. Temporary fixes create lasting solutions. Temporary fixes don't create lasting solutions. Permanent supportive housing works. When housing is paired with wraparound services especially behavioral healthcare, people stabilize and public costs go down.

As this budget is finalized, I'm glad to hear, chairman, the county is investing in permanent supportive housing. Choosing PSH reflects our values, our commitment to dignity, and smart governance. Thank you.

Good morning everyone, my name is Brendan, I am a resident of Fulton County and I'm just a regular citizen. I don't work for any organized effort towards housing, but I'm here to speak on my concerns regarding housing. As everyone has also stated, I'm pleased to hear that you guys have recommitted to the funding, but I just want to emphasize what everybody else has emphasized about the importance of wraparound services. The importance of putting people over profit and care. As somebody that lives in the area, I watched the encampment around 120 both grow from a few people to a full encampment to seeing it being dismantled.

And during that time I constantly thought to myself, what's happening to them? Are they being thrown away? Are they being placed somewhere safe? And so it's just for me I care about people. I want the I want our city to be a city that reflects that care. So once again I am appreciative of the recommitment, but I want to emphasize the importance of keeping that commitment and emphasizing in how money is spent in wraparound services. Because as the woman spoke before me, temporary solutions are not what's needed. We need a permanent solution. We need services that really care for the whole person and not just trying to put someone in a place to get them out of sight. Thank you.

Next five speakers please come forward. Devin Barrington Ward, Steven Emil, Reed Stilson, Emma Jean Davis, and Charles Burgrees.

Good morning everyone. I wanna introduce you to Fulton County's newest resident, Celafe Barrington Ward. I'm his father, Devin Barrington Ward. He's not just our newest resident, he's our newest advocate because he's gonna follow in his daddy and his mama's footsteps. So, but today, we are here to say thank you.

Thank you for recommitting to the $2,100,000 that is needed for supportive housing. And the reason why I say thank you is because as a formerly homeless person myself, I know how important it was to have those resources when I was a young man that didn't have a lot of family support, but I was able to survive that experience and I've been able to serve my community because of that. With that being said, we know that that money is so necessary for a variety of things. It's necessary because one, we can't do our diversion services the way that we need to if there is not the supportive housing money there. Those wraparound services, when we talk about the continuum of care, you got something to say?

When we talk about that continuum of care, we have to make sure that people have those housing services so that way they can get out of the cycle of dysfunction that oftentimes takes place in this county because we could do a better job of putting people over profits. With that being said, I don't want the future for my child to be gambled away at the expense of billionaires who are not paying their fair share in property taxes. I don't want my son to have to worry about how he's going to take care of the house that I leave to him in Fulton County because he is being

$15.15

cents. Saddled with property taxes while millionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share. There is money to pay for all of the things that we need to in Fulton County. And so my hope is is that we find the resources not just for this budget but for the next budget.

Morning commissioners. My name is Steven Eimel. I'm a resident of Fulton County. And I'm here to say first of all thank you for those of you who fought to put the $2,100,000 for permanent supportive housing back on our budget. I very much appreciate that.

Real people are affected by this removal and I'm happy to see the mistake corrected. Something else important though is missing from this budget. The homelessness wraparound services that the county is charged with delivering to the citizens of Atlanta and other municipalities that fall within this county. They're nowhere to be found. Many of you say that the cost is simply too much and to that I would suggest that we consider properly taxing the billion dollar corporations whose trophy properties are under assessed by this county on an average of 50%, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars of missing tax revenue.

There's a concept known as social murder, which I think is an apt description for the outcomes that this board has been producing. Every person suffering from addiction, unable to afford food, and struggling to find house, a house is a failure of this board. Fund the wraparound services now, otherwise every resident who languishes under the lack of policy in this county and dies in our hospitals and streets just because they lack the means to survive is a murder that the members of this board commit. Thank you.

Morning, y'all. My name is Reed Stilson. I'm a Fulton County resident. I'm a renter. I live and work in the Buckhead area where I'm a leader of a local coffee shop and a community hub. I first planned to come before you today to address the $2,000,000 cut in funding for wraparound housing services. But I am, I believe you, I know many of you and I trust that you'll do the right thing and I thank you for including that in this budget. What concerns me more though is the fact that this funding and it being cut was even a discussion to begin with. The truth about our aspirations is not found in what we say, but in what we fund. Today, you'll all be voting on a more than $1,400,000,000 budget, over 850,000,000 of which is funded by our hard earned tax dollars.

Here are a few examples of this county's priorities in this budget. Arts and culture, 7,700,000.0. Behavioral health, 23,200,000.0. Libraries, 32,500,000.0. Elections, 32,500,000.0. Police and the sheriff's department, 171,000,000. That last one does not include the money earmarked for the Fulton jail consent decree, which is another $31,800,000. What is truly keeping us safe here in Fulton? Is it spending one out of every five of our tax dollars on guards, guns and jail cells? Or might we all be better off if we focused more on funding that tackles housing, healthcare and food insecurity?

We have lost the plot. We, the hardworking citizens of Fulton, should not be asked to pay more in taxes when we get so little in return. Massive corporate owned properties and billion dollar data centers paying at sometimes 10% the property taxes they should, and yet our own federal government already slashing health care dollars in order to fund their own secret police in the form of ICE. It's past time we put our money where our hearts

are. Fifteen seconds.

Let's stop this cycle of lifelong incarceration and allowing billionaires and corporate interests to outweigh our own. Please, support a budget that centers people, not profits or prisons. Thank you.

Last five speakers in Assembly Hall, please come forward. Carter Clayton, Ometter Adams, Sherilyn Henry, Kat Leatherwood, and David Serrano.

Good morning. My name is Emma Jean Davis. Feels real good to be back down here speaking in front of you. I have three things that I would like to share with you that I'd like for you to look at real good. Those three things are the wraparound service that we need for the homeless, excuse me, the real ugly, I can't, that's not the word I want to use, where we put people who are incarcerated in these dangerous facilities, don't care whether they get killed or whatever.

I need you to look at that again. I also want you to look at how you deliver the energy to seniors and to people who qualify. I've been calling back up for three months trying to get an appointment. I'm 86 years old. I've called you, some of you, to ask you how do we do this?

Did you send the money back to the government or did you not apply for it? I'm asking you to take into consideration what you said you wanted to do when you ran. You said you wanted to s e r v e, the people. That's not what I see you doing. I wanna know that when you say you wanna do that for me that my vote really counts. That's what people tell me, I don't vote because it don't count. Because, they don't see you. They don't see you. They don't hear you. They don't feel you.

I'm with an organization called the Potter's Wheel Ministry. We come right over here on Pryor Street on Saturdays. We feed the people food, we also Fifteen

seconds

with something else. I got eleven minutes left. That's something I want you to deal with. You say you want my vote, then you're gonna give me two minutes to talk to you, you need to extend that. I need to hear that. I'm looking for you.

Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Hello, my name is Charles Bourgeois. I am a resident of Fulton County and I came here today out of my bed to give you guys a story. Nearly twenty years ago, South African President Zuma promised to uphold the public good and root out corruption until he didn't.

And, later that year, Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama promised to relocate a controversial military base near and away from Aikinawa, but he reversed, he flip flopped and that singular flip flopped ended up ending his political career. His party revolted and people took to the streets and he was removed from office. The moral of the story really is integrity. And, when I say that, what I mean is that worldwide in Atlanta that means a whole lot and it means a lot more because we actually live here. So when we make promises to the body and the people, those things matter.

The public is watching, constituents are watching, my neighbors are watching. And so, I want to be clear about what I'm talking about here is that you've heard the line of people in talking about wraparound services for the homeless, but when we make a commitment and a promise, those things matter. And that was voted on by you guys unanimously, as a promise to the city of Atlanta, regardless. So, I also wanna make sure that we are very clear about what we're saying. The public is watching and you can see they are taking account, they are keeping record.

Now, promises matter to me, and I think they matter to the rest of the folks here. But if promises do not matter to you all, then that may be the reason why these seats look very different next year, right? So, we are talking about twenty nineteen, twenty twenty five, but until 2039, we need to make sure we hold those promises to account because you guys do a fantastic job and I want to see you guys continue to do that fantastic job for the people that you called to serve. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Carter Clayton. I'm a Fulton County resident in the city of Atlanta, Ormwood Park neighborhood. I am also, for the past five years, I've been employed as a public defender in the Fulton County Public Defender's Office. Although I am here on my in my personal capacity and not on behalf of the Public Defender's Office, I do want to address the proposed move the relocation of the Public Defender's Office from our office currently at 100 Peachtree Street to an office outside the perimeter at 515 Fairburn Road.

Two minutes is not enough time for me to go over what a bad idea this is both for our office, for our clients, and for the citizens of Fulton County. But I would like to just address the timing. We are all for the most part, our office are trial attorneys. We are in court multiple times a week. Currently, takes ten minutes to walk from our office to the courthouse.

Under this proposal, it would take twenty to thirty minutes to drive, then find parking, and then to return trip. We're talking about an hour of wasted time. Every every court appearance across our office, you'd be talking about hundreds of hours of wasted attorney time per week under this proposal, under this new location. And can you imagine if Dentons or King and Spaulding had a policy whereby they're just burning hundreds of hours of attorney time every week. They wouldn't. And the reason why is because they value their attorney's time. And by moving the office this

Fifteen seconds.

This commission would send the opposite message, that they don't care about our time, they don't think what we do is valuable, they don't care about indigent defense. And I know that's not the message. I know this commission doesn't believe that. So please do not move our offices outside downtown.

Thank you.

Good morning. I just want to declare this is the day the Lord has made. He has made this day and you are here because he has brought you here. You are here in these positions because he has put you in position. We as a voter, we voted, yeah, but he was the one who put you in position.

But he I'm gonna tell you, and I repent before each and every one of you that I hadn't been praying for you as I ought to pray. But I'm gonna tell you this day that God is saying to each and every one of you, he has called you to do just, to walk humbly before him, and to do right to his people, and I'm not seeing that. So I'm telling you today, repent. Turn back to God and ask him what he wants you to do because you're gonna have to stand before him

one day.

Whether you believe it or not, you're stand before him and give an account to what you're doing in this city, in this station, in this nation. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, good morning, commissioners. My name is Sherilyn Henry. I'm a resident, a homeowner, and a part of the Prayer Evangelism Potters Wheel Ministry. We do minister food and other things to the homeless. And, so, yes, I want to lend my voice of support for those $2,100,000 in wraparound services for the homeless.

I'm not going to talk long, I'm just going to say, you've already heard it all, but I'm going say again, for those of you especially who profess Jesus, remember that he said, What you do or don't do for the least of these are brethren you've done to him or you haven't done. So, I just want to remind you of that and just thank you for the good that you have done. We can all condemn, but then we are all also condemnable. So, as my predecessor said, we all have to bear some responsibility. But, we urge and implore you to remember the least of these, the helpless, remember.

And, remember that we also are watching and praying. We are praying for you. Thank you.

Hi. My name is Kat Otherwood. I'm a resident of Fulton County and a proud member of the Justice for Cornelius Taylor Coalition. I've also been a member of the film industry here, specifically ten years I've been a resident. Two years ago the bottom of the film industry fell out and I found myself relying on savings and working minimum wage jobs and doing what I had to do to take care of myself and my pets.

I had to I had to make hard choices and look at what mattered most. Step one was trimming down my budget, less take out, started using the library a lot more and was able to make sure I paid my rent to house myself. I was able to pay for the medications that I needed to stay healthy. I'm not a financial wizard but I knew what my priorities were and After I cut my spending, I got advice from my mom who raised two daughters on a hairdresser's salary. She said it's not enough to cut your spending but to look at where you can recoup money.

I changed my phone bill and car insurance and made it made the difference in being able to keep my home or living on the streets. When things are good, we tend to look away as money slips through our fingers. As we tighten the belt, we do need to trim the budget but we also need to view expenditures and income. The biggest step though is to decide what is non negotiable. And for me, it was my housing and my health care just to treat my severe depression.

However, while I appreciate you funded permanent supportive housing this year, there has been quotes that say that you had your concerns about 2027 and beyond. Here's some unsolicited advice from a taxpayer. Instead of changing your car insurance, maybe we should change out the board of tax assessors. Data centers and massive buildings in the area are being undervalued and these developers are not paying their fair share. 2,100,000.0 is cool but a wise man told me I should always fight for more. The unhoused residents of Fulton deserve more. How we take care of our most vulnerable is a real reflection of who we are. Who are you?

Alright. Good morning. My name is David Serrano. I am a homeless person surviving here in Fulton County. I moved here from New York in September after being laid off and spending all my savings trying to stay near my kids in New York while looking for work. I was evicted in September and decided to move to Atlanta for a more for more affordable living and a thriving industry in my field of work. I tried to use, the local public housing services when I arrived. I filled out an online form as a, for a caseworker assignment as directed by housing services over at 2 Peachtree. I received an email two months later that my online form was erroneously kept, and I needed to start the process again. I lived in my car for the past four months until it was repossessed in December.

During this time, I found a part time job as a local event security, and I volunteered local at in town Cares food pantry where I actually also received my weekly food, stipend there. As an uninsured homeless person, I was connected with Our House, where I received medical care for my type two diabetes and medication and mental health support as well. Last week, I moved into a seven person shared house, over on the West Side. However, my current salary only covers rent and not the services needed to help keep me there. I have to pay for my wireless services bill to keep my business going. I have child support to pay, which I'm not able to. Then there's food to buy, transportation, and health care to pay for. The list goes on. Your 2,100,000.0 commitment was needed, definitely. Thank you for that.

But it's the overall revenue inequality problem making our economy and society unaffordable by design. Supporting housing isn't enough. You have to support people with wraparound services in order to keep them housed. The average rent in Fulton County is $2,000 a month. The average cost of a home is $400,000. When these housing costs are unaffordable for many and the corporate landlords want what's the price, you're asking your citizens to make inhumane and stressful choices every week. A full multi decade housing and services plan from Fulton County and Atlanta are needed. You guys have to work together. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we have 17.

17. I got eight minutes left, so let's get started.

Good morning, commissioners. The first person to speak is Gideon Jonah. Gideon Jonah. Alright. The next person to speak is Robbie Caban.

Wow. A lot of NGO wow. Can you hear?

Yes.

Great. A lot of NGOs protecting their chats. NGOs like the animal control contract protecting its check. I wanna say it on the onset that I'm limited to two minutes like so many of the other constituents who mentioned, so my comment does not encompass all the relevant facts. Those involved know who they are.

The statement is made for public record. I am here because I am deeply concerned. I am concerned that an activist engaged in advocacy received a TPO, a temporary protective order from a Fulton County sheriff for exercising their right to speak allegedly. I am concerned that advocates raising issues such as deed fraud, title theft, predatory HOAs, and the lack of real estate oversight are engaged during this assembly in a hostile manner by members of this board. As a licensed real estate broker in Georgia, I can state plainly that these practices threaten residents' homes, their primary asset, and the stability of their families as you have heard over and over.

I am concerned that after commissioner staff acting with delegated authority requested information from me regarding a defunct animal control contract endangering the public with Lifeline Animal Project, a private taxpayer funded county contractor, my follow-up made on behalf of whistleblower employees, former volunteers and taxpayers, and residents who are unable to obtain help through county systems was met with not dialogue, but intimidation and hostility. To date, there has been no response, commissioner Ivory. I am concerned that after meeting for hours with a lifeline former lifeline supervisor and whistleblower at Fulton County Animal Services with commissioner Thorne asking a simple question about an audit she was looking into, I was told would be reviewed, was instead I was accused

Fifteen seconds, ma'am.

On call of good communication of attacking said commissioner. All of this behavior, which, again, this is very limited and there's certainly more, would dissuade any reasonable member of the public from exercising their freedom of speech. You say you want dialogue, but what do your actions say? The

next person to speak is Catherine Martinez.

Catherine

Martinez.

Alright.

I'm here. I'm here. Thank you. Here we are. Good afternoon. Good

afternoon

oh, good morning, or should I say, commissioners. My name is Catherine Martinez. I am a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate. I've lived and worked in Centennial Olympic Village neighborhood for sixteen years. I'm proudly supported your work, and I hope to continue supporting initiatives that strengthen our community.

Commissioner Pitt, you recently spoke to cohorts of Fulton County Citizen University about integrity. I have to ask, how many of those citizens or even the board itself have actually visited the areas in crisis, the jails, the hospitals, the homeless shelters before making budget decision? In our neighborhood, youth crime is rising. The boys and girls club has closed. Truist Bank has closed, and we have two homeless shelters plus over 100 unhoused students at Centennial Academy Charter School.

These are visible signs of deep investment in a community with significant need. While emergency services are essential, exits from homelessness require pathway, access to skills, employment, food stability, community connection. The Centennial project delivers those pathways through gardens, workforce training, and youth development, strengthening neighborhood stability, reducing long term strain on hospitals, jails, and shelters. Activating neighborhood parks during FIFA helps distribute traffic, public safety, and economic activity beyond downtown, ensuring global investment benefits local residents and not just central business district. Fifteen seconds.

There are solutions, evidence backed programs that other cities have successfully adopted. The question is, what will be the legacy of this board? Will it be one of change and innovation or one of missed opportunity? I ask that youth development, green infrastructure, and product activation remain reflected in the budget. Thank

The next person to speak is Maggie Goldman.

Okay. I unmuted. You guys can hear me. Right?

Yes.

Okay.

I'm hearing a consistent trend today. Your constituents are asking you to support resources for homeless families and individuals, especially wraparound services or case management. I'm also hearing how many of us see that you can raise millions of dollars by properly appraising commercial properties. I'm asking you today for $230,000 to fund account homeless families and individuals in North And South Fulton so we can begin the process of providing them the case management they need to successfully move out of these hotels. This count is important because the point in time count we perform as a HUD requirement does not allow us to count homeless in hotels.

The only way we count these families is to intentionally canvas each hotel. Based on the results of seven fourteen families counted in 42 hotels in DeKalb, the potential hotels identified in North And South Fulton being 200 hotels, we could be looking at 1,500 to 6,000 families and individuals. Thank you for voting to appoint Kelvin Thompson to the Fulton Continuum of Care Board today. He and I are both deeply invested in this hotel count, as we know these families exist and many cannot receive any help because there are limited beds in the programs that we do have available. At least 80 residents of Fulton emailed you in the last two days to fund this hotel count.

Please consider this an issue that both North And South Fulton are eager to address. The data from this count can spearhead the process, which will likely involve private funding to support the solution. Thank you.

The next person to speak is Kurt Beasley. Kurt Beasley.

Good morning. My name is Kurt Beasley. Good morning to chairman Pitts and fellow commissioners. I'm calling today to strongly encourage the approval of funds to partner with the city of Atlanta to support our unhoused population. As a retired lieutenant colonel with the footy gunner sheriff's office, I have seen firsthand how often unhoused individuals end up in jail, not because they are criminals always, but sometimes because they are simply trying to survive.

During the winter months especially, many commit minor offenses just to escape the cold. With dangerously cold and wet weather approaching this weekend, the likelihood of the jail population will increase extremely. The jail is already overcrowded, so this partnership will help reduce the burden, preventing the detainees from having to sleep inside of boats on the floor. I would love to see how some of the unhoused residents can move forward to being placed in a more stable housing situation. If there are concerns about how the funds will be used, I strongly support assigning oversight to follow the money and ensure accountability.

I believe in a strong system of checks and balances. This is both a public safety issue and a humanitarian responsibility. Supporting this partnership will save resources, improve safety, and show compassion for some of our most vulnerable residents. Thank you all for your time.

Thank you. Councilwoman, I didn't councilwoman Bond, I didn't see you. Forgive me. Thank you for being with me. Councilwoman Kelsey Bond, city of Atlanta. Next speaker.

The next person to speak is Amy Fox. Amy Fox.

Councilwoman hold one second. Councilwoman Willis. Where is councilwoman Willis? Thank you. Thank you for being with us.

Next speaker.

The next person to speak is Alice Hackett. Alice Hackett. Next person to speak is Barbara Joan. Barbara Joan. Next person to speak is Burdell Jackson. Burdell Jackson.

Yes. This is Burdell Jackson. I'm speaking on behalf of, the reparations committee, and I'm glad that you extended the time period to, twenty four months. So please continue with the study because as a Fulton County resident of over, forty six years, I want to see the, end result and the recommendations. Thank you again.

The next person to speak is David Garcia. David Garcia. Next person to speak is Denise Wells. Denise Wells. Next person to speak is Gladys

Jones.

Gladys Adinia Jones. Next person to speak is Kari Gunther. Kari Gunther. Next person to speak is Phyllis Hendrix. Phyllis Hendrix.

Next person to speak is Randy Haseo. I'm sorry. Randy Hubbell. Randy Hubbell. Next person to speak is Robbie Huff. Robbie Huff. Next person to speak is Trudy Nesbitt. Trudy Nesbitt. With that said, this concludes your Zoom public comments.

Thank you. Madam clerk, where are we?

On page six. County manager's items under open and responsible government. Twenty six zero zero three two finance review and approval of the fiscal year 2026 final adopted budget and fiscal year 2026 resolutions.

Alright, mister manager, miss madam CFO.

Thank you, mister chairman. Good morning, commissioners and chairman. We sent the operations report under separate cover to allow more time for discussion of the budget. Certainly, if you have any questions of that either during this period or after, we'll be prepared to answer those. We're here with the latest updates on the 2026 budget recommendation and look forward to questions, adjustments and then hopefully approval.

As I learned long ago, the system will produce what it's designed to produce and as you know for the last several years it has produced a budget recommendation that assumes a consistent millage rate, base growth that allows for and accommodates natural expense growth but with constraints on expansion and new program growth. In 2026, we've included 53,000,000 in reserves for both known and known unknown requirements in the DOJ consent order that we've discussed before. With the Fulton County Jail, that represents over three times what we spent in 2025, but it does test the limits of this approach that we've been using. As we've received board of commissioner feedback, we have included items such as BOE compensation enhancements, solicitor general support for animal services cases, state court operations expansion to accommodate the two additional courts, and then the expansion of permanent supportive housing. These last two items are offset with a revised projection from actuaries that Sharon or miss Whitmore can discuss that we've just received in terms of defined benefit contribution plan.

So that is good news. The state court operations ask was 5,100,000.0 in the last meeting. You instructed us to go back and find ways to accommodate that which we have vis a vis again these actuarial changes. Also the permanent supportive housing ask was for $2.12200000.0 to cover the additional units that are coming on now projected in 2026 while we seek additional funding from state DBHDD and with the recently announced $50,000,000 grant for homeless support initiatives, I think that's even more realistic. We recognize that there are also some different scenarios to consider, so certainly we look forward to a robust discussion.

And as always, our work represents a recommendation. The decision is, rests with you and and we, recognize that fully. So mister chairman, we have a brief presentation to update on the changes that have been made and where that leaves us as well as other scenarios. So with that, we'll I will ask miss Whitmore, our CFO, to to lead that discussion.

Ms. Whitmore, you have the floor.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Next slide please. As the county manager indicated in his comments, this presentation is really more to share the scenarios that we were asked to produce based on the discussion and direction received at the last meeting specifically to address the request that had come from commissioners as well as a scenario that would include all of the unfunded operating request and then to provide the millage rate equivalency with that. So based on that request, we have developed five scenarios to share with you today and they are being presented in the descending millage rate equivalency order, so from highest millage rate to lowest millage rate.

Next slide please. So, the first scenario that we have to share is the requested scenario to capture all unfunded departmental enhancement requests. The way that these scenarios are crafted, we start with the revised proposed budget and then we are showing anything that would need to be incremental to that revised proposed budget in order to address the requested action. So, in this particular scenario, we have added a total of $151,800,000 in spending bringing the total general fund budget from 1,073,000,000 to 1,000,000,225,600,000,000.0 and that would increase the estimated millage rate from 9.26 to 11.47. Next slide please.

The second scenario is the one that is based upon request received from Commissioner Ivory. And again, it takes the basis is the revised proposed budget of 1,000,000,073,700,000.0. It is adding in a total of 59,300,000.0 in additional spending bringing the total revised proposed general fund budget to 1,000,000,133,100,000.0 at an estimated millage rate of 10.13 mills. Next slide please. This third scenario is based upon the request received from Commissioner Barrett starting again at the 1,000,000,073,700,000.0 This scenario adds 28,300,000 in additional spending bringing the total revised proposed general fund budget to 1,102 million and would increase the estimated millage rate from 9.26 to 9.67.

Next slide please. This slide, this next scenario was based upon the information and the comments that Commissioner Arrington had made during the last discussion. And we do have one change to this slide that we weren't able to get done in time for today's presentation. So I'm just going to mention it while I'm talking about it. But in this particular scenario, the request increased the revised proposed budget from 1,073,700,000.0 by 750,000.

The second item that Commissioner Arrington's office added was the homeless headcount request of 250,000 so that brings the total to 750 in net additions and then that would bring the total revised proposed budget to 1,000,000,074,200,000.0 and would increase the millage rate from 9.26 to 9.28. And then the last scenario is next slide please. The last scenario is it shows the effect of the revisions that we made from the last board meeting on the budget primarily showing the request to go back and revisit the funding for HB six twenty five for the addition of the two new state court judges as well as providing the funding for the permanent supportive housing. As the manager indicated in his comments, the source from that is coming from within the general fund budget already. We did receive during last week's defined benefit contribution retirement committee meeting, we did receive the valuation update from our actuaries which is what is allowing us to reduce the plan contribution for 2026.

So the budget amount doesn't change in total, we were able to just reallocate from within and the estimated millage rate would remain at 9.26. Those are the scenarios that we were asked to provide so that we could show the impact of each on the estimated millage rate, Mr. Chairman. So with that I don't have anything else relative to this particular subject. Would just say that we are prepared today to make changes to the budget as the board takes action so we can update you on the impact of any decisions that you make today.

Okay, thank you. Commissioner Arrington.

Thank you. I see the, 2.5 that's being added for the state court. So that this is the additional 2.5 for the additional request made by state court, correct?

Yes, mister chair. Yes. Yes. Commissioner Harrington.

Okay. Does that amount include the sheriff staffing the courtroom?

We added, we already had some resources in for security but we increased the amount to ensure that we could provide two, I believe it's two deputy sheriff positions per courtroom.

Okay, thank you. That is good to know because none of those other people can really use the courtroom if there's no sheriff to maintain security and peace. So glad to hear that. Glad that we were able to find the funding for the permanent supportive housing and for the additional two fifty units that the city of Atlanta wanted to roll out. My understanding is we're already funding 300 of those units and that the city requested to roll out an additional two fifty units this year.

So, this 2.1 covers the additional two fifty units and the funding for the 300 units was already included in the budget previously, correct?

Yes sir and it brings the total county investment to 4,800,000.0 for five fifty units total.

Okay and I think that know, maybe I don't know if anyone saw it but on my slide I had two requests. One was $500,000 for the summer youth jobs program, which we have run for every year except for last year. And I have no idea in the world why it was not included in last year's budget nor included in this year's budget. But I think that, know, a wise man said that it's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. And I think that if we make that investment in our youth, you know, I think that's a small amount of investment to make in our youth to make sure that they stay busy during the summer and have things that to keep them out of trouble.

Right? I don't mind can can lead to trouble sometimes. And so, colleagues, I hope that you all will consider investing in our youth and the $500,000 that we've had since I originally got it put in the budget back in 2015 when we were experiencing the slider crimes. And maybe that was 2016 when we were experiencing the slider crimes. And additionally, talking about the permanent supportive housing, I think one of the bigger issues or an additional issue is because we've got the the point in time count coming up but the problem is that that doesn't include the people staying in hotels.

And so, DeKalb just did a study and they found out they've got, I don't know the number, 1,300 or however many people staying in homeless or unsheltered people staying in these weekly hotels. And so I'm also requesting 250,000 so that we can do a similar headcount of homeless and unsheltered people, here in Fulton County. And so, that will give us a better idea of actually how many homeless people we have because the current point in time count doesn't include those people. And so I'm hopeful that we can include that $250,000 as well. And it looked like maybe if we can go back one slide.

Was it maybe one or two slides? It looked like it doesn't really affect the millage rate much from 9.26 to 9.27 to 9.28. Yeah, 9.27. I think the additional $2.50 for the headcount of the hotel homeless people staying in weekly hotels, I think Madam CFO said that it would be 9.28, although I guess it's showing 9.27 but that two fifty is not on there. So colleagues I would ask for your support for the summer youth jobs program of $500,000 as we fund it for numerous years as well as an additional 250,000 to make sure that we can properly account for all of the homeless people, particularly in North Fulton and South Fulton, that are not being included or not counted as part of the point in time count.

Thank you.

All right. Anybody else? Christa Barrett.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, county manager and team and for working on this. I know you've guys have put a lot of hours into all these changes. Sabrina in particular has done an amazing job as she always does. So thank you for that.

I do want to say that I feel a little bit like the way this is being presented on these slides is a little disingenuous because the implication here is that the only way to pay for any of the things that commissioners Arrington, Ivory, or myself are requesting is through an increase in the military. And that is just not true. I pulled out the other day and read some of the things and I just glanced through the very sort of disorganized data that was sent to me about what is sitting in non agency other, which for the public just as a reminder, we have almost $80,000,000 sitting in other. And there is $5,000,000 sitting there. I'm sorry there is $10,000,000 sitting there for jail debt service.

We know that we are not using 5,000,000 of that this year. So there's 5,000,000 additional dollars that can go towards paying for some of these additional things should the board agree to that. You know, there's also gender equality initiative contingency that we don't use, that's been sitting there year after year after year for $88,000 There's a million set aside for compensated absences. There's 2,000,000 set aside for professional services, unknown for what kind of professional services. There is contingency set aside for senior transportation that we have not used.

There are all kinds of things that I think could be looked at in the budget to find some additional funds to pay for some of these critical things that we have asked for. And so to say that there is only one choice, black or white, millage rate or nothing, I don't I don't think is accurate. And, you know, I think you will all say as I've heard many times, oh, we need this contingency for that or this contingent contingency for that or we've always done this and we've always done that. I think the public would much rather see us spend a million dollars on women's health as an example than other. So there is other money here.

There is work to be done. We're constantly being told to tighten our belts. The departments have all been asked to cut 1% from their budgets, but what kind of work has been done under finance to cut 1%, 5%? I the number I think a 5% reduction in non agency is $20,000,000. 20 over 20 I think it's over 25% of our budget is sitting in non agency.

And somehow magically, we have no pennies to spend. But when we when we decide we want to spend something, we find 5,000,000 that we don't have to put into the pension this year. I just think it's presented unfairly in this document. I don't think any of us, and I I don't want to speak for my colleagues, but I don't think any of us want to raise the millage rate. But we want to what we want to do is provide a level of service to the community that I see as mandatory.

If if we are not funding our justice system, this is the thing I talk about all the time. If we are not funding our whole entire justice ecosystem, we will never solve the problem at the jail. Period. And for us to just say, well, we are married to a particular millage rate or we can't cut money from a contingency that we know we're not going to use. It's just it's just not acceptable.

So I am going to I I know that my I do not have four votes on this board, but I am going to continue to advocate for funding for the entire justice ecosystem. And the list that I provided is based on what was asked for by the justice partners. It's not all of what they asked for. It's an attempt to be reasonable and try to find some happy medium with what they've asked for and what we can afford. And I would say, as I would say about all the things I'm requesting here, that I am not my requests are not 28,000,000 or zero.

My requests are what can we do for these departments and for these types of services that I'm asking for here at whatever level? I would love to see a million go to the federally qualified health center pilot program to try to help people pay their co pays so that they can get health care especially in the current environment where the ACA subsidies have been cut. But if we don't if this board doesn't wanna do a million, it doesn't have to be a million. Let's do 500,000. Let's do something.

If you don't want you know, stand up for our Family Justice Center, a solution for victims of domestic violence that will dramatically change that the way the community addresses these problems, putting all the services for domestic domestic violence victims under one roof so that the kids who are are are are survivors or the children of of survivors have a chance at a real life. If we don't want to put 2,000,000 towards that, let's put a million towards it. Let's put 500,000 towards it. Let's do something. To say no to all these things, just no to the public defender, no to the solicitor general, no to the magistrate court, no to the juvenile court, no to veterans funding, It doesn't have to be yes or no.

If we can't do it all, let's do something. Again, I know I don't have the votes here, but I'm at least gonna continue to advocate for these things. I do wanna say that I put two additional things on this list that did not that were not I did not ask for last meeting. And just quickly, I want to tell you what they are. One is money for DFACS.

I'm sure many of you saw the story that DFACS is losing funding at the state level, but even before I was aware of that, it was on my list and I just neglected to include it. So I'm asking for the additional funding that DFACS has asked for Department of Family and Children's Services. This is something that again is critical work in our community. We need to make sure our caseworkers are paid and that the families have the support that they need. And then for just a tiny little $100,000, I'm asking for us to help the Blue Heron Nature Preserve.

We give $200,000 a year to the Chattahoochee Nature Center, which is a very well funded organization. We give $200,000 a year to the Bear Creek Nature Center, is coming along great. They got a ways to go. And I know commissioner Arrington, you advocated for the fairness in the North and the South. Blue Heron Nature Preserve is a similar type of place right smack dab in the middle of the county and they are it's a nonprofit that runs it.

It's wetlands that are being protected and they have lost some federal funding and some grant money and they are gonna lose some rent income because their current building is not working and they will have to let the tenants leave as they try to figure out another building. So I'm asking that we sort of invest in sustainability and programs for children at these kind of places equally throughout the county. That's all I have.

I'll come back to that. Commissioner Ivory.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start our budget discussion today by noting that I have been pushing for permanent supportive housing funding for our unhoused population. It's been a priority for me and I made sure it remained front and center throughout our discussions at the last meeting. I'm glad to see that the funding has now been identified and I want to thank the county manager and staff for helping move it forward as well as the chairman for adding his support to the commitment of these funds.

I hope we will honor our commitment in the years to come in the agreement that we have already signed with the city of Atlanta. We were also able to find the necessary funding for the new state court operations. Again, I'm glad to see this included in today's proposed budget. These are examples of why it matters to take ownership of priorities and advocate persistently. It also highlights the need to look through our current funding sources.

I am glad we were able to find the funds for those items. I would hope we can do that with more items moving forward, especially the items that I have on my proposed budget. The budget I am recommending reflects my commitment for ensuring the funds, the things we know are necessary for our residents. So I put this budget put forward this budget because I believe we have an obligation to be honest and truthful about what Fulton County needs to fund. This is our funding existing responsibilities, addressing active crises, and maintaining service levels residents already rely on.

Today's vote is clearly my my proposals today is about clearly identifying those goals. So let's go to my first one, is a reduction in restoring the 1% reduction to departments. I do not support an across the board reduction to every department. A 1% cut may sound small to you, but in practice it reduces service capacity, strains staff, and delays work that eventually costs more to fix. Departments are already operating with limited flexibility.

Restoring this funding is about maintaining services continuity and operational stability. If we reduce capacity now, we absorb those costs later through overtime contracts or emergency budget amendments. Let's go to ORCA light, which is $25,000,000 I advocated for courts and case backlogs. And I will agree 100% with Commissioner Barrett when she said, if we do not deal with the core problem, which is the underfunding of our courts and our jail, we will never fix the problem that we find ourselves in a crisis right now. Courts, jails, hospitals.

That's our responsibility and those are our crises today. Courts, jails, hospitals. We have a crisis in each of those three categories. This funding $25,000,000 supports court operations that were previously covered under and funded under federal ORCA dollars, particularly work that addresses case backlogs and delays. Those delays directly affect conditions in the Fulton County Jail.

People sleeping on floors, which today I believe the count is 61 people sleeping on the floors, is the predictable result of under resourced court operations. If we do not adequately fund the courts, we pay for it elsewhere. Jail costs legal exposure and increased scrutiny. This is a necessary investment to stabilize a system that is already under strain and proven to work. That money that was given during COVID brought the case backlog down and the population of the jail.

This is not will it work, we know it does work. Let's restore the funds and bring the backlog down. We know that we have legal fees coming from President Donald Trump. Right now we know $16,200,000. Why would we not plan for it? It is a known cost that is coming. The legal fees included in my budget are not speculative. We know these costs are coming and we know that they will have to be paid. Leaving them out of the budget does not reduce our exposure. It creates mid year shortfalls and forces reactive decisions.

Budgeting for known legal obligations is a basic responsibility that we should do. Consent decree costs. What is in the budget right now is not the amount of money that we need for the consent decree. It is not adequate. We have known costs of over $60,000,000. So I have adjusted for that. The county manager's budget allocates approximately 53,000,000 for consent decree compliance. Based on what we know, that cost is closer to 60,000,000. Consent decree obligations are mandatory. Underfunding them increases the risk of penalties, enforcement actions, and higher costs later.

If we know the obligation to be 60,000,000, then we should budget 60,000,000. Veterans services. I included a full $1,000,000 for veterans services. At our last meeting, the money for veterans funding occurred by reallocating dollars from arts and culture and community service grants. I do not believe we should be I do not believe we should support veterans by weakening other essential services.

This approach funds veterans directly and transparently without shifting strain from elsewhere, the probate court weddings. The one thing we do so well, the one thing people love to come to Fulton for, and that Judge Kenya Johnson has grown into an immensely popular service that the county provides and at zero cost because she gets that money right back. So why would it in revenue? So why wouldn't we do that? Probate court weddings are a public service with real operational needs.

This funding supports staffing and administrative capacity to ensure consistent service delivery. It's a modest, predictable investment that ties to services the county already provides. And $250 that we're going to get back is just a small drop in the bucket. Let me talk about funding flexibility and fiscal reality. Something I'd like to educate constituents on, the realities.

Not the stories that are told by politicians but the realities. Throughout this process we have seen funding drawn from non agency sources including the non agency pension fund to cover operating needs. That tells me there is flexibility within our financial structure that deserves closer examination. We also know there are large non agency buckets including significant sums broadly characterized as other to the tune of $80,000,000. At the same time the net new investments in my proposed budget total approximately $59,000,000 less, less than the 69,000,000 mid year under run we experienced last year.

It's amazing when there is a conversation about raising the millage rate that we all of a sudden find money. But we never can find it when we are adopting the budget. So I do not accept the premise that these needs are unaffordable. It is entirely possible that through reallocation and closer review of existing funds, these obligations can be met without increasing the tax burden at all. Quit the lie that I just want to raise the military.

It is not true. I want to find the resources in a budget that somehow when the majority of this commission needs to find a way to pay for something, they find it. And then when we come back in the middle of the year like in 2025, we found 69,000,000 more dollars so that we wouldn't have to increase the millage rate. Well I'm asking for 59,000,000. So that should not be a problem at all for the majority of this board.

That is why it's important to clearly identify the expenditures first. Today's vote is about acknowledging what Fulton County needs to fund. After that, we should continue working with the finance department and the county management to review non agency funds, examine pension balances, understand large un itemized categories, and identify responsible reallocation options. But we should not underfund our known needs while waiting for that work to happen. First, we establish the necessities, then we determine the most responsible way to fund them.

That is how a budget should operate. I want to be very clear. Today's vote does not set a final tax rate. That decision happens mid year. What we are doing today is setting the budget, identifying the cost we already know that this county has to cover. Those are not hypothetical expenses. They are known obligations, active crises, jail, courts, hospitals, and services that must continue. Refusing to acknowledge those costs today does not reduce them. It only pushes the burden into emergency decision making later in the year. Approving this budget is about honest and responsible at the front end of the process.

We can and should continue to examine revenues, reallocations, and efficiencies before the tax rate is finalized mid year, excuse me. But we cannot do that responsibly if we start by pretending that these costs do not exist. Today is about setting the budget, the tax rate comes later. Thank you.

Commissioner Arrington.

Thank you. I wanna echo what commissioner Barrett said. I think mister manager that you know the these budget request items and the presentation of these items and tying them to increase millage rates is not accurate at all and does portray that we want to increase the millage rate, right? I mean that's basically what these slides and presentation do. If we can, let's go back one more because I wanna go back to the request from the department.

So, mister manager, what I what I would like for us to do and and maybe it's not part of the discussion today for budget but how do we look at diversifying our revenue so that we can fund that amount for next year, right? How do we work with the tax assessor to properly assess the commercial properties so we can raise the amount of money that the departments say that they need in order to operate in an optimal fashion, right? And so, I think it's really unfair to commissioners Barrett, Ivory, and I to to put up this slide and to say that it's a a millage rate increase in tied tied to that when we know that we just had $89,000,000 in underruns. And you know, I'm not finance, right? But you know, what I don't understand, why don't we have an underrun line item as part of the budget?

We know every year on average that there's $75,000,000 in under runs so that's obviously somewhere and that's in addition to the 80,000,000 that Commissioner Barry is talking about in non agency, right? So that's $150,000,000 and that could, wow, 151 is what they asked for. 80 plus 75 is 150, that's what they asked for. They asked for 151,000,000. And miraculously, just found 150,000,000.

80,000,000 plus 70,000,000 is 150,000,000. I understand that we may not necessarily be there today, right? But how do we diversify our revenue streams? How do we properly assess the commercial properties so we can get here and make sure that the departments have what they need or what they believe that they need in order to operate in an optimal fashion. Commissioner Ivory, I agree with you on a lot of what you said, but I do not agree that we're gonna owe Donald Trump any money.

The law says that there has to be misconduct and a disqualification. The judge in this case, Judge McAfee, found that there was no misconduct, but he did disqualify. And so I don't believe we're gonna owe any money and even if we do I don't think it's gonna come out this year because I imagine that there will be appeals. And I don't know how much we have in the risk fund if we have enough to cover it. But again, a lot of that is timing, right?

So I think just I think we gotta do a better job as the manager of getting these department heads what they need, what they believe they need to run their departments just like we give you what you need to run your department, right, to run the whole county. And I think we've got to find ways to get additional revenue and certainly non agency where Madam CFO hides all the bodies and the money is a great place. And additionally, underruns. We absolutely know that there's gonna be at least 75,000,000 in underruns. And so I don't understand why we don't have a line item.

I don't know, I'm not a mathematician. But I don't know why we can't just say, oh, well we know we're gonna, every year for the last twelve years we've had $75,000,000 in underruns. So that's an additional $75,000,000 that can be used to fund these requests, right? And the challenge that we have is that we've become accustomed to using that money to put with next year's budget to help balance next year's budget. And I think we perhaps need to dig a little deeper find the revenue and obviously I don't know how much revenue we would get from properly assessing these commercial properties.

But that would be in addition to the 80,000,000 in non agency and the 75,000,000 in underruns. So then we have likely a lot more than 150,000,000 available to fund all of these other requests. So hopefully we can work with Mr. Conley and our tax assessors to find out where the gap is on these commercial properties, right? Because it's not fair to individual property owners that they are bearing the burden, right?

And that their properties are being properly assessed but that these commercial properties are not. So hopefully we can you can help us work in that regard, mister manager, so that we can bring in the revenue that we need in order to properly fund all of these requests. Frankly, I think we have it now. Or at least half, right, through underruns. But I don't know what the will of the board will be.

But certainly I just don't think it's fair presenting a document that says that we want, we've made additional budget requests and that these budget requests would yield a millage rate. Now maybe that was part of our instructions to you to find out, hey, how much would these things cost and would there be a millage rate increase? But I think that wood is really conditional, right? That wood is conditional based on us not using the underruns, based on us not using non agency. Right?

We had $5,000,000 in the budget for 2025 for the center at the city Of Atlanta. Right? It's similar to the recovery.

The diversion center?

The diversion center in the city Of Atlanta and I don't even think we used a million of that 5,000,000, right. And so there's money all in our budgets and you know, and I don't know what the numbers are on that and maybe Mr. Someone will have an update for us on that later but you know, we didn't use that 5,000,000 last year. I doubt we'll use it this year because no one even was really using it. The cities didn't even know it was there and no one was sending people there.

And so, I'll stop there but we need to find more money. I wanna use this 1.2 as the baseline for what's needed going forward, right? That should be the baseline for what's needed and then we need to find the revenue in order to get it done and that doesn't mean that there would have to be a millage rate increase. So I'll stop there. Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to add a couple things. First of all, again not that anybody is going to, it's very clear that the four people who are controlling this body are not even weighing in and don't have anything to say. I'm sure your mic off. A lot of reverb. Thank you. So but oh, okay. Thank you, commissioner Thorne, for getting in the queue and having something to say. I appreciate that.

But but, you know, I I do wanna say whether it will be considered by the group or not that I am supportive of commissioner Arrington's request for the youth summer program. And I also wanted to talk briefly about the hotel count conversation. I know there was a what was about 200 something thousand dollar request and I I just wanted to sort of bring that over to you county management team, Doctor. Rochelle, perhaps to just talk a little bit about because I I do acknowledge that there is a real problem with people people who are sort of one step away from unhoused living in these extended stay properties that are often very bad conditions. And then because I think of their status, they are not eligible for some of the programs that unhoused people are eligible for.

So my question I think to you is what are we already doing in terms of and to be clear the program Commissioner Arrington is talking about we all got a lot of emails about is really about just step one which is doing the count. But so I guess my question is what have we done in the past? What are we doing currently? What can we do? And I know this is like kind of it's one day's notice because we talked about this briefly yesterday. But if you could just shed some light sort of on where we are on that subject matter right now.

Thank you for the question Commissioner Barrett. So Commissioner Arrington is absolutely right. We are conducting our point in time count over the next couple of days, a specific count in the North and the South. The budget that we have for the point in time count is not including any coverage for the individuals that live in hotels. HUD several years ago made a decision that if a constituent is living extended stay that we were to no longer include them as a part of our unhoused community.

So we do not have a mechanism to count those individuals. Some of the things that the commissioners may want to consider if they move forward with funding the first step, which is the assessment, would be the associated expenses for a new program. Specifically, a new program of this nature is anywhere from $2,000 to $9,000 per family. The estimate is that we may have 1,500 to 6,000 families. The cost associated with that are for things like deposits, things like trying to remove some of the barriers associated with why individuals have had to rely on the extended stay community.

Things like criminal records, prior evictions, unstable employment are very difficult to correct in a short period of time. And so the associated cost and what would be required is very intensive. Not that it isn't a good thing to do, but it is a very intensive program. And we currently do not have any funding in our homeless support services which are primarily dedicated to our coordinated entry program which is $3,000,000 That is for individuals who are considered by HUD criteria as homeless. So with a new program of this nature, it would take a significant investment to provide perhaps a pilot program or something of that nature so that we could then stand up the infrastructure which we do not currently have for a program of this nature.

Yeah, I think when we talked about it yesterday I was in agreement. We're not really prepared to First of all we don't know how big the problem is in Fulton County which is obviously what the count is all about. But we also right now certainly in this moment within with a few days notice are not really in a position to look at what all the steps should be to start to address the problem. But I do think and I would ask that county management certainly look at this issue not so much in terms of what program we can stand up as a county, but how can we perhaps we can partner with other counties. Perhaps there's something that could be done statewide to sort of quantify the problem.

Perhaps there's things we can do to lobby at the federal level to have some changes made. Maybe there's some things we can do to lobby at the state level. So I don't really know what the solution is having not had significant amount of time to study it but I do think it is a real issue. We saw that in the situation in the hotel in North Fulton that where people were being evicted from there. These people sort of fall in this gap between unhoused and living in an apartment and having the services that when something goes wrong in an apartment that you can use.

And so they're sort of in this gray area and I do think it's worth us elevating the issue and trying to see who we can partner with and how we can not only count but begin to come up with some sort of a strategy. Again perhaps with partners whether they be, whether they're private public partnerships or whatever it might be. But I think we're just at the beginning of the conversation and I would love to see us take it further.

And thank you Commissioner Barrett. We certainly will also look at the criteria for the $50,000,000 that Governor Kemp has just announced to see if that is an option or an avenue to explore this.

Yeah if there's room in that language maybe there's a way to start helping sooner than later. Oh, one other thing, I'm sorry Mr. Chairman. I did want to just say I thank you for getting in the queue Commissioner Thorn. I do think this is the time to have the dialogue. This is what the county manager is asking for. You know, I I would love to hear what everybody's thoughts are about how we move forward. You know, I was hoping to participate in a discussion. With that

Commissioner Ivory.

Thank you so much, mister chairman. I wanna just, first say, to commissioner Arrington that, you know, I I don't think we should have to give Donald Trump any money, like, at all. Right? And I don't agree with the county having to pay for the legal fees. But if anybody has been watching when you think that there couldn't be a way that a judge could rule in favor of something that President Trump is doing.

There we are with the with the ruling from the judge on the thing we thought could not happen at all. So I'm not confident that just because there was no misconduct found that that means we won't have to pay the legal fees because we've seen some really wild things happening since President Trump was elected. So, it seems to me to be right as a part of our risk assessment to just think about allocating those funds that we might have to pay. We can't just plan to pay zero. That would be irresponsible.

And because we do do that, we do plan, we put money away for a possible bond issuance for the jail, for pension obligations, for infrastructure. This is why I put this in the budget because I do think it is coming down the line and it is important to put it in there. So that is really the reason why I included and I just wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding on whether I think that President Trump should be given any legal fees back for that. But, I do also want to say that I know I've been in deep conversation with the county manager and his team since the first proposed budget came out. And, it is disappointing to me that even after all of the conversations that have happened, your proposed budget doesn't still include any of the things that Commissioners Barrett Arrington and I want to have in it.

And, when I asked you because I think it's important for people to understand how the process happens. The county manager is responsible for submitting the proposed budget and when I sat and talked to the team and I said well why are we not including all of these things? The answer was because I've been directed by leadership to do it this way. And I know that's a tough position to be in for all of the county managers staff that sees these needs that we have but are being told by our leadership to make sure it lands a certain way. And to make sure it lands a certain way hasn't changed at all with any of commissioner Barrett, Mai or Commissioner Arrington's requests.

So this was a fabulous exercise we went through to see what it would look like if we properly funded the county for the services that we're going to provide, but none of it is going to be voted on by the four commissioners here who have already said this is what we want to see and that's what we're going to vote for. So let's be clear that this is about politics and not people. This is not about what the services are that are needed because when I sat with the county manager and talked about the ORCA money that was there during COVID that reduced the backlog and reduced the population in jail, it was his suggestion to do it again. He even put his branding hat on and called it Orca Lite, which was a name we could give it to give those funds back so all the departments would get it and know exactly what it was for. It's to continue the work you had done before to bring the backlog down and reduce the jail population.

But it's not in your proposed budget. And that's not because the county manager doesn't believe that the backlog needs to be reduced or even that it connects to the population in the jail, it's because he's been told not to include it in there. So, let's just be honest. Let's just what As a commissioner, if I'm here or if I'm not, it's okay. I want the people to understand what this budget is and what Fulton County commissioners have a responsibility to you to explain to you what this budget is.

The biggest thing I want, budget transparency. So when commissioner Arrington and and commissioner Barrett and I were talking about this $80,000,000 other line, it is because like what's the other? The 61 people sleeping on the floor, are they a part of the other? Are the things that we know are gonna come up reducing departmental services by 1%, is that part of the other? We talk about the improper appraisal of commercial properties.

I know that's coming up now a lot. It's an election year. Those big ideas come up in election years. But this board hasn't dealt with that for decades. That's not new. That's not some bright new idea. Oh, it's an election year now everybody's gonna start fixing the way commercial properties are being appraised. That's been going on on this board for decades, hasn't gotten fixed yet. So let's be real about what are the things that have to be fixed in budget transparency. We have to go into that budget and fix it.

It's not it's not right. Every mid year when people are when the the conversation about the military is about to come and you know the the minority three of us start talking about why it's because those other lines aren't open up to be used. Nobody wants to increase the millage rate. Guess what? If anybody increased the millage rate, it would affect all three of us also, personally. We live in Fulton. So does my aging mother at 85 and so does my father who's dealing with dementia at 84. All live in Fulton and have to pay taxes. I'm concerned about all of that for all members of my family. So we have the money all over.

Where is it? Let's overhaul the budget and find it. Not just when there's a press conference in the freezing cold and people are pressured to find money for homeless people. Then we found it. Not when all the judges have to come here and say, you asked us to get two judges, we put on our legislative agenda, we needed two state court judges, we got them, now we're not funding them. They have to come on down here and beg us all and that we found the money. We can find the money for a hotel account. We can. We should. And then there are going to be associated costs with it later.

We can find it. We need to put looking into our budget and making it transparent as a priority. A huge priority. The commercial assessments, if we could ever figure that out, that might just be more money. More money.

But the under runs of 70,000,000, the other category of 80,000,000 plus if we could fix the commercial assessment issue, we wouldn't we would be able to fund everything we need to fund. We could even stick with the agreements that we already signed going forward. Imagine being able to say to the city of Atlanta, we're going to actually fund permanent supportive housing according to the agreement we signed with you for all of the years that we said we would. Not just we don't know if we're gonna have it in 2027. This is just seems like a logical way to approach it.

So, I wanna say that I'm disappointed that not even a one of the budget items that commissioner Barrett, commissioner Ivory or commissioner Arrington ended up in the proposed budget that the county manager has proposed to commissioner Ellis, to chairman Pitts, to commissioner Abdul Rahman, and commissioner Thorne, who I'm gonna predict and I'm gonna put on my magic hat right now and predict that in about twenty minutes from now, they will approve that budget. So we have work to do.

Commissioner Thorne, you have the floor.

Thank you, chairman. I just wanted to comment, add on to your discussion that you had, Commissioner Barrett, about the hotel count and time. And Commissioner Arrington, you had wanted to fund that. Over the holiday weekend, I had several meetings to discuss this with stakeholders in my community. Those included Spark, who did the actual count.

She Spark is in Gwinnett County. DeCAD did not ask them to count. They just did the count on their accord. I spoke with Drake House, they're a huge nonprofit in my area that deals in this space. I spoke with Saint Vincent de Paul, they do a lot of case management with people who are living in hotels and trying to get them up on their feet.

I spoke with the North Fulton Improvement Network about the issue. I spoke with Family Promise, a board member from Family Promise as well. And I got the opportunity to meet Commissioner Barrett's newest appointee on the COC, Kelvin Thompson. And just had some brief discussions there, but I will be doing the point in time with him count on Friday night. So for me, the $200,000, I understand the hotel people living in hotels.

A year ago, I was helping a young woman, her name was Leah, who was living in a hotel. I met her at the Amazon returns one day. She looked like she's having a bad day, so I just built a relationship with her and started trying to help her out and she was living in a hotel probably two miles from house on Mansaw Road. At the same time, Brian Goldstone came out with his book, No Place For Us, which really went through the plight of five families in Atlanta and just living paycheck to paycheck, living on grandma's couch, fold out couch, having to fold it up, get the kids to school every day, living in their cars. There are so many people that aren't what they call street level homeless.

With all that being said, I was given his book because he's a friend of my family's and I was given the book before the book was even published and made available in March. So, all of that come to say, the $200,000 funding, I'm just hesitant to give it now because we don't DeKalb County, when I spoke with them, they don't know what they're gonna do now that they have the information. It remains to be unseen. Can the count be done more effectively? Can it bring in more partners?

Saint Vincent de Paul, who does interview people who are staying in hotels, says they make sure that everybody in that hotel has a connection to the community. They aren't just traveling through, that they have a job there, a recent eviction, they have children in the school is a criteria before they help them. They felt the survey might need to be a little bit tailored, more specific. I would love to incorporate these members if we actually do account as well as our cities. This does not cover Atlanta.

It only covers North Fulton and South Fulton. And, I don't know who those members are in South Fulton but hopefully I can get educated more on that. So I think in talking with chairman Pitts, it's it's is a very small amount of money but I think we can get buy ins from our cities to help us out in the event we do I think it's a wait and see that we need to wait and see what DeCAB can do and bring all these port partners together that are in our community. I did hear the governor say he's gonna give $50,000,000 for homeless, but he used the word street level homeless. So for me, that was mainly cleaning the streets, not addressing these people who are living paycheck to paycheck, who one sickness, one illness, a broken down car puts them in a horrible situation where they're not able to keep a roof over their heads.

So definitely, I think that is something that we can continue to explore, but that we don't need to fund right now and we need to just research it more. Other things, you know, the the commissioner Barrett, you wanted to fund 2,000,000 for the DA's office oh, wait. 4,000,000 for the d a DA's office and 2,000,000 for the Family Justice Center. I thought the Family Justice Center was going to cost 10,000,000. I don't know if 2,000,000 can get that off the ground or what.

Yeah.

They have a lot of grant money and they have some partnerships and their request was 2,000,000. They're getting a free building from APS and so the request was 2,000,000 to help with the build out inside the building they were given. And then the plan I believe is to open next year in March and I think they will longer term be looking for some help with operational funding as well.

Okay. For me too with the district attorney's office, the 16,200,000.0 that you mentioned, I really think we should look to the state as well to help out with that because she her department is partly funded by us and the state. So I think there's a lot to look at there if Fulton County taxpayers are held responsible for the 17 defendants' legal fees. It's not just Trump's legal fees. It's 17 defendants whose lives were turned upside down for two years by basically complaints that the prosecutor took over the case said were not valid to begin with.

It is Okay to question an election. You wanted to give $100,000 Commissioner Barrett, to the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, love to know more about that. Have they applied for our grants in the past?

I am not sure if they have, but I certainly have recommended that to them as well. The reason I asked for it in this way is because we do this as a sort of permanent funding to the other two parts of the county and that have sort of nature centers and so this is a They have a similar type of programs for schools and all of those things but I will recommend that to them as well.

So honestly, we have to look at cost. The cost of this going back to that $16,200,000 cost with legal fees for a case that was thrown out, a case that was dismissed, a case that wasn't relevant to begin with, we need I've asked for what is the cost? How much did it cost the county? How much did it cause a backlog in our courts? Because so much time, attention, and opportunity cost was taken in trying two high profile RICO cases at the same time when we had a backlog.

I have failed to get an answer to this day. I have asked for some idea the last two years. Last year, when I asked, I was told that Lady Justice has no price. For me, I cannot give someone more funding if I don't know some basic answers to those questions. We also have to look at our sheriff in the consent decree, how many millions we're spending, $5,060,000,000 to do the work to do the consent to create a comply.

We were in a consent decree before. We came out of that consent decree and we went right back into it. And we can talk about people sleeping on the floor. We recently had a fire in our jail. And I ran into the insurance commissioner at the eggs and issues.

And he was furious over the fire. That is not a building issue. That is an issue that a fire happened in our jail and it's something out of our control. There was talk about did not make a conscious decision to cut supportive housing. In our original budget, we were doing what we normally do. We were supporting, I believe, three zero six units. Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am. Three zero two units that are

We currently in had that in the

budget. The issue was is that they came with a 66% roughly increase that we needed to fund. And that took a little bit of maneuvering to figure out where we're get that additional 2,100,000.0. So I just want it to be truthful. We weren't cutting anything.

We were trying to find. I think everybody up here did not want to not fund that. It just took us a while to try to find where we're gonna find that money to support that. There's been a lot of talk about the commercial property assessments. I had a nice meeting with Julian Binet who's been leading the charge on this basically since 2017.

It was kind of a learning experience for me. It's learning talking with our tax assessor's office too. They have rules, they have guidelines that they have to follow when they do assessments. We have people who work our tax assessor's office with decades of experience in the field. So I think it would be a good idea if in the coming months that we can get our tax assessor's office down here to give us a presentation on what they're doing.

I realize times are changing. Data centers are are new. Technology is new. Technology is is a very very expensive upfront cost but it rapidly depreciates every single year, even becomes obsolete. As a Georgia Tech student, learned computer programs and then I'd be relearning them the next year because they were obsolete.

And, I think, with three d modeling, that just rapidly changed every year. So instantly, you can make a huge investment in technology that is basically wiped out and obsolete and needs to be replaced the next year. So I would love to continue discussions and have the tax assessor come down here and maybe answer some questions on what they're doing. I held two town halls with the tax assessors back in the fall. They are very, very responsive people.

They are very, very willing to answer questions. And, I think it'd just be fair to give them a voice down here to address all of us moving forward in the future. And, I do possibly see a need for the data centers to maybe even have a special assessor with the data centers since the technology is so complex that perhaps we can look into getting some further advisement. But my understanding is they are taking steps in that area. They are looking at other counties to see what other counties do in that field.

So one more reason to have them down here and tell us what they're working on and what they're trying to achieve. With that being said, I wanna be honest and truthful. My vote today is not politics. I'm for the people. And, when we set that millage rate back in the fall, hundreds of people came down here.

Now, I know for some commissioners, they hadn't sat through the budget hearings, but I sat through them for the past three years and usually we came down here, we would call the hearing and there would be nobody here. Zero people would come down. But this year was different. People from all over the county came down here in person to give comment that they do not want their millage rate raised. Hundreds of people, hours of public comment.

People drove from North Fulton, South Fulton, paid $20 for parking to park in one of our parking garages down here, took the time battled It takes me a little over an hour in the morning with traffic to get down here from where I live in the morning. They took that hour. They paid that parking. They gave, they signed up, they waited an hour to give their public comment. I take that very, very seriously.

And for me, it would be irresponsible of me to just throw in spending that perhaps could wait a year, perhaps could wait when we're out of a consent decree. Yes, there's a lot of things that would be nice to do, But, out of respect for those people, I'm taking out of politics, I'm not trying to buy votes or anything by pandering to certain people in the county. We have got to listen to those, everyone who came down here, everyone, their voice was heard. And I wanna make sure that they know that that I am gonna vote for a budget that I feel is fair and that the county can efficiently run. Thank you.

Commissioner Ellis.

Thanks, mister chair. Well, I'm going to weigh in because I wanted to listen. What I've heard is some good discussion on a few points, but I've also heard a lot rhetoric and a lot of things that aren't really born out in reality. I just want to ask and point out, I'm going to ask a couple of questions to single out and to sort of highlight a few things so folks can understand this. How much fund balance money are we using to all right, let's just first off start off this.

Our proposed budget from the manager right now is a little over $1,000,000,000 in revenue, correct? Total revenue?

Yes, sir.

And total expenditures of a little over $1,073,000,000 right?

Yes, sir.

Okay. That's a negative $73,000,000 right?

Okay.

Yes sir.

Where's the $73,000,000 to come to balance that out?

It's coming out of fund balance.

Excess fund balance, So there wasn't some just huge pot of money that you just had over here that you could just go and apply to new funding going forward. If we didn't have that excess fund balance, what would we be looking at doing if you just flip this route? What probably would have happened in the budgetary One of two things, right? To maintain that existing level of spending, you would have to have an assumed and as others have noticed, we're not adopting the millage rate, but you have to, for purposes of helping people understand this, here's what the assumption is right. So our assumed millage rate would be more significant or there would be cuts to all of these things correct?

Yes sir.

Okay. All right. All right. The other thing is we have access to all kinds of information as commissioners. Yes, we have a lot of funds in non agency. We might do it a little bit different than some other folks, but a lot of these things are costs that we would otherwise, if you didn't do it this way, would be allocated into the departments via some sort of force mechanism, correct?

Yes sir.

Correct. Okay. So for example and then I want to highlight this too, one large portion of this money is for a pension. That's a pension that was closed, but the reality of the way that defined benefit pension plans work, they live with you forever.

You

can't change the obligations, you're stuck with them. Right? So this plan was terminated back in when or frozen back when?

Was closed to new entrants 07/01/1999.

'19 '99, okay. So we still have the ramifications of the decisions that were made in terms of how that was implemented and structured that we are paying for today. So the decisions we make at a particular point in time, they do matter. Right? Some matter more significantly than others. And that's a particular one. We did not and then for people who can understand too, we are not cutting our required we work in the way a pension funding works. You go and you get an actuarial assumptions. Actuarial assumptions each year, we engage an actuary and they tell us what should be the required minimum contribution to ensure that we are properly funding the pension over time, correct?

Yes sir.

Right, okay. So many of us sit through, a couple of folks over here sit through these meetings. Commissioner Abder Rockman and I were on this particular meeting this past week. We've had good returns in the market this year. So in terms of all the assumptions that play out, our required minimum contribution we learned dropped, right?

Yes, sir.

Right. So that created an additional that created how much in money that we otherwise had budgeted for?

A little over 4,500,000.0 So dollars 4,700,000.0

we reprioritized that money into the areas that you saw. So I just want to make sure everybody understands we're not cutting an obligation that was there. We're sticking with funding at the particular obligation that we know based upon what our actuaries tell us about the requirement required minimum contributions. We get access to there's those comments about this amount of other non agency stuff. We all get this, nobody's hiding the ball.

You haven't hidden the ball about what is in this. So everybody knows what this is. It's not funny money. These are things right? Uncompensated absences, we're required. Tell us how our system works in terms of payment for uncompensated, what that means exactly?

Compensated absences are payments for accrued vacation, accrued holiday earned, accrued compensatory time. When a person leaves the county, we have to pay all of those balances out to them that remain on their books at the time that they leave.

Right, so for translated, for a lot of folks who work in the real world, if you got vacation time, I'm going say the real world, in a lot of the for profit world and so the government world, right, many of the way, and this is generally more of a construct of government as opposed to, you know, for profit private sector. In the private sector, for most of us who work in that that field, if you do not take, you may have six weeks of leave or six weeks of vacation time or three weeks or two weeks or whatever it is, if you don't take that time, you generally use it, you lose it, or maybe it rolls over to the next year, you can take it. The way our system is set up and other governments, it's not just us, and many other government structures are set up, if you don't take that time, it's banked, if you will and then it winds up being compensated when you leave the organization as pay, correct?

That's correct.

Alright, okay. So it's an obligation.

Yes sir and there are caps in place on those amounts that you can bank.

But it's an obligation, It's not something that you we could change our policy and we could remove that as an obligation, but it's not funding money. It's an obligation. There's capital money in non agency, correct?

Yes, sir.

Right? That pay as you go expenditures expenditures that that we we know know that that are are gonna gonna come up, that we can't predict, that's in there, correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So these are not two of the sort of like fictional things that exist. These are real. So let's stop with the rhetoric on these two things. This is real.

And if you were going to propose additional spending, that's fine. But let's just sort of deal with the reality of it is, it's likely gonna have gonna mean that you're gonna have to go somewhere to get it and how likely at where you're gonna have to go to get it is payment of more property taxes from our citizens. So let's just deal with the reality of that when we're having these discussions. You know, there's been a lot of talk about a lot of things. We're not going to solve every issue at stake in this county today, that's for sure.

You know, but we're going to have to, at some point in time today, are going to have to adopt a budget. So I appreciate the work that's been done and I appreciate the dialogue that's occurred to date and looking forward to see kind of what proposals that are we're going to be presented to us. I've been doing this for a while and one thing I learned is like you know when you want to do stuff, you study it, you go talk to people, you build consensus, and you put something forth and if if folks feel like it's responsible then it receives votes that pass and if not then it doesn't.

Commissioner Ivory.

I appreciate dealing with reality of things. That's what we should be dealing with. And we have a crisis on many levels in Fulton County because we haven't. And many people have been here for years and still haven't solved the problems. That's the reality.

And so yes, let's deal with the reality of things. We have a jail that has been taken over by the Department of Justice because we've underfunded the jail. The fire was in our control, Commissioner Thorne. Because if the jail was properly staffed, the fire wouldn't have happened. Right, maybe it wasn't.

We have yet to get the report, but maybe it wasn't a facilities issue, but it was an understaffing issue for sure. So that is in our control and that hasn't been funded properly. I love dealing with the reality of things. And the reality of things is that this budget is going to pass by the majority of this board without including any of the things that we really need. So that's the reality. For a long time that's been the reality. It has to change.

Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. County Manager, I meant to ask you this yesterday when we met. It was the first thing on my list actually, but I skipped it somehow. The ACDC contract is up in November, is that correct?

December

So at the end of the year?

Yes ma'am.

Okay. And we at the moment do not really have a plan for 2027 of where we are going to house what right now is about 400 to 500 people at any given time. Is that also correct?

We're looking at alternatives but I do not have a plan as we sit here today.

Yeah, well the reason I'm bringing it up in the context of the budget is because certainly if we are able to negotiate another an extension for example with City of Atlanta at whatever price that won't affect this budget. But I know one of the things being considered was some modular build out and I would assume and I don't know so I'm really this is a question but if the contract is up at the end of the year that January 1 we're going to have

to move people if they

are not, if they are no longer allowed to be there. So if that's the case, it seems like we might have to spend some money in this calendar year to prepare for that. And I'm just wondering if we have one of the many contingencies somewhere set up for that.

Yes ma'am. That's how we've debated and came down on leaving the 10,000,000 in debt service in non agency was the possibility of issuing debt for that, call it rapid housing, to account for loss of ACDC capacity. Whether we can get there within a year's period of time, there are providers out there that can do it within twelve months, but we got to get through our procurement, our sorting, our procurement and then contracting. So I think either way we would need to find a way to extend that ACDC lease for some period time. But that's why we have kept the 10,000,000 in non agency.

Well I appreciate that. I think it would be, it would have been helpful to have that labeled in some way so that that was known. I appreciate that. I also just wanted to, since we're going to dig into this question about compensated absences and be clear about it and deal with the reality of it, let me just make sure I have the understanding correct. Because it is my understanding, especially given the fact that I've had to do this as staff has left my office, that when someone leaves and they have absences that need to be compensated, it comes from the department's budget. Is that correct?

Yes, Commissioner.

And so the amount that's sitting in non agency, to my understanding from the questions I've asked and the conversations I've had with you all, is that that dollar amount that's sitting in non agency called compensated absences is not there because it's needed from a mandatory perspective. The departments pay for that. And the contingency if I'm correct is only when they don't have enough to pay for it in their budget for some reason. Am I right?

Yes Commissioner that's typically how we use those funds.

And of the whatever I think what is it a million that we have in that fund? In this line item?

Yes ma'am.

And did we use a million last year? No ma'am. Yeah. I mean without getting a report of how often and how much of that we've used year over year, I would argue that that is still an area that may not be needed. I understand why it's there. I understand that if that should come up, you want to be prepared. But at the same time, there are a lot of things that are coming up that we need to address. And so that is the reality of the compensated absences contingency fund. It is not the payment of the legal requirement of paying for compensated absences. It is a contingency fund in case we underestimate the department's budget, to be clear.

Commissioner Ellis mentioned that we in talking about the pension, that these are decisions that got made many, many years ago and that this county continues to that we have long term consequences from our decisions and we pay for the decisions we make. So I would just ask, what is the cost to human life in the jail that we are paying year over year over year for not resolving those issues? And financially, what is the cost that we have paid for additional legal fees for lawsuits around the jail? What is the additional amount of money that we have paid in settlements? Thank you.

The jail is understaffed and in the condition that it is in. How much money are we paying for The consent decree monitor and the technical assistance staff, how much time and hours are being put which cost money into resolving a problem or trying at least to resolve a problem, these are the long term consequences of decisions that are made here. So until we face that and actually start addressing and quantifying what those things are, how can we truly understand the budget and how we should spend money going forward? This is why I am continually harping on some of the things that are in non agency. Some of the things I'm fine with being there.

It's not like I think the whole thing is bad. But if we can't say by looking at our budget this is in its entirety what we spent on justice because we've tucked 60,000,000 away for the consent decree under non agency and you know, we can't say what we spend on real estate and asset management because we've tucked money away in non agency. And we can't say what we are spending overall on health because it's in all these different pockets. That's why I continue to harp on that. But to say that there is no financial consequence for the underfunding of justice and the underfunding of jail and the underfunding of staffing at the jail through all these years is just disingenuous.

So that is if we're gonna look at long term consequences of the decisions this board made ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, we're looking at it with that jail.

Commissioner Thorne.

Have we not allocated money this year for the jail staffing? Does can anyone tell me how much we've put in additional funds for jail staffing? Do you I don't know if you know that figure off hand, madam CFO.

Are you referring to resources that would be made available to comply with the consent order? Correct.

The

plan that was reviewed I believe required $22,900,000 which potentially would be covered by the resources that have been set aside for the consent decree in non agency out of that 50 plus million dollars.

So we've provided money for staffing and you're saying that the fire was caused because lack of staffing But we are providing money for the sheriff to staff. But he's still understaffed at this point. Correct? I would think.

I would defer to the sheriff to really answer that Yes, question

it would I great

would say he has my understanding is he has a significant number of vacancies.

There is a significant number of vacancies. It's because of not properly staffing. We as commissioners, he is a constitutional officer. We cannot tell him how to run the jail. Staffing is his responsibility.

It is a management issue. It is not a financial issue. Since I came here in 2023, four months into my term, we were presented the shocking photos of the death of LaShawn Thompson. He was covered in bed bag bed bugs. But my understanding is we were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on pest management in the jail.

It was ruled neglect. It wasn't because the conditions in the jail, it was neglect. That is a management issue. We do not manage the jail. Us commissioners, we do not manage the jail. When we found out by Lashawn Thompson, his death, we approved emergency spending because we're like, we'll do whatever we can to correct the situation. I was a new commissioner. We approved it in executive session so nobody was privy to what we were approving. That's reality. That was a lived reality.

I wanna make it clear, we are not responsible for staffing the jail. We are responsible for funding. And we are doing everything we can to get that jail properly funded. Prior to 2020, with the previous share, we were out of a consent decree. Operations were running fairly smoothly.

We did not have all these lawsuits. We did not have these stabbings in our jail. Yes, I agree. We need more staffing, but that's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is strictly to fund, and I just wanna clear up that fallacy that has been told that staffing is our responsibility.

We are working as fast as we can to correct the situation with doing a mental health facility that's gonna have beds and is gonna have direct supervision. And we're gonna take the current jail and put it back from double occupancy to single occupancy so that it can be better staffed and better managed. That's what we passed. That's what we're all in agreement. That's what we're working toward.

But we also have to do it financially responsible and take some cuts now to fund things later because we can't instantly have the taxpayers fund everything all at once. We need to take that burden off whether it's commercial properties or single family home properties. And renters, you're in it too because if our millage rate goes up, your rent goes up because the cost is gonna be offset to you. So I just wanted to clear up a little bit of reality. The report from the Department of Justice report that when we entered the consent decree, it's about a 100 pages.

I encourage everybody to read that report. It is available online. And just look how much of that report was caused by the actual jail conditions and how much was by actual management of that jail. Thank you.

Okay. Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry. I would love to have just let that whole conversation go, but I cannot. To say that we are not responsible for staffing in the jail is sort of confusing to me, perplexing because there's a there's a couple of things that you need in order to staff a jail.

First of all, we are responsible constitutionally to give the sheriff a reasonable budget. And there's lots of people on this body who think we've already done that but the reality is you cannot staff, you cannot fill positions on a staff if you do not have adequate funding to do that. Not only do the positions have to exist but the pay has to be high enough that people want to take the job and then the working conditions have to be good enough that they want to stay in the job. So to say we have no part in the staffing equation is just not true. We do.

The facility is a place nobody wants to work at. The understaffing leads to more understaffing because it's more dangerous, the less people are there, and the positions don't pay enough for people to want to take on that kind of burden and that kind of danger to stay in the positions. So to say that this is a completely separate walled off thing from the commissioners is just not true. We do have a part to play. We have been told over and over and over again by the monitor, by the courts, by the state to work together with the sheriff and we are still not doing it.

And one of the things we do yes. Yes. Commissioner Thorne, we do have money in this year's budget for staffing. But we didn't have enough last year and we didn't have enough year the year before or the year before or the year before. And to bring it back to Commissioner Ellis's point, we are paying for those consequences right now.

Commissioner Ivory.

Oh dear God, to the mothers whose children are dying in the jail, whose kids are stabbed in the jail, and staffing is his problem. See, the reason that we're in this problem is because we don't work together in the very first place. Because saying it's his fault, no it's our fault, that's such a position of party for you to say. The real truth is we just should care about what's happening in the jail and figure out how to fix it, which this commission has failed to do for decades. So let me ask a question, county manager.

Did we ever meet the staffing recommendations from the monitor from the Department of Justice in the first consent decree that this county got for the jail in 2006?

No ma'am.

Thank you. Did everybody hear that? Can you just repeat that one more time? Yeah, no. I said, did we meet the staffing recommendations in the report from the monitor in the first consent decree in 2006.

Point of order, mister chair. A minute. Point of order.

Just a minute. What's your point of order, commissioner?

The county manager wasn't here then. He didn't get here until twenty fifteen. Thank you. And and this is a budget discussion. This is not

point of order is well taken.

That's why I'm You know what? I I think that's a point of order that's well taken as well. But the county manager has a a record of what has happened in the county question to which he said no. And so my point is not about berating the county manager at all. That's not my point.

This is a point of facts. And the fact is that this county in the very first consent decree we had, Commissioner Thorne, didn't adequately staff the jail back then. So now we're in our second consent decree and we're talking about the money that we need to staff the jail adequately now. Let's hope that this majority does give that money so we don't end up in a third consent decree in ten years from now. Absolutely it is our responsibility to adequately staff that jail and provide those funds which is why in my budget proposal, I put the dollar amount up to the known cost that we've already received in executive session session for how much that would be because that's not what's currently in the budget.

And I know later on we'll get the bills and then mid year we'll go, oh the bills went up but we already know they're going to. So we should adequately fund right now so that the sheriff can then adequately have the funds he needs in order to adequately staff the jail which right now is some 700 positions that need to be funded. So let's just please stop pointing fingers and doing this jail hasn't been taken care of for decades even before Commissioner Aronson. The current sheriff was the sheriff. There was a consent decree commissioner Thorne before he was the sheriff.

So we're not talking about this sheriff or that sheriff, we're talking about an overall problem of this commission not properly funding the jail so that we can have adequate staffing. So yes, people don't die because they were neglected. That's what we're really that's the reality.

Commissioner Thorne, you wanna be heard?

Yeah. Just quickly to rebut some of the fiction. Everyone on this board has it is unanimous among all of us. We want the jail adequately staffed. We are funding to adequately staff. In 2000, you came in 2015 or '17? Yes, now 2015. 2015, were we under a consent decree? Yes. And then when did we get out of that consent decree?

I believe 2016 or '17.

One of those is the

2016.

2016. So for seven years we were operating okay?

The previous consent order had a requirement that we fund a certain number of positions. Those positions were funded. Whether they were filled or not is another issue but the Board of Commissioners funded the requisite number of positions and once we left the consent order and were relieved of the consent order, the board continued to fund those number of positions.

Okay. Because we're in the consent decree together with the sheriff. It is a partnership. That is why we're keeping it in some of the money to pay the consent decree in our budget. I see here a line item, the sheriff asked for 82,000,000.

He needs 82,000,000 to properly run the jail. It appears that some would like to do fully fund the sheriff. We were given a book, a printed book that would stack this high with all his funding requests. I and I know my fellow colleagues up here, we want the jail. We do not want people dying in jail.

So the insinuation that we're not doing our part and that that only certain commissioners care about the people in jail. All of us were heartbroken when anybody dies in our jail, when anybody's hurt in our jail. And I feel awful for the parents whose kids, children, or fathers, or husbands, or mothers, anybody that has to be in our jail system. We are all working towards an efficient jail. Throwing money at a problem is not necessarily fixing a problem.

I could go into detail how systems are done on paper. Like, big systems are processed on paper. When there's technology available that does better, is more efficient, lowers our cost, lowers staffing, and prevents errors. We're implementing those systems. We're making sure they're implemented.

The monitor is helping us with that. We are doing everything we can because we are with the sheriff. We are under this consent decree with the sheriff. And everybody up here, I assure you, is working towards making our jail better. We are not intentionally withholding money.

We are trying to use your money smartly and wisely and things that are going to have an effect. We're not simply throwing money in a budget, random money. It is directed, it is targeted, it is going to make a difference. And that's what our responsibility, that's what physically being physically conservative with your tax dollars, that is what I'm about, making sure every dollar you give us is well spent and not just throwing it in somewhere for someone to come up with an idea on how to spend it. I'm sure if we have shortages in the consent decree that we will find a way to fix those.

Maybe those things will have to be funded by pulling out from somewhere else, from a non agency fund or something, but that's the reason we have to have some flexibility in our budget. We can't have every single dollar dedicated towards a particular item in the non agency. Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Ellis.

Do we know how many funded vacancies there are in the sheriff's department going into this year? So roughly about 100 or is it more than that?

At the December, the report shows it was 151. I'm not sure if they've reduced their salary budget for reduction but according to the record that the of December

it's 100 and number, right, that's in there. I think using this as a forum to kind of try to debate about how we got there and all that sort of stuff is probably not the most productive use of time. But there are a significant amount of vacancies that are there that are funded, right? We know staffing is an issue. We've known it's an issue. We sought to make it a priority. We've made funds available. We've given raises, etcetera. So we have a persistent problem. We can all debate some of the why of that.

But there are we have made funding available and there are funded vacancies that sit there. We also do not make the hiring decisions at within the Sheriff's Department, correct? Those are made by him as a constitutional officer as That's well as correct. Right, as well as choosing how he allocates that staff, correct?

I'm no sir.

Right, so you know, look, we're all seeking to work together on this. I know, you know, kind of when you're working through things that the government typically, particularly as sort of a group of seven versus we've our management team and they've been in close collaboration throughout the course of this year and in prior years with the Sheriff's Department and bringing things back to us and seeking to put, make sound funding recommendations around stuff but also build sound accountability mechanisms in place to make sure that the funds are getting expended appropriately and go into their intended effect. So I think those in place. The way we've got things built, those will continue to be in place. But the reality of it is that there are it's a two Way Street and there is accountability that's required and actions that are required to the entities that you fund.

Commissioner Ivory. Alright. Anything else? Anything else? Okay.

I have sat quietly for probably several months and listened to probably too much, but I have. And what I've heard today is that the requests that have been made by some commissioners is not included in the recommended budget by the management and his team. So what I'd like to do to try to move us along, in one case, that would mean an additional 28,000,000 to the 1,000,000,000 that the manager and his team are recommending. In another case, it would mean an addition of 59,000,000 to the 1,000,000,000 plus that the managers recommended. Now either one of those two would include all of the things that we say we want in the managers budget.

So I'll entertain a motion to do that. Any additions? So we'll take which one first? You want to take yours, Mr. Barrett? Yours is $28,318,816 add that to the budget that the manager is proposing. Would you like to make a motion? That would include the things that you have requested.

Well, if we're gonna do that, I would add the summer youth program to it as well.

I'm gonna deal with that. We can, Commissioner Erington, we can handle that. I know how to get that 500 and I support that for that 500,000. We can do that.

Could could I understand that better because I'd like to have a budget that includes it. So if there's another way to get it, I'd like to understand it.

I'll make a motion.

So fine. I will make a motion to approve the budget with my request included and Commissioner Arrington's additional funding for the 500,000 for the summer youth program I believe was the number.

That would be 28,318,816 plus 500.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. By my math, that would bring the total to 1,102,568,262.

Alright. Commissioner Ivory? Commissioner Ivory's request would add $59,393,132 to the budget that is approved as recommended by the manager. You want to add anything else to it? Okay. You want to take yours? Which one do want to go first?

Mom. I made a motion.

Alright. So is there there's a motion by commissioner Barrett to add the $500,000 to her request of $59,393,132 plus the 500,000 to the manager's recommended budget. That is a motion to approve by commissioner Barrett. It is seconded by commissioner Arrington. Everybody clear on what that does? Alright. Let's vote.

I'm clear that is no millage rate increase to it. It's just a straight budget vote.

No, this is on the budget, not the millage rate.

Right. Just the budget. Okay.

And the vote is open. And the motion fails, three ayes, three nays.

Alright. Commissioner Ivory, in your case, it is an addition of $59,393,132 to the manager's recommended budget. Alright, motion to approve that by Commissioner Ivory. Is there a second? Is there a second? One more time, is there a second? Seconded by

I'll second it for purposes of discussion.

Seconded by Commissioner Arrington. Let's vote please, let's vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion fails, two yeas, four nays.

Okay. Now that takes us to the recommended budget by the manager which is has a Point of order, mister chair.

It actually takes us to my

I'm sorry. Takes us to mister commissioner Arrington's which would add 500,000 for the youth program plus the 250 for the

For the homeless count at the hotels.

For the homeless count. With the hotels. Adding that to the manager's proposed budget that's before us.

Total of $750,000.

An additional 750,000 to the manager's recommended budget to us. Alright, is there a motion? Motion to do so by Commissioner Arrington, seconded by Commissioner Ivory. Let's vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion fails, three ayes, three nays. Okay.

Now I'm gonna make an assumption that there's no appetite to approve everything that was requested by the department, which would have been, where is that, $1,000,225,624, is that right? Yeah, $11,200,000,000.0. Okay. Alright. If y'all would give me five minutes.

I haven't said anything since, what, two or three months on this. I've listened to what everybody's had to say. And this is this is the time when we really and I appreciate all the discussion that I've heard today, I appreciate the discussion that I've heard from from the manager and his team in getting here. But I've listened patiently to this. And I want to start with that we are, at Fulton County, we're a large county with a lot of complex issues.

And one thing I know for sure is that a responsible government comes from listening to our citizens, establishing programs that make a difference, and are fiscally responsible and sound, and do not, do not overburden our citizens with tax increases. You've heard me say this many times, we're the largest county in the state of Georgia, we're a leader in this state and in this country. We're one of the more progressive counties, not the largest, not the most populous, but in The United States Of America. There's some 3,000 plus counties. Some have us ranked as number four out of all of those.

So I'm hoping that we can adopt the budget today that recognizes the two principles that I just spoke about. And Mr. Manager, I think that you and the CFO, you all have done great work for us and I appreciate that. But what you have before us at 9.26 is just a recommendation to this body. We are the policymakers, and we make the final decision.

So given that, I have a few changes that I'd like to suggest. And my changes will result in a budget that will be flat, and we will approve the mill a millage rate at some point later on this year. But mine will be balanced. What I recommend to you is 8.87 mills, and I'll tell you how I think that can happen. And our budget has been at 8.87 for the last six five or six years, and going back probably some ten or twelve years, we have reduced our millage rate each year to the benefit of the citizens of Fulton County.

Now this budget is over a billion dollars, just a general fund budget. We haven't gotten to the other funds yet, but just this budget. And I think that we've done a good job in providing services, the mandated services in particular, to our citizens without a millage rate increase. And we'll just highlight two or three areas. Public safety and justice.

Over 234,000,000 of general fund money will be committed to public safety and justice in this budget. And that represents a 90% increase since 2021. A 90% increase since 2021. There's another 5,000,000 that will be going to our state court to improve their operations based upon they'd asked for. We can expect 20% improvements.

Health and human services, probably over 68,000,000 health and human services, which includes the opening of 4700 North Point Parkway and a comparable facility in South Fulton County. And we are a leader when it comes to health and human service. And behavioral health, about $20,000,000.25000000 really from our general fund to support behavioral health. And that included that 4.8 for the group that came today about the supportive housing. And to put this in perspective, I don't think we're aware of this, or maybe not give ourselves the credit for it, the pat on the back that we deserve.

But our Fulton County's direct funding for behavioral health is more than six times not one time, not two times, not three times, not four times, not five times, but six times that of DeKalb County, Cobb County, and Gwinnett County combined. So we don't have to take a back seat to anybody on what we're doing in health, physical health and behavioral health. Senior services, our senior services programs are second to none. We're the envy of the country. Our community services programs that we fund nonprofits that help us deliver to our citizens, seniors in particular, again, the envy of the country.

The arts, we remain the largest public funder of the arts in the state and our employees. And everything that we do is based upon our employees and the great work that they do. And that will include in this budget a $12,500,000 COLA for our employees, and we've heard requests from our Board of Equalization people. There's even an increase in there for them as well. And one of the new ones in here in addition to what Commissioner Arrington is talking about, We voted unanimously to fund a trial pilot day care program for our employees.

That's 500,000 that we can fund. That was a unanimous vote up here, and we can fund that in this budget as well. So I think that we don't, I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of. I think that we've done a good job. And Mr. Manager, I think you've done a good job. So now the question is, how do we do all of what I'm talking about and maintain a millage rate at 8.87 mills on down the road, a balanced budget. Well, if you look at this is pretty straightforward. If the 9.26, is that the number? 9.26 that is being recommended by the manager and the CFO.

And the 8.87, which I'm recommending, the difference in revenue, the difference there is $32,000,000. And that's not very much in a billion dollar budget. And I think we can find that and still keep this millage rate down the road at 8.87. How do we do it? Very simple and it's not complicated.

In order to solve the problem for the 32,000,000, number one, you can increase revenue number two, you can decrease spending and number three, or a combination of those two. And what I'm proposing to you today is a combination of those three. Let's start with the revenue changes. I'm recommending, in broad terms here, that we increase the assumed growth in the tax digest by 1.14%. That means going from 3.11 to 4.25.

That would generate $8,800,000. And we're trying to solve for 32,000,000. Keep that number in mind. Second change I'm recommending would be to increase the sales tax growth from 3.3 to 4.4%, and this would generate another million. And thirdly, we always forget about this.

I want to recommend that we increase the collection rate from 95.3 to 96, and that would generate another 5,600,000. Those three combined, they're simple, would generate an additional 15 and a half million dollars. And we're still short from the $32,000,000 that we're trying to solve for. Let's talk about expenses. Where can we reduce expenses?

Well, sort in descending order. Several of you have mentioned a reduction in the debt service, and I agree with that. If we reduce the debt service from 10,000,000 to 4 and a half million in that range, that's a 5 and a half million dollar reduction. Risk funds. Several of you have talked about the risk fund, which I agree with.

We can reduce that. That'll generate another 4,700,000.0. Then on the consent decree items, which all won't be necessary, we can decrease that by 3,000,000. And the other big one, the elections budget by 1,000,000, that won't hurt us based upon what's happened in the past. A couple of smaller ones shifting at a cultural center down south from the general fund to the FID fund.

And there are some minor ones here, but those are the main ones. And if we do those would total some 16,648,000. You add the cuts of 16,000,000 to the additional revenue of 15,000,000 and voila, we've solved for that 32,000,000 and we can have a budget that remains flat for the tax paying citizens. And I think this is really important because the economists in Georgia have talked about a downturn in the economy. And a millage rate increase down the road I think would be devastating to not only our seniors, but to young people who are trying to raise homes, build families, build buy homes rather.

That would be could be a problem for us. So now I spent the weekend here on Saturday. I was here on Sunday after church. And even on Monday I attended the Martin Luther King service. I came here, went to my office. It was quiet and went through this as I do to understand the budget. And when I was here, I happened to run into Ellis who was in his office working and I ran this by him. So and I hope that I convinced him that we could do this today. I wasn't convinced at first, but I hope that am I leaving out anything, Ellis?

I think, Mr. Chairman, I think you had also spoke about adding some, like this half, for the childcare program. Yeah.

That's 500,000 for annualized.

So the expenses you notated along with the revenue cuts exceed 32,000,000 and then there's some offset that would be applied to fund that portion.

Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And then I forgot the probate judge, she mentioned that and I really support what she's saying. But I think there's a way to do that either here. She can't do it legally. Can't do it across the street. We're looking for a space in here for her to do it or in close proximity. I've even talked to some property owners here who have property in close proximity who may consider allowing her to use that space because that can be a revenue generator for us and a tourist attraction. Coming to Fulton County,

like a

lot of folks go to Las Vegas and get married, they can come here and get married because we do a beautiful job, she does a beautiful job, and people look forward to it, and it would be a revenue generator for us. So that's what I'd like to, what I'd not like to recommend. I wanna move approval on us maintaining, proving a budget that would have an assumed interest rate down the road of 8.87.

You're making that motion? That's my motion.

Second. Commissioner Aaron

Can note that and can that be noted on the screen? What? Can the folks motions be noted on the screen?