City Council - Regular Meeting

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Yeah. Thank you, Tiffany.

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Good evening and welcome to the City of Hampton May and City Council regular session and public hearing agenda for March the 10th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Held here in the council chamber at city hall, 17 East Main Street, South Hampton, Georgia 30228. I'm Mayor Anne Tarpley. To my far right, I have Council Member Melissa Brooks, Council Member Marty Meeks, Council Member Errol Mitchell, Mayor Pro Tim, Kesha White Williams, Council Member Duchaine, and Council Member Sher Cheney. At this time, we're going to ask that we will stand for invocation. We're going to have Pastor Herman Mason come from Southside Christian Fellowship Church to bring invocation and then it will be followed by the pledge of allegiance.

Thank Thank you for all coming out tonight. If y'all bow your heads, let's just offer a prayer. Father, we thank you so much for being here tonight. We ask you just lead, guide, and direct. Father, we pray for peace. We ask that wisdom would be uh uh used tonight, Lord God, as decisions are made for our town and our city, Lord God. We desire to uh uh grow the right way, Father God, and do things the right way. So tonight, we ask that you would just oversee uh this meeting. Father, in Jesus name we ask and pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance 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.

At this time, we'll have presentation and approval of our city council agenda. I need a motion to approve the agenda for the regular session meeting for February the 10th, 2026. So move. I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tim

um White Williams and a second by council member Duchaine to approve the agenda as published. Any discussion from the council? Any discussion from the public? All in favor? All oppose? I have a 6. We're going to move into our public hearing at this time. At this time, the public hearing is available for anyone that would like to speak on the 90-day moratorum to accept the processing and approval of applications for gas stations and associate developed appro approvals within the city. If adopted, the moratorum shall become effective March the 11, 2026, expire expiring on or about June the 9th, 2026, unless earlier, terminated or extended by action of the mayor and the city council. At this time, I will open the floor for anyone that would like to speak for if you are in favor of a moratorum for the next 90 days on gas stations. I'm going to Yes. I can't say if I am far against I don't know why you are asking for a moratorum is there has there been some issue with the gas stations in the city?

Not to my knowledge. So I'm going to ask council member Mitchum if he would um elaborate on some information about the moratorum. Okay, I'll sit down. Thank you. Council member,

the one of the main reason is to to make sure that we have

one of the reason why we um I decided to put that in place because um a lot of gas station has been popping up all over Hampton without knowing what's going on. um possibly been purchasing and place where they want to place it. So in that space we I want to make sure that when we receive application for a moment term for mean for application for a gas station I want to know what come in there. So based on that places know I will put it in place so that in in that aspect I can put we can look at things more deeper so that we have clear understanding what's coming in so we don't have we don't have all over said right there right there we don't know what's coming in. Can I say something on it?

Yes. So, um, one of the reasons I had really wanted it as well is, um, so that we could get some time to kind of put some zoning in regarding, um, gas stations. Um, so we don't have them popping up like right beside each other so that we're able to kind of put some, you know, something with distance, you know, cuz we've had quite a few come up in the last little while. as well as um maybe maybe there's areas in the cities we want them and maybe there's areas we don't want them. But we want to be able to look at all of that in the zoning and just come up with something that is going to be good for the city.

Yes, Mr. Williams, please state your name, address. Name is Alfred Williams, 188 Kendall, Hampton, Georgia 30228. There you go. Everybody's here. We have exactly two gas stations in this city. We've had two gas stations. Those two gas stations have a grand total of six pumps. Six. One pump don't work. So that means we got five. We have had a grand total I've been living here for 15 years. We've had 15 years to come up with a plan of what we're going to put a gas station, grocery store, and everything else. Right now, we have nothing. Figure it out.

Thank you. Is there anybody else from the public that would like to speak? Is there anybody else that would like to speak in regards to public comment for the establishing of a 90-day moratorum on the acceptance process and approval of applications for gas stations and associate development approval within the city of Hampton. If adopted, this moratorum shall become effective March the 11th, 2026 and expired June the 9th, 2026, unless terminated earlier or extended by action by the mayor council. Is there anybody else that would like to speak in regards to the 90-day moratorum? Can

Yes, Kendra, you want to speak? Yeah. Okay, come on up.

Yeah. I just wanted to say um sorry I was listening on YouTube and I didn't realize this is going to be open for public comment. Um I'm very much in favor of this because one of the comments that Wanda made a few city council meetings ago um was she said if you don't like what you're seeing with what's being proposed then it's in your ordinances. You know it's in the codes. That's where your power is to really establish the vision we have for the city. And so, um, I think at this stage, the only rules we have, as far as I can tell, is no gas stations more than a mile between each other. So, if we get 12 more gas station applications tomorrow and they are a mile between each other, then we'll end up with, you know, a lot of gas stations, even though it's to the code. Um, and so I think that it would be wise to think about like how many gas stations in general do we really want? Is that really what we want our community to be? Um, gas stations, living near one is increased pollution. Um, increased like noise and um, traffic and um, there are negative impacts to having a gas station like right next to a residence. it does lower the property rates um or it can. And so I think that you know if that's the recommendation to evaluate our ordinances better then I think there should be more than just like that they can be every mile because that gives us no recourse if multiple applicants apply for um gas stations every mile, you know, and could these plots of land be used for something more beneficial to the community? So that's why I definitely am in favor of just giving everyone a pause before we keep approving things um to allow us to really make sure that these ordinances

are in line and in alignment with what is best for the community in the future and going forward. You know, it doesn't mean we're never going to get another gas station. It just means well how many do we really want? We have three uh all next to each other up uh up the road. And then I I counted a total of 14 I think um within like a 10 mile radius for Hampton. So it just seems like a lot and I feel like there's a lot of things we do need grocery stores um parks area like or trails and I just think if we're not careful we could end up with too many.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in regards to the 90-day moratorum on gas station? Seeing that there's no one coming forward, I will close the public hearing on the 90-day moratorum um for gas stations. At this time, I will reopen regular session and I will ask for a motion to establish a 90-day moratorum to accept the process and approval of applications for a gas station and associated development approval within the city. If adopted, the moratorum shall become effective on March the 11, 2026 on and expire on about June the 9th, 2026, unless either earlier terminated or extended by action of the mayor and the council. Do I have a motion?

So move. Second. So I have a motion by council member White Williams and I have a second by council member Mitchell. discussion from the council.

Um, additional to the gas station, so far in Hampton, we has proposed and also already established six gas station so far within Hampton itself, less than five mile radius or 10 mile radius within Amt and possibly more. So, that's one of the main reason. Um, so we're going to take a look more in details to make sure we have the orders in place that reflects that what we want in Hampton. Miss Wanda, can you come to the podium? Um, Mr. Council Member Mitchell just said so far we have six proposed um six within

six within five miles. Can you tell us if we have um as of today, how many additional applications for these gas stations have we received? We have, just for clarifications, we have two gas stations that are in our downtown mixeduse area.

We have one existing at Oak Street. We have one under construction at Liberty in front of the Liberty Square. We have one under permitting um building permit and LDP land disturbance permit has been issued for the track next to the Wendy's in front of where the um Cheers Liquor Store is. And then we have a gas station that is under review right now for land disturbance permit at Hampton Locus Grove Road. So six that's a six.

Okay. So our current code um as it stands right now no further gas stations will are um permissible under our current code. So I need can you explain we're because we're talking about putting a moratorum for the next 90 days and it is I'm going to assume that it is the the people understanding as well as council that I know that we did a moratorum last year on gas station and I understand there was some things that came out of it and then prior to that we had also did some work on the code for gas stations. So can you kind of explain to the citizens um that may not have you you know know that that is a part of the code and it's just not distance that's keeping people from being able to actually build a gas station.

Right. So um last year in March 2025 there was a moratorum that was issued on gas stations. Um, the reason that it came about was staff had received an application for a gas station in front of Liberty Square that had a retail center and it was underway and then all of a sudden probably within a few weeks we got another gas station application for the parcel as described next to Wendy's. So staff brought it to administration at that time and also to my my former boss um that we were concerned over um every access into the city from 1941 was going to have a gas station at it because we already had one at Oak Street. And um then I was directed to reach out to the attorney at the time and we drafted and she drafted the moratorum. So, it would give staff an opportunity to look at the ordinance um on the allowable uses in C2 and C3 zoning districts, which is what if you're on a highway along 1941, um some of the out parcels and some of the um you know, like Liberty Square, that area in front of that was zone C3, which is highway commercial, totally appropriate for highway commercial uses. of which gas stations were part. Same thing with the one at Wendy's. Now, those parcels also are zoned for fast food, different other types of C3 uses or C2 uses, but they were marketed and sold for gas station. So staff brought that and out of the ordinance came the criteria for a mile distance which meant for the ones that were already permitted

and the one that was coming through that was part of Henderson Farms annexation, Miss Betty Henderson, part of her annexation compliance with coming into the city was that she wanted to be able to build a gas station on that corner in compliance with the master plan. She had hired Andy Welch. They did a zoning verification letter for us. There was quite a process. And so with her spot there, it's a mile to our current city limits toward 75. It's a mile going State Route 20. And so all the other parcels that are zoned mixed use or zoned RA along 1941 would not accommodate a gas station. So prior to that as well, we had updated our ordinance because our ordinance is a form-based code. We address architectural standards in section four, I believe, article 4. And in particular, we addressed how they can be oriented. The gas pumps can't be in the front on on the right of way. They have to be on the side or the back. Which is why in Liberty, you'll see when it gets developed, the right of way on Manasse is developed with glass doors and they have sidewalks and landscaping. That's their front. The gas station that's at Wendy's, their pumps is on the side. They wanted to put them in the front along 1941 and our code wouldn't allow it. And then the gas station that's on State Route 20 at Hampton Locus Grove Road. Those pumps are behind and the gas station is situated caddy corner. So the architectural um faces State Route 20.

The code also outlies um the gambling machines for those not vested. You can't have the gambling machines. Um, you can't have outdoor storage, which includes ice machines, um, propane, can't have overnight parking. If you have some type of drive-thru, it can't face residential uses, can't face the ride ofway, um, without some type of buffer. So, those are some of the things that we updated the code with. Miss Wanda, I wanted to just ask you in regards to 20 within our city limits and with in regards to 1941 within our city limits, are there currently locate any partials of land um that's zoned C2 or C3 that that falls outside of what we currently do not have currently do not have

that they will be able to locate a gas station at? No, ma'am. No, no, ma'am.

The only other opportunity is to locate a gas station in combination with the grocery store. Those parameters in the code say that the parcel has to be a minimum of 10 acres in size. So, it can't be subdivided. It can't be, you know, developed by one gas station owner and another convenience or, you know, pseudo grocery store. It would be for the big box people like Target, Walmart, not to drop any regional names, but those type of facilities that actually have gas as part of their product. Um, to date, nobody's been interested. Even if somebody came in on 20, the the the separations, they could locate across from the existing gas station that's going underway, but then that would be it because of the the mile still applies. And you could have one gas station with a grocery store possibly in the mixed use down at Mentor Drive and then possibly another one closer to Atlanta Motor Speedway if you had a mile, but it would have to have a grocery store currently how how the code is listed.

I have a couple of questions. Mhm.

So I have thought part of why we um did the moratorum the first time was because we had an application for a gas station on 20 by main coming into our downtown and we didn't necessarily want to have a gas station at that point. No. Um so you're you're correct in remembering that there was something about um East Main Street and State Route 20. What that particular um application was was a variance that came before y'all because they wanted to develop a gas station there on septic. Our ordinance says you have to connect to sewer and so the we told the applicant at the time what our ordinance said. They wanted to appeal to you guys. That's what they did and you guys denied that. Second thing, um, you're saying that no more gas stations could come other than what the possible areas you just said. So, are they just based on the total square foot of the city of Hampton? So, if we expand and annex in more properties, then that would probably allow more gas stations to come in. If we get bigger in that aspect,

depending on the radius. Yes, ma'am. If you go closer, if you expand closer like towards um 75, you extend the um then the next gas station could be probably at Dorsy Road. Is there a minimum square footage for um the gas stations? So, do they have to be, for example, they can't be no less than 5,000 square feet in size or is that I I I don't think there's a a limit in the on the size. Um, and what about the number of pumps? No, ma'am.

Okay. So if we wanted to have like a um pilot like the flying J or quick trip with 12 13 pumps our code allows for that. We have requirements that discourage from say diesel use. Um our canopies the height maximum is 13.9 I think feet. A lot of the canopies for that serve diesel um vehicles are they like much higher um and so we restrict that type of use um with that architectural requirement which is in a different section of our code

and that use restricts like 18 wheelers um from coming in to get gas. Yep. We don't have our so our gas station uh the moratorum and the updates on our code address gas stations. They address truck stops. Truck stops are regulated I believe in the M1 zoning district or M2 because they have other nuisance and and just need larger space. Well, typically you see a truck stops off of the interstate. So yes, ma'am. But I know at the racetrack in Griffin they they do have they did add on to accommodate the diesel diesel. Um sure

Mr. Mitchell um I want to thank you for the update. Um but now you have an additional two to three more gas station from a six that possibility that mean there are two more gas station there possible adjacent to um NSA form that's I didn't know about that one thank you for updating me on that one and also on 20 so basically is a possible eight gas station could be in in the radius of Ammon

so the the two that are outlying that haven't been realized jet quite honestly um would have to come with a grocery store and um we are working very hard to attract the grocery store and they have certain criteria as you guys know y'all working very hard and y'all realize that we're a food desert and so um you know unfortunately no one's knocking on a door to construct a gas uh a grocery store. Um question to you. Um you mentioned grocery store. Mhm. What do you mean by a grocery store? Because grocery store can have different criteria. It could be a small one 10 square foot. Sure.

And you call it cancel a grocery store. It could be a 71 7-Eleven cancel a grocery store. So what do you mean by grocery store in the code? So our our ordinance defines that use I believe as you know related to food um sales of food and you know of a search larger retail facility. uh grocery store when I say it in front of you guys uh currently to your point it could mean a lot of different things and so um the ordinance I don't h I don't have my ordinance um with me to to read off the definition but we do define grocery store in our code I I just don't have it memorized sorry

is it combined with the is it combined with not with smaller scale smaller scale um uses in our ordinance. If you go into the business district section and look under uses, you'll see all of the different uses and it it says grocery and it'll say um smaller retail and that kind of thing. Okay?

So, but but remember in our ordinance currently that particular use has to be developed on at least 10 acres of a single parcel. So that is typically akin to a Kroger's, a Walmart, some other big retailer that has substantial square footage and has gas as an accessory. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss.

You're welcome. I have a motion on the floor to uh establish a 90-day moratorum to on the pro accept the process and an approval of application for a gas station and associate development within the city of Hampton by council member White Williams and a second by council member Mitchell. All in favor? Oh, I'm sorry. No comments. I have to go back.

I'm sorry. Can I I need to ask for public comments from the citizens on this matter. All right. All in favor? All oppose? I have a 6. Presentation and approval of the city council minutes for a regular session summary meeting minutes for January the 13, 2026. I need a motion to approve or to deny. Madame Mayor, I think this is a mistake. Uh, we should be approving the minutes for February 10th.

I just talked to clerk Michelle about that. So, right now we are approving January 13th. 13th and February 10th will be next month. Yes. Okay. So, the thing is is there a reason why? Yes, ma'am. There is. Okay. So, we have had numerous meetings and this is what I was explaining to you all. that you have to be patient with me getting the minutes done because we had so many minutes and that I'm sending them as I'm completing them. So, did we not get the minutes for February? Not yet. We We did. We did. We did. Yeah. But you had you received those minutes after I did the agenda

and so they're not on the agenda. I just sent you out like a 17 page, right? I I know that I saw the minutes um for February. I did. Is that But after is that is that common for us to not get So what did we approve last month? Did we not approve the January 13th minutes either? Attorney, but you all did approve the minutes for last month. I can go,

right? I know we I know we approved the minutes last month. Um, I guess I was just a little taken back that we um didn't get the minutes for February until after we received the agenda on Friday. So, okay. It wasn't ready. That's fine. Attorney Denmark, is that standard?

No, ma'am. It's not necessarily standard, but it's not uncommon either. Um there's often a a little bit of a lag between the time um the the meeting occurs and the minutes um are produced. Um ideally they would be at the very next meeting but that's not always the case. Okay. Any further questions? I need a motion to any questions or concerns from the citizens. I need a motion to approve the regular session summary meeting minutes for January the 13, 2026. I make a motion to move to approve the January 13th meetings, 2026. Second.

I have a motion to approve by council member Cheney and a second by council member Meeks. All in favor? All oppose? I have a 6. Appointment of city of Hampton ethics committee member section 2-307A. The terms of the office of ethics committee members shall begin on the date of appointment and end at the end of the present term of the nominating me member of the council. Should the nominate nominating member of the council be reelected to subsequent terms, the ethics committee member must be reappointed but shall serve until until he or she is reappointed or until a successor is appointed. Vacancies during a term on the ethics committee shall be filled by the appointment for the unexpired term of the office by the city council member who experienced such a vacancy. Members of the ethics committee cannot also serve on existing city committees or board. Um, Miss Katherine Daniels was appointed by council member Sherry Cheney. She resigned her position effective immediately. And so now we have another appointee, Miss Cheney. Who is your appointee for this evening?

Miss Wisdom James. Uh, she is in the audience. Miss James, if you could stay in and just Hey, how are you doing? Thank you for coming. Thank you. So, Miss James, she will be serving in the um remaining term for Miss Katherine Daniels. Serve out the rest of her term. I need a motion to approve Miss James as Miss Cheneyy's appointee to the uh ethics board. So, move. Second. I have a motion by Council Member White Williams and a second by Council Member Mitchell to approve Miss James to the council. Any discussion from the council? Any discussion from the public? All in favor?

I have a 6. We have discussion. Oh, you have a discussion. I'm sorry. I didn't see. Okay. A Williams 188 Kendall, Hampton, Georgia 30228. It's really going in reference to the ethics board. And I'm going to say this. We can't hear you.

Not the ethics board. is about the what you call it what we just read out that said about the appointment and the term the timeline on that portion of it if the person is being the ethics board has been changed so if the person representing the member does not have to be changed out until that member loses their position on the board if that's the case then that person does not represent the citizens that person represents the board. According to the rules, you have to have a a majority that means 100% vote against anybody and that one person can vote no. That cancel outs everything. The other thing is attorney attorney representative cannot be connected in any form of fashion to the city attorney. If that attorney, I don't care if volunteer, I don't care what they doing, is connected to the city attorney, that attorney belongs to the city, not to the ethics board. The ethics boards are volunteers. You are not elected and you're not appointed. You're appointed by a council member and you're not an employee. Therefore, the city attorney person cannot represent you. You have to have your own attorney for the ethics board. If you make think I'm mistaken, I wrote this ethics rule in 20 in 2014 policy letter section 2-92- 91. If you haven't read it, you need to read it. Some things in there that's going on. I'm saying it because I do not want the city to get sued by being stupid. Make sure the attorney that represents the ethic board has nothing to do with the city

and anything that that that person has against whoever is void because all that information belongs to the count their city attorney and the city attorney represents the city. So anything you got out there throw it in the trash. Thank you. Any further comments from the public? All right. I have a 6 in regards to appointing Miss James to the ethics board. Moving on to agenda item six, acknowledgement of guest proclamation and plaque. This evening, we have been joined by the Henry County School for an update. We have our Hampton cluster with us, Dr. Jocelyn Jackson, if you would come forward. Well, hello. Good evening.

How are you doing? I am doing well. Good afternoon. Good evening. I am Joyce Jackson, assistant superintendent for school leadership for Henry County Schools. Yes, we good to go. Yes, you're good to go.

Mayor Tarfley and members of the Hampton City Council, thank you for the opportunity to join you this afternoon to share some exciting news. Thank you so much. All right. Again, thank you for the opportunity to share with you this evening and to provide an update of our school district and to you and to the citizens of Hampton. Again, my name is Joyce Jackson, assistant superintendent for school leadership and I work directly with Dr. Pace, um, superintendent of Henry County Schools in support of the schools in the Hampton community. I am pleased to introduce to you some amazing set of leaders that I have joining me this evening who represent the schools of the city of Hampton. I have Michelle Williams, principal of Hampton Elementary School.

Stand up. Stand up. Stand. Please stand. Yes. Along with her assistant principal, Jana Cohen. We have Miss Sonia Ayana of Rocky Creek. We also have Dr. Lydia Williams from Hampton Middle School. We have Allison Fos, Dr. Fos from Mount Carmel. And then last but not least, Dr. Jarvis Price, principal of Hampton High School. Excuse me, Dr. Foes, wave wave at us.

All right. So these leaders are key levers in their respective schools to ensure that all of our schools and our students are focused, determined and we are determined to ensure that students are safe and secure and learn at high levels um daily. So tonight I'll provide a brief update on three primary topics. Our community inspired strategic plan performance highlights sharing with you how schools in the city of Hampton are demonstrating success and that they are and finally community initiatives. I'll provide some brief updates to you on upcoming ESPOS referendums and the development of the strategic plan. The work highlighted tonight is evidence that bright futures begin in Henry County schools. So, first I'd like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the Henry County Board of Education led by our chair, Miss Sophie Pope from District 4.

Yes. Vice Vice Chair Mackenzie McDaniel who represents district five. That's us. All right. Dr. I like the energy. Dr. Pam Nut from District One. Miss Annette Edwards from District 2. And Miss Jennifer Carter of District 3. All right.

Also joining me this afternoon this evening is Mr. Antonio Matox, Chief Leadership Officer for Henry County Schools. In Henry County, we believe that a high-erforming school district begins with a high-erforming board of education and their collective leadership matters for ensuring that we are focused on improving the outcomes of students for Henry County. To that end, the Henry County Board of Education has been identified yet again this year as an exemplary board by the Georgia School Board Association, which is to be commended. Great.

Henry County Schools is the eighth largest school district in Georgia with approximately 42,000 students with over 6,000 employees, making us the largest employer in Henry County. And as you serve your community here in Hampton, you see that the Hampton community is absolutely growing. and we are proud to continue our partnership with you, Mayor Tarpley, and the Hampton City Council to serve the students who live and attend school right here in the city of Hampton. So, I want to begin by just taking us back just a moment. In 2019, the Henry County Board of Education adopted and is now implementing the community inspired five-year strategic plan that consists of a clear vision and mission, shared core beliefs and understandings, community identified priority student outcomes to serve as metrics for success and ambitious initiatives to drive the collective work of the district and our schools forward together. The work of the 2021 2026 plan will wrap up this summer. Currently, we our district is involved in the process of developing the next 5-year strategic plan. The BOE has held very important meetings throughout our community to develop the plan that you will receive a few updates on tonight. As we work to finalize these actions and projects in the last year of our current plan, the work of the board of education is driven by five key initiatives that were inspired by the voices of our community. As you see here on the slide, strategic action one to advance preK through 12 opportunities to learn and experience more learning, more arts, more music and STEM. Strategic action number two, advancing school leadership and classroom instruction. This focus is on conditions for attracting and retaining the best educators for our students because we

deserve the best here in Henry. Through the research and development of our district, we have rolled out highly effective classroom and highly effective leadership frameworks. Strategic action three, focusing on advancing connectivity with our school district and stakeholders. We want to ensure that all students, employees, families, and partners feel valued and connected to our district. We regularly hold cluster conversations to get parent and community voice. The Henry County Schools Welcome Center located in Mcdana has worked handinhand with families to enroll over 6,000 students this past summer. Strategic Action 4 focusing on advancing student employee health, wellness, and support structures. Our board has invested in mental health and wellness facilitators in every school in Henry County. Strategic action five focuses on advancing a high-erforming operational culture. Air conditioned buses and upgraded operational systems. We are working to ensure effective and efficient operations. In addition to those clear improvements just spoke about, we are also centered on ensuring that our community holds us accountable for those measures of effectiveness. The boy the BOE has adopted these measures into what we call priority student outcomes. These measures are above and beyond what the state accountability measures and are unique elements to accountability for schools in Henry County to set us apart from the rest of the state. The priority student outcomes are organized into three main areas. Readiness to learn which involves increasing kindergarten ready skills for our incoming K students as well as a number of students in in taking advanced courses in the elementary, middle, and high schools just to name a few. literacy proficiency

which includes measures for reading proficiency, growth in reading levels, writing proficiency and exposure to world languages and then college and career life readiness. A few of the measures in indicate and include our graduation rate, student performance on the SAT and students earning industry certifications upon graduation. And here are a couple of highlights, some highle highlights of the successes from our current strategic plan just spoken of. As you can see in this particular Hampton community, we have STEM lab teachers in every elementary school, world language teachers in every elementary school as well. And we are approving in our GMASS results as well as new band uniforms that were purchased for all high schools in Henry County, just to name a few of those highlights. Diving deeper into CTAE successes for a moment, we have over 22,000 students in our district enrolled in CTAE. This in part is due to our intentional work to increase the number of pathways offered and the number of industry recognized certifications upon those pathway um completions. We've also focused on increasing access to students to have middle school exploratories to enhance their readiness to identify and participate in pathways that align with their interests and talents. All of the affformentioned work has led to Henry County Schools having the fifth largest CTA enrollment in the state of Georgia. The arts have truly come alive in our district with vibrant coral programs available to students at every level and orchestra expanding new to new horizons. We are proud to share that beginning in the 2627 school year, all middle school and high schools are set to have orchestra programs in place. Each year, as a result of our investment

investment, more students have the chance to discover the joy of music, which is a testament to our dedication and your dedication to expanding opportunities and access. We're also thrilled to offer theater at every high school, where students are thriving in the technical theater. Additionally, we regularly anticipate and eagerly anticipate our district art exhibition, which begins this week, which will be held at the gallery at Hood Street, displaying over 800 pieces of artwork, a showcase of the inspiring creativity that blossoms in our schools and classrooms every day. To support student learning, Henry County Schools has invested significantly in digital resources to support economic, excuse me, educational technology, media, and systems integration. Highlights of these investments include onetoone devices for all students. Approximately 3.7, you heard me right, 3.7 million minutes have been logged through our digital tracking system being stacked at the end of 2025. 69,000 books are loaned through our digital SOAR program and platform and over 75,000 engagements on our asynchronous learning day website. Henry County Schools is excited to share that the Georgia Department of Education has released targeted support and improvement exit list and CSI progress school designations. We are proud to announce that all four Henry County schools previously identified for targeted support have exited the state designation list and no Henry County schools are right now identified for TSI supports. And I am proud to recognize Hampton Elementary School for demonstrating

significant academic progress and for exing targeted support and improvement designation status. So last year, HCS saw notable district-wide growth across elementary, middle, and high schools with some doubledigit increases in the level of proficiency students demonstrated on the Georgia Milestones assessment. I am happy to share that every school represented here tonight in the Hampton community and you also see some information about the Dutchtown community.

They us too. They are us too. Every one of these clusters in every school saw growth. The Hampton community has so much to be proud of. These scores indicate the strategic board investment, datadriven instructional leadership by those that are sitting behind me and the intentional focus of our school leaders, educators, and support staff on both student achievement and well-being that resulted in incre increasing momentum toward the vision of a high quality worldclass education for every student. Our next topic is this evening is about school safety. Keeping our students safe is a first and top priority. As of today, we have made significant investments in safety. Over $300 million. And here you can see the investments and enhancements we have made this year in response to your community feedback. Most of these investments have been really focused on the safety infrastructure. For example, when you visit any one of our Henry County schools, you'll notice that there is a single point of entry and you have to buzz to get in the door. We've increased our ability to monitor our exterior doors with our new door a jar systems and alarms and increased camera access to our schools and on our school buses. We've added new school staffing models, which includes a campus safety monitor and additional school resource officers in every building. We have continued our implementation of our weapons detection system expanded beyond the large events similar to graduation where we typically use those to um ensuring that we are monitoring not only those large scale events but also our middle schools and high schools as needed. Regarding facilities upgrades, our current esports initiative, which runs through 2027, will accommodate 5,000

plus students through capital projects, including the opening of three new schools, additions to five additional schools, as well as our administrative upgrades through the new district office, and our new transportation facility located not far from where we sit today. Lastly, as we look forward to partnering with our community at large for continued success, we'd like to share an update on two community initiatives. Beginning with our proposed East Law 7, we provided community members with the opportunity to provide feedback on what would be the most important um in infrastructure developments that will be you desire to see through funding from our east. The results you see here are the extremely important or moderately identified responses. As you see in many of these pieces are um around the 80 percentile which shows us that we are really interested as a community in safety and security technology and some infrastructural um enhancement centered around instruction. We have also completed our public review process for these proposed projects um above you know based upon the feedback. Our next phase of engagement includes information sessions for faculty and staff through staff meetings and for families and communities through the community conversations and school council meetings that are upcoming. The Hampton community is cordially invited to join us for the upcoming Hampton Cluster community conversations on March 24th, 2026 at 6 p.m. at Hampton High School to hear additional information and get your questions answered about the East 7. In addition to our community outreach cycle for East Laws, as shared earlier, we are midway through the development of our five-year community inspired strategic plan. We have completed

stakeholder feedback sessions, community surveys, and our strategic planning team has also um met which consists of principles, district leaders, civic and community and business representatives. We are currently in the process of taking feedback from each of these previously mentioned steps for final development of our plan. We expect these steps to be available to the public and completed by April of this year for the Cedric plan to be introduced and shared with our stakeholders later on this summer. As I stated earlier, we believe bright futures begin in Henry County Schools. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to share with you these updates as we continue to partner with our Hampton community to ensure that Henry County Schools continues to rise. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Thank you. Does the council have any questions for Dr. Jackson? Any questions from anyone in the public? My principles and assistant principles, come on up. Come on. Yeah, they're not shy.

I just want I definitely want to say for myself and the entire board, we are so proud and thankful that we have a team of educators and leadership that's guiding our students, um we are excited to see these new numbers and how everything is increasing. We know that we have the right people in place and we are excited for you guys to be a part of the Hampton cluster and team and Henry County as a whole. Absolutely. It's all ties. All ties float all boats. That's what they say. So, do you guys want to say anything? No. All right, let's get a picture. Everybody get a picture. Come on, guys.

Sherry just went you guys. Come in front of us. Sorry. One, two, three. One, two, three. Anyone have an Android? Because I know sometimes Android people want their phone. Got it. Thank you.

Thank you guys so much. They are definitely a part of the foundation of our future. Um, we thank them so very much for pouring into our children and teaching them and showing them the way. So, thank you guys so very much. Moving on to agenda item 6B, update from State Representative Floreny. Thank you so very much for joining us this evening. We're excited about all of the news.

Look, some some of this information is fresh off the press. I was um listening to the assistant superintendent, madame mayor, council. Thank you for having me. And I almost wanted to stand up beside her and say, "Okay, let me add some information to what you just said." Um Roberty, state representative, District 74. I'm proud to represent the city of Hampton, Love Joy, um and part of um the city of Jonesboro and also unincorporated Jonesboro. Um I wanted to come to just bring some information briefly to give a update and also um I'm going to be coming back after the session. As you all know um this is fast and furious times at the at the capital. Um but I wanted to make it a point to come and just give you all an update on what's going on. I'm not for sure if you all have gotten a call today. You get a call today? No.

Okay. Um, as of today, House Bill 1492 has passed. Um, for those of you who may not know, uh, the city of Hampton, um, asked for, uh, an exemption. Um, and so, uh, we voted on that today and it passed unanimously. 159 to zero.

Got it done. Um, we got it done. I want to thank you council for uh your assistance also. Um, I don't see anyone from Nightrider group um the consulting firm. Um, they assisted as well. Can you elaborate on that?

I I I I can. Um so last was it last month or a couple months ago the council passed a resolution and let me let me just kind of for the audience give a little um understanding of how local legislation works. So at the capital we have what's called general bills and then we we have what's called local legislation. Local legislation is anything that is proposed that impacts a local municipality or a county. Uh the city of Hampton uh last month passed a resolution to adopt um a homestead exemption um avalor taxes for residents who have lived in the city for 5 years or longer um in the amount of the full assessed value. Um that means basically because of good stewardship um good leadership um the count that the city is able to pass along savings to each of you. Um once this city passed that resolution, it's my job to take it to the state capital uh to make sure that it's then placed on the local calendar so that it can be passed. And so that passed today. So you all will be seeing um that soon.

It'll be on the ballot.

It it'll be on the ballot. Correct. It'll be on the ballot soon. Uh so so you'll be seeing that. Um I guess that'd be on the November ballot. Um, and so that's that's how that worked just just for education. Also, um, I wanted to, um, let everyone know, uh, there's some there's been some things that's been taking place, um, in the news. And so, I just kind of want to bring some clarification to a couple things. I know that the assistant superintendent mentioned about some educational things. I was speaking to Dr. Pace last week because he was at the capital. Um, I want to thank those community stakeholders that take the time out of their schedule to come down and actually speak to uh the representatives and the senators about what's important for our communities. And so, uh, Dr. Pace came down to the capital um, last week to have a conversation about taxes and things like that. Um, you all don't have may probably won't have to worry about that because of what should be voted on in November. Um, but that was also a tax bill that was passed. Um, that tax bill, House Bill 880, allows for the property, well, not the property, but the state income tax rate to go from 4.99 down to 3.99, which is going to give everybody a an a increase

in their pay in pay, take home money.

Take home money. It doesn't stop there. Um, also the standard deduction is going to be increased. Um, that standard deduction is going to go up. Um, I don't have it right here in front of me. Um, but it's going to go up a few thousand about $12,000. Um, again, we try to as much as possible give back to to those. Now, uh, I know in my position sometimes I have to make difficult decisions because I have more pertinent information on the ground. Um and so sometimes I have to vote a different way. Uh but the goal is always to make sure that we do the best that we can. Um and the most important things that we can for um our constituents. Um the super the assistant superintendent mentioned about school safety. Um also passed today um was the uh state budget. Um and so the state budget was passed in the house and now has to go over to the Senate in order to be approved. Um, I want to give just a couple of highlights of some of the things that was passed in, um, House Bill 974, uh, which is the, uh, which is the budget. Um, there's going to be an extra $119 million, uh, for school safety, um, that was approved today. That comes out to about an additional $50,000 or so for school safety. There was a bill that was passed earlier this session um that basically mandates um our schools to have um security systems. Most most of our schools as was mentioned have the tech the detectors and things like that. most of them use I think is it's evolve the evolve um security system um that you can walk through for security purposes where the state has um already adopted to give schools an increased amount uh to try to help supplement that. I wanted more uh because those things can be expensive and we shouldn't be passing that down to the school system that should be mandate mandated

on the state level. Um, but I wanted to get that uh to you. And like I said, this is fresh off the press, so I'm looking at my notes. Um, there was something else that the assistant superintendent mentioned. House Bill 1193 um provides for literacy coaches that's going to be funded through uh QBE, which is quality basic education. Um, just like teachers would be uh funded. Uh there's been a mandate by the speaker of the house uh to make sure that each of our children read um on grade level um as we've been seeing um a lot of our young people kind of fall through the cracks. And so it's important that we make sure that we fill those cracks. And so there's going to be literacy coaches provided for uh schools. I think it's elementary schools, um, maybe middle schools, but I know elementary schools, there's going to be a literacy coach, reading coach in each of those schools. And so, we're excited about that. Uh, my wife who's here with me, uh, supporting me, she's my security guard and my secretary, everything else. Um, she's a also a special needs educator in Clayton County. Um, and so we we have to make sure that we do all that we can to help to supplement um, especially when it comes down to education because we don't need any of our young people falling through the cracks. Um, and so it's our job to make sure that not only not only we teach them well, but we give them the tools necessary um, in order to make sure that they're going to be able to be successful in society. Um, one of the other things I want to highlight, um, when it comes down to, uh, our pre kindergarten programs, um, we are making sure that we are funding our prek, uh, programs, we're actually trying to get to, uh, pre pre3, um, so that we can have our young people start at an earlier age uh, to make sure that they are getting the tools necessary uh, to be successful. Not only um are we doing

that, but we're also reducing the class size from 22 students to 20 students um to improve instructional quality. Um our state spends a lot of money uh when it comes down to education. The the budget um is $ 38.5 billion. Um that's the state portion. Um and of course we get uh federal funds as well. Um but our job is to make sure that whatever is needed um we take care of our people. Um a couple of um other hot button issues and I would ask the council to allow me to come back to do a more detailed um uh presentation once we get done to the sess with the session and I can breathe. Um um but um just a couple of things that you might have heard on the um on the news or you may not have heard uh sports betting especially being in the city of Hampton um it did fail um and so uh there will not be sports betting uh this year um and I know there's people that fall on both sides um but um it did not it did not pass this year um but there's some other initiatives that we're working on again the session is not over uh there's going to be uh some more things that take place um is always fast and furious and so I want to just kind of leave a few moments for questions from you all and also um if there may be questions from the audience as well.

Representative Fenoi, thank you for coming. Yes, ma'am. I do have a question. Do you recall any bills being passed as it relates to mental health issues for cities? Not necessarily. Well, not for cities. Now, there and I don't have the bill number um at the top of my head, but there was a ordinance where there was a a bill that was passed um that would mandate um cities to kind of clean up homelessness. Okay.

Um and we all know that, you know, there are certain cities that that deal with with that. that my issue with that was again I don't want to mandate something for a city or a county and not provide the resources in order for them to do that effectively. Um there was a $50 million that the governor had uh proposed in order for um cities to pull grants to take care of homelessness. Um but um that was that was that was one thing. Also um there is a mental health uh facility that has been approved. It's going to be 400 beds that's in North Georgia. Um I think that's going to help to that was supposed to help to accommodate um for some of the issues that we have as far as mental health. We need a lot more beds. We need a lot more resources um in the budget. It is included um increased funding for mental health um and not only on the in general as far as you know some of our state agencies but also to uh provide for additional mental health resources for our school systems. Um it's important that our young people get the resources they need um because they deal with a lot of things and so um we have included in the budget um increased funding for our school systems to deal with mental health.

Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions from the council? It's only one question that I I was thinking about and that is the property tax. I think it's 1116

11 11 House resolution 1114 House Bill 1116. So um that went through a whole metamorphosis. Um the I spoke to the chairman this morning. House Bill 116 passed because House Resolution 1114 failed. Um, House Bill, uh, for th for those of you listening, House Bill, House Resolution 114 was a constitutional amendment that required a twothirds vote, which means that it required 120, uh, representatives in order to pass. That failed. Um, House Bill 1116 did pass, but it looked nothing like um um the original version. So the final version was passed on Friday uh basically as a cap and I I took notes like I said I spoke to him today. So House Bill 1116 caps taxes at 3% or CPI which is the consumer u um consumer

price index. Thank you. Um whichever is greater. Um and so that's basically all it does. Um and so let's say for example usually and the consumer price index is a fancy word for inflation. Um so let's say if uh inflation goes up 3.5% then it has to be capped at 3.5%. Um if it's 2.8 then it comes up to three. Um for some municipalities that's good. Um for others it's it's not. And so the main reason why the house resolution failed is because um I know me personally I was getting calls from commissioners um I spoke to Dr. Pace I spoke to other sc uh superintendent um house resolution 1114 basically was going to provide for um home state exemptions for the entire state. Um and so some school systems and some cities and some counties were really going to be impacted negatively um by that. The solution was whether you have the EP splice, T- splice, whatever splice you may have, um the solution was to reportion or repurpose those cents in order to accommodate for the shortfall. A lot of counties and cities needed more than one or two cents in order to accommodate for that. And so that was the major push back. And so that's why the resolution failed. Um and so after a lot of consideration, a lot of conversations, um it was just determined that it was going to be better just to have a flat cap on the tax um and then maybe have a discussion over the summer or um after the session to determine what's going to be the best way um to allow for additional u tax relief for our citizens. And so that's 11 uh 16 did pass.

Okay. Yes. All right. Any questions from the public? Yes, Miss Oliver. I'd like to know if Stand up for me. I'm sorry. Okay. I want to know if they passed uh an expansion financially with funds and Medicaid. There was some uh monies that you had that you all had not And I just wanted to know did they put any of that toward expanding Medicaid? Expanding Medicaid. Yes, sir. Well, you've been you've been up here looking at my notes. You look at my notes. No.

Okay. I just want to make sure. be a whole lady.

37.9 million to increase funds for growth in Medicaid for the aged, blind, and disabled recipients based on uh projected utilization. So, there is going to be an increase 307 um $38 million um to expand and to uh increase uh Medicaid. Also, um there are there is because there's a there was a shortfall in SNAP and so um that shortfall has been filled as well. I think that's about $55 million um to um um 40 point I'm sorry, $40.4 $4 million to backfield funds uh to reflect the reduction in the federal supplement supplemental nutrition assistance program um through an administrative reimbursement. So, $40 million to back field SNAP. Uh,

excuse me, but yes, ma'am. What you just said, $40 million administration? Yes. Does that increase go to administration or does it come to the recipients in the terms of increasing their benefits? Well, well, the benefits are going to probably remain the same uh based on the qualifications and the uh policies for the federal program. Um, but to backfield that those are those costs basically that were I'm trying to put this in a in a nice way. Um, um, basically any issues that we had from the federal government

that filled it. Um, and so that's that's part of the consideration that we have to uh remember because the state has about a um on paper 16 about a $16 billion surplus. Now, all of that um isn't just money that can be used because some of that is already earmarked for other things like uh transportation and things like that, but the money that can be used is about $10 million. Um part of the reason why we have to stay conservative um in our projections as far as the state budget is concerned is because we don't know what might happen with the federal government. So, we have to make sure that we kind of protect ourselves.

Thank you. So, I wanted to ask you I with the Georgia being the number one state to do business in, can you tell me how is that impacting your ability to be able to lower these property taxes and lower income taxes? How is that impacting things here? Well, well, that's I would put I'll put like this, Madam Mayor, that it impacts it, but it's also a impetus to make sure that we continue to drive down taxes so that we can, you know, um make things more attractive. One of the things that um has been talked about, there's there's some bills I think I think there's something coming from there's a couple things coming from the Senate. some of the incentives that we give to certain um industries. Um maybe removing those um so that we can make sure that we have the the be fair because if you're going to give an industry a tax break, let's make sure that we're also giving our citizens tax breaks. Um and I think just leveling the playing field is the reason why we've been hearing so much about affordability. uh so much about either we're going to decrease property taxes or we're going to increase income taxes. We we increased we decreased uh income taxes twice this session from separate bills uh because the the the focus on is that me uh because the focus on making sure that we keep things affordable. Um, something else that I I forgot to mention, um, there's also going to be a $2,000 um, bonus for state employees, including all teachers, um, all and we made sure we made sure it's not just teachers. We asked multiple times, that's bus drivers, that's uh, cafeteria nutritionists, um, anyone that has anything to do with the school system, um, is received that $2,000.

Okay. So, All right. All right. All right. Thank you so very much, Representative Floreny, for giving us that update. We do appreciate it. We will be bringing you back after session. All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, council. Thank you all as well. Thank you.

Great update from Representative Floren, District 74 for the city of Hampton. At this time, we're going to move to agenda item seven, which is public comment. Michelle, I keep hearing it, but I don't know what it is. Oh, I forgot we have new technology. Got it. Please focus on your screen at this time.

Thank you for being here. Public comment is now open to residents of the city of Hampton, to those who own businesses physically located within the city, and to those who own property directly impacted by a matter on tonight's agenda. Speakers may address any item on the agenda or any matter over which this governing body has jurisdiction. We ask that each speaker maintain a civil demeanor and refrain from personal attacks toward members of the governing body. Under section 2468, all council members are required to conduct themselves in a professional and respectful manner. All remarks must be directed to the mayor and not to an individual council member, staff member, or citizens in attendance. Personal remarks are inappropriate. Council members may not speak until they are recognized by the mayor and all comments must address the motion currently under discussion. The mayor is responsible for enforcing the rules of this forum. If a council member believes a rule has been broken, a point of order may be raised and a second is not required. The mayor may rule on the point or allow the council to debate the issue and decide by majority vote. Public comments are limited to 3 minutes per speaker. When you approach the podium, please state your name for the record. We appreciate your participation in local government and your commitment to respectful dialogue.

Okay. First, we have Mr. Ed Hendry. Good evening, Mr. Hendry.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, Council. This is the 33rd time I've been here requesting that y'all quit discriminating against me as a property owner and let me deanex out of the city as I tried to do that long ago to mainly just what the representative has talked about was taxes. There's not a person in this room that's retired income that ought to be paying taxes if they've lived out that long and paid you enough. Ain't it enough that they can live off of what they got left? There's no way that you ought to be taxing the elderly people that's on fixed income in this county. I tried to move out into the county because my property was accessed to the county and I had the right to do it where my neighbor wanted to once he I done it. He wanted to do it because he would be on the county line. and y'all saw fit to go get a state rule that said under a bond issue that y'all could keep us from doing that. And then we come and informed you that we didn't pay to that bond issue because we wasn't on it because we have our own septic tank. We have our own water. We got Central Georgia EMC power. I get garbage pickup from the city that I pay for. But you wanted to keep us there. Oh, you got to keep your property in the city, so you got to pay taxes. And all I was doing was what any red-blooded American would be trying to do is lower their taxes. I think everybody here would do the same thing if you had the opportunity. But the council saw fit, not all of you, because some of you wasn't here. Like I said, this is the 33rd time. Got three more meetings. I'm going to bring you cake. I'm gonna bring you cupcakes with three candles in them. For three years,

I've been wasting my time coming up here trying to get y'all to do the right thing that y'all wouldn't do because you have discriminated against me as a property owner. And you ought to not even be taxing these old older people here. I mean, how much make them take the money out of their social security to pay taxes where they can live in your city. I think they paid enough. they've been here long enough. And I I I think that you really ought to consider that. And it's same way with the I think he said the the paramutual betting didn't make the bill this year. So the taxpayers that's here got to go spend their money to go out of state and y'all not y'all trying to coop money, but y'all don't want to compete with the with the casinos and stuff like that and keep our money at home. That's crazy. I

Thank you, Mr. Hendry. Next we have Next we have Miss Don Gre. Hi Miss Greer.

Hi. Good evening. My comments pertain to an action taken by the mayor, some council members, and the former city manager a little over four years ago and how it seems similar to a recent action. In the January 11th, 2022 city council meeting, the agenda items for city appointments were moved from early in the meeting to behind the completion of new business. At the time, the city's attorney services were through a well-known Henry County law firm. When the time came to appoint the city attorney for 2022, a different lawyer was appointed. The attorney that began the meeting gathered his things and left. The new attorney took over the position at that point. This was surprising to some of us who were present. It looked like the previous attorney did not know what was going to happen. It appeared that part of the aforementioned leadership group had at some time prior to that January meeting, found a new attorney, had discussions with an attorney, discussed hiring that attorney, and made an offer to that attorney. Uh, I do not know the facts of how this happened. I do not know who found that attorney, who all participated in discussions with that attorney, who offered the position to that attorney, or when the first financial transaction between the city and that attorney took place. It seems that a precedent was set. If this is how candidates for city appointments are usually selected, it may be for valid reasons unknown to the public. I do not know if censoring a council member for similarities in this process serves a constructive purpose. Thank you.

Thank you. Next. Seeing that there no public comment from the council. Seeing that there's nobody else on the list for public comments, we're going to move on to agenda item eight, youth council update. We're going to ask Mr. Jakorian Cardiff if he would come forward for youth council updates. Good evening, council and mayor Darpley. Um the youth council is looking forward to our NLC youth conference. We leave on Friday and we will return on Tuesday. We look forward to coming back for next month's meeting for our trip update. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. So we are excited about the youth council NLC uh legislative trip. Hopefully they will learn quite a bit and get a chance to experience some other youth councils from across the country. So, thank you so very much. At this time, we're going to ask that agenda item nine for my city man city manager update. Good evening, citizens, guest, mayor, and council and staff. Uh this format was designed to allow each staff uh member, the department head to come up and give updates and present updates on their individual departments. So, we're going to start with the police department this evening and uh Chief Turner. Good evening, Madame Mayor and Council. Good evening. Good evening.

Our city of Hampton Police Department update for the month. First thing we have is our amount of citizen contacts and that number was 556. Next complaints for the month, zero. our response time. Remember, our goal is under five minutes. We've stayed under the the self-imposed goal of four minutes. We're at 3 minutes and 55 seconds. Um, next, um, want to talk a little bit about our citizen police academy. I know a lot of our council is attending that. Um, last night we got interrupted a little bit, but seems to be going great. Um, last night was the Henry County 911 tour. um the ones that weren't able to get it um detected motor is going to work out with them to and I know Mo is council from a previous engagement. So we'll make sure we get those get those completed before the end of the program as well. Next I have the pleasure to bring before our newest employee at the police department um officer Scott Laria. He um began to work with us on February the 16th. He hails from Fort Valley Police Department where he served as a sergeant.

He's also worked at a part-time officer with the city of Stockbridge. We are excited to have him and I will go ahead and forewarn you from the event last night. Next month, um, we'll be bringing several officers in and Officer Larry will be back before you next month. So, that's all we have this month. Thank y'all. Welcome to the team. Welcome. Next, we're going to have our public works update. Yes, ma'am. Mr. King.

Good evening, Madame Mayor. Good evening, council members. Good evening, residents of Hampton. Okay, let's go. We're doing a lot of work out at McGra Park right now. Um, can you click on that first? One more thing. So, as part of the project, oh, I was going to say

the contractor, they wanted to uh we saved the city $50,000 by doing this work in house by demo by demoing these two courts. So, uh special thanks to uh Mr. Justin Connor back there and uh the rest of the guys in public works. We were able to do that and that was beneficial for the city. Next slide, please. We've been doing work around the city clearing a lot of storm drains. So, this is some of the stuff we did around Katherine Williams as well as on the opposite side of McRaer Park. And we have several other projects coming up um over the next few months to take care of a lot of issues we've had here. For the month of February, we completed 157 work orders. We swept 593 miles of road, 24 citizen contacts, and we replace about 40 ft of concrete. And we're also having a local stream cleanup day. If you guys want to come out, it's going to be on March 21st uh from 9 to 12. We're going to meet at McBrera Park. And uh got a stream there to clean up, give the residents some knowledge about storm water and why we need to do it. And um city manager's going to buy pizza for everyone that shows up. So

pizza. That's all I have unless someone has any questions. Thank you for your time. Thank you so very much. Moving on to the utility director's update, Mr. Elton West.

Madame Mayor Council, Mr. Baker, thank you so much. Um last month was busy as usual. Um, next slide. Electric at 50 work orders total, three power outages, and our annual electric power industry report was completed successfully. Um, next slide, please. Uh, yeah, that's that right there is uh that's at the wastewater treatment plant. So, I bring that up because that's part of the ongoing improvements that are being made um to our influent, which is what's coming in. and it's going to connect us to the new lift station that is on the ECMake site. Um, we had a total of 98 total work orders for the wastewater plant. Next slide. Uh, water that that right there was on Hampton Lakes Drive, I think it was. Anyway, it had 161 work orders total. Total eight or more leaks repaired, I must say. We've been uh pretty busy and it's anyone hasn't noticed, you don't see too much leaking around anymore. We made strides along with Mr. King. I like to pat him on the back as well because we uh it may not look like it we've got a lot done. We got a lot of good people working with and for us and uh I'd like to offer my um heartfelt and sincere appreciation and thanks for everybody everything that everyone does. Next slide please. And that's it. Anybody got any questions?

I do have a question. I know. Um, I just want to ask on next month when you give your presentation, we used to get an ECG report on the amount of water that we were losing each month. Can you provide us with try to have that number for us? I can I'll have it. I definitely have it. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

Moving on to community development update. Miss Wondermore. Good evening, mayor and council and city manager and city attorney and citizens. When I grow up, I want to be like public works. They're so cool. Um, so the community development department has uh just uh continued working along and um for the month of February, we had 13 business license renewed and issued. uh 26 building permits, one zoning application that was submitted, 14 development projects underway. Uh we did not um make a new grant application and the grant programs that we had under way last month are still moving along. These are the current projects that are in the city. They are the same that we posted last month with the exception we updated the correction to the gas station at Manasse. I would like to share that Glen May subdivision which is adjacent to the senior center. They are um preparing to submit final plat to us which is their step before um building can start vertical construction of the homes. So we're excited about that. They're installing um entry monuments, landscaping, irrigation, sidewalks, etc. Our electric department completed phase one of the installation um for the subdivision. Got an email about that today. This particular exhibit, oh sorry, this is the map that we showed last month with all the activities in the city. And we did receive this exhibit I wanted to share with you guys. This is the development that's known as Madlin Park for us. It is located off um Derek

Avenue at the corner of Elm Street and the developer sent that to community development department and they are working on processing their actual elevations to ensure they're in compliance with the approved zoning ordinance. So, I wanted to share that with you guys. And that's it. Thank you so very much, Miss Wonder. Do we have any questions from the council? Yes. Did you um issue any conditional use permits? Any conditional use permits? We do that. Not that I'm aware of. Thank you. How many homes going to be in there street?

Um Meline Park has 27 homes. Madlin. Yes. And Glenn may just so you're aware you didn't ask, but that's 165 mixeduse um homes. Are these fees simple or rentals? Uh they're fe simple and that's required by the ordinance that you guys approved. Thank you.

One more. You're welcome. Moving on to our financial update. Thank you, Mr. Forsythe.

Please be patient with the oldest person on the team. I'm the closest to a century. Mayor, Council, CM, Attorney, Clerk, all directors, citizens. We We have Well, before I go to the numbers, there are people behind the numbers. I have six ladies that are outstanding. They excel. And I'll show you the reason and the results of it. And I would like to have Grace and Katrina. I got what's it two out of six to attend. Stand up ladies because without these ladies I I I can go home. I can go home without these ladies. You know they do all the work. Um, and I'd like to open and let you know once again we received the little button from the GFOA. That's the Governmental Financial Officers Association. And we're that's that's the consecutively in financial. Don't forget we've already received three consecutive on the budget for for excellence in budgeting. we have submitted for the triple crown cuz we're getting greedy I think you know and so we find out it's under review so if we get that for a small city we'll have a triple crown

and so I am working hard to have a smooth transition because as you know later on I will be really heading home you know what I'm saying but um I have such a great team I've trained them to to to replace each brother. And it's hard to get people to do that because the first thing they say, "Hey, you didn't pay me to do that." I said, "Look, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to develop you so if they don't pay you, you can get another job and get more money." It it worked. Anyway, here we go. Um the the total the total budget is like 10 million 9992. It's on my left. It's going to be on the council's right. And I'm going to go across. Um, so we so we we've budgeted 9 million. Ignore the second the next column because it's the same as the third column because the first quarter is al also the same as the year to date.

We left it because when we go into our second quarter, we'll need that um year to date. Anyway, as you can see, we collected 4.6 million. Um, you go keep going across to the percentage that's 47%. So you saying, "Wow, if we continue like that, boy, I tell you, you know what I'm saying? We're going to wrap it up. You know, we're going to have a lot of cash." But the problem with that, and I'm going to tell you right now, the second the second line, property tax, we've already collected 100 almost 100% of it. So So really only 25%, which is like 572,000 applies to the quarter. Also the other line that produced a lot of kind of unexpected revenue was licensing commits from the um data center. We got like 752. We didn't quite budget it because it's tough to to to to estimate that. And so if you subtract those two numbers from the from the collection number of 4.6 and redo the percentage, it's 23%.

Right? Okay. Now, keep that percent in mind. Okay, we'll go to expenses with expenses. If you notice, first thing I'll jump I'll I'll show you. Go right across to the bottom. What percent do you see? 22. 22. So, the revenue is covering expense

and that's I don't I don't want because the 2.4 bottom the revenue is kind of misleading because we've got advanced money in there. Okay. Now the only the only concern I would have is is anything that's over 25 we use 25 as a rough estimate a guide just a guide and um there's one it is over and you know the reason why you're listening to it streaming equipment okay and election election we budgeted7000 when we got the bill from Henry County

yeah it was huge so But we going to argue that down next time around. We didn't get a chance this time with the new CM. We're going to we going to attack it. You know what I'm saying? We're not going to just accept it. So that's basically the general fund which is is holding its own. Now next page. Okay. This is this is really capital as you know the the safety public safety and the park and wreck um they call it impact fees is really for capital and not the activity wasn't that great but it picks up and one thing I wanted to let you know I'm going to go back a little the first quarter of our financials is always the lowest because the weather affects consumption and different things and and people, you know, like you don't have enough activities going on in the park or a main street, etc. But anyway, so we the only thing I'd like to mention here and and um one that could probably tune in for me, there's a a receipt of 135K at the bottom, the very last item. That's that's that's a what? That's a contribution. Is it one? It's a contribution.

177. No, the one the 13 the 135. Just the one 37 is the total expenditure. Yeah, the the 164. Anyway, that's it for for um general fund. I let let's roll on over to Enterprise. Enterprise really is going to going to really not surprise you at all because if you if you look I I'll hit quick through this. Look at the last line. Go to the percentages. It's 22%. So, it's living up to being a little slower because of consumption of of electricity is is slowing that quarter. And go to the next page because I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time with utilities. Um, the the expense is 22. So, it's covering its expense. Now, I'll go back to revenue though. I do have one comment I would like to make because the CM reminded me rightfully in the middle of revenue. Okay, you you may have to go back one more. Just go back to revenue. You see those lovely zeros going across?

That's storm water zero. So we need to develop uh a charge for storm water. That's all. Right now the line below it says reserve transfer general fund is really being hit with $25,000. That's just the one quarter expense. So that I'd like to bring to your attention. And going back to enterprise the very to the last page at the bottom there there was no activity for their capital expenditure which is for which is sewer and um electric and um water activity you know was non-existent. So that's it ladies and gentlemen.

Any questions? Any questions from the council? Any questions from the public? Thank you, Mr. Forks. I'm sorry. Yes.

No. No. There's no fee. We haven't developed a free structure yet. And that's for the city of Hampton. Just city of Hampton, right? Yes. So, Henry County has a storm water fee. So, the only reason I'm asking We do if it's if it's Henry if it's in Henry County. It's not in Henry County. It's actually but

so in the in the city of Hampton we don't have a storm water fee established in the city of Hampton. We just yet we just take care of storm water problems. So if you are in the city of Hampton, you need to call Jeff and he can get some assistance to the location. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Mr. Foresight. You're welcome. Moving on to agenda item. Oh no, moving on to IT department update. You will have too little Good evening, mayor and council.

Good evening. Um, I'm going to make it cute and short. Cute for me and short for y'all.

Um, did you put in a ticket? Um, February we had 62 total tickets. Uh, 61 resolved. I still have one open and it is the signage for the depot. Um, it turned into a larger problem, but um, we're determined to get it fixed. You'll hear about it later. um tech. I help the city with a lot of tech issues every day, i.e. the tickets I just showed you. But I like to make sure that I am sharing information with the public because it is it is important that we are doing what we need to do for our computer systems. Um I gave you some computer maintenance tips. Uh restart your computer regularly. Just like your body, it needs to sleep. Um keep software updated. Yes, you have to update your software all the time, including your TV. If you have a smart TV, update it. Uh, close unused apps and browser tabs. If you have an iPhone or an Android, I'm sure you have every tab open, swipe up. Swipe up. Swipe up. Um, clear browser cache. If you don't know how to do that, most browsers, Google, Chrome, uh, Edge, they have a thing where you can go in and clear your history. It might be good uh to clear your history for all kinds of things. Uh spouses, you know, clear your browser history. Um avoid installing random software from the internet. Um normally when we Google things, uh we want to hit on the first thing that comes. Let's not do that. Make sure you read the small print underneath those titles because you could be going somewhere nefarious and that could be detrimental to your computer. That's what I got.

Thank you. Any questions for our IT director, Miss Michelle Hood, Michelle Arth number two? Yes. I just want to thank her for being able to hear for the first time in 20 years.

Now, we will have Miss Atwater, our human resource director. Good evening, mayor and council. Um, mine is also short. I want to start out by saying that um my son is a proud Hampton High School graduate, class of 2024, and he is a molecular Aiden Sumler. He is a molecular biology major at Cal State University, Monterey Bay. So, these pictures that you see are actual photos that he took with his iPhone. Oh, nice. All right. Okay. He sounds smart.

Okay. Okay. Um, real quick, we're going to go over headc counts, vacancy numbers, turnover rates, and job resources. Our current headcounts for February 2026, we had a total of 84 employees, and this is the breakout for each department. Okay. Um, vacancies by department, February 2026. Um, we we have filled a few of these positions already. So, because they were hired this month, you won't see the update until the March report. Um, the police department usually stays pretty staffed, so they fell off of this report for February. Okay. Our turnover rate remains steady and low um for the month of February. It still hovers around 1.2%. And here are local job resources. And again, if you need an accommodation with um the applications process, please do do feel free to reach out to me directly and I'll be glad to assist you.

Any questions for Miss Atwater? Any questions from the public? Miss Atwater, are all of these positions already posted? Yes, ma'am. Yes. That's all I have. Thank you. City Manager, do you have any other things that you would like to add? No, ma'am. I think they did an excellent job. Thank you, staff.

Thank you so very much. Moving on to agenda item 10, unfinished business. Seeing that there is none, we will move on to agenda item 11, our consent agenda. Seeing that there is nothing in the consent agenda, we will move on to agenda item 12, new business. 12A consideration and action to approve the first read of ordinance 2026-01 to annex certain properties bearing address one19 I mean 1019 highway 1941 partial ID number 008019000 and being 2.1 2.01 01 plus or minus acres into the city pursuant to the 100% method of OCGA 363621 to amend the map or maps of the city and adjacent territories to show the present and proposed boundaries of the city of Hampton. Do we have them applicant here? You can come forward at this time. Please tell us your name and if you have presentation that you would like to give us in regards to the application.

Uh I didn't bring an electronic uh presentation but I think you've got the materials in the packet. Paul Jakowski with the uh law firm of Hec Walker Jordan. We represent Seikor Financial the applicant. Uh thank you for this opportunity madame mayor and councel. The property in question at 1019 Highway 1941 is immediately north of the existing Southern States facility. It's effectively across the highway more or less uh from the raceway. Uh it's along uh a developing and expanding commercial and industrial corridor uh in the city. Uh the property actually uh borders the city on two uh sides. Uh it does have some developmental challenges which I think work to mitigate some of the concerns that staff may have and that the council may have. The property has about 30 feet of frontage and a long drive coming off the highway. Uh it expands as it gets to the rear of the property. It's it's 2 acres, but that drive area is effectively uh unusable because it's needed for access. And in fact, uh the property traditionally has been accessed through a shared drive with southern states. There is a there's a creek that runs behind the property. So, you've got a stream buffer to separate it from the residential neighborhood behind it. Uh, you also have the 100-year flood plane which effectively takes almost half of that usable rectangular portion

uh which decreases decreases the utility of the property but it provides a thick uh natural screen to the residential behind it. You can't see the homes behind it. they couldn't see any use through it because uh effectively you couldn't build in that area. Uh the applicant did uh provide a conceptual site plan to show that you could put a small building with parking behind it uh to the rear of the property. Um but again the developmental challenges would require uh either a shared access easement with southern state to provide a permanent solution or to coordinate with uh G dot to get uh a full uh drive in that location. And it remains to be seen whether there's enough uh clearance there for that. So staff has issued their recommendation of approval with uh conditions. We do think that the uh proposed use is consistent with not only the surrounding uses, it makes sense to be in the city u because of the dedication to business that the city has shown along uh highway 1941. Uh and that can be done with zero impact to the uh residential neighborhood behind it. And there would be really no visual impact to the highway because no business could front the highway because of the shape of the property. So the highest and best use of this property realistically is is probably

eventually a sale to southern states. Uh the existing user because that limitation on the drive and and the usability of the property itself because they have an existing presence adjacent to it, they could use the property more efficiently and effectively. Um and that conversation is going on in the background but limited you know with considerations of price and and access and and the other considerations for commercial property. The current zoning of AR agricultural residential in the county is not feasible doesn't provide uh the applicant with any sort of uh feasible economic use of this property. Uh it's not that it couldn't be used for any purpose. There's just simply no commercial purpose to which it could be put. And then with the increasing u commercial development along that corridor, any type of lowdensity housing simply would not provide the applicant with any type of return. such that and and of course we're constrained to note that a denial of of the requested reszoning uh would effectively deny the applicant of due process uh and any use of the property such that it uh might actually constitute a taking under the federal and state constitutions and deny equal protection of the law since you've got two parcels that are already uh lightened industrial uh immediately adjacent to it. We also are are mindful that there is a church adjacent to the property that's in the county. Uh

again, because of the shape of the property, there would be no impact to the church. Uh because the the usable part of the property is to the rear, which is really behind Southern States and not across the street from the church. So, we did take that into account as well. We'll be happy to answer any questions that uh the council may have. Yes, ma'am. So, is the purpose of this annex and reszoning is to be able to sell it to Southern State?

I mean, that that is uh one uh option that they're exploring, but there have been other purchasers that have been interested in it. Uh the limitation for the most part seems to be uh the 30 feet of frontage which restricts access. Okay. Also then if it's not going to be sold to Southern State and it could be sold to someone else then what would their their final purpose of using the land be?

Well it it would be what the conceptual site plan would show. Once you take in setbacks and natural barriers uh and the shape of the property, essentially what you might get is a small twostory uh manufacturing facility. Uh planning staff had noted what some of the allowable uses would be. Craft production, warehouses, distribution centers. I mean that may be an allowable use but it's not feasible because of the u really the size of the property is is fairly small at at 2 acres. Uh equipment and sales service machine shops those things uh are feasible.

Any other questions from the council? Yes, Miss Melissa. No, I have a question for Miss Wanda. Okay. Yeah. Uh he the gentleman not noted that there were conditions. Okay. Yes. So I do want to uh make clear that um the conditions are a part of the reszoning specifically from the C Henry County RA to city of Hampton M1. So I'm going to skip pretty far through here. Sorry. Okay. Sorry.

I'm sorry. I should have let you do a presentation first. Oh, no. I mean, you're you're okay. I I didn't have much for the annexation by itself because if the annexation doesn't go through, then we wouldn't address the reasonzoning.

Um, but so these are the eight conditions we've outlined. So, part A addresses access management. Development application for the property shall require approval from the Georgia Department of Transportation and the city of Hampton. If access is not permitted by G dot would be condition two, the development may obtain an access easement from adjacent property owners which is recorded as a cross easement agreement submitted prior to the issuance of a land disturbance permit. We would not issue a land disturbance permit without knowing that this property had access. Driveway design and spacing shall comply with the city access management standards and all applicable G dot requirements. B addresses buffering. So four, five, and six. A minimum 40 foot planted buffer shall be maintained along any property line abuing residentially zoned property. Five, no loading docks, service bays or outdoor work areas shall face residentially zoned properties. Six, all mechanical equipment, dumpsters, and service areas shall be visually screened from public rightway and adjacent residential property. And then C, outdoor storage inside apparent. Seven, any permitted outdoor storage shall be fully screened from US 1941 and adjacent properties. Outdoor lighting shall comply with city lighting standards and shall be directed away from residential properties. So those are the conditions. So I I want to make sure we understand. So we're do we have two things before us, two ordinance. The first one is annexation. The second one is going to be the reasonzoning. They put in the application for it to be done at the exact same time. One does affect the other the other, but we could make the decision here to annex the property into the city without the reszoning of that property or do both of them at the same time. It is my recommendation to the board that we that we look at it and say because of the statement the gentleman just made in regards to denying him his rights and property rights and his

ability to be able to get the zoning that is required that we wait until we annex this property into the city until the final decision about who it is and who's going to be and what is going to be before we even bring it into our city limits. that way we don't have to contend with the re the reszoning portion of it in our city. So that would be my recommendation to the board. Any more comments from the board? Yes. Um the gentleman mentioned conceptual plans. Is that something that can be shared or is it not available? No, it's in your package.

Yeah, it's in your package. It's in your package right here. Hold on. Oh, it's on your It's probably on my iPad. Yeah, your pad. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. I'll be there. I have a question. So, the conditions that you've put seems like there's so many may on that depending on if you could get this or depending if you could get that. Um should like um with these kind of all dependings.

So, yes, ma'am. It's for it's so that the conditions can handle any use of the property. So say we we're not controlling the access to 1941. That's G dot's jurisdiction. So I can't control whether G dot's going to give him access or not. So we put a condition on if G dot gives him access. We will require that permit from G dot. If they don't, we will require an access easement from an adjacent property owner. So that way both of those things can be on there for what we had in front of us at the time. So, could this ultimately turn into like maybe a um a mechanic shop? Is that one of the uses per M1?

Go. I listed pretty much every possible use in my report and I apologize. you would think with it being so far back from the main highway um that that could possibly be one of the uses for it. So what I have for um permitted uses in M1 specifically, which is what he's asking for. The property could include manufacturing, craft production, warehouse, distribution centers, heavy equipment sales and service, machine shops, industrial food production, printing, publishing establishments, renewable energy facilities, research and development, wholesale operations, cold storage, and bus terminals. This is directly from our allowed use table for M1. Now, what also is allowed in M1, but what not be allowed on this property? I'm going to say that it will not be allowed on this property because of what our code says. Sexually oriented businesses and self- storage facilities would not be permitted on this parcel even though they're allowed in M1 because there's a 250 foot separation required from residential uses and places of worship. This is next door to a current church. It's not 250 ft from a place of worship. It's behind or in front of however you want to look at it a residential neighborhood. It's not 250 ft from a residential neighborhood. So those businesses would not be allowed. And based on the flood zone that it's in,

how much they would have required buffers, Wanda, for the stream, it's what is it? Sorry. For stream buffers is 75 foot imperous, 50 foot um non-disturbed. So the flood plane is not studied and it's showing currently on the flood map. Do we have that exhibit? Yes, I do believe it's on the package. Um, it shows uh in the image that Tiffany has, it creeps um

well into the back. There it is. So that area right there in the blue on the backside is flood and it's not a studied stream which means if an engineer came in and did crosssections across the stream and studied what that base elevation flood is they may reduce it some but it's um certainly uh impaired probably consistent with the stream buffer. So none of that would be uh allowed to be uh removed vegetation or if you're grading in the imperous buffer, you couldn't impact the 50ft buffer.

So they would still need another buffer on top of that buffer to separate them from the the residential area. Um no ma'am, the 40 foot buffer that's part of the code uh is measured from the property line and so um the stream is a 75 ft buffer. So it would it extends past that 40 foot.

Is that um my eyes aren't that great, but are there any dwellings on this two acres? So the issue and we um we um Tiffany um consulted with um PD our city of Hampton PD and what's happened that property is zoned a um residential agricultural in the county and as such you can have a camper live in the camper can live in and so they've had uh numerous code enforcement calls related to that particular use um as residential. So, no, there's not an actual um resident back there now. They've demoed a lot of that um structures. Okay.

Yep. And I guess this is coming to us because they applied in January, although we just put in a Yes, ma'am. Okay. Does that make you have something else? Definitely. Um code it said M1. Is it possible to have a six-wheeler truck back there and enough um spaces so forth? No sir.

So the the scale is deceptive. It is uh 2 acres in size and so any engineer if they wanted to use the space they would do what they call auto turn in AutoCAD to show whether or not the sixhe vehicle can make a turnaround and get around the building. Is it preferred uh for that use? No. And probably wouldn't be marketed to that. And it sounds when we were out there just doing a site visit, southern states had indicated they were interested and I think they're just trying to work out that arrangement, although that's not 100%. And so, um, for that property to be utilized, as Tiffany already said, it has to have access. So, it's either going to get access from G dot or it's going to get access from adjacent property owner. Okay.

All right. Any further discussion from the council? Yes, Marty. Is the owner willing Is the owner willing to submit to all the conditions? The conditions are acceptable. I mean, that makes sense to buffer that use from the residential. Can I ask another question? Is the owner willing or whoever is buying the property then if we're going to eventually reszone it or what to put a conditional like they come back to us with a conditional use permit when they're ready to let us know what is actually going back there.

Um perhaps as if you move to the next item for the reasonzoning if y'all decide to annex it. One of the conditions of zoning that you might be able to add is that you require the applicant to bring their concept plan to the mayor and council for approval and then you can move forward. So, it's not a zoning decision, but you guys get to see what the site plan is.

Okay. So, I have one question for the applicant. Um, so would you be willing to be annexed without the reasonzoning? We would prefer that the that the reasonzoning uh occur in conjunction with the annexation because for economy for the city to have it done at one time uh under one consideration uh and to make the property when it enters the city consistent with the light industrial zoning that it's adjacent to already. We believe that it's consistent not only with the existing uses but also with the comprehensive plan that the city has pre-approved.

Yes. Go ahead. Are are you um willing to accept a condition on um the zoning the the eight conditions that that staff has proposed? Yeah. Yes. Any further comments from the council? Any comments from the public? I have a motion.

Yes. Please state your name. Oh, yeah. Kendra Sutherland, 29 East Main Street South. I'm just wondering, does this happen before or after where you notify the adjacent neighbors? is that like once it's approved then it has the public hearing and the signage out there. So the signage is out there has been out there. Oh, it has been. Okay. Has the church or the residents in the area uh been notified about this proposal. So with the signage that is the notification that we put out. Okay. So nobody's reached out to and say

apologies. Um so our um ordinance doesn't have a specific additional requirement to mail or knock doors or whatever to adjacent property owners. We follow follow the law as far as advertising um for zoning actions. The ad goes into the um paper to notify those who read paper and we also post the property. has to be posted a minimum 15 days before the hearing a public hearing and not more than 45. And so the the property was posted. We document that by taking photos and all that good stuff. And then we have the public hearing which we had in February. Thank you.

Yeah. I'd just like to make the comment that I I think it would be uh more proactive to actually commu like contact the the residents somehow. Not a lot of people read the paper and not everybody sees those signs. They're driving past them fast, you know. Um I think it's a I think just given the nature of communication with residents these days, I think that would be just I wanted to just make that comment.

All right. Um, I also think it's concerning that it's on a stream and you're considering light industrial. Like I find that a little uh concerning to have uh something like a garage or a um you know a automotive repair right on the water there. Thank you. I saw someone else's hand that wanted to make a comment. Miss Oliver.

Yes, ma'am. Again, I don't know what is going to be there, but my advice would be to leave it alone until they can determine what they're going to do to it and how is it going to impact Hampton? What benefit Hampton out of this deal? It's just we're allowing them to come in and we don't even know what they're going to use it for. It doesn't make sense to me, but y'all know better. I just think that uh when you talk about new development like that and uh it's a small piece of land certainly, but I'm still hung up on what is going to be done with that. You know how we have a lot of going on in Hampton. A lot of things are expanding and traffic is going to be horrendous here in another five years. You going to be able to move through Hampton until something is done about widening some streets, adding some parking spaces. a whole lot of things are going to have to change uh in order to accommodate the people who are here and people who are coming here. That's where the the the real change is. They putting 27 houses over there on uh Am Street, Derek Street. We already got traffic jams all day long. It used to be just going to work and getting off from work times that you couldn't get through Main Street. It's all the time, all day long now.

So, a lot of changes going to have to be made and before you can make a solid decision about something like that cuz that open the door for others too to come cuz we do still have some vacant lands around here. And I just think a lot of thought needs to be given before you make a final decision. Thank you. Did I see anyone else's hand? All right. I need a motion to approve the first read of ordinance or 20261. To approve or to deny.

Madame Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the first read of ordinance 202601. And I'd like to state that this is the first read. It requires two reads and this might give the applicant time to present his concept plan next month or in the future. That way we could be more secure. Uh he has to have two reads to be approved. Okay. I second.

I have a motion on the floor to approve ordinance number 202601 for his first read by council member Meeks and a second by council member White. Any further discussion? All in favor? All opposed? In favor? All right. I have a 51. Right. 51. Moving on to agenda item 12B, consideration and recommendation by mayor and city count and council on the first read of ordinance 202602 regarding the properties owner's request to reszone properties located in unincorporate Henry County from RA residential agriculture to city of Hampton's M1 light industrial. The property includes a 2.01 01 acres located at 1019 Highway 1941, partial number ID 00801019,000. The reasonzoning request impacts the current annexation application by 100% methods of the property into the city of Hampton. I need a motion to approve or to deny the first read of ordinance 20262. Madame Mayor, I move that we approve the first read of ordinance 20262.

A second a motion. I have a motion by Council Member Meeks and a second by Council Member White to approve. Cheney. Oh, Cheney. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Council member Cheney to approve ordinance number 2026-02. Discussion from the council. Any discussion from the public? I apologize. I just wanted to ask who uh you're representing. I didn't catch that. You said you were representing Are you representing the property owner or an applicant for a new use? But say financials down. All right. Thank you.

He He said it already. He already said it. He already said it. All in favor? All oppo all in favor? All oppose. I have a 42. Moving on to agenda item 12 C. Consideration and recommendation by the Mary Council on the first read of ordinance 20263, ordinance number 202604, and ordinance number 202605. a variance request. Variance 26001, variance request 262, variance request 263, and variance request 264 for 32 East Main Street South, partial number H0701000 90,000 aka the Circle K gas station. The proposal of the variance request is to seek relief of specific regulations in the downtown mixeduse district zoning district section 3-20A and B ordinance 202603 appendix A article 3 section 3-9 F8 and ordinance 20264 and section 7-1 H2 ordinance 2020605 I need a motion to

I'm going to ask Yes. I'm going to ask that Miss Wonder would come forth at this time in regards to dis discuss this variance that's before us before we put it on the floor for a motion. And I also um Mr. Denmark, I see that we have all of these ordinances in one um ma'am. I was looking at that myself. I would have recommended that you vote on each of them separately. Okay. You can discuss them together. Okay. Thank you.

So, I just wanted to remind everyone based on the public hearing we had last month, Circle K gas station is the main thing that they are doing is they are redoing their pumps. As a part of that, they are moving them to the side. So, right now, they're in the front of Circle K downtown and they are moving them to the side. And then with that, they're doing some development upgrades to their site. They've submitted a concept plan to our department and and in the review of it, we've made comments. They're asking for variances from four sections of our code based on those comments. This is the site plan that they've submitted, the most recent concept plan that we have. These are the sections of our code they're asking for variance from. So, one of them involves the um driveway aisles, appendix A, section uh 320A and B. One of them involves them wanting to have an extra curb cut to get into their um facility because of the frontage they have. Per our code, they're only allowed two, they would like three. Because of that third curb cut and where it would be placed, it would be within 50 feet of an intersection, which our code does not allow. And then also they um are required to have sidewalks paved within a minimum of five feet connecting all b building entrances to ground level parking and the public sidewalk which would connect everything for pedestrian safety and they're asking for variance from that. I'm going to kind of keep it short and sweet. Um staff has reviewed um the variances according to the criteria set out in the code and we believe the site appears capable of meeting the ordinance requirements through alternative design adjustments and we do not believe they need the variances that they are asking for. We uh Wmore created a site plan based on not needing those variances that I'm going to show you right now.

So if you look at this site plan the way Miss Moore has created it, instead of having parking on the inside of the lot that would prevent them from having that sidewalk, they have create she's created street parking. This street parking has the required parking width that it needs to have as well as the required drive aisle. It also removes that third curb cut that they're asking for to have this street parking. You wouldn't be able to have that third curb cut. And then as well on um Woodlon Avenue, she's shown how they can meet the required parking width on that as well. Both of these, as you can see, allows for that sidewalk they're required to have to connect the streets and the parking. So with engineering, we believe that this criteria can be met without variance.

Thank you. Is the applicant here? Yes. Please come to the podium. Do you have presentation that you would like to make in regards to this various request?

I do not. Uh my name is Jim Steven with Circle K stores. Madam council, mayor and councel, I don't have anything additional beyond what we presented before, but just like to say that we are very interested in investing in the community and our store. We want to upgrade our site by improving the fuel pumps uh making it far easier for a better fueling experience for for the citizens and first responders and visitors to the community. So we definitely are uh would like to work together to figure out a solution to how we can upgrade our store.

Thank you. Um let I would like to ask you um as presented to us they said that they provided you guys with an alternative that would not require a variance request and this is the option that was provided. Is there what is the objection to this site or uh this is the first time I've seen this would we this is the first time I've seen this um and so provided in the staff report that was posted on Friday to the website, but we didn't directly email this to you. Okay. Okay. So, um

in looking at this, it meets a lot of the same things that we were asking for. Um I think one of the challenges that we had was the parking style depth on the on the left hand side and having a 5-ft sidewalk between our building and the parking spaces where that would then push the parking spaces out into the roadway. And that was one of the variances that we were asking for. Um the the front touch parking there uh on the on the right hand side that seems feasible. Um I don't see any issues with that. And then we'd still be able to improve the the um the flow of traffic around our store. I think the the greatest issue that we have and why we are asking for variances is because it's a small lot and we're trying to figure out how best we can improve the traffic flow uh while still dealing with the railroad easement that we have behind the store as well. But um no, I mean this this looks like a viable option as long as it uh allows us to be able to continue to move forward with the project. I mean, this meets a lot of the same things that we were asking for as part of the variance.

And I believe on the side of that building, you guys have added some big old kind of concrete columns, and I think they come out from the store quite a bit. So, I'm not sure if that would impede the parking on that side if they were removed. Is that right? I mean, I mean, pretty much they come out from the right side. the ballard. The B Yeah, that's that's the name of it.

The ballards. I think they would be redone because of the uh the movement of the canopy from the front of the store to the right hand side. And so I think that would be all part of the redevelopment that we would take uh that we would execute on um along with just repaving and and really improving the store overall. Okay. Question. Um M. I was asking what you were going to ask. Okay. Um, have you guys done a traffic impact study? Um, because it's a main street right there. So, safety is very important as well. I don't know that offh hand, but I can follow up on that. So, that by said

I don't know that answer. So, by the denied, you can bring it back to us and give us the impact study. Yes. Um I think uh requirement of a traffic impact study is probably not what the right terminology is. You want a intersection evaluation on um this particular use. What you will find is that currently it's it wouldn't be recommended there as how it how it is existing now which allows all kinds of crazy

you know access through that corner it allows cut through it allows people just coming in any which way and I think the purpose of them wanting to move the canopy over there was to mitigate some of that and so I think it's reasonable to require uh evaluation of the drive access to this site in relation to the number of traffic counts on East Main Street and West Long and it's in particular because this is the access route that southern states use

to to pull their big rigs around and um so I think it's a a valid request for this first read if you want to add that um as a condition of approval. Yep.

I know. One of the things that we tried to do with our plan today, there are no curb cuts at all. And so we we have added some uh grassy like a landscaping area there between where the two parking areas are to help alleviate to make sure that people are not cutting through there for a dangerous situation. Also, by adding in the uh the other curb cuts along the side of the property, that'll help at least traffic flow within our within our store improve and and be it safer for for the community.

You know what concern me is um I stand here couple hours checking the flow when I see this thing here and I see potential danger right now had to stand and I'm looking at right now you have three exist three um two coming in. I'm not too until I see those reports then I feel comfortable about it. Um so one of my concerns is looking at um the parking um parking you it seems as if the only the best way and the safest way to get in these parking spaces in this drawing is that you would have to drive in.

You cannot back up because our main street sits right there. So that's um with what I'm seeing in front of me is one of my concerns. Um it is at an intersection. Um even now it's very confusing because you don't know if your car is in the parking lot or if your car is currently on the street the way it is now. So, I would like to see um if there's a better way in what was presented tonight to possibly prevent any accidents right there at that intersection. Um because you can only back out and um we all know we can get at that intersection with four or five cars and you may be stuck there for a minute. Um so that's my concern with this drawing. Yeah, mine too. Especially with the train and then it stops the traffic and you're backing out.

Madame Mayor, yes. Being as to reiterate, there are two reads required. We can deny the first read and approve the second read and the ordinance will pass. I would like to move that we deny the first read to allow the applicant and our community development department to review this drawing since he's only seen it now and see if they can make those improvements.

All right. So, we're going to have to take each one of these ordinances one by one and I want to make sure everybody is aware of u what we are voting on. Uh, ordinance number 202603. The applicant is requesting a variance from article 3 section 3-20A to increase the maximum number of permitted curb cuts along a single sheet street frontage and 3-20B to allow for a curb cut to be located within 50 ft of the intersection of two curb lines. I need a motion to approve or to deny. I move that we deny uh ordinance. First reader ordinance 20263. Second. Second.

I have a motion by council member Meeks and a second by council member Duchaine to deny ordinance number 202603 for the first read. Any further discussion from the council? All in favor?

I any discussion from the public? All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to ordinance number 2026004. We are the applicant is applicant is requesting a variance from article 3 section 3-9 F8 to reduce the minimum required interial drive drive iss I need a motion to approve or to deny. I make a motion to deny.

Second. I have a motion by council member Dashaine and a second by council member Meeks to deny ordinance number 2026 D uh 04. Discussion from the council, discussion from the public. All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to ordinance number 20265. They are requesting the applicant is requesting a variance from article 7 section 7-1H2 to allow relief from the requirements that are all multifamily commercial and civic use provide paved sidewalks with a minimum width of 5 ft connecting all building entrances to ground level parking areas and the public sidewalk. I need a motion to approve or to deny 202605. I make a motion to deny. I second.

I have a motion by council member White Williams to deny and a second by council member Duchaine. Discussion from the council. Discussion from the public. All in favor? I have a 6. You will have the opportunity to come back before us next month for the second read which will be the final read. if you would at between that time get with our community development department and our city manager to see if you can get something work out worked out for that. Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you.

Moving on to the agenda item D con. Agenda item 12D, consideration and recommendation by the Mary Council on the first read of ordinance 202606 and amending the Hampton code of ordinance appendix 8, article 2, article 3, article 6, and article 7 to address data center use requirements and respective zoning districts. Going to ask that Miss Wanda would come forth with this item. Good evening again. Um staff is bringing before you guys um for your consideration and input um ordinance related to data centers pertaining to the appendences that the mayor has read. Um in our public hearing on the 10th, staff noted um the following comments that were um shared by the public at the time that there were concerns on the environment uh specific to water, electric, and noise. Uh questions about decommissioned data centers if they were um going to be decommissioned. um Henry County ULDC requirements, how that compared to what city staff was recommending, uh specific zoning classifications for data centers and a request you guys were presented to, um have a moratorum which you guys did enact in February. Um from that um staff had presented at the public hearing the first draft. Based on those comments at the public hearing, staff is bringing back to you guys for your input. Um we have added definitions in our ordinance related to data centers. Um and they're listed here.

Green communities program which is a ARC communities program. um closed loop system which related to water usage, data center typology which identifies different um data center types and uses. Environmental sustainability plan was added with specific criteria. Lead certification related to building um as well as how the buildings function on the inside for employees. um load related to electric megawatt substation and square footage. Now these highlighted areas or these highlighted notations um are to um I had photos. I'm not sure what happened. There they are. I don't know why they're doing that, but let me go back. So the first one is accessory use. We identified this as something that's interior to an existing building. It could be in a hospital facility, um a medical, um could be in the FAA, um a different building near the airport, something that's interior. And that is zoned either O and Office institutional or general commercial C2. And this is what we would call an accessory use. There would be no associated um substation. And the maximum square footage that we're recommending is 2,000 square ft within the principal building. Data center campus is much like what um Equinex is is a multiple building. Um the code we're recommending is that if you have multiple phases totaling at least 5,000 square feet and you have a substation, then you would be on property zone light industrial M1 or mixed use with an approved conditional

use and then subject to the regulations of the the building code. data center major is a square footage that's 275 which is below the DRRI threshold but you still it would be um permitted just in light industrial with an approved conditional use and that would be a standalone building just one data center minor is something that's less than 10,000 square ft again the zoning would be light industrial or a heavy commercial and that would um be an outright permitted use in those zoning districts in in particular with that uh specific criteria. Those are the types that we have inval uh evaluated in the environmental s sustainability plan that we have added to the ordinance. that would be a part of an application that somebody would have to compile. And they would address things concerning water consumption, which our ordinance now requires all systems to be closed systems, energy, building design, lighting, green infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, and then we also have a component in the updated ordinance for annual reporting. Um, I didn't want to go through all the nuances of the ordinance, but I can answer any questions you might have having reviewed it. Um, again, this is a first read on this particular ordinance and um, I'm happy to answer any questions or clarify. Yes, ma'am.

Say something, Pam. Oh, I'm sorry. So, since we're using the same M1's and um would there be any confusion if somebody's coming in saying, "Well, why can't we just consider it what your normal M1 is? Should we put it as a different class, like a M1 C, like a M1, like something else?"

Uh, yes, ma'am. And what I can do for the next read is is show how it would look on our chart. It would be on our chart as far as data centers and you'd have the different types of data centers and then in each category it would say whether you would be a P as a permitted use or CU as a conditional use. Any more comments from the council?

Any comments from the public? Is there anything in the ordinance about like a maximum number of data centers in the city or you know similar to the gas station type thing? No, I don't believe there is what I've read so far, but it's something that we definitely can think about. I need a motion to approve or to deny the first read of ordinance number 202606. Made a motion to approve.

Second. I have a motion to approve by council member Mitchell and a second by council member Meeks. All in favor? All oppose? I have a 6. Moving on to agenda item 12E. Consideration and action to approve for an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Hampton and the city of Hampton Development Authority. Where is it?

Good evening again, mayor and council. Um this is a proposal to uh consider an action to approve the IG between the HDA and the city of Hampton. And the reason being is that the mayor and council desire to adopt and update the intergovernment agreement to supersede any prior agreements between the city and the authority and to provide a clear framework for policy alignment, fiscal accountability and operational coordination going forward. Um this is a pretty typical IG. Um the previous one was two was resolution number 2022-37 and it was in effect for up to 5 years. Um this would be in effect for three years and it basically So it's five

five years I'm sorry up to five years and it basically mirrors the prior one. It just updates the current membership and allows for the fresh signatures from both the mayor council and the HDA board. Um, thank you. You okay? I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead. Don't we have to make I have not We're going to discuss.

Okay. I have noticed the um old revision and the new one and the old one said an administration say HD Shaw employed the city financial advisor. He's also said the city financial director, treasurer, city manager as executive director, the attorney. I know there's a confliction out there that um political folks want to go out and it's pretty much stated that it's from the city of Hampton has gone to the right

but for the new IG there's something that I seen on it need to be reflect with it as well. Um, where did it again? 2 administrative. Oh, I'm sorry. 2 A under administrative. Yes. It says may Yes. And we need to make it say shall and we also need to add the financial advisor. That's what you're saying. To it. So, we need to add the city's financial advisors as the advisor to the Hampton Development Authority. Okay. Okay.

It got to be spec. I want it to be pretty much the same thing additional to what u discussed in further. Yes, sir. It's on page three of nine.

All right. So, those are the two updates that we need to make. This is not an ordinance. So, uh, I need a motion to approve the IGA between the city of Hampton and the, uh, Hampton Development Authority with the, uh, change on administrative legal and management function. Item 2A where it says the authority may, it should say the authority shall, and we need to add the city financial advisor as the advisor to the Hampton Development Authority. Do I have a motion? I have a question. Yes. Um, can you tell me what line that is in 2A? The 2A

second line authority. Okay. Do I have a I do I have a motion to approve the IGA with those necessary corrections? Madame Mayor, I do have a question. All right. 2B compensation. Yes. Okay. I didn't put that on. Is that something we need to discuss as far as um the members such as

it says to be determined. I just think we need to have some conversation about compensation for the appointments. It says all a forementioned appointment shall be subject to compensation additional to services said individual provide to the city. The additional compensation shall be at a rate determined by the HDA. That is that not something that the council need to discuss. That's something that the HDA Okay. Right. The HDA will make a determination in regards to what they will be paying the financial advisor if they can come, you know, come to the agreement or all of these uh appointees uh come to an agreement. Of course, um that budget, their budget comes back before the council and we then approve their budget.

Can I ask a question? I'm sorry. Hold on. Let me make sure. No, no. I' I've just never seen anything like that where you have a board that the council appoints and they are compensated in that manner. So this is not the board. These are actually employees of the HDA, the Hampton Development Authority. So the financial advisor, the uh the financial director, the um city manager, and the secretary, they are all employees. They would be considered employees of the HDA. I I do need some clarity on that because I I

I've never seen that to happen that way. I mean, I was the secretary for College Park Development Authority, and it was part of my pay to be the recording secretary. It was part of our financial finance director to manage the finances and it was a part of the city manager's duty. It wasn't uh a separate pay. It wasn't separate compensation. I know this is a different city. I would just like some uh more clarification on that. C can I ask a question?

Uh let us let's try to bring clarification. So this is what how it has been structured since the HDA has been formed. Those individuals in those prospective roles have been compensated in addition to their pay of from the city because it was additional responsibilities and add an additional organization. So that is the reason compensation was given to each one of those individuals for their additional work. So that is how it has been structured here in the city of Hampton and and that's just

okay. Is is there a job description? How do you rate what that person will be paid? Or you just So the HDA has began to formulate job descriptions in inside of their HDA and so it will go before their board in regards to what that responsibility is. However, because this is a sh, we already know what the job description is for the city manager. We know what the job description is for the financial director or the or the clerk. we have this the council has those or we can get at least those job descriptions. So the reason one of the reasons that you're putting your people that you currently have as staff in those positions because you already know they have the qualifications for it.

I would like to see other cities that have that same setup. I I don't think they I don't think they do. I have a question. Didn't we One second. One second. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, Miss Pam, um, so our council member Shane, I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, our con or our agreements we have with our CM and our lawyers, their pay includes Yes, that includes those serving on those boards for their their pay. Okay. So, um, so that that is actually correct. we compensated them already

for their services. So, they got additional money. We wouldn't have paid them as much as we're paying them had they not been the person that was going to serve as the attorney or as the city manager on that particular board. So, can I interject for a second? One second. One second. But hang on. But I'm just saying in that sense what you just said now putting more money on it like from the HDA's thing is going to give them even more if we've if you're saying we've already compensated them in this in in in this agreement that we've made then to me putting another salary in the HDA gives them even more compensation.

So we they would not get additional compensation. the executive director and the city ma I mean the city manager is the executive director. When we hired him, we put in the contract that that salary included his salary for the HDA and the DDA as the executive director. Yes. So he would not get any additional funds. He wouldn't get Same thing with the attorney. You put that in his contract. You said he would we would give him more money because he is going to be the attorney. So we have already compensated them. So they would not get any additional funds from the HDA. That would not be a part of the HDA's budget.

But right I'm but I'm just saying why have it then if that's the case. You know what I'm saying? Well, you still have a financial advisor. you have a financial director that you have to compensate in the sense of our IGA saying that they need to use our in-house by not having a compensation would kind of deter them from being able to go out and hire external if there is no pay because it's already included like there's no pay listed to give them to be able to go out and and hire somebody. They'd have to then use our internals. So, can I can I say something?

One second. Yes. Council member White. So, um, Attorney Denmark's firm represents the DDA, and although he is not receiving, uh, we used to pay the former city city attorney $2,000 a month, and then we, um, lowered it to$,350 of his um, monthly bill. The DDA still writes a check for our portion to the city to pay for his services. So, in actuality, he's being paid. He's being paid by the board, which lowers the price that the city has to pay. So, the city's not paying him the full 9,000 a month

and not getting reimbursed from the board. Right? So, in essence, they are still being compensated already in their contract for the DDA services and for the HDA services. those two individuals who is not getting compensated is our financial advisor, our financial um director and our treasur I mean our secretary or clerk.

Those individuals are not and so that is the reason you you have to add a stipen into the IGA so that they can get a get their increase as well. I I do have a question for um Miss Atwater regarding um if we were to put additional um money towards, you know, pay them additional in their salary for the additional roles. What impact would that have on our on the city's expense as far as it relates to benefits? Um would would it cost more in benefits or would there be I know with the previous executive director for the DDA um there was some concern about well not concern but there was a they get a 1099 from the DBA

at the end of the year. That's right. So all of that money that they get is not taxed. That's right. they would have to file taxes on that money. So, if we were to increase um their salary with let's say an extra it's already built into their salary an extra $10,000 a year. Would that have any type of impact on how much we are paying out for benefits? Okay. That's right. Pension. Pension. Correct. everything. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Yes. So, we we we're we in essence by letting them pay their own taxes, we're not getting hit as hard. Our bottom line as far as the city of Hampton now. Yeah. So, could you wrap that up for me? Let me know. uh uh staff such as the city manager, city clerk, financial director, will they be paid to serve on the HDA? The

So let let me make it clear. Currently, we pay city manager to serve as the executive director for the HDA and the DDA. We currently do that. That's a part of his contract. We also do the same for attorney Denmark. We already do that. We're already paying them for that. who we have not or there's no dedicated funds for is the financial director, the financial advisor, and the city clerk. So, those three positions because the ED and the attorney already gets there. Those are the three that the HDA would have to add into their budget and have to compensate. So basically, if it's a if it's not part of that employee, not the city attorney, but if it's not a part of that employees job in their job description to cover HDA, DDA as a recording secretary or finance director, if it's if it's separate, then that means they can hire who they want.

That's right. and that and that would so that is one way definitely to look at it to say that they can hire but as an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Hampton and as our uh governing board as the governing board we have the ability to say this is what we would like to see between the two of us two our two organizations and that is what we're asking of the Hampton Development Authority but that would require they have sign that IG if they don't if they don't sign it. They do they have to sign it. Um they'll vote on it and they'll have to sign it. Yes, Mr. Mitchell.

May I make clarification that um section two administration said it's a requirement is nothing stated based on the IG old IG that's still running right now. It's stated that it is required that the employee one the financial advisor the city finan um director there's no gray air in terms of they going to go out there based on the contract have been signed all we doing right now the one that is in place in place right now the one that is in place reflects what we're discussing already

so the only thing now we we make just making a clarification to make it more Um, one shot deal. Yeah. All right. Any further discussion from the council? Any discussion from the public? Mr. Baker, you can have a seat at this time. Thank you so very much. Mr. Hendry.

Yes, ma'am. Madam Mayor, I'd like to ask the question. Y'all been up here talking about people getting paid and their money and money and all this stuff. And I want to know if you pay your board members that you appoint to serve on those boards cuz I served 20 years over 20 years on the downtown development authority and got zero. I didn't even get compensated for my gas to come up here and the hours we spent in the meetings.

And you're worried about these people. What about the people you appoint? Because you hadn't discussed that. And that's and those people are there serving the city. And that's what got me so angry because I served for 20 years for nothing. And when I tried to annex out, y'all told me, "Oh, no. We're not going to do you no favor. Just because you've been doing us a favor for 20 years, we ain't doing you one." Thank you. Thank you. So, please, please quiet. Um, so, um, did I see someone else's hand? All right. I need a motion to approve or to deny the IGA between the Hampton Development Authority and the city of Hampton.

May I make a motion to approve? Second. I have a motion to approve by Council Member Mitchell with the two changes

with the uh necessary two changes of um item 2A under administrative legal and management function. Um, we're going to I align to the word may shall change to shall and we will add the city financial advisor as the advisor to um to the Hampton Development Authority. I have a motion for that by council member Mitchell and a second by council member Meeks. All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to agenda item F uh 12F, consideration and action to approve resolution 202619 censure of the mayor pro Tim Kesha White Williams and I will read the censure as in the record. Resolution 202619, a resolution censoring the council member Kesha White Williams of the city of Hampton, Georgia for conduct undermining council's authority, violation of code of ethics, council interference with administrative administration and the effective administration of the city business to provide an effective date and for other lawful purposes. Whereas council member White Williams is the duly elected council member of the city of Hampton, Georgia. And whereas the mayor and the council of the city shall share a responsibility to uphold the public trust, maintain ethical standards in municipal governance, and ensure the orderly administration of the city affairs. And whereas the mayor and city council are committed to conducting city business in accordance with applicable laws, established procedure, transparenc, and accountability. And

whereas the mayor and city council has an obligation to address conduct by any elected official that interferes with the council's authority or authorized governance or undermines the effective operation of the city. And whereas the mayor and the city council has raised serious concerns regarding a pattern of actions by council member Kesha White Williams that have adversely impacted municipal governance and the mayor and council's ability for f to fulfill its lawful responsibility. And whereas the mayor was present presented with invoice and check from the firm of Denmark Ashby Matakardi LLC on February the 9th and again on February the 10th, 2026 by the city of Hampton Finance Department for signature to pay. And whereas the mayor refused to sign check as presented based on charges for the month of December 2025 which Denmark Ashby Madakarti LLC nor any of its associates were contracted, employed or commissioned to perform or provide any services legal or otherwise for the city of Hampton. And whereas during the February 10, 2026 regular city council meeting, it was discovered that Denmark Ashb Madakarti LLC was engaged by council member White Williams without the authority of the majority of the mayor and council. And whereas the council member Kesha White Williams violated article 7 code of ethics section 2-99 purchases a public servant shall not order any goods or services for the city of Hampton or on behalf of the city of Hampton without prior authorization from the council or city manager or his or her design which is supported by ordinance 220. And whereas council member Kesha White William violated article 7 code of ethics section 2302 commitment. A public servant shall not act to create the appearance or of acting on behalf of the city by

promising to authorize or prevent any future official actions of any nature without prior authorization from the council or city manager or his or her designate which is supported with c with city ordinance 220. And whereas council member Kesha White Williams action violated article section 7 section 2-299 and section 2-302 of the city of Hampton code of ordinance ordinance 220. We the council deems this illegal and fraudulent representation and abuse of authority by council member Kesha White Williams. And whereas this abuse of authority and fraudulent res representation of the city council cost the city of Hampton $1,995.50 50 cents. And whereas council member White William abused the authority has also extended her abuse of authority has also extended into the the violation of city code of ordinance article 2 section 2-30 of the charter council interference with administration. Neither the city council nor its members shall give orders to any such officer or employee either publicly or privately. And whereas council member Kesha White William violated article 2 section 2.3 of the charter by directing staff not to discipline their subordinates. And whereas this interference with day-to-day operation has placed each director in a position that would not allow them to effectively perform the duties they were hired to do. And whereas such conduct undermines the authority of the governing bodies, undermines the authority of the office of the city manager, undermines the authority of the directors of departments, and exposes the city to potential risk. And whereas such conduct raises serious issues of ethical standards, misrepresentation of city council's authority and compliance with

proper municipal procedures. And whereas taken collectively, these actions represent a pattern of abuse of authority, conduct that undermines council authority and disrupts effective municipal governance. And whereas the city of city council finds that former censure is an appropriate and necessary response to pro protect the integrity of the city governance and restore orderly governance. Now therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and city council of the city of Hampton, Georgia as followed. The mayor and the city council hereby formally censor, rebuke, and condemn council member Kesha White Williams for conduct that has obstructed council's authority, authorized governance, undermined professional standards of public service, violated the code of ethics, and disrupted the effective administrative of the city business. The mayor and city council call upon council member Kesha White Williams to adhere to all applicable laws, ordinance, policies, and standards of ethics, confidentiality, and professionalism in the performance of the council member's duty. The mayor and city council urges council member White Williams to promptly cease all activities which violate the code of e ethics and violate the city charter for the city of Hampton. The mayor and the city council direct that all elected officials must exercise appropriate care with respect to directives to staff, spending of taxpayers funds without majority vote from the council, confidentiality and personnel related matters. The mayor and the city council reserve the right to consider any additional lawful measures of policy action including additional appropriate sanction necessary to ensure orderly conduct of the city governance. The mayor and city council will consider additional appropriation sanction for the council member Kesha White Williams. Be it further resolved that in any and all resolution in conflict with this

resolution be and the same are hereby repealed. Be it further more resol resolved that this resolution shall be effective immediately upon its adoption by the city council enacted and adopted on the 10th day of March 2026. I need a motion to approve or to deny. Madame Mayor, I move we approve resolution 202619. I have a motion by council member Meeks to approve resolution 2026-09. Do I have a second?

Madame Mayor, I make a motion that we uh discuss. I second the motion for discussion. I have a motion by council member Meeks and I have a second by council member Williams to approve the censure or resolution 202619 discussion. Okay, madame mayor I I have something that I would like to say and I would like to read also. Um I don't really um well I'll just read it. This is a statement regarding there was a lot of things involved in that resolution. I cannot address all those things but there's one thing that I would like to address and that is statement regarding legal services obtained prior to formal council approval. As members of the Hampton City Council, we have a duty to act in the best interest of the city of Hampton and its citizens. In December 25, several, not one, several council members believed that serious governance and personnel issues within the city government require independent legal guidance to ensure the city was acting in compliance with applicable laws and policy. At the time, concerns had been raised regarding the handling of certain items. Council members felt that those issues were not being addressed in a manner that provided sufficient legal clarity or protection for the city. Given the potential legal implications and the importance of protecting the city's interests, members members

of council, no one council person can um approve anything here, believe it was prudent to seek professional legal advice. As a result, legal services were attained by Winston Denmark to review, provide guidance regarding matters. The intent of seeking legal counsel was to ensure that the city's governing body clearly understood steps and procedures to move forward to move the city forward. Sub subsequently on January the 13, 2026, the city of Hampton City Council formally voted 5 to1 to approve the engagement of Winston Denmark's firm. This vote confirmed the council support for utilizing the firm's service $1,900 to assist the cities with legal matters. It is also important to noted to note that professional service are sometimes rendered prior to formal approval in situations where guidance is needed immediately. In this case, services were pro provided by a licensed legal professional who was later formally approved by the governing body through a majority vote. Our responsibility as elected officials is to ensure transparency, protect the legal interests of the city, and make decisions that support lawful and effective governance. Seeking independent legal counsel during a time of concern was done with those responsibilities in mind. In this case, legal services were pro provided to the assist the city of Hampton during a time when council members believe independent legal counsel was needed. And um I thought about this quite a bit and like I stated there's a lot of other

things in the resolution that was bought out, but whether it was anyone up here on this dis I would feel the same way. Not just because it's council woman Kesha White. I would feel the same way if it was Cheney Duchain Mitchell or Mr. Meeks. It's it's it's not one council member that makes decisions up here. Thank you. Any more comments?

I would like to comment. Um, thank you, mayor, for reading the resolution. And I want to say to um pro Mayor Pro team Kisha White Williams, I value teamwork and I'm a public servant and I'm here to do the right thing. Um, this decision is not about you. It's about abuse of office as I read it in black and white. um ordering any goods or services for the city or obligating the city funds without prior official authorization for such an expenditure and also um I don't have a lot of information about the unauthorized use of you know telling staff to do xyz but I I read the resolution And it's a violate violation of ethics of abuse of office. That's what I read.

Any further comments? Council member Desane.

I'm going to say that I don't believe there was just one person, Kesha, Council Member Kesha White Williams, that acted in this. Uh our our um charter says that we need at least four people or four votes affirming votes to approve or hire or appoint anyone in that uh stature whether it's the CM, the lawyer, the city clerk. um an appointment ratifies the work that they had to do to be able to get us there.

Anyone else? Um I'd like to speak to attorney. Yes, sir.

The thing I always hate talk about censoring all that kind of stuff. I always hate that. It put the city into a very bad situation. Um, by what you've read, do um any professional advice, do you think that um I know that the charter mentioned no service can be done until you vote to make it happen. Even if you talk to people before or not, doesn't matter. Do you think that is any violation up in there or no violation?

Sir, um what I would say to you and to the council is as we sit here right now, you have a number of attorneys representing the city of Hampton on a number of matters. If they were sitting in the audience, you couldn't pick them out. So the notion that every single attorney that is doing work for the city of Hampton is duly voted in by this council is false because you have council that are handling specialized matters for the city of Hampton right now and they're being paid right now and you don't know who they are right now. And so that's necessary in the life of any municipal corporation where you're going to have specialized counsel that handles matters for you. I would also say Councilwoman Dasha's point is well made. the any work that was done was certainly front of mind for the council and the vote that was taken by a majority of the city council on the record to appoint my law firm uh was made uh with the knowledge of the work that was previously done and that vote effectively ratified uh all of the work that was previously done and so I think that it's quite frankly a non-issue. The fact that you have a number of attorneys that'll work for you right now and I can name some of their name, but but but you don't know who they are. So,

I I disagree. I disagree that it is a nonissue. Every attorney that we have working for us came through our law firm that we hired to do the work. So, attorney Laren Wickens would recommend or point give us a the list of attorneys that we were choosing from. Also, the if we've hired someone such as our workers comp attorney or our uh risk attorney that is going to be taking on any cases for us, we approve those by a majority of the votes. it comes to the city council. So to say that it is a non-issue, I believe that is a false pretense, especially since three of our council members that's currently serving on the board was not here in December. They were not here in December to make any type of decision for the pres the the board the previous board. But the previous board was literally overlooked and take their authority was taken from them by council member White Williams and according to council member Duchaine maybe some others that we might need to look into. But to say that it is a non-issue that it was ratified because the new board chose to hire you on because they made the decision in December when they did not have the authority to make a decision for this council at that time. See, that is what I'm trying to get everybody to see because when when they do it to this board, it's going to be a

problem. is going to be a problem. And for the council, my city attorney to be advising us in that capacity, I I I find it be bewildered. I I just don't understand. So I would also like to say that part of the reason we had to seek outside counsel because it had come to our attention regarding an employee that was on our books being paid that didn't have status to work in the United States of America. And

are you telling me you couldn't ask Laren that? I'm telling you what I'm I'm telling you that it came to our attention. I'm I'm it came to our attention when it we investigated it. It was apparent that Laren, Alex, yourself were fully Miss Wanda were fully aware that we had this employee. Now, to me, that's a federal legal law that we cannot have an a a a person who's not authorized to work in the United States working on our payroll, be getting a salary, getting benefits. So, we had to seek counsel to find out what was happening. And I'm just going to speak about that one because that was not an executive session issue. So I can speak because we found that out from other employees, not from our governing, not from our CM or from our lawyer or from yourself. We found that out from other employees and had to investigate that. So we needed to be able to find that information out so we are so we know how to move forward. Okay. And if you want to talk about hiring a lawyer without the consent or knowledge of the of the council, because council didn't know we well, let me say half of the council didn't know that we had an illegal employee working on our books receiving $75,000 plus benefits. We half of us didn't know that. And so if you want to talk about illegal illegal lawyer bills, you were aware that Alex and Lren, you

as went to source an immigration lawyer at the cost of $9,500 to help this illegal person obtain status to work a a H1 visa. So that was never brought to counsel and made made aware to us.

So the $9,500 that was paid for immigration, that gentleman was well within his status here in the states at that time. Yes, he was. Miss Atwater was Yes, he was. Tell them he was. He was. Come on to the Come on. He surely was. That $9,500 that was spent was on our employee. He was well within his status at the time that money was spent. Is that not true, Miss Atwater? That's true. He actually came in on an OPT visa, but it ran out and he was legal um at that time. That's right. Thank you very much. But he ran out. Thank you very much. All right. He ran out, right?

But the but the visa ran out and we continued and we continued service, right? Paying fees. So, wait a minute. Not wait. I just want to I just Okay, at the time that this was done, these are snapshots in time. Okay, he was hired legally. We did not know all the details in terms of the ex the LPT expiration. When we found out that there was an expiration, we took proper steps. Mr. Cohilis um thought that he had the authority because I think um

it allows him to spend up to 50,000 I think. So he thought he had the authority to go forward and do it without council approval. It wasn't nefarious. So with it being $9,500, he thought that he had the authority to do it and what

and authorized us to we reached out to Lahren. We took the proper steps to get a qualified immigration attorney to handle the matter. All businesses and governments in the United States allow H-1B um employees in their system because we valued him and we had already tried to source the job extensively and were unsuccessful. We went through the process and he lost his but he but he lost his status. Right. Yes. Yes. And he was an employee on our books up until January of this year. Yes.

Receiving a salary and benefits, right? That is correct. Illegally, right? Yes, that is correct. So I which has since been mitigated. M Miss Atwood, I would like to know we Mr. um the the the employee he left the country and he was working remotely. Is that correct? He he left actually before before his visa expired. I left that out. I'm sorry. Yes, he left before. So, he's not here. He was working remotely. But whether or not he's working remotely, he's working for a US federal government. Yes. Illegally

cuz he does not have an H1 visa. He does not have a visa to work legally in the US. He's working he's not working for a African company. He's working for a US company receiving that part of I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I believe we vacasillated away from the subject. I called the question. So, I would like to um speak members of council and the residents of Hampton. What's being presented here, what's being presented in the censure resolution tonight as an ethics matter is something far more troubling. This resolution is not about protecting the integrity of the city of Hampton. Censure is one of the most serious actions a governing body can take against one of its members. It should never be used as a political weapon. It should never be used to punish someone for asking difficult questions or demanding accountability. When a council member is targeted shortly after participating and holding leadership accountable, the appearance of retaliation becomes impossible to ignore. This is about political retaliation and an unwillingness and unwillingness to accept political casualty as as the result of the November election and to be held accountable for one's actions. In January, Mayor Tarqui lost two of her closest allies, the former city manager and the former city attorney, individuals with whom she often operated in lock step and would often rely upon while her while her misconduct and abuse of power went unchecked. The unchecked power played a significant role in the circumstances that ultimately led to her recent censure. It appears this resolution is now being used as a means to intimidate me and to settle a political score after calling several of the mayor's recent actions and decision-making skills into

question. Mayor Tarley made history in January 2021 by being sworn in as the first woman elected as mayor and the first black mayor of Hampton, Georgia. However, in February 2026, she also made history in another way. She became the fa the first mayor in Hampton, to my knowledge, to be formerly censured for for misconduct and abuse of authority after repeatedly overriding and ignoring the will of this council. That was a serious and unprecedented moment for this governing body and for the citizens we serve. And it was not taken lightly. Instead of focusing on restoring public trust and moving forward moving our city forward, we're now being asked to participate in what appears to be a politically motivated effort to redirection to redirect attention and assign blame to a single council member, me, with the goal of placing me beside her in the history books of this city by being censured. When political setbacks occur in government, the responsible response is a reflection is reflection and accountability. Now, weaponization of the governing process against another public servant who was merely seeking documentation that the council was entitled to. This is what led us to the resolution presented tonight. The central claim in this resolution is that I independently engaged a legal c the legal council of Denmark, Ashbardi on behalf of the city. Anyone familiar with municipal government understands that that's simply not possible. But most importantly, the mayor and this council knows this. The city charter is clear. Four votes of the council are required for official action. The

governing body acts collectively, not individually. No individual council member has the authority to bind the city to a contract. Again, Mayor Tarpley and members of this council know this. The most recent amendment to the city charter adopted through resolution 2025-38 created a utilities director position. It did not alter the fundamental structure of council authority and it certainly did not grant any individual member of the authority to act unilaterally on behalf of the city. Yet, this resolution attempts to write the reality of how council decisions occur by isolating one council member for actions that were a part of a broader discussion among this governing body. This is not government. This is convenient political manipulation. This resolution claims that during the February 2026 meeting, it was discovered that the new city attorney had been solely engaged by me. Michelle, can you pull up the presentation of the minutes, the draft of the meeting minutes, and I want you to go to page 35 of the document, you Guys, bear with me. I'm an English major, so I write. So, we're going to be here for a few minutes.

Page 35. It's a consolidated document. Can you make it bigger? and um expand so the audience can see where I'm reading. Okay, please scroll down to line 673 and it's highlighted. This is coming from the draft of the meeting minutes that our clerk issued to us on Sat Friday or Saturday of last week. I'm going to continue reading. This resolution claims that during the February 2010, 2026 meeting, it was discovered by the new discovered that the new city attorney had been engaged solely by me. Yet, after reviewing the official minutes from that meeting, minutes this council will approve in a further meeting, there is nowhere in the record where any council member stated or implied that I independently hired the attorney. In fact, these minutes starting at line 676, let me go back. starting at 673 and I'll read it. Mayor said, "Let me

give you an example of real censorship." She stated that anytime you have a council without a majority v votes go hire someone and then whoever they hire send the city a bill that needs to be censured. She said, "We don't get to make a one-person decision. It takes a majority." She noted that they hired, not me, they hired Mr. Denmark to work for this city in December and presented a bill for her to sign either yesterday or Friday. I'm going to continue reading. So what will soon be an official record if it's not manipulated by the next meeting and itself contradicts the claim being made in this resolution. I have reviewed every set of minutes from both the regular and special meetings since January 13th. And yes, we've had quite a few with the exception of the January 15, 2026 meetings, as those minutes were not posted publicly on the city's website. Nowhere in the official record will you find where I claim to have hired the city attorney independently. Nor will you find any statement from any other council member suggesting that I acted alone. The record reflects collective discussion among members of this council. So if this body intends to censure someone for engaging the city attorney, then fairness and consistency would require that every council member who participated every council member and every council member elect who participated in those discussions to be held to the same standard. I hold a degree in English literature and language. The word they has never been referred to as a single individual. Accordingly, the diction to

the dictionary. According to the dictionary, the word they is a pronoun that is used to refer to two or more people. And as you can see in line 676, she noted they hired Mr. Denmark. So my question is very simple. How does they in this res resolution suddenly become me, Kesha White Williams? There's no previous context in the mayor's statements during the February 10th meeting identifying me as the individual, the sole individual responsible. As it pertains to the invoice, the official minutes cons contain no evidence that I received the invoice personally, that I reviewed the invoice personally, that I approved the invoice or even reccommended the invoice for payment. So, it is clear I did not receive the the invoice by email, mail, in person, nor did I approve the invoice in question for payment. It was only today that I received a copy of the invoice being o via an open records request. This resolution also further alleges that I interfered with day-to-day operations of the city by directing staff to not discipline the subordinate. That's an extremely serious accusation. Yet, the resolution offers no evidence to support it, no emails, no written directives, no testimony, no documentation of any kind. Instead, it it relies entirely on unsupported assertions. In any fair and credible process, allegations of this magnitude should require clear evidence. Here, none exist. The language in this resolution should suggest that my actions somehow prevented department directors and assistant directors from performing

their duties. That claim is simply not credible. For it to be true, one would have to would have to believe that I somehow contacted every department director and assistant director in this city and directed them on personnel matters. That did not happen. But since this resolution raises the issue of interference with city staff and operations, let's talk about what real day-to-day interference actually looks like. In late 2025, a city employee was aggressively confronted at her desk by a citizen who was and continues to be a close supporter and personal associate of the mayor. This citizen applied for the position in the Main Street department despite having no relevant experience. The application was not based on qualifications, but on the belief that the job had already been promised as a part of a campaign commitment contingent upon Mayor Tarpley's successful bid for reelection. This same citizen also serves on one of the city committees. The confrontation escalated to the point that Hampton police officers and city city staff had to intervene and remove the the mayor's supporter from the building. Let that sink in for a moment. A city of Hampton employee was confronted at their workstation inside a city building. Police had to be called, staff witnessed it, and even a minor child, a high school intern, witnessed the entire incident. That is the definition of a hostile workplace. Instead of allowing the situation to be handled through the proper administrative process, the employee was later approached and encouraged by Mayor Tarpley to resolve the situation privately with her aggressor. Why? Because there was still an effort underway to hire this per the very person who had been removed from the

building after confronting a city employee. Think about what that meant. this employee who had just been confronted by a citizen would have have been forced to work in the same office setting. That's not smart leadership, guys. That's not protecting employees and it certainly does not foster a professional workplace. And for the record, the only reason why this individual was never hired is because the former city manager was terminated before the hiring decision could be finalized. So, if we're going to talk about day-to-day interference, let's talk about when political loyalty and campaign promises are placed ahead of qualifications, professionalism, and the safety of employees. And it doesn't stop there. The mayor continues to bring staff into her office on a daily basis to sit down and have conversations with them that the city manager is not a part of. Is that not interfering with day-to-day operations? Why would the mayor who does not solely and directly manage a single employee have ongoing meetings with director level employees and failed to engage the city manager to participate in those conversations behind closed and locked doors. This certainly appears to be interference with day-to-day operations at its finest. There was a known and unspoken rule with the previous city manager that if staff or employees were seen speaking with the mayor and or council members, they would be questioned and even disciplined. Now that the former city manager is gone, the mayor suddenly has a lot to say to staff in private. When both current and former staff raise concerns with her about day-to-day matters, she simply ignored their concerns. That is the kind of interference that truly that truly damages staff morale and trust.

This resolution also claims that I violated provisions of the charter. Yet this resolution on its face disregards the very charter it now attempts to invoke. Section 2-42 of the chart of the charter requires the agenda item to be placed to be submitted in writing with supporting documentation before 5:00 p. a.m. on the Wednesday preceding the meeting. Yet, this resolution was submitted and placed on the agenda Friday, March 6, 2026, nearly 48 hours after the deadline established by the charter. So, while I am being accused of violating the charter, the charter itself is disregarded by Mayor Tarpley to ensure this resolution to censure me was brought before council today. Not only did she violate the rules of the charter, but she also used her position of authority to have the city clerk included in the published agenda and not brought forward to this meeting as an amendment to the agenda as allowed in the charter. This action by the mayor raises serious issues of ethical standards and exposes the city of Hampton and the clerk to potential violation of the very charter it adopted. The charter is not a political weapon. It's a governing document of this city and it applies equally to every member of this body including the mayor and any other official sworn to uphold it. Selective enforcement of the rules is not governing not governance. It's nothing more than politics. So I have sever several straightforward questions for this body. Can anyone can anyone point to a specific section of the city charter that authorizes a single council member to hire legal counsel or bind the city to a contract without a vote of the

council? If that exor if that authority exists, please identify it for me. All fellow elected and appointed officials and city staff and citizens. Can anyone produce documentation showing that I independently hired the city attorney, received the invoice, or approved the payment for the invoice referenced in this resolution? If such documentation or proof exists, please present it at this time. If the official record shows that multiple members of this governing body participated in discussions regarding legal counsel, why is only one council member being singled out for censure? And where exactly in the charter does it say one person can be held responsible for the actions or discussions of the majority of this council? If any member of staff has credible evidence that I've interfered with day-to-day management of city personnel, I invite that evidence to be presented tonight. Serious accusation should be made by supported evidence. If the city charter question clearly requires the agenda items to be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, preceding regularly scheduled meetings, why was this resolution accepted and placed on the agenda last Friday? Please provide evidence of the charter being amended by this council or the previous council to make this action acceptable. When does a clear violation of the charter suddenly stop being treated as a violation? Is it only when the violation occurs by Mayor Tarpley or when it is politically convenient? Because the only clear document and timestamped evidence of the charter violation presented tonight does not point to me. It points directly to the recent actions of Mayor Tarpley and the city official sworn to uphold and enforce the charter. The real question is whether the charter will be applied equally to everyone or

selectively enforced when it's for a political when it serves a political purpose. Because the moment rules because the moment rules are applied selectively, accountability is replaced by politics and integrity of this governing body is placed at risk. If this council allows censure to become a political weapon, then every member of this body should be concerned about the precedent setting being set tonight. Because once accusations without evidence becomes grounds for a censure, no elected official is protected from political retaliation. Long after tonight's meeting is over, the record will remain. And that record will show whether this council chose underlying facts or political retaliation. Let me say this plainly so there's no confusion. The hand of one is not the hand of all and the vote of one is not the vote of this council. If we are now prepared to claim that a single member's action represents the will of the entire body, then we are no longer operating as a council. We're operating under the fiction that one voice can speak for everyone else without consent, without a vote, and without the authority to do so. And if it is truly the standard we intend to adopt, then we should stop pretending our votes matter at all. Because under that logic, every ordinance, every resolution, and every decision before this council could pass with just one vote. one member deciding for the rest of us. One hand standing in place of the whole body. But that is not how representative representative government works. And it's not how this council is governed. Our charter is not vague on this point. It does not leave room for creative interpretation or convenient shortcuts. It clearly states that four votes are required to

constitute a majority of this council. four votes, not one. So, let us be honest with what's being suggested here. Because when we start treating the action of one member as if it carries the authority of the entire council, we're not just ignoring the charter, we're undermining the very structure that ensures fairness, accountability, and shared governance. And once we cross that line, the rules no longer protect this body. They simply become suggestions that can be ignored whenever it is politically useful. This is not how council maintains its integrity and is certainly not how the will of the people is respected. The citizens of Hampton did not elect any of us to govern in this matter. They elected us to lead with integrity, uphold the charter, and to serve the city with honesty and transparency. I will continue to serve, stand firm in my demands for accountability, ask the hard questions and questions and uphold my oath of office. But what I will not do is cower to threats of political retribution. And I will never allow anyone to intimidate me into silence when the integrity is at when integrity is at stake. And I just want to say something to um Council Member Cheney that's not in this. You said according to the charter there was a clear ethics violation. There was a clear violation of the charter. But as I recall at that meeting in December, you sat in that room.

You were there. You were included in every message, every update. You knew everything. So for you to get up here on this dis and in front of everyone and say that I violated the charter, I violated the code of ethics is unbelievable that you would even consider. I have so much stuff and receipts that I could pull. Stuff that she dug up on you, mayor.

I have a 44 page report that she stuck in my mailbox about you. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But I just want Miss Cheney to know. You voting for censure for me of me tonight, you have every right to do so. But I just have one question for you. When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Because I don't see a woman that speaks of God all the time. I don't see anything godly about your behavior. And I don't care how this goes tonight.

I'm almost done. I'm almost done. There was no there was no time there was no time limit on me to speak.

Okay. Okay. However, once again, I did not do this by myself. I did not engage attorney Denmark by myself. Mayor, you said it. It's al it's also in the minutes from the January 13th meeting where I said we engaged the attorney. So, this is nothing more than political retaliation. This is nothing more than you wanting me to join you in the history books of censure. And I may I might be there. Both of our names will be there. Might be there. I don't know. But I want the public to see this for what it really is. This is payback. This is retribution. That's all it is. And so I'm asking this council, vote your heart, vote your conscience, but vote the truth. Convict yourself. Convict your own self of what you've done. Don't just convict me because we were all at the crime scene if you want to put it that way. Thank you,

Council Member Cheney. Will you council member Cheney? I'm sorry. Thank you. Be quiet, please.

Thank you. Thank you, Kesha White Williams, for reading that. And I would like to say I'm always polite and and that's what I teach, but I want to say this and I I will say it in public that I warned you all. I said you all are doing some things that I will not participate in. And one thing that you said to me when we was putting out the cross, you said, and it was unbelievable that Cohelis is like the master and we're like his slaves. I didn't even know how to answer to that. And I wanted to say another thing with Mr. Cleveland. I said, "You are telling him too much information." And I also said in a text, I said, "Y'all probably need to get you an attorney because the white people going to be walking away and y'all are going to be going to jail for some of the things that y'all have been doing."

All right. All right. Amen. All right.

So, I just wanted to say that I will not willingly participate in anything that is wrong, not knowing that it's wrong. And when I read it in black and white and I know for some reason as a public service servant I don't know what happened with y'all relationship. I didn't work with Mayor Tarley. I didn't work with Mr. Cohelix. I didn't I haven't worked with this staff. I have to see things for what it is. And for you to say speak about my religion that's not right. and for Melissa to speak about my religion and she called me and apologized and she put you and Develin on the text and I said why did you put them on the text because you called me to apologize to me but undoubtedly you and Develin was on the text so Kesha White Williams be careful what you say out in public to Mr. Develin Cleveland. And I told you all I was not running against Mayor Tarpley. I didn't have a dog in the fight. So it didn't matter to me if he won or she won the mayor seat.

Okay. So let's let's get back to We have the question on the floor by council member Meeks and the second by council member William. I need to ask a question. Yes. Hold on. Um Oh jeez. I need to ask the the um the attorneys one question. Council member Mitchell um attorney. Yes, sir. Did anyone of the council offer to pay your service in December?

No, no, sir. No, sir. You know, I I was not hired by the council until the actual vote occurred. And and let me you know we we heard some conversation tonight about the immigration attorney and it was stated that the immigration attorney that amount 9500 which paid to the immigration attorney was not voted on and approved by the city council but rather it was within the city manager's authority. So the city attorney, the prior city attorney selected the immigration attorney and the city manager paid that immigration attorney for the work that that immigration attorney did for the city of Hampton. And that immigration attorney was never approved by this city council. What's the point? The point is that lawyers are engaged, do work, and are paid and it does not come to this council. And you know, so the 1900 is certainly within the city manager's authority and the the current city manager uh authorized payment of the invoice the exact same way that the prior city manager authorized payment of the 9500 which is five times more. So, if the prior city manager can authorize the payment of an attorney invoice, and that attorney was not voted on by this city council, it is absolutely no different than the current city manager authorizing the payment of an attorney invoice. But the only difference is I was actually voted in by a majority of this city council just a few weeks later. That's why I say it is a complete non-issue. Um second question if the at if this the council didn't ratify voted you will be charged who who will you be charged? I

I I would charge the exact same person that the immigration lawyer charged. The immigration lawyer was not voted in by this city council was paid $9,500. And so it would be the exact same thing. And that's not the only attorney. What person?

Hold on. I I wanted to be clear here that the city manager who has the authority that has been given by the council to hire a city attorney or to exercise the ability to spend $9500 was Alex Cohelis at the time. He did not authorize He did not authorize or engage Mr. Denmark or his firm. Neither did the council. We had no idea. The majority of the council did not have any idea that Mr. Denmark was doing work on behalf of the city. Not the council nor the city manager knew that he was doing work for the city of Hampton in December. The majority. And it takes, as Council Member White Williams said, it takes a majority. So if you can't count to four, that means you got to stand down. See, the better thing for Council Member White Williams to have done was to take the training that she has been given at the GMA summits and conferences that we go to and call GMA. GMA would have advised her for free because we already paid GMA. They would have put an attorney on the phone with her and whomever they are to give her the legal advice that she sought with Mr. Denmark that cost our city $1,995.

And none of us without the majority have the ability, the right to engage. We don't even have the right to engage to spend city funding without a majority of us approving it. And that never took place. So, let me go on and say what I'm No, let me go and finish what I'm let me go on. Let me go on and finish because there has been a a running theme tonight about retaliation. I'm in my seat. I ain't got to retaliate. I'm in my seat. I'm here for the next four years. I'm not going anywhere. I don't have a reason to retaliate. So, let me go on and help you guys. Back in 2016 or 17 at the time, a council member went and spent city funds $7, $8 around that amount, small amount. It was this council member Anne Tarpley that made a big stink about $8 caused the city caused the city to have to do an investigation to see if it was proper for a city council member to go and spend money on behalf of the city and then come and ask for the money back. Guess what the investigation said? No, you can't spend city funding. Even though it was only and they did exactly what council attorney Denmark is did doing said, but it was it was only $8. We not talking about amount. We're talking about principle.

You got to be standing on principle. Council member White Williams has averted the tried to avert the law on multiple occasions. She's even tried to help our citizens avert the law. She posted on Facebook about please don't go down 20 so you don't get caught by the police if you got a warrant or if you got some weed on you or whatever. So, I'm trying to Oh, let me go let me go. Let me go ahead and take it down. I called you. I called you and told you asked you to take it down. But the thing about it is guys

and besides the principle of things, it is the principle of these things that we have to stand on. You know what? It does not matter about if I'm mad, if I'm angry. The question is you said it said they which you are a part of they. So then why am I being singled out? Why is there no censorship for councilwoman Duchin on this same matter?

Why is there why why is there why was why is there no censure for any other it sound like it's coming? It does sound like it's coming. I just expected it to be because let me tell you what I I I don't I don't wait 18 Wait a minute. How many months it was from April to January? Uh

eight months. Eight months to file a claim a a claim against somebody that they done did something that I ain't waiting eight months. No, I just got this y'all. I got it the day I tell it's in the minutes. I got it. if they presented to me. I'm like, I'm signing off on the check. I'm looking at it. This new to me. So, guess what? I decided for me and I even told staff, the financial staff, I said, "You can separate this because his contract is for $9,000. I'm more than willing to give put my signature on the $9,000 because the council don't hire him. But I will not be putting my signature on $1,995.50 of this. And I absolutely meant that. So for people to try to say that I am in retaliation, this ain't about retaliation. It's simply about principle. And it wouldn't have matter who it was. It's the principle of it. I've already proven I stand on principle. If I'mma cause a fuss about $7, I'm gonna cause a fuss about 2,000. You can put your money on that. I don't have no ill will for any of my council members. But just like the accountability standard that everybody we have on in the charter and in the code, we all have to live up to it. We all have to abide by. So that is just the bottom line. And for us to point fingers and for us to try to make it seem like we the accountability is not on us, that is absolutely wrong. And the reason, the truth of the matter, the reason I started with Council Member White Williams is because Council Member White Williams decided she was going to be the

spokesperson for the entire group. I have multiple emails from Council Member White. If you guys want them, I'll email you. She uh admitted that they had had a meeting. This she's talking to the attorney, the old attorney, our old attorney, that they had had a meeting, decided to fire the old attorney, her, Miss Duchain, and three of the now sitting council members, and they had decided that they were not going to reappoint our uh attorney, Miss Miss W. So, are you saying that I said that to Laren? I I got an email. I got an email. I did. I did. I got the email. No, no, no, no, no.

I got the email. I sent the email to and and hold on. I No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I didn't send the email to Miss Wiggins. I sent the email to the staff council and staff.

Okay. So, and you and the former city manager took it upon yourself to notify her because council, sorry, attorney Wiggins had reached out to me because she was not sure if this council was going to re continue to retain her services. Okay, so this say in December, in early December, this this right I'm not I didn't make this up. It says in early December, attorney Wiggins contacted me directly to speak about seek guidance regarding whether she should retain her resignation to tender her resignation from her position as city attorney for the city of Hampton due to the makeup of the incoming council. I advised her that I would have to have a conversation with the incoming council members to better understand their attent intentions regarding her future with the city. Following numerous discussions had held in a nonquorum setting with both incumbents and incoming council members and after careful consideration of the matter presented. Council member Duchain Brooks Cheney Mitchell and I who represented a super majority of the city council have collectively determined that we will not be reappointing city attorney Wiggins nor Mr. Ed Wall who currently serves as the city of Hampton financial advisor for the upcoming term. As you are aware of pursuant to charter a city charter and established city authority, the appointment and the annual reappoint of both of the city attorney and the financial adviser rest solely with the council. We acknowledge that a formal vote of the city council is required to place these decisions on the official records. Now watch this. you said in early December. So, I can't hold council member Brooks. I can't hold council member Mitchell. And I can't hold council member Cheney for meeting with you because they were not on the sitting

council. The sitting council was Kesha White Williams, Council Member Desaine, and Council Member Cleveland. And that does not count up to four. That does not make a majority. You have to have four. If the city manager didn't hire you in December, you weren't hired. If the council did not hire you in December, you were not hired. So, you should not be sending me a bill for December. That email, that's all I'm saying. You should That email says that Len contacted her in December. Not in early December. Len contacted her. She contacted me. Madame Mayor, I'll reiterate my point of order. Call for the question.

All right. Okay. Call for the question. And I have a motion on the floor by council member Meeks and a second still by council member Williams for discussion. Okay. So I need a motion to approve or to deny resolution 2026-9. There's already a motion to approve it.

Um I I uh put your timer on Michelle. I wait we the total time is going to be three minutes. No, it's going to be is it 15 minutes? Okay. Who wants to speak on this subject? Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six. I got five. I'm at five. It It won't take me but about two seconds. Put the clock on, please. To to see what Put on the 15 minutes

to see what we what we're getting what we're being charged for up here as citizens for our governing authority. And I wonder why I couldn't get out of this thing three years ago. Yeah. Because y'all cannive and manipulate against whoever you don't want to get out of the city and who you want in the city. You'll sit up here and listen to annexes all day long. As long as you're coming in, let one man with six acres try to get out. You ain't getting out. We don't feel that has nothing to do with what we're talking about. Y'all have shown what you're talking about tonight.

Who's up next? Who Who is next? If you want to talk speak on this subject, please come to the podium. Can you please state your name for the record?

My name is Joey Paige Lewis. I am a business owner in downtown Hampton of the Makers on Maine. And I'm going to read this. Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I want to address the situation surrounding the center of Councilwoman Kesha White Williams and the circumstances involving the hiring of the city attorney. During the discussion, council member Pam Duchzn acknowledged that she was also involved in bringing the city attorney into this matter. Sherry Cheney was present during those discussions and former council member Develin Cleveland was also involved in the conversations prior to this issue being brought forward. Yet tonight, the focus appears to be on centering only one individual. If the city attorney was engaged without a formal vote of this council, that is a serious procedural concern. Under Georgia law, official actions of a governing body are supposed to occur through a motion and recorded vote in a public meeting. If multiple individuals participated in bringing the attorney into this matter without proper authorization, then responsibility should not fall on one person alone. The public deserves transparency about how that decision was made and who authorized it. I also want to say that I am deeply I've been disappointed in the city of Hampton before, but I am deeply disappointed tonight as a woman, as a black woman, and as a business owner

in this community. I expect leadership that demonstrates integrity, accountability, and fairness. Our community deserves better than what we are seeing tonight.

Because of this serious seriousness of this issue, I believe the residents of Hampton should carefully consider whether Kesha White Williams, Pam Duchzn, and others involved should continue serving in their position and whether the recall process should be considered. Additionally, it is important to note that Miss Cheney had not yet been sworn in, which raises further questions about her involvement in this matter. The people of Hampton deserve transparency, accountability, and leadership that follows proper procedure to watch you all throw each other under the bus. And to know that you all were sitting making disgusting comments about race when we already have enough divide in this community.

It's disgusting that you all have so much time to fight and no time to get anything done. Did I know that this was all going to unravel tonight? No. No. But I said to someone Friday, they will soon turn on each other. Because when you come together for a low ball mission, it doesn't take long for it to fall apart. All right. Uhuh. Let's Let's keep it.

Please state your name and address. Hi, I'm Allayia Walton, 1012 Blue Coat Circle. Um, AS in criminal justice, BS in political science, CT in forensic chemistry, but more importantly, a young adult citizen of Hampton, Georgia. Um, I'm not really going to address, you know, the censure, but I do want to address something that you said in your long speech. Um, I will say I am disgusted by the lack of accountability and using diversion and hearsay to dodge accountability for whatever you, you know, they're discussing regarding you. But since this is on the record, that's the only reason I'm speaking. Normally, I only speak when I'm speaking on Peach State Community Involvement Agency and how we bring positive happenings to the city. But because this is on record and you made mention of something that was clearly hearsay that I was actually present for, I'm going to clear it up very quickly. Um, you stated that uh there was an incident that happened with someone who was close to the mayor and they created a hostile environment for a city employee and had to be removed by the police. That is overly untrue um because I was there. Um she did not create a hostile environment and this is me speaking objectively not because that's my mother but because I was actually there. Um there was an incident that happened where the person in question which was to Treadwell did not perform her job duties correctly by not signing Miss Walton up for a class they were supposed to do for the Hampton preservation or whatever. And Miss Walton went to ask her, "Hey to spoke to you in a very calm manner. I spoke to you and I told you that I wanted to do these classes. I just wanted to know if you could do these classes. Um, sign these classes up for me and it went from there because there was already something going on with TOVA and however she felt. Now, once that

began to get rowdy, myself went over to the city of Hampton Police Department to get Chief Turner. And I'm sure he can attest to that. And I only got Chief Turner because at the time he was the assistant city manager. And if I'm let me know if I'm wrong, the city manager is um over you know the city employees such as Tova Treadwell. But he was in a meeting. So I went and got the assistant city manager at the time to come and diuse the situation. No one was removed and the cops were not called and they were both taken to the city manager to have a sitdown to come to a resolution. And that is what happened. And I do find it belittling and disgusting to try to come for someone's qualifications which you have no idea about because I don't know your qualifications and I don't care to know either. Thank you so much. You're welcome,

Miss Anita.

Uh, my name is Anita Williams. I'm at 188 Kendall. Uh, I've lived here in Hampton, the city of Hampton for 20 years. Never have I been have I seen such unprofessionalism representing the citizens of Hampton. We have more pressing business that we should be talking about. This is ridiculous. This all of you should be ashamed of yourselves sitting up here doing this stuff. This is ridiculous. And I I'm just I'm just so disappointed. I'm just so disappointed in in in all that I'm seeing tonight. This is ridiculous to me. Uh we have more pressing business that we need to be taken care of. You all have been elected by the people and you will be removed by the people also because you're not representing the people. It seems as if you all are representing your own little clicks or quantities or whatever you whatever agendas you have. You need to refocus your agenda for the people and stay for the people. Now this question if the council members are sworn in in January then there was only only the active council members should have been the people who were voting on a new attorney to put a new attorney in place. So, but to come in and to say put all this big mirage up as if it was something other than that, the fact is the fact a new council. If you're not, you wasn't sworn in in January, then you couldn't have been the one who was talking to a new uh attorney in December. That makes no sense. It doesn't make sense. And but to say that you have are for the people, you're not representing the people. you're representing your own agenda.

So, we just need to refocus. Focus on the people. What you need to be doing for the people. The people need quite a few things. You hear tonight all about taxes. We need different things for for the citizens of Hampton. And you need to refocus yourselves to that and not pickpoint all your different agendas that you have for yourselves. All of you. I've never seen this and I'm very ashamed of Hampton at this point. Thank you. Thank you.

Hey, Don Greer, 20 Macdonald Street. Um, so what I would recommend is to take the emotion out of this. There's been too much emotion displayed this evening during these discussions. Uh, some of it's been disrespectful. Some of it's just been, I think, just because a byproduct of the the intensity of the conversation. But regardless, I would ask y'all to take the emotion out of it and look at the facts. Um, if there is not proof of this, it is wrong to vote for it. And I have, speaking just personally, I have some decades in management. And the first thing I actually wrote it down on my paper earlier this evening it's on the edges of retaliation. I mean you can check with your human resources person if you would like to to do that. Um it's a slippery slippery slope. Excuse me. It's getting late. Um I had concerns last month in the meeting when a council member asked could anybody be censored and have it put on the agenda. I knew what was coming. It was evident. But again, I'm asking y'all to take the emotions out. Look at the facts. Look for proof. If the proof is not there, do not vote for this.

Thank you. I have a motion on the floor. Actually, I need a I need a

I'm speaking. I thought Mr. Foresight was going to be here um because he needed to hear this part of the discussion. When the invoice came across, Miss White Williams didn't approve the invoice gap, which is what the all governments have to abide by. If a if a if a service is rendered, we're required to pay the invoice. We have a lot of vendors that aren't even set up in our system that are paid by um miscellaneous vendor. They haven't filled out a vendor packet. They haven't submitted documentation. They haven't done the normal steps because it's a one-time considered like a one-time payment. Sometimes those one-time payments are two-time payments or three until we realize that okay, this is going to be a vendor for the city. But GAP is the law and it requires governments to pay invoices regardless of who made the bill. So that was that's what Foresight shared with me and I just wanted you to be aware.

I need a motion to approve.

My name is Valerie Forest. I'm Jakori mom of the youth council. Okay. Well, I understand about the mayor. she could only do so much in her years. And when it talks about um other council on the member um on the member council, I think you need to focus on me um mental health. Ask the c ask the mayor, what can you do about people going through homeless or mental health instead of trying to throw each other under the bus? um mayor, what can we do about this and that that going on in the city instead of going back to what she said or she said this in December or who got accounted for in December or what what does it matter what it matter now is this what can we do to help each other to come to conclusive on all this that's what I'm saying I just want to say that and I just it's you know unacceptable just to throw each other under the bus just say mayor can I help you with this mayor can cuz she have a lot going on all council mayor doing all the stuff she do with the youth everything she have to take this go home with it sleep on it and do a lot so it's a lot she can do only in her time but just give her a chance or y'all give each other a chance instead of throwing each other under the bus saying this and saying that about each other come to one conclusion to woman to woman and say, "Look, this is what happened. This is what we're going to go on." That's it. We're going to talk about what can we help in the community, the stories, the people, the the community, the mental health, everything. It's still all this is not acceptable. That's what I got to say.

I I got one more question to ask. Attorney, um you mentioned that no one hired you. No one asks for payment. So um question what puzzle me is this. Why you charge something that no one authorized you to charge and if it was an error were you willing to refund that money back?

It was that's not what I said. It was not an error. I I I did the work and you know the point that that I was making that I believe is getting lost. Everybody says that the council has to hire the attorney. And I've given examples where the city council did not vote to hire an attorney. It was no vote of the city council to hire an attorney. The attorney didn't work for the city of Hampton and the city of Hampton paid that attorney. And it was the city manager who authorized the payment because the amount was within the city manager's authority. I don't understand why that's a difficult concept. If the city manager is authorized to make a payment to an attorney within his authority and has done it previously, this situation is absolutely no different.

I understand that. I I I understand what you're saying. But what I can't understand is this now is that um if you wasn't being hired been voted being hired on January the 3rd or the 10th you wasn't hired at all. I was not appointed at city at that.

Yeah. Yeah. It was that at that time and if you was not who were you charged? You will not get paid from the city because city would not pay you. I the city no that's a fact right there they say they will not pay you send a check out they would throw back out they will not pay you

they will not pay you so question is now what I'm trying to say is this now I believe is this you should not have been charged the city for services because the city did not I'm hired you at a time they might talk to you but you was Not I believe that um you know it by heart that you shouldn't have done. So you know that I'm I'm not I'm I'm not you know you you're a man of you you know this policy and procedures but you should never have char I think I think I believe this you put Kisha William in in in you real badly. I believe that and I'm I'm very upset about that because you know that and you should not been charge the city money. You put her like I think you're stabbing her back. That's to me.

No, no, no, sir. I that's why that's why I feel because um we got a question because I I've not I've been a for a very long time. I come back. I know the politics and procedures and that's what I I feel I am and I'm a defend of my of the council. Don't get me wrong. I would defend anyone my council and um well that's why I see I think that you should refund the money back to the city. I have a motion on the floor for resolution 2026-9, but I I need to make sure that this motion stands. So, can I get uh the motion and the second again?

I move that we approve resolution 202619. I have a motion by council member Meeks. Do I have a second? A second. I have a second by Council Member Cheney to approve resolution 2026-9. I'm going to do a voice vote just like I did with the formal one. Uh I'm going to call Council Member Brooks. I am in opposition of approving resolution 2026. What was the number? 19. 19. Council member Meeks, I vote yes. Council member M. Mitchell,

I vote yes because the mayor did. Council member White Williams, I am in opposition. Council member Duchain, I'm in opposition. Council member Cheney, I vote yes. This is a three vote. The mayor breaks the tie and I vote yes. Moving on to agenda item.

Moving on. I need quiet. I need quiet. Moving on to agenda item 12G. Council discussion regard regarding all current and anticipated annexation requests to the city of Hampton. This item will include a review of annexation procedure, service delivery obligation, financial and infrastructure impact impact in alignment with the city's comprehension plan and growth strategy. The discussion is intended to evaluate whether annexation requests support orderly growth, protect the city financials and operation capacity, and align with the long-term interest and and residential resident of stakeholder. I'm going to ask that we move this to a work session for the month of March. and we get a date for that work session. Can I get a motion to move it to the work session?

I make a motion to move it to uh item 12 G and H to Oh, just G 12. Let's do G. 12. Okay. G to work session in March. I have a motion by council member Cheney to move 12G to a work session in March. Do I have a second? Second. Have a second by council member Meeks. Discussion from the council. Yes. Okay.

I believe we've discussed this already in the January 2015 and the January 28th meeting when we met at the schools to talk about the data centers. Miss Wanda has covered this several times. So I think we should go ahead and um remove this item um because it's already been discussed on separate occasions and we also have a moratorum in place.

Okay. So council member White Williams is saying that instead of moving it to a work session just remove it off the agenda alto together. Do you guys want to further discuss this or so? So is I'm sorry. Is this discussion going to help us to do our zoning or what it like to to to to with annexations like what's happening like

I think um the discussions as far as zoning and process and and what you guys have been talking about possibly with the attorney um they're um preparing something for April to ing before mayor and council regarding just process and hearings and and just processing these legislative requests before y'all. As stated, we're already in a moratorum for annexations and data centers and that kind of thing. And so, um, I think we would have a more, um, productive discussion in April when we're talking more specifics on what process that might be implemented to help you guys and help the city um, get more transparency and more information on the front end and give you more time.

So, removing it should be okay. This I'm sorry, we're removing this as as Councilwoman White Williams

as as was recommended. I I agree that we've talked about a lot of things at Nausea in a sense and I'm happy to continue the discussions and talk to whomever and and answer any questions at least from my department at at y'all's pleasure. um in regard to this processing of zoning and and things like that and comprehensive plans and how things are ran. I believe next month when you have that agenda item from the attorneys that will create a a a better dialogue and a more purposeful of what you're for and what you want to do versus what you know you you don't want to do. I'm moving.

So, are you are you saying that after your April April uh presentation to us, we may want to have more dialogue about this after the April dialogue? I I believe that the April um presentation um will help um everyone

give everybody more specifics to answer questions that you may not even know that you have related to all those items. Um I think that it will um focus the discussion in a meaningful way and the attorneys are drafting the ordinance and the legislation to bring before you um with staff's input of course but they are driving that based on um communication with several of you guys as far as process goes from my understanding from speaking with the attorney may pardon me but I'm confused.

Okay. Are you saying that it would benefit us to have a work session prior to April or that it's okay not to have a work session discussing this and we will be finding out things in April that will make this unnecessary? Yes, the latter. Okay. So, this is not necessary for the meeting in April. I do not believe so. Thank you. All right. So, I have um is it amendment to the motion? Council member White, will you? Yes. I'd like to amend the motion that we go ahead and remove item G off of the agenda and we will table it until uh for a future meeting. Second.

I have an amendment to the motion to remove item 12G by Council Member White Williams and a second by Council Member Meeks for the amendment. All in favor of the amendment? All opposed? You favor? I'm okay. Okay. I have a 6 for the amendment. Now I need um motion to move or to remove to remove to remove uh 12G off the agenda as as amended. So move second. Have a motion by council member White Williams and a second by council member Duchaine. All in fa uh any discussion?

All in any discussion from the public? All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to agenda item 12H. Council discussion to review past and present zoning requirements. Um reszoning variances, special use permits and related approval granted by the city of Hampton. This discussion will focus on consistency with adopting zoning ordinance, the comprehension plan, and establish approval process as well as any deviations, proceedings, and policies gap that may exist. The purpose is to ensure zoning decisions have been applied fairly, lawfully, and consistent to identify potential areas for policy clarification, corrective action, and future amendment uh future amendments. Can I get a motion to remove agenda item H as well?

Yes, I have a motion by council member Duchaine and a second by council member Meeks to remove agenda item 12H. Discussion from the council, discussion from the public. All in favor?

I have a six. 6. Agenda item 12. I council discussion regarding the appointment of city council members to serve as as council liaison or representative of the city of Hampton board authorities and committees. This item will include consideration of appointment necessarily to ensure each body is properly staffed, supported, and aligned with the city council policy, direction, and governance. governance responsibility. Um I'm not exactly sure who put item. Did you ask for that, Council Member White Williams?

No, this was um we kept kicking this can down the road since the January 13th meeting. So I think this actually should be discussed in a work session. Yeah. Okay. I have a second.

All right. So, I have a motion to move agenda item 12I to the March work session by council member White Williams and a second by council member Duchaine. Discussion from the public. I mean from the council. Discussion from the public. All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to agenda item 12J. Council consider discussion regarding the expired terms and pro sets for selection of new members of the city council board committees and authorities. This item will include consideration of appointment necessarily to ensure each body is properly staffed, supported, and aligned with the city council policy, direction, and governance responsibility.

I make a motion to move this to a work session in March as well. All right. I have a motion by council member Desaine, a second by council member Meeks to move this to a work session in March as well. That's agenda item 12. Discussion from the council

discussion in March. Yeah, we going to set a date in a few minutes. Discussion from the public. All in favor? All 6. Moving on to agendas. Item 12K, consideration and action to approve the adoption of resolution 202620 to approve the addition of the position of deputy municipal court clerk. The city of Hampton is in need of a deputy deputy municipal court clerk to clerk to ensure the efficiency and effective operation of the court system. This role provides critical support to the municipal court clerk, assisting with the oversight of day-to-day administration functions and special projects, managing multiple processes, and ensuring that strategic goals are met. A deputy municipal court clerk helps to facilitate communication between the municipal court clerk, the police chief, and the court, ensuring that priorities are aligned and addressed in a timely manner to include the organizational chart resolution to include the organizational chart resolution 202622. Chief Turner, oh, Miss Atwater,

this is just to add deputy municipal court clerk to the police department. there's already um a municipal court clerk position. So, this will be a support position or a backup to the municipal court clerk. Um this resolution adds the job description also um adds it to the stepping grade table and to the or chart for the police department. That's it. That's it. All right. Uh Chief Turner, I was going to say which one of y'all Mr. Baker,

I would just make a note to the council um that there currently is a position for a municipal court clerk and one part-time position at the police department um from just to give you a run of the numbers here from 2019 to 2025 um citations in 2019 and these are only the Hampton Police Department not including the George State Patrol and any Henry County tickets that might actually end up in our court. Um, in 2019 there were 1,692 citations issued. Currently we have 5,3996 in 2025. So there's an increase in citations. Um, obviously part of that is not just because we want revenue. It's part of the philosophy of the police department and it is part of the Poria principle that has been around for many years studied that when you're out active doing different things, that's how we get to the sixth safest city in the state of Georgia. you see police officers, there's a violation, doesn't always mean you get a citation, but they are stopping and identifying people. They're also making sure that they're out about and being seen. Um, one of the concerns I have and one of the goals the chief and I have discussed is to get those and with the judge as well is to get that citation once you get one to get it get it adjudicated within 60 days. Currently, the average they're at is 180 days. So, by adding more court sessions, there's more core personnel needed um in that municipal court clerk's position as well as a deputy's position. And that will help them to alleviate that and to drive those down to where it's a reasonable and honestly we may only get to 90 days, but um you all have seen court day over there, people standing in the streets, um not enough capacity for the for the courtroom, and I think that this position would help alleviate that. And the next question I assume you're going to ask me is how do we pay for that? um since it's not budgeted. Uh we do have a part-time position that's over there that could be morphed into a partial payment on that. And we also, as you know, as we go through the different uh gestations of employees being hired, we

may not be at full staff. There's always a little little buffer room in that as far as the overall expenditures for the city and we can pull some of those funds and make sure that we can pay that position until we can get it actually on the budget or if we need to to do a budget amendment later on. So, you did not I you it's going to come out of general fund if it if we have to do a budget amendment. Yes, ma'am. It would be. And I think what I'd like to do before we try and do the budget amendment on that is to see if we can't move some funds that are already allocated for employees at this time. Any questions from the council? Yes. Do anybody rough the cost? I'm sorry.

The cost for the cost for the the position it's in here. But it varies. So you have different steps. So right. Yeah. Uh I think what he's asking is because it is a stepping grade where where at what step will this individual be coming in? Well, she they will start you can't see 8,000. The beginning one the first one it don't come highlighted on. Yeah. You can't see it. So, she's going to start at the that number. Okay. Entry level. Okay. Any other questions from the council?

Any discussion from the public? All in favor? Oh, wait a minute. Did I get a motion? No. I need a motion to approve or to deny resolution 2026-20. Madam Mayor, move that we adopt resolution. Second.

All right. I have a motion to approve by council member Meeks and a second by council member Mitchell resolution 2026-20. All in favor? I have a 6. Moving on to agenda item 12L, consideration and action to approve the adoption of resolution 202621 to approve the change change in duties of an executive assistant role to include assistance with transcribing minutes creating agenda open records request and other duties as assigned. This role provides much needed support to the clerk, assisting with the oversight of day-to-day administration functions and special projects, managing multiple processes for the M city manager and ensuring that strate strategic goals are met. An executive assistant helps to facilitate communication between the city manager, the city clerk, the council, and the public, ensuring that priorities are aligned and addressed in a timely manner. Miss Atwater.

Yes. Um, this resolution adds a few duties that the clerk is currently um needing backup for. Our clerk is working every weekend and most nights. So, um we're just asking for a slight change in the role of executive assistant. Now, um the pay won't change. Of course, these few duties will change. We've eliminated the RFP process as well. it. So, um out of this position, but aside from all that, um this position, this will only be effective for anyone hired into this position, not for executive assistants that are already sitting in the seat. This is just for going forward. I mean, anyone hired into this position going forward

after it's been codified. So, this this is about this job description that you ma'am. Okay. Yes. Um something um right now we we know right now right now if someone in in the city clerk we got someone there already helping out who can help out in that in the time. We got um King Susan King getting involved when they she were always involved into she also certified So, um, there's duties out there that are already

Mr. Sorry, I thought it was loud enough. Well, what I I don't see necessary first of all, because we already have someone that already can do this. Okay. I'm so glad you asked that. I'm sorry. Will you finish? And and if there's a need for someone else, they can they can help out. When I put those in place, I I don't think it necessary. And I like to be a city clerk maintain city clerk, executive maintain executive. If you need assistant, they can help in assistant, but I don't feel like they make a resolution for that.

Okay. Well, this actually there's already a position for deputy clerk already. Miss Susan King is the HR generalist. Mhm.

So this is not a part of this is not there aren't any job duties that would otherwise be relevant to what she does as a generalist. It's just the two of us taking care of the needs of 87 employees and their families along with every riskmanagement issue in the city. We stay busy. So, this is simply to modify an existing job that we already have open that we already have to to um bring applicants in on. And just by including these few three little job duties, it will help the clerk tremendously because like I said, she's by herself right now and um having to work every weekend since she's been here. I I'm not doubting that but still yet to the point you bring that person the person still can do the duties without creating

it's cheaper in my opinion that's not what I'm saying that the same person who's coming an executive or whatever who can do the job can still do the job without me changing anything well actually I mean a backup to the clerk is a pretty um important job and you would not you would not want to hire someone without those job duties being included They still can do the job. I'm sorry. Yeah, it you're asking me to change a code, change something. The job description, which I said the person already can do the same job. Why I need to change it? Unnecessary. What do you mean the same person can already do the job? I'm not understanding that. If we hire someone who can do the jobs

we're hiring, if we hire an executive assistant with the way the job description is currently written, that person would not be obligated to back up the clerk. We have a deputy clerk position that is a full-time position that instead of filling that full-time position and paying someone $58,000 a year, we're saying we're going to bring in a person, well, not bring in, but we already have a job that's advertised. And by modifying three simple job duties within the executive assistant role, we'll be able to to it'll be able to support a dual purpose.

Understand? So, um I'm looking at one thing as this time is getting very busy for the clerk right now. Within next six months, it's died out. There's nothing there anymore. Well, or actually with all the business that's going on right now, I can't see where it would things would be slowing down. City clerk is different from other duties for you guys be more I don't know if I have anything else to add. Can I ask a question because um and this may be a legal question. Uh in the current job description, I know it needs to be changed in regards to requests for proposals for the RFP. That definitely needs to come out of the executive assistance uh role.

Yes, ma'am. However, at the end of this, it says all other duties as required. What I'm want to really identify is when it says all other duties as required. Can can you not require her without modification of it being inside of that job description, transcribing minutes, creating agendas or open records request? Because I know that people like the open records request, we had a whole team that was built that wasn't a part of their job description, but it was assigned to them. So do we don't have to add that language in the job description. Is that right?

Well, with it being major duties, I would recommend that you do because anyone can come back and say I applied for a job and I did not know that I was going to be the backup to the clerk. I did not know that I would be required to transcribe minutes. Those are major job duties, not simple tasks, you know. That's true. But that is based on the interviewer. When a when a person interviews someone, they explain when someone applies for a job. If I apply for a job as a chef at a restaurant, I don't expect to get there and be told that I'm also responsible for managing the employee.

Well, that's not true. I I have I've been a manager over 30 years and hire a lot of people. So, I I I understand the process when attorneys when when people when employees sue cities when I make a claim that I tell them the duties, not duties. what may take place and and I I I hear what you're saying, Council Member Mitchell. When there's litigation, the first thing employment attorneys ask for is the job description.

So therefore, it has to be relevant to the job. We can't have implied duties. We need to have express duties. Does that make sense? So why are we adding duties required? I mean other duties as required because there may be some temporary um simple things not major job duties. Anything that can be found in in another job description that's major. We have a whole job description that's deputy municipal court clerk. We're literally taking job duties out of that job and placing them into executive assistant.

Can I say something? So, if we're advertising for a job, we need to make sure that it's clear to the applicant that they're applying for a job where they're required to do some major job duties of the mun of the the clerk. Can I can I say something? Yeah. Yes. I guess I'm taking this as when you say other required duties. if they're helping the clerk, maybe the clerk, maybe they need to book um travel, maybe they need to book some courses for, you know, I'm saying to help out in other duties. You know what I'm saying? Other than that, what's not specifically? That's how I'm taking it. Madam Mayor, just to clarify it, C

this discussion says they report to the department director. Who is the department director? Is that the city manager? In this particular case, yes, sir, it is. And I would just like to just I'm sorry. Just let and the city clerk reports to mayor and council. Correct. Thank you.

And in this particular case, if you and this has been done successfully, I've done it in the past. Um, but if you're going to be a city clerk or an assistant city clerk or be able to back them up, there's there is required training that has to be done. As you all know, it's a very sensitive position and there's a lot of legal requirements that have to be met. as well as with the open records request, that's not just someone we want to pawn off on someone else. So, there's additional training and requirements that have to be met on that. So, to her point when she's talking about um the specialized training and and specialized tasks, I think those would need to be enumerated in that if this is a course of action you choose to take.

All right, I have a question. So, will adding these additional job duties um result in more money for the city paying to that employee

or is it still on the It would remain on the same stepping grade that it exists right now. Um we would be because we would be um expressing these new duties. Of course, there's the possibility that someone may ask for more than correct, but but we we just have, you know, a budgeted amount. So, we still have to stay with

pres prevents you hiring an employee that did not have the certification and the skills of a clerk. The city paid for it and now this employee expects to be paid more in the future. this will automatically um it's kind of baked into the cake almost and the cake is the job itself. So, it sounds to me when when this position is um if when the job description is updated um that we will be looking for someone that possesses those qualities so that we won't have to pay them give them a raise in the middle of the job of of the year if they were to go and get a clerk certification. So, it really doesn't have an impact on pay and benefits total compensation. It's just we're adding more more job duties to their job description. Is that because that's what I'm hearing.

Yes, we're adding more job duties and um the person that has these skills. I mean, it would only be fair for them to to ask for what their salary. We ask for the salary requirement at the time we interview anyway. So, but it prevents an employee from saying, "I didn't sign up for this. I should be doing more because I'm doing more." Absolutely. It prevents that as well as it protects us legally for the most part is the probably the main reason. Okay, those are major duties. Thanks. Did I get a motion? Did I get a motion?

Oh, I need a motion to approve or to to deny resolution 202621. I motion to approve. I have a motion by council member White Williams and a second by council member Meeks to approve. Any further discussion from the council? Any further discussion from the public? All in favor? All opposed. I have a Melissa, how did you vote? Four. I voted four. Yes. Mr. Me.

I have a 42. Moving on to agenda item, positive happenings. I'm gonna start at the other end. Council member Cheney.

All right. I am grateful to be here tonight as a public servant. I would like for us to move forward with the city business. And one of my most positive happenings is the sound system. We can you all can hear us. So, I'm grateful for Michelle number one and a half for our sound system. Thank you, Council Member Design.

I am grateful. We had a um incident in our community yesterday and Chief Turner and his staff did a fantastic job. Um, I got a chance to get out of my vehicle before I was leaving the subdivision to witness the police officers that were there and they were doing a fantastic job. They were calm. They were keeping the situation deescalated. Um, I got a chance to speak with the mother of the the young fella um and pray with her and based on what I saw I was able to say to her I am sure this is going to end up the results in a positive manner and it did and I commend you guys

um my positive happenings things is the police academy. Although I missed last night, but the first two the two weeks that I have gone was has been very informative. Um it's been a lot of fun and I appreciate um the uh police department for putting that on and I look forward to our sessions going forward. Council member Mitchum. I'm going echo what um Councilwoman Sherry mentioned about the sun system. It for years probably spend about three times to get this to get this fixed. This is best of so far.

Council member Mix, don't put her hand. I know it's been taking a while and I know we're all anticipating it. Well, we're not anticipating it as much as our young people in the neighborhood, but uh progress is definitely being made over at McBrer Park. It looks wonderful so far. And I mean, it is it's going to be something nice when it's finished and I it'll I think it'll be worth the wait, but I really appreciate all the work and the money saving ideas uh doing things in house. Thanks to our uh maintenance department, Council Member Gretz.

Yes. Um I'd like to give a shout out to Chief and particularly Lieutenant Arnold. I had a situation with my daughter about two weeks ago and um a situation that could have really went bad, but immediately Chief Turner called and I mean he was like, "Melissa, we we we got it." But um my daughter has mental health issues. Uh it's just something that surfaced started in July. She's 20. She'll be 29 and uh she's doing well now. So, I I am I was really really happy to see uh Representative Feno come out and I'm going to work closely with him um to see if we can bring some more awareness for mental health in our city. I'm not sure what happened in Southampton yesterday, but it it could have been pertaining to some sort of mental health and um mental health is something that a affects many of our families and I never thought it would be knocking on my door, but uh nevertheless um I'm going to stand do what I can for the citizens of Hampton as it relates to mental health and um I'm just like I said great shout out to the police staff because that situation could have went badly but they were very patient and I appreciate that.

Thank you council. Madam Mayor, if I could say I thank y'all very much. But the three things that were brought up about the police department that are initiatives of your of our mayor and council as that is not solely done at the police department. The citizens police academy is something I know most everybody there has been to or is currently in and the two incidents we had both mental health. The reason we had the resolution we did and that patience doesn't just happen. The training that you guys invest in our officers, it makes all the difference in the world. So thank y'all. Thank you. City manager Jim Faker. Yes, ma'am. Oh, and the drones.

Yeah. And and he also wanted to thank you all for the drones, too, because they came in invaluable with that whole situation being diffused. That's your positive happening. Oh, well, I'm very pleased to be here. It's been a uh I'm sorry. I was mesmerized by the bunny in front of me. Um it's been a it's been a interesting uh first few weeks. So, you know, um uh but yes, I'm very glad to be here and and y'all aren't going to run me off. So, thank you very much.

I'm assure you it's this going to be that's it. It's going to be fun for Can I add something? I just want to say thank you for adding base camp to one of the as one of the tools that we use. It's been very helpful. Um and I appreciate staff giving their updates daily or weekly. So thanks. So I did owe everything everybody said. Everything in the city of Hampton is wonderful. I'm not lying. It's wonderful. So um

thank you God. Yes. Thank you Jesus. I need a motion to move into executive session. I make a motion to move I have a motion to move in executive session by council member Duchaine and a second by council member White Williams. All in favor? 6. We are now in executive session.

Hey young man, how are you? Don't hit the same but She sure did do that. Uhhuh.

Sleep late. This will be good. Trying to stand still. Wait. Trying to sit still.

Write your hand. Uhuh. You write yours. You write yours. Finish reading and I'm going do you. There we go. Here we go. Look, I was trying. There you go. That's yours. Now, if he said one more time, anybody write yours down, it was going to have to be resolved.

But you know what? I'm glad transparency accountability follows council members and procedure and they know they I know I was trying hard but since I was trying to be quiet but I said you see anybody else I've time sat long See, I can't wait on this time. Go to the house. You know what? I'm glad it's time to

I didn't want to motion to come out of executive session. I made a I made a motion to second a motion. I have a motion by council member Mitchell and a second by council member Cheney to come out of executive session. All in favor? I have a 6. I need a motion to approve the uh to move forward with theou um with authorizing the city manager to sign with an agreement that includes Piper Sandlers for the Equinex and TPA.

She might mic you read it your mic. I need a motion to move to allow the uh city manager to move forward with theou uh regarding the Equinex and TPA U data center site to include Piper Sandlers. So move. I have a motion by council member Meeks. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council member Mitchell. Discussion from the council. Discussion from the public. All in favor? I have a 6. I need a motion to adjurnn. to I have a motion by council member Meeks and a second by council member Mitchell to adjurnn. All in favor? I have a 6.

What about the advisor? I said the pipe was sandwich. I did. Okay. I got it. I got it. Okay. No problem.