City Council - Special Meeting

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Sherry. Sherry. I need a motion to come out of executive session. Second. I have a motion to come out of the executive session by council member Duchaine and a second by council member Cheney. All in favor? All oppose? I have a 6. I need a motion to approve um appointing um the city manager as a session in the executive session.

Madame Mayor, I make the motion that we appoint Mr. Jeff Baker as city manager in accordance to the terms of the employment contract as modified in executive session. I second. I have a motion on the floor by Mayor Pro Tim White Williams and a second by council member Shane to appoint um Mr. Jeff Baker as the city manager. Discussion from the council. Uh I'd like to point out that city code article 2 city council division one generally section 241 abstensions uh council member shall vote on all motions unless he has a conflict of interest which would prevent him from making a decision in a fair and [clears throat] legal manner. If a conflict of interest does exist, the council member shall explain for the record his decision to abstain on any vote. And additionally, all council members must comply with requirements of OCGA 3667A-2 regarding disclosures of interest and zoning issues. I'd like to state for the record since that I was not in any way involved in the selection of this candidate, was unaware someone had been considered, contacted, vetted, and offered the position of city manager until the receipt of an email dated January 15th. And since to my knowledge the job was not posted or advertised publicly in order to attract other qualified candidates for consideration, it would be impossible for me to make a decision in a fair manner. I would also state that in view of regulations that prohibit the circumision circumvention of Georgia open meeting laws, I do not know if this action is legal. I will abstain. All right. I have a question.

Yes. I would like the Lord to explain what Mr. Mix is saying that we are out of compliance.

Working. I said I would like the attorney Denmark to explain based on our charter if um council coming to a majority vote is out of compliance with hiring the city manager. service. Council process. manager. I wasn't sure. Thank you, Attorney Mark. Um, so I do have a couple of questions. U, Mr.

Baker, if you could come to the podium. I have my microphone. How are you doing? Um so um as you just heard council member Meeks um saying that he was not aware of any decisions in regards to hiring you and therefore has not had an opportunity to speak with you on any occasion. Myself included. I have not had an opportunity to speak with you in regards to hiring you for a city manager. So I do have a few questions that I would like to ask you in regards to becoming the city manager here in the city of Hampton. Okay. Yes,

all right. Thank you so very much for bearing with me. So, can you tell me uh Mr. Baker uh when were you approached regarding being the city of Hampton city manager and by who?

Okay. Was it before the new year?

Okay. So, what made you choose to come to Hans? I understand that. So, have you had any interaction with any of the council members here prior to uh being offered this position?

Can you identify those council members you've spoken with? Okay. And you had had no interaction with any other council member prior to that? Prior to speaking with them?

Okay. Can you back in the summer when you and I met and we had lunch, can you explain to the council why we were meeting? Okay. So, you were actually vouching for um Mr. Michael Sullivan. I believe his group is TSG NO or something and he is a part of I3 financial group consulting group. So, that is how you and I met through council member White Williams.

Okay. Um during that time uh you expressed that you were doing some work up in Maro uh with a project with I3 and um can you tell us what the outcome of that project is?

For a data center. Okay. And so I3 is a hard money lender pretty much. Uh they financed projects. They were introduced to us as that and they were going to finance some projects if we had some for them to do. You guys were vouching for them on a project that you are currently working on with them. What project were you currently working with them on?

Okay. Okay. Can you explain the smart city project to us? City.

Okay. So, it's pretty much regarding public safety. Okay. Um, what is the what's the budget for that project?

$12 million. Okay. Um, so, uh, you said what development authorities have you worked with and what projects have you started and completed? What was the scope of work and what was the budget for them? own center. We purchased So were those projects going already going on when you became city manager or were was this something started up underneath your leadership?

Started by you and and that com that convention center is located inside of South Lake Mall. Okay. So you guys converted some of that space there too. Um I not from you but I do need to know from Chief um Turner since um you can give it to him. Thank you very much. Um since we according to attorney Denmark um following the charter we can just hire anyone. We don't really have a process that we have to follow. Um can you tell me have we done any vetting on this candidate? Okay.

What? Tell me what does the background check cover? Okay. Crime information. Okay. Okay. So, on Mr. Mr. um Baker's um resume, he used to be the chief of police. Um, have we checked all of his certifications and all of that? Does that part is that a part of the criminal background check?

Okay. All right. Mr. Baker, can you come back to the podium, please? Thank you. So, we received an email and I definitely have some questions and I wish we would have done this um in a different manner, but I do have some questions in regards to some past issues that you've had uh as just in your professional career. Um I understand and you can correct me if I am wrong because it just came to us as an email. I do not know if this is true. I'm asking you to give us the honest truth about it. Okay. So, um according to the email that we received that you lost your post certification. Is that accurate?

Okay. Um can you tell the council what that allegation was? Yes.

Falsification of training records. Okay. And so you chose not to u fight it pretty much. There's a lot more to the story because of the allegation allegation. my mother.

Thank you so very much for being honest with us. Yes. So, um, you can you I'm not going to ask any more questions. Thank you though very much, Mr. Baker. So, the council has made a decision. They have a motion on the floor to appoint um Mr. Jeff Baker as the city manager for the city of H. I'm sorry. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

The question was asked, had I had any contact Jeff Baker. Yes, I did uh briefly, but it was before I was sworn in to my seat as city council. I had a conversation with Mr. Jeff Baker in December. Um before newly elected candidates were sworn in to their post January 6th. Um, I also would like to make a statement in the sense of in our December meeting, I don't recall there being on the agenda item to extend contracts that were sprung on us in executive session, blindsiding us, never sending sending us any information on the contract or what was planned to extend a contract. If you want to about transparency and not being involved in a process. I also had a conversation with Mr. Baker in December with Councilwoman Elect, Councilwoman Elect Brooks, Councilwoman Shen, Council Member Cleveland, and myself. I believe the mayor was alluding to the fact that you and I some personal relationship. I met Mr. Baker the same day that you met him for the first time. I've gone to trainings with Mr. Baker. He and I have said in several training classes that you never catch a city manager sitting in. So my interaction with Mr. Baker

happened over time. Mr. The baker didn't get my phone number until we all started looking at this process and what it would look like. So any insinuation that this council we had a closed meeting that should have been an open meeting that is false. We also met with Mr. Denmark on the same day. And as I stated to him, I'm pretty certain he would not have walked into the room if he knew he had because he's not going to jeopardize his license to practice law. Mr. Baker's not going to jeopardize his job and I'm not going to jeopardize my seat. I understand that you guys, you and Marty may not have had any input on this. However, I am confident in my decision to appoint him Mr. Baker tonight and I feel that he's going to lead this city with the transparency. He's going to change the culture here. He's going to make people happy. He's going to get our citizens more involved unlike the last city manager did. For some strange reason, I have no idea why the former city manager still has this huge rain on people in leadership here in the city. So, tonight I will definitely vote affirmatively to appoint Mr. Pretty much. I did as far as opening records. All those things

make sure people concernate that was selected the right person. So it's my hope that I didn't meet Also, I would like to say that I think it's inappropriate to grill Mr. about something that happened 15 years ago when we just had two support staff, our former city attorney and our former financial advisor. They both had runins with the law. They were never questioned and a lot of people did not know that. They were not publicly humiliated in front of council because of a decision that was made 15 years ago. So, if we're going to be fair, we're going to play fair

all the way. Let's play fair all the way.

I just wanted to add to my comment. Um, when I spoke to Mr. Baker briefly, I did not exchange any numbers or emails. Uh, we probably received an email. I mean the number last week I can't remember exactly but I just want to say this too we all have a past and you know I look at his bio his resume you know his work experience thoroughly and you know I saw the infraction but we need to move forward we need to govern together and move forward you know who knows It may not work out for him, but I feel like we need to move forward and govern together. And enough is enough. It's It's just not The culture here right now is is toxic. It is. So, we just need to move forward. Thank you. I would just add that despite Mr. infraction 15 years ago when he was the police chief of moral moral came back and asked him to be their city manager which he's been doing for the last four years getting appointed year after year that speaks a lot for his character. Thank you council so very much. Um as I stated in before my questions is simply something that I would have asked during the process. Usually we have one, two and three different interviews with um people when we're hiring them. So it would have been something that would have come up. It by no means Mr. Baker is it meant to embarrass me. of course when it came to

us we were just simply trying to figure out what is going on in regards to myself and me. So um thank you for Yes. Um that is something that we all faced and the way I face it is more times

now. It is what it is. There's always question when they call me to come back tomorrow. That was

all right. We have a motion on the floor by Mayor Pro Tim White Williams and a second by Council Member Desaine to uh appoint Mr. Jeff Baker as the city manager. All in favor? Oh, I'm sorry. I need public comment. Anyone want to speak from the public? Nobody wants to speak. All right. So, I have a mocking up my

I have a motion on the floor by Mayor Pro Tim White Williams and a second by council member Desane to appoint Mr. Jeff Baker as the new city manager for the city of Hampton. All in favor? I have five and one ex abstension from council member Meeks. Moving on to agenda item three, consideration make council discussion and approval of resolution 202607 for the purpose of submitting and advancing legislatives to state legislators to establish a 100% homestead advalor tax exemption within the corporate city limits of the city of Hampton and to have a place on the November 2026 VA ballot for voters consideration. I need a motion to approve or to deny.

May I make a motion to approve? I second. I have a motion to approve by council member Mitchum and a second by council member Duchaine. Discussion from the council. I have something. I I believe the um the motion was for after five years for the 100%. Based on the email Mr. or Councilman Meeks sent last night regarding the data centers. I believe that we should probably move to make it take the five years off and just give it to anybody. That's what the resolution.

Okay. Because I thought I was reading something that said five years on it. So, okay. That was just Any further discussion from the council? Discussion from the public. All in favor? I have a 6. I need a motion to adjurnn. Make a move. I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tim White Williams and a second by council member Duchaine. All in favor 6. Yes.