Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

And Chairman Pitts.

Good morning. Good morning. How's everybody doing? Good morning. Good morning. You wanna do it or you want me to do it?

You can do it tomorrow.

Alright. Alright.

I say it's not that great, so I'll

Oh, okay. You might need some help here. So alright. No. You're perfect. Stay right there. You you make everything better just staying right here. Alright. Alright. Actually, we got the vice chair's here making an entrance. So, we're gonna we're gonna allow her to come up and and and This is a full broad board proclamation but, she's the primary sponsor.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry y'all got stuck in traffic. Everybody decided to come downtown at the same time. Okay. And so get started on it?

It's all yours.

Alrighty. Whereas the week of April 2026 has been designated as National Community Development Week by the Council of State Community Development Agencies and the National Community Development Association. To celebrate the Fulton County Department of Community Development Community Development Block Grant and the Home Investment Partnerships Program. And whereas the CDBG and Home Programs have empowered our state to address a wide range of needs, including affordable housing, economic development, public facilities, and services for low and moderate income individuals and families. And whereas the CDBG and home programs have made significant contributions that benefit individuals and households in Fulton County, including older adults, people with disabilities, homeless individuals, children, and veterans.

And whereas the Fulton County whereas in Fulton County, we remain committed to leveraging federal resources through the CDBG and home programs to implement Powerful work, impact, and commitment of the Department of Community Development and does hereby the week of April 2026 as National Community Development Week in Fulton County, Georgia. Would you please put your hands together for a great part of Fulton County?

Good morning. I am Mia Redd. I am the deputy director for the Department of Community Development. And on behalf of our director, Stan Wilson, I'd like to thank the chairman, the vice chair, and the board of commissioners for this proclamation, for to our county manager and doctor Rochelle for your leadership and support, and, of course, to our team for all of the work that you do day in and day out to assist the individuals and families in Fulton County. Thank you.

On page five, public hearings. Twenty six zero one eight seven public comment. Citizens wishing to participate in public comment will be allowed to appear in person or may choose to participate 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 minute time limit is reached prior to public comments being completed, public comment will be suspended and the business portion of the BLC meeting will commence. Public comment will resume at the end of the meeting. Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we have received eight speaker cards. Will the first five speakers come please come forward? Maggie McCollum, LA Pink, Demetrius Bure, Maggie Goldman, and Janet Hill.

Alright speakers, we have fifteen seconds remaining. I'll say fifteen seconds and that will be your clue to begin to conclude your remarks. First speaker.

Good morning. My name is Maggie McCollum and I want to bring awareness and expansion for the Kinship Care Program. Siobhan Wells serves as the Kinship Program Coordinator in Fulton County serving grandparents and caregivers 55 plus taking on raising children.

There are 16,000 grandparents, 26,000

grandchildren, part time role, but the scope reflects full time commitment. Siobhan worked tirelessly to develop, coordinate, and expand to address the challenges faced by caregivers. How can one person organize support to provide holistic approach care which focus on wellness education community connection, caregivers are provided with meals, self care, workshop. It has to be emotional raising children later in life. We need kinship support and grow especially for this population underserved.

Siobhan needs support and staff. Demands are increasingly among grandparents with resources to reach more families, holding families together. Expanding program for Siobhan leadership and dedication in advocating for the population play a crucial role in our community. Siobhan's work is necessary for seniors. Now I want to talk about me.

I participated in the Alabama senior game. I won seven medals, three goals, three silver, one bronze. I want to thank you for listening to carry on this goal for active seniors and a purpose to motivate and to work together to get fit, stay healthy.

Fifteen seconds.

You for your attentive ears today. I hope you all work with me. Thank you.

Well, today is April fools day but we are not no fools. I come down here today because everybody is looking to be the first this and the first that and the first you know, but when are we going to get the first line of people that are standing on integrity? When is that going to be something that everybody is looking forward to seeing and being? Everybody is looking forward to being the first this and the first black that and the first white this and you know it's democrat, republican. When are we going to just put all the all the labels to the side and stand on integrity, dignity, responsibility of what everybody signed up to be for the community.

Because at the end of the day, that's all it's about, the community. You guys' job is to rely on being there for the community, not your friends, not what doors you can get open, not who you can get in to make sure that you get more money for the mayor, for the DA, for the sheriff. People keep talking about change. How do you stay changed but you keep on bringing back the things that remain the same? How do you go back and get something that took a million dollars from the people, from the community taxpayer dollars, your dollars, anybody that live in Fulton County, your money relies on any mistakes that the sheriff make, any mistakes that the DA make.

Y'all keep on wanting people to come down here and not talk about these things, but there are sex scandals on the line. The sheriff right now from allegedly

Fifteen.

Got a

phone call last night

Fifteen seconds.

April Moore was supposed to have a DUI this weekend and got stopped by the police and got and called him. Now this is alleged, but just the phone call about it is disgusting. Let's get it together.

Atlanta, we got another problem with their homeless situation. This time, it ain't outside y'all. It's on the other side of y'all. UFO, DMV. DMV. It ain't down there in no more. It's right there. Right there. Be exact right where they are. Hey, Aaron Avenue. It bad right now. On Ashley, Josie Laura, we just lost another friend. She froze. That's why I'm back in. Because everybody keeps saying they they picking these peoples up, and they not picking them up.

I know because I'm out there. Sorry to say it that way. Not trying to be blunt with anybody. Stuff on no toes, but I ain't trying to miss none at this time. I done lost a lot of friends out there.

And putting these folks in their houses, and when one lose their ID, they get kicked out. I don't find that to be funny, and I don't even think it's shouldn't be funny. Y'all need it. Y'all need to look in on your matters. That's all I have to say. Y'all bless

Maggie Goldman in District 1. Commissioner Thorne, on January 21 you said that we're providing money for the sheriff to staff but he is still understaffed? There are a significant number of vacancies because of not properly staffing. Staffing is his responsibility. It is a management issue and not a financial issue.

I have a copy of the sheriff's responsibilities from the Georgia law right here. And nowhere does it say that the sheriff is responsible for creating the salaries, recruiting the candidates, or hiring any of the jail staff. Do you know whose job that is commissioner Thorne? Fulton County HR, County Manager Dick Anderson, and you. It's your job to offer a jail facility that will attract new talent instead of discouraging them.

It is your job to offer salaries that will attract new talent and not discourage them. It is your job to recruit and hire talent so the sheriff can do his job of developing and implementing a staffing plan. He's even told you what you need to do. The recruitment and retention plan says that you need to bring all the current staff up to market salaries, which would only cost $3,600,000. And then proceed to offer those same salaries to all the

new

talent. He's even offered a list full of appealing benefits that would make the of working at the jail more attractive to new talent. When the monitor says the county should work together with the sheriff, what they mean is listen to him when he tells you what is going to work and then do that. If you don't wanna take responsibility for the county's actual role in on the understaffing of the jail and hold the county manager and HR accountable.

Fifteen seconds.

Then district one will elect someone who will.

Good morning. Defraud crime in Fulton County, Georgia continue to escalate. We face more horrific, inhumane treatment daily. Women, seniors, veterans, disabled, and the minority communities terrorized, stalked, and false documents are being filed repeatedly, forcing citizens from their homes using taxpayer dollars to, fund these crimes. According to criminal investigative reports, in the mid two thousands, one of the main forgery deed fraud hubs for the country for the country was located in Fulton County.

In 2024, AARP issued a national alert to seniors regarding deed fraud crimes. In 2025, the FBI issued a national alert televised on Good Morning America. And lastly, we've done an informal survey with a scorecard for commissioners. Based on the number of informal cases that we reviewed, the number or the commissioner with the highest rate of resolutions is commissioner Thorne. The commissioner with the lowest rates for resolution of these deed fraud crimes is commissioner Arrington and commissioner Mo Ivory.

Commissioner Pitts, we will be following up with you to find out what the next steps are to get these properties returned and to move forward with this Thank criminal you.

Speakers in Assembly Hall please come forward. Julie Allen, Maria Guardio, and Jason Tollet.

Good morning commissioners. I'm Julie Allen, District 3 Dana Barrett is my commissioner. Thank you for serving. It feels like a waste of time to come here because the real question is, are you listening to the citizens that you represent? We the people are exhausted. Exhausted from lawfare, exhausted from taxpayer dollars spent without accountability. And now those same taxpayer dollars are being used to block republican appointments to the board of elections. Who are you serving? Your constituents or a political agenda? So let's ask directly, what are you hiding?

What are you afraid of? And why are you fighting to get ballots back from the Department of Justice? A federal judge just questioned Fulton County's effort to recover twenty twenty election materials seized by the FBI especially when digital copies already exist. So again, why fight transparency? Now Fulton County hear this, We are told to trust a system where tens of thousands of ballots are questioned, ballot images were deleted, duplicate scans were identified, invalid registrations remained, and the margin of a presidential election was decided in Fulton County by 11,779 votes.

Transparency or resistance? Instead, a court ruling allows a partisan majority to reject opposition nominees to the board of elections. So the same system under scrutiny decides who oversees it. That is not trust, that is a blueprint for silencing dissent.

Fifteen seconds.

It fits a pattern. Jail failures, property fraud, victims ignored, corrupt officials. DA Fonny Willis, sheriff Patrick Lavat, former commissioner Natalie Hall, and her million dollars taxpayers spent on her sex scandal. Why is accountability harder than

Good morning, thank you. Maria Gaudio. To continue the discussion about the elections and transparency, there was a large federal case on Friday here in Atlanta, Friday the twenty seventh. The case of Pitts versus United States. I went to the trial, I'm sorry you weren't able to make it Chairman Pitts.

None of the commissioners were there. The attorney for Pitts, Abby Lowell, spent sixty two of ninety minutes allotted talking about ifs, seems, shoulda, coulda, wouldas, no facts. There were two witnesses. His witnesses, Avi Lowell's witnesses, were asked to leave the room but only one did. Only one remained sequestered, that was Shay Alexander.

Abi Lowell only left twenty eight minutes for his witnesses to be examined, a rookie's mistake. The witnesses, Shay Alexander said she just wanted to follow the law. Ryan Macias, the expert witness turned out to be not an expert at all. The US attorney chewed him up and spit him out. The US attorney spent nineteen minutes on his opening comments and that was more than seventy minutes left for his to cross examine the witnesses.

It was really a useless appeasement trial. Anybody has the right to I represent just hope, Chairman Pitts, that we are not paying for that, that it's coming out of your funds since your name was on the trial. Thank you.

Hello. My name is Jason Tooway. Nice to be here and I'm actually a US House of Representatives candidate for District 7. I just wanted to start off first with thanking the members and individuals at TSA, all the local workers at Hartsville Jackson Airport who have helped maintain as smooth transportation as we can. So I wanted to talk about the theme of voting access across the state as a whole and in this county.

In recent weeks we've seen the bill, House Bill three sixty nine being pushed forward in the general assembly which would shift how elections are to be done in so in various counties including full. My whole goal is really to how can we actually still make sure that we have fair, free, secure elections that allows every eligible voter the right to vote. This is something that's deeply personal to me. As in 1963, my grandfather marched on Washington with Martin Luther King. A few years ago, I served as a John Lewis fellow as part of the Faith and Politics Institute.

John Lewis was one of the leaders and champions around Atlanta and really bringing justice and equity into our community. If elected to congress, I would support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to really bring more election security integrity and to reduce potential of disenfranchisement. I'm glad to be here and speaking in time and I'm hoping to engage, continue to engage with folks across the county and the district as whole.

Fifteen seconds.

I will just close off by saying my name is Jason Toweh, that's t o w e h. To learn more about me, you can go to my website towehforcongress.com. Thank you all for letting me speak today.

That's it.

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

The Zoom I understood there was a problem with Zoom. Has that been corrected? Corrected?

I think we are able to do the public comment.

Okay. Good morning, commissioners. The first person to speak is Duke Virginia. Duke, Virginia. Alright.

Next person to speak is Jen Simmons. Jen Simmons. Next person to speak is Jocelyn Martin. Jocelyn. Next person to speak is Linda Nadd.

Linda Nadd.

It's Linda Nash, and I'm here.

We can hear you, miss Nash.

I wanted to speak to you on behalf behalf of Homeowners Legal Rights. It's a nonprofit organization that I am a CEO of, and the subject is deed fraud. Deed fraud is the responsibility of the state. Maintaining perfected chains of title is a requirement of statehood. This is under executive branch of government, and it is your land records that are filled with fraudulent documents, and people are losing their homes because of these fraudulent documents.

It is your responsibility as commissioners to maintain proper records. It is not the responsibility of the judiciary. By your proper public records and that you don't allow fraudulent to be filed in your records and homes to be stolen. Many of these documents are signed by people

who have no authority

to sign those documents.

Many

We're at a loss as to how to make you understand how significant and important it is that privately owned parcels of American soil

Fifteen seconds. Stolen

by foreign entities, which makes them a crime. That's all. I thank you for your time.

And this concludes our Zoom public comments.

Alright. Continue, madam clerk.

Continuing on page five, county manager's items. Twenty six zero one eight eight, registration and elections. Request approval of a statewide contract in the amount of $252,217.78 to provide mailing and voter communication services.

Alright. Motion to approve by vice chair Abduh Raghman, seconded by commissioner Thorne. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Six yays, zero nays. Under health and human services, twenty six zero one eight nine public works, request approval to utilize cooperative purchasing for heavy construction equipment with related attachments and technology in the amount not to exceed 235,550.

Alright. Motion to approve by vice chair Abduakman, seconded by commissioner Thorne. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Five yeas, zero nays. On page six, twenty six zero one nine zero, request approval to increase spending authority in an amount not to exceed $600,000 standby utility pavement patching and paving services.

Motion to approve by vice chair of the rankman, seconded by commissioner Thorne.

And the vote is open. And motion passes. Six yays, zero nays. Commissioner's action items twenty six zero one two zero. Request approval resolution to promote public education regarding how to obtain voter identification and for other purposes sponsored by commissioner Thorne.

Alright. Is there a motion? Motion to approve by commissioner Thorne, seconded by vice chair, Rachman. Commissioner Thorne, you have the floor.

Yes. There's been a lot of rhetoric lately about, there's lot of feedback here, voter ID laws and how they're discriminatory, yet that's a problem that's being promoted out there, but there's been no solution to close or address that gap. When you consider the full range of identification that can be used to vote in Georgia, there's a vast majority of residents that already have this form of voter ID. So I think it's imperative as commissioners that we educating residents on what identification they already may have and may work. And those who don't have a form ID, which I think is probably a small number this day and age, it's important to ensure and make them aware that voter identification cards are available at no cost.

I repeat, it's free residents and they need to know this. I encourage this board to focus on practical solutions and I challenge anyone to explain why they oppose this common sense action to provide information to the public on what ID they can can use and how to obtain one if needed. I am proposing that we open up all our public facing facilities to outreach, whatever they deem is appropriate to educate the public. And I just hope that you would support this because the rhetoric that's out there, I feel is dangerous and I want to assure the public that we as commissioners are doing everything that we can to make sure that every legal voter has access to voting. This is not a political issue, this is not a democrat issue, this is republican, this is just us as commissioners trying to be a solution and not a barrier to voting.

Thank you.

Commissioner Thorne, excuse me, motion on the floor is to adopt. I'm sorry. Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Thorne, first of all thank you for removing some of the more incendiary language that you had in the earlier versions of this legislation, I am of course very much in support of providing information to the public so that they have a clear understanding of when, where, and how to vote, and any other details they need to make that process smooth. But we already do that, we have a wonderful outreach effort put on by our Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, they do a great job, and think there really is no massive confusion by your own admission, or really any confusion about Georgia's requirement to provide ID when you go to vote. If there was I would be all for fixing it.

This just feels like there wasn't an actual problem you were trying to solve, rather this is a solution looking for a problem. I feel like by your own words over the many years and months now that we've been working together, if you had an issue with a particular department and the way they were operating or that they were not doing something that should have been done, you should have gone to them directly and asked them. But you did not do that. Look, at the end of the day, I will support this, but I don't I really think it is unnecessary. I think they're already doing a good job, and I also think that it borders on overreach.

They have a Board of Registration and Elections that oversees the Department of Registration and Elections. We're by doing this, we're sort of micromanaging specific information they need to put out versus other. Feels unnecessary and a bit of an overreach, but in the interest of good faith and getting the information out, I will support it.

Vice Chair, Abdur Rahman.

Thank you Chairman. I said I wasn't gonna weigh in on this, but unfortunately I feel a need to speak. We know that our colleague commissioner Thorne is very very adamant about elections, elections department that is her passion. Now what I want to go on record saying, if there was a sitter language in there and she removed it, then that is some type of action of someone trying to work with us instead of against us. I know when she put it on hold and I had a conversation with her and I said, have you talked to Nadine?

Are you talking to the elections department? Is this something that they can get behind and support? So let's be fair in our assessment of this. I understand it has been very strained and even commissioner Thorne and I have not always seen eye to eye when it comes to several different things, but we try to find common ground. And so what I am saying is, if you saw something that you may not have liked and you saw it removed, that's a win.

If it is voter outreach, if it's in support of what we're doing already, that's a win. If both sides, because it's not just on one side, if both sides have hijacked this agenda and has used it to be divisive, then I see this for what it is, which is something to bring the people together. I could be wrong. Hey, it won't be the first time. But I just want to say that I appreciate you, Commissioner Thorne, getting with our voter and elections department because I know that has been an area of contention.

And what I saw with this particular legislation was to increase, do everything at the county county level to make sure that we identify what the people need, let them know what they need, and possibly assist them if they fall short. Now if it's something other than that, somebody tell me. But that's what I got from it. So I'm gonna support it and I'm gonna support what was once a very, very contentious relationship that looked like it is trying to mend and work together. And I have a great appreciation for both parties. Thank you.

Commissioner Barrett.

Sorry, just wanted to respond briefly. First of all, I do appreciate your willingness to talk about this Commissioner Thorne and make adjustments. And so I certainly did not mean to acknowledge that that had not happened, it has. And you always do that, and I think we have had many conversations about things we don't agree on, and they're very civil, and we move forward. And so that's all good.

But I will say, Madam Vice Chair, I did actually, each time this appeared on the agenda, did check with the elections department, I did check with Ms. Williams, and she was not given advance notice or asked what their thoughts were. So I just wanna be clear, I have also spoken to her and gotten the response that no, this was something they were consulted on nor do they, the department, think it's necessary. So just to be clear, I'm not making this up, I didn't fabricate it, I actually did have conversations with them. That said, as I said before, I'm fine with moving forward with it, but I just wanted to be clear that I wasn't trying to stir the pot, I was just giving you my 2¢.

Alright, Commissioner Arrington.

Thank you. This resolution, Let me say this, you know, to some extent I'm okay with voter identification. What my concern is, my concern and is really the SAVE Act, right? And you know even something like this will not have an impact on those women whose birth certificates may not match their driver's license or others. And you know, I have some concern about this being a preamble to the SAVE Act.

Know, voter identification, I have to show my ID when I use my credit card or ATM. So I am not opposed to voter identification but with all this going on right now with this SAVE Act, I am reticent to approve this resolution particularly since apparently elections hasn't, this hasn't been discussed with elections according to commissioner Barrett. Fulton County facilities that regularly serve members of the public. And then there's language in here that says, as determined effective by voter education and outreach. I I don't know I don't know what that means.

It doesn't it doesn't really make sense as written as determined effective. I don't know why how the word effective is in there. Hereby directs each public facing Fulton County facility as determined effective, as determined by voter education. Maybe your word effective shouldn't be out. Maybe that was something that should have come out with the other language that came out.

But I'm supportive of, you know, I have no problem with people having to show their ID. I do have a problem with the Save Act and people having to prove their citizenship in order to vote. I think our our registration elections department does a good job of voter information already. So I'm I'm I'm a hold off on supporting this. Commissioner Thorne, I just don't I'm I'm frankly, I'm worried about your intentions, not the language of this of this resolution.

Alright. Commissioner Thorne?

My intentions is just to make sure that there's not a barrier to voting. Many of you don't know my history. The very first election I worked was the Obama presidential primary and I got there and I was in charge of the poll books and I saw people come in and their name wasn't on the poll book. We were in the cafeteria at Manning Oaks Elementary School and we had benches, you know, the tables with the bench that kind of folds out, so we had tables lined up with benches and we would bench people. At times, we'd had fifteen, sixteen, 17 people benched because they weren't in the poll book.

For me, being a computer person, I thought this is ridiculous that these databases were not updated in a timely fashion. It's instantaneously to upload a poll book. Why were we giving poll books that weren't updated and these these poor people were having to wait fifteen, twenty, sometimes thirty minutes before we could clear them to vote? That's what spurred me on to work elections time and time again. I made an immediate phone call to my supervisor, Cynthia Floyd Thomas, and said, what is the deal with these poll books?

And then the call lines were blocked and it would take us twenty or thirty minutes just to get someone to answer the phone. I saw it as a barrier for people to voting. People who were on their lunch break who just wanted to pop in to vote were spending thirty minutes on a bench before they got to vote. So that's my intention is to remove any barrier or access from That is my intention. But there is a perception that there is a problem and as commissioners, I wanna be a solution to a problem.

I don't wanna be just out there complaining about the problem. I wanna be a solution. There's talk about birth certificates not matching their driver's licenses. I wanna make sure we have a solution because there might be a person who's married and their driver's license has changed but they forgot update their voter registration and it doesn't match in the poll book. So I wanna make sure that we have material for in the event that that happens.

I am leaving it in the hands of voter education and outreach. I don't wanna manage them, I don't wanna tell them what to do, but I wanna make sure that all our buildings, they have the right to go in to every building that's public facing, that Fulton County owns and promote voter education and outreach. That's my intention. Now there's talks that I did not talk to the elections office which is quite false. When I first presented this resolution, my office communicated with Lashandra Little at Friday twenty seventh at 11:31AM prior to the cloak posting on the agenda.

On Friday February 27, she responded and said she had received it and she was gonna share it with elections director Nadeem Williams. On Friday twenty seventh, Lashandra Little responded saying, my team does ensure that we provide this information about voter identification at all of our events and folks can also come to any of our offices to get an ID if they meet the criteria. On Sunday, March 1, we reached out to them again. To Nadine Williams, she responded with concerns in the language. So we tried to clean up the language.

I responded back to her. We had communications with elections. It just so happened that when I was drafting this up, the state legislature, one of our state legislators from the capital sent me our better education outreach document. He's like what is this about? And I explained what the documents were about.

When I flipped through the PDF file, was no information on voter identification. There was no information if you have a barrier and you don't have voter identification. I want that to be a priority. I want it to be in all our information. I don't think there's many people this day and age that don't have voter ID, but those few that do, I wanna make sure that we're helping them in every effort that we can. That's it. Thank you.

Alright. Other comments? Alright. The motion on the floor is to approve.

And the vote is open. And the motion fails, three yeas, one nay, one abstention. Twenty six zero one seven one, request approval resolution to appropriate $975,000 to the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation to support services provided to survivors of intimate partner abuse and their families. Sponsored by vice chair Abdul Rahman.

Motion on the floor is to motion to approve by vice chair Abdul Rahman and seconded seconded by Vice Chairman Pitts. Vice Chair, you have the floor.

Thank you Chairman. I appreciate my colleagues supporting this back when the federal funding and grants started to dry up. I stated that the county was going to need to step in the gap. As a domestic abuse survivor, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you this is something that I hold dearly to my heart. Because it is those crucial moments when you're being represented at the court, when you're getting a restraining order, I went through that.

When you get the child support and all the things that need to happen, I went through all of that. And as a living witness I tell you it is a harrowing experience. And having had to go through counseling and through steps of making sure that it doesn't happen to anybody I know or don't know. I always am an advocate for it. I want to go on record thanking the chairman.

When I first brought this to the chairman, he thought it was a great idea, but just like anything else that he asked me, where is the money coming from? And so I want to thank our county manager, I want to thank Doctor. Rochelle as well as Sharon Whitmore because it was a team effort to make sure that we found this funding, but the beauty of it, it is not taxpayer money. And I want to go on record thanking them for all the work they did, this was a very arduous task in making sure that we could find the funding, making sure that all the t's and the i's were crossed, but more importantly this is what government is about, finding the solution. Now I know that this may be a problem come next year.

But I tell you, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And we as stewards of taxpayers' money must always understand it is taxpayers' money. But we don't want any individual to not receive the services at such a crucial time in their life dealing with domestic violence. And so I thank my colleagues for supporting this, I thank Chairman Pitts for his leadership on it, and I thank the county manager staff for taking what could have been a very hard task and making it seem easy when I know it wasn't. So colleagues, I would appreciate if you would support this.

It's for a great cause, and it's not using any taxpayer funding. Thank you.

Commissioner Ellis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to clarify one thing in the resolution. So, I understand the intent, as Vice Chair of the Rockman has laid it out, is that this funding will not be funding derived from any funding within our general fund. Is that correct?

Yes sir, I can turn it over to Sharon Whitmore, the county manager. Yes. Okay, thank you.

Right, and I see that it's, really my question is, I see that the funding would come from opioid settlement money, which I do think that's a good use of these funds. But I just want to clarify that it's, that is the sole source, that will be the sole source of funding. This is not, we've got to run some sort of check, and then if it doesn't fit, then we're coming back and we're having to do some sort of adjustment to the general fund. That's really what I wanted to clarify.

Thank you for the question, Commissioner Ellis. This would be fully funded from the opioid settlement funds. And I did have the opportunity to discuss the proposal that the organization is planning to align it with eligible uses of the opioid dollars. So on the surface, we often don't think about all the legal implications for people who are dealing with domestic violence and opioid misuse. But the research is very clear about the connection and the services that will be provided will enhance the ability to have individuals connected to recovery services.

Yeah. Thank you for that. And I definitely see the connection and fully supportive of that. I just wanna make sure that we we embedded it and it worked. That's all. That's all. Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Alright. Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you, mister chairman. And thank you, madam vice chair, for bringing this. This is a really important organization that has been doing good work for Fulton County citizens for some time now, and my understanding is well yeah, there we go, Doctor. Roshaub. Thank you.

A lot of feedback up here. This is great, I think they've been, I don't know how many years they have been doing this work but I know that my understanding is there was federal funding that they were not able to get this year. And so I think finding this way to fund this through the opioid settlement money this year is great. I'm only speaking at all just to say thank you but also to say I think it would be great if we could think about how to make this an ongoing recurring service without, and look I don't know what financial solution is long term but perhaps hopefully federal funding comes back or there's some state funding we can get or there's other ways to help offset cost. But I do think it would be good if when we start planning for the 2027 budget that we try to find a way to make this happen and to subsidize again if we need to in some way.

Because I think it is really, really critical for

Chairman if you allow me to respond to that. I agree with you wholeheartedly Commissioner Barrett. There is funding at the state that is going to be released around the April. I've been in contact with the Governor's staff that hopefully not only this organization, but other organizations will be able to take advantage of. So, you're correct, we need to look at all. So even when I started on this journey, I talked to the context I have at the state, I talked to the governor's office and they made me aware of there was funding out side of the funding for the general budget they have that is going to

be

specifically for non profits. Even though it's going to have certain criteria, we have encouraged all of our non profits including this one to make sure that they get in on that funding that the state is going to release shortly. So you're correct.

Commissioner Arrington?

I am generally supportive of this resolution. I do have a couple of questions though. What is the total amount of the opioid settlements that will be coming in? Or that came in?

I'll have the CFO answer what we have on record. But just as background, the opioid settlement funds that we're referring to are from manufacturers and distributors that the county opted into. The manufacturers, those distributions come in unannounced. They come in periodically. We don't know when they will come in, and we don't know how much will come in at any specific time. But the manufacturers' payments are over a 15 year period, and the distributors' payments are over an eighteen year period.

Yes, need someone to answer my question please. How much do we anticipate to come in this year? Because we're not talking about financing this 975,000 over eighteen years are we?

Oh, no sir.

We're talking about paying it this year.

Yes sir.

So how much is coming in this year?

Wasn't there about 3,000,000 in that account?

Yeah,

commissioners currently we have roughly 3,300,000.0 that we have not allocated out of the opioid settlement fund and to your question Commissioner Arrington about how much is expected to come in each year, that's the part that's a little

bit of an unknown.

Perhaps I could speak to that piece of it. While the finance department is able to tell you what we currently have, as Doctor. Rochelle was stating, we don't have specific amounts slated as an expectation because this is a conglomeration of a lot of different class action suits. And even when we opt in, we don't know how large the group of entities that will claim a part of that class action settlement. So we may know in each individual suit how much the total settlement is, but not how much it will be divvied up among how many individuals or entities. So it's kind of an opt in and then wait to see how much comes in.

Well thank you, that's informative. So there's 3,300,000 in, it's not in the general fund, it is in a separate opioid settlement fund?

It's in a special revenue fund, yes sir. For opioid settlement, yes.

So it sounds like if there's 3,300,000.0, it sounds like we have enough to fund the 500,000 summer youth jobs program out of that money as well.

It would have to meet the criteria that are established for spending out of that opioid settlement fund which align with services associated with the opioid epidemic.

Okay, well this is for domestic violence. What are the criteria? Please list the criteria.

Yes sir. The first is treatment access and retention. Removes legal barriers preventing individuals from entering treatment, stabilizes conditions necessary for sustained engagement. Recovery support services provides housing stability services critical to recovery outcomes. Prevention and early intervention interrupts pathways from trauma, abuse, and substance misuse. Reduce risk of relapse and overdose. Pardon me, those are the categories that are aligned with the proposed funding use of the nine seventy five.

Okay, who makes the determination as to whether this current use in this resolution meets those criteria? Who made that decision?

So based on the proposed uses, I aligned what the organization was proposing to use the funds for and aligned it with what the settlement agreement indicates are eligible uses.

Oh okay, awesome. Can you do that for the summer youth jobs program?

I certainly can look at whether prevention and early intervention if there is an opportunity to align those.

Awesome because it's almost summer. I'm happy to support this Commissioner Abdulrahman, Vice Chair. Just wanted to know how much money was there because this is a worthwhile cause but so is our summer youth jobs program. So I'll be bringing a resolution back next for the next meeting to authorize use of the funds for the summer youth jobs program. Thank you.

Commissioner Thorne?

I just have a question about the amount, which is $975,000 I've met with them, they're a great group, and I love that they do have philanthropists that contribute a majority of their funding, which is a sign of a healthy nonprofit. But there was an article in the paper in December that said that they lost a grant from the Department of Justice worth about 800,000 annually. So that's just my question where the $9.75 came when the paper says they lost 800,000.

Actually they lost more than that. They lost quite a bit. They the initial ask was 2,000,000. Because at the time when they first made me aware of the need, and I think they also made Commissioner Barrett aware of the need, they lost an additional grant. And so, the need, however it is greater than the 800,000, the initial need was 2,000,000.

And we know, well, it was just the way we are doing things right now that that we just couldn't meet that need. And so, I think what happened, you're talking about in December 2025 when you saw it? Months ago. Yeah, three months ago. They have been continually fundraising because like you said, a lot of their funding comes from philanthropists.

However, grants that they had become accustomed to yearly, if I'm not mistaken, three of them were cut off at one time. And so, on the inside it may look like, okay, well they only needed $800,000 No, wasn't that. They were actually the need was $2,000,000 But based on my conversation with the county and what we were able to do of the $9.75 is the purpose for the ask. Also, I wanted to tell Commissioner Arrington, my office will work with your office to see what funding we can find for the summer youth, because I know it's very important to both of us, but I also know that's your baby. With this particular funding, I will caution you though, this funding you have to make sure you have an alignment.

And so, for those that are hearing and hear what we're saying, it was not a one and done. It was several meetings, it was several conversations, it was several looking at, okay, what's the scope, where do we fit in, and the most important thing to be able to comply. So I just want to say it out there, put it out there that I know that the Sharon says there's three point whatever, but that's not just three points sitting there willy nilly and can be put out. We are very specific driven on what can be done with it. I'm not saying that the youth can't be done, Commissioner Arrington.

What I'm saying is from my own interaction with this, is there specific requirements across the board, not just for the county, but across the board of how this money is to be spent. And so, it won't be a situation where you'll come here one week and get an approval for it the next week. It is conversations, it is alignment, and it's complying. So, I just want to make sure I put it out there. But once again, thank you colleagues for supporting this.

A special thank you to the county manager staff, because they did what they needed to do to find out if it was eligible and it is. And at the end of the day, like she said, that money is coming in. We don't know what we will get from month to month, day to day. And so I will make sure Commissioner Arrington, not only with that, but I'll also have conversations at the state to see if there's any funding that's getting ready to open up that may be available as well. So you have my word that I will try to work with you to see if we can find funding for such a worthwhile cause. Thank you.

Commissioner Thorne?

Yes, I'm happy to go to the state with you. I did have a meeting with Pete Skandelakis about this issue as well. Just general funding for domestic abuse survivors. So basically, they lost $800,000 in grants, but they need $2,000,000 We're gonna fund them $975,000 which is above and beyond what they were getting from that grant.

Incorrect.

Okay. Would you like to come down and and let us know how much you lost because I'd rather for him to tell what I was trying to say. You're looking at something that said 800,000, the ask was much higher and the total amount of grants that they lost was much higher but this person can speak to it better than I can. So please come forward.

Yeah, what I was gonna say was in What I was gonna say was I wanted you know, people to know that they do have a need, that we can't fill as a county. So I wanna encourage people to reach out to your organization and give generously to your organization on the work that you do on behalf of the people, domestic survivors, our community.

Thank you. Commissioner Thornton, you. Commissioner Abhin Raman. To address the article and what you're reading, I am as big fan of Our Fourth Estate as any and happy for all the reporters who brought attention to this issue, but as all commissioners may be aware, they don't always put in the article the full scope of the conversation. So Commissioner Abiraman got it right.

We did have three different funding opportunities in front of the federal government, the DOJ specifically. Historically over a decade really those were fairly consistent funding. Sometimes the source was a little, the amount was a little more, a little less. The funding grant opportunity was a specific different one. In this particular round, it was closer to $1,500,000 that we lost if you put all of those opportunities together. The full $2,000,000 is the cost of us running all of our domestic violence services, in the courthouse and in the community, and hopefully aided by your call for more donations today, we'll be able to raise that balance. But the amount that's represented here is what will allow us to keep that office open in the Fulton County Courthouse Commissioners where there's about 4,000 visitors showing up at the courthouse

I guess I wanna understand the the process a little more. Is there So these funds are restricted pursuant to a settlement agreement for these uses?

Yes, sir. So the settlement agreement outlined the specific eligible uses for the dollars. It doesn't outline which programs or what programs. You have to align your use and what you intend to do with the funds with the eligible use that's outlined in the settlement.

Is there someone monitoring or enforcing the use? Is there someone that we have to submit the uses to for their review?

Not prior to use but we do report. There is a report that the county is responsible for submitting into what we call it's NOAT, National Opioid Abatement Trustee. And we are responsible for reporting there. Our grants department is who is providing that report. And in that report we have to declare how much of the funds if any we use and what those uses were and how they connect to the eligible uses that are outlined in the agreement.

Alright I don't want to take up a lot of time here on this but you just opened a big rabbit hole. How many times have we reported? How much total money do we have? How many other much money have we distributed out of these funds? I mean you just opened a big rabbit hole.

So we have to report whether we use funding or not. We must report when the reports are due. We have to report zero or what we use. To my knowledge, the only project that is currently funded from these dollars is the Grady MAT Clinic, which is a medication assisted treatment program which is for opioid use. Opioid disorders. And the CFO can continue to fill in any additional uses.

Yeah, Commissioner Arrington, there's also resources that have come to as part of this, there are resources that come to us through the state of Georgia and the board has approved a $644,000 grant program associated to the use of those programs which is actually a requirement of that program. And then the board also approved by board resolution an amount not to exceed $250,000 for the acquisition of some AED devices for the police department. So those are the three purposes that the board has approved the use of the funds. The MAT's allocation to Grady, that state grant program and then the AEDs.

Thank you.

And just for reference on the AEDs, there was a specific reference to AEDs being an eligible use of those funds before I brought that forward. Alright. The motion on the floor is to adopt. Let's vote, please.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Six yeas, zero nays.

Continue, madam clerk.

Twenty six zero one nine one request approval resolution to authorize payment of locality pay to the superior court judges of the Atlanta judicial circuit and for other purposes sponsored by Commissioner Ellis.

Is there a motion to approve by Commissioner Arrington, seconded by Vice Chair, Abdul Rahman? Commissioner Ellis, you have the floor.

Yeah, I'll be brief. Hopefully this is self explanatory as I think we all know Superior Court judges are paid in sort of two ways. Funds come principally from the state and we've historically paid a supplement. Their historic state pay was $144,790 There was a house bill which passed last year which went in effect in January, which increased that to 210,000. Previously we've been offering a supplement of 72,000.

This statute or this law that was passed replaced that supplement and it made it uniform across the state such that locality pay could be paid up to $20,106 but it didn't mandate that this is a system that the judges went into automatically. They had the ability to either stay in their existing system or opt into the new system. I thought we had done something which would allow this locality pay to already be in place but apparently we had not and there was some slight differences in terms of what were there. This would just codify that, establish our locality pay. In the upshot, the judges do opt in here, it actually saves accounting funds.

And it also will put the judges on par with each other when a new judge comes in so that there isn't a distinction, differences in pay. So hopefully we'll all have a favorable recommendation to this. Certainly the superior court judges are all on board with it and wanna see it happen. Thank you.

Commissioner Arrington? I remember there was something also regarding their benefits or whether they got local benefits or whether it was state benefits. Is that part of this or was that the part that we had already done?

That's the part we had already done.

That's the part we had done, Alright,

the motion is to adopt.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, six yeas, zero nays. County manager's presentation and discussion items under open and responsible government, twenty six zero one nine two external affairs. 2026 legislative session update.

Yeah. So one of the bills I don't know who you plan to talk about, three sixty nine. I hope you do because I had some discussions with my colleagues in the metro area and I signed a letter personally opposing it and now it's on the governor's desk for signature. And I'm gonna be asking the board to go on record in opposition to it at the proper time.

Thank you, mister chairman. I did wanna just make sure that they have our slides. Okay. There we go. Thank you, mister chairman, good afternoon. Is it noon yet? Y'all are on a fast track today. So tomorrow is signee die, so you're almost done with us for this session, but wanted to just go through a few updates. This is a really critical moment in a number of pieces of legislation. Next slide please.

And I won't take too long. Just a recap of our priorities. Next slide. So tomorrow as I said is signee die. Right now one of the major actions is a conference committee with House and Senate members negotiating the final budget and it's not unusual for that to go to the wire.

One of the areas of negotiation that's very specific to Fulton County government in the house funding was placed in the budget for our Atlanta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge. That funding was removed on the senate side, so we have been in touch with our delegation members and leadership around trying to ensure that that funding comes out of the final budget and appropriations. So that's certainly a priority for us. Other many other points in the budget and many differences between the two, but that is the one that is most significant for Fulton County government. Next slide, please.

Just our delegation has continued to meet. Just wanna thank all the departments who have come and presented to them. Next slide. So as I just mentioned, we, our piece of legislation, our judge was in a separate bill. Yesterday the Senate passed an amendment on the floor to add, excuse me, the Fulton County, the Atlanta Judicial Circuit judge to House Bill twelve fifteen, which includes other superior court judgeships.

So that was a very positive step forward. I really wanna thank our lobbying team as well as our, of course, senator Halpern who made this amendment. And I wanna thank the judges for being very engaged in the process as well. So this bill now, House Bill twelve fifteen, goes back to the House for an agree motion. One thing to note about the addition of the Atlanta judicial circuit judge is that there was also an amendment to make that contingent upon the funding being available.

So that's why that conference committee budget is so important. So a lot happening up to the wire, but we are continuing to be very engaged and again just want to thank everyone who's been making calls and having conversations and providing requested information. Next slide please. Some really good news, family justice centers, a lot of people at Fulton County have been very engaged in this, and this one made it across the finish line. Oh, I'm sorry, it has to go back for an agree, I apologize, I told someone we were done.

It had one amendment in the Senate, so it is going back to the House. I'm sorry, Jasmine. I misspoke to someone in this room earlier today about that. But I'm feeling very positive about this. This does not create any funding. It really just provides a mechanism for, sort of a framework for family justice centers. Next slide, please. Next gen nine eleven, Jasmine do you wanna talk about this one?

Yes, this was a, this is a constitutional amendment so it'll be on the November 2026 ballot. This bill did reach the final passage yesterday, so now it's going to be going to the governor. The constitutional amendment only establishes a fund. During this session, there was no enabling legislation introduced. So if voters do approve this in November, next session in January, the general assembly will have to create enabling legislation that will determine how the funds will be distributed.

We do expect them to have a continuation of a study committee they had last year on this topic. So we'll be tracking that. This is also a priority of ACCG so they'll also be advocating for counties and how we can get the funding. But this is a good first step to statewide next generation nine eleven.

Thank you Jasmine. Next slide please. So there are two pieces of property tax legislation in your packets. House Bill eleven sixteen as you see here and then Senate Bill three eighty two. And both of these have created some concerns for Fulton County.

ACCG has been very, very actively engaged in these. A couple of things. Fulton County, one of the notions of this bill is to essentially eliminate or significantly reduce property taxes on homesteaded properties, so the homes that people live in. And pure numbers revenue loss for Fulton County, if that were to go away completely, is $242,000,000 Part of the sort of framework of this legislation would be to help offset that through sales tax and it creates an L host as that option. For Fulton County, that does not come even close to closing that gap.

So this year Fulton County's portion of sales tax will be about 35,000,000 according to the budget that you passed. That leaves a gap of 200 plus million dollars. This bill also seeks to cap property tax revenue growth across the board and also that could be exceeded by seeking either a referendum or a local act. So in other words, if we needed to increase our budget by more than, or excuse me, our property tax collection by more than 3%, we would either need to go to a referendum or go to the general assembly and request local legislation. There are also other, many other provisions in this and again, House Bill eleven sixteen and House Senate Bill three eighty two have some overlap and some differences.

So these are, Jasmine, do you think we may see a conference committee working through these? Again, ACCG has been very, very engaged in this process. We've shared data with them. But this one is, there's still a lot of uncertainty to say the least. One of the challenges also has been that this bill has had, I don't know, 10 revisions?

And so it has changed very, very significantly with each iteration, which has made it difficult for many people to do analysis on the impact. So we are making our delegation aware of just some of the basic numbers and making sure that they are well informed. The local act or referendum does provide some opportunity to address some of these concerns.

Are we opposing this? And I don't mean to speak out of turn. I know Commissioner Thorn was in the queue.

I certainly think that there are very grave concerns about this legislation and the impact for Fulton County.

Do we know the financial impact to the city of Atlanta and to Fulton County, APS and Fulton County Schools?

There, it's similar. Fulton County County Schools has the highest percentage of, or highest pure dollar number coming from homesteaded properties. There are some different sales tax provisions for schools slightly, so they're treated a little bit differently, so we haven't done the exact same analysis. The city of Atlanta's revenue, total revenue collected from homesteaded properties is less, significantly less than Fulton County's for a number of reasons. But as a percentage of their budget is still, this affects every local government in some way.

Yeah, I think it would be important for us to not only emphasize the loss to us, but also the loss to the school systems and the cities in Fulton County. And certainly I think if we're going to be opposing or if there's gonna be a motion to oppose the other bills, this one sounds like the number one bill that we need to be opposing. A loss of $242,000,000. Madam CFO, how how can we make that do you have 242,000,000 stuff away somewhere?

I do not. I do not.

Certainly not annually, right? Sir.

Any, I mean for what it's worth, my observation is any legislation that removes a substantial portion of your revenue but doesn't offer a means by which you can replace it, It ties our hands with growth, it ties our hands with millage rate, it requires a referendum if you then desire to increase your millage rate to pay for something that may not currently be in your budget but you know in the future you're going to have an obligation that you have to meet. It would make it very difficult to manage. If it provided a true replacement source of revenue, it would not be as concerning But, does not provide that replacement, at least not early on in the legislation.

And we have roughly a billion dollar a year operating budget with about 80% of that coming from property taxes?

Yes sir.

And so two forty two million is what, about 25, 30% of?

Yes sir, mid 20s.

Of the money that we collect from property taxes. Alright, thank you.

So I also just want to know that ACCG is very much engaged in the conference committee, what we are expecting to be a conference committee negotiation. And I think that we want to continue to emphasize to them Fulton County in order to close our specific gap if if the notion were to close that only through sales tax, for example, having not quite a penny, but 0.8, 0.75 countywide, something like that is what would be required to close that gap entirely through sales tax. Is that correct Sharon? Sorry to ask you that on the spot.

I know Ray was looking at that. Do you agree with that number? I thought it was a little more than that, I thought we needed more than a full penny, but that may be the county wide number not just for Fulton County government that I'm thinking about.

I hope that ACCG is more than engaged. I hope that they are opposed to this.

They have been, I think their position has

been

primarily negotiating although they issued an alert this week specifically about the budgetary and military caps or 3% caps. Those were issued this week from their office. Jasmine, is there anything you wanna add on that?

I do know that they've been speaking with both sponsors and they've also been giving them suggestions for the substitutes that have come out. So we have seen minor changes this week and it's been based off of what ACCG and GMA are both providing. So the sponsors are listening also. ACCG also always ask us to have the commissioners talk to the state legislators. Like Jessica said, we had our lobbyists and myself as well talk to our delegation members.

But if they do hear from you guys, that helps as well. So we would suggest that. Tomorrow, like Jessica said, I definitely expect that there's gonna be a conference committee and we have not seen the final version at all yet. So it's hard to know what they're gonna agree with.

I can't understand how ACCG and GMA would not just be fundamentally opposed to this.

That's part of the negotiating. They have to work with the state legislators. They have been presenting facts from all 159 counties. We gave them our data and I know the other counties have as well. So they've been presenting spreadsheets and impact statements. Do

we know if the school systems and the cities have given their data as well?

I do know that GMA has for the latest versions of this the school systems were a little less impacted because they couldn't get the constitutional amendment. That's how you change school taxes. So this bill still impacts the schools but it's a little less than the original version.

Thank you. Alright. Commissioner Thorne, you you're in to go ahead.

I didn't know if we're having discussion. I was waiting.

I understand.

I understand. To wait for your presentation before before I ask my questions. I didn't realize we're having open discussion now. My name's been in the queue. But I I would ask if you could just proceed, and then we'll all have a turn to ask questions.

Okay. We can do that. And we'll so again, we're on 11:16 now. Next slide, please. And then the Senate Bill three eighty two, these two bills will be reconciled, we believe, through conference committee.

So we can come back to this in a few minutes. There are some differences between the two. Fulton County, just wanna know, already has a $60,000 based homestead exemption, which is that we won't go into detail but just have provided this here. Next slide. Also, Chairman, you just raised this, Fulton County was one of five counties singled out in House Bill three sixty nine.

This bill is structured, says that it only applies to counties that have a, where the elected office of county coroner has been abolished, excuse me. And so in Fulton County we have a medical examiner, not an elected coroner. And that essentially adds up Metro counties. And this legislation, which has already passed and is on its way to the governor's desk, would apply to your seats, to the clerk, to the tax commissioner, excuse me, clerk of superior court, solicitor general, district attorney, and it makes all of those non nonpartisan elections. So chairman, generally speaking, our policy positions ask us to be, unless it's in a positive way, to be opposed to legislation that negatively singles out Fulton County.

In the past, this board has expressed concerns about the notion nonpartisan elections. If nonpartisan elections are good for local government, cities have nonpartisan elections, school boards do too. But Fulton County, having five metro counties including Fulton be singled out as opposed to our sister counties in North And South Georgia certainly raises some questions. So we'll go through the rest and then we can come back to that. But Chairman mentioned that he was considering asking the board to take a position seeking the governor's veto on this legislation.

Next slide please. There are also competing or different omnibus election bills. House Bill nine sixty, both of these bills, House Bill nine sixty and the one on the next page which is Senate Bill two fourteen, both of these seek a return to paper ballots. House Bill nine sixty seeks to do that by July 1, I think that we're

we're able

to our that. Election process by 07/01/2026. That And in talking with the election staff and talking with the Georgia Association of Voter and Registration something or other, GAVRIO is their organization. They have taken a position against that change specifically. So just that's certainly something we also, I think, believe this could go into a conference committee to negotiate those.

Next slide please. Again this is, and you can read for yourself, there are other differences as well in Senate Bill two fourteen. Next slide please. Just a couple of others that are expected to pass so we won't belabor that and we can go back to the questions you have. Jasmine do you want to say anything about Senate Bill 74? I know something that some of our library board members have asked about.

Yes, that bill still is technically active and it is in house rules right now so recommitted earlier this session since it didn't pass last year. But we have been watching it. Senator Burns is the sponsor. He has still been requesting the house rules committee place it on the calendar. So it may still come up tomorrow but that will have exemptions, remove the exemptions for librarians about harmful material to minors and add some penalties. So we're watching it. It hasn't had much movement but it still has been advocated for by Senator Burns, the sponsor. Thank you Jasmine.

With that Mr. Chairman we can go back to whatever questions you may have or positions you may seek to take.

Alright, Commissioner Thorne, Commissioner Arrington, Commissioner Ellis.

Okay, I had a question if you back up to the overview slide. Sure. It says the removal of additional superior court judgeship. We asked for two, so just one will be removed?

Resources for a superior court. We, Commissioner, we did very well to get one additional judgeship brought forward. So Fulton County, the Atlanta Judicial Circuit was number four. There's administrative office of courts does a caseload ranking of all the judicial circuits based, and so Fulton County was a fraction of a percentage point behind the third ranked, so we were number four on the list. However, because it was such a tiny fraction and because we have it has been twenty years since an additional judgeship was added circuit.

We were able to talk with our delegation members. Representative Todd Jones brought forward this legislation, so we were very grateful to get one additional judgeship. We certainly would have loved to have two, but considering where we were in the ranking, we were very grateful to have one brought forward.

Thank you. Thank you for that explanation. And then on the Family Justice Center, of course they're gonna pass it because it requires no state funding. What is the funding looking like if we were to have a Family Justice Center?

I think that there are, funding is not contemplated in the legislation as it is. There are organizations in some counties these have been brought forward and funded by the county government. In some cases they have been grant funded or philanthropically funded. And so those are certainly still options on the table. I haven't personally participated in all those discussions about efforts to advocate for funding.

But there are nonprofit organizations working in that space, and I think that's one of the ideas. I wouldn't be surprised if Fulton hear that might be brought forward as a budget request in the future, but obviously that's something that you all would have to determine based on resources.

And I believe there are counties that do have these already like Chatham County

Yes. Places like that. Cobb County, I believe Macon Bibb has one, and so in some cases those have been grant funded and in some the county is helping fund it.

And then on the nonpartisan elections Yes. What I know it's Cobb, Gwinnett, Fulton, DeKalb, is it Clayton is the Okay. Fifth And I just wanna express, you know, I've been on threads with people for and people against. It doesn't it seems to cross party lines, people for it or against it. But I was told that the school board was also gonna even though our school board is already nonpartisan, COBS is not. Mhmm. So is the school board office one of them in the bill or did you not?

I believe that's a separate piece of legislation. Is that correct, Jasmine?

Yes. I'll have to double check. Don't understand. But I'll Okay.

Because a lot of people in Cobb are like, we want our school board to be partisan. And they wanna know where their elected stands. I just wanna make it clear on both sides of the aisle there's people that don't approve of this. But that's it. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Arrington? Thank you, Commissioner Thorne, because I, too, was confused about the overview saying that it was removal of funding for additional Superior Court judge. Then

Can you show me do we have Oh, okay. So on this legislative overview, thank you for addressing that. So what we're seeing here is that the Senate budget that the Senate adopted, the House passed a budget that included funding for our judgeship, the Senate passed a budget that removed it. So now they're going to go into conference committee and negotiate that. And we have talked with our delegation members who are represented on the conference committee to ask if they could please advocate for the, our one superior judgeship in the final budget.

Okay so now I'm even more confused because I thought that that was what I heard the first time but then I thought when Commissioner Thorne just asked that you were saying that this was removal of the second judgeship.

No, I may have been confused in my response because Commissioner Thornton asked me about, originally our position was seeking two judgeships, we got one. And there was

Well we've almost got one. We

haven't gotten any yet.

We got legislation introduced for one and we got funding introduced for one that was at the end removed. Two was never on the table this year. Does that make sense? So the funding that was removed is for the one and we are now seeking to advocate for that to be back in in the final adopted budget for one judgeship. I apologize for any

confusion. No, no problem. Look, might be my hearing. All right, well thank you, that helps clear that up. Hopefully we can get that funding, but I don't know how that helps. Does that include the funding for the DAs and public defenders that go with it?

That is part of their, it's a requirement that they have all of that.

All right, thank you.

Yes sir.

Commissioner Ellis.

Thanks Mr. Chair. We'll rely on you and our team to get that funding taken care of. We look forward to a positive report back on that. I just want to go back to those two property tax things.

Sure.

The competing ones that are out there and just sort of just a point of clarification.

Sure.

The House bill is as proposed. The only thing that that's really doing is it's mandating the floater across the state, correct? It's not eliminating homestead, I mean it's not eliminating homesteaded property taxes. This appears to be, am I correct on that?

Yes, so the elimination was in one of the first versions, so now that's not on the table anymore.

So the House bill that was passed would mandate the floater which is in essence this is what was passed through the referendum and if people were opted in they would have had the ability to potentially have this alternative sales tax replacement, right? Yes. So we have a floater, so if Atlanta has a floater, APS does not and so forth. But anyway that's that, right? So that's not a, that's what's adopted. That generally should be pretty revenue neutral to us. Fulton County government.

Yes Fulton County government. I don't think the schools would agree but

No no no I'm just talking about Fulton County government perspective. And then three eighty two does not eliminate homestead property taxes either. It phases in like an increased homestead exemption amount.

Yes, over five years.

Over five years. And the first is, what is this 10% representative of? This is the value of the property?

Yeah, so in 2027 it'll be 10% of the home set of properties Taxable that were assessed

value or the value overall of the, like what does it mean? You got 40% off and then you start. So it's like in an exemption, ours is 50, right? Sixty, sixty or 60 with the

60 base.

Yeah the base is 60.

Base is 60?

Yes.

Okay. So this would be that 60 gets replaced with 10% of the property value? Or 10% of the taxable assessed value?

No, it would be on top of that. So we would still have our base at 60,000 and then in 2027 an additional 10% would

go As an addition towards to existing exemptions.

Yes, so this is on top of all of our exemptions. And like Jessica said, we have some of the I highest understand that, okay.

But what is 10% of what? Of the taxable assessed?

I mean typically that is how homesteads are applied against 40%, So not the total you take your

Or is this is this an amorphous exemption this and then it's phased in ten, twenty, thirty, forty, 50% over time. Necessarily I understand what that meant. But House proposal, obviously these have sort of got, they've gotta negotiate themselves out. And on the cap, the three eighty two would have some sort of financial impact. Eleven sixteen for us minimal to none.

But three eighty two also has this provision in there relating to sales tax. Sales tax capped at 5%. This previous categorical restriction on 3 to 5 pennies removed, does that mean that certain taxes are no longer associated to that local cap?

Yes, so for example, MARTA and MOHS, those are exemptions. So right now they're included in our cap but in this bill they would be excluded. So there's a few exemptions in the bill, I don't remember all of them but those were the two that were relevant to us out of the list that I saw.

And this is, in the local sales tax cap, this would include school city, schools as well?

Yes. Okay. Right now the state has a 4% cap and then the local governments have 5%. That's saying that that's still gonna So be that total nine

would the cap increase or no?

No.

The cap would increase.

It'll just

be But what does how the the restriction cap rates on three of the five pennies do? I don't even, what does it mean it's excluded?

It'll be how the pennies are included in that cap. So for us, towards our cap, we can exclude Marga and most.

And a that would five be cent cap, but is it, do you still have to fall under a 9% in the aggregate?

Yes, that would still have to be the total.

Then what's the purpose of removing it? I mean if the state has four and you're capped at nine, what's the purpose of their removal of the restriction, not following that?

I think it would help other counties more than us that don't currently use all of their pennies. So we have ours already maxed out. A lot of counties don't. About 7%.

Okay, me just ask my question a different way. When you're saying it's not part of it, it's just like that's a non starter for us because, or it's irrelevant for us because it's still subject to the cap. They're just excluding it as a potential how you get to the 5¢. But if they're outside of it and then 4 plus two plus three, then you're there, right?

Yeah, I think bottom line, I don't think this helps.

I mean I guess if we are, to the extent our folks are in there, whatever, I would say if we could advocate for counties having a transportation tax that they have the ability to go in excess of the cap. That's where this matters, right? If you got it out of that and gave us the ability to apply a penny. Because that's where it's, we've got MARTA in some cities sapping up stuff on most and other then you don't have the ability to execute county wide to fund that gap which is probably about 60,000,000 with, if you're replacing all homestead stuff. But this isn't a $400,000,000 or $200,000,000 SAW because it's not eliminating homestead property tax.

This is actually a number that's Thank a lot lower than

you for clarifying that, Commissioner. And you're right, I was speaking in part to the earlier And again, since we're going into conference committee, just being cautious. But the

Yeah I mean whatever's gonna play out is gonna play out, right? But I just wanna point out that it's not, neither option is this doomsday scenario that $400,000,000 is going away or $250,000,000 worth going away for us. It's impactful but it's not as impactful as the

risk you're right. We

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying that and apologies for creating any confusion. Again, I think there are still concerns about caps for both revenue, both and budget. And again, the solution of a sales tax option does not really help Fulton County because we are constrained with three cities having the most. I think there's only four cities in the state that have them and three are in Fulton County.

Okay, Commissioner Arrington.

Thank you Commissioner Ellis because I was just gearing to come back and say hey, wait a minute, you just told us that this is gonna take 242,000,000 out of our budget.

Commissioner Arrington, I I apologize. I was addressing the earlier version. And again, these same

It's sponsors happening real time.

Morphed a lot. So apologies for any confusion on that.

Alright, well that, I mean that's, you know, thank It

does change

That's a big deal because I was like, hey, if we're about to lose a third of our operating budget then

It's very significant.

That's a five alarm fire. But if we're not then it's

It's much

It may be smoke but no actual smoke.

There may be smoke and again there are still some, we're just still concerned going into conference committee about what those implications could be.

Thank you.

Alright. Anything else? No. Mister chairman, did you want to take a position on March?

Yes. That is the what I was saying that I had talked to the well, not talked to. Personally said that I would be talking with the governor and and asking him to veto it. But I think it'd be much stronger if the board would go on record, asking the governor to veto it.

I I make the motion to for us to take, opposition to three sixty nine.

You mean to ask the governor to veto it? It's already been approved.

Asking the governor to veto it. Yes.

Okay. Seconded by commissioner Barrett. Any discussion at all? Let's vote please.

And the vote is open.

This is where I mean, is know, this is where not having enough people and having a vacated seat really affects us. Now we have three votes and we can't oppose or ask the governor to veto this.

And the motion fails three ayes, zero nays.

I hear you and I agree Commissioner Arrington. It's unfortunate that we don't have everybody sitting here but I would happily sign on to a letter with you. Sounds like you would as well, Commissioner Arrington.

Yes, I'll send my own letter.

Yeah, and then I'm happy to do whatever works best because I agree this is I mean I will just say on the record that it's so clear that this is targeting the Metro Atlanta area counties, which are heavily Democratic. And if this was a good idea for county commissions and county electeds across the state, then it should be administered across the state on all counties. The idea that they've selected a handful of metro counties makes it just so abundantly clear what this is about. It is not about what's best for the citizens, it is about what's best for one particular party.

And not only are they democratic counties, they're majority black counties. It's not only partisan but it's also racial.

Alright, anything else? Miss Corbett?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, that's all for today.

Continue, Madam Clerk.

Bottom of page six, twenty six, zero one nine three, discussion. Utilization of funds committed for improving jail detention staffing and detention staffing hiring process sponsored by commissioner Ellis.

Commissioner Ellis.

Thanks, mister chair. I'll try to be fairly direct on this and really the purpose of me putting this on here is it's something that we've made a priority as a board both from a posture standpoint as also from a material, from a funding standpoint. And I'd like for this to be more on a public radar and something that we track and report on. So just sort of a recap, back in the October timeframe or really early part of last year I'd asked for some sort of reporting about what people that were employed in the Sheriff's Department actually did and there was a report that was ultimately provided back in October which said that there were eight seventy eight total people working in the Sheriff's Department at that point in time. Five fifty eight of those were in deputy sheriff's roles or detention officer roles and of those amounts, three seventy four were doing full time jail detention work which was what the purpose of the inquiry was.

It took multiple months to kind of nail that down but that was what was ultimately reported back. There were additional 185 deputies that were working in non jail operations, 56 of those in a category of general law enforcement, in other words not courts or that sort of stuff but general law enforcement, and seven of those in background and recruitment. In the January operational report showed that we had, or the December January operational report, end of year report, showed that we had 149 vacancies in the Sheriff's Department. We, in the context of the budget, approved roughly a footprint of $20,000,000 to address and get to a net target of 200 new detention officers, net new, for this year. Did, that funding was lined up with two principal things.

Number one, we engaged, we entered into an engagement with a group called Walls Group which is one of the top recruiting firms in the country that's had a lot of success working with other entities which were struggling with hiring detention officers. They bring sort of a different look in terms of recruiting process and more intensity to it as well as just appropriate candidates in the door and employed and had multiple success stories around the country. And this was brought to us not by a third party, actually not by us. It was brought to us actually I believe by the Federal Monitor. So that contract was entered into, they were engaged and they have been engaged and then there was also a footprint of money, substantive footprint of money, I want to say roughly about $17,000,000 or so that was allocated for paid benefits and retention bonuses and those numbers were derived by looking at pay from similar entities around the metro area and to ensure that we were on par with that.

That has been out there, it was approved. Again the target is a net new of 200. I guess sort of my question would be anybody who would know it right now is just where are we at in terms of that net new 200 target today. And then my ask would be that this be a measure that we include going forward on our operational reports that we provide and that be a consistent measure so that we have some line of sight into it. It's an important issue.

It's something we said is very important. We all know it's important. We want to see substantive movement on it. And it's also a significant footprint of money that if it's not gonna be used, we clearly have other needs in the county that we can redeploy those funds to. Commissioner Arrington? So my question then is, so my question, I don't know, to does anyone on the staff know right now kind of what that, if we don't and we have to get it, that's fine, but where we're at on that net new to 200 target?

Point of order, Mr. Chair. Thank you Commissioner Ellis for bringing this up. You are absolutely right. This is very important. But isn't this appropriate for executive session? When we did this contract and we did all of this, we did all of

this We didn't take executive session.

I don't know that we need to be discussing the number of vacancies. Hold on one second. Hold on one second. I don't know that we need to be discussing the number of vacancies in the sheriff's department out here in the public. Agreed.

No. I, Well, I will disagree with both of you. We have a report that's provided to us every month. It's in our operational report that has a number of vacancies. That's public record. We approve these contracts and these amount coming out of executive session. That's public record. I think it is fair and appropriate that we should be able to report on the progress of where we're at with that. I'm not asking for anything more than that. It's just where we at in terms of that net new target.

Okay. Where is

So do we have that number? That's all I'm looking for, just that number.

The net new?

Yeah. It's 13 net new hires since November. All right, thank you.

Commissioner Arrington? Just, wait, just a minute. I'm sorry. Commissioner Thorne.

Must be invisible or something. Yes, we have had lengthy discussions in executive session that we can't reveal out here what we discussed. I take that very seriously. But I did check with the county attorney. The Walls Group, I can say, I've made sure I could say this in public.

They had 129 people that they sent and only three of those were hired. On the sheriff's call yesterday, the sheriff mentioned that there were 7,000 people that applied for our detention jobs with the Walls Group. The Walls Group vets those 7,000 applicants and I assume out of those 7,000, only 129 were approved or passed to go on to the sheriff, but only three were hired. I just wanted to make that comment that we as commissioners are taking this very seriously. We just can't discuss everything out in public. Thank you.

Carissa Barrett.

Well,

my understanding from the meeting with the sheriff's office yesterday was that some of those folks I think are still in the funnel. So I don't think they're all, the remainder beyond the three are completely off the table, that's my understanding. Because there's a whole bunch steps that they go through. But also I think where we discussed this, mean if I step out of line feel free to cut me off. But I think one of the other important notes is that the Walls Group was very successful in Philadelphia in large part because before they were brought on Philadelphia conducted their salary survey and analysis and benefits analysis and put together a really strong package to get people not only recruited but to have people stay, to recruit and retain people.

And we seemingly have done this a little bit of out of order. I know we're working on that information for us and discussing what should be put in place but they've been trying to recruit people without that package so I think it limits the interest, that's my understanding. So think it's great for us to know the numbers. I have no objection to us getting more information on a regular basis with what the numbers are but I think we do need to have some context around what the issues are because what I don't want to see happen is this turn into a blame game. We should all be working together to make sure that the jail is appropriately staffed.

And so if the purpose of putting the numbers on there is to start playing the blame game, I think we're barking up the wrong tree. But we do need to make progress and we have invested that money and that money needs to be well spent.

Commissioner Ellis?

What gets measured gets focused and I just ask that we put that on there and have it be a consistent measure. One thing I also failed to note is that there are a 100 additional people that are working in the jail as of today, right? That were not there as of what was that November time frame or October? When did we start the process with with Allied? Oh, yes sir. End of last year. I think it was probably in December before they started adding people. Okay. So that that came through commitment of 8,000,000. So there are a 100 additional people that seemingly we could find that were willing to work and they they're in our jail working today.

Correct? Yes sir. All right, thank you.

Now Commissioner Thorne.

Thank you. I think Commissioner Ellis did mention that in January we approved paid benefits and retention bonuses for new hires. I also wanna comment that the sheriff did close Alpharetta Jail to divert that staff as he should to the priority of Rice Street. With that being said, the Alpharetta citizens are having to pay $1,200,000 to reopen that jail for their public safety purposes. So we do have cities that are coming in and filling the gap.

I went to visit that jail a week before last. They've had to totally renovate it because it was in shambles. But citizens and cities are trying to fill in the gap to give the sheriffs the extra staff that he needs.

Alright. Anything else? Alright. 12:08. Entertain a motion to recess for lunch and executive session where we may discuss items that refer to litigation, personnel. What's the other one?

Real

estate. Real estate.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Four yeas, zero nays.

Well, I don't know what I wanna do on Johnson Controls yet. That's why I'm waiting for okay. If you insist. Alright. Madam count, without objection, we've resumed the regular order of business. Madam clerk, items from executive session. Madam county attorney, rather.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mister chairman. Is there a motion to approve an amendment for JCI for increased maintenance and capital renewal at the detention centers in the amount of $6,000,787 and 80 I'm sorry, $6,787,088.

Motion to approve Mister John. Yes. Could you repeat that amount again?

The amount? Yeah. Is that not right? $6,787,088.

Thank you.

Alright. Motion to approve by commissioner Thorne, seconded by commissioner Barrett. Please vote.

And the vote is open.

That's

And the motion passes. Five yeas, zero nays.

Any other items that come before us?

Yes. There a motion to approve a clinical grade cleaning at the jail facilities in the amount of $543,780.51 with Cotton Commercial USA Incorporated.

Do have a motion to approve by commissioner Barrett, seconded by commissioner Ellis.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes. Five yeas, zero nays.

Any other matters that come before us?

No further items.

Alright. No other matters that come before us today. We are adjourned. Thank you very much.

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