Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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or 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.

All right, good morning everyone and welcome to the first regular meeting of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in March. Today is March strike day, August 5th, 2026. It is 10.03 AM. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Chairman Rob Pitts.

Present.

Commissioner Bridget Thorne. Present. Commissioner Bob Ellis.

Present.

Commissioner Dana Barrett. Present. Commissioner Marvin Arrington, Jr. Vice Chair Khadija Abdul-Rahman. Present. Mr. Chairman, you have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Please rise for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let us pray. Almighty God, we give you thanks for this day, for you continue grace and mercy upon our lives. We ask now that you bless our leaders, give them your wisdom and direction. It is in your name that we humbly pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Continue, Madam Clerk.

On page two, consent agenda. 260431, adoption of the consent agenda. All matters listed on the consent agenda are considered routine by the county commission and will be enacted by one motion. No separate discussion will take place on these items. If discussion of any consent agenda item is desired, the item will be moved to the first regular meeting agenda for separate consideration.

Any items? Commissioners? All right, entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda. A motion to do so by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yays, zero nays. On page six, first regular meeting agenda, 260445, adoption of the first regular meeting agenda. Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we have two items to be removed from today's regular meeting agenda. On page eight, bottom of page eight, 260453, human resource management. requests approval of memorandum of agreement with the University of Georgia Research Foundation to provide the Certified Public Manager's Training Program. This item has been requested to be removed. And at the bottom of page nine, 260416, Commissioner Barrett has requested to move her item, request approval of a resolution to increase economic opportunity on the west side.

Okay, why was 0453 removed?

Mr. Chairman, I had a conversation with Mr. Herman this morning and it was removed due to the need to look at the University of Georgia Research Foundation. and any procurement rules that may center around that. Previously, this agreement has been with the University of Georgia through the Board of Regents and not through the foundation, and so that was flagged by the county attorney's office, and we needed to further review it.

So it's being removed for further review, and it's coming back?

That would be the plan, yes, once we determine whether it should come back as a memorandum of agreement or as a sole source procurement if it must be through the University of Georgia Research Foundation, which is, my understanding, is a nonprofit versus a governmental entity.

So it will appear on a future agenda. Yes, sir. And the one on page 90416...

That was my agenda item from last meeting that I had asked to have held. I need further information. I did not intend for it to come back this time. That was an oversight on my part, so I apologize.

All right. Any other items? All right. Motion to adopt as amended by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, six yays, zero nays. 260446, ratification of minutes. First regular meeting post-agenda minutes, July 15th. First regular meeting minutes, July 15th. And special call meeting post-agenda minutes, August 3rd, 2026.

All right, a favorable motion by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Thorne.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, six yays, zero nays. 260447, Presentation of Proclamations and Certificates. The first proclamation is recognizing Talaya Parker Appreciation Day sponsored by Commissioners Errington and Barrett.

Family and friends want to join us as well. Welcome, welcome.

Come on.

Come on, family.

Gather around both sides. Somebody can step in and take photos if you want. We'll send you the

Yeah, come on. We got plenty of good room. It is truly a pleasure to be able to present this proclamation today to Mr. Leah Parker. I met her, wow. at least 20 years ago. I don't want to date either one of us too far back. But she has been working in the community for a while and continues to work all throughout North Fulton and Fulton County and the state of Georgia is better for all of her contributions. The proclamation reads as follows, whereas to lay a Parker's commitment to community advocacy began at just 12 years old as a candy striper for the VA hospital. But his deepest roots stem from her own lived experience with instability. And whereas to lay a Parker found that Parker place legacy incorporated after her personal reality of being unhoused. The nonprofit organization is a beacon of restoration, hope, and direct relief for families and women navigating systemic crises. And whereas Talaya has mentored over 2,000 children, equipped over 1,000 unserved youth and families with life skills and financial literacy, blankets seniors with care in nursing homes, and she sponsored an orphan in Africa. And whereas during the COVID-19 pandemic, Talaya partnered with Fulton County to provide low income residents with food, vaccine opportunities, child care and emergency services. And whereas Talaya Parker has been recognized globally for her tireless output of love and is a proud recipient of the United States Presidential Lifetime Service Award. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners recognizes to Leah Parker for her leadership in our community and advocacy for her fellow citizens and does hereby proclaim today, Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, as to Leah Parker Appreciation Day in Fulton County.

Thank you, everyone. First, I want to thank my friends and family for coming out to support me during this moment, and also the commissioners that I've worked with, campaigned for, and with in the community. And Marvin, Dana, I so appreciate you guys' friendship. And I am so proud to be a Georgian and a part of Fulton County, where I am a part of a community who, like my mentor said, will get into good trouble. Thank you.

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The last proclamation is recognizing Destiny Drake Appreciation Day sponsored by Vice Chair Abdul Rahman and Chairman Pitts.

With Destiny Drake and her family and friends, please join us. This is a very special moment in Fulton County. Ms. Drake is what I call somebody who is definitely walking in her ordained footsteps. Whereas Destiny Drake is a faith-driven community leader, educator, entrepreneur, and servant who has served as executive director of His Word Outreach Ministries International, incorporated since October 2025, And whereas before her current role, Destiny founded Zion Academy of Georgia, a private Christian school in Atlanta with an emphasis on academic excellence, character development, and individualized education in an exclusive learning environment for students of all abilities. And whereas Destiny was driven by that same commitment, to the community when she envisioned Culture ATL, a faith-based, family-friendly, public viewing experience held at Greenbrier Mall during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Her efforts brought a world-class experience to a community that historically has had limited access to events of this scale, to increase exposure to the game of soccer and the cultures it unites, and to create economic opportunities for local small businesses, artists, vendors, and community organizations. And whereas under Destiny's leadership, His Word Outreach Ministries International became one of the few faith-based organizations to obtain an official FIFA public viewing license for a community event through Culture ATL. And whereas Destiny successfully navigated international licensing, government permitting, strategic fundraising, sponsorship development, volunteer coordination, and community partnerships to bring the event to life, The result was a celebration that reflected the best of Atlanta, its diversity, hospitality, entrepreneur spirit, and commitment to community. And I want to take a point, a personal privilege at this point, to tell you when I found out what Destiny did and I asked her, how did you get on the phone with FIFA? A woman of color in Southwest Atlanta that wanted to fight for her community. What made you think that you could do what you did? She said it was God. She didn't need anybody else to license her for that. So I am taking a special privilege of letting her know by her actions, she shows that just with a little faith, all things can be done. It is with humble appreciation. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners recognize Destiny Drake for connecting faith, education, entrepreneurship, and community service that creates lasting impact and does hereby proclaim Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, As Destiny Drake Appreciation Day in Fulton County, Georgia, would you please put your hands together for this phenomenal woman of God?

Well, I just want to say thank you, first of all, to Vice Chair and all of you who made this day possible. I want to give a special thank you and recognition to my friends, my family, Jamel and Charlize Lee, and my daughter, Zola. But I want to say a special thanks to the Lees because someone has to fund these things. And they did not want that type of recognition, but they were there in the background. And this could not have been possible apart from God, apart from them as well. And so I want to say thank you to everybody here. And we just we just got to keep pushing for our communities. That's what it's about. It's not about the talk. It's about the walk. Thank you.

On page seven, public hearings, 260448, public comment. Citizens wishing to participate in public comment will be allowed to appear in person or may choose to participate virtually via Zoom video conferencing by registering on the county website, www.FultonCountyGA.gov. Priority for public comment will be given to Fulton County citizens and those individuals representing businesses or organizations located within Fulton County. Speakers will be granted up to two minutes each. The public will not be allowed to yield or donate time to other speakers. The public comment portion of the meeting will not exceed 60 minutes. In the event the 60 minute time limit is reached prior to public comments being completed, the public comment portion of the meeting will be suspended and public comment will resume at the end of the meeting. Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we have received 11 speaker cards. Will the first five speakers please come forward? Hilary Phillips, Myrna Clayton, Jade Gonzalez, LA Pink, and Janet Hill.

Hi, my name is Hillary and I'm here to tell Cancer's story. This is Cancer. He entered Fulton County Animal Services on July 7th, 2024 as a court case dog. He was only a puppy. Cancer and the seven other dogs that he came in with had been abused and were now being held at the animal shelter as live evidence pending their abuser's trial. Like all court case dogs, Cancer was housed in the back of the shelter, hidden away from the public, not eligible for adoption. His only interactions with humans coming from staff and volunteers. Notes from Cancer's first few weeks in the shelter were overwhelmingly positive, describing him as a very sweet puppy who's friendly and easy to leash. By June 2025, the notes start to change a bit. Now Cancer is restless in his kennel, bouncing off the walls. In November 2025, volunteers note that his mental health is deteriorating. Finally, on July 22nd, 2026, over two years after he entered the shelter, cancer's abusers faced his day in court and cancer was granted his freedom. But this is not a happy story. By that time, cancer's mental health had deteriorated too far, causing unsafe behaviors. He was deemed not safe for placement. Just a few days later, after staff and volunteers were granted the time to say goodbye, Cancer was humanely euthanized. But there is nothing humane about this situation. Two other dogs that came in with Cancer were also deemed not safe and euthanized. They sat in this shelter for 745 days while their abuser was free. This situation is tragic, but it was also avoidable. Cancer's life could have been saved if the county attorney's office would have filed a simple piece of paper, a cost of care petition. These are already well established in the law and call for the owner, or in this case the abuser, to pay monthly for the care of the animal. If they refuse or fall delinquent, the animal gets released. Currently, due to the county attorney's office's failure to file these petitions, taxpayers are paying approximately $25 a day for court case dogs. In Cancer's lifetime, this means that taxpayers spent over $18,000 to essentially hold him hostage. I'm pleading with you to not let cancer's life mean nothing. Please create some good out of this story by demanding that the county attorney's office begin filing cost of care petitions for court case dogs immediately.

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Myrna Clayton. I come to you to thank you and also to make a request. I am an impactor of lives and also a changer of communities. I am a professional singer, commissioned by the U.S. State Department to represent American music at U.S. embassies around the world. I am founder and executive director of ShowAbility, which supports talented performing artists with disabilities, and I'm also founder and CEO of Bridgewell International Cultural Exchange. I want to thank you for being the only county within the 159 counties of Georgia to actively represent the disability community with an ADA coordinator that reports to the DCRC. No other county does that and you guys actively support and I thank you for supporting the ADA this past month. It was a huge support and we thank you. Also want to thank you for being the only county that contributes to the arts in the way that you do. Again, you are the leading county that supports the arts, and we're grateful for that. I want to ask you to consider a public-private partnership in Fulton County, South Fulton County, with ShowAbility, for a fully inclusive and accessible performing arts center. We'd love it to be in South Fulton, south of 20. And that is something that does not exist in the entire state of Georgia. Again, Fulton County can lead in this area. Would love to speak with someone that we could talk to about having that potentially in place by the end of 2028. Thank you so very much.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, and Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jade Gonzalez. I'm a Zone 4 Fulton County resident, and I'm also a volunteer at Fulton County Animal Services, a rescue dog owner of two, and I have the unique privilege of seeing firsthand the incredible work being done by county staff, volunteers, and foster families. I am also seeing the reality of a system that is overwhelmed, the unimaginable suffering of more animals than I can count, and cruelty cases that would make most people in this room ill. In 2024, over 9,000 animals entered the shelter, including 6,000 dogs. Intake continues to rise, and county leadership projects that FCAS is on pace to exceed 12,000 animals annually. Fulton was built to house approximately 375 dogs, yet the shelter is routinely over 30 to 60 dogs over human capacity. Adoption, fostering, and rescue are essential, but they are reactive solutions and one that our community is exhausted with. If we truly want to reduce overcrowding, improve public safety, and lower costs, we need to invest more in prevention. Our neighboring county has already recognized this. DeKalb County has invested over a million dollars annually to expand free spay and neuter services, mobile veterinary care, and community outreach because they understand that prevention costs are far less than managing pet overpopulation. Finally, spay and neuter cannot be our only strategy. I encourage the Commission to explore stronger regulations on irresponsible backyard breeding practices. While our shelter struggles with record intake, puppies continue to be bred and sold for profit every single day. And that burden is passed along to Fulton County taxpayers like myself. We truly cannot adopt our way out of this crisis. As I say all the time in the shelter, I can't save every dog, but if I can save a couple, my time was well spent in that room. I urge you to invest in expanded access to affordable spay and neuter services, increased surgical capacities, and responsible breeding policies to create a more sustainable future for Fulton County animals and our taxpayers. Thank you all for your time and for caring for the people of Fulton County.

Good morning. I'm Ms. Hill, as an advocate to stop de-theft crimes, and I appreciate your opportunity to come here this morning to give an update and also to remind you of your responsibility and your duty to resolve these issues related to criminal activity. Rob Pitts, we never received a response from your office, and we gave the information in February. I want to go back and give you a little history to tell you that you already have assistance in this matter. In 2012, there was a $25 billion settlement in federal court with the Department of Justice. In Georgia, the state of Georgia received $800 million of that money to resolve some of these issues. And I presented this information to the former commissioner, Mo Ivory, in August of last year. So you can check her email and see all the information that I provided. Additionally, three community citizens put together a proposal that became law. So you cannot say that you don't know what to do or you don't have a responsibility to do something. Three citizens sat down, we went forward with a different agency, we sat down with them, and that resulted in a new state law. And I was one of them. So you absolutely have a responsibility and a duty to do something about this. We have a clerk of the court who's also over real estate, who's personally knowledgeable, along with the former commissioner, Mo Ivory, who's personally knowledgeable of this issue. We demand that you put this issue on the agenda so that we can work together to.

Yeah. I really don't understand the deed fraud that's going on. That's one thing if I meet with Shed, you can kind of get an explanation of what their complaint is, what's happening, what are we doing about it. And could potentially government officials be profiting. I think they're saying that they're allowing it and people are buying up these deeds.

That's terrible.

Okay.

So accountability should not just matter in certain counties. As we have seen in Towns County, the governor jumped right on it and took action to the sheriff that has same similarities to the sheriff of Fulton County. Now three commissioners up here put in a request for the community to get in contact with the governor as we all did. No word. No action. We have not received any information about anything that's happening with all of the incompetence and malfeasance that's going on over here at the jail. We're going to continue to shove this down you guys' throat because we're watching in other counties things happening, things taking place. And I know it takes time. But Fulton County is one of the biggest counties and the worst when it comes to fraud, when it comes to corruption, when it comes to voter fraud. I know you don't want to hear this. I know you don't want to believe it. But, baby, it was used against you. So it's true. It is real. And we have to do something about it. Now, we continue to just allow things to take place, continue people to come in with their extra activities that they got going on. I don't know what Dana done seen or heard all of a sudden. She's writing letters. We see that Mayor Dickhead is trying to do some sneaky underhanded things, and she has got herself involved. But at the end of the day, it's a little late for her because she seen and knew all this stuff before they got you out of office. Because trust me, that was a plan. And Mo Ivy was in it.

Last six speakers in Assembly Hall, please come forward. Robby Caban, Maggie McCollum, Maggie Goldman, Steven Dingle, Maria Guardio, and Mike Johnson.

Well, I want to express my support for the speakers that came prior, especially the jail dogs. That's terrible. $18,000 was actually referenced. Additionally, deed fraud, crime, please listen to Ms. Hill. Additionally, the sheriff, please listen to LA Pink. They've both been here consistently. Now I'd like to address the animal control issue that I continue to, at my own expense, coming here over and over. For more than a decade, Fulton County entrusted animal services, including historically animal control to Lifeline Animal Project, a private NGO paid by tax dollars. Ten years later, what are the results? And where is this board's oversight? Animal control was ultimately... excuse me, removed from lifelines management. New taxpayer funded shelter was almost immediately full, actually it was full, cost us $40 million. And serious questions regarding enforcement, prevention, overcrowding, whistleblowers and contractor oversight remain unanswered. That's why we continue to ask for an independent forensic audit, not an animal review or internal review. Non-profit and tax-exempt status do not mean less scrutiny when an organization performs tax-funded governmental services affecting public health, public safety, and innocent animals. Again, this one case reference, $18,000. I still want an answer regarding former or current Chairman Pitts interrupting my public comment telling me, quote, no more derogatory comments about staff and referencing a, quote, situation you are much aware of. What rule did I violate and what rule applied equally? REGARDING COUNTY MANAGER DICK ANDERSON, IF HE WAS ACTING AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN IN THIS ANIMAL CONTROL MATTER UNDER REVIEW FOR ETHICS, WHY DID HE USE HIS COUNTY E-MAIL? AND WOULD AN ORDINARY RESIDENT RECEIVE THE SAME RESPONSE FROM THE APD CHIEF AS WELL AS THE MAJOR OVER THE ANIMAL CONTROL DIVISION, MAJOR DWYER? COMMISSIONER ERINGTON, VACANCIES REMAIN ON THE ANIMAL WELFARE BOARD. I ASKED YOU TO APPOINT ME TO AND I REMAIN WILLING TO SERVE. Ten years later, taxpayers deserve an independent accounting. Reform without accountability is incomplete. Please consider the independent forensic audit.

Good morning, my commissioners. I am Maggie McCollum, and today I come to just be thankful. Thankful for the season. I'm thankful that all of you have made it through this year. Thankful for each of you that made the right decision. And you have been made worthy of your seats to help the people. Thankful for the continued work on the Olympics. Some of us have made poor choices, done wrong, compromised, but after all, we can still agree to disagree. But God is rich in mercy because of the great love he has for us. I have been in the Olympics in the last few months. I have won nine medals. I have won eight golds, one silver. I have been to Locust Grove, I've been to Marietta High School, and I've been to Louisville, Kentucky. I will continue to work on the Olympics for the people of this city and county. We need to get involved to keep them healthy so we don't have to spend money down the road. Thank you, Commissioner Ellis. Thank you, Commissioner Pitt, Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner Barrett. Thank you, Commissioner Khadija Adu-Rahman. And thank you, Commissioner Marvin Arrington, Jr. Have a great day and thank you for listening.

Maggie Goldman, District 1. The commission needs to ensure that the Board of Assessors has an effective commercial real estate tax attorney to defend the $2.5 billion QTS value at the hearing if you want to ensure that they pay their fair taxes. A resolution asking the development authority not to pass any more tax breaks for data centers is nice, but unenforceable. If you actually care about collecting those taxes from those commercial properties, you would make sure that the taxes office is generating the correct values in the first place and stop accepting excuses for why they are not. I checked the job description for the detention officer this morning, still listed at $54,000, though in very tiny type here, it does say $10,000 sign-on bonus and 12, the transportation allowance. Why don't you just make it $60,000 for the posted description, like the sheriff asked for, and offer a $4,000 bonus? Is that because you don't want to bring up the current jail staff to $60,000 from 54, which you would have to do to be fair? That would be a better use of $3 million than replacing locks that they break in a week. When Mr. Herman let you all believe that $65,000 was competitive with the 54,000 plus the signing bonus and the transportation allowance, he neglected to tell you that when those jobs start at 60 or 70,000, they also come with an additional signing bonus on top of that, and or a take-home car, allowances for having a degree, wellness centers and gyms, other additional hourly benefits. So maybe you should make sure that your staff is giving you adequate information about whether or not you're competitive. And the bottom line is, if you're not hiring people with your current salary and benefits, I don't care how much higher it is than everybody else. You're not hiring the people that you need, and it's your job to make sure that you can get enough qualified applicants to apply and fill those 400 positions at the

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, and Board. I want to talk a little bit about communication. There have been several events going on in the county that I'm disappointed in some of you all. First of all, we saw the sheriff that had a public town hall recently, which I haven't seen him do a town hall maybe ever, but no commissioner was present. I found that to be Basically, asinine. One of you all should have been president. Two of you all. Bo Ivory and Helen Willis were there, and they're not even elected yet. So I just found that to be disappointing that no commissioner showed up for a town hall regarding our Fulton County Sheriff's Office. Secondly, we all see the debacle that's going on with you all's vote. against the Atlanta Tads. And I'm not mad at you all's decision. That's not what I'm focused on. But the fact that the mayor, which I'm disappointed in him too, having to write a letter when y'all are right across the street from each other. And Commissioner Dana Baird, I have no issue with you writing back. But that just shows me there's a lack of relationship. And that's fine. Nobody has to get along or like each other. But it also shows that there's a lack of communication. I'm sure every one of you all and the mayor have each other's number. And the fact that we're exchanging important messages over letters, like I said, as if you can't walk across the street or call somebody on a cell phone, that just shows that there's a lack of communication that I don't find valuable or beneficial to the constituents that you all share. So I'm just here to say, no matter what your relationship is, no matter if you get along, you don't get along, don't like each other, talk. And frankly, I know that TADS is a sensitive subject and we all don't agree. Frankly, I have my reservations, but it seems like there was just a lack of communication. That vote may have been a little rushed. I'm still trying to figure out, I know Commissioner Ellis and Commissioner Ramon, you two are the only ones that are guaranteed to be here for the next two years. So I'm trying to figure out if that had anything to do with you all leading the legislation, which isn't a problem, but I'm just still working through that. But at the end of the day, Let's just have more conversation. There's nothing that can go wrong by talking. I just want to acknowledge that Dr. Eloisa Clemencius of Invest Atlanta came and asked for further conversation before the vote was taken, and obviously that wasn't obliged. But I just encourage you all to communicate, communicate, communicate. So I appreciate your service. I appreciate your time, and God bless.

Good morning, Maria Gaudio. First, a big thanks to this board. You have always had First Amendment advocacy, and we really appreciate it. This board has always allowed public comment to be spoken freely. It's been interesting, informative, and at times entertaining. I believe that you must have unimaginable tolerance to tolerate the goonie goonmeister herself, Maggie Goldman. What kind of imbecile, what kind of moron, what kind of abject idiot do you have to be to support the corrupt, negligent, incompetent, and deliberately vengeful Sheriff Pat LaButthead? Sheriff LaButthead took it upon himself to put a temporary protective order on L.A. Pink. What did she do? She called out his crimes that included over 30 deaths, amputations, and other injuries of jail inmates thus far. This has now gone to the federal appeals court and he is expected to lose. I just hope that our county tax dollars are not paying for this fiasco. If moron Maggie understood the job of commissioner, she would not be promoting his activities. Moron Maggie pulls ridiculous numbers out of the books and gaslights the public to blame this board of commissioners, especially Bridget Thorne, whose seat she is trying to steal this November. I've been to one of Moron Maggie's tax seminars where she couldn't make heads or tails of her own charts that she prepared. A blubbering idiot, a buffoon. While I'm on the subject of freedom of speech, our- Good morning, commissioners.

Mike Johnson, District 4, South Fulton. First of all, before I get all into what I'm about to say here, I want to go ahead and say this. This is not part of my original comment, but I'm going to spend about 10 seconds speaking on this. I don't blame any of you for not attending that dog and pony show that Pat Labatt had over there at Enon Church. I don't blame any of you. I wouldn't have attended it either. You speak about Helen Zenobia Lewis Willis, she's a puppet. She's a complete puppet for certain leaders within the city of Atlanta. So she's going to flock around and do what she's told to do by the city leaders in Atlanta. So thank you all for not wasting your time attending that dog and pony show that Pat Labatt, Gregory L. Pollock, and the rest of those individuals over there on Eden Road. I know I stepped on some toes. I intended to. I'd like to get into what I came up here. I want to thank each of you for considering the entire Fulton County when you all voted the way you voted on the tax allocation districts, a.k.a. the TADs. You know, the city of South Fulton is a city that stands on its own two feet, along with the other cities within Fulton County. And these cities depend greatly on their fair share of those dollars. So we appreciate that. I'm going to spend my last few seconds here speaking about Helen Zenobia Lewis Willis and the way she has abused our money with a company called Blue Enclave. This company is started by the wife of Mitzi Bickers. I don't know if that name ring a bell to you guys in here or not, but yeah, she's the one that was seeking some type of clemency from Donald Trump, where her wife started this fake company that LaVon Allen is also using her as a campaign manager, when thousands of our dollars were spent by Helen Zenobia Lewis Willis with this particular company. Taxpayer money. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, there are five speakers on Zoom.

Good morning, commissioners. The first person to speak is JW Granadier.

Good morning. Thank you for having me. I'm here to talk and support Janet Hill and the issues that we have with the foreclosures. And even though my home is in Alexandria, Virginia, and I've recently, as a pro se litigant, won my appeal against a law firm that's based out of Atlanta, Troutman Pepper Locke, over jurisdiction. My whole issue with my home started out of Atlanta, Georgia, and it started with the fraudulent lost assignments that were done by docs. And I didn't just have one, I had two done by docs, one putting the loan, the alleged loan into a LaSalle bank, AKA bank of America, and then moving it to Wells Fargo bank. But then 2012 rolled around and the, I got a letter from a lawyer stating that I had a right to apply for something with the settlement. The settlement didn't include Wells Fargo Bank. It only included Bank of America, which means that from that 2009 to at least that 2012, if not longer, because I've been denied all discovery from every single judge, pretty much. would have meant that my loan was on two different banks' balance sheet at the same time. We have a lot of problems with these papers. We have a lot of problems. And these, just those two, not counting the one that they used to foreclose on my home that I'm still in, in 2018, but that was done out of Florida by Auckland. But Auckland- Okay.

The next person to speak is Charmaine Crook. Charmaine Crook.

Good morning, everybody. Charmaine and board. Thank you all for being here today. I actually came in person June 3rd. I came to the meeting to bring awareness and concerns about my rape case and that I was the way it was being handled. And on June 3rd, my goal was to specifically ensure these issues could be examined independently, addressed appropriately, and prevented from happening to others. Instead, I was unlawfully arrested and tased by the exact officer who filed a fabricated arrest affidavit on me on May 8th and who I spoke to in person November 21st, 2025. And I'm now facing charges that I know are not supported by the claims the arrest affidavit states versus what was actually said because it does not coincide. These charges came after I was demanding a meeting with the chief of police because Alexandria Ward Henry was not fired or disciplined. She was promoted to lieutenant. I was met with a response. We are not supposed to talk to you. Then on that same day, fabricated charges followed. Because of the acts of Fulton County, I am still unjustified. I am still suffering because it's not okay what has happened to me or what I've been through. Now, everyone on this board agrees sexual assault is a serious crime. everyone also believes or perceptualizes no one is above the law. What has happened to me, this board should feel discomforted. I seek justice, accountability, and transparency, because where is it okay for an investigative detective to create false narratives such as I was claiming rape for abortion assistance to skirt till George's law, or when did it become okay to retaliate and weaponize the government against a victim, especially one like myself who has receipts. I look forward to peace, justice for Charmaine C. Crook, You all know what an antelitum is. Look for it because you all act like you care about stopping corruption. So let's prove it. Thank you all for your time. Justice for Charmaine C. Crook.

The next person to speak is Alonde LeGrand.

Good afternoon, Chairman, Commissions, elected officials, and members of the public. I stand before you as a representative and also a of one who supports Janet Hill, who was here earlier. My name is Alondra LeGrand, and I represent the Stop D-theft Organization. So thank you for allowing me to address this growing threat of D-theft, mortgage fraud, fraudulent property transfers, and wrongful displacement. D-theft is not simply a paperwork violation. It's a theft on families' homes, financial security, inheritance, and generational wealth. Victims are often seniors, heirs, grieving families, and homeowners with limited access to legal assistance. A fraud signature or fraudulent deed can be recorded quickly, but correcting that fraud can take years. During that time, the property may be sold, mortgaged, transferred, or even taken away from the rightful owner. Families facing more evictions are still trying to prove that they never agreed to surrender their homes. Judges must establish a coordinated system that prevents deed theft before the damage occurs and provides immediate relief when fraud is discovered. We respectfully urge this commission to recommend stronger identity verification for property transfers, immediate notifications to owners and heirs when a deed or mortgage is filed, expedited procedures to flag suspicious transactions, and dedicated fraud investigators and prosecutors, and a meaningful legal assistance for victims seeking to recover their property. Judges should also establish a centralized reporting and tracking system so courts can and recorders can law enforcement agencies and prosecutors can identify repeated offenders of fraudulent companies, dishonest notaries, and patterns involving multiple properties. The Stop Deep organization stands ready and would be honored to work with this commission. Georgia lawmakers and community leaders and public agencies develop practical solutions, strength protections, and educate homeowners and help achieve our shared goal of stopping deep theft. No homeless should be left. or a lifetime sacrifice because the system recorded a fraudulent document fastening it could protect the rightful owner. Enough is enough. Together we can protect home ownership, preserve generational wealth, hold offenders accountable, and restore confidence in the property recording system. Thank you.

The next person to speak is Gloria Bell. Gloria Bell. Gloria Bell. Okay. Next person to speak is Jen Simmons. Jen Simmons. Okay. Next person to speak is Robbie Huff.

Robbie Huff.

With that being said, this concludes the Zoom public comments.

All right, continue, Madam Clerk. Continuing on page 7, 260449, County Manager, public hearing to accept and consider public comments regarding modifications to the fee schedule for the Environmental Health Division of the Fulton County Board of Health.

So this is the public hearing on this? Is there a presentation or anything associated with it? Here's Dr. Plesche. Okay. Hold on one second. Is this the quarterly report or the public hearing? This is the public hearing. And then the quarterly report follows. Okay. Okay. All right, let me open the public hearing. Anyone from the public here to speak on the public hearing? First of all, they will hear from the good doctor. Maybe someone will show up. You have the floor.

Good to see you. Thank you very much. I'm Dr. Marcus Plush. I'm the district health director. As far as the environmental health fee changes, Dr. Brandon left, which is here with me. He is our environmental health director. We brought forward a number of changes to the fee schedule we have for environmental health. at the Board of Health meeting, the one before last. These are all changes mostly to look at charging fees for things that we've not charged fees for in the past. We did an analysis of what the other Metro Atlanta districts are doing around environmental health, and so the fee changes you have in front of them are a response to that. And if you have more detailed questions about that, either I or Dr. Lefkowitz can speak to them.

All right, Commissioners, any questions? On the fees. All right. Anyone from the public here to speak on the fees? Anyone from the public? All right. I'll close the public hearing. Any other comments?

Not on this matter.

All right. Thank you, sir. Next item.

Under Health and Human Services 260450 presentation, Fulton County Board of Health quarterly report.

Okay, good morning. Thank you very much for having me to give my first quarterly report to all of you. I'm Dr. Marcus Plescia. I'm the relatively new district health director for Fulton County. I've been here about nine months. I thought I'd start off, since it's my first time here, just saying a couple of things about myself. I'm a family physician. I practiced as a primary care physician for about 20 years. And then some time back, I've moved more into a career in public health. I've been in public health about 20 years as well. As far as relevant experience, I have been a local health director before. I was the health director in Charlotte, North Carolina about 10 years ago. I also have experience in Atlanta and Fulton County. My wife and I lived here back about 15 years ago when I was at the Centers for Disease Control running the national cancer programs. And then we were back just before the pandemic when I opened an office for the Association of State Health Officials here in Atlanta. I have my team here with me up in the back of the room. I'm not gonna go through everybody's here. I did wanna though recognize Brian Eason, who's the Deputy Health Director. So for my presentation today, I'd like to do two things. First of all, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time telling you where we see the Public Health Department going and the Board of Health going over the next few years. And I'll go through our strategic plan and a couple of other planning documents that we have. And then I'm gonna shift and just talk a little bit about some of the things that we're doing right now. I estimate this will take about five to 10 minutes. So let's go back to the beginning. There we go, okay, next slide please. So I thought I'd start off, we just completed a strategic plan for Fulton County Board of Health, but I'd take a couple of minutes to talk about that. These are the four main areas of focus on that plan. I think financial stability in Our People, which is human resources, are pretty straightforward. We are looking in financial stability around increasing some of the revenues that we can bring in, but most of it we're looking at being good stewards of public funds. The Our People section really looks at how we recruit and retain good people to come into the Board of Health. As far as community health planning and engagement and service delivery, I'm gonna talk a little bit about those two things in my next two slides. If I got the next slide, please. This is a diagram of a model that the Centers for Disease Control came up with some time ago, looking at how we go about providing mostly medical care services and dealing with health issues in the populations that we serve. And our strategic plan is very much based on this model. So if you look over at the left hand side, bucket number one, That's often what people think about when they think about health and public health. It's the services that we provide to people, traditional medical care services, a lot of that done by the health care system and by primary care entities in the health care system. We have those kinds of services in the health department. We intend for those services to remain very strong. What we'd like to do, though, over the next couple years is shift more and focus a little bit more on the items you see in bucket two and bucket three. We hope to really start looking at other more innovative ways we can do prevention in the community. And much of this will be more community-based outreach. You may hear from us in the future. We may have some ideas for you around how we might expand some of our community health nursing services. So rather than having nurses sitting in our facilities, which is very important, actually having those nurses and other staff go out into communities, work with pregnant women and children, as the state has done a lot of work around, work with the aging, work with a wide range of communities who it would be a benefit for us to be out in the community serving. And then bucket three is something I'll talk about a little bit more in the course of this presentation. But our charge is certainly to take care of individuals who come to look for us for our services. But our charge really is to improve the health of Fulton County, improve the health of everybody who lives in Fulton County. And a lot of that is sort of broader interventions. A lot of that is going to be communications and how we do communications going forward. Next slide, please. The second thing I wanted to talk over with you is, in addition to our strategic plan, we have another document that will be guiding us as we go forward, and that is our community health assessment and community health improvement plan. This is a process that all local health departments go through every four or five years. Our last one was in 2020, I think it started in 2020, just before the pandemic. And we are working with Georgia State Health Policy Center to help us do this community health assessment and community health improvement plan. Um, Basically, the process is that Georgia Health Policy Center helps us convene people from the community, from both service providers and community residents, to go over an analysis of what the health data for the county show, and then based on that, we highlight some of the core issues that we hope to focus on, and actually, it's not we, the advisory committee comes forward with those things, and then they will ultimately come out with a community health improvement plan, which is what I see guiding a lot of the direction that we take in the next three to four years. Also, I mentioned that we have a strategic plan we just published. When this community health improvement plan or implementation plan comes out, we will probably amend the strategic plan based on the community health implementation plan, because that should be our guiding light, the community health implementation plan, or the CHIP, as we call it. Next slide, please. So we are in the process of finishing up the community health assessment and putting forward the community health improvement plan, but I thought it might be useful for you all to have a little bit of a preview of what we're beginning to see are the issues that are going to emerge. And let me just run through these five or six things. One of the things we're seeing from this process is a lot more emphasis on chronic diseases and prevention of chronic diseases. Heart disease, stroke, and cancer, those are the conditions that kill people in Fulton County. And those are areas that we can prevent or at least keep people from developing those conditions early in their life. And these are issues that before the pandemic, I think were very prominent in community health assessments. Our attention shifted a little bit over the last five or six years, but what we're seeing now from the public is it's shifting back. So these are areas that you will see us working on very closely. Mental and behavioral health shouldn't be any surprise. That continues to be a significant issue and an issue that we do quite a bit of work in and that I know that the county has a lot of strong services in as well. And then finally, infectious disease continues to be a core concern of ours, particularly the HIV epidemic, Fulton and Atlanta really bear a huge brunt for, but also other sexually transmitted infections and then a wide range of other infectious diseases that we see crop up from time to time that I'll talk about a little bit further on. We also, our community health assessment also brought to light the need to really look at some of the vital conditions that underlie health. And so you see three examples of that here. Easy and affordable access to care, that is always in every community health assessment I have ever participated in, that has always been front and foremost. People are very concerned about that. I think we're making good progress in Fulton County, but that's something we'll continue to look at. And then basic needs for health and safety, things like food security, housing stability, and particularly the unhoused population. So these are sort of some underlying factors that we hope to begin to shift and think a little bit about as we move forward with our work. Next slide, please. Okay, so I thought I'd close out just talking a little bit about some of the things we're doing now. We're doing a lot, so I couldn't prioritize everything, so we've just chosen four or five things that we thought would be interesting for you to hear a little bit more about. Next slide, please. First one is very specific to you, the opening of the new clinical site in North Fulton. Thank you very, very much. That came from you all. That's a beautiful site. Our staff love it. And I think it's also going to improve our opportunity to offer services to communities in North Fulton. We will provide all of the services we provide everywhere else at that facility. Couple things I thought I would highlight. We did not have access to vital records in North Fulton before, we do now, so when people need birth or death, birth or death certificates, they'll have easy access to those through that office. The public needs those documents, but particularly funeral directors need those documents when people die. The second area of services that I thought I would mention is access to vaccinations, and we're interested in people getting vaccinated for a wide range of things, but particularly travel vaccinations. And so for people living in North Fulton, I'm not clear on how easy it is to get those vaccinations nearby. We are now currently offering travel vaccinations for people who need them, and we've had quite a bit of people take advantage of those services. And then finally, we had environmental health in the old facility, but We've expanded that and moved into the new facility. Environmental Health does restaurant and hotel inspections in North Fulton like everywhere else, but Environmental Health also does a lot of septic inspections in North Fulton, and so that's an area we're gonna be putting a lot of emphasis on. So thank you for that new facility. We really appreciate it. Next slide, please. Second thing I wanted to mention was the recent World Cup. I've mentioned Dr. Leftwich is here. We had a heavy lift on the World Cup. We had to go and inspect all of the different food vendors who set up for that event. We did over 800 inspections. Because these are temporary food vendors, we had to inspect and permit them. but then we had to check on them on a regular basis to make sure that they were staying up to our sanitation standards. So it was a lot of work, but it was something that went extremely well, and we're very happy with how well that particular team performed for that. They were able to do that, and during that time, they also kept up with all the other restaurant and hotel inspections. This is the time of year that we're doing pool inspections, so it was a busy time, but that team really excelled, and I wanted to mention that. Next slide. We've gone through this in the first agenda item. So as I mentioned, we are trying, we did expand the environmental health services team just before I came. We hired another 14 or 15 environmental health directors. That's made a huge difference in our ability to provide those services. And so part of the reason for really looking at the fee schedule was to make sure that we have the resources in place to sustain those changes.

Next slide, please.

So one of the things we do every day is deal, I talked about HIV and sexually transmitted infections, but if you read the news at all, there are just all kinds of things cropping up that are various infectious diseases that affect our populations. I think everybody has heard about cyclosporiosis, which is something that does happen every year, but has really taken off this year. There's a label on this particular slide about measles. We've seen a number of cases in Georgia and in Fulton County, although we don't currently have any measles outbreaks. Recently, we had a situation with a tuberculosis case up in one of the high schools in North Fulton, and we're in the process of dealing that now. testing for all the students who may have come into contact with the specific person who had tuberculosis. And luckily so far, we've not found any active cases of TB. So this is just sort of day-to-day nuts and bolts of what we do, this together with environmental health, and I just wanted to tell you that is also a very, very strong team for the Board of Health, and it's a team that I think is doing a great job keeping up with these various outbreaks. Next slide, please. HIV care and support services, you know, I know there's been some issues for the Board of Health around our HIV services in the past before I started. And so I just wanted, we wanted to come and give you an update. I think we are back on track with those services. Back last year, we had to lay off a number of our people who do HIV prevention services. We've been able to reinstate all those positions, and we've rehired a team to do that, and that team is up and going now. We also continue to offer Ryan White services, which are treatment services for people who have HIV, and I believe that program is one of our strongest clinical programs. And then finally, we had some issues around the partnerships and funding we provide to community-based organizations. That also happened just as I was coming in, and we've sorted out our process for doing that. We re-competed those grants, which was unfortunate, for the CBOs that were competing, but that is all sorted out now and they're being funded and we hope that that will go forward in a more streamlined way in the future. And then finally, the last slide, So Fulton County is going through the national process to become an accredited public health department. And this is a process that many local health departments pursue across the nation. I think it's the first time that I know of that Fulton County is doing it. I think it's a very, very important process to go through as far as looking at the services we provide, and particularly looking at quality assurance and quality improvement and having experts come in from outside, from a national group who does this across the nation and really take a hard look at what we're doing and what we need to do better. And I think we will manage to become an accredited public health department, but it's gonna be a heavy lift for us over the next year or so. Right now, the district for Gwinnett Cobb Douglas and LaGrange, which is where Carolton is. Those are the only three districts in Georgia that have public health accreditation. DeKalb did in the past, but DeKalb and Macon did in the past, but chose not to sustain that. You accredit and then you do reaccreditation every four or five years. So other districts have done that in the past but have not sustained it. This is our first time and this will be a very important thing and we'll be back during my future quarterly updates for you to talk about where we are in that process. I think it's gonna really help lead us into the future. So those are my reports for you this time. Thank you very much for your time and I'm certainly happy to take any questions.

All right, Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman.

Doctor, thank you. I know I don't know you personally, but I do have a few friends that know you from your days with the CDC, and they speak very highly of you. So I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate that the background work that I did on you, so to speak, spoke to someone who not only has a very strong work ethic, but you believe in community. And so I appreciate that. I have a great appreciation for that. I just want to reiterate some of the things that I know that you all already do and you will continue to do. In communities of color, we know that chronic diseases hit us much harder. Some of the reasons that it hits us harder are socioeconomic decisions. My, I guess you can say, battle cry is education, education, education. When you have communities that are food deserts, when it's cheaper to buy something fried as opposed to something wholesome, then you need a little education in what's best for your dollar to stretch. One of the things that we have been able to do here at Fulton County, especially with the Senior Summit, is to show people how they can actually take the Internet and look for deals and put in zip code 303, I want to feed my family of four wholesome food with less sodium, this, that, and the other, one of the best deals, and all of that information will come up. A lot of the people who participated didn't even know that. And so I would ask that any outreach that you all do, please understand in communities of color, it's just not enough to be told to eat healthy. We have to be shown how and because we have the food deserts and we have situations that we're not able to go to a Whole Foods. We're not able to go and make the healthy choices that sometimes we as a community need guidance. And so that's going to be very important to me and the people that I serve. Also, we know that the HIV and sexually transmitted diseases have hit communities of color very hard. especially women of color. And so to hear you, you almost was in my head because you were answering things that I was going to ask you. I appreciate the allocation and making sure those organizations get the funding because as a commissioner, and I'm not saying I'm the only one, but I'm a commissioner that sometimes is out two and three in the mornings. in the parking lots, at the clubs, at the different places. And I hear the conversation where people say, where at one time I was able to get this from a supplier, but now I can't get this. And it was funded through Fulton County, even though it came through someone else. And so I always want to speak up for those that can't come down here or can't get an audience with you. We have to make sure for the lesser of these. We have to make sure that those in my community, in my district, and you probably already know this, but this is the reason that I'm appealing openly. And one of my zip codes that I represent HIV has almost quadrupled in the age range of 14 to 17 year olds of color. And so these are individuals that are being misguided, misdirected, and we have to make sure they don't fall through the cracks. So sometimes in doing that, we have to educate them Not on our level, but on their level. What do I mean? We have to have the services accessible for them. And if that means coming to the health centers, if that means having a peer there that they can have a conversation with because they're easily trafficked, they're easily, they're very vulnerable population. And so the work that Fulton County has been doing in that area, I really would like us to continue and also make sure that we understand that it's one thing to catch individuals when they're older, but prevention is worth the pound to cure. I always believe that. And so in my understanding of your background, I know that that will be a priority with you as well. And so welcome aboard. I look forward to us engaging at some point. But the goal, the whole goal in my mind as a public servant, as well as you, is to make sure individuals are empowered with the information to make the correct decisions for their livelihood. We can't always have the answers. We can't always show them what's best to do, but we can empower and educate them to make the vital choices for their not only personal health, but their awareness for their sexual health. So thank you.

Well, thank you. It's great to have somebody on the board who has such a great understanding of public health. I really appreciate that. We did provide a copy of the strategic plan that each of you should have gotten. And we do speak to some of these underlying factors in that strategic plan. And yeah, as you've noted, HIV is a big emphasis for us. Reginald Goddard is up in the back there. He came up through our HIV programs and is now the director of all the programs. And I'm very excited to have him in that role. and we are particularly looking at that younger population that have been so challenging to reach.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Ellis. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the update. Good to see you. Just a few questions to start with. Is there any... sort of consistent data or data dashboard that you all are publishing regularly or is it generally brought up more in the context of overall state data?

So the community health assessment will be a published document and that'll lay out everything for Fulton County, sort of what's going on. We are also going to be working on a state of public health report that we'll be doing in the next year or so that'll take a deeper dive. In addition to community health assessment, which really looks across Fulton, we would like to take a more intensive look at different communities and areas of Fulton because it's such a diverse Barry County. So we will start to have that up on a dashboard. You're going to see significant changes and improvements on the kind of data you can get when you go to the Board of Health website in the future.

So I know when you all are doing these community health assessments, health systems also generally do these as well, right? Which has sort of always sort of confused me because you've got multiple entities kind of doing the same work. So I'd be interested in terms of as you all are doing the assessments, and maybe this is sort of across the state, how is there coordination there with what those health systems are doing so that you got something that's sort of the most informed pieces of information?

Yeah, it used to be that the public health department did the community health assessment and brought all those groups to the table. When they passed the Affordable Care Act, they required hospital systems and others to do their own community health assessments. Ideally, in the future, we will find a way to just keep that all. Right now, I think everybody's sort of doing their own thing. It would be better if it were more coordinated. We have looked at the community health assessments for some of the hospital systems. Some of what I was showing you were anticipating for ours I think will be the same as the focus on chronic diseases. Makes sense. A lot of focus on food insecurity. I was surprised to see that coming out, although the hospital systems are doing quite a bit around that. So that is something we're looking at, hopefully even streamlined so it's not quite so confusing. But we certainly are trying to be coordinated.

All right. Well, and continuing on sort of the coordination theme, sort of outside of even just assessment and all that, how do we in Fulton County, how are we coordinating with the various health systems? And I guess certainly we've got a lot of them within our footprint, but we have one that we have obviously a very tight tie with from a health standpoint being Grady. How does sort of that coordination working and can you give us some examples of kind of how we sort of concretely are partnering together specifically with Grady and or any other health system?

Yeah, I mean, some of the things that we're concerned about as far as underlying factors of health really are things that are done by partner organizations and others. So our partnership and our outreach we think is very, very important going forward. When I came here, probably my first or second visit was to Grady. And I'm a physician. I plan to take advantage of the fact that I can go and sit down and speak to health care systems. We also just hired a new position for the Board of Health, and she's back in the back too, a chief health strategist. That's her sole job is to get out there and look at some of these partnerships that are important for us and really stay focused on that. The problem that we run into is we get focused on something, and then there's some outbreak that distracts us, and we kind of lose our momentum. So now we have a person who's going to keep us on track with all of that. I think these partnerships, particularly with groups like Grady, Emory, Piedmont, the other health systems are very important to us. Some of you know our Board of Health Chair, Jack Harden, is very interested in issues of homelessness. We need to have more partnerships and understanding of what's going there. So going forward, that's gonna be a lot of what Fulton Board of Health is about, is not just what we do, but how we work with others to get other things done.

Obviously, the concept and notion of food insecurity comes up frequently, and it's a it's a phrase that's sort of used kind of in many different ways. I guess sort of one of the concerns that I've had, can we look at or say we've got that aspect, right, of food insecurity, and there's some real true things that are there, right, that people are just lacking food, right? But the other end of the spectrum, we've got sort of this outlay of chronic disease, cardiovascular issues, and that sort of stuff. which underlying that many times is not food insecurity. It's the food that we're all consuming and digesting, which is in many ways maybe even a bigger problem than food insecurity. And I do get some concern that the focus on that detracts from ever getting to the point of really sort of changing the narrative around, you know, kind of food quality and the food that we are consuming, which goes a little bit to what the vice chair is talking about in terms of education around, you know, kind of how we eat, what we eat, different ways to go do it. There's an economic piece that certainly is part of that too. So in terms of that component, I mean, is there anything that we are doing or thinking about differently related to, what do you want to call it, you know, another sort of catchphrase, food is medicine, you know, kind of concept?

I was just about to use the phrase food as medicine. I think that's been the attempt to really get at what you're describing. A lot of the health care systems have set up these various food pantries and things so people can get access. But then the food and medicine part kicks in that when you go to see your doctor and you have diabetes or heart disease or whatever, there's a conversation about what kind of foods are healthy. and what kind of foods you need to really be thinking about eating. And it happens with the physician. It happens with a lot of the staff. It's something we hope to move into a little bit more in the health department. But then the idea is that when you tell people you need to eat these healthier foods and make it clear what those are, there is also access to them as well. So I think the two go together. But you're right. don't get instruction and understanding of what's healthy, then they're not necessarily going to take advantage of the foods, even if we make them more available. So we need to do both.

I throw this out there in terms of just as we're on this, before I forget about it, and certainly we've got this... nice facility that's open in North Fulton where, you know, hopefully have a, you know, future facility of very similar nature and just as nice, maybe even nicer in South Fulton. You know, but within the frameworks of those, it's, you know, there are opportunities for us to do, you know, kind of promotion, outreach, bring people in, teach, right? And one of, in the concept of food as medicine, one of the, you know, good partners that we have had in Fulton County who has really done a tremendous amount of work in this and really getting food of that nature of high quality and high nutritional value out into vulnerable populations has been open hand. And I'm just wondering if there's a way that we could potentially explore you know, some partnership with them and bring that in, you know, from a public health standpoint. It ties into both food insecurity, it ties into kind of these other things that we know you know, gonna be underlying factors and so forth. You know, their focus is generally more catching people that are more at the back end of their life, right? You know, I know that's not their exclusive focus, but that's where we wind up intersecting with them are generally for senior meals and that sort of stuff. And I don't know if y'all have explored anything of that nature or partnerships with them.

Yeah, we're working with ARCHI, which the problem with acronyms is sometimes you can't remember what they stand for. Atlanta Regional Coalition for Health Improvement. Anyway, they're a group that has been around for a while that you all probably know of that convenes the health care systems across metro Atlanta and really looks at some of those issues. And one of the big pushes or strategies they have is this issue of food as medicine, food insecurity, and the pandemic. open table was at the last meeting I went to. So I think there are some discussions about how to collaborate with them. I think that there's a couple of things we need to make sure when we're providing foods to people that they are healthy foods. I think we are actually doing a good job of that. I think there's a lot of opportunity to overlay that as you were speaking to with education so people have a better understanding of what they need to be eating. And that's what I think you'll see Fulton Board of Health doing more going forward is the communication piece. I mean, we do have a bully pulpit to talk about how members of the county can stay healthy and we intend to use that more and more. I mean, we use our communications right now to make sure people know about our services. I'd like to see us also shift to make people know more about what they can do to stay healthy.

Yeah, that's an excellent point. And I think on the communications piece, and I know we have sort of, you know, by our very nature, we have sort of our two different communication arms, but you know, you all stuff you do, and we have stuff within the county and I do, um, you know, more of an opportunity to do and engage with that and collaborate on that sort of particular component I think is, you know, is important, um, and critical and getting in a cadence of it. Right. You know, um, to where it's something like that. So I think that that's something I hope I'll reiterate to our external affairs folks and our communications team that ways in which we can kind of make that more of a thematic thing going forward. I think that would be great. One other area I wanted to shift into a little bit, Ian, because we've had... episodic you know kind of waves of things in the inspections area where we've fell behind or that sort of stuff and um you know it just tell me about sort of where we are with it sounds like we're in a good place relative to staffing and cadence and that sort of stuff but i'd be interested in a little bit of you know color on the inspections area in terms of just how we're staying on track with that, our staffing, and then how we're measuring that and ensuring that we don't have some sort of oops, we're behind the eight ball and several places haven't been inspected, et cetera.

yeah you know when i was being considered for this role i came down to fulton county in the process just to sort of see what was going on and as i was sort of shown things one of the things that i was struck by is we just didn't have a whole lot of environmental health inspectors and you know having i mentioned some time ago when I was in Charlotte. I mean, we had a lot more inspectors there. But before I came in, we had an interim district health director, Chris Ruston, who came from the state. And credit to him, he came in and fixed that. And we got positions for 14 to 16 more. I think we have hired all those people. So we got a lot better workforce now. And we'll continue to look at that. If we need more staff, we will bring more staff on. I think that the World Cup was a good test because, as I mentioned to you, That was, you know, they were out in the rain and the heat doing all these pop-up inspections, but they still managed to sort of stay up to speed with the core stuff around restaurants and hotels that they had to do every day. So I think our capacity is much better, but it's something we'll keep looking at because we need to, I mean, we need to be fair to them. We need to have the hands on deck where we can do what's expected to us. And I mean, there's an extraordinary number of restaurants in Fulton County and That's a heavy lift for them to keep up with all of that. All right.

Thank you.

Doctor, I'm glad that you talked about that because at one point for transparency, Fulton County did struggle with the health inspectors. My office did get the calls. And so I got a great appreciation that we are not where we were at one time, but I do think it's an area that we probably need to revisit to make sure that we have enough appropriate funding. because that is an area to me that has grown so much in the county from one end to the other. And the needs not only of going in, doing the inspection, it goes back to what I said before, education. business owners open up a business, they open up a checking account, they get all the other stuff done, and they open up their doors. They don't necessarily, in some cases, have the education they need from an environmental safety issue when it comes to preparing food, handling food, cross-contamination and all the other things. And so I just want to take this time to give you all kudos because I know that you all make that a part. You know, used to be a time when an inspector walked in from Fulton County, everybody would start running and hiding stuff and this, that, and the other, and you all would dread it. when you walked in, which to a certain extent I think you should be if you are doing the right thing. However, I would say on the other end to educate people to make sure that they understand that they ultimately have people lives in their hands when they're serving food. These are the things they should and should not be doing. It's important. I've been to restaurants and seen and asked, you know, where's your inspection report? It should be out. Uh, a lot of our public does not know that not only should it be out, it should be updated. I remember going into a restaurant in South Fulton and their inspection report was three years old. And I told them, I said, you're not in compliance. And so, and I did have a conversation with the department then, and it was not to get them in trouble, but it was to let them know that you can't break the law and then you've got an old report up here, and you don't have the updated report there. So it's a lot of education that goes with that. I would ask, since this is really your first time in front of us, what would you, if you were me, and I just moved into the area, You know, people move into the area and they check out the schools and they check out the utilities and what's involved and everything, but they really truly don't know what the Fulton County Board of Health does or has available to them. And so you don't have to give me the textbook one, but if you could just give me the condensed version. And the only reason I'm asking this is because we do have constituents that listen to these BOC meetings. And so if you had someone who had just moved into my district and they were checking on the school system and they were checking on the daycare system and they were checking on the utilities and getting everything done, Why should they also interact or find out what's available to them from the Fulton County Board of Health?

Well, there's two things that we do. Actually, before I talk about that, you both spoke about environmental health. I did want to, again, recognize Dr. Lefkowitz. You know, this is a priority for all of us, but you are in very good hands with him and his team. He came up through the ranks of environmental health. He's been out there doing it.

Why don't you, I mean, I'm on the board, so bring him up so they can see him. He does a great job. Come on up.

Well, I'm very familiar, and I sing his praises as well. So he was the one that really, really helped us through the crisis. And so thank you personally on my behalf. I really want to thank you because I know you all were double-timing it, and you all were really, really, I would say, on the firing line. And so I want to thank you and let him know all superheroes don't necessarily have on capes. Right. So I appreciate the work that you've done.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. We just support them. All right.

As far as your second, as far as your question, so, you know, there's two things that I like to emphasize. One is we are responsible for the health of the people in Fulton County. When we look at health statistics, if those aren't going in the right direction, then that's a concern to us. Some of these health statistics are hard to fix, so I can't promise you they're all going to go down, but that is where our focus should be, and that is how we should be sort of planning and prioritizing what we're doing. That's a little bit of a big picture thing that it is a little hard for people to understand, and a lot of that goes on behind the scenes. As far as services that we provide, I think that there are some very important ones people need to know about. Environmental health, I mean, you kind of take it for granted when you go out to eat, you're not gonna get sick, but believe me, I've been out with him. We need to pay attention to that, because if we don't have good sanitation practices, that could become a real issue. We also inspect pools, we inspect body art facilities, tattoo parlors. We do septic systems. So a lot of that's just done behind the scenes and people don't realize it. So for the public, that's what we're out there doing. We run the WIC program, Women, Infants, and Children. That is probably one of the most successful public health programs that there is. I mean, when you talk about the benefits and gains we've made in maternal mortality and infant mortality across the nation, you know, WIC is a big piece of that. WIC is a program that allows women who are low income to get access to good healthy food and this is one where they do take advantage of it and much of what our staff do is make sure we're instructing pregnant women and new moms in sort of what's healthy and what they need to be eating themselves and what they need to be feeding their babies. We provide clinical services, you know, We provide immunizations. We provide family planning. We provide some cancer screening services. I always forget a few of them. But we don't provide comprehensive primary care. And so that confuses people sometimes. And frankly, we're shifting a little bit. We provide immunizations. But the real thing that we're interested in is we want people to get the immunizations that they need and that will keep them healthy. And if you're having trouble, you're welcome to come and use our services. But frankly, you can also go to a drugstore. You can go to your doctor's office. There's lots of places you can get it. We're one of many. And our main emphasis is we want people to do the same with family planning, same with cancer screening. So we have the services, but we do have a community where there's an abundance of a lot of these services. So the message is get the things you need to stay healthy. If you need to get them from us, we're happy to help with that. Those are sort of some of the things that I would probably emphasize when we talk about what we do. We hit on the HIV services. You know, if you look at Fulton County statistics, that's a problem. I mean, we're like, it's some of the most prevalent, some of the highest prevalence of HIV and untreated HIV is in Fulton and Greater Atlanta. We need to turn that around.

And I also want to give... I want to give Fullerton County kudos because the work that we're doing, that you all are doing, thank you, is phenomenal. Are we where we would hope to be, aspirationally? No. But when I travel nationally, I promise you, you all are doing wonderful work. And I hope it will be a day that we come down here and we say it's been eliminated and all of this stuff that comes with that. But sometimes... We live in a bubble, we see what's in our area and we complain and we don't show appreciation. And so I just wanna take this time to show the appreciation for what Fullerton County is doing in that area and in the area that you work in. Because when I travel and the conversations I have with other individuals, they do not have one fourth of the accessibility. It's not that they don't want it, They don't have it, whether it's funding, whether it's a foundational issue, whether it's an operational issue, they don't have what we have. So sometimes, because we have it and we become accustomed to having it, we take it for granted that it'll always be here, and that we need more. So I just want to take this time to say thank you, and thank you for the entire department, because you all do do a phenomenal job. You all do find a way to do more with less. I'll put that in there as well. And I just appreciate the work that you all do, and I have a great appreciation for, especially the educational component. especially outreach component because i've been in areas that they don't have that and it makes a difference so i just want to send your praises now that i have you all in front of me i know you're going to continue to do what you're doing uh not only because uh that's your job to do it but you all want fulton county to still be the leader so to speak when we come to the kind of work that you all are doing. So just keep up the good work. And I think I don't want to speak on behalf of the board, but I know this commissioner, I appreciate the accessibility. I appreciate the outreach and I appreciate especially the turnaround with environmental services. I can't sing that enough that you what you all did, because like I said, I'm a county commissioner, but my office took the calls because they were calling, hey, I need somebody out here to inspect. I'm waiting. It's been six months, you know. And so you all really did turn that around. So thank you once again for the great job that you all are doing. Okay.

I've been advised that we're spending too much time on this.

Well, you know, I'm going to spend as much time as I want to for a county issue. that we do for city issues. So anybody got a problem with it? Okay.

All right, Commissioner Errington. Thank you. Great conversation and information. I've been getting questions about, and I don't believe you guys are directly responsible for this, but I imagine that you may have some information to share. A sterilization center on Bow Rock Road and the ethylene oxide that is transmitted from there, I believe it's directly state EPD that oversees that, but I don't know if there's any environmental information that you guys may have as it relates to that or if you keep track of it.

I don't know anything about that. Have you heard anything about that?

Any air quality issues typically goes to the EPD, Environmental Protection Division. They'll take care of the air quality monitoring and things of that nature.

All right, so then we need to get, I guess, updates from them as it relates to that facility. Yes, sir.

Commissioner Arrington, I'm sorry. Somebody did bring that to my attention last night at the National Night Out. So I'm glad that you brought that up. And they were saying that they had been in contact with the state of Georgia because I think the state of Georgia also has some kind of regulations over that as well. And so, yes, thank you for bringing that up because they brought it up at the National Night Out in Collier Heights last night.

We can look into that and make sure you're heading in the right direction. Right.

Yeah, just as far as getting the reports, I don't know how those reports go out, and it may be good for us to make sure that we are helping spread that information. Right. Will do.

All right. Thank you, gentlemen. See you next quarter.

If I could say one thing. Yes, sir. Chairman Pitts, I wanted to thank you for serving on the Board of Health. You have been there tirelessly. You've been a great champion for us, and we really appreciate you doing that.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. We're not going anywhere. Trust me. Y'all don't go anywhere just yet either. We got another item. Oh, okay. All right, we're gonna continue till we get to page nine here. It's about 1142. Let's continue, Madam Clerk.

Bottom of page seven, 260451, request approval resolution of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to approve a modification of the Fulton County Board of Health's fees for environmental health services to reduce certain fee amounts, remove certain fees, and add fees, and for other purposes.

All right, I did actually, doctor, before y'all leave on the fees stuff, I'll ask a question while you're walking down. I know you had the slide in here, but I do think, it would be useful to talk about the methodology you went through in terms of how you arrived at these, how we say that these are fair, valid, and in line with other jurisdictions. These are fees that real people are having to pay real businesses and so forth, right? And so understanding that these are These are fair and in line with other jurisdictions and how you got there.

Right, so what we did is we did a fee comparison with our other metro counties around and we based it upon, because we wanted to be fair, right? And based on the scope of work that we do and also what they charge in other areas, we wanted to make sure that it all matched up. So we just used that basically just to look at the other counties, the service they provided. We provide the same services, but there were no fees associated with it. So we wanted to make sure that we have that installed in our fees on the services that we provide.

Are there any on here that you would deem to be material changes or these are more kind of on the margin type items?

So in regards to?

Just any of the individual fee changes.

Right. So, like I said, there are services that we provide, but we didn't have a fee associated with it. The other counties, they provide the same services, but they had a fee associated with it. So, we want to make sure that we're doing the same thing.

So, what would be an example of it?

And one example would be, let's say, an additional inspection. So for our fees, we charge for to go out to do the inspections, right? And that's for the state mandates two inspections per year for a restaurant on average. But there are times when restaurants may not be in compliance. So we have to go back for an additional inspection and sometimes a third or fourth field inspection, right? So just those time and the resources having to go out, like you mentioned, education and providing training for those restaurant employees, you know, that adds up. Right. So we want to make sure that, you know, we're in line with these other districts as well. We provided the service, but again, it was

It just wasn't adding up. So that's a re-inspection, and then there were some tweaks where we had lowered a few items.

Right. So state law for, let's say, giving exams to septic contractors, the state rule says that it has to be $50 or less. So, once we were under the Fulton County Health and Wellness a few years ago, you know, of course, that was a little higher, but since we transitioned to the Board of Health, we want to be in line with what DPH follows, since we adopted their regulations.

Can't have enough septic inspectors, right? Yeah. That's important. Yes. Okay. All right. So, that's helpful, just some background, so that we... have a little bit better insight in what we're actually voting on and approved here. Right, I understand.

And I do have a graph where I put the metro counties and ours together where you can see the fee comparison. I'll be more than glad to share that with you all if you all needed that.

No major deviations if you were to kind of present that and show that to us. Right, no major deviations, no sir. All right, thank you.

All right, Vice Chair, up to you, Rockwell.

Thank you, Chairman. I'm always gonna take the opportunity to educate people, even if it's someone sitting on this side.

Right.

What you all did, and I have a great appreciation for it because I educate myself and I ask questions. You all, now you can't say it, but I can say it. You all were going back sometimes two and three times and were not charging.

That's correct.

And so that was adding to the workload that you all were dealing with. And so I commend you all for, you know, bringing that forward because what other counties were charging for after, I believe, two visits, you all were doing three and sometimes four visits. So I appreciate you seeing that that need to be done. And also I appreciate you bringing those fees within line. Yes, ma'am. And so here, what does it go back to that E word, education? And some of us on this side sometimes need to be educated with what you all do and how really vital what you all, the information that you bring down here. So thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate it.

Well, I had three questions, but in the interest of time, I'm not going to ask them.

I don't want to be a... That's fine, Commissioner.

All right. The... There's a motion on the floor to approve. Motion to approve by Vice Chair Audrey Rockmont, seconded by Commissioner Barrett. Let's vote.

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

Continue, Madam Clerk. Thank you. Thank you.

On page eight. 260452, Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. Requests approval of one nominee, Shawn Mason, as a voting member of the Fulton County Regional Advisory Council for the Opioid Abatement Program.

All right, a motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And motion passes, five yeas, zero nays. On page nine, 260454, registration and elections, request approval of a statewide contract in the amount of $297,700 to provide mailing and voter communication services.

I have a motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Arrington.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yays, zero nays. 260455, real estate and asset management, request approval of a statewide contract in the total amount not to exceed $581,114.60 for the purchase, delivery, and installation of emergency vehicle equipment packaging.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yeas, zero nays. 260456, request approval of lowest responsible bidders in the total amount not to exceed $200,000 to provide asphalt, concrete, pavement, maintenance, and repairs.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yeas, zero nays. 260457, request approval to increase spending authority in the amount not to exceed $130,000 for additional solid waste disposable and recycling services.

A motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yays, zero nays.

All right, it's 1151. We have quite a bit to discuss in executive session. It's gonna take a couple of hours, I'm estimating. And Commissioner Thorne is on her way back. So I entertain a motion to recess for lunch and executive session. We may take up items of real estate litigation and personnel.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yays, zero nays.

And, you know, though we may see this one, that one, that one closing, but here's the good news. There's about 900,000 of them all across the metro area, and they're called the public library. And whereas gas, maybe $5 or $6 a gallon, is free to get your library card. So please, please, please. It is so, I mean, and I was so excited about this collaboration because it was two-fold. It was about lifting up our spirits, but it's also reminding us sometimes we spend too much time on that little box, you know, looking at other people's lives and judging ourselves because our lives are not their lives and not knowing their story at all, where we really could be coming down, scanning our little card. They got probably five million different books you could read and it's all for free. And the good news is you get a certain time span that you can keep the book, but if you're like me and you forget, they give you a little grace, and you can keep it a little bit longer. Just don't keep it for two years, as I did one time. But just know that, seriously, we have got to, particularly for this next generation, we've got to stop just handing them these machines and thinking they're going to be okay. We've got to give them a book. if it's a Kindle, if it's audio, whatever, but we gotta, this is how the imagination is brewed, and how they can see that sometimes there's life besides just what's happening on their block. So the beauty of this, or the ability to have a companion piece that can help them on their journey. So just please, please, please, gotta read, read, read. But we also wanted to just have some fun with that, and you know, I lived in Chicago for a period of time and had a lot of friends that, I was a journalist in a former life, and had a lot of friends that worked at Harpo. And so they were constantly, the joke I would say is, I would say this, if the Beyond the Gates cast, y'all work hard, worked for Harpo, when she was doing the Oprah show, I would say, oh, we should just go out to lunch. They'd be like, lunch? we ain't getting out of the studio until like midnight, you know, after doing three shows, and then we got to be back at six in the morning. So I became the person that was running lunch over to the studios because they, you know, couldn't get away. And so, you know, got a lot of time to hang out there and have fun. And one of the things I always love is, you know, when there was the shows, when there was the giveaways, And we all remember the legendary show when there was the room full of teachers and she surprised them and said, you get a car and you get a car and you get a car. So what we decided that one of our friends at Cadillac said that you're not going to get a car. I said, who's paying for that? I saw everybody stand up.

I did too. I was like, wait a minute.

But One of the things that we said that we could do is for those folks randomly seated around, if you just take a moment and stand up, and there might just be a bookmark under your seat, and you will leave home with a complimentary copy of Amber's book tonight. So there may be a few lucky folks out there. If not, you don't have to go rampaging.

Educated about the Georgia Air National Guard and their growth forward to know of their options after they serve in school.

They definitely provide you with the resources that you need. I mean, you come here, you get your backpack packed, you get to find out about free after-school programs and mental health programs, so you get everything you need. Oh, man!

Madam Clerk, all right. All right, Madam Clerk, let's continue. Madam County Attorney, items from Executive Session.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first item, is there a motion to approve the request for, excuse me, is there a motion to approve the proposal for jail orientation video, contract in an amount not to exceed $12,064.59.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Ellis.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yays, zero nays.

Is there a motion to approve a contract for suicide prevention modifications at the Fulton County Jail in an amount not to exceed $771,000, excuse me, $771,900.45. Motion to approve by Commissioner Arrington, seconded by Commissioner Barrett. And the vote is open.

And the motion passes, four yeas, zero nays.

Is there a motion to approve requests for representation set forth in items number six, seven, eight, and nine of the executive session agenda?

Is there a motion? Motion to approve by Commissioner Barrett, seconded by Commissioner Arrington.

And the vote is open.

And the motion passes, five yeas, zero nays. Is there a motion to approve requests for settlement authority set forth in items 11, 12, 13, and 14 of the executive session agenda?

Motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Commissioner Barrett.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yays, zero nays. There are no further action items from executive session.

All right, continue, Madam Clerk.

Back on page 10. Could I take a point of personal privilege? I had to step out of the meeting, and I just wanted to know that Fulton County received an award from Johns Creek Chamber, a Bridge Award. They just wanted to honor us and the work we've done, select Fulton, the commissioners, and everybody. So I just wanted everybody to know that this is their award that they received today.

What's it for?

The Bridge Award.

And the Bridge Award is?

It's being able to work across party lines, city lines, working together for the best of the community.

Thank you.

On page 10, 260458, request approval of resolution by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to dissolve the Fulton County HIV AIDS Prevention Care and Policy Advisory Committee due to inactivity to provide for the orderly wind down and transfer of its records and for other purposes. Sponsored by Commissioner Ellis.

All right, the motion to approve by Commissioner Ellis is seconded by Commissioner Arrington. Commissioner Thorne.

I was just wondering, since there's several boards that haven't met for two years, are we going to look at those as well, or do we wait for the department heads to come to us and tell us that they'd like it dissolved?

I mean, if there's something you want to pursue, I guess you would look at it. I just brought this up because the clerk had sent us a notification that they had met in several years and that the work was being handled by... you know, a different group. And yeah, I think somebody had also even recently made an appointment to it. So to sell, we just need to administratively close this. So I think clerk can provide you with information on any other ones. I don't, I'm not sure that there are a whole lot more recently made an appointment.

I made a recent appointment, but there hadn't been an appointment made since like 2015, but I have other boards that I haven't made appointments for that were like 2015, 16, 17 appointments, but didn't see a need for it. But somebody had come to me asking to be on it. And so I'm like, sure, why not? We have the board.

Commissioner Arrington? I'm sorry. Commissioner Ellis, you still have the floor.

No, I just say, well, this is a process to do it. I mean, if there's something that administratively needs to be closed. I mean, I know we have some that haven't met, but they statutorily still have to exist. So we do have a few of those in the unincorporated area.

Commissioner Arrington? At one point, we had some 160 plus boards. Half of them never met. We got rid of a bunch of them, and there's still about 60. We'll probably pare those down to about 20, to be honest with you. Continue? Actually, let's vote. All right, let's vote. The motion is to approve by Commissioner Ellis, seconded by Commissioner Harrington.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yeas, zero nays. 260459, request approval resolution amending the rules of procedure of the Board of Commissioners to provide that a voting item receiving four or more negative votes shall not be automatically continued to a subsequent meeting and for other purposes sponsored by Commissioner Ellis.

All right, motion to approve on Commissioner Ellis. Is there a second? Seconded by Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman. Commissioner Ellis.

Just real brief, this is a procedural item too, just so we've had issues with this in the past where we've had use other measures, motions to deny, file, that sort of stuff, and just clarify that when they're clearly for no votes on an individual item, that the item's not gonna come back. If there's three votes or two votes or whatever, there's a non-conclusive one direction or the other, then obviously it would continue in that practice.

All right, motion to approve by Commissioner Ellis, seconded by Vice Chair, Dr. Rockbond.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, six yays, zero nays. 260460, request approval resolution to reestablish the budget commission to assist in the development of the county's annual budget, sponsored by Commissioner Ellis and Vice Chair Abdulrahman.

All right, motion to approve by Commissioner Ellis, seconded by Vice Chair Abdulrahman. Commissioner Ellis.

Yeah, just to quickly outline the bones of this resolution, we've operated with a budget commission for an extended period of time, for a certain portion of time that was CFO, chairman of the BOC and the county manager, The board at that time looked at that process and felt like that there was deficiencies around that and moved to another process where the proposed budget assimilation, obviously adoption of the budget all rests with us, where that budget commission was changed and that budget process development and so forth and presentation was just shifted back to, county manager or shifted to the county manager for full running of that process. Look, I mean, you can go to any organization, any government, and there's positives and negatives with all kinds of different ways that you would go ahead and do a budget formulation. having sat through kind of an extended period of both of these periods of time, I feel like we do need a hybrid approach that improves our process. And I think there were, I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of both, but this resolution and this revised budget commission would reestablish, bring elected officials back onto the budget commission. Again, this is not a group that approves a budget. It just works together to bring forth a proposed budget to the board that ultimately gets adopted by the board. So it's a, an advisory group, if you will, but this would have a four-member budget commission, CFO and county manager, and then two members of the board of commissioners, both of those would be, one would represent the northern districts, one, two, and three, the other would represent the southern districts four, five, and six. And then they would work together to bring forth a priority, those commissioners would bring forth the priorities of their respective areas and working in conjunction with the other two commissioners in their respective other two districts for the north or the south. and bring that perspective into the process. And so I think that this will bring some material benefit to our budget process by getting board input into it at an earlier stage in a more meaningful way. It would be done with some geographic balance to it. I think it still would preserve the administrative efficiency that comes with The county manager and the CFO, you know, kind of running, you know, kind of the general process like they always have. And ultimately, I believe, get us to a better budget-wide buy-in and a lot of avoidance of a lot of risk of late-stage conflict later in the process. So... That's the bones of the resolution. I'd be happy to answer any questions, and hopefully it's something that gets your favorable reply on.

Commissioner Thorne?

Seeing as I don't know the budget process prior to having the budget soundings that we have now, I just have a few questions. As a commissioner, would me and my staff still be able to attend the meetings that they have?

Yes. Yes.

Okay, so it's an open meeting, and will there be any quorum or anything like that required?

No.

During it, no, okay, because it's just an informal budget hearing meeting, kind of like the budget soundings.

Right, if we had multiple commissioners there, then that would require somebody to have to step out. We've always had that process.

Okay, okay. And then I was just curious, like you have someone from the north and someone from the south. Should the chair be involved as well or just the county manager in this seat? Like what was the decision-making process there?

To bring geographic balance to it, I think we had a process where we just had, you know, a singular individual and I think that there were flaws with that in terms of just a view that there were not enough multiple perspectives that were brought to the table unless you would have parties from both sides. I mean obviously everybody is gonna have continued sort of engagement in the budget process and providing input. You're just gonna have two people that will be representative to sort of bring that forward into those discussions about hey, how do we wanna frame this up in terms of the ultimate proposal, the initial proposals to the Board of Commissioners.

Okay, that's it. That's all the questions I have, thank you.

Commissioner Barrett.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In general, I agree very much with the premise that is outlined in one of the early whereas clauses in this resolution that says that commissioners should have early and ongoing input into the budget preparation. This is something that I think we've talked about off and on over the entire four years I've been here, and I do think it BUT I DO HAVE SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS. JUST TO BE CLEAR, I KNOW YOU SORT OF ANSWERED THIS, BUT I WANT TO MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND. THESE MEETINGS, THESE BUDGET COMMISSION MEETINGS WOULD BE SUBJECT TO OPEN MEETINGS?

What we do, that when we have budget presentations by just as we have always had, right, whether it's in the prior process or the other process, you know, any commissioners or staff are welcome to sit in there and listen to the presentations, those budget presentations by those individual departments.

So no, not open meetings.

By the open meetings law is what I'm saying. They were not set up as open meetings, you know, last year.

I'm not criticizing, I'm just asking.

It would be the same process in terms of the budgetary. The manager staff would decide, you know, the cadence for bringing in individual departments, do their budget presentations, that sort of stuff, just as they have done. I don't think we advertised those particular sessions as open meetings because we did not have a quorum of the Board of Commissioners there, and we do not have a quorum of the Board of Commissioners sitting at these either.

No, but we are forming a new committee, essentially, or a commission that itself you know, now as a more formalized body, in theory, and I'm not a legal expert on open meetings law, but it does seem like it might cross the line a little bit. So I don't know if we can get a legal opinion on whether or not it would need to be open meetings or not, if it's a formalized body.

The group has no formal ability to adopt a budget. I mean, they're just coming back and assimilating a proposed budget back to this body. We will adopt it.

Yeah, well, I hear you. And I just want to make sure that we're not doing something that is not, you know, by the book as it relates to that. And can I get an opinion from legal on that, please?

So as I understand the question, it's whether or not this should be, this is designed to be a meeting that would require notice to the public under the Open Meetings Act, but it is designed to be a staff-led meeting to which designated members of the Board of Commissioners are invited and other board members could also attend so long as you do not constitute a quorum.

Okay, I don't know that you're answering my question, but okay. Is a formalized committee or commission, a subcommittee, if you will, of the Board of Commissioners, is that subject to open meetings? And if you don't have the answer now, that's fine. It's a question I have. I recognize that I don't have the votes to make a difference here, but I do think it should be examined.

Well, if it's interpreted that when we do meet that there need to be notice and have open meetings, we'll do that.

So my question also, just aside from that, which I do think is something we should get a solid answer to, is if that is not the case and it is not subject to open meetings,

Well, we can have them run it down. I mean, I've been doing this for 12 years, and I don't think we noticed those meetings when we had individual budget hearings before.

No, no, I don't think we have either, but we also haven't had a formalized committee or commission.

We did. Well, we did. No, I know. We've had formalized budget commissions. We've had budget ordinance. We've had budget commissions. We've had a budget commission where the commissioner said no.

Okay, in any case, I do think we should get a final answer, but even if the answer is no, it does not have to be open meetings. Right now, it seems pretty undetermined as to when the meetings would occur, and I just want to make sure that we, the rest of the commissioners who do not sit on the board, or the commission, rather, are advised of the meeting times and dates, and we can send either ourselves or our representatives to listen. So it seems to be pretty informal here in terms of when the meetings are held and any requirements to let others know that they are happening. So I just want to make sure that that is included in the rules of how this thing should work. I also am not... sure that a four person body is the most sensible. I understand that you are determining some arbitrary line between the north and the south, which I don't know that I agree with, but I'm not here to debate that part of it. What I do have a concern about is that you have two commissioners who sit on this body who may not agree. And if that happens, you're putting it in the hands of the county manager to be the tiebreaker, essentially. And I don't think that's really fair to the county manager, if I'm being honest. These are two of his bosses. He's not gonna wanna pick a side. And so it does seem to me that a five-person, a five-member body would make more sense, or an odd-number body would make more sense, so that there is no issue of a tie happening or being sort of stuck. And even though I understand it's not going to have votes, but... And I think to Commissioner Thorne's point, it does feel to me that the chair is the obvious person to be the fifth member. That the chair should, or the chair's designee, I guess, if the chair did not want to personally do it, would be an obvious addition as the fifth member of this commission. I do also struggle with the eligibility requirements. I do think that the know commissioners are elected by the people for four-year terms not three-year terms and not three and a half year terms and so it does seem to me that restricting the ability of um in this case four of us technically whose terms are up from participating and or being eligible to participate in this committee because our terms are coming to an end denies our citizens right to the same privileges of the two remaining districts. So I do think that is troublesome. And I think it's equally troublesome that the new commissioners who are coming in would not be given the same privilege as the others for an entire year, meaning they would have less early and ongoing input to the budget potentially than the their peers. They have the right, as do all commissioners, to do their jobs from the day they are elected. And if they are qualified to vote on the budget, then they should be qualified and eligible to sit on this commission. I also just wanna add that I think the voting process of the three North commissioners and the three South commissioners voting can potentially lend itself to a commissioner never being able to be in a position to be on this committee. Take for an example, districts one, two and three as they currently sit, it is two Republican commissioners and one Democrat, namely me. It is highly unlikely if this board were you know, theoretically to be a board that continued into the future that the two Republican commissioners would ever let the Democrat commissioner be the one to sit on that body. So I think we really should think through the consequences of the eligibility criteria and the selection criteria, or rather the selection process before we move forward with this. That said, again, I do support the premise and I do think a commission is a good idea. I just want us to get it right in terms of how it is designed.

Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman. Thank you, Chairman. I was going to weigh in on this, but since some of the intent, especially from my point of view, has been, I guess, misaligned or what have you, let me tell you, having seen before when there was a budget committee and having seen what has transpired There are two different things that I feel like this will do. Well, it's more than two, okay? It's unfortunate when we have executive staff that can meet with every commissioner down here and answer all the questions, ask, is there anything else that you need? and a sitting commissioner says no, then they come the day of BOC. I'm confused, you didn't let me know this, you didn't tell me this. Now, those can say I didn't know, I didn't understand, or what have you, but that lessens that confusion that we give the public that our executive staff is not doing what they're doing. Case in point, sometimes I would have a conversation with the executive staff chairman and I would ask them, are you not letting other commissioners know the same things that you're letting me know in the meetings? They say yes. And so I think it's a disservice for one to, everybody as a commissioner has a right to meet with any and everybody in any questions that they have when it comes to the budget. What I think has happened for me and why I think this will work better This is for the committee to come back and give suggestions. If the suggestions that the budget committee bring back are saying, okay, yeah, you suggested it, but we're gonna go with something else, that's fine. But when you take the executive staff and they're meeting with all the commissioners here. And then on the BOC day, you say, you didn't tell me that. I don't understand why this is here when clearly, You had an opportunity to speak with them, and clearly they had the same opportunity to meet with any and everybody. I think it undermines the process, because now you are politicizing the process. So you take less of that if you have one commissioner from the north, one commissioner from the south, and you have the executive staff, so now You don't have proverbial throwing the executive staff under the bus for the camera. Should I say this to everybody openly? Probably not. But everybody knows oftentimes I will say things that other people won't when it's the truth. And I take issue with our executive staff sitting in a meeting with the commissioner going over the budgets And on BOC day, a commissioner sits here and says, you know, I have a problem with this budget in A, B, C, and D. But when you had your own private meeting with them, you asked the same questions, you got the answers, but now you're politicizing it. So to me, I think that take the politics out of it, in my opinion. Secondly, our department heads, I want to protect our department heads. What do I mean by that? What I mean by the department heads, when we have budget season and you are demanding a department head show up, they don't know what's going on. You hadn't had a conversation with them about a budget item, but they're not going to tell a sitting commissioner, no, I'm not coming to the meeting. That keeps them from feeling the pressure of having to be put in the middle of something that they shouldn't have to. Every department head has an opportunity. I've been here six years, going on seven. I have had department heads that have had conversations with the executive staff and they might not necessarily agree with the executive staff, and they came to me to plead their case. Now, this does not take any of that away. However, what it does is less politicize a process and put employees in the middle of something that they should not be demonized for. So for me, I do not want any Fulton County employee to be a political pawn or feel any pressure of having to show up to a meeting or having to sit up and answer somebody's questions, multiple questions, have two-hour meetings with that commissioner, only to come down here on BOC Day and say, I don't know what y'all talking about. Can you explain this to me? Now, I know that, Chairman, please allow me a little levity with this, that this is politics. But at the end of the day, our Fulton County employees have to be protected and removed from being politicized in that process. And I think this is the best answer to that. You have one from the north, one from the south, and you have two, and we come back with the suggestion. This is not to do anything but make the process try to move smoother without making employees, whether they're executive staff or department heads, be used as pawns. Now that's me, Vice Chair Abdur-Rahman, telling you why I think this is a good idea. So on that note, closing. Yeah, don't let me choke. On that note, I want to reiterate something. We don't take a vote, we don't come back, nothing's written in stone. There are adjustments, and this does not keep any individual commissioner with meeting with the executive staff, the county manager, or anybody else on the budget. It doesn't preclude any of that. I just feel as though at this point in time, having seen what we have seen, the protection of Fulton County employees, their integrity, what they're doing is most important in my eyesight, whether it be department heads or whether it be executive staff.

Commissioner Ellis?

Yeah, I'll just close by saying, look, whether you're on the Board of Commissioners, you're going to have an equal role in development of a budget. You can have as much influence on it as you choose to. And, you know, that really involves you kind of rolling up your sleeves, talking to your other commissioners, helping to build consensus around things, you know, all of that stuff that takes place, right? I've been on this commission for a while, and believe it or not, once upon a time, I was a new commissioner, and I spent a lot of time going in, actually, in that first budget cycle I was part of, and I wasn't a part of a budget commission, I went and I met with everyone, took their input and all that, and helped collectively make certain suggestions to the budget, and we wound up that particular year with a 7-0 vote. I didn't have anything to do with the Budget Commission. But I felt like I had a lot of influence on the budget, any more expertise than anybody else. It was just because I felt like I went in and worked with other people to help harness and bring out what was the overall consensus of the collective group of the board. And I think having two elected officials on this board can help facilitate a lot of that same stuff and provide our management team real-time feedback you know, that maybe there are points of it that they're particularly missing, you know, in that early process, and then you get late in the game, and you're trying to dial it back, or you miss it altogether, because something else has just sort of consumed the particular narrative, and it is what it is, and it's just really hard to kind of get back and get what really should have been more of an overweighted priority addressed. So, anyway, I'll stop with that. Commissioner Arrington.

so the commissioners will still get to vote on the budget on budget day right yes and so you know um

This doesn't impede anything, Commissioner Arrington.

Even if I don't agree with it, the vote is the vote, and the vote's going to come down to the vote, right? And so it's not worth jumping up and down over.

I understand.

So, Commissioner Arrington, that's probably my position. It's not worth jumping up and down for. I served on the Budget Commission for many years and thought that... it was a waste of time for the chair to be on the budget commission because I felt and still feel that the manager is in the best position to objectively, objectively decide what departments need based upon what he hears and based upon his, in this case, his experience and bring that to the board. So that's why I've always opposed any commissioner being on the budget commission but in this case probably two is better than one and to quote commissioner errington would you say jump it up and down over it it's not worth jumping up and down but i agree but i'm gonna probably bring something back for the rec authority to be the same split north south atlanta so i hope that we'll still get the support for that All right, Vice Chair, I'll do one.

And I want to be crystal clear, Chairman, and this is not to undermine the county manager and the executive staff. In fact, in my appreciation, this is a form of protection. Because if you're sitting, if I'm sitting on a commission with you all and we're discussing something and I bring it back to my colleagues, that's the less chance of somebody saying, Well, you didn't say that to me. I didn't know that. Now, we could go further. I'm going to stop it there. But for me, this is not only to make sure that the process goes smooth, but stop wasting time. You imagine, and if my colleagues, y'all just hear me for a minute, because I know I can get long-winded. But on this, you imagine sitting down with six different commissioners or possibly seven, going over the budget with all seven of them and then coming to the BOC and half of those commissioners say, what? I didn't know. So for me, I think it allows the communication and the information to flow in what direction it needs to flow, but also it protects the integrity of the process. And for me, that's what's most important. I want the county manager, the CFO, and all of the individuals that sit to the right of us to operate in their lane and feel freely that they can without retribution on BOC day for political points. Now that's going to happen sometimes regardless of what we have in place, but for me, I just want our employees to be protected, and I want to be a part of the process and the solution. Thank you.

All right, the motion on the floor is to approve. Let's vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yays, one abstention. 260461, request approval of a resolution opposing the provision of tax abatements or other financial incentives by any development authority within Fulton County for data center projects, urging the development authority of Fulton County to decline to entertain or approve any such incentive and for other purposes. Sponsored by Commissioner Thorne and Ellis.

A motion to approve by Commissioner Arrington, seconded by Commissioner Ellis. Commissioner Thorne, you have the floor.

Okay, first of all, I want to make it clear that this resolution isn't about whether we have data centers or whether data centers should be built or not. It has nothing to do with that. Honestly, with the race for AI on a global level, we need data centers somewhere. This is just reiterating that our cities, they have their own zoning authorities. They can still zone in data centers if they want to, but this resolution is just simply... Fulton County taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing some of the wealthiest companies in the world that are building these data centers. Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta have chosen Georgia because of our workforce, infrastructure, and the significant incentives that the state has already given them. For instance, Microsoft has even given back the tax abatement it was awarded. They said they didn't want to take from the property taxes because the state incentives were good enough for them that Georgia is already a good place to invest without having Fulton County property taxes going to them. And the problem is that every property tax abatement shifts more of the tax burden onto the homeowners and the existing businesses, and it reduces our revenue available for public safety, infrastructure, parks, libraries, and other essential services. So right now, we're facing extraordinary financial obligations. And this just isn't the time that we voluntarily should reduce our tax base by providing additional incentives to companies that have the financial capacity to invest without them. Our cities are also telling us this is important to them. Roswell and Milton and other communities have paused or reconsidered data center development because residents have raised legitimate concerns about the energy demand and water consumption, noise, traffic around neighborhoods. Whether one agrees with those concerns or not, local governments deserve to have those land use decisions respected rather than undermined through additional financial incentives. This resolution is really just an urging resolution. It doesn't prohibit a single data center from being built. It doesn't change anyone's zoning rights. It does not remove any authority from the development authority. It simply expresses a policy position from this board that Fulton County taxpayers should not be providing additional subsidies for these projects. Hyperscale data centers typically create relatively few permanent jobs compared to enormous capital investment they make. Given the substantial state incentives already available, I do not believe additional local tax abatements represent the best use of our taxpayer dollars. So this resolution is just about fiscal responsibility, protecting our tax digest, respecting our municipal partners, and ensuring that taxpayer incentives are reserved for projects that truly require them and provide them meaningful public benefit. So I hope you will agree with me. Thank you.

Commissioner Arrington.

Thank you. I just wanted to expand this and make this applicable, offer a friendly amendment to any and all development authorities in Fulton County, not just development authority of Fulton County. It's an urgent resolution, and so I think it should Be applicable countywide right for all 15 cities and any and all development authorities and we may want to also just look at the definition of or how it defines what a data center is and those like. you know, open AI and anthropic are not included in that list. Right. And those are two of the biggest ones. So we may just want to think about that. Maybe add, maybe the friendly amendment is to add open AI. Um, but you know, I, I am supportive of this. I just wanted to have countywide applicability.

I'd accept your friendly amendment with Bob as a co-sponsor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think there is that the Amazon meta references are more just like the types of companies, right, and then the line 15 gets into more of the definitional piece of it, but, you know, If you want to add a specific one in there, that's fine, right? A reference to it. Yeah, I mean, at least open AI.

I think we should add open AI and anthropic. Sure, that's fine.

And, you know. And then urging to all development authorities. Urging to all development authorities throughout Fulton County. Yeah, that sounds good.

So, in the words of the CFO, so introductory comment. What's the practical effect of this body opposing the provision of tax abatements? What does that really mean? And I've heard two commissioners say it should be urging. So which is it? If we're opposed, what does that mean? Or do we really mean urging the development authority, all development authorities not to provide abatements?

Well, we can't tell our development authority to not issue a tax abatement. That's correct. We legally cannot tell them. But we can make a statement here today by signing this resolution saying that we do not believe any tax abatements should be given to data centers.

But that's what I'm getting at. You mentioned maybe it should say urging. You said it. I didn't say it. When you mentioned that, then I read we're here. It doesn't say it says opposing the provision. and the thought occurred, what does that really mean? That we oppose it, we don't issue the abatements anyway.

But we're urging the development authority of Fulton County. That's on line four.

Okay.

Commissioner Ellis. No, nothing further. But it is an urging resolution.

I don't want to get ethics complaint for telling the development authority what they're doing, just to make that clear.

The motion on the floor is to approve.

Can we just, a friendly amendment says, which often require 10,000 or more servers. I mean, I don't know how many servers that might be in there. So one that has 5,000 servers wouldn't count as a data center?

I'm just. This is really a definition of the hyperscaler data centers, which are the ones that have been brought into question, was where that language came from.

For instance, in my district, I have a Blackberry data center that, since the Blackberry days, and it's been there, it's very, very small. It doesn't do much. They had to reconfigure it and resell it, put in new equipment. But it has a very, very small footprint. So we wanted to make sure it was a very large data center, not these small ones that could fit in this room. That a company might even have, you know, some companies contain their own servers and everything, their own data centers, so I wouldn't want to intrude on that, that this company's filing for abatement, and oh, by the way, they have a small data center for their company.

Again, I'm very, I'm supportive of this. I just think we might want to look at that. I don't know if it's a square foot size that matters or is it the number of servers or is it the number of square feet that jumps the smaller ones? We may just want to think about that. We can maybe come back later, but. I just think there's ambiguity there and we need to maybe fill those gaps so that someone, maybe one of the data centers that you don't want might be able to get in because of the ambiguity, right? And it may also an opportunity to protect the smaller ones.

All right, Vice Chair.

I just wanted to say to, thank you, Chairman, to Commissioner Arrington, maybe we can think about putting something shortly as to what a data center is. Because if you look at some of the hospitals, some of the hospitals can be, because of the ambiguity, They have their servers. And so some could say they are data centers. So maybe you and I can maybe work on something just to kind of tighten it up a little bit. So I'm willing to help work with you on that.

All right, the motion on the floor is to approve. I'm sorry.

But this is just an urging resolution, so it's not law, it doesn't have to be defined. I'm sure if someone came in with 9,999 servers trying to squeak in, we would know they're trying to squeak in and we still would urge our development authority not to approve a tax abatement.

All right, the motion is to approve.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, five yays, zero nays. Mr.

Chair, I mean, if you would all permit me, there's a discussion item related to data centers that I'd take probably like five minutes on. It might be informational just to share that right now, if we could adjust the agenda to bring that forward.

Wait, what are you saying? What?

On page 12. What is it?

On page 12. 260466. It's just a quick thing on growth and assessed value for data centers.

do you want to hear that now yeah just just again just like just quickly just walk up there okay no objection we'll move which which item is it it's a two six zero four six six discussion data centers 2026 growth and assessed value no objection we'll move that one up and hear it now yeah and i just want to bring this up and i know we've

There's been some discussion about commercial assessments and that sort of stuff. But these are real numbers and real results. You can't translate them necessarily into tax dollars right now because things could be subject to appeal and so forth. But there are two slides real quick to show in terms of just the magnitude and the importance of these things and getting them right from an assessment standpoint and then ensuring that they're not abated, et cetera. This will show you that we had, I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing this is clearly from a dollar number, but probably from a percentage argument too, that in terms of any class, this is the largest growth in assessed value we would have seen in any property type. So you'll see there that the total fair market value growth in the aggregate in this particular class was roughly $3.8 billion. Okay, that's the fair market value. If you look at the taxable assessed value, that growth, you'll see that, you know, down there in the bar graph, you know, as well in terms of that's the total growth in taxable assessment value growth. Now, you know, of roughly... But if you look at sort of like where it is and where the growth is of that $1.65 billion in taxable assessed value growth, the bulk of that has occurred with inside TADs. So the benefit in this year, wherever that's gonna inure to, you know, roughly 70% and change of that taxable assessment value growth took place within tax allocation districts. But nonetheless, these are, of the magnitude, are pretty significant numbers, and then once all appeals and all that sort of stuff wash through, they do represent very meaningful property tax revenue that will inure to to us cities schools etc over time and then if you look at the the next slide one thing that's unique about these properties if you go to the next slide that that's there um clark could you advance that one slide to the second slide. We also tax on personal property, and in many cases, the personal property can have volatility in terms of its values and so forth, but the total fair market value of personal property was $4.15 billion. This year, that's a growth of $3 billion, and that's in line with these hyperscaler centers coming online and becoming operational. and those are taxed at 40%. The taxable assessed value is roughly 40% of that. There may be some of these that did not get actual numbers. Some of these could be subject to some exemptions, but roughly speaking, if you look at it, you're going to see what that is. taxable assessed value on these things are at roughly 40%. It's gonna equate to that 1.66 billion. And then the other thing to note on this is, I'm sorry, 1.15 billion. The other thing to note on this is Now, taxable assets are 1.66 billion on a fair market value of 4.15. The other thing to note on this is these are generally not subject to TAD agreements, personal property. You can potentially have some of that stuff written into TAD agreements, but the assessors informed me that we don't think we have any of the existing TAD agreements have that. The old Atlantic Station one, I think, did have that. as these sort of flush through, these will be revenues that will flow generally into everybody's general fund. So part of the change with this is due to these things coming on and being in completion, but also part of this is due to assessors did take a a harder a different look at this and they worked with some other other places around the country who haven't had a number of these already and look at looked at assessment methodology and so forth and they adopted some of those methodologies that are in use in different parts of the country uh which are deemed to be pretty accurate and seem to hold in terms of appeals and so forth so we'll see how that sort of stuff shakes through but bottom line significant change in assessment of these properties both on a real basis as well as on a personal property basis in 2026 okay questions comments thank you sir madam clerk

Back on page 10, 260462, request approval of ordinance to amend chapter two, article two, division two of laws of Fulton County relating to the code of ethics regarding unemployed officers and employees, and for other purposes. Sponsored by Chairman Pitts and Vice Chair Abdulrahman.

All right, motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdulrahman and .

I mean, I guess I'm fine with this, but I, you know, I'm proposing sweeping changes to the whole ethics thing. So, you know, I can live with this, but let me tell you something, they all have to go. And so,

I think there's support for what you want to do. We just need to do it. Next meeting, meeting after that.

It'll probably be first one in September before I bring it. But I want to circulate it to everybody and get comments from everybody as far as what they want. It could be included as well.

It's needed. All right, let's vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yeas, zero nays. Next item. Page 11, 260463, Board of Health. Chairman Pitts has nominated Renee Blumenthal for reappointment to expiring term December 31st, 2030.

All right, motion to approve by Commissioner Thorne, seconded by Vice Chair Abdur Rahman. Let's vote, please.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yays, zero nays. 260464, Board of Health. Chairman Pitts has nominated Kathy Earls for a reappointment to a term ending December 31st, 2031.

Motion to approve by Vice Chair Abdul-Rahman, seconded by Commissioner Thorne. Please vote.

And the vote is open. And the motion passes, four yays, zero nays. On page 12, Commissioner's Presentation and Discussion Items 260465, Update Implementation of Five-Point Plan, sponsored by Chairman Pitts.

Yes, sir.

Where are we? Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. Good to see you again. Steve Narocki, Strategy Office. Do have a brief update on several of our jail population reduction initiatives, which I can run through right now for you, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. I'll go through the same order that we normally have. We don't have a presentation, but can speak to these. First, with our ankle monitor utilization, it does take us about a week to gather this data and prepare a report, so we do not have our July usage numbers today, but we will have that for the next meeting on August 19th. We'll have our full report for ankle monitors. So that'll be the next meeting. Next one is implementing automated text reminders. Again, the clerk's office, Superior Court Administration, and Tyler Technology are working on the final configuration. The biggest remaining item to deploy this is the opt-in process to receive these text messages. Currently a process is in place, although it is incredibly manually intensive for the clerk's staff to send out these opt-ins. So the final step they're trying to do now is create a more automated process for opt-ins Our target to launch this was in August, so at the end of this month. If they maintain this manual process for opt-ins, they can launch this month. If they wanna go and do an automated opt-in process, the timeline may slip a bit, but they are very close to releasing these.

Okay, what's a bit?

I don't have a timeline, sir. They're trying to figure out what those additional steps are right now. We do have a good update though on the next item, establishing our bond review calendar. On August 3rd, so just this past Monday, the first bond review calendar was heard. They had 10 individuals as part of that calendar. Three were dismissed, so that means three were released from jail. six individuals had their bonds modified or reduced, and that was about cut in half. So if a bond was at about $8,000, went down to 4,000, we had one from 5,000 down to 2,500 and so forth. So about a 50% reduction there. And then one had no change. So those are the 10 individuals. We do have another queue of, or another list of 30 individuals in the queue that are gonna be heard over the next two weeks, and they'll continue a weekly cadence of these modification calendars going forward. The next item we have is maintaining our consolidated trial and motions calendar. We have identified the additional resources and right now we're just waiting on the mid-year budget review to identify funding if we were to move forward with this initiative. So on pause until mid-year review. The next item is standing up our diversion hub at the Rice Street campus. Again, some good progress here. Our partners with the Georgia Justice Project are finishing up drafting a standing order for state court judges to be available to hear these low-level warrant resolution cases. And that standing order draft is expected to be complete on August 14th. From there, it'll be sent to state court where the state court bench will take it up as a vote, again, to have a process in place to have a a judge available, a presiding judge or an on-call judge ready to hear these warrant resolution cases. And then for the physical space, our Department of Real Estate and Asset Management is working with Superior Court administrations pre-trial supervision who is currently in the trailer at Rice Street on moving that team of about 20 individuals or so down to 515 Fairburn. So that process is in flight right now and that'll probably be out about a three month. Initial estimates from DREAM are about a three month process to move those individuals and have the trailer prepped for our new diversion hub. And then the last item, the request from our DA's office around using third-party labs to help reduce the evidence processing backlogs. Again, these are looking at drug cases, drug testing, sexual assault cases, and ballistic cases. We've identified these anticipated costs, estimated costs, but again, dependent on a mid-year budget review to identify available dollars. So that's where we stand, Mr. Chairman. Okay, thank you. Next item.

Last item, Mr. Chairman, 260467 is sponsored by Commissioner Barrett. Did you want to?

Commissioner Barrett asked that we hold this in the event she had to leave.

I'm against holding it.

Are you the spokesperson for?

Yes, she asked me if I would ask for it to be held. I'm against holding it.

On behalf of her. I'm against holding it.

There's objections, so. You carried out your orders, Commissioner Thorne.

I am carrying out my orders for Commissioner Barrett, despite my colleague objecting to my orders.

Remember your friend. Anything else that come before us? Objection is today.

No further items, Mr. Chair.

No further items. We are adjourned.

or 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.

amended to include under new business the reconciliation report and uh this is this is the i believe the last document that's done in an election it's done 30 days after we certify the election okay so that you want to discuss that and yes um adding it in number 10 under new business yes that's fine okay

And then under number six, the call for election E-SPLOS and T-SPLOS, we will be able to call the election for the E-SPLOS today, but from what my understanding is that the Board of Commissioners has not done a resolution with regard to T-SPLOS yet. So we will be calling E-SPLOS today, and we will also be discussing today a special called meeting on the same day that the Board of Commissioners is anticipated to call the do the resolution for tis plus which is august 3rd and we can discuss that when we do the call for election after east plus any um further amendments okay can i get a motion for approval of the agenda as amended motion to approve second all those in favor say aye aye chair both sides unanimous and stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now we'll turn to public comment. Adeline Kumar. And why don't we do it this way so that we can, we'll add up, we'll do three in a row so then the next person will already be in line in order to make public comments. So it'll be Adeline Kumar, Kevin Muldowney, and Pamela Eckhart in that order first.