Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

When I think about what has the power to change the world, it could all be said with just one word,

Testing. Testing. Testing. One, two. Good morning. One, two, 3, four, 5. Alright. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the second regular meeting of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. Today is February 18. It is 10:00AM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

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

Present.

Commissioner Dana Barrett? Present. Commissioner Mo Ivory? Present. Commissioner Marvin Arrington Junior? Vice Chair Khadija Abdul Rahman? Present. Mister Chairman, you have a quorum.

Thank you very please rise for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let us pray. Eternal god our father, we come this morning just to say thank you. We thank you, lord, for all who have gathered. We pray your peace will rest, root, and abide in this place. Continue to bless our board of commissioners. Keep them safe as only you can. It's in your name we humbly pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America,

one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice.

Alright. Continue madam clerk.

On page two, consent agenda. Twenty six zero zero seven zero, 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.

Mr. Chairman, amendments of the board on page three, Vice Chair Abdulrahman has requested to remove item twenty six zero zero seven three, Fulton County Reparations Task Force, the nomination of Michael Simagna for district reappointment.

Alright, Vice Chair. Yes, Chairman and my colleagues, I'm asking that the reappointments for the District 4, District 4 representation be moved away from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and my reason why is because just like I brought it before when Commissioner Hall was getting ready to leave, that should be left up to the incoming commissioner out of fairness and so I'm asking for it to be separated for separate discussion is if we're going to leave it open for Now, to my understanding, Chairman, I don't see our county attorney but those individuals will sit and serve until a new person will be named but I think we do a disservice to the incoming commissioner of District 4 if we allow the outgoing to name someone in. So I would like to for those to be all be removed for separate discussion.

Okay, there's Okay, okay. How many reappointments are there Madam Clerk?

Two, one on the bottom of page three and top of page four.

So zero 073, that is by did I mark that in the that's by vice chair Abdu Rahman.

I'm sorry chairman, what did you say? Zero zero seven three, I removed that. That was my nomination. That was removed as well. That was totally removed. I'm not totally removing Commissioner Ivory's from discussion. I'm removing I'm asking that it be removed from the consent agenda for separate discussion by the Alright.

What about 007373,

I'm completely removing. I requested for it to be completely removed.

Alright, and then 74 for separate discussion, correct?

Yes.

Alright, what about 75, it's the same thing?

Yes. And then there's one more on page six.

Yes, zero zero seven nine. I apologize, I missed that one. Thank you, clerk.

Alright, separate discussion. Okay. What? Alright. Commissioner Ivory, this is a Go ahead, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chairman. As we all know, when somebody is appointed to a board by a commissioner, when a new commissioner comes in, they continue to allow those to serve on their board at their discretion. And if it comes up, they will discuss with that person if they want to remain on the board. It's what happened when I first got here. There were many people that were on boards for District 4 that my former colleague, Commissioner Natalie Hall, had appointed and I spoke with them and there was no issue.

This is politics at its best. This is just another attempt by Commissioner Abdul Rahman to raise an issue that is not an issue at all. The work that this person it's almost insulting for her to talk about the work that Doctor. Kashyyk Sims Alvarado has done and tie it to hold on And tie because you always let her talk. So let me finish. And tie it to something that she's not doing. I do not want this moved to discussion because there is nothing to discuss. Please don't allow this ridiculous politics to continue, mister chairman. It's a waste of the taxpayers dollars. Find something else to talk about commissioner Abdul Rahman. Commissioner Ivory, please.

Thank you.

Alright. Typically, when when typically, when an item is asked to be removed through the regular agenda for for separate discussion, there is no debate about it. In this case, apparently there's some disagreements, so we'll take a vote. You want to make a vote? Entertain a motion to take these three, four items, three items.

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

Yes, sir. Commissioner.

When an item is on the consent agenda and it is asked to be removed, it is removed to the other agenda for discussion. It is not for discussion at this time. It is moved the clerk announces that. She just she announces that before every meeting. If an item isn't removed, there there's no vote at this time. Anytime an item is asked to be removed from the consent agenda, it is automatically placed on the regular meeting agenda.

I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that. Let's continue. Anything else, commissioners? Alright. We entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended. Motion to do so by commissioner Thorne, seconded by commissioner Barrett. Let's vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes six yeas one nay.

Continue.

On page eight, second regular meeting agenda twenty six zero zero nine one adoption of the second regular meeting agenda. Mister chairman and members of the board, we have amendments to today's agenda. Items to be revised starting on page ten, twenty six-ninety nine. We're adding item revised to include Commissioner Barrett as a co sponsor on Commissioner Ivory's item request approval resolution to reallocate at least 2% of fiscal year twenty twenty six budget towards affordable housing, homelessness, prevention programs and wraparound services. On page eleven, twenty six-one-zero-one item revised to include Commissioner Ivory as a cosponsor to Commissioner Barrett's item, to request approval resolution to support affordable housing in partnership with Cosmopolitan AME Church, Good Place, and Collaborative Housing Solutions.

Also, back on page 10, bottom of page 10, we're adding Vice Chair Abdul Rahman as a co sponsor to the Chairman's item 20 six-zero-one-zero-zero, request approval resolution increasing the amount of the stipend paid to each member of the Fulton County Board of Equalization from $100 per day to $1.50.

Alright. Any other items? I would entertain a motion to approve as amended to do so by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Thorne. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes unanimously.

Next item.

Twenty six zero zero nine two ratification of minutes. Second regular meeting minutes January 21. First regular meeting post agenda minutes 02/04/2026.

Alright. Motion to approve by commissioner Thorne, second ed by vice chair of Durock Vaughn. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes unanimously. On page nine, twenty six-ninety three, presentation of proclamations and certificates. First proclamation is recognizing Government Communicators Appreciation Day sponsored by Chairman Pitts with full board

Jessica, can all of your department and those supporters of your department please come forward. You all, y'all move on this side. Jessica, Jessica ain't gonna be mad with y'all if y'all move on the other side. Some of y'all, not everybody, not everybody, not everybody. Let's move tight like we love each other.

Jessica, you come stand next to me. I am just really, really honored with my colleagues to offer up this proclamation. Whereas government communications plays a critical role in empowering residents to access services and exercise their rights, and whereas clear and accessible information is critical to a free and fair democracy, ensuring an open and accessible government and whereas government communicators leverage words, images, design and technology to build connections that create and maintain trust in public institutions, and whereas Fulton County government's communications professionals work tirelessly to inform and engage elected officials, journalists, employees and more than 1,200,000 residents, and whereas Fulton County recognizes the important work of government communicators and expresses appreciation for their professionalism and their dedication to the people of Fulton County, and on a personal note, they do not report fake news. Very impartial. That's me, that's not the chairman and my colleagues saying that, that's me.

It is with immense pride that I now, therefore, therefore, we as a body, be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners expresses appreciation for the professional communicators across Fulton County government who have dedicated their careers to ensure the residents are empowered with clear and accessible information and real news and does hereby proclaim Friday, 02/20/2026 as Government Communicators Appreciation Day in Fulton County, Georgia. Would you please put your hands together for this wonderful group that works so tirelessly behind the scenes?

Thank

you so you so much, madam vice chair. Thank you commissioners. Most of the men and women who you see here are much more comfortable behind the scenes. This includes the external affairs staff, the sheriff's office, the library, Select Fulton, our colleagues at FGTV. I'm sure I'm leaving out someone, but across Fulton County government, these professionals really try to serve as a bridge every between government and the community, trying to support transparency, increasing access to services, and really empowering Fulton County residents to exercise their rights.

That is our core mission. We have worked with journalists from around the world, thousands of Fulton County employees, and millions of people who access our website, our social media images. So I just want

to say thank you to

the Board of Commissioners for always supporting our work. Thank you for recognizing the importance of our work in this era of AI and changing landscape in the media, we think this work matters more than ever and we just want to say thank you to you for all you do for us and thanks to our intern who's taking our photo today, the next generation of government communicators. Thank you so much.

Ladisa, is Ladisa here? Can Ladisa and her staff please come down? Ladisa, please come down and all your staff and your supporters.

Okay.

Alright, Ladisa. I know, I know you were shocked. We kept this as a secret. We're good at keeping secrets around here. Come on, come on, come on.

Y'all come on in, come on in. Like they said, come on in the room. Come on, come on. Now, Ladisa, charge it to my head and not my heart. Ladisa Onilagui has served as Fulton County's director of senior services.

Yes, she has. Since 2018, leading an extensive portfolio of services for thousands of older adults including senior centers, home delivered meals, case management and more. And whereas throughout her tenure as a Fulton County leader, Ladisa has set a strong strategic vision, created innovative programming and worked to improve outcomes for citizens, and whereas Ladisa has served the citizens of Fulton County since 2001, she started when she was 15 years old, you all. Starting in her career in the Clerk of Superior Court office, where she launched the first Clerk of Superior Court Training Division, followed by her transition to the Facilities and Transportation Division where she created the Professional Development and Training Unit and eventually joining the department of senior services. And whereas, Ladisa is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry and she completed the certified public managers program through the Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia and whereas Ladisa's proudest achievement in her role of wife and mother and to her beloved community and family is honored.

I want to say on behalf of everyone, but on a personal note, Ladisa, I will miss you. Your fingerprint is through the entire Fulton County system. Ladisa is one of the people that she may not say anything, but she helps behind the scenes to get things done, and a lot of things that get done don't necessarily have signature on it, but she does a great job to make sure it gets done. And personally, I am saddened to see you go, but I would tell you what my late mother once tell me, you're a butterfly baby, go and spread your wings. It is with great and immense pride.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners and all associated with senior services thank Ladisa for her many tireless, tireless years of dedicated service to the citizens of Fulton County and does hereby proclaim Wednesday, 02/18/2026 as Ladisa Onilago appreciation day in Fulton County. Can you please put your hands together for this gem of a person? She's trying to figure out how we did this without her knowing. So if any of my colleagues manager would like to come up and say anything, I'll yield the floor to you at this time.

Well,

a lot has been said by the commissioner and then in this proclamation of Ladisa, but I just wanna say that I knew you not twenty nine years ago, but ten years or so ago, and I've just seen you grow tremendously as a leader, how you present to the board of commissioners in term very difficult issues at times. Most importantly, how you lead an organization that serves seniors, which is not an easy task and one that, doesn't go unnoticed as it's done so well, has been so well done by you. I'm proud to see your team here because we'll still be looking to them to carry on your legacy. And again, I don't want to say as well just a heartfelt, thank you. Good luck.

Already tried my sales approach to keep you here. That didn't work. So I won't try that again, but I want you to know how much I've appreciated you over this period of time and what a a contributor and a leader you have been. So again, thank you and best of luck.

Alright. The chairman, do I have three minutes? Okay, great. Not a tight two. Thank you all so much. I am totally shocked and surprised, I didn't know. All glory goes to the Lord. It is only because of him that I had an opportunity to work, live, raise a family, learn, grow, go through some very difficult challenges and great triumphs in Fulton County, so it's because of him. I'm employed in his service, but Fulton County is my ministry, so I look forward to the next step. To the order of things, the Board of Commissioners, thank you so much.

All of you all, I've had a privilege and an honor to work with each of you and your questions helped me and they've made me a better communicator, a better researcher, and prepared. To the county manager, Dick Anderson, I can't thank you enough for everything that you've done for me in showing an example of a leader and tips and tricks on recalling information. To Doctor. Rochelle, thank you so much for your leadership, your guidance, just the way that you present yourself and how you approach situations, I carry that with me. To the Department of Senior Services team, I cannot believe you all kept a secret.

I knew something was up when I saw Erica Flack walk in, I'm thinking something's not right. But I'm gonna call each of the E Team members out by name because without them our department can't run. Quaylee, Rashid, Henry, Andre Gregory, Erica Flack, Rafael Patterson, Monique Chad Van, Dwayne Toalson. And then to the entire department, Sheila Ussery is here and I know our other team members are working. Is there anyone else up here that I missed?

Okay. The Department of Senior Services loves older adults in Fulton County. I'm almost finished They do love older adults and they serve with their heart every day and they do an excellent job and we love the work that we do improving the lives of seniors. And so without the board's allocation of funding every year, without the leadership of this county and then our great staff, we wouldn't be successful. To my husband, Ike Onilagu, my husband. I wanna thank him for everything and our children. So thank you so much.

Alright. Continue madam clerk.

Continue on page nine. Public hearings. Twenty six zero zero nine four 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 be 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 comment being completed, public comment will be suspended and the business portion of the VLC 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 13 speaker cards. Will the first six speakers please come forward? Reverend Cynthia Parnell McDonnell, Sherry Ong, Charnette Trimble, Janice Hagood, William Johnson, and LA Pink.

Alright, just as a reminder, when you have fifteen seconds remaining of the two minutes, I'll say fifteen seconds and that will be your clue to begin to terminate your conclude rather, your remarks. Thank you. First speaker.

Good morning, chairman and commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am the reverend doctor Cynthia Parnell McDonald, and I am pastor of Cosmopolitan AME Church in the Vine City, which is a historic community that has carried both the promise and the pressure of Fulton County's growth. I stand before you today asking for the release of funds already designated for our development project, affordable housing development project, so that we can move forward with work that directly supports the county's priorities, community stability, public safety, economic opportunity, youth development, and long term resilience. Faith institutions like ours have always operated where policy meets people, where families are trying to stay afloat, where young people need opportunity, and where communities are working to move from striving to thriving.

And so, project is ready, the planning is done, partnerships have been established, the community is engaged and supportive, and what remains is the timely release of the TAD funding resources already committed to the implementation of our project, keeping in mind that this is an opportunity to demonstrate that strong collaboration between Fulton County and trusted community anchors anchors looks like this. It is not symbolic partnership, but measurable impact that strengthens families, neighbors, neighborhoods, and broader community. And so we are prepared to be accountable, we are prepared to deliver results, and we are committed to the flourishing of the community that we serve, and I respectfully urge you to release these funds so that together we can move from promise to progress, and from planning to visible transformation. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for your consideration.

Thank you so

much for your time. Our company, Good Places, is working in partnership with the Cosmopolitan AME and we've been doing that for the last two years. This housing project is super important to the neighborhood. We have 70 units of affordable housing that have been approved by the Department of Community Affairs. We competed for 9% tax credits last year and were one out of two projects that were approved competitively last year.

We have to close on this project funding this year and so we are asking for your urgent support for the resolution that's been introduced by commissioner Dana Barrett today. This project is part of the city of Atlanta's faith based development program and it is one of the first programs that is act first projects that is actually finished from that program. It is also supported by enterprise community partners and their faith based development program. It's a $23,000,000 project that is dependent today on your final release of this funding. So I'm respectfully asking for your support and to ensure that this partnership between the county, the city, and the faith community results in actual housing for low income families throughout Vine City today.

Most importantly, we are hoping that that today you will be able to understand the constituents which you'll see today behind us fifteen seconds. In support of this project. Thank you so much.

Good morning. My name is Charnette Trimble. I'm founder and CEO of GMH Ministries Incorporated which stands for Grandmama's House. What I do is I teach seniors how to age in place with dignity and pass on generational wealth. I teach workshops on heirs property prevention.

Prevention. Now, according to page two, section line 22 clearly states, whereas the $625,000 portion of the West Side TAG grant that would come from Fulton County's tax increment is already being held by Invest Atlanta does not impact Fulton County 2026 budget and cannot be repurposed for Fulton County for any purpose through 2038. Now, we already know what we hear about. You're taking money from senior citizens. In Matthew 2five 40, Jesus states, Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me.

I believe 60% AMI definitely qualifies for that. Consequences are results of your actions. Outcomes follow choices, regardless of your intent. So, my advice to you all today is be careful of how you vote because I know a God who sits high and looks low. You may think that you're going to get away and all your backroom dealing, glad handling, I wash your back, you wash mine. That will be dealt with. And the way the world works now, it speeds up very fast. You will get your comeuppance, and it won't be on your death there. Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. I'm from Carlton apartment AMM Church in the heart of Vine City. And we often have meetings of community there. And one of the main things that we hear is that they need affordable homes there. And this project is very much needed in this community. Hopefully, we can get that done. We look for your help. We thank you so much for your help, Mr. Pitts. Good

morning. My name is Janice Haygood. I'm here as a member of Cosmopolitan AME Church. I've been a member of that church for the last thirty seven years. As I ride through Bond City and see what needs to be done, the housing over there is messed up, The schools, we need that funding to help the people that's in that community that's still there. We got a lot of elderly people that's over there. We that funding to help them move forward. That's all I had to say. Thank you.

Good morning. I'll say this. I was brought up. If you gave a person your word, you're supposed to keep it unless something happened beyond your control. So since we was promised this, I don't know what happened. But will will y'all please keep the word and give it to us? We we will appreciate it.

I've been in Atlanta in that area, all my life, and I see the need of the housing that is really, really in need. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.

She's a runner, she's a track star. However the case may be, you guys are all worried. The world is worried about the Epstein files and we need to be worried about the Fulton Steen files, okay? And so let's run a couple of things back, put those here. Mo Ivory, she left, but I got a couple of things for her because we were in her campaign and during the process of being inside her campaign, her name was not on the ballot in a couple of locations.

So while she's running all these news channels, I wonder if she's telling them this because that's voter fraud and a piece of voter suppression. In Ike Arrington, a couple of years ago when Robert was running against you, you also wasn't on the ballot and you went flippity boom. That's voter fraud. But Mo Ivory said leadership failure, failure leadership, and then you called them incompetent, ain't that what you called your colleagues? So y'all y'all killing me.

Dana, you told Jason and David that it was conspiracy theory that 70 people at the shelter, P Street And Pine closed for ten years, that's what is that? That's voter fraud ain't it? Oh, okay, I thought so. A thousand across the street at the church, two churches, one a 2,000, is that still conspiracy? Y'all need to get y'all self together because y'all running for these positions, but then y'all are sitting up here undermining the people that is helping you get in these positions.

You see what I'm saying? So you cannot say that one minute is not voter fraud and then the next minute is conspiracy theories or Ike, what would you call it? Fifteen seconds. Marvin Arrington, what would you call it? Because your name wasn't on the ballot. Wouldn't that be considered voter fraud that they had took you off? D. A. Willis as well. If you all Courtney Crane.

Last

speakers in Assembly Hall please come forward. Kimberly Brooks, Rochelle Patton, Wilma Watson, Anthony Hakid, Reed Stilson, John E. Lee, and Hope Mays.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. First of all, Commissioner Abdulah Abdulah, I just want

to

apologize for I think what I watched you endure as you've been attacked I think several times and the poise and lack of integrity of operations is just profound to me which is why I'm here today and I just listen to those seniors that come today and it is a shame that they have to beg for what is theirs, for what they own. Is there someone that could hand this to Commissioner Pitts because I came before you and I explained to you that I was wrongfully evicted, that I was enduring some issues with your court system and you ignored me. So I am a praying child of God and that woman that came here before she just kind of set the standard for me because how did it feel when the FBI came to your door and took your things? Because I said be not deceived God is not mocked where a sober man sowed that so shall he reap. So when this marshal came to my home she didn't, she had her authority, she had her badge but she didn't have a valid writ.

The constitutional rights of mine were violated. My due process rights were violated. The senior citizens here are begging for money that you're using and allowing property managers to buy public money at a lower rate. So this is a lawsuit of $1,286,000 that I'm submitting and this is me being generous. I submitted the exact same lawsuit to the city of Atlanta for them failing to act on code enforcement.

I don't want to give the federal government keys to your house. But if you take my senior citizens and you take the people outside and you continue to fail to serve them and while they're homeless sell their property at a lower rate, I don't have time for what the President is doing.

Fifteen seconds.

Fulton County is doing the exact same thing to its very own residents. So is anyone gonna hand this to him? I'm gonna serve it to the county right now. God bless you all.

Good morning. My name is Rochelle Patten. I'm the president of Collaborative Housing Solutions. We're an affordable and workforce housing mission based developer. I'm the co developer with Sherry Young and Good Places partnering with Cosmopolitan AME Church, and I'm here today to ask for your blessing and your agreement to release the 2 and a half million dollars of Westside TAD funds that have been committed to our project.

I appreciated your staff colleague earlier today saying that she felt like her service to this county was her ministry. I feel like what I do, which is providing affordable rental housing to low income folk, is my ministry and feel like we have been blessed over the past two years to work with the church, with the Vine City neighborhood, with the MPU, who have all been supportive of this project. We will provide 70 units of workforce housing of which 63 units will be reserved for households making 6050% of the AMI. Those are long term commitments that Sherry and I will be long term owners. We could not do this project but for those TAD funds.

If we do not receive those TAD funds, we're not able to get the other $21,000,000 worth of investors and lenders, both public and private dollars, in order to build this housing. So I just wanted to say again, thank you so much for your willingness originally to support a project like this. We'll be happy to meet with any of you individually to share the vision. Sherry and Pastor and I will be happy to come to your office, talk with any of your staff, and I just ask for your vote today of support for our project. Thank you.

Good morning, y'all. My name is Reed Stilson. I'm a Fulton County resident here, a renter. I live and work in the Buckhead area where I'm a leader of a local coffee shop community hub. Firstly, I just wanna thank the members of the board who have stood strong in defending the integrity and sanctity of our elections In light of the unlawful and egregious seizure of voting documents from our elections hub, having local leaders who are willing to stand their ground against the authoritarian overreach we're experiencing is invaluable.

So thank you. And I encourage you to please keep up the hard work in fighting against the federal government's attempts to further consolidate power. Now the main reason I'm here to speak with you today is in reference to a new legislation that was just recently introduced by Atlanta City Council member, Kelsey Bond. Their legislation acknowledges the human rights crisis still ongoing at our Fulton County Jail and urges APD to rapidly increase their use of the diversion center pad services and such for eligible cases. And I know this board has spoken many times on expressing their wish in increasing the use of the diversion center and their services, but the actions taken are woefully inadequate.

The jail has been the center of human rights violations as we know for years now, yet it remains overcrowded and horribly mismanaged. The diversion center can accept 40 people a day, yet this past year they served an average of only three people a day. The best day we saw was eight people in one day. Meanwhile, there are currently upwards of 60 people sleeping on the floor of our jail as of this day. We must do everything in our power to end this obscene criminalization of the most vulnerable people in our society.

It is not a crime to be poor, homeless, or lacking in mental health care. A colleague of mine works there and there's someone there for jaywalking right now, simply simply for crossing the street. It's obscene how we are spending so much of our time and effort to put So people in prison for please put the full weight and power of your position drastically into drastically reducing the as necessary overcrowding of our jail. Urge the sheriff's department and all local law enforcement departments to do this as well. If we do this together, I know we can build a fault that works for all.

Good morning. My name is Hope Mays and I live in North Fulton County and I have the agenda that has so much on it.

Can you please come closer to the mic?

Okay. I'm just wanting to say thank you to all of you because you work really hard. This is a difficult time we're going through. And I just wanted to thank mister Pipps. You've been quite vocal in trying to protect our board of elections and the hard work that they do.

I've been a voter most all of my life that I've been eligible and I have worked for the elections as a poll watcher, as a poll worker, and I'm very concerned about what's going on or what we don't know is going on and I wanna encourage you to continue to protect our vote, to do what you can, to make sure that Georgia doesn't have a further voter suppression which we've seen. You also have some outstanding work that you've done that I wanted to commend and that was for and to my commissioner mister Ellis and and all of you who are supporting the reparations task force. I think that that is a very noble and worthwhile project. The housing issues, those are close to home. Even in Mountain Park, we're considering how to make building more affordable, more accessible for people in the community, for workforce housing is what we want to call it.

Fifteen seconds.

Okay. Well, thank you, really, because you all do a lot of hard work and I appreciate it.

Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. I just wanted to start by saying thank you for the good work that you all do. My name is John Lee. I'm a resident of the City Of Atlanta and of Fulton County.

I'm here in full support of the resolution twenty six zero one zero one and the release of the approved funds to advance the 63 units of affordable housing in the Vine City neighborhood. This shovel ready, face based development is focused on creating stable homes for families while demonstrating successful community centered housing partnerships that are already in place and show what it could really look like here in Atlanta. Moving this resolution forward not only delivers the much needed affordability, but also reflects what I believe to be the county's as well as the city's priorities around meaningful housing outcomes and neighborhood revitalization. I believe that advancing this resolution will help ensure that committed public resources can translate into real homes and real opportunities for seniors and families in the neighborhood. I respectfully ask for your approval and the support of the affordable housing opportunities by approving to release these previously designated funds so that this project can move forward and become a reality.

Thank you.

Mister chairman and members of the board, we have nine speakers on Zoom.

Good morning, commissioners. The first person to speak is Robbie Caban.

Good morning. Can you hear

me? Yes.

Great. I'm, reaching out again about the taxpayer funded animal control contract that has not been corrected, that you have governance over the board of commissioners with our county contractor Lifeline Animal Project. It has come to my attention that the Fulton County Police Department made a public post that has since been deleted that stated in part, through working with animal control over the past year, we noticed the majority of animal cruelty cases in Fulton County were not being investigated, and offenders were not being charged criminally. This has come to a stop, quote. I wanna begin with what the Fulton County department publicly posted and later deleted stating that for a period of time, the animal cruelty cases were not being investigated and offenders were not being charged.

Deleting the post does not erase admission. It confirms a serious failure of enforcement by the county then contractor, Lifeline Animal Project, who you all want to pose in photo ops for that you put in the new agreement that does not correct the failures. What has happened raises critical questions. When did a private contractor begin influencing enforcement? Under what authority were duties delegated, and who is accountable when those duties are not performed.

Failure to investigate cruelty, failure to act under authority may expose the county to federal liability under color of law statutes and civil rights violations. We have documented incidents involving seized animals without warrants affidavits raising fourth amendment concerns and liability risks. This is not theoretical. Fulton County residents have been attacked, as you know, seriously injured and killed, killed, mauled to death by packs of dogs. In preventable preventable incidents, wrongful death and injury lawsuits will be paid by taxpayers.

Your taxpayers, your constituents. I am one of them. Commissioners have stated animal abuse will not be tolerated. Commissioner Arrington, who blocked me. My question is

Fifteen seconds.

After Lifeline. The only entity allowed to abuse animals without consequences?

The next person to speak is Kurt Beasley. Kurt?

Morning. My name is Kurt Beasley, and I am here to support the funds be approved to support the Vine City community. I know that life keeps lifing. And when our seniors have retired and their income is for that particular time in life, it may no longer support them as inflation and the cost of living grows. So I wanted to jump on here to say I hope that the funds to support that community can be approved. Thank you.

The next person to speak is Jen Simmons. Jen Simmons. Next person to speak is Leonard Watkins. Leonard Watkins. Sandra Benefield.

And this concludes the Zoom public comments.

Thank you. Madam clerk, continue. Well, commissioners, I've had a request from the development authority. They are listed, I guess, last on the agenda and they have about seven or eight people here. They want to be moved up. So what's your pleasure? Any objections?

No objection to them being moved up chairman.

Okay. But we I don't object either to them but I thought we had decided that we were going to, those reports would come at the end and the people need to know what time they need to be here. We'll correct that going forward. Alright. Come on up.

On page twelve, twenty six zero one zero four, select Fulton. Presentation, Annual Development Authority of Fulton County Governmental Accounting Standards Board, Gatsby 77.

Thank you all very much and thank you Chairman for moving us up. I guess our slide presentation will come up. I'm Sarah Elizabeth Langford and we can go to the next slide. Thank you very much for having us on behalf of the chairman of our board, chairman Kwanzaal and our board of directors. We presented this information, sent it to the assessors according to GASB 77 requirements.

You can go to the next slide. We wanted to do this presentation in front of you really just to keep you updated on what are we are doing and present some GASB numbers. You know at the develop authority of Fulton County, develop Fulton, our role is really to encourage positive development that brings jobs and increases tax revenue for the county. You can go to the next slide. When we think about that

I'm sorry director, you might want to

There's nobody in

up there. Okay.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. When we think about our mission at Develop Fulton, we really think about expanding the commercial tax base so that individual residents are burdened less when it comes to taxes. And just to give you some recent approvals by our board, an Amazon 700 jobs, 500,000,000 investment that was approved. Duracell relocating their R and D headquarters here to Atlanta, that was a 56,000,000 investment.

Mercedes Benz overseeing a REBA grant, Mercedes adding 500 additional jobs to Atlanta. And then lastly, Miller Zelle expanding their South Fulton operations in South Fulton that is a $30,000,000 investment. We can move to the next slide. Just to update you on some projects, you all are familiar with the Medley Johns Creek. That was a $400,000,000 investment, approximately a thousand new jobs.

And on this particular site, the annual taxes collected by Fulton County were $600,000 a year. And after this project is complete, that will increase to approximately $30,000,000 over incentive period. So again, that mission of expanding that commercial tax base. Edge product project is another example. This was a very old rail yard that was grandfathered in to taxes.

So zero taxes being collected by Fulton County. And after this project is complete, that will increase to $70,000,000 over the incentive period. And again, that's what we want, more burdens on businesses shouldering that burden as opposed to individual tax paying residents. We can move to the next slide. We've noticed that it is extremely beneficial when we really hone in on our partnership with Samir and Select Fulton, with the different cities all across our county, and then even with the State Board of Economic Development.

Recently, board approved, this was in 2025, Hutch project, Sandtown Village in South Fulton. A $200,000,000 development that will be housing, retail, green space, and an awesome example of partnership. We worked in partnership with Mayor Gums and her team at South Fulton. They approved critical infrastructure improvements, and then the Develop Fulton board approving an incentive to make sure this project moves forward. We can go to the next slide.

And just to give you some information about Develop Fulton, we generate approximately 16 to $20,000,000 annually for the county in tax revenue. And we see, you know, some people criticize and say you're just a rubber stamp, not at all. We see approximately projects every year that come to my office that we evaluate and analyze. Only about less than half of those are even socialized with our board members and then about 10% of those, only 10% are approved for an actual incentive, a property tax incentive. So we, my board is ensuring just extreme analysis and only a small amount of projects actually moving forward.

We of course have five times the hurdle rate. So when we evaluate a project, we like to see at least a five times increase to the county when it comes to tax revenue. And I wanna remind us this is the county's only economic development tool. So when we think about competitive projects and is here, they have a very national perspective. But when we think about competing for opportunities across the country and sometime in even different countries, we wanna use that incentive, that reduction in taxes to encourage quality development to come here.

So again, we're expanding that commercial tax base and less burden on residents. And our neighboring counties really have even more aggressive of an incentive than us. Like DeKalb has, I think, a twenty year incentive. Ours is only ten years. So a lot more conservative when it comes to that incentive compared to other jurisdictions. So thank you, thank you for giving us some time. I'll turn it over to to really give you some more complete numbers. Thanks.

Good morning all. I'm Bo Burst. I work with based here in Atlanta, Georgia. As Sarah Elizabeth mentioned, we partner with

Can you pull the mic up? Excuse me.

Yes, Absolutely. Sorry about that. I work with My name is Boppers, out of Atlanta. And we partner with the development authority to work through the GADS 77 project that's been in place for about ten years now. Specifically, I just wanted to note, right, as we talk about tracking the foregone revenue of these projects, on the right side of the screen is the Fulton County abatement schedule.

And specifically, again, what it signifies is that initial year, you have about 50% abatement on the market value. At the duration of the end, you essentially have an abatement of 5%. So 95% of that value is paid. What you generally find, and certainly this does vary by asset type depending upon the respective market, is that on the real property side when these investments do occur that there's going to be some appreciation that occurs to the land and at times potentially even the overall market value of the building. Certainly recognize you're going to have circumstances such as the pandemic where office space may diminish in value.

But overall, with depreciation, what often does occur over the duration of a ten year period is that the real property market value may be in excess of what initially was that first year, again, depending upon the local investment that occurs across the entire market spectrum. So I think that's just worth noting where the abatement that actually occurs is just for that first ten year period. And it is extremely competitive, as Sarah Elizabeth had mentioned, compared to some of the other counties that we work through and see. So if you go to the next slide, we have a specific example that I'll let's see. Maybe one more slide, please.

There we go. And this, again, is a general baseline. So you see on the far left hand side, and this is specific to tax year 2024. If there was no investment for these respective parcels, the tax brought in from the county portion, so this is going to be the bond, the operating and the school, it would only been about $3,100,000 The net benefit that occurred in tax year 2024 for projects that are all across the spectrum of the actual tables that we just saw, it's almost $20,000,000 And again, those are all going to be in differing stages of their respective abatement terms where, again, when they do conclude, they will become fully taxable on the Fulton County tax roll. If you go to the next slide, we've got another example here.

But again, keep going one more, please, the older deck. So this was similar for Citi. And you go to the next slide as well. Turn it over to my colleague who's going to reference a few more examples.

Good morning. My name is Alex Rosane. I also work with EYI support the team that works here in Atlanta from my perch up north in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I've been enjoying the weather here on my visit to Atlanta. I work for a part of the team that looks beyond the GASB 77 requirement to show how much the incentives total to look at the additional benefits the community gets from the economic ripple effects of because it's not just that these buildings are being built, something is happening in those buildings.

Sometimes it's housing, sometimes it's businesses that are operating. What we do is we look at all of the incentive programs, the active incentive programs for a given year, which will be the new ones and also any over the past ten years whose incentive has not run out yet. We're just in the process of starting our analysis of the 2025 incentive programs. Our most recent report released in the fall looked at the calendar year 2024. And you can see from the map there, there are active programs throughout the county, including some new and some existing.

For 2024, there were 135 active projects that included 41,000 job commitments in the Memorandum of Understanding, and they comprised $9,800,000,000 of capital expenditures. Next slide, please. If we look at a five year snapshot of the same picture, we can see that it's that's pretty typical and it's been growing over time. In terms of the number of active projects, there are typically 7,000,000,000 to $10,000,000,000 of capital expenditures. And the net tax revenue, net of incentives has been 15,000,000,000 to $19,500,000,000 $19,500,000 excuse me, throughout that period, just to show this has been going on for a long time.

Next slide, please. What we do is we try to look at those ripple effects and take into account not only those job commitments on-site, but what are the effects of those businesses buying goods and services from suppliers right here in Fulton County? And what happens when the the workers on-site and at the suppliers spend their money at the grocery store, at the gas station, receiving medical care and so forth. So those are those induced effects. And that's the total picture that we look up for the economic benefit of these new operations happening on-site.

Next slide, please. In our report that we provide, we break it down across a number of different industries and there are a lot of different sectors that show these benefits. That partly stems from what gets an incentive in any given year. And those ripple effects happen again as people spend their funds in retail and on their homes, etcetera. Next slide please.

And so the big picture total is we go from that 41,000 direct job commitments for who's working on-site to 56,000 taking into account those indirect and induced benefits, again across a number of sectors. And this generates $4,800,000,000 of labor income in the county and that includes wages benefits. And another way to look at it is economic output, which is revenue for businesses in the county. That's a little under $8,800,000,000 from projects that have active incentives during that year. Next slide, please.

We took a look at one specific project just to give an example that the Avalon real estate incentive. There was investments in 13 parcels between 2016 and 2021. The market value of these parcels together increased from a little under $24,000,000 to over $630,000,000 in 2024. So this is a significant investment in what was constructed on-site. If you could go to the next slide please.

And what that translates into is a significant increase in the property tax base because ultimately property taxes come from the value of the property. And so over this period as different parcels received investment, can see in the graph on the left that the tax base grew significantly over the period to $252,000,000 by the end. Now the orange bar is the assessed value that is being taxed and the blue represents the amount that's abated. And so you can see that as the abatement decreases over ten years for each parcel, the end of this period, about 18% of this assessed value was being abated. And it will eventually go to zero as all of the incentives run out.

And the idea is of course the buildings will still be there at the end. And of course, tax base translates into tax revenue. And so just on these parcels, during this period, it went from $2,500,000 in 2016 after the first parcel was developed to over $6,000,000 in 2024. And the different colored wedges and the legend there show different jurisdictions receiving those taxes including Fulton County Schools, the county operating and bond millage, the city of Alpharetta where the project is located and so forth. Next slide please. And I think Sarah Elizabeth has some concluding remarks. Remarks. Just

thank you for your partnership. This is as I said the county's only economic development tool and it is the way that we recruit and incentivize quality investment and development. So thank you all for your partnership and Sameer thank you and select Fulton. And if there are any questions.

Thank you. Commissioner Arrington. Thank

you for the presentation. I do have a couple of questions. You know, I think the program makes sense, but I think I do wanna know, I guess, one about enforcement. Like, so I see job commitments but I don't know what type of tracking there is on that and whether there is an actual number that comes back. Right?

If if I tell you I'm gonna do a thousand jobs and I only do 200, what penalties are there? Do we know, right. So I'd like to know about enforcement mechanisms. And then I also understand that apparently there is a way for the projects to get the incentive for more than ten years by breaking it into phases. So phase one gets ten years and then phase two gets ten years and phase three gets And then it's a thirty, forty, fifty year tax incentive, right?

So I'd like to know more about that. And frankly I don't think the phases should happen at all. Right? It's ten years, that's it and that should be it. But I'd love to hear more from you on whether that phasing happens or not. And then two, about the enforcement side of making sure that they actually deliver on what they promised. And then two, what are the penalties for not delivering on what was promised?

Thank you commissioner. Great question because any company that is not doing what they're saying that they they are are committed to do should does not deserve an incentive. So on our most recent project, and I think also your appointee to our board helped us. Now in our legal documents on our last project which was the Amazon, we have a termination clause that's baked into the legal documents. So the if a company says we are investing 500,000,000 and we'll bring over 700 full time jobs, if that is not done, there is that termination clause where we can end the incentive.

To your point exactly, if you are saying you're gonna do x y and z, you have to do it or we are able to terminate and end the incentive. And then we've also had a company that just recently called and said they aren't living up to what they thought they would do and therefore ended the ending the incentive early. So I'll be talking with you more. That was a very recent development, but I'll talk and that's a great thing for the county getting even more tax revenue than we thought as a result of a company not doing what they told us they would do. So that is extremely important.

And then you asked about the phases. The incentives are based on parcel ID. So really it really still translates to ten years because it's based on the investment. So if an entire property says that the investment is 500,000,000, the incentive is based on that number and prorated for parcel. So it may seem as though it's longer but it's really just based on the investment that the company is committing to based on those different parcel IDs. And I don't know if you all have examples of what you see around the country, if that's common, if we are doing it in standard.

So I guess, Mr. Erington, to further elaborate, think oh, sorry. The example, I guess, you were talking about is, let's just say, a company comes in and invests $100,000,000 And they build, let's say, a brand new industrial facility. As part of that agreement, over the course of time, there may be additional investments that are had. So I think to Sarah Elizabeth's point is that, that first parcel would have the respective abatement.

And then when that parcel or second phase of the project concludes, that portion would initiate the respective abatement as well. So I think what you're saying is just the fact of trying to justify that truly being granted because it almost gives the perception that you're getting a much longer benefit than initially there should be. And I guess the way I would look at it is that, well, if they are different phases, could they essentially be different products or they are different parcels even though it is the same initial company or the investor that's coming in. If that makes sense, sir.

No, it definitely makes sense. Mean, that may just need to be a longer conversation, as to whether that makes sense. I think I hear what you're saying and I think what I hear what our executive director is saying as well and I just need some time to process it. I don't know that termination is of the agreement, madam executive director, is enough for me. Are they paying the back taxes when they terminate?

I mean, because if you go through an agreement for five years and then you say you don't pay your taxes for five years and then you terminate, I mean, where's the money from the last five years? Right? So there there should be some type of clawback or some type of provision that specifically where they specifically agree that if they do terminate or if it's terminated for any reason, they will then owe those back taxes. Right? And so, we just need to make sure that we, you know, are are are having those conversations.

I think it certainly makes sense in theory, but, you know, it's the nuts and bolts and the enforcement that really come down to whether it does make sense or not, right? And so, thank you for your answers.

You.

Vice Chair Abdu Rakban.

Thank you Chairman. First of all, Sarah Elizabeth, thank you for the great job that you all are doing over there. And, thank you Commissioner Arrington. I also had a conversation with my appointee chairman, Kwanzaa Hall. I know that you all are trying to be proactive.

You do not want to set an adversarial tone, but you do want to work due diligent for the tax paying citizens. So, I understand it's not as cut and dry as most people think it is. It's about negotiations. It's about the termination of the contract and what the penalties are in terminating it. And so, just kind of wanted to say I understand what Commissioner Arrington is saying, but I also understand that you all are working to make sure that you walk a very steady line.

Times people will look at a situation and they'll say, well they should do this and they should do that, but at the end of the day until you walk in my shoes, you don't know what it is that I have to do or what you all have to do. And so, I do support my colleague Commissioner Arrington in his concerns, but I also want to say that I know that you all are already working on that and making sure that those contracts are in such a way that it benefits ultimately Fulton County tax paying citizen. And that's the most important thing we want to remember here, benefiting the county, benefiting those tax paying citizens. Businesses want to do business with Fulton County. Sometimes, businesses have to be lured for the lack of a better word and it takes multiple meetings, it takes multiple give and take.

And, a lot of times, individuals don't understand the process. What I want to go publicly and say that the Fulton County Development Authority role is never adversarial with anyone, whether it is of the business entities, whether it is of the elected officials in the county, in counties that butt up against us. Sarah Elizabeth, you and I have had several conversations about projects that might not necessarily benefited us but may benefit a neighboring county. And so, know that you all are not adversarial, I know that you all work very hard and diligent to make sure that you cross your t's and dot the i's and make sure that the citizens of Fulton County are getting the biggest bang for their buck. And, I want to thank you all, I know we have seen at the state in some conversations where people want to make it adversarial, they say, oh, I don't want them to come into my city or whatever.

At the end of the day, quality investment I know is you all's goal. Quality investment that's sound, that's financially sound, and that benefits all the tax paying citizens. So, just want to go on record thanking all of you all for the service that you do because it's not an easy, easy job. And thank you for making sure you're that transparency, you make sure we get everything and I just want to thank you personally for that, that you all send so much stuff out, very transparent, very involved and I'm hoping that there will come a day that this, what you all do, will be the model for everybody else because I believe that you all do a great job. Thank you.

Commissioner Thorne? Yes,

I just wanted to thank you for coming down here and explaining it. I learned a lot, I didn't know that DeKalb County had a twenty year abatement. That's kind of shocking that our neighbor is able to offer that twenty year. We have the ten year but given what we have, I just wanna thank you for luring. I've had the benefit of being involved with companies trying to decide where to locate and there's lots of options out there and lots of cities, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Charlotte, it seems like we're always competing with them.

I know my brother was trying to relocate Stanley Black and Decker's offices here and they had to choose between Boston, Austin and Atlanta and it was a collaborative effort. It was because of you guys bringing people in and bringing entities like Georgia Tech to sell that we have the workforce here if you come. We can give you that abatement if you come, just luring those instead of going somewhere else. And even in the world, I've traveled to try to lure companies to come here when they could choose anywhere in The United States. They just want a United States office and we're able to attract them to come here.

So I thank you for the work that you've I know there's people that think that companies will just come here if you guys don't do anything. I think that's a falsehood. I don't know if you know any large city that is able to not incentivize ever. I don't think those exist unless you can think

of one. No, I mean it's extremely competitive which is why this tool is so valuable to the county. And even you mentioned just in The United States with Johns Creek, Boston Scientific, they were even looking outside of The United States, excuse me, so even competing with other countries sometimes. So very valuable, important tool.

Yes, so I just yeah, thank you for that. I'm all about competition and I love winning competition, competition so I thank you for helping us win these projects over. And I'm a benefit of Avalon. I've seen the tremendous That was just a vacant lot where I used to coach cross country kids and it had an abandoned partially built car parking deck. For years it sat there and now to see it being developed and generating so much for Avalon and the city of Alpharetta is just truly amazing.

Commissioner Thank Ivory.

Hello, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for, do you need a water?

I know, I think I'm okay.

Thank you,

you so much for the presentation. I saw in the very first page that when you described Developed Fulton, one of the points was reduced long term pressure on residential taxpayers. And that's not really a message that gets out that taxpayers associate with developed Fulton or the Fulton County Development Authority. If I were to show this to many people who have been arguing and presenting before the chairman about the commercial tax assessments, they would not at all feel that that statement was accurate. That in fact they would feel the complete opposite that it burdens the pressure on residential taxpayers.

And I totally understand how it all works. It gets very convoluted. It's hard to understand exactly what a development authority is to a tax paying citizen. So, while we all understand the explanation and how it operates, it's very hard for a lay person to understand how it all operates. So if I brought this to one of my many town hall meetings and said, well it actually reduces the long term pressure on residential taxpayers, they would go, what?

No, it does not, right? Including the people who have been meeting with the chairman about the assessment. So, I wanted to encourage just perhaps maybe to do a very simple spend some time in 2026 maybe towards communicating to taxpayers. Maybe something a little bit more simple about how it actually does reduce long term pressure on residential taxpayers. And then pass it along to us so that we can then send message out in a very easy, maybe there would be an example of a small project or even a large project that you could show those numbers because even in the presentation it's a lot of good Ernst and Young data but that is not how people, lay people or taxpayers can understand that information.

And I'd love to have something from you all with a great example of a project that you could show year by year how that reduced long term pressure on residential tax, specifically residential tax payers because I think that would be very important. So if you could work on that and get that to me, that would be awesome. Second, I know you finished, you just recently supported the Amazon project data centers are the talk of the town in many, I've had five town hall meetings so far this year And there has not been one time that in those town hall meetings that it didn't come up. What is Fulton's position on data centers? And I'm quickly able to explain something that like I just said is hard to explain.

Well that's the Fulton County Development Authority. We're not on that board. Can you just tell me what your position is on data centers in Fulton County? It really depends on the city but what we've seen and we

try to work in close partnerships with the mayors of each city. So for example like in Alpharetta, there's about maybe 10 different data centers from many many years ago long before me, but that really helped Alpharetta become known as the tech city of the South because they were welcoming to data centers and that increase in tax greatly helped the city. So now there's many opportunities and companies looking on the South Side And so it's really a conversation with those mayors and elected officials in some a place like Union City. When I talked with Mayor Vince Williams, he mentioned that you know there's a fine line because many residents as you said are not so supportive of data centers, but the increase in tax revenue can be so extremely valuable to new fire stations, new police stations, and really green space for the city. So it's just a fine line and it's really a case by case basis in what that community needs.

And then also working with you all because there are different communities that want different things. There was one QTS data center where that was trying to locate with our help in the city of Atlanta and that didn't go through simply because we were being responsive to the community. So it's really is just a case by case basis, but we try to make sure we're never forcing anything on any jurisdiction, any mayor who's not supportive. But there are surprisingly there are some that recognize just the dramatic inch increase in taxes like I mentioned that one example where it was zero taxes going to the county and after this project is complete, it will go up to about 70,000,000. So zero to 70,000,000 and that 70,000,000 could have chosen locate in any state across our country.

So it's just a fine balance and to commissioner's point, it's just that's the fine line that we walk trying to be very responsible to community members, but also make sure that to taxpayers we're generating more revenue.

Yeah, thank you. That's so important and I thank you for talking about that balance. I understand that balance. And, I also would just encourage sort of like a top 10 facts about a data center coming into your neighborhood for the community. So, when they come to me I have gone to a community meeting where they were talking about a data center that wants to come into the right in the smack middle of city of Atlanta and the concerns that they have.

It's anywhere from how would that pull on the grid to how much water would be used and so many things that if just factually talked about. I don't hear about how data centers recycle water or that doesn't really ever come up because people just don't have a fundamental understanding of how it works. So, those kind of very factual information sheets, one sheeters, I think would be really good for the community and for taxpayers.

Mr. Chair. I appreciate the report.

Can Rose say one more thing?

Sure.

Yes, hi. Thank you, Commissioner Ivory. Just want to elaborate further about best practices on the side. We track policies across jurisdictions within within The The US relative to data centers and we will share that information city to city, state to state with the development authority of Fulton County and select Fulton going forward. Thank you. You.

Commissioner Ellis?

Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. I I appreciate the report. I did just since I wasn't necessarily going to talk about the data center subject but since it did get brought up, I mean I will say this and I would encourage you to go back to your board and talk about more of a specific policy around data centers. Personally I think it's a bad public policy for us to be doing any abatements on data centers, number one. Because if you talk to and you look around the country, you don't need to. And I've talked to several jurisdictions where they have data centers in and said we provide no incentives whatsoever. A very complicated these are very complicated projects. These companies need the land, they need to be able to do them, they need to be located or whatever. They don't need to be incented to do it, number one.

And number two, there are tremendous incentives for data centers that have been provided for at the state level, right? So I know from the discussions that we've only done two data center abatements, correct? One on one phase of sort of a full one and then the other was just on the personal property, correct?

That's correct.

Those are only two we've So done to I do think we definitely need more transparency around these. But I also think that it would be useful for you to have a discussion with your own board about developing a more specific policy around that. And you look at what is, this is a very new concept, particularly these hyperscalers. And I think using the example of Alpharetta is probably not really relevant to what small data centers of yesterday are to compare to these things that are being built today. These are two totally different animals.

So I would encourage that in terms of just on that particular subject. Thank you.

Vice Chair Abdulrahman.

Thank you Chairman. I'll be brief. Because the data centers were brought up, let me be crystal clear. You all, if they're at the municipal level, if they make the decision to have the data centers, then there's not anything that you all can do about that. The other way, if they have made the decision that they want to put a moratorium and say we don't want it, there's nothing you all can do about that, I'm very I'm very adamant about correct information being put out.

And so, I do not want the listening public to think that, okay, Fulton Development Authority can say whether the senate can come and not because that's not true. And and we should not, in grandstanding, make the public believe so. That

is

a very touchy subject, it's a touchy subject at the state, it's a touchy subject at the municipal level. But it goes back to my earlier conversation, Sarah Elizabeth, is that there's a fine line because you must work with the mayors, you must work with the city council people, and you must work with the county commissioners and the people at the state. That is a great juggling act. And so, I'm all for you all having policy, I'm all in fact, this transparency, I've never seen you you are the most transparent development authority that I've ever seen and I've traveled to other states to see how the development authorities operate. You make so much information available to us and you send us so much information that sometimes it overloads me.

But what I'm saying is, let's be careful with our conversation to not mislead the public as though you all have control over that because you do not. It is a juggling act, but it starts with the municipality and even at the state in what they do. And so I just wanted to make sure that we're not giving the wrong information publicly because you all can have a policy, in fact you all do have policies in place, but if the municipality wants something or don't want something, that overrides it. And so and so relationships, it goes back to what I said before, you're not going to be adversarial, but you've got to be able to work with people. You have to have mutual respect for people and understand that people have different positions.

Your one position, as much as you want, your one position to be the only position, you cannot. It's delusional in life. Everybody has their own opinion. And so, I just want to say again, thank you for the great work you're doing, thank you for the transparency, thank you for the communication, but I just did not want to give the listening public an idea that you all can control or not control, because it's about relationships, it's about ordinances, it's about local government. We all believe that local government should make the decisions which I support wholeheartedly.

So I just want to make sure that we're sending the right message. You.

Right. Commissioner Ellis?

Yes, thanks Mr. Chair. I don't know if those comments were directed to me or not, but yeah, just to be clear, I mean, we all know that you don't do any zoning approvals, Those rest with the city, right? But the decision around abatements, that's not just a, that's not a city decision. The city can't come to you and say we want an abatement on this property and you're gonna give it. That's not a mandate. We can't go to you and say that. The schools can't go to you and say that. That's a determination you have to make relative to the abatement. That's what's within your control, not the decision whether or not a particular data center comes into a particular location or not.

My comments were specific to the provision of abatements for data centers and I don't think the way that that is currently postured right now in The United States and across the country, that's something that's needed. If a city wants it, they're gonna come there and they're gonna do it. If they've got the land to do it, they're gonna get the zoning approvals and they can do it quickly, they will do it. They don't need the abatement. That was my remarks.

Alright, Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I wanna say I concur with Commissioner Ellis and I don't think incentives for data centers really are the way to go right now for all the reasons that the commissioner already expounded on and in particular because the public is not having it. And so I don't think there's a great benefit to doing it. I don't think it's really needed and I think we just need to be very, very careful on that front.

But I also just wanted to jump in and get back to something Commissioner Arrington brought up about companies that receive abatements living up to their obligations and I appreciate that the contracts are getting tighter and better to enforce, but I'm also aware just from my own background working with Invest Atlanta that when it comes to enforcement and the audits of the companies doing the work, they have like a team of people that are auditing to make sure that the companies are hiring at the pace that they should be hiring at or if it's an affordable housing thing that the units are being offered at the rate they're supposed to be or whatever the case may be. And I know you don't have that level of staff, so my question to you is it's one thing to have it in the contract, but what are you able to do and how are you able to do regular audits to make sure that they are conforming and not just wait for someone to report? Right.

Well as you said, Invest Atlanta has about 80 employees and we have three. So we've hired a monitoring consultant to help us respond to the companies and check-in with the companies and monitor that. And that's kind of you know what what we're trying to do to address that. And as I said we are self funded where Invest Atlanta gets funding from the city of Atlanta every single year. So as you said they have a whole team for that. And so what we've done is simply just hired that consultant to help us monitor it better.

And I think just to follow on and thank you for letting me know that, mean I think it would be how long have you had that role of the consultant doing that?

She came maybe approximately a year ago.

It'd be good to know I think how effective that is and like what kind of reporting is coming out of that. And listen I hope all the companies are doing what they're supposed to, that'd be great, but I don't know that it always turns out that way. The enforcement and the issue of sort of getting our taxes back or a clawback or those kind of things I think also gets to the original agreement. I know there's this was not you all, this was an investment thing I believe one of the ones that one of the projects in the gulch where they decided to renege on their obligation and paid a fee to sort of get out of having provide the affordable housing they had agreed to which was a terrible deal. So I just want to you know, I'm sure you guys have this well in hand.

I just want to you know emphasize I think my personal support for anything we can do to not make deals like that in the first place especially where their payback is so doable for them and the benefit is so important for the community. And so like being able to buy your way out of the whole reason you got the deal in the first place feels incredibly bad and wrong. So anything you know and I think we all have board members that agree with this and I know that you all are working towards this, but I think anything we can do to kind of make sure that we're not giving these abatements with under sort of false pretenses almost and then sort of disappointing the community and doing ourselves a disservice in the long run. So anyway that's my soapbox on that. Thank you for the presentation.

Appreciate it.

All right. Anything else? Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Alright, madam clerk continue please back to page nine.

Bottom of page nine, county manager's items under open and responsible government twenty six-ninety five, presentation of the Fulton County operational report. Mister manager.

Yes sir, mister chairman. Good morning commissioners. I also wanna just say Sarah Elizabeth walking out a thank you Sarah Elizabeth for your partnership with us and with Samir and then also to Rose Burden, if everybody doesn't know Rose. That's who we went to seven plus years ago when we wanted to drive transparency. I appreciate Vice Chair what you had to say into this process and I think it's been a tremendous success and Rose and Ian get a lot of lot of credit for that.

So thanks to to both of them. Today's report has the standard justice reports. It also has a potpourri of things from tax assessments, animal services, warming centers, and update on strategic plan development. Just a couple of comments about justice as Steve Narraki walks up and will provide more detail. It does show some improvement on some of the metrics like unindicted clearance rates, length of stay, but pretty much a stable population just below 3,000.

The population by facility, I would draw your attention to that chart when we get there. One of the concerns of course is the Atlanta Detention Center. So it has four and fifty detainees. We're working on alternatives to that and that that contract ends at the end of the year. Still hopeful and seeking any indication from Atlanta that they would be open to extending that, which would be in the best interest of us and of the population.

Of course case management and court productivity are still the best solutions to jail population and we continue to work with our partners on that. Electronic monitoring, you'll see today and diversions at 05:50 and 02:50 approximately respectively are very important tools. The diversion center looks like it's kind of plateaued again at about eight people per day, so that's one fifth of what it could address. So still a lot of opportunity there, but pleased to see that growing particularly with APD's participation. The jail blitz efforts continue.

In fact, we're very close to the end of that program officially. Of course, the fire in 7 North is a setback and I'm sure Joe will address that in the context of the overall report. We have driven the backlog, think Commissioner Barrett, you asked about this several several months ago now, but the backlog on work orders has been driven down below a thousand. I think with the additional resources that we plan for this year, that will continue to go down and that's gonna be an important indicator of success and we'll ask Joe to speak to that as well. We will transition after that to talking about again a set of issues, tax assessments, will have an update from the tax assessor.

We continue making progress in that vein. Of course, we've got a heavy lift with all the exemptions to be put in place as well as a focused effort to have a bill due date of 10/15, just to remind you that that's the goal and it always comes with a set of challenges and we certainly have those in this program, but he'll speak to that. Animal services, this is going to be our quarterly update. Remember, we committed to provide you a quarterly update on metrics. So we'll do that.

We have accomplished the transfer to the police department in terms of field services. I think that addresses the issues that were raised earlier in public comment, but we can speak again to any questions that you have about that. A reminder, we get 1,300 calls for service, meaning a dispatch of field service operations in a month's period of time. So it's a pretty intense environment as it relates to that. We're also working with the county attorney's office.

I wanna thank Sue Joe and attorney Miller for proposed changes both in how we deal with dangerous dog situations at the animal welfare board as well as when dogs are held due to court related processes. We're still working on the final details of that. We'll bring those back as soon as we finish negotiating all that specifics with the solicitor's office. But of course, I wanna thank Keith Gamage for his active participation in that. Warming centers, what we plan for today is to overview for you what our standard operating procedure is for those.

We don't recommend necessarily that you need a policy, but if you do need one or you feel that you need one, we would recommend these standard operating procedures as a policy. One important reason is we've been notified by the state of Georgia and DCA that we and the cities need to update our service delivery strategy. That's not something I've even dealt with in my entire tenure here. And it's partly due because it's been held in abeyance while there's been some litigation between cities. That is now cleared, so now we have until the end of the year to initiate those negotiations, complete them, and deliver to DCA a new document.

Those outline what services we provide versus the cities as you all know. And ostensibly it's designed not only for that to be a helpful process, but to eliminate any duplication of services that for example we both don't open libraries or we both don't open public health facilities. So as you think about this particular subject of warming centers, that'll provide clarity to that. It needs to either swing from pillar to post and someone needs to either do it in terms of its operations, we have a role in it and Doctor. O'Shell has done a great job of putting everything together to give you a full view of that.

And then last, we've included as normal the emergency purchase orders in contracts that I've signed. Generally we don't have questions about those, but one that I want to make sure that you saw and again Joe can give an update on is the breathing devices post the fire. If you recall, there were a 100 or so of those ordered almost immediately under an emergency PO. They've now had a lot of the electrical and technical equipment that's been delivered. The staff will be on-site by 02:26. So by the end of this month, we should be good to go with a 100 of those devices. So I just wanna make sure that you knew that that had taken place. So with that, Mr. Naraki, I'll hand the ball to you.

Alright. Thank you mister county manager. Good morning commissioners. Steve Naraki, strategy office. We can advance the slides please. One more. One more please. Alright, thank you. We'll jump in first with our justice system scorecard starting with the average length of stay. We did see a dramatic improvement for the month of January at eight days going down to thirty seven days for the month.

Next looking at the unindicted jail population, we also saw improvement there at two percent moving down to fifteen percent for the month. The clearance rate for felony criminal cases had a substantial improvement, ninety five percent increase up to one hundred and seventy seven percent. This was driven though mostly by unusually low number of cases that were created in January plus high level of productivity getting dispositions. So the two of those factors is why you see a substantially larger number than we typically report month over month. And then finally felony cases disposed within one hundred and eighty and three sixty five days had a 1% increase and 3% decrease respectively.

Next slide. And one more, we'll move on to our jail population update. Looking at the average monthly jail population, there continues to be, as the county manager said, kind of month over month leveling with an average population for January of 2,968. Our one day snapshot on February 11 had 2,939 inmates in the jail system with 70 of those on the floor. Next slide.

Let me get one more. Next is the one day snapshot of the length of stay for currently incarcerated inmates. The average duration was two sixteen days as of February 2, marking a three day increase compared to last month's number. Looking at the total population of 2,985 on February 2, we had forty seven percent of the inmates that had been incarcerated for ninety days or less than thirteen eighty nine. And then the four ninety days represents sixteen percent that have been incarcerated greater than one year.

Next slide. Move to the facility utilization update for population. This data is as of February 9. We had 1,839 beds occupied at Rice Street, while 526 were offline for either the jail blitz program, routine maintenance, or other repairs. And mister Joe Davis will give a more detailed view of the five twenty six in his report following.

Go to the next slide. Next is the inmate analysis of the population. 73% of the population or 2,187 inmates are either indicted or accused or both indicted and accused, while 443 or the 15% mentioned earlier are unindicted. And we can move to the next slide for a breakdown of the unindicted. Thank you.

So again, of the four hundred forty three inmates that are undicted, we show here the aging of of that population. Sixty seven percent or 311 inmates have been unindicted for ninety days or less, which again is what you wanna see the highest population at. And then continuing a great trend, we continue to have no inmates unindicted for greater than one year. Next slide. We'll shift now to the county funded ankle monitor program for an update.

We do have five forty three participants as of the February, which is a small improvement compared to last month. Let me go to the next for a historical view. So looking at the six month rolling participation, like I just said, we we have had a bit of an increase since November where we're at 514 total moving up to 539 in December and again 543 for the month of January. What is interesting though, if you look at the column immediately to the right, the less than and greater than one year despite the increase we are still maintaining pretty much the same percentage of those that have been on greater than one year, greater than percent greater or less than one year. Ideally working a superior court's new policy that mandates that a judicial action need to be taken once a monitor has been applied for six months or greater.

We're hoping to see that the monitor duration for over one year starts going down while the less than one year population increases. So that's still work in progress. You can go to the next slide. And last we'll end with our diversion center utilization update. I do wanna call out a major milestone that occurred last month.

The diversion center has been open for a full year now. So congratulations to that team and everyone involved in standing it up and operations for the past year. We can report that there were a total of fifteen fourteen diversions for calendar year 2025. And now looking at the table you see in front of you, I do wanna report too, and this was mentioned earlier, did hit a new high monthly watermark of two forty three diversions for the month of January. So continuing that positive upward trend.

Looking first at the table on the far left across jurisdiction, again as county manager said Atlanta continues to lead the way with 151 diversions representing 62% of all diversions. They're followed by MARTA, the Atlanta Airport and then our own Fulton County Police Department. Looking next at the charges, the divertable charges. Again, across the two forty three diversions, criminal trespass does remain the highest month over month for a divertable charge. In January we saw 138 representing 57%.

Divertable charges like loitering, pedestrian related, and disorderly conduct also remain high month over month. And then finally this is a newer table on the far right, the connected services. This is showing of those diversions how individuals are being connected with services. We had five eighty three total for the month of January. This number does exceed the two forty three because a single individual could be connected with multiple services and so that's why the number exceeds the two forty three.

We do see about roughly a quarter were connected with housing services and another quarter with mental healthcare followed by transportation, food and clothing, and other services. We'll move to the next slide and I think this my final slide. This is showing the trend data for the diversion center. The total number of diversions we've had since the diversion center opened in January 2025 is is up to now 1,757. I'll draw your attention over to the tables on the left.

A bit of a change of how we're reporting. Previously, during that first year, we are reporting year to date. Now that we've cleared a year of the diversion center being open, I'll start reporting on a rolling twelve month of the data. So starting first at the top with the average daily census, we are hitting somewhat of a plateau here with the daily census of eight going back to November. Looking below though, below that table, the rolling twelve month diversions, we do see a pretty significant increase though, kind of a bottom out in September of 104.

But again, an upward trajectory that we do wanna see up to 243 for January. The final thing to call your attention to shifting over to the right of the slide, the rolling twelve month of discharges. This is how people exited the diversion center. We had 73 completing their programming along with another four percent that were discharged to the hospital representing seventy seven percent considered a successful diversion because they were connected to services or programs. Twenty one percent unfortunately did discharge to self meaning they left the center before the programming was complete.

And then two percent had an administrative discharge meaning police had intervene and remove individuals, those individuals from the diversion center before they completed programming. And the final thing I'll mention in my remarks, we do have our next Justice Policy Board meeting scheduled for March 12. So mark your calendars there. And with that I can take any questions.

All right, any questions commissioners? All right, Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Back on the, I think it was the first slide, the score card, you went over the numbers there. On the average length of stay, we had an eight day decrease. And I'm just wondering if you can attribute that to anything in particular that sort of caused because we usually see a change of one or two days direction not an eight day decrease which is great. I'm just sort of wondering if we can repeat that.

Yes Commissioner. I think for this metric, so the answer is no. I don't know if there was some variable that led to that more significant decrease because you're right, usually it's more in the twos and threes and eight kind of represents probably double of what we usually see in terms of monthly movement. Again this metric is tracked based on calculating when a person actually exits showing the length of time that they stayed in the jail. And so it's probably capturing individuals that bonded out.

There would have been a higher number of individuals that bonded out over a very shorter period of time than normal. I don't know, happy to do some digging and report back to you, but not aware of any single thing that happened that drove average length of stay down dramatically.

Okay and then on the clearance rate for felony criminal cases, the one hundred and seventy seven percent you mentioned there was an extraordinarily low number of incoming of new cases. And that is attributed to?

We checked with our friends over in Superior Court Administration because when we saw the number our first assumption was we had a bust in our data feed somewhere because it was so dramatically high. But we checked all the numbers. We confirmed with Superior Court Administration. They just had a low number of cases created for the month of January. There was no other explanation given than that. But they also had a higher than average disposition rate for that month. So just the two of them hitting at the same time created such a dramatic increase.

Okay I just had another question that sort of was on two different slides a little further down. We always go over the number of folks that have been in the jail for x period of time, so over a year, that sort of thing. And the the number I think was like 490 that have been there over Yes a ma'am. And but then that we also have a separate chart where you talk about the people that are the breakdown of who the population is and some of them like 300 ish I think maybe is it that are serving out their sentence and or on a hold for some particular reason.

Right.

If you combine those two. So I'm just wondering how many of the four ninety are of that status. Because and the reason I'm asking is because whenever we look at this it feels like we we have to do everything we can to to eliminate that four ninety and have those move faster. But if some of them are people that are serving their sentence, that's intentional sort of that they're there longer. So I'm just sort of curious how those numbers look next to each other if that makes sense.

Yes ma'am, that's a great question. That's not something we've compared before. But yeah, other hold conditions, there's a couple couple different criteria that would put you into that other hold condition. It might be waiting for an extradition, things like that. But it is still taking up a bed. It is still the clock ticking. But the comparison

I would be think the reason I'm asking is because if we look at this graph on the length of stay for currently incarcerated, think as I said it sort of demands action and some of it is inactionable because of those particular scenarios. I think that's it might be useful to just even if it's an asterisk there that's like four ninety but 200 are serving their sentence or whatever, you know what I'm saying. So I think just so that we're all on the same page about what can be done.

Yes, yeah, no I agree. That'd be a very interesting data point.

Yeah, that's all I had, thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Thorne.

Yeah, follow-up on that, those four ninety, if we could be briefed on why they're there. I know mental health, some can't stand trial so it's a six month delay to get another evaluation and that just keeps repeating itself over. I know that some have warrants in other states and they can't be released and all of that as well until the other state comes and gets them or the other jurisdiction. So that would be very helpful.

Yep.

I wanted to speak into the 70 inmates that are on the floor.

Yes, ma'am.

Yet there there are beds available. South Annex, ACDC, Marietta. We have beds available. Is it due to their classification as to why they're on their floor? Can Or you speak into that?

That is, that's the short, I mean if you discuss that with the sheriff's staff that is kind of the shortest explanation is every facility has a classification requirement. Some are something like Rice Street where there's so many more beds, there's a lot more flexibility. Others like ACDC, we are mandated that there's only a certain classification that can be sent there. And so we rely on the sheriff. I mean that is 100% with his operational direction to determine if those facilities where we do have availability, if they would be appropriate for those 70 on the floor. And if he determines that it's not appropriate then they stay in Wright Street on the floor. But that's a 100% his operational decision.

So when you look at South Annex, 285 beds, there's a 108 that are available there. Do you think is it perhaps a staffing issue? We don't have the staff to move inmates over there?

Staffing is another, I mean that, and we know the staffing crisis both at across the entire system at all the jail facilities. So absolutely that's probably a contributing factor. It's probably multiple reasons why the decision was made to keep 70 on the floor at Rice Street versus the other other facilities.

And then there was some public comment made about a jaywalker being in the jail, yet jaywalking would be something that would be eligible for PAD, probably one of those pedestrian related crimes. I know the sheriff has an program, inmate advocacy program. How, I mean it seems like at the least they should be put on an ankle monitor not put in our jail or if they're a low bond and they can't bond out that they would be put on an ankle monitor and not put in our jail. Do we need to have more coordination with our judges to prevent those cases from entering our jail? Or what could be done there to help those